Office Max!

The inevitable did happen: I tilted my chair, put my feet up on my PC underneath the desk and ended up snoozing. I’d answer some calls, do a cursory check of the email queue, then go back to napping again. At around 11am I ran out into the rain to grab a Subway from across the street. Getting wet reinvigorated me again.

I was raised by a packrat. Seriously. In my house opening the freezer door would result in an avalanche and a whimsical pirouette would send stacks of papers flying in all directions. As a result I grew into a very orderly adult–until I had a baby. Now I’m sitting at a desk with high rises of books and bills and just enough room to wedge my laptop in between. And I hate it.

…that I had one of those “real” office desks at work instead of this cubicle/modular thing I have now. It just doesn’t have a whole lot of storage space. The built-in storage in this thing is pathetic - your typical three-drawer filing-cabinet on my left and behind me, there is a larger, rectangular two drawer filing cabinet. It just isn’t enough.

In the office the locals have machines on their desks, made from clear plastic about the size of a cereal box. They fill them with water and you would see a plume of steam coming out of the machine. Initially I thought it was a rice cooker, but I was told they are for raising the humidity around a desk.

Our day was pretty quiet. I spent much of the day cleaning off my computer desk and reorganizing drawers. I think I’m about halfway finished with what I need to get done. I’ll spend time on this over the next week during the evening and see if I can’t get more working space as well as make much better use of the storage spaces on the desk. Nina has been sorting through letters and papers and has made all kinds of lovely finds (including finding a $100 bill … money that we had forgotten about!). It’ll soon be the case that the only boxes left downstairs will be my boxes and my junk.

UPDATE: Brand new technique discovered. Let the iPod sit on your desk for 1.5 months while you contemplate ordering a new hard drive to try to install following directions you bookmark on the internet…. Then… knock it off your desk onto the floor by accident. SMASH. Then - Voila! One fully operational iPod.

I’m not feeling well disposed toward the house felines at the moment. When they’re not diving onto my chair because of the new cushion every time I stand up, or throwing up on the back of the (reasonably) new couch, they’re destroying expensive and valuable pieces of office equipment. Well that’s only Coco, the oldest and most senile who has in the last year destroyed my wonderful HP All in One printer/scanner/fax thing by insisting on laying on top of all the control buttons at the same time. I mean - this cat weighs like two twigs or something. How in the world does she manage to spread that weight over eight different function keys at once??

Anyway, I was writing cover letters last night and I came upon a dilemma: I don’t think I can really put my main activities at the Evil Empire as consisting of sleeping under my desk and getting sexually harassed by my boss.

when i came in for my one-on-one this morning, he had it on his desk where everyone who sat down had to look at it. funny stuff. i can’t take credit for the idea, sara gave it to me so i thank her for that. christine took the photograph. good times. another assignment we got from him was to write 10-15 rants on anything we wanted to. i will post a few here but keep in mind, this is all off-the-cuff stream-of-consciousness stuff. and a bit colorful:

The glass desk was a bonus for me. (Frank’s was planned moreso than mine was) So I’ll have those tables (he is using my bigger old casual dining table) back eventually for kitchen, learning, etc. use. Both new desks are from Staples. We looked at all the major office stores last week and in the weeks before. The point being we were looking for cheaper slim solutions. We saw plenty of nice big office desks, computer oriented versions and whole suites, but they are all out of our realm in this house. Pricey too. So what we saw at Staples were a few different desks in a certain product line. Mine is glass and metal, very solid, blue tempered glass, a wide desk area, keyboard drawer below, and two shelves below that to hold the computer, and other things. On the desktop is an elevated shelf to hold the monitor. In the “table” setup I’d have little room left on the surface to write, or store anything, with just a monitor, the computer, and the keyboard and mouse right there on the one surface. This new desk affords me super-duper space. It’s all open and lovely. I like the glass look. It’s very modern, moreso than our house is.

The other reason I did very little work - I have finally moved desks. They’ve been telling me it was going to happen since I started. My new desk is for some reason in the middle of the marketing department, even though I work for finance. But I like it over there, it’s much brighter; better lit, and the blinds are open. For some reason in my old office they had tinted windows and the blinds always half drawn, it was a very claustrophobic atmosphere.

Web applications will begin to rival and exceed the functionality of their client/server or desktop cousins. Expect the next webmail version of Outlook to have more functionality, richer experience, more dynamic, and maybe easier to use than the Windows version. I wouldnt be surprised if MSFT tried to charge more for it.

"Leading the pack of cutting-edge home office desks is the Biomorph line from I.D/Design (www.biodesk.com). Biomorphs are built around a concept the company calls the "center of power." Cheesily named but elegantly executed, the idea is that the desk curves organically around the user, situating everything radially within arm's reach. The keyboard and monitor surfaces crank to the ideal height for all but the most hulking or diminutive user. Some models even allow users to adjust from sitting to standing modes. Space-age beautiful and ergonomically intelligent, the Biomorph designs have shown up in industrial design exhibitions and museum shows. Prices range from a $695 basic desk to over $4,000 for a fully accessorized, "my-workstation-has-more-knobs-and-doodads-than-your workstation" model. "

Wire management systems are available at Versa Products. While most of Versa’s office desks come with cable systems already built in, the company sells two models that can be added to any computer cart, desk, or mobile work center. The first is the Basic Kit which includes adhesive clips that gather up your cords and keep them secured together. The Deluxe Kit includes tubing that not only gathers cables together, but protects them from dust, and from being accidentally pulled out. Both systems are top-sellers. Versa ships their cable management...

Computer desks for a home office don't have to be the same ol', same ol' stuff that make you think of college dorm rooms. By using a little creativity and maybe a little sweat, you can come up with a functional and attractive keystone for your home office.