Catharsis of the Bogue

Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: desk

My Desk: The Pit of Despair…

May 27, 2014 / / 1 Comment

 

Film poster for The Princess Bride - Copyright...

Image via Wikipedia

One of my all time favorite movies is The Princess Bride.  I am not going to summarize it here, but you should watch it if you haven’t.  If you have seen it, watch it again.  It is fantastic.  Anyway, in the movie there is a hidden torture chamber that the albino calls the “Pit of Despairrrrrrrrr” (clears throat) “The Pit of Despair”.  In this pit the hero is tortured and this that and the other happens.

Now, keep that in mind while I tell you this story.  Long time readers of this blog know that my family has undergone some stress in recent years.  A daughter on dialysis, a kidney transplant, a new baby, a new home.  Well all of this has taken it’s toll on my kids.  They have taken it very very well but sometimes things come out that we know is stress related.  We took my oldest son to a counselor to just talk a bit about his feelings.

One of the suggestions that she had for helping him to deal with everything was to pretend to blow up a balloon whenever he was feeling stressed and just let it go.  It worked.  Now we try to get him to blow up balloons when he has too much energy, or is sad, or is mad.  Well, today he was sad.  Some things happened and at the end of it I yelled at him.  The reason is not important.

At bedtime we sit as a family and discuss the day.  This is when I found out that he and my daughter had both blew up several sad balloons, mad balloons and left them on my desk.  So now I have dubbed my desk the Pit of Despair.  And it will be the pit of despair from now on.  Life choices made from this chair of torture, dealings with the world right here from the Pit.  It is kind of fun, and a bit cool to have the pit available.

We name boats, houses, manors and now my desk.  So I ask you good readers, what unusual things do you have names for that are either ironic, silly or fitting?  I want to hear some of these.  I will post a list of my favorites in the next couple of days.  Go on!  Comment!

As you wish, kids, as you wish.

-Justin

Enhanced by Zemanta

The Pit of Despair: Redux

August 20, 2013 / / 1 Comment
English: Spring Cleaning on the River Teviot T...

Image via Wikipedia

Last post I reported on the state of my desk and its designation as the pit of despair.  Well apparently the pit has become some sort of black hole and the spring cleaning by has hit my wife.  Yesterday, we (read she) decided that every room needed to be gutted, rearranged and cleaned.  I guess I should just be glad that we didn’t have to paint the walls.

During this frenzy of cleanliness, everything seems to be moving.  Because of that I decided we have too many pieces of furniture for the space we have.  Some things are being combined, some moved altogether.  That is the case for the pit of despair, er my desk.  I have moved down a level and this seems to be my new home.  It still has some of the advantages of the other spot, fairly central, can see the kids, but it is lower.  and bigger.  and it makes our living room not look like a pile of paper and crap.

So, much like a black hole, the Pit of Despair has moved.  And that vacuum over there, well that is what I would like to do with ours so I didn’t have to use it.  Too bad we have hardwood floors.

Now I want to hear from all of you.  What do you do for spring cleaning?  How extensive do you go?  just this weekend we have started a total “Garage Ectomy” that includes a complete overhaul.  This would not be so bad if not for the fact that our garage is our storage unit.  And that storage unit was poorly packed in July of last year.  And many of the boxes are deteriorating.  And the place is a disaster.

But we need to clean out the garage, so we can clean out the toys, so we can clean out the kids room and rearrange the bedroom situation.  Twitch Twitch.  Anyway, what do you do for spring cleaning?

Let me know.

Justin

Enhanced by Zemanta

My Desk is my Haven…Quit Messing It Up!

April 3, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Where is it that you write?  Where do you sit down and write your novels, poems or blog posts?  If you are like me, and I would guess many bloggers or writers, you have a form of a desk.  It can be a table, or a box in a corner or a real office type desk but chances are you will still call it a desk.

Typical rolltop desk

Image via Wikipedia

My desk is an actual desk, now.  before it was a smaller table that I built with components from Ikea.  It was perfect for what I needed and actually, it still is.  It is now in the garage ostensibly set up to be my little podcasting desk.  I don’t know how that is going to work with winter setting in here in the Rockies.

When we moved, my desk came with me.  then I decided that I really needed a bookshelf or something that I could store some papers and notebooks on.  I had tried versions before, little shelves that I had built but they all ended up in the fireplace bin and the books on top of my desk.  Cluttered.  So I went looking for a small type shelf or filing cabinet that would work for what I wanted it to.  And fit in the space I had available.

I ended up at Ikea again and a new product that just came out this year had a perfect size bookshelf.  The only catch, is that it came with a desk.  Eventually it came down to price and this set was relatively cheap for both pieces.  So I brought it home and put my other desk in the garage.  For the record I like the old one a bit better but this one has a drawer.  Besides, now I have the bookshelf that I need.

What really brought on this post was the clutter that collects on my desk.  Now, my desk is in our front room, less than 10 steps from the door and the meeting place where the TV is and where guests can see everything that I have out.  It is there so that I can work and keep an eye on the kids at the same time.  This does give me an incentive to keep the desk clean, being in the living room.

Most of the time I can do it.  But I get help.  My kids help.  My wife helps.   But they don’t clean, they stack.  I get all sorts of stuff piled randomly on my desk, from papers to craft paints, to mp3 players.  I get so much…..stuff piled on here some days that I can’t even use my mouse.  It is frustrating.

So what do I do?  Clean it off, putting all of the stuff in piles for the kids and the wife, not including what ends up in the trash can under the desk.  And then the cycle starts all over again.

The bottom line, I get much more done when I have a clean desk.  It is much more comfortable to write without the chaos.  I know that there will be more chaos soon, but for a while at least, there is some small fragment of tranquility that helps the creative process.

What do you think?  Let me know in the comments.

Have a good weekend.

-Justin

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

© 2024 Catharsis of the Bogue

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