Ball Pit, Phase II

Posted byRandall 266 Comments on Ball Pit, Phase II

I posted a while back about a ball pit I’d installed in my room. Everything in that post was true, but the pictures were a little misleading.

Looking at that, you don’t necessarily realize how cramped those people are. I framed the pictures to make it look larger than it actually was (THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID). In fact, the ball pit was only about the size of a large bathtub or small jacuzzi. In the pictures on the site, it was barely deep enough to be buried in, and when we shrunk the area to make it deeper, it was barely big enough for two people.

When people came in and saw it, they were always startled at how small it was (also what she said). There was no room for hide and seek, and barely even space for surreptitious ball-pit groping. This was a terrible state of affairs. It was nice to sit in, but really, why bother having a ball pit if we were gonna do such a half-assed job of it?

Well, as of this week, the situation has been rectified.

We all chipped in and quintupled the volume of the ball pit. It’s now set up opposite a hacked-together server-projector system (yes, that means Guitar Hero in the ball pit — that’s a controller you see on the left). It’s lined with blankets and foam padding, and is oh so comfortable. We’ve had two people fall asleep in it already.

For sanitary reasons, we of course have a few rules:

It’s still only half the size of the recently-constructed Last.fm ballpit. But it’s finally big enough to really hide in, stretch out, and grab someone’s ass without them being sure who did it.

On the other hand, it has the slightly unnerving effect that we now have no idea how many people are in the apartment at any given time.

For science, the next experiment will be “what do cats think of ball pits?”

266 replies on “Ball Pit, Phase II”

  2. You may want to add a couple of items to the sign before letting the cats in.

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  4. How much did you have to put down for it? (that’s what she said).

    I think I originally did the calculations to fill my entire room but that actually looks feasible.

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  5. How strong are the walls / joints? Individually they look fine, but they don’t (as a whole) look entirely structurally sound!

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  6. > How strong are the walls / joints? Individually they look fine, but they don’t (as a whole) look entirely structurally sound!

    They are held together by many zip ties at each joint, and overall it’s very sturdy (after a couple initial blunders). They’re anchored to the walls by rope — I drilled some blocks into the baseboard with pegs to hook onto.

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  8. Where can I buy cheap ball pit balls? I plan on building one of these in my dorm room.

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  9. Guitar Hero in a ball pit…A fantasy even real rock stars couldn’t come up with.

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  10. If I wasn’t such a poor college student, I would loft my bed and build a ball pit underneath. As it is, my friends are thinking of pitching in so can I build one. And there’s nothing in the student handbook about ball pits being contraband, so I assume it’d be okay… right?

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  11. I giggled like a schoolgirl on seeing the bash.org reference. I am a very very sad person.

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  12. I love that robe/wizard hat guy. It took me a moment to realize that that wasn’t your joke, Randall. It’s certainly the type that could have been.

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  13. > Where can I buy cheap ball pit balls? I plan on building one of these in my dorm room.

    You’re not gonna get cheaper than 10 cents per ball, as far as I can tell, and I don’t really know who the best suppliers are. eBay is no good — you need at least 1,000-2,000 for a ball pit that’s worth anything. I recommend calling toy stores and places that might have ball pits and asking them to forward you. I got mine from TinkerTots, because they had a decent deal on crush-proof balls, which were strongly recommended to me (you can jump around in the pit and not worry about them). But they cost more.

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  14. I love how there is already some on the floor. I don’t envy you the inevitable constant picking up of balls.
    (and again that’s what she said)

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  15. Yeah, “I put on my robe and wizard hat”. It’s awesome because *it feels so right*. Deep down I always suspected that was actually him in that chat. So naturally I laughed like a crazy person when I saw the sign.

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  16. Awesome 😀 We don’t have Guitar Hero in ours yet. That sucks.

