Eighty Thousand Feet and Climbing

Though I still use a nice wired headset for when I'm doing multiplayer gaming. However, since most of us like to have nice, comfy chairs with a high degree of mobility, getting such a cord caught on things and ruining your nice headset is a thing that can happen, and with unfortunate regularity at that.

To help with this, I use a headset that has a cord with jacks on both ends. This way, if something happens to it, I can replace just the cord.

But since I'd like to avoid that as much as possible, I've rigged an incredibly snazzy self-retracting system that keeps the cord high above anything that might catch it, though this is only possible since my little cave is under my loft bed.

If you want to replicate this yourself, all you need is a good size clip to hold the headphones when they're not in use (I'm using a larger size NiteIze S-Biner), a small carabiner clip, a retractable badge holder, and a bit of nylon or hemp line. This works best with fabric-sheathed headphone cables so it glides nice and smoothly through the carabiner clip. And, of course, having a long enough cord in the first place is a huge help. Though you may be able to do this using an extension cord for headsets. If you can't source a cable with cloth sheathing, then you may need to use a small pulley with the carabiner clip, otherwise the friction may place too much strain on the cord.

As you can see in the picture, I've run the cord up from my computer, through the wire frame under my loft bed, and then back under to where the badge holder is clipped to the wire frame. The cord is looped around the giant S-Biner clip to prevent any tension placed on the cord from being transferred to the jack on my PC. I also keep the cord knotted carefully around the pivot for the microphone boom to keep the strain off of the jack in the headset itself.

When in use, the badge holder pulls on the carabiner clip, maintaining just enough tension to keep the cord suspended where it won't catch on anything. Whenever I put it back in the S-Biner clip for storage, the badge holder pulls the cord back in, keeping it out of the way so I don't clothesline myself on it.

The nylon/hemp line keeps the carabiner restricted to that linear path. It's not absolutely necessary, but it does help a lot in keeping the cord to a desired area. The line is tied to the S-Biner to give it a bit of space between it and the wire frame. This keeps the carabiner clip that rides on it from clanking noisily on the wire frame. (It may not be a big deal for some, but those who are on the Autism Spectrum like me can find it annoying, to say the least.)

Do not get one unless you are fully prepared to deal with a dog has a German Shepherd's intelligence and physicality combined with a Jack Russel Terrier's hyperactive you're-not-the-boss-of-me energy.

Honestly, I'm one of the first people who will advocate for self-betterment in the face of one's disability, but there's a such thing as going too far with such expectations.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is called a disorder for a reason: that being that it is a verifiable issue that causes a person to have at least moderate difficulty in adapting to what society deems as "normal" behavior.

(Though I also take issue with that since it's honestly quite difficult to define what is "normal" without any toxic expectations, especially when the idea is coming from the perspective of so-called neurotypicals. And that's not even getting into the fact that most behaviors that people on the Autism Spectrum exhibit are actually considered polite behavior in some places - like Japan for example, where avoiding things like eye contact is preferred.)

You, despite being in a relationship with several other dearly beloved people, have a personal space that is entirely your own. You decorate it, you arrange it, you curate it. It's a form of artistic expression.

And once you have it just as you like, you invite your loved ones into your space. And you enjoy the things they have to say about it.

Or, in the times you need some time to yourself, you can close the door to your room, and everyone will automatically know that you may not like to be disturbed.

No one is obligated to spend the night alone unless they want to. In fact, there's even a bit of fun involved as the question, "So, my place or yours tonight?~" never stops being a thing for you.

And what's more is that there's practical aspects to this as well.

For example, if someone in the polycule gets sick, they can more easily isolate themselves.

Getting a bit pedantic here but taking breathers from video games is important - even when it's going good and you're getting that killer dopamine rush. It's still a form of stress, even if you are having fun.

You don't have to do much. Just find a good spot to stop, get up, go to the bathroom, get something to drink, and maybe even get some food into you.

Like the "Vocal" transparency mode on my Anker wireless earbuds. They will let through the sound frequencies most audible in human voices.

What this means that if you use them without music in a noisy environment, they help cut-out the interfering noise from the background so you can better understand what someone is saying.

"Nah, I'm not listening to anything right now but you. These are cutting out all the noise so I can only hear your voice."

We were all artsy types of one stripe or another. One of them even created a completely from-scratch character for MUGEN, with all his own animations and voice work. Dude was like a human anime character and major furry. We didn't care, he was always cracking us up with his zany zoominess.

One of the more entertaining happenings for us was when one of our roomies discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer and became an absolutely hopeless Spike-Buffy shipper. (Disclaimer: this was LONG before Jos Whedon's public image got imploded.)

And then there was just a general, delightful weirdness in the area we lived - a part a Richmond known as Carrytown or "The Fan" for how the roads splayed outward like a paper fan.

Old veterans that hot-rodded their mobility chairs and would go zooming down the street at 30mph.

A guy we called Rasta-Claws because he rocked out an awesome Rasta aesthetic along with some incredibly gnarly finger-claw jewelry.

Random witches, one of whom once stopped me and told me with the most dead-serious look in her eyes that I had ancestors following me around.

The Byrd Theater with its French Theater House aesthetic, and the Almighty Wurlitzer Console that would rise up out of the orchestra pit and remotely played a piano and a harp in alcoves that flanked the stage. We got to see Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail there - before the movie started, someone in the audience stood up and belted out the entire "I'm a Lumber Jack and I'm Okay" song, which was a fucking hoot.

World of Mirth, the toy store that had all kinds of weird, funky, and even naughty toys, guaranteed to have something that will be a perfect little gift for a friend.

For the Love of Chocolate - a candy store that had rare and hard to find candies alongside the more usual stuff. They even had Kinder Eggs - the real ones from Germany before they were banned here in the USA because too many parents are stupid and let their kids choke on the toys inside the chocolate eggs.

The Galaxy Diner with its art deco flying saucer diner theme. I will never forget that Toxic Waste Burger of theirs - an all-beef patty, chili, pineapple rings (trust me, IT WORKED), battered and fried onion rings, and fried cheese patty, all forming into a glorious artery-clogging mess. (Sadly, it's no longer available on their menu).

"They're famous."

"Oh? What they do?"

"Made some videos that went viral on social media."

"OOooohhh, okay. Internet famous."

Okay, I never really thought of it that way, but that makes sense. A horrible kind of sense, but sense nonetheless.

At first, it sounded like someone had started up a huge diesel engine outside - like the kind on a bulldozer. Then I felt the vibrations, but I thought again it was just some heavy equipment outside. Which was weird because it was well-past sundown.

Then the vibration intensified and that was when I knew it was an earthquake. Fortunately, it wasn't bad because we were so far out from the epicenter. But it did make a lot of people panic a bit.

As for how it felt? Well, like I said, sound and vibration at first like heavy equipment with a big diesel engine. That steadily intensified until the floor under my feet was starting to jump and shudder. It lasted for only a few seconds before it began to taper off.

Ya'll do know that those posts in between the parking spaces actually used to have corded speakers that hung off of them, right?

Like, you'd pull in, roll down your window, reach out and unhook the speaker from it's stand, bring it in your car, then raised the window and hang the speaker on the top-edge of the window.