8 Random Lessons

The older I am , the more concern I develop.
Remember our childhood where we have nothing to worry ,except those ice creams and sweets we always look upon during mall walk with mom and dad?

Upon reflection of life choices I stumbled upon something unusual today – my choice of gaming mouse.

So I am using Steelseries Rival now for about a month. A plot twist is, it was bought a day after I bought a Razer Deathadder 2013, which I returned to EB Games due to reasons that became the topic of this writings.

I want to start by comparing this story with the moment I stumbled upon LG L7 II to replace my Galaxy Note 1. I spent about 3 months researching which phone will suit me well and finally bought it with complete perseverance.

Lesson 1: Amount of time spent go inversely with amount of regret

As a side note, like my mom, I am a type of person that compare things a lot and take great deal of time to make decision.

As time crosses to this moment, I discovered several flaws in the phone (eg low internal memory – less game can be installed!) and tried to find ‘better’ replacement for her soon. Surprisingly, none has caught my eyes so far.

Things went a bit different my Gaming Mouse story. After my Naga Hex showed the symptom of dying (running out of click lives) I immediately researched a line of Razer products to find replacement, and finally decided DeathAdder 2013 would be the best choice.

I stalked EB Games store near my house EVERYDAY to check whether it is on sale. I keep watching and watching… Until one day when I just got home from uni, I saw it was on sale and the store is about to close!

Of course, without second thought I bought it. The first bad omen appeared when the salesperson told me that it is the last unit available. However with all these mindset that it is my ‘soulmate’ I don’t give any F-.

Lesson 2 : Whether you are religious or not, be sensitive to what happened with your life

I immediately used it on Payday-2, the game where my Hex let me down by failing to trigger the zoom scope (told you before, the clicks are dying). The second bad omen appeared. When accessing the skill tree and inventory, the game bugged really bad.

I ignored it and proceed to play a match. It is then I realised the last omen and previous omens. Despite claimed to be ‘the best gaming mouse’, it felt worse than a 6 dollar mouse in my hand.

What marketed to be its best feature ‘hypersensitive button’ had become the worst thing I could ever feel on my hand.

Lesson 3 : what best for others might not for you

I immediately do an extensive research about this, since I thought the product was just defective. Turns out it is designed that way and I found an internet war debating the mouse with Steelseries Rival.

#Look at the comment section here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IknfkmtdyM

It is at that point where I immediately thought – shit my friends were right, why I didn’t listen to them?
*Days before my friends recommend me to go with Logitech instead, or at least go ‘up’
** Razer categorize their mice as essential-expert-elite. What my friend said is because I already used Hex which is an expert mouse, I should go up with expert mouse such as naga expert or ourobrobos, instead of going down with essentials such as Deathadder

Lesson 4: You might be better in most aspects than your friend, but there is a point where you should listen to them.

Then after making up my mind all night, I returned the Deathadder and get $77 back in store credit. On the same day, I got this Steelseries Rival I am using right now.

Running test again to make sure it is fine – and it feels really good although quite too hard to reach the side buttons with my relatively small hand.

Short conclusion, I am extremely happy with it especially when I found out there are other Steelseries families out there – with one of them – a girl I know from the net – using Rival as well.

The main issue then, I still tried comparing it with other mouse now and then, especially the LG Proteus Core, which is claimed as the most versatile mouse ever for a price like that.

I started to lose hope and thought of selling my Rival on Ebay to switch (again) to the Proteus Core.

However during a night shower, I got an enlightment (I always get one during my private time in toilet). If I keep comparing what I have with what I don’t have, then it will be an endless loop where I cannot be satisfied at all!

Lesson 5 : stuck? tried spending time in toilet
nb: might not work with all people

I then looked back and realised this is exactly why I broke up with my ex’s (whoops). But seriously, this is a huge lesson that I failed to get long time ago.

My mistake again is based on my lesson 1 from this writing. When I realised that Deathadder is not my Significant Other – despite the fact I spent quite time to research it just like I did with my phone – I DID NOT spent any time comparing Rival with other mice, some of those I don’t even know exist before like Roccat, Madcat, EpicGear, CM, Corsair and others – contrary to what I did during my phone selection.

It is worsened when I found out that there is a 11-button gaming mouse with 6 switchable dpi on the fly sold on ebay for 9 dollars without shipping cost !!

See for yourself CLICK HERE

Then I thought SHIT. Did I make a right choice?

Lesson 6 : Never forget lesson 1

But I tried shutting down my brain and played Payday 2 once again. I tried playing Saints Row, all Batman Arkham Series, and even Happy Wars …

The mouse feels damn great.

So I said to myself : then what’s wrong?
Will Proteus Core feels this great? Perhaps yes, perhaps not. But what is here feels great for sure. Besides, I never like Logitech design at the first place?

As a marketing student did you even know the brand reputation for these cats and other brand you never heard of? Nope

As a management student do you realise quality came with a price? So do you think that 9 dollar mouse on ebay is good stuffs? Nope….

* I later found out the ebay mouse has a lifetime of 5 million click. which is 1/6 of Rival current lifetime. Using lifetime value calculation that means the true value of the mouse should be 9×6 = 54 dollar, 10 dollar less than my Rival – which is obviously okay to pay 10 bucks more for a global and endorsed brand, not taking into account other qualitative factor such as build quality and complementary software (move on, this paragraph is getting too jargon for non-commerce student).

Then case closed. Steelseries Rival claimed to be having at least 30 million click lifetime, which means I will be with her for at least 3 years from now. I swear my allegiance to Steelseries for now and will focus to master this mouse instead of endlessly searching for my true soulmate mouse – which might or might not be this one.

Lesson 7 : enjoy what you have right now and stick to it while it is still enjoyable

-end

Bonus lesson 8

(Religious and controversial stuff ahead. View with discretion)

As a free-willed creature I believe we human does not a predetermined partner or so-called ‘jodoh’ in Indonesia. Contrary to what people believe, I believe God still allows us to freely choose our partner FROM A RANGE OF POOL THAT HE ALREADY SELECTED for us. Get it?

Same thing with mouse then, although I thought Deathadder was my eternal love, turns out it is not even in the ‘pool of matches’. My Naga Hex thought, were quite in fact feels great for me. So I thought both her and my new Rival is in my match pool for gaming mouse. There are perhaps other mice that belongs in the pool – I just haven’t discovered them.

Then who is in my match pool for wife? Well it is an entirely different topic. Bye.