And now, for a humor break...
Okay, I admit it: I've been a bit rabid lately, but damn! How can anybody with half a functioning brain (let alone a fully functional one) not be rabid at the crap that goes on around here!
Before we get to the humor section of tonight's program, let me take a moment to just say these two things:
1. Grown men who still call themselves and are called by the name of Scooter should never be given high government or corporate positions.
2. I have one word for the Republicans: Karma, baby. Okay, that was two. But, still...
Hokay!
A few days ago, my new friend Knat posted photos of her desk area in her blog. She claims that the condition was unusual, but, well, I have my doubts. So, I took a look around, found my desk area to look pretty much the way all my desks have looked for the past 30 years or so, and thought I'd document it for posterity. Or hilarity. Or shock value. Whatever works for ya.
I used to have the typical computer work desk - as the computer and monitors got bigger, desk space got smaller and smaller. I ended up writing my Iguanas for Dummies book on my (now woefully outdated) laptop while sitting on the couch, all my books 'n things spread out around me, my feet braced against the coffee table so my back wouldn't hurt. The upshot: a completed book, severe exacerbation of carpal tunnel and ulnar impingement in both arms, bursitis in both shoulders, and a torn plantar fascia in my right foot. And the decals on the laptop keys worn off (apparently Toshiba doesn't expect people to really work on their Satellite laptops). When I got the second half of the book advance upon the publisher's receipt of an acceptable manuscript, I bought myself a new desk, a glorious U-unit with a lowered sliding keyboard tray, and a three drawer file cabinet to stash under it. Ah, bliss.
The Back
My computer on the far left, a little stack of storage drawers with my blood pressure machine and DSL modem on top, my printer/scanner, a stack of Win XP and MS Office books under the lamp, and a blanket I'm knitting for a friend, which is sitting atop my headsets and microphones that stopped working for some reason. Oh, I'm sure they are working just fine - just not in my computer. They did, then they didn't. FM. Grrrrrowl. On top of my computer is a blue iguana bobblehead statue designed by Joel Friesch for the Blue Iguana Recovery Program. The posters up on the wall (which, okay, you can't see) are by Charles "Chick" Lynn Bragg: Last Oasis, and City Limits. I have a couple prints of his: The Emperor Takes A Leak, and Cheyenne Scout. Chick creates beautiful things, with a heavy emphasis on the natural world. His father, also Charles Bragg, is also a prolific, often humorous artist.
And, to the Left...
Did I mention that the weight of less than half my books already broke one 7ft high bookcase, with my remaining one breaking as well? Most of my books are taking up a good portion of the living and dining room, but there are some that live between my desk and what used to be my old printer stand, but now hold more books and my phone. Along with being the place where my shredder lives, there also lives the cone of yarn feeding my friend's blanket-in-the-making, along with bags of yarn holding other projects-in-progress, including the acrylic I'm using to make blanket squares for the Valley of the Moon Children's Home. An ongoing project of the Sonoma County Knitting Guild and other local fiber groups is to create enough knit, crochet and quilted squares so that each child gets a blanket of their own to use there and take with them when they leave.
The Return
I take a lot of meds and supplements over the course of the day, so when I can find something I need to take that also comes in a chewable or sublingual form, I grab it. Hence a few things you see here. My hands also get really chapped, and I get fungal infections from blisters that form after contact with photocopy toner, newsprint and inks, and some other chemicals used in papers. Coconut oil has some natural antifungal properties (and for me works better than tea tree oil), and so that's one of my gotta-have-on-hand along with the hand lotions that do the best job on my hands.
Above the Return
Yes, this was taken on a different day, for those of you who noticed that the afternoon's glass mug has been replaced by the morning's thermal thingie. There's also a container of my currently favorite nut mix (pistachios, almonds, toasted coconut ribbons, dried cranberries and blueberries). Behind them are a couple of containers holding some more supplements. The white plastic basket holds a variety of note pads, knitted sock measurement cheat sheet, this 'n that. The white board above holds a variety of papers, a nice iguana postcard, a Junior Deputy Sheriff 'badge', some vinyl gloves that I try to remember to use so I don't have to use as much coconut oil, some yarn from a hat a friend knitted for me, a calendar, and a stack of prescriptions to be filled. Above that is one of my favorite posters. Every county has one, at least in California, but I like Marin County's the best: You BOOZE, You CRUISE, You LOSE! Avoid the Marin 13.
