Toys

There are a lot of toys on my desk here at work. Today's pointless photo shows just a few of them. I didn't choose to have a lot of toys on my desk, really; it just sort of happened. Most of the desk toys weren't even bought by me in the first place.

What can I say? People give me toys, and the toys end up at work.

And why? Well, I suppose it keeps me from scribbling or doodling when I'm thinking, or talking on the phone, or reading websites. My hands need something to do when my brain isn't paying much attention to them, and if it isn't playing with toys or riffling the notepads (yes, I riffle the notepads too. I'm sure it's very annoying to anyone around me, but I do it anyway) it becomes wasting paper and ink by making endless, repetitive patterns for no apparent reason.

And no, I don't especially want to hear your thoughts on the pathology of my personal OLF universe.

Anyway.

The funny thing about the toys on my desk is that everyone else plays with them too. It's sort of interesting to watch, actually. It doesn't take long for people to pick up on (and literally pick up) the toys, and most of the time they have obvious favourites. One person will spin the magnetic pen. One person will fondle the elephant (and no, that's not a euphemism. I suppose it could be, if you wanted it to, but it wasn't what I was intending). My monitor lizard (it used to live on top of the monitor before I got the flat screen) showed up mysteriously muddy one day, so it must have a secret fan who takes it on play dates. And the clacker ball... well, it's new so pretty much everyone's playing with it at the moment.

And if you're wondering what the purpose of a clacker ball is, I can tell you that there isn't one. It just makes noise and feels vaguely squishy, that's all.

It's a bit of a long-term office psych experiment, seeing which person is drawn to which toy. And the interesting thing about it all is that no one seems to think it terribly odd that I have a DESK FULL OF TOYS. They just take it as a given, from what I can tell.

This is a weird place to work, I guess.





Probably why I've been here so long, come to think of it.