Sit, Don’t Kneel

Okay, I’ll admit it; my place isn’t exactly kid friendly. But it does have a television, a sofa, chairs, other handy pieces of furniture like a coffee table and board games such as Scrabble and Monopoly. So, imagine my surprise when two of my nieces and one nephew (all siblings) came to visit me with their mother (my sister), lugging game chairs with them. Shaking her head when she saw my face, my sister explained the situation to me.

The last two times they had come to visit, her children had had to kneel on the floor (it’s carpeted) when they played their favorite video game while the adults made coffee and chatted in the kitchen. She finally cajoled them into coming by suggesting that they load up the car with their personal game chairs. Cajoled? Weren’t they coming to see their favorite aunt? As my nephew, with his sisters following close behind, made his way into my living room, my sister smiled at my naiveté. Like the X Rocker V-Rocker SE Wireless Game Chair what he sat down on my living room floor resembled something out of a 757 jet cockpit.

When I voiced this opinion out loud, my sister assured that that was nothing. Her son really wanted the Repose E-1000 Entertainment Chair which had a built-in stereo system designed to, when watching movies or playing games, let you experience sound rather than just hear it. It’s also fully contoured, making it really comfortable when gaming for long periods of time. I asked her if she was kidding; my sister assured me that she was not.

My two nieces had managed to find room beside their brother for their own gaming chairs. When my younger niece went into the kitchen for a glass of juice, I promptly sat down in hers. Resembling the X Rocker Video Bag it was really comfortable and reminded me of my youth and the first time I ever sat in a bean bag chair at a party. For a few minutes, I watched my nephew intently blow things up. Then my niece returned and of course my sister had to help me up.

Next visit, I plan remove all of the living room furniture and move in three state-of-the-art Playseats Evolution Game Chairs. That should catch their attention (and make them notice their favorite aunt).

Me ‘n the Boys at Cymax

Our office at Cymax is laid out so that many rooms make up the entire workplace, and most rooms house a handful of people. My work station is situated in an office that I share with four men. Being the only female in my room, some might call me lucky, as I consider the boys to be too. But all jokes aside, I do feel pretty lucky – not because of my hypothetical odds, but because the boys treat me like one of them. They talk about cars and hockey, and I pride myself in being able to join in the conversations.

I was never a girly-girl. No Barbies, no Rainbow Brite, no My Little Pony for me. I got a Cabbage Patch Kid for my sixth birthday, and days later, I put her in make-shift shorts and a T-shirt and gave her a buzz cut (I similarly cut off the few strands of hair from a Care Bear I got a year later).

While other girls were swathing their arms in Bangles, and accentuating their teased bangs with fluorescent colored headbands, I wore my brothers’ hand-me-downs that consisted of a lot of camouflage and other Rambo-esque paraphernalia, as well as anything inspired by Karate Kid. I cut my own hair short. I shared my brothers’ army men, Transformers, BMX bikes, and Hot Wheels.

I was most comfortable in the driveway with a goalie stick in hand than anywhere else. In order to clear the driveway to play a game of hockey, we had to move the car (aptly named The Beast). Dad got sick of us bugging him, so all three of us kids ended up being able to drive a stick-shift by the age of nine. One day we decided to go a little further than our usual around-the-block route, and were pulled over by a perfectly stunned police officer, who asked us to please drive back home safely and to enjoy our day. And we always did.

I feel as though my childhood has prepared me for the workplace (not that I have run-ins with the police anymore). Although there are plenty of females who work at Cymax, I just happen to have my desk in a room with none. But the boys are fun, and what’s even more fun is our three o’clock ritual. Four of us get up from our desks, and with a mob mentality, walk past the lunch room and kitchen, into the games room, where the foosball table gleams at us.

Let me introduce you to the Cymax Foosball Team: We’ve got the Motivator, whose forward spinning techniques are praiseworthy (“You got ‘Mo-ed’ is a common response to his signature move); the Nobleman, who stays loyal to his defensive excellence and can handle his stickmen with an undefeatable grace; the Breeze, who scores goals with such an ease that they’re in the bin before you can see them coming, and then there’s me. The boys call me the Viper… patient until the moment of attack, where I bite with a quick vengeance.

Gone are the days of hockey in the driveway (for me, anyway), so I’ve set my sights on other things that will give me the same satisfaction. Inspired by the team spirit at Cymax, I have found a few items that I can purchase by way of online shopping at www.CymaxStores.com. I can’t decide whether to get a stick hockey table or whether to invest in an air hockey table. All I know is that I look forward to when I can invite my friends over – male and female – to have our own mini Stanley Cup playoff. Should I ever want to expand my games room, Cymax has everything from game chairs to pool tables. But regardless of what kind of game table I end up buying for myself, I will always be indebted to Team Cymax and the 3 pm break-downs.

W00t!

Xs and Os and the Evolution of the Bean Bag Chair

Trying to explain to my grandmother the abstract strategic correlation between American football and chess never went particularly well. The concept of neutralizing selective parts of your opposition, attacking weakened and more vulnerable surface areas, blocking and protection etc., etc. that are common between the two pretty much flew right over her head. Granny loved playing chess and when my father was busy I would accommodate her with a game but, truth be told, I would every time have rather been seated in front of my Nintendo playing Tecmo Bowl or Blades of Steel.

Fast forward all these years, I don’t own a Nintendo Wii but in a sense I am thankful one of my friends does as it seems to have given my wife a measure of insight into my affinity for sports video games. She really enjoyed the physical dimension of it and has taken an according shining to Guitar Hero as well. Beforehand, she was at a loss as to understand why I would become so animated when playing with friends or online. Jumping up and down, using “selective” language, choice pushing and shoving if my opponent was seated next to me, spilled beverages, and so forth and so on. Seeing her throw her arms up and spin around with an animated “whoo!” when she threw her first strike in Wii bowling definitely brought a smile to my face.

When I was about 13 or so, I convinced my parents to buy me an NFL bean bag chair at a garage sale for next to nothing. It was worn but featured the logo of every team, including the best logo in all of pro sports; the super striking lightning bolt of the powerhouse SAN DIEGO CHARGERS! I fondly remember my throne as I think back to the long hours I spent honing my power play and red zone offense while my parents griped “It’s sunny and 23 outside and you want to stay in your room?” Yes, I did.

Nowadays, kids have it a lot better and I have to say I’m a little envious. Bean bag chairs are still well-suited for some serious thumb time, but now it’s likely nearly anyone would prefer a game chair that is explicitly designed for ergonomic comfort and performance during your on-screen conquests. A sound rocker game chair would have been an exquisite luxury for me back then with its augmented audio capacities and back and forth means of calming your anxieties. A wireless rocker game chair might have been a safer option for me due to my continuing propensity to jump up and around as LaDainian Tomlinson bounces into the end zone over and over. Classic game chairs also give you the freedom to locate yourself as close to the screen as you like, and evolution game chairs feature a built-in lap front controller stand. How cool is that!

I remember thinking nothing could touch my NFL bean bagger – Man, us generation X types really got the short end of the stick on this one.

GO BOLTS!!