My Workspace

This is my workspace without me, though not what it looks like when I'm not working that day. Seeing as I take my laptop with me, what what.

The computer on the far right isn't actually one I use; it's around to protect papers on the other side of it from blowing away in the wind when I open the window. I don't use the IBM Selectric on the right side, either... it's just a paperweight for much the same reasons the other computer is there.

My iBook laptop, the "Quest of Insanity." Sitting on the right side of my desk, it provides me with the entertainment and distraction necessary to make it through a day of changing text on websites to reflect minute changes in policy and putting computers back together after taking them apart.

Of course, on the latter note, I now have quite a collection of leftover screws. Including one that's loose, but you knew that already.

As an added bonus, it runs on OSX, so it gives me something to do whilst rebooting my Windows computers due to crashes.

I also get my email on this machine, and double-check everything I upload to make sure it works. Also, this is the source of my instant messages.

The McDonald's sandwich is a Sausage McMuffin with Egg. I prefer the biscuit sandwiches, but these are cheaper.

This computer is named "Squishy." Every computer has to have a name, I figure, to set it apart from the rest. Factory settings aren't something I can put up with--you'll notice my taskbar is on the left side of the screen, where I decided to stick it one day. My Dock in Mac OSX is also on the left side of the screen for similar reasons--icons on the right, more viewable area on the bottom, so the system stuff should go on the left.

It runs WinDoze 2K Unprofessional.It also does the scanning job of one half of a computer and the website updates of two thirds of a computer. It does have Pinball and the ability to comprehend 1024x768 screen resolution on a 12-inch monitor, though.

I like the Metroid theme I've got on it right now... I've even got a matching screensaver for this computer. Metroid Prime all around.

The speaker on the right side is the companion to the one on top of the other Windows computer, which sits to the left of this one. On top of it is the koosh ball that I bounce off the wall above my window when the network is down. Then, there's my water cup, which keeps me hydrated and all.

Ironically, the speakers are mentioned in Squishy's description, even though they're always wired into either my laptop or ShmowLand, the other computer. Go figure.

"Shmowland." After the mythical location in an episode of the Three Stooges. The little paper labels at the bottom of the tower read "Intel Outside Pentium," reflecting that the Pentium (not II, III, or 4, mind you) is open-air, and "Designed for MS-DOS, Microsoft DOS 6.22." The "Outside Pentium" crack is because I took the case off and "forgot" to put it back on... not because it has issues with cooling, but instead because I like to store my tape dispenser in the bottom of the case.

Plus, it's cooler, like those squirt guns you can see the insides of because they're made of clear plastic.

Anyway, it runs Windows 95, has two hard drives, one CD drive, a 5.25" floppy drive, a data tape drive, two 3.4" floppy drives, and a 12.1" monitor designed to do a lot of text layout and stuff. It's got different screen modes where it makes everything orange, blue, and green instead of its normal colors, to make sure it looks right under different lights or something. And heavens no, this isn't a factory machine; I built it out of spare parts. I almost called it Frankenstein, actually. :P

Oh, yeah, that's my hat on top. I figured that was a good place to store it.

Metroid Fusion is currently my "theme" for this computer, including the desktop image and my screensaver.

This is the side of Shmowland that you only see from the side. :P Actually, it's just the mass of cords (and aforementioned tape dispenser) that reside inside the open shell. You can't really see the PCI cards, but there's, as you might expect, a sound card, an Ethernet card, and two video cards (one spare).

The sticky note tells me which hard drive has DOS and which has Windows 95. I need to remember such things when I rewire the whole thing... never did figure out how to make all the drives work at the same time.