The life of being optional.

Why yes, yes I can haz.

You may have heard on the internet or your local news that Microsoft is sponsoring “house parties” for the Windows 7 launch later this month? What? You haven’t? Well, check this out first before proceeding. And yes, this is a real video made for House Party hosts.

So now you have an idea about what the house party is all about, right? Good.

Well, I was lucky enough to be selected to host a Windows 7 house party. That’s right, I get to have activities related to Windows 7 with all my friends, or something like that. In reality, I’m co-hosting the party with 2 fellow SL,UT’s on Twitter, @Saintless and @michaelkreagan. We’re gonna pool our party packs together and throw a hell of a bash. That’s 12 packages of streamers, 30 napkins, 30 tote bags, 30 balloons, and a innumerable amount of ads to stuff down our guests throats.

The best part of this is Microsoft is giving every host a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for doing this, which is actually pretty cool of them. Even better? The party pack arrived today, over 2 weeks before the launch happens. And not only is it Windows 7 ltimate, it’s the Steve Ballmer signature edition. Which basically means the package that has the disc says ‘signature edition’ on the outside and has Steve-o’s John Hancock on it.

It may be hokey, but it’s really a great way to get people talking about Windows 7 and was really quite an ingenious move on Microsoft’s party. Apple should do things like this around keynotes. They should allow a few thousand people to have a livestream of the keynote, and give them party packs to throw a ‘Stevenote’ house party. But then again, Apple doesn’t need any help in the ‘word of mouth’ department.