To the left there is my goddog's butt, from the photo I shot February 2005 at a sliver of beach on the outer spit of Bodega Bay (on the first day of crab season...mmmmm!):
Moving Right Along...
Oh! Look! A photo of my desk top on...my Desktop. Anyway, if it does nothing, it shows that I do actually work with all this stuff so it does migrate from place to place. Here, too, you can see that my knitting stuff has insinuated itself into my computer stuff. That's because I knit at my desk. Keep moving towards the left, and you will see my knitting needles, the resistance bands in the background (used to work out some of the typing and knitting kinks), more meds ::sigh::, and the nut container, clearly more ham than nut. Well, maybe both. Oh! And there's the yarn leftover from my Halloween Worm scarf.
I cropped off the left part of this photo, because it had a big bright blur that was some guy on Fox News (hey! I also watch MSNBC and CNN, so keep your comments civil, okay?). So you're missing the stack of magazines, books awaiting BookCrossing registration before I set them free, and the pillow that apparently has taken up residence on my desk. Upon it go my feet when I lean back in my chair for my nightly knitting therapy. Or when I'm talking on the phone.
Now, I don't want to hear about "messy desks, messy minds" because my desks have always looked like this and I used to be able to think in decision trees and flowcharts. I also have a long standing interest in archaeology. Now that I can no longer go work on digs, my desk has become my surrogate excavation.
Well, now, wasn't that fun? Enjoy it while it lasts: I'm feeling the need to chew nails coming on...and I don't mean the ones on my fingers.
Before we get to the humor section of tonight's program, let me take a moment to just say these two things:
1. Grown men who still call themselves and are called by the name of Scooter should never be given high government or corporate positions.
2. I have one word for the Republicans: Karma, baby. Okay, that was two. But, still...
Hokay!
A few days ago, my new friend Knat posted photos of her desk area in her blog. She claims that the condition was unusual, but, well, I have my doubts. So, I took a look around, found my desk area to look pretty much the way all my desks have looked for the past 30 years or so, and thought I'd document it for posterity. Or hilarity. Or shock value. Whatever works for ya.
I used to have the typical computer work desk - as the computer and monitors got bigger, desk space got smaller and smaller. I ended up writing my Iguanas for Dummies book on my (now woefully outdated) laptop while sitting on the couch, all my books 'n things spread out around me, my feet braced against the coffee table so my back wouldn't hurt. The upshot: a completed book, severe exacerbation of carpal tunnel and ulnar impingement in both arms, bursitis in both shoulders, and a torn plantar fascia in my right foot. And the decals on the laptop keys worn off (apparently Toshiba doesn't expect people to really work on their Satellite laptops). When I got the second half of the book advance upon the publisher's receipt of an acceptable manuscript, I bought myself a new desk, a glorious U-unit with a lowered sliding keyboard tray, and a three drawer file cabinet to stash under it. Ah, bliss.
The Back
My computer on the far left, a little stack of storage drawers with my blood pressure machine and DSL modem on top, my printer/scanner, a stack of Win XP and MS Office books under the lamp, and a blanket I'm knitting for a friend, which is sitting atop my headsets and microphones that stopped working for some reason. Oh, I'm sure they are working just fine - just not in my computer. They did, then they didn't. FM. Grrrrrowl. On top of my computer is a blue iguana bobblehead statue designed by Joel Friesch for the Blue Iguana Recovery Program. The posters up on the wall (which, okay, you can't see) are by Charles "Chick" Lynn Bragg: Last Oasis, and City Limits. I have a couple prints of his: The Emperor Takes A Leak, and Cheyenne Scout. Chick creates beautiful things, with a heavy emphasis on the natural world. His father, also Charles Bragg, is also a prolific, often humorous artist.
And, to the Left...
Did I mention that the weight of less than half my books already broke one 7ft high bookcase, with my remaining one breaking as well? Most of my books are taking up a good portion of the living and dining room, but there are some that live between my desk and what used to be my old printer stand, but now hold more books and my phone. Along with being the place where my shredder lives, there also lives the cone of yarn feeding my friend's blanket-in-the-making, along with bags of yarn holding other projects-in-progress, including the acrylic I'm using to make blanket squares for the Valley of the Moon Children's Home. An ongoing project of the Sonoma County Knitting Guild and other local fiber groups is to create enough knit, crochet and quilted squares so that each child gets a blanket of their own to use there and take with them when they leave.
