Clean Office, Clean Mind
Posted on February 11, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 19 Comments
Krissy did one of her occasional clean-ups of my office environment and then demanded I take a photo as verification that, indeed, the room was spotless. So here you are: My spotless office. One part of me feels ashamed that my entropic tendencies drive my wife into a cleaning frenzy, but another part of me is always grateful when she does, because the simple truth of the matter is that I find it so much easier to focus when I am not surrounded by ceiling-high piles of books and paper which threaten to collapse onto me, pinning me and leaving me helpless while the cats feed off my bones (because you know they would).
Essayed here is the desk; what you don’t see is the bookshelf to the left, which was also reorganized, in particular to give me an ego shelf, like so:
These are all the books I’ve written or contributed to. The goal before the time I die in a horrible dolphin incident is to write enough books that the shelf can only hold single copies of each book. By which time, of course, bound copies of books will be laughably quaint collector’s items. But that’s not the point. And anyway, obviously, I plan on collecting.
So there it is. Allow me to take a moment of public recognition of my wife for making my working space far less likely to erupt into spontaneous paper fire. She rocks.
Just curious, why is the PC on the desk taking up valuable horizontalicular storage space?
Because it’s easier to get to wires that way. And as you can see, I’m not exactly hungering for desk space.
Reminds me of that Thomas Dolby song….”I don’t believe it, there she goes again, she’s tidied up and I can’t find anything!”
Where is your big pile of Published Author Cash™ that you roll naked in?
Ah ha ha ha ha ha hah! Gabe, you kidder.
I know you have one. That’s how they keep us hopeful in the trenches. They just keep going on and on about how much cash we’ll see when we get published. I mean, Stephen King has a Money Bin right? I hear Grisham has a solid gold MIG. Not that it flies or anything, but hey, does it need to?
One look at your desk, tells me Win2Vnc
Trust me, once you have it, you will wonder how you ever did without it.
Dude, just so you know, your marriage rocks. I’d sooner allow my wife to tidy up my medulla than clean up my workspace, and she’s pretty much the same. We’re happy sharing children, confidences, fetishes, and probably kidneys, but desktops are out totally of bounds. Once, about six years ago, she actually tried to install something on my laptop, and we both sulked for days. A wife you trust to straighten your mouse cords is a treasure beyond rubies.
Does that telescope work? Are you spying on the neighbors?
Krissy is a keeper for many reasons not the least of which is that she lets you have two computer six inches apart. I believe my wife would most likely shoot me were I to consider the possibility (let along actually do it).
Michael G. Richard: Yes, and no. My neighbors are not that interesting.
Sylvia: I don’t think that particular program works between PCs and Macs, does it?
Hey, what’s the power on that telescope? Thankfully it appears to be pointed at the sky.
Holy Crap. Is that a VPR Matrix PC or Insignia? It’s a wonder it works! Working for Geek Squad they give us the cheapest computers they can (as far as the corporate bottom lin is concerned) for our use. And that’s a pair of constantly twitching VPR Matrixes (Matrices?). But then, when you’ve got about a dozen computer nerds, I guess they figure there’s enough computer geekcraftery to keep them working. o.O
But hey, yeah. Nice clean workspace. And that Krissy did that for you, just further evidence of your luck in woman.
It’s a VPR Matrix. I’ve actually had it for three years now, with never a single real problem. I’m going to upgrade later on this year (probably post-Vista).
Kafkaesquí, I’m not sure what the power is on the telescope. It’s fairly low, though.
I have a Mac and PC setup just like you, including the angle between them… do you get as bad backache as I do, or do you use your swivel chair like a true Jedi Master?
Just curious…
One more thing you need for your office – an altar to your wife. Anyone who’d willingly wade through that bedlam deserves veneration. Seriously, dude – if things ever got that bad in my home office, my missus would probably just chuck a petrol bomb in and close the door.
John, go check out synergy. I have this on my office computer so that I have ONE keyboard and mouse that control my Mac and my PC. It’s fun to send the mouse flying off the left edge of the Mac’s monitor and onto the right edge of the PC’s monitor and have the person standing behind me freak out.
I’m totally in love with that desk!
I agree with several of the other commenters you have a goddess for a wife! You have to be one of the luckiest bloggers in the blogosphere.