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Top Gun

Given the whole pandemic thing, we've been doing the whole social distancing thing. Specifically, both the Mild Wife and I have been working remotely for several weeks now. I'm lucky that my work lends itself to that relatively easily, but that doesn't mean it's been a smooth ride.

Originally, I just used my laptop microphone and speakers in order to take calls. I figured I was mostly working from a room that was meant to act as an office, and I could close the door if I had to take a video call. It wasn't the most elegant solution, but I figured it mostly worked. There was a little bit of ambient noise from the rest of the house, but it wasn't annoying enough to cause problems. All in all, it mostly worked.

However, there came a day when I accidentally left my microphone on when I was speaking to the Mild Wife. She was telling me all about some shenanigans when she was young, and there was quite a bit of laughter from both of us. Since I was using the laptop microphone, it picked up the conversation, and some of my teammates were also regaled with the tale. It wasn't as bad as it could have been (it's not like we were talking trash about someone who was listening in), but it did embarrass me a little bit.

So, I resolved to fix this situation. Namely, I ordered a headset so I could control the audio coming in and out of my laptop. I didn't need anything fancy, just something that worked well enough to provide clear audio. Ultimately, I settled on a "gaming headset," because it was a reasonable price and it got fairly good reviews. Again, I didn't need, or want, the top of the line, I just wanted something functional.

It was, for the most part, a successful plan. I could now take my calls without fear of accidentally picking up the Mild Wife or any background noise, plus it eliminated some of the noise that others heard. There was, however, one flaw with this purchase: the Mild Wife found it hilarious that I had a headset on while working. She described my headset as "looking like [I'm] in Top Gun." In case you're unfamiliar with that movie, it's about fighter pilots, so there are a good number of camera shots where they're in the cockpit with their helmets on, speaking into one of those attached microphones. She giggled about it quite a bit when I first put it on, and she even insisted on taking a picture.

The end result has been that I can't quite take a video call without chuckling a little bit to myself. Still, I'll take the good with the bad, so it should all work out.

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