The Return
I take a lot of meds and supplements over the course of the day, so when I can find something I need to take that also comes in a chewable or sublingual form, I grab it. Hence a few things you see here. My hands also get really chapped, and I get fungal infections from blisters that form after contact with photocopy toner, newsprint and inks, and some other chemicals used in papers. Coconut oil has some natural antifungal properties (and for me works better than tea tree oil), and so that's one of my gotta-have-on-hand along with the hand lotions that do the best job on my hands.
Above the Return
Yes, this was taken on a different day, for those of you who noticed that the afternoon's glass mug has been replaced by the morning's thermal thingie. There's also a container of my currently favorite nut mix (pistachios, almonds, toasted coconut ribbons, dried cranberries and blueberries). Behind them are a couple of containers holding some more supplements. The white plastic basket holds a variety of note pads, knitted sock measurement cheat sheet, this 'n that. The white board above holds a variety of papers, a nice iguana postcard, a Junior Deputy Sheriff 'badge', some vinyl gloves that I try to remember to use so I don't have to use as much coconut oil, some yarn from a hat a friend knitted for me, a calendar, and a stack of prescriptions to be filled. Above that is one of my favorite posters. Every county has one, at least in California, but I like Marin County's the best: You BOOZE, You CRUISE, You LOSE! Avoid the Marin 13.
To the left there is my goddog's butt, from the photo I shot February 2005 at a sliver of beach on the outer spit of Bodega Bay (on the first day of crab season...mmmmm!):
Moving Right Along...
Oh! Look! A photo of my desk top on...my Desktop. Anyway, if it does nothing, it shows that I do actually work with all this stuff so it does migrate from place to place. Here, too, you can see that my knitting stuff has insinuated itself into my computer stuff. That's because I knit at my desk. Keep moving towards the left, and you will see my knitting needles, the resistance bands in the background (used to work out some of the typing and knitting kinks), more meds ::sigh::, and the nut container, clearly more ham than nut. Well, maybe both. Oh! And there's the yarn leftover from my Halloween Worm scarf.
I cropped off the left part of this photo, because it had a big bright blur that was some guy on Fox News (hey! I also watch MSNBC and CNN, so keep your comments civil, okay?). So you're missing the stack of magazines, books awaiting BookCrossing registration before I set them free, and the pillow that apparently has taken up residence on my desk. Upon it go my feet when I lean back in my chair for my nightly knitting therapy. Or when I'm talking on the phone.
Now, I don't want to hear about "messy desks, messy minds" because my desks have always looked like this and I used to be able to think in decision trees and flowcharts. I also have a long standing interest in archaeology. Now that I can no longer go work on digs, my desk has become my surrogate excavation.
Well, now, wasn't that fun? Enjoy it while it lasts: I'm feeling the need to chew nails coming on...and I don't mean the ones on my fingers.
posted by Melissa at 4:25 PM
5 Comments:
Wow, I'm glad you explained the glove, because I was a bit concerned you might be practising DIY proctology!
I think it's fabulous we are exposing our desks! I want to see MORE desks! And when mine is clean again, I am going to photograph it as proof that it can happen. :D
hello ms. keplan.
i just wanted to know what is the best way to reach you. im not a stalker or anything. i just am a big fan of your workd (iguanas for dummies was probably the most comprehensive care guide i have ever read and made caring for my rescued iguana much easier)
im planning in getting into the career of reptile habitat design
and was just looking for some resources.
if you care to reply you can reach me at:
zyzsgy@gmail.com
thank you, i know your very busy but i thought i would give it a shot.
Herp enclosure building resources at my site are linked to my Indoor & Outdoor Enclosures page, linked to both my Green Iguana and Captivity Issues pages. ;)
There are a couple of forums linked to the Enclosures page you might want to join to talk to other hobbyist and small custom/commercial builders.
Good luck in your endeavors!
i have the signed artists proof of the emperor takes a leak i cant find any reference to this picture . do you have any ideas
thank you kindly
Aubrey, I found Charles ("Chick") Lynn Bragg's website, www.CharlesLynnBragg.com, but don't see our Emperor piece on it or any of the other art sites I poked around in. ( didn't see my Cheyenne Scout piece anywhere, either.) Your best bet might be to contact Chick directly, via his website, if you're looking to establish provenance or other documentation.
It could be that those of us who own these pieces aren't selling them, at least to any of art dealers who post their 'for sale' pieces online, so they aren't appearing in any of the sites we've looked at.
Good luck!
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