A new year means a new workstation…
January 2, 2012, 11:26 PM
First of all, I hope that everyone had a wonderful new year. I had a wonderful time, spending New Year’s Eve with friends. And then today, I finally put some Christmas presents into service. While Mom was up last week, we went to IKEA, where I got a new desk to replace my old desk, which was falling apart. This is a “Galant” glass top desk. Very minimalistic. We got that last Wednesday, and as soon as I got home, I put that puppy together. My rule when it comes to IKEA furniture is that when I get it, I have to put it together right away, because it will otherwise sit in the corner forever, like some picture frames that I got for Christmas in 2007 and still haven’t put them to use. Yes, it’s been four years since I got these and I haven’t done jack with them. One of these days, I promise!
So first of all, this was our haul from IKEA:
The desk is on the cart to the right (sans the picture frame), and then the item on the left cart is a “Besta” bookshelf that Mom got, similar to ones I have.
And then this is my new desk in the middle of the living room:
That went together really quickly, but it then took almost a week to get it into place. After all, I was spending as much time as possible over the week working on Falcon, and the new desk would need to wait.
In the meantime, though, I did go to Target and buy some drawers for this desk using some of the gift card that I got from Uncle Bruce and Aunt Mary (thanks!). I got this Sterilite mobile pedestal, which has two regular drawers and one file-sized drawer. This downsizes me slightly, but I have a feeling that much of what was in the existing desk drawers was just junk, so either (A) I don’t need it, or (B) if I really do need it, I should find a better place for it.
Then today, I finally put the new desk in place and dismantled the old desk. First, “before”:
This is my old desk. It looked really rough in some spots, and was falling apart in others. Notice that the left side drawers are actually sitting on the floor, as the section that those drawers were in gave out over some time. No fun. I don’t know how many times I stubbed my toe on those drawers.
Then the computer went here:
And then the old desk was turned back into lumber:
I’m probably going to take that to the county recycling facility this weekend, since I’m pretty sure that it can be recycled somehow.
And then what surprised me the most was what was left behind when I removed the desk:
That was a LOT of dust! I expected some dust, but not nearly that much. The desk’s footprint was between that line in the carpet near the wall and the similar bar closer to the camera. The smaller footprint next to the closer bar is a shelf that I kept next to the desk. That went back once I finished. But to get all of the dust up was surprisingly challenging. I vacuumed for a while, then I used a duster to get some hard-to-reach stuff out, and then vacuumed again to finish. My apartment, for some reason, is a dusty place.
And then the new desk went in:
And then the shelf went back and the pedestal went in:
Then finally, the computer:
And there you have it.
Strangely enough, you know what I am enjoying most about the new desk? The legroom. I have so much legroom underneath this new desk, since, after all, there is only one item under the desk (the pedestal), and it’s off to the right, as far to the side as I could get it. I used to always bump into the left side drawers, both when they were up and after they hit the floor, and so their not being around is very nice. Additionally, without a modesty panel on this desk, I can stick my legs all the way out now, and still can’t touch the wall.
This desk is also an inch and a half deeper than the old one, and that is surprisingly noticeable. An inch and a half is something I thought wouldn’t be all that noticeable, but surprise: it is. So its being so noticeable was a pleasant surprise, and hopefully I can figure out something productive to do with that extra space rather than let it just collect dust.
And then there’s just a little bit of unfinished business:
Yeah, I haven’t done anything with the old desk drawers yet. So sue me. I’ll deal with those when I darn well feel like it. The drawers themselves are actually in really good condition, and so if anyone wants them and can meet me locally to pick them up (“Local” = Silver Spring, Maryland), you can have them. Likewise, if anyone wants any of the other pieces from the old desk and can meet me to pick them up, they’re yours. Let me know if you’re interested.
So I’m pretty pleased with what I got for Christmas. Now I just have to work on that chair of mine. That thing is more than eight years old now, but I don’t want to pay to replace it right now. But a new chair to go with this new desk would certainly complete the ensemble. But that will have to wait for now.
Song: I am listening to a No Pink Spandex podcast right now. Pretty entertaining, though I can't believe that this episode is three hours long. I thought I was long-winded...
Quote: This is also the first Journal entry to utilize some features intended for Falcon (i.e. Schumin Web under WordPress, currently under development). Thus all of these images are pulling from Falcon's file store rather than the one I was using on regular Schumin Web, and the little black border is now provided by a CSS class rather than being directly in the image. Yeah, I should have made this sort of change years ago, but when I did the 2010 build, rather than retrofit all of the old images or add a class to everything going forward (both seemed like too much trouble), I maintained the status quo. With the total overhaul of everything that I'm doing for Falcon, though, it's all going to be brought up to current standards, and the border will be done with CSS across the board, with the only exceptions being if I'm omitting the border. So why did I wait until now to start hosting images in Falcon's file store when the conversion started in August? Timing. The start of a new calendar year seemed to be a logical time to make the change, as I normally have always made modifications to standards on January 1. So I'm consistent.