My Ancient Nemesis

Hmm, I guess I haven’t post anything in a while. It’s enough to make you think I’m Dave Campbell or something…until you actually read what I have posted and find that it’s neither as interesting nor as entertaining as what can be found at Dave’s infrequently-updated blog.
In any case, don’t be alarmed: my lack of updates is not an indication that I’ve actually gotten a life.
However, I have gotten the next best thing: money.
Even though I just had my taxes done on Monday, my VA refund was already in my checking account by Friday morning.
In my checking account, burning a hole, preventing me from just leaving it there...
I’ve been meaning to buy a new office chair for a while now. There’s nothing wrong with my old one per se – though it does have a rip in it – but I’ve had it since sometime in 2001, and it’s not nearly so comfortable as it once was.
Also, since it is still usable, if replaced it could serve as a spare, giving Scott someplace to sit whenever I’m showing him something up in the office.
So after hitting the comic shop this morning I made my way over to Staples and found a suitable new chair with good lumbar support and a high enough back that I can actually lean back and rest my head on it.
However, the chair didn’t have a price tag on it, and while I was wandering around hoping to be noticed by an employee – one of the pitfalls of having devoted a significant portion of my life to the art of not being noticed is that, unsurprisingly, it’s sometimes difficult to get noticed – I found myself looking at the desks.
It’s been my intention to buy a different desk since the day that I bought the desk I had. My old desk was perfectly serviceable, but it was bought in haste back when I moved into my house as I needed a desk right now and it was the best one I could find.
I spotted an L-shaped desk that I rather liked, one that seemed ideally-suited to a dual monitor setup. I noticed that there was also a matching printer stand suitable for my large-format printer, as well as a matching bookcase.
So by the time I finally did get noticed I had resolved to buy the chair, the desk, and the printer stand and bookshelf.
After loading them up in the car – which proved less of a challenge than I’d expected – I found that I had no room for groceries, so I headed home and unloaded the car, discovering that the scrawny kid working at Staples was stronger than I am, as I struggled with lifting and carrying the desk much more than he did.
Accomplishing that, I went back out to do my grocery shopping, came home and ate lunch, and then set to work on dismantling the ungodly mess of cables and wires and moved the old desk into one of the other bedrooms.
As an aside, I have to say that I was amazed and delighted to discover that those “Moving Men” things – those little disks you put under heavy objects in order to slide said objects around with ease – work exactly as advertised. I bought the things when I moved into the house, but this was the first time I ever used them. Honestly, the fact that I was able to easily slide my heavy, metal desk into the other room with scarcely any effort was the highlight of my day. Sad, I know.
After some vacuuming and dusting it was time once again to do battle with my ancient nemesis: ready-to-assemble furniture.
The battle went about as well as can be expected, and lasted for hours. I have to say, though, that I’m surprised that it took as long as it did for me to start bleeding, and at least this time – unlike the time I assembled my old desk – I didn’t suffer any blows to the head.
After setting up the desk I set to work on the printer stand, then hooked everything back up, taking thed opportunity to make my usual half-assed attempt at trying to impose some kind of order on the mass of cables and wires. It’s at least a little better than it was, and the new arrangement means that the speaker wires aren’t all tangled up with the other wires and cables, so I’ve finally gotten rid of the incessant static that used to issue forth from my left speaker due to the interfence from the other wires. So that’s a plus.
After that I put the chair together. The bookshelf is going to have to wait for another day.
As for the old desk, eventually I’m going to set up Munin, my old computer, on it in the bedroom that I’m using as something of a library. Assuming I can figure out and resolve the weird power issues that Munin is having, at any rate.
That’s going to have to wait until I get my bonus or my Federal refund – whichever comes first – though, as I don’t have a spare monitor since I’m unwilling to give up the dual monitors on Hugin.
However, once I do get the additional funds I’ll be able to spare the monitor I’m using as my secondary on Hugin, as I’m going to finally bite the bullet and buy a Wacom Cintiq.
In any case, I’ll post some pictures of the new stuff tomorrow, and I may even write up that post I mentioned on Wednesday.
In the meantime, I’m not looking forward to how I’m going to feel tomorrow morning, as I’m already pretty sore from all the bending, kneeling, and contorting that I went through today.