    I already made my own version of the “no heavy petting sign”.. not quite as cool as that one (I have no drawing talent) but mine does utilise Lemonparty…
    No Heavy Petting

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  17. Pingback: Last.fm Ball Pit → The Jim Whimpey Weblog

  18. Last.fm pingback. I foresee a ball pit war.

    “Guitar Hero in a ball pit…A fantasy even real rock stars couldn’t come up with.”
    A literal mosh pit?

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  22. I concur, Joshua.

    And sadly, I didn’t catch the bash reference until I had actually read the link posted above. And I had even read it before. I’m obviously not a big enough geek. *hangs his head in shame*

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  24. Please let me know when you plan to do the cat experiment. I need time to invest in the companies that make Neosporin and Bactine.

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  25. When I was a kid I used to always imagine living in a house that had a room that was filled with water. There was a little door you could crawl through way up high, and only a few feet of space between the water and the ceiling so you could breathe.

    Also, one of the rooms’ floors was entirely made out of mattress. It was a Bed Room.

    Please make these happen too. 😀

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  26. I fell asleep in our ballpit after the epic “clean-up” operation.

    I woke up freezing and partially asphyxiated. The balls apparently don’t insulate heat and also are somewhat too packed for adequate carbon dioxide dissipation.

    Conclusion: not recommended!

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  27. Hey, I noticed above that you stated “you need 1,000-2,000 balls for the pit to be worth anything”…how many balls does the pit you have now have in it? Was the 1,000-2,000 ball number for the first iteration of said pit, or this new one?

    Great idea, something I’m going to look into installing in my apartment one of these days…

    Big XKCD fan by the way! Read it every day! Keep up the great work.

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  28. So where is the PayPal link to support Randall in the ballpit arms race? I’m in for $20

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  29. … maybe even more if the store (when it’s back up) caries some “ballpit support” items

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  31. If it makes you feel any better, I doubt this is a “do it for one year and leave it” sort of thing. While I can’t speak for the XKCD crew, I was thinking it would be fun to have in my apartment, then when I (someday) have kids they could have a blast with it. As long as the balls are usable, they will be used. Trust me, if a geek invests in a ball pit, it will get more than it’s fair share of use…Here’s to hoping it really will be here forever…

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  32. My next job interview:

    Interviewer: I am very impressed with your credentials, Ms. gail. Before we wrap up, do you have any questions for us?

    Me: Well yes, I do. As much as I impressed with your on-site gym, cafeteria, and espresso machine on every floor…. do you have ball pit?

    Interviewer: *stares at me*

    Me: I think we’re done here.

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  33. Rock on!

    @doubleplus – if we save everyone’s balls, we can fill the Grand Canyon in 50 years and have a big party!

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  34. gail – you should get a job at Google. They have a ball pit. Made of plywood, and obviously homemade.

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  36. Doubleplus — all those pictures are just propaganda from the corn growers who want us to use biodegradable plastic (remember corn pens?). Albatrosses don’t eat plastic caps — hippies drop them in rotten carcasses to make nothing in the world fun anymore.

    In other news, a styrofoam ball pit would probably be cheaper and fark up the enviornment even more.

    Strip mine the Earth,
    GMP

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  40. I can tell you from experience that cats HATE ball pits. Granted, I only have a two cat sample size, but they told me in no uncertain terms that they speak for the rest of the cat community.

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  41. I’d suggest building a subterranean ball pit going at least 10 feet deep with a hot air pipe spewing air from the bottom up, it would be very comfortable to sleep in and you get the wonderful sensation of being buried alive.

    @doubleplus
    I would feed dolphins bb rounds and laxatives just to be a douche bag. Your environmentalist notions are foolish, Now let us burn leaded gasoline in prayer. 😀

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  42. hmm….. how about making the ball bit using one of those inflatable pools instead of the metal structure? Would it be cheaper? more comfortable? what do you think?

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  44. “On the other hand, it has the slightly unnerving effect that we now have no idea how many people^Wvelociraptors are in the apartment at any given time.”

    I fixed your post.

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  47. I was completely in the dark about the wizard hat line, and I have to say, after following the link, that’s the funniest **** I’ve seen in a long, long time.

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