Complex Numbers

You CAN Take It With You

What is this "productive and happy" of which you speak?"

PROMPT September 7th

I completely rearranged my desk space yesterday! It was a much-needed change and has helped with my motivation. What does your desk space / writing space look like? What sorts of things do you need (or not need) in your work space to be productive and happy?

Here's the thing: I like being in a clean, organized space.

Here's the other thing: I despise cleaning and organizing with every fiber of my being.

These two urges tug constantly at my psyche, just like "eating that whole pizza" vs. "not having another heart attack." Sometimes one wins. Sometimes the other does. Most of the time I just distract myself with something else.

Anyway, I don't have dedicated desk space right now. My office has gathered too much crap, and I can't be arsed to straighten it all out. I write on a laptop, because a) I travel, or I used to in the Before Time, and b) I like to sit outside on my deck whenever it's not too cold. Too hot, I can deal with. Drop below about 70F / 21C, though, and I start to freeze to death.

I'm not looking forward to fall and winter.

Anyway. it's a honkin' big laptop, because I also use it for gaming. Not light, and I've seen cinderblocks smaller than the size of the power converter. Still, it's portable enough to fit into my backpack for travel, if that ever becomes an option again, and no one wants to steal the backpack because it's heavier than a box of rocks.

One of the things I like most about traveling is hotel rooms.

I know this is probably just as unrelatable to most people as my desire for heat over cold. Hotel rooms freak a lot of people out. Me? Love 'em. Even the dingy, faded ones. I've been in those, and I've also stayed at the actual Ritz-Carlton. And everything in between. Because I walk into one, and it's sparse: A bed or two. Bathroom. A nightstand with a lamp. A dresser. A desk and chair. A TV which I utterly ignore. One of the reasons I don't usually travel with people is every time I do, they seem to have this need to walk into a hotel room and immediately turn the TV on. It's annoying as hell and I don't understand it. All TV can do is provide us with commercials and other chaotic noises.

But I digress. A hotel room looks clean and neat. It may not actually be clean, but I don't give a damn. Best of all, I'm not the one who cleaned it. I pay for that privilege gladly. So then I can set up my excessively-sized laptop on the desk, plug it in, and game, or write, or look at cat videos, or whatever.

Now, look, I don't want to give anyone the idea that I'm a lazy bum who expects other people to do his housework for him. No, I'm a lazy bum who hates to do housework, and hates even more if someone does it for me -- except in the aforementioned hotel rooms. I neaten up when I have to at home, but not before. Usually I just take the laptop outside, as I said, where I can't leave a lot of shit lying around because sometimes it rains, snows, or winds.

Productive and happy, though? Pipe dreams.



Final Birthday Week MB goes to WakeUpAndLive️~scary 2024 as a fellow Trekker, but please know that I appreciated all of the comments. Yes, all of them. Thank you. Some things coming up this week: Tomorrow is Star Trek Day, which commemorates the anniversary of the first airing of the first Original Series episode on September 8, 1966; September 10 would have been my father's 103rd birthday; and then September 11 is, among other things, my account anniversary. Hopefully I'll remember to give out more Merit Badges for my account anniversary, if I don't drink too much rum the day before (Dad was a sailor).