Tag Archives: Games

Router Ball: The New Beer Pong?

Okay, maybe not quite like beer pong, but just as strangely entertaining. The “we” referred to here, is myself and my pal Dr. Billy, with my boyfriend to “referee” ocassionally. I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing, and I’ll get around to an actual update at some point. But this has to be shared.

We three were just sitting around chatting late last Sunday night, and I absently tossed a ball to Billy. It bounced off the table, and he caught it, of course (because he’s not just a doctor — he’s also kind of a ninja), but not before it sent a small stack of cd’s sliding. What happened next was made simultaneously of both win and lose. It was 2am before we knew it (with both Paul and I needing to be up for work in roughly 6-7 hours).

The equipment:

  • A clear, flat surface that you and your opponent can sit on either side of. We used the wooden coffee table in the living room. It’s about 4 feet square. so we had about 6-8 feet between us.
  • At least one ball. This is a photo is of what we used. I found them (randomly) at a Borders bookstore, and bought three (because the ball is one of the world’s original kickass toys). More than one makes play a little faster if one gets away from you. I’d recommend rubber for the easiest bounce, and to avoid damaging the playing surface.
  • Some cd’s you don’t care about, in an odd number. Conveniently enough, one of the roommates uses old AOL cd’s as coasters, so we were set (and had, in fact, begun play before we even knew it existed).

The idea is that you bounce the ball back and forth across the table in an attempt to knock the cd’s off on your opponent’s side, and the one with the most knock-offs wins. And it’s not as easy as it might sound. Seriously, we did this for at least two hours, and it was hilarously fun/ny the entire time. Also, my arms are still a little sore. O.o And you can still socialize while you play, which is kind awesome. Err…well, between trying to take your opponent’s head off with a fastball, and dodging the curve on their return, I mean. (I apparently have a little bit of a competitive streak. Who knew?)

I’d like to note that the idea of making this a drunk party game is kind of amusing, but I’m pretty sure that would just end in tears. And broken windows. And lamps. And electronics, and anything fragile in any way. So yeah. This is your disclaimer saying don’t be dumb if you want to try this out, and I’m not taking the blame if you break your mom’s best china. :)

Afterward, we did a bit of gamer-geek brainstorming and figured that this can be played with a varying number of people, and in multiple forms. There’s the one-on-one version we played, with multiple cd’s in an odd number. Then the party version of one-on-one, with one cd, and the loser switches out (with optional championship match after initial-round eliminations). And there’s potential for different versions of two on two or free-for-all, as well as the “adult” (i.e., “strip”) edition.

So, uuuh… My birthday’s coming up in May, and I think a RouterBall tourney just might be an awesomely fun way to ring in the big 3-oh. Any challengers? :)

Post-Weekend Update: 6/15/09

Meant to post this yesterday :p Anyway, I had a pretty good weekend.

Friday: Hung out with Paul and Ryan, since Ryan’s woman was out doing her own thing, and he was feeling a little stir crazy at home. He picked up Arkham Asylum recently (Cthulu boardgame), and brought it along, so we worked our way through a game of that after dinner. Can you say “complex?” Yeah. But fun! The next time should be even more fun since we’ve picked up a good bit of the mechanics and junk.

Saturday: Ended up getting to bed kinda late Friday night, but got a nice wakeup on Saturday at a weekend-decent hour. Tooled around with Paul until it was time to head to Elements for a massage appointment made earlier in the week. Oh my gosh, hot stones ftw. When I went last month for my birthday, it was awesome. This time? Holy crap. We got the hot stones add-on — which, unfortunately, ended up being a good bit more expensive than I’d though it was going to be, but totally worth it — and it was amazing. I also preferred the masseuse I had this time to the previous one. They both did a fantastic job, but the one I had Saturday seemed less…impersonal? Detached..? When you’re dealing with other people’s bodies in a professional setting, as with massage, I’d assume it’d make sense to maintain a certain level of detachment so there’s no misinterpretation of any part of the process. Totally understandable. There was just a marked difference in the bedside manner of the two ladies. Anyway, but the hot stones were great, and confusion with the pricing aside, well worth the money. I’ll definitely be double-checking the rate next time though :/

Afterward Paul surprised me with lunch at the CNN Center, which I hadn’t been to before (got a chicken cheese wrap, and it was OMGgood). It’s kinda small, but D00D, there’s a Cartoon Network store! We stopped in and it didn’t take long to realize I wanted to buy like half of their tshirt inventory :p Also, the Turner store gave me an awesome idea for Con costumes this year. They have Merlotte’s (of True Blood fame) tshirts, the ones the waitresses wear. It’d be awesome to get a few of us girls together and dress as wait staff one night this year at Dragon*Con :D Heh, it’d probably be the most comfortable thing any of us wear all Con :p And if we feel like mixing it up, we could go as various critters from the series (vampire/shifter/fae/etc).

The rest of Saturday night and Sunday were pretty much lazy affairs, which was awesome since it’s been at least a few weeks since I’ve spent a weekend just doing nothing. No plans, no obligations to be anywhere (except the massage appt, but, really? I don’t think that should count), just sitting around watching tv and putzing around online. Unfortunately the laziness ran away with us, and we ended up staying up til 2am Sunday night/Monday morning to do some desperately-needed laundry. But somehow I didn’t feel like I was dragging at all at work the next day.

Matt, our graphic designer, is on vacation in Europe for the next two weeks (lucky bastard! where’s my dragon!), and I get to fill in for him on top of the stuff I normally have to do. Thankfully for the time being, we’re pretty dead. I’m just waiting for something to give, and dump tons of work in my lap, but I’m keeping my figures crossed that it won’t :p

P.S. I haven’t forgotten about the music-prompts. I’m writing, but it’s going slowly. My imagination-foo has become weak. It hasn’t been exercised this way in what feels like a very, very long time >.<