An idle question which is more interesting than what I ought to be doing.
I have:
A glass candy dish. I left this dish on my desk and people started to fill it up. More often than not there’s something in it. Magic!
Two cat calendars. I need lots of kitty pictures.
An outdated picture of my kids.
A tiny stone owl I got on a trip when I was ten.
A painted clay penguin made by my son.
An enameled and sparkly pelican given to me by one of the faculty here. It sure is colorful. :dubious:
A sleeping cat made of carved wood.
A broken clock (but it’s pretty!) This poster.
Assorted cards and pictures of lightning and cats. I’ve got a theme going on in here.
How have you decorated your desk, cubicle, cell, whatever?
My desk is covered with personal crap:
[ul]
[li]Assorted photos from my travels (Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, British Museum, etc)[/li][li]Trout of North America calendar[/li][li]Flyers (pun intended) for aviation events (Castle Air Museum open cockpit day, Wings of Freedom Tour)[/li][li]Magnets (The Mystery Spot, RNR HOF, Cabzon Dinos, etc)[/li][li]A couple of personalized decorative gourds made by my best friend (Rt 66 & raven-themed)[/li][li]Display card for The Big Lebowski DVD boxed set[/li][li]Preying Mantis finger puppet [/li][li]Rubber brain stenciled with “The Best Safety Tool” in a clear plastic box[/li][li]Promo poster for Pink Floyd’s “Pulse” DVD[/li][li]Origami swan made from yellow and white note paper.[/li][/ul]
My filing cabinets are covered with a variety of amusing pictures, post cards, cartoons, and things of that sort. Some border on inappropriate (Onion headline: “SPACE SHUTTLE RETURNS TO EARTH WITH A BUNCH OF USELESS SHIT”), but in twelve years on the job, no one has complained.
On top of one cabinet I have a couple of scale-model motorcycles; one is of my first motorcycle (a BMW), and the other is a nice Franklin Mint model of a Harley Davidson Sportster given to me by my mother-in-law (she lives in Japan and doesn’t really know I have zero interest in HD’s, but it’s actually a pretty nice model). The bikes sit amidst a sizable collection of broken parts from engine testing: a shattered piston, bent valves welded into a tree, crumpled con-rod, wrecked scrolls from a supercharger, and so on.
The walls have a couple of calendars from Japan, an extremely detailed CAD drawing of a bicycle I made years ago, and sundry other items.
Every month I receive a folder with a couple of documents to be signed, each marked with one of those removable “SIGN HERE” tabs. I’ve been slowly collecting those tabs, and I’m about halfway to completely covering the frames of my two monitors with them.
Pretty much nothing. One (unframed) photo of my wife pinned to the cubicle wall fabric. A binary coded decimal clock. My computer speakers are personal property, so I guess those count. Oh, and a small Emperor Palpatine figurine.
Honestly none. If I got fired or quit suddenly, I could walk out with what I brought today and that would be it. I’ve been at this job 8 year. That’s kind of odd now that I think about it.
Yes, it is. You know, we had a lady leave us suddenly about a year ago. I inherited all the stuff she left in her desk, including some decorative glass bottles and pictures of her kids. I was never able to contact her, so I still have her stuff…I should send it to you!
This was what I was going to ask - how long have you been at your cubicle?
As a contractor, I never bring anything I cannot pack back in to my briefcase when my assignment is complete.
My typical contractor cubicle decoration kit consists of:
[ul]
[li]One small photo collage frame of me and my bf[/li][li]a Disney coffee cup[/li][li]a place setting (plastic plate, bowl, cutlery, and a drinking glass - no reason not to be earth-friendly)[/li][li]a copy of the “IF” poem - to help me keep my sanity[/li][li]a small candy dish[/li][li]my name plaque - handy when you are always ‘the new guy’[/li][li]a phone charger[/li][/ul]
Clock/Radio
Framed 5x7 of wife and baby
Unframed picture of my older son
Couple nondescript coffee mugs (one plain dark blue, the other a speckled black metal)
In my drawers and cabinets I have some personal (yet work related) books that would come home with me if I left.
I used to have a little more but a couple downsizing scares had me taking stuff home in case I needed to pack lightly one afternoon. Such are the times we live in.
Three photos – two of my dogs, one of my husband
Two dog calendars
One note pad with a picture of a dog
Cleveland Indians 2011 schedule on which I mark the results of the previous day’s game every morning
Water bottle
In my drawers: umbrella, bottle of Excedrin Migraine
[ul]
[li]This mouse mat[/li][li]A home-made motivational poster left over from a company training exercise[/li][li]My iPod Touch[/li][li]Mobile phone[/li][li]Liquorice Allsorts cufflinks I removed when I rolled my sleeves up this morning[/li][li]Nintendo 3DS[/li][li]Fist-sized rubber band ball, with an old button attached for a base[/li][li]An empty fruit drop tin from Pately Bridge Sweet Shop, est. 1827[/li][li]This year’s Cambridge Beer Festival programme, complete with annotations[/li][/ul]
There’s also an empty crisp packet and a sports drink bottle, but I don’t really count those as personal.
On the desk the only personal items are my ipad charging cable, a water bottle and a tea cup or two (depends if I brought my travel mug that day)
During the day I keep the ipad plugged in and running a slide show of pictures if I happen to be at my desk for more than a few minutes. This is rare.
In the drawers there are a couple kinds of tea, mints, sugar free candies, bandaids, tylenol, salt shaker, plastic cutlery, a ziplock bag of vinegar, mustard, ketchup packets, two pair of shoes, a book and the manual and box for my headphones.
In the cabinet I have a couple of sweaters and another pair of shoes.
In office I have:
A pretty ceramic picture frame with pics of TheKid
A clay bowl she made 10 years ago, used for paper clips
A tea mug
In my desk drawer I have a bowl, spoon, packets of oatmeal, tea, spare headphones, and hand lotion.
