Welcome to the POD

Remember the movie Altered States? You gotta dig back a ways – it turns out it was made (gasp) 30 years ago. Man, that flick really freaked me out. A scientist does experiments with mind-altering drugs in combination with a sensory deprivation tank, with bizarre results. What made me reach that far back in the archives is that I was walking to my office the other day when I came across a new business being built in an old storefront. What are they offering? Time rental in a sensory deprivation tank, of course. What goes around, comes around. All of which is a long way of introducing a project I’m working on at home–my own little tank, or, as I’m calling it, my pod. The point of it isn’t to deprive the senses, but to alter them.

Checkpoint Charlie sign says it all.

Back before I was into FS, I had a brief stint when I thought I’d try my hand at plastic models again. I spent many a happy afternoon as a kid building armor and planes, and it seemed like a good way to unwind as an adult. So, I set aside a corner of my basement and built a little 6-foot by 10-foot room. My local rebuilding store provided recycled cabinets, countertops, and sheets of mismatched Formica, and a made a cozy little den for myself. After which, I proceeded to get into FS and abandon the whole thing.

For a while, I used the room as my office. In fact, a lot of my early sim flying was done down there. Then we did another remodel upstairs, and I ended up claiming a guest bedroom to work in, and let the little room down below sit idle. My wife used it to pack copies of her book for shipping for the last couple of years–that is, until I politely asked if I could have it back just last week. Sweetheart that she is, she said yes without blinking. Thus beginneth the POD Project…

Here’s the plan: I’m going to strip the room of everything; counters, cabinets, shelving, right down to the bare walls. Then I’ll paint it a dark gray and hopefully re-cover the floor, maybe in dark carpet squares or something. Then, in goes a new FS-only computer, a custom-built “cockpit”, and a projector to throw a giant view of the virtual world onto the wall in front of me. Fingers crossed, the result will be a fully immersive flight deck for getaways into the land of sim make-believe.

I’ve attached a few pics here to show you the sorry state of things at the moment. As the plans firm up and progress is made, I’ll try to report back with more info. In the meantime, if you’ve ever wanted to try this, or have done it and have advice or stories to tell about the experience, please comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

Tagged as: Home cockpit, POD Project