Lately, The Verge’s opinions group has been making an effort to eliminate among the historical merchandise we’ve got mendacity round our workplace. We’ve donated or thrown away some really prehistoric devices. However there was one system that, the second I laid eyes on it, I knew I wanted to rescue. It was the Razer Firefly, a seven-year-old mouse pad with a glowing RGB lightstrip across the edge. It was a fantastically foolish and further system, and I knew it was made for me.
I’ve now been utilizing the Razer Firefly at my desk in The Verge’s Manhattan workplace for a number of weeks. It affords 16.8 million customizable colour choices. It sits at my aspect all day, flashing purple, pink, pink, yellow, blue, and all the pieces in between. “However what does it do?” numerous folks have requested me as they stroll by. It does completely diddly squat, I inform them. It’s an aesthetic, a vibe. However some days, that vibe is all the pieces.
It’s definitely enjoyable to hate on obnoxious RGB setups. (And I’ve been identified to do it myself as a result of I preserve that some coloured merchandise are really extreme — Asus ROG Strix line, I’m taking a look at you.)
However day-after-day I exploit the Firefly, I heat extra as much as the thought of a (barely) coloured setup. For these of us who typically work in solitude (both as a result of we’re distant or as a result of most of our co-workers are), existence can really feel like a little bit of a hamster wheel — we work and work and the work continues, and whereas co-workers and pals exist as names and icons that dwell on our screens, there are factors the place it’s laborious to persuade ourselves that it’s all going anyplace, that anybody in any respect is listening.
So whereas I do know it couldn’t be extra mid-2010s basement gamer of me, I’ll proceed to permit myself the mouse pad. Whereas the solar cycles and capitalist routines develop into so instinctual as to really feel monotonic, one can by no means predict which colour will subsequent seem on the Firefly.
The workplace round me could also be grey and empty, however the Firefly is vivid, comfortable to be right here, and really a lot alive. That LED strip is a twinge of mindless enjoyable on a desk filled with utility, and that twinge is a reminder that there are small pleasures, there are stunning joys, and there’s a world exterior these partitions.