Thursday, September 27, 2007

What's on my desk right now

(A totally frivolous post, as I try to figure out what the hell my data is trying to tell me.)


  • A laptop (Mac, of course).

  • A Mac Mini.

  • That VGA-to-whatever converter thingie.

  • A keyboard and monitor that I'm not currently using.

  • Various cord corrallers that don't quite work with my setup.

  • A metal gooseneck lamp (currently off).

  • My iPod, charging so that I have something to listen to during the late-night feeding.

  • A large blue water bottle on a photo coaster (with a photo of my family).

  • A lavender candle (not currently lit).

  • A Koosh ball.

  • A handheld back massager thingie. (People keep giving me these as gifts. Perhaps my stress is evident to everyone else on the planet, too.)

  • A paintbrush. (Not sure why. It's been there for months.)

  • A scorpion beanie baby. There's a long story attached to that one---suffice it to say that I had a close encounter with one on a trip that was...well, let's just call it "interesting". Anyway, my mom loves the story attached to it and so she bought me the beanie baby. It's my muse.

  • An accordion folder with my current drafts-in-progress, papers to read, and various other research-related paperwork.

  • A draft of a journal article.

  • My research notebook.

  • Gel pens of various colors, a highlighter, several Sharpies, and a Bop-It pen.

  • An O'Reilly book of the programming language I'm attempting to learn.

  • Textbooks for the classes I'll be teaching when I return.

  • Wheat Thins crumbs, most likely.



So, what's on your desk?

7 comments:

Schlupp said...

I'm not a my desk, but I can tell you waht's on the desk I'm sitting at this month.

- A pile of stuff from the desk's owner, containing a box of crayons.
- A toy sheep atop the pile
- Paper draft
- Paper to review
- Referee comments
- Glass of water
- Keyboard, screen, & mouse
- prunes
- tomatoes
- cookies
- a roll
- 2 empty staplers
- Espresso cup (empty)

Anonymous said...

I'm incredibly impressed that this is all that's on your desk. My desk on a great day looks like the one schlupp described above, and most days aren't great days. Somehow my desk takes on the worst aspects of any horizontal surface and becomes a receptacle for all kinds of crap, such that I actually do much of my work sitting in the comfy chair next to the desk. I'd like to change that, but the effort to clear off the desk seems so overwhelming that I keep not doing it, and more and more stuff keeps ending up on the pile.

Jane said...

schlupp, either you eat at your desk a lot, or you're inspired by food. Which is it? :)

WN, the reason it's like that is that I absolutely cannot work amongst clutter. If my space isn't organized, I can't think. (I guess I'm a bit obsessive-compulsive that way.) Mr. Jane's desk, on the other hand, sounds a lot like yours. He claims it's because he's a visual person, and if something's out of sight, it's like it ceases to exist. (I used to think he was just BS'ing me, but now that I've lived with him for years, I think he's right.) So maybe you're a visual person, too! :)

exaggeratedpixie said...

Hmm, on my desk:
Macbook Pro
Wireless headphones
empty coffee mug
research notebook
5 papers I told my advisor I'd read already
random cutlery
stacks of textbooks
family photo
towel

Jane said...

exaggeratedpixie, are you a swimmer?

Anonymous said...

Question: Will you please list the software you use? Also, are you a MS person or a Linux person? Gates or Torvald? :)

Jane said...

anon, I'm a Mac girl. Used to be a Linux girl, but made the switch for good after a really bad experience with a Linux laptop. A small piece of my research requires MS, so I do use Windoze occasionally. As far as software I use: too numerous to mention! Probably what I use most for my research are Eclipse and Matlab (and the command line); for writing, I use TeXShop and JabRef.