Yup, that's a Razer Naga MMO Gaming Mouse. It's a terrible iPhone shot, but it was late and that's all I had time to get. I'll get better shots of it + write up a full review within a few days. But, so far, I like it. I've only used it for about an hour, though.

Why would anyone spend close to $100 on a mouse? Well, if you're a fellow MMO gamer, you're probably not asking that question - you know why. ;) But if you're wondering, I'll try to explain. Even in a "basic" MMO, you've got at absolute minimum 14 keys to deal with. That's bare minimum: the standard 4 PC gaming movement keys (WASD) plus the 1 through 0 keys for your primary hotbar. It's usually 1 through = though (the entire number row, minus ~ and backspace). So that's 16. And that would be in a simple game, and there's not many like that anymore. In a more complex game you've got multiple hotbars that you've usually got mapped to shift + number keys, alt + number keys, ctrl + number keys, etc. And more advanced gamers also map other keys that are near WASD, such as Q E R Z X C V and so forth.

So, getting a few keys off onto the mouse, which you've always got your hand on anyway, is a good thing. I've been using the Saitek Cyborg mouse for months now - and I love it. It has a directional Dpad on the thumb, plus a lower thumb button, and the standard PC mouse forward/back buttons in an easy to get spot - and the Saitek software lets you map those to anything you want. I have the Dpad mapped to 1-4, scroll wheel press to 5, forward/back to 6/7, and the lower thumb button to 8. That's 8 buttons on the mouse. Using hotbars mapped to shift/ctrl/alt doubles, triples, and quadruples the keys available on my mouse and it's very nice! But the Naga has a thumb grid with TWELVE buttons - yup - enough for an entire hotbar.

I preordered it the day it was available for preorder. I knew even if the device wouldn't work out for me that I wanted to support the idea that "MMO specific hardware = money" so I ordered it sight unseen. I liked that they didn't WoW (or any other game) "brand" it - even though they promoted it heavily as being good for playing WoW (and I'm sure it is!), they didn't put WoW all over it. It's just a normal black mouse. I like that. And again, I like that a hardware company is taking MMOs seriously finally!

So I've got it, I like it, there are problems/limitations with it, and I won't know how much I really like it until I've had a few days/weeks to use it. I'll be doing a full review for sure - stay tuned!

Had a great 15th anniversary yesterday though - we spent most of the day re-visiting old "spots" (note: Kinser's Bakery in Monticello, IN is pure win) of ours, doing things we'd wanted to do, and basically just enjoying the day. :) It was our best yet and I'm looking forward to 15-30-45 more. Ok, 45 might be a little unrealistic, but you never know - modern medicine advances by leaps and bounds every year it seems.

Haven't started on the G3 build yet, as the missing parts haven't arrived, and I'm reviewing build tips and such anyway. A Rocketry Forum user provided an awesome link for me, to a build thread he did on a very similar rocket. I'll definitely be using that as a reference for my build. I'm not as weight-obsessed as he is, though. I'm not looking to set altitude or speed records with this rocket, instead I'm looking to make it a tank, and be able to survive rough landings and such. Basically I want the rocket to last forever, heh.

Anyway - like I'd said in a previous post - my wife's having surgery tomorrow so I likely won't be writing much over the next few days. :) But you never know - it's not "major" surgery and she might bounce back faster than we think.