High Tech Redneck Woman » office

For Sale: Computer Desk

Becky — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:37:54 +0000

Since I now have my new desk, I no longer need my old one. So, I’m selling it. I put up a listing for it on Craig’s List. This is the first time I’ve done anything on Craig’s List. Hopefully someone will be interested. I’m also planning on putting up a flier down by the mailboxes in my apartment building. I’ve seen stuff up before, so I think it will be okay.

So, if there is anyone out there reading this in the Fargo/Moorhead area that is interested in the desk (or know someone who is), leave me a comment or reply to the posting on Craig’s List. I’m starting out at $60 for it, but I’m willing to negotiate.

Miss Independent

Becky — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:11:20 +0000

Times like today are where being an independent woman could get me in trouble. LOL My desk was finally delivered this morning. Unfortunately, due to its size, the delivery guy wouldn’t bring it up to my apartment (on the 3rd floor). He delivered it to my garage, leaving ME to find a way to get the monstrosity up to my apartment.

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My sister is coming up this weekend to help me put the desk together (and I’m assuming do some shopping too). I could have left the desk in the garage until Friday nite or Saturday morning and brought it up with her help. But noooooo. I didn’t want to leave it in the garage that long. So I decided to bring it up on my lunch break. Due to the size of the box (look over to the left … and YES, it is a filthy box) which I believe is larger than my kitchen table (or pretty damn close) … I decided to bring it up in pieces. I brought up the biggest/heaviest pieces to make the box a more manageable weight. When I thought I had it down to a manageable weight, I decided to drag the box in. Well … I figured a little wrong. I should have taken out a few more pieces before trying to bring up the box. Have you seen the episode of Big Bang Theory where the guys bring her furniture to her apartment? I had that thought when I got to the steps. LOL But I got it up.

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It doesn’t look too scary for putting it together. There aren’t as many pieces as I thought there might be (check out the image to the left). And unlike the shelf I bought recently, it’s put together with actual metal hardware. The shelf is held together with plastic hardware. I’d put it together myself tonite, but I know it would be too heavy for me to move around by myself. So for that, I’ll actually wait for when my sister is here, and she can help me (if she’s recovered from her 8 games of bowling by then). But I am going to put together the drawers tonite. Those can be put together separately from the rest of the desk, and they’re small. They won’t take up too much space once they’re put together. I believe there are 2 small and 1 big drawer.

And to think … it’s gonna end up looking like this …

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It should be here tomorrow

Becky — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:43:47 +0000

Last week (on Tuesday), I decided to get the desk that I had been contemplating getting. It was on sale at Office Max for $119.99 (regularly $199.99). Since I was considering getting it when it was full price, I would have been a fool not to get it $80 cheaper.

Since it was furniture, the store didn’t have it in stock. They put in the order and were going to have it delivered directly to me. I called them on Friday to see what my order status was. I was told that it was actually out for delivery … that it should be delivered between 8am and 5pm, and if it wasn’t, to call them back. Well, 5pm came and went … no desk. So I called them back. They put a trace on it. Since I really didn’t expect it until this week, I wasn’t too upset. Although, I would have liked to have gotten it so that I could have set it up over the weekend. Now I have to wait until this coming weekend to put it together (if I can get some help … Lisa?? Robin??).

I got a call this morning from the shipper asking if it would be okay to deliver it tomorrow. Kinda surprised that they called. She told me that they had attempted delivery on Friday at 10:05am. ‘scuse me? No you didn’t. I work from home. I was home ALL DAY. No one tried to deliver anything. I should have asked her why they weren’t trying to deliver today if they had tried on Friday. Oh well. I don’t plan on putting it together ’til Saturday anyways. I have a feeling that I’m gonna need more than a couple hours to get it together.

I can’t wait until I have that thing set up. I just hope I didn’t overestimate the size of it (I did measure, and I don’t *think* it will be an issue). To have all of my computers fit on the desk will be nice. I can get rid of the lappy power cord stretched across the room. And to get my printer off of the floor … that’ll be nice too.

I wanna live in a more high tech town

Becky — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:52:52 +0000

A while back, I decided to join Twitter. Now that I have, I’m completely hooked. I even downloaded Twhirl after Mace suggested I use a Twitter client and after seeing Christine posting from it. I’ve been using it ever since. Makes it much easier to keep up with the new ‘tweets’.

