This weekend we finally got the finishing touches (for now at least) on our game room – just in time for Update 11 in LOTRO! It’s been tough not being able to game (well, I was playing Pokemon White version on my DS, but that’s it) for nearly two weeks. It’s one thing not being able to game if you’re on vacation or something, but if you’re just sitting around the house all day? It’s painful. We ended up making the ‘desk’ out of a kitchen counter exactly as long as the room and it’s held up by L brackets. It’s… not exactly level. It kind of bows down in the middle. But for our purposes it doesn’t matter too much. And you can’t tell when you’re sitting at your computer. It’s not like all the pens/pencils roll into the middle or anything. We also got some really fancy pants desk chairs! They are San Marino RaceTec chairs. No, we didn’t actually pay that much for them (yay, haggling!) They are super comfortable and I love that the back pillow can slide up or down and that you can adjust how much the back of the chair pushes forward. It’s nice because we can both have the same exact chair but can adjust it to ourselves (which is important because Nav is very tall and I am very short – so where we want more cushioning is very different!). I also got the whiteboard I’ve always wanted in my battle station! So here’s a pic along with a pic in the other direction of our new cat, Nyx, on her strategically placed bed:
Still to do: Paint the walls (we’re thinking a dark grey to match the table top), get some blinds for the window/get rid of the curtains, put a mini fridge under the desk, I want to get at least one (but maybe two) more monitors, and I need to get a new keyboard soon. Right now I have a Logitech G19, which has been really great for the past 4 years. But because of all the travel I’ve done with it it’s starting to get a bit wonky. Like all day yesterday for some reason it wouldn’t load my M1, M2 or M3 profiles, even after I disconnected it and restarted the computer. This morning when I booted up my PC? They loaded just fine. I’m looking at getting a Corsair K90 keyboard. It’s a mechanical keyboard, has backlights that match my color scheme (very important!) and I have always been a big fan of the Corsair brand (except for when I tried switching to their Corsair Vengeance 2000 wireless headset instead of the 1500 wired one I had been using and its software continually caused my PC to bluescreen, but whatever).
So I was very glad to have all of this set up for yesterday because, yay updates! Of course the first thing I went to was Lalia’s Market. I saw it on Bullroarer before I had to pack everything up for shifting, so I knew it was awesome. When I heard about it, I was just so excited. This is a great direction to take cosmetics in, I feel. I know it sucks having to pay so much for them in Mithril Coins (which means spending real money), but I would honestly much rather Turbine focus getting money from things like horses and cosmetics than more game-play central things like armour, high-end potions, etc. I especially love that they have gloves, shoulders, legs, chests, boots and helmets as separate purchasable items. That was something I was disappointed about with the original implementation of mannequins – you either had to buy the whole outfit or nothing. I love the mix and match! And of course I bought a pair of boots, gloves and shoulders within minutes of stepping foot into the market! I decided to make a new outfit for Cithryth for questing in Wildermore. It needed to be warm (because snow) and tough because “wild” is right in the name of the region! So I put this together:
Scout’s Weathered Leather Jacket – black
Ceremonial Shoulder Guards of the Porbad
Ceremonial Secret of the West Gauntlets – black
Ceremonial Boots of the Gambler
Cloak of the Unwelcome Guest – grey
Shaggy Roan war-steed hide – black
Simple Tail – black
Burglar’s Saddle
Burglar’s Caparison – black
Burglar’s Gear
Captain’s Halter – black
Captain’s Leggings
It kind of reminds me of the Night’s Watch from Game of Thrones… but I think that’s just because of the black and the snow. Something I noticed in Wildermore that really intrigues me are the horse blankets that the horses in towns have:
They seem to come in all the regular dye colors… and I really want them! Or something like them. I’ve always really wanted a very plain blanket, easily dyeable blanket as a war-steed caparison. The Guardian’s Caparison is the closest I’ve found, but then you get the big red and white shield on the horse’s chest, not to mention you’d have to buy the whole Guardian Steed to get it.