Pointless photo and that's all you're getting of the day:

That's it. Really. It was noodle day, you see.

Mmm. Noodles.

Stuff on a desk

The pointless photo, of course, is not of stuff on a desk. If it was, it wouldn't be pointless.

It's a picture of something that used to be on my desk until yesterday, though.

As was mentioned previously, I have a skinny new shelf beside my desk. Because of this, I've been able to reorganise some of the mess.

Actually, let me rephrase that. My desk is hardly ever truly a mess, because I get the twitches if it is. Just ask Wheat. No, my desk qualified as cluttered, not messy. Too many things taking up too much space.

Well, now that the binders and dead animals (and solar motion demonstrator) have been relocated, I can tell you that I still have some weird things on my desk. Thirty-seven reference books, for one (or thirty-seven) thing(s). That part's weird because the only books I left on the desk were ones that I personally own. Someday I might have to find room for thirty-seven more books in my small apartment.

That sounds a bit of a problem. I guess I'll worry about that when the time comes.

Some of the other highlights of my desk include a small elephant (courtesy of the incredible travelling Wheat), the infamous blue therapy putty (infamous to anyone who remembers the photo series from the old blog. And don't bother looking. They're all gone now), a magnetic floating pen, a stromatolite, a giggle stick, part of a sheet of mosaic tile, a large dayglow spider puzzle, assorted sketches, a bottle of cheap prostitute-red nail polish... and we can't forget the monitor lizard.

There are other things, too. Some of them are even work-related.

Come to think of it, a surprising amount of it is work-related.

A while back (before the recent remodelling) I took a series of photos of the things on my desk. I'm thinking it might be time to do it again. I could lie and pretend that it would give some insight into the life of a (*cough*) professional interpreter, but really it would just be something to fill space with until I find something interesting to write about again.

I haven't been doing so well with that lately. I'm not sure if you noticed?

Anyway, back to work. We're playing in the planetarium this afternoon if all goes well, so that ought to pretty much guarantee the formation of headache v.1354.7.

That number, by the way, is just a random estimate. I imagine it should be a bit higher, but to think about things like that is more than a little depressing.

Go back and examine the solar thingy in the picture if you need more entertainment. Maybe someday I'll explain what it's supposed to be doing.

Nothing

As in: I've got.

Nothing.

I've been busy, you see.

I've also not really been thinking of blog-type things. It's not been a priority, I guess.

So...

We could talk about shelving, I suppose. I bought a shelf for the office the other day. That's a big thing.

My desk, you see, has been (for years) the repository for a lot of garbage I wished wasn't there. Programming-related items I inherited from the person who had the desk before. Binders full of school curriculum information, general resources, youth programs... that kind of thing. It was fine when I was only using the desk casually, but it unfortunately didn't move when the desk became more-or-less mine.

Binders aren't all that self-motivated, unfortunately.

It'd be more entertaining if they were.

Anyway, I'd been wanting a shelf to keep some of that stuff off of the desk (leaving room for my own resource material, which was sort of wedged in precariously) for a while, but the problem was that space in this office is somewhat at a premium. I had a tiny little space (where my filing cabinet that I NEVER GOT BACK used to live), but because there's another cabinet jutting out into the doorway now I wouldn't have been able to fit something filing-cabinet size in there anymore.

Stalemate. What do you do when you need the world's narrowest bookshelf but aren't exactly the carpentry type?

Well, you end up looking at modular closet organisers until you find the one, narrow, two-adjustable-shelf model in existence that might actually work.

I built it this morning. While we were having a meeting, actually.

It's now proudly holding a whack o' binders that are no longer on my desk.

Oh, and some dead animals as well.






My job is weird, remember?

Pointless photo of the day:

That'll have to be it for today. Late lunch, and now I'm busy with other things.

Bye then.

Oops

Yeah, it's the same Black Meadowhawk as yesterday. Full side view this time, because it was bugging me that I didn't post this shot when I meant to before. It's a better one for those of you who want to practice your dragonfly identification.

All none of you, yes.

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The other oops is that I've officially wasted too much time doing other things this morning (including deleting a few more posts from the old blog. One of these days I'll tell you what I'm going to use that space for, but not now), so I don't really have time to blog.

Too bad, too. I had something to say for a change, and I'd be willing to be that by tomorrow I'll forget what it was.

I'll give you this to tide you over, though: If you want to guarantee that I won't bother to read what you've written in an e-mail or posted on a blog, use all small-case letters. Shift keys are easy, boys and girls, and refusing to use the shift key is not so much a statement as a bout of laziness. If you're too lazy to use the shift key, then I'm too lazy to care about what you have to say. I'd almost sooner read something written in all capitals than see things in all smalls.

It's akin to not using your signal light in the car, as far as I'm concerned. And, as anyone who's every driven with me can attest, not using a signal light is the quickest way to get me to call you a moron. Or worse, depending on the mood.

So there you go. All small-case = moron. Says she who signs in as deeol...




[/pot-kettle]

Pointless thought of the day:

One of the problems with being a right-handed mouser when you're actually left-handed is that it's hard on watch straps.

Like a lot of lefties, I wear my watch on the right wrist. This is usually more convenient than wearing it on the left wrist. It's also easier on the watch, since when you wear your watch on your dominant hand it tends to take quite a beating. Don't believe me? Try it and see.

Erm... buy a cheap watch first and use that, though. It's not the kind of demo you want to attempt with a watch you actually care about.

However, when I made the decision years ago to always use a computer mouse with my right hand (it made sense, since almost every desk in the office world is set up that way) I didn't realise that I was condemning myself to a life of ratty watch straps and shredded mouse pads. It's kind of a bother.

Take the watch off before you sit down at the computer, you say?




Oh, shut up.

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Today's pointless dragonfly photo (a dragonfly? How novel. We never get those here) is a little bit different. Rather than the Cherry-faced Meadowhawks and Variable Darners that have been showing up in far too many blog photos lately, this one features a Black Meadowhawk female.

I know. Nobody cares.

But hey -- that's three more dragonfly species than I could identify at this time last year. Yay me.

I should have posted the other picture of this particular dragonfly that's on my nerdstick. It's a bit clearer. I uploaded this one instead though, and since I'm nothing if not lazy we're all stuck with it now.





That's all you're getting from me today, by the way. In keeping with the grand tradition of my long weekends always sucking, I'm on day two of a rather annoying headache.

Nobody cares about that either, but since it's my blog you get to hear about it anyway.

Lucky you.

Pointless photo of the day:

That'll be it for today.

I have a headache. Oh, and the proper mood to go with a headache.

Go away now.