I’ve been starting to follow more and more people. It makes it easier to follow conversations when they’re not one sided … LOL. And it jut so happens that most of the people I follow live in Houston. It’s all Christine’s fault. I started following her and Mace and started adding people she follows. Since she lives in Houston, she’s bound to follow people from there. Following their conversations makes me wish it was more techie up here. I know that there are geeks up here, but I just don’t know where to find them. I’ve done some searching from time to time for blogs from the area. But the only one I know of at this point is Mace. Maybe he knows of more. Or maybe I just need to get out of my apartment and start hanging out at coffee shops. LOL

But even if there a lot of geeks up here, I don’t think they’re as social as they are down in Houston. I was really jealous reading about the Twitter meetup they were having this past weekend. I would love to go to something like that. To meet people who blog and have Twitter accounts and are geeky like me. But until I find people like that up here, I’m living vicariously through them.

What really makes me jealous about following all these Houston Twitterers (is that a word? LOL) is their talk of coworking. OMG … I would love to be able to do that. While I don’t work for myself, I do work from home. I could really work anywhere that had wifi (I’d need a power source too because I have an external hard drive with my work laptop that would need to be plugged in). Being able to do that would solve my space issue and it would give me some much needed social contact. I did find out that there are people doing the coworking thing in Minneapolis, but that’s too far away for me. Maybe I should try to get something like that going up here. But I don’t know if there are others who would be interested in it. And I’m not the kind of person who would be good at getting it going. I’m too much of a follower.

I know … I sound like I hate living up here. Well … only during the winter. Other than that, it’s not a bad place. That’s why I still live here (that and ‘cuz my family and friends are here). But I do wish I knew more techy/geeky people. I wish I new the people whose blogs and Twitter feeds I read. So … if you live up around here (the Fargo, ND area) and you happen to be reading this and have a blog or Twitter feed, leave a comment with a link to it.

Now I have to go. It’s almost time for General Hospital (I love having SoapNet on digital cable …

I need more space

Becky — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:48:47 +0000

At the beginning of the year, I started working from home. From day one I’ve known that my apartment isn’t big enough. It was fine when I left to go to work. But now that I work from home … and now that I have my laptop … it’s just not big enough. I do have a desk. It used to work out just fine. But that was back when all I had was my desktop. Now I have my desktop, my work laptop 17 inch), and my personal laptop (15.4 inch). I’m using the monitor and mouse and keyboard for the desktop with my work laptop (now that I FINALLY have my KVM switch). That setup works just fine. I could use just a touch more space for papers and such, but all in all, it’s fine. But that leaves my lappy floating around the living room. I had it on the coffee table for a while. But it’s not the best spot for it. I moved it to the kitchen table this weekend. It works pretty good there … especially since I generally don’t eat at the table. I did for a while, but I usually end up on the couch, using the coffee table. The only problem with having the lappy on the table is that the power cord is draped across the room from my desk to the table. Granted, my apartment isn’t that big and it’s not that far from the desk to the table. But still. If I’m not paying attention and I’m dragging my feet … not gonna be good for the lappy.

What I really wish I had was a separate room to set up as an office. If I had a 2 bedroom apartment, that would be perfect (even better if I had a house … but that’s not gonna happen for at least a couple years … although, it is a goal I’m starting to save up for). I could probably afford it too, as long as I didn’t look at the new buildings that have popped up on the south end of town. But I really like the location that I’m at now. Nice and close to the grocery store and gas station. Only a couple blocks south of 13th Ave and I-29. A really good location. I did look at the property management’s website to see if there were any open 2 bedroom apartment in this building on the one across the way, but nothing. So it looks like I’m stuck here for a while longer … either until I have enough saved up to start house hunting or until I go completely bonkers from being stuck in a 1 bedroom apartment nite and day … LOL. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

The only real option I have left is to get a bigger desk. But I can’t go all crazy on that. I do have a limited amount of space. I looked at some desks at Office Max this weekend when I went in to look for a new keyboard. I found a couple that I liked. Both are corner desks. Currently, my desk isn’t in a corner. And putting in a corner would mean that I would have to move the kitchen table, and the table doesn’t work anywhere other than where it currently is (in the corner). But the one I am seriously considering would work where my desk currently is. It wouldn’t stick out too much. It’s the Vantage Collection Corner Desk. And apparently it’s one of the ones on sale this week …

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Now that I know it’s on sale (hopefully it’s on sale at the store and not just online), I need to seriously consider if I want to get it or not. I just don’t know. I don’t wanna settle. But I’m not sure how long I can handle my current setup. Good thing I still have most of my tax refund left.