CotéDesk

Like everyone I've sat at my share of desks. I'm always interested in what other people do with their desks -- decorating, arangement, &co. -- so I figured it'd be fun to put up some of my desks and some "desk commentary."

As you might expect, this is a "showcase," in the classic style of "who the fuck cares?" pages, of desks I've used past and present.

Desk Location: The Cobalt Group, as of 2 Nov. 2001

This one's a little early to call as these fotes are from my third day over at Cobalt. However, I bought myself a fancy digital camera, so I figured I'd use it.

Our first view is from the center. As you can see, there's little on the desk. Of interest is the Nalgene TRAIL Products water bottle. There's no free soda-water at Cobalt like there was at Liaison, so I'm having to do my consuming with the good old H2O. There is coffee, though, and that's free.

Above is a closeup of the only "Hey, I'm a crazy guy with crazy toys on my desk!" toy so far: a little yellow ninja I got for 50 cents at HEB. Also, of course, my phone. You'll remember my phone from such comments as, "Coté, why don't you turn that thing down?"

The keyboard, for those who were wondering, is one of those squishy keyboards; but it kind of clicks. Go figure.

Here we have a pulled back, right view of the desk. Great, isn't it? As you can see, I have a fine, though metal, shelf: half of it al fresca, the other half closed off. You can see 4 "texts" items I've put on display at the desk:

1. M-W Dictionary: sometimes, when I get just slightly bored, I like to look up random stuff in the dictionary. It's good toilet reading too. This is dictionary #3 in the Coté library of 3.
2. Java Cookbook: I haven't even read all of this yet, but the section on mail was useful for Acorro...but that was largly Lord Dango's. Again, this book is good toilet reading. Or, good for reading when I want to "look busy" while actually being busy.
3. 3-Rings O' Specs: this is my XSLT binder with XSLT, XPath, and other good docs in hole-punched and bound.
4. Design Patterns: my new favorite book. I've refered to this book almost daily since I finished reading it. Also, I figured I'd spice up the usual language centered book with a few pure design books.

Our final desk fote is the left side of the desk. Quite unremarkable except for some slips of paper, a coffee mug, and my blank dry-marker board. The coffee as I mentioned is free, and I'm generally only drinking one of those big migs a day. I tried to drink an afternoon cup, but after a few sips of the hours old coffee, I said to myself, "This coffee is horrible."

Of minor interest is the small trash can under my desk. My own trash can!

Here's the view from under my desk: The JP Hoo-Hoo Cam 2001! Check out them shiny shoes.

Desk Location: Liaison, until Aug 2001

Update: I don't work at Liaison anymore.

I was in a cubical in the hall for quite some time, which wasn't bad at all. All the desks here are the same, L-shaped. I like this desk quite a lot, there's even a lamp under the book shelf and a set of drawers. I've never really had a full cube-desk, so the novelty hasn't worn off yet.

• Dr. Pepper - I didn't used to drink sugar-water much at all, but now that there's free sodas I drink about a Dr. Pepper a day. Sometimes 2. I hope I won't perish of it.
• Cell Phone - Whao! You don't wanna be without that or you might miss a booty-call...or at least someone asking to have lunch.
• Liaison Branded Coffee Travel Mug - this thing holds about two normal sized cups, and it's de rigueur to have at least one full travel mug of coffee every morning.
• Dell OptiPlex GX110 'puter and Professional Series PS790 - these work machines ain't too shaby; and 19" is nice too look at all day and. I'm glad that Windows finally lets you set enviornmental variables a sane way -- through the Control Panel in 2000, at least -- instead of having to fuck with AUTOEXEC.BAT and restart all the god damned time. It sure did take the gorilla long enough.
• Wire Mesh Desk Stuff Holder - this would be unremarkable except for the following e-mail exchange:

    From: Matt Kinman 
    Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 9:24 AM
    To: Michael Cote
    Subject: RE: Lunch
  
    --- Michael Coté wrote:
    >  Well, sure. I like 11:30 better [for lunch]'
    > cause it gives me more time to arrange my pen
    > holder at work. I think I might add sicors[sic] 
    > to it. Oooo!
  
    Whoa, slow down there Cowboy.  You know better than
    to russel up scissors with pens.  There's no love
    lost between those two.
  
    

• Empty Coffee Cup - I used this once or twice and I haven't put it back in the cupboard yet.
• Dell Latitude CPx - everyone in this town uses Dells, even when we're, "Whao! On the go!"
• Books - Java and XML, The XML Pocket Reference, Programming Perl, Practical Java, The Pragmatic Programmer, The Merriam Webster Dictionary (New Edition!). I'm an obvious O'Reilly nut.
• Business Card (white box in shelf)- I've got a whole passel of Liaison business cards that say I'm a "Solutions Engineer." Go figure.
• Box 'o Wires - In my short time here, I've somehow rustled up a hefty ball of wires.