![\"\"](\"http://kevinomclaughlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_5795-300x200.jpg\" "\\"New")
If you haven\’t read An Odd Story About a Desk, go take a peek if you want. The short version: through one of those random coincidences that are just too strange to be fiction, I just bought back my old childhood/teenager desk from a secondhand store – twenty years and over a hundred miles distant from when my mother dropped it, broken, at a dump. This was the desk I typed my first short story on, using my mother\’s old manual typewriter at age seven. Now, it\’s again going to be my primary writing station.
I moved the desk into the corner of the front room yesterday. Today, I got my old PC moved in. It\’s an old Gateway I bought in 2005. The hard drive failed last autumn, which prompted me to get my current main desktop (actually, built the current one from new parts myself). But I kept the rest of the computer sitting around. So I yanked an old hard drive out of another machine, put it in that one, loaded Ubuntu, and it\’s ready for action. It doesn\’t scream like my big desktop, but then – it doesn\’t need to, for writing. And the fans are quieter!
The monitor is a little smaller than the 24\” monster I\’m used to, but it\’s still pretty good. Just picked it up secondhand today. Got all the pieces put together this afternoon, tested it – and I\’m up and running! OpenOffice came preinstalled with the operating system, which is what I usually use for typing anyway.
One of the best things about this desk and computer is one of the oddest: no internet. While I\’m there, I\’m actually going to be stuck working. No surfing, reading emails, checking blogs. Just writing.
The kids are in bed. I\’ll be leaving this desk shortly to get to work. Just wanted to show off for a minute before I broke in the new workplace!
Hey Kevin,
Looks sharp! Not much extra space, though.
I’m curious about this Ubuntu that you referenced. I looked at their website … honestly, I never knew they existed. It looks like a pretty good system, though.
What are the pros and cons?
My laptop runs on Vista, and it works just fine. But if Ubuntu is better….
Hey Kevin,
Looks sharp! Not much extra space, though.
I’m curious about this Ubuntu that you referenced. I looked at their website … honestly, I never knew they existed. It looks like a pretty good system, though.
What are the pros and cons?
My laptop runs on Vista, and it works just fine. But if Ubuntu is better….
Thank you for your service to our country, Kevin.
Thank you for your service to our country, Kevin.
First off, you’re welcome. =)
Now, about the desk… It’s tight. That’s a bookcase right behind the chair, and it’s a bit of a squeeze to get in. And the back of the chair just comes in at the small of my back – lower back support without being “comfy”. It’s as distraction free a space as I can get right now though.
Ubuntu is a linux build that has a visual interface. A lot of linux builds use command-line interfaces, things with learning curves too steep to interest me right now. Ubuntu is pretty easy in comparison. I loaded the netbook version, which is if anything even easier – it has hotkeys on the desktop for main functions. Most of them I can’t use because there’s no internet connection (yet – might install a wireless card at some point, we’ll see). But I can turn the machine on (takes a tenth the time my super-strong WinXP computer needs), click an icon to bring up recent files, click the current work project, and I’m off.
I probably would have installed Windows, but I was having issues on the install, so I said the heck with it and just loaded Linux instead. I use OpenOffice on either platform, so no real hardship involved there.
First off, you’re welcome. =)
Now, about the desk… It’s tight. That’s a bookcase right behind the chair, and it’s a bit of a squeeze to get in. And the back of the chair just comes in at the small of my back – lower back support without being “comfy”. It’s as distraction free a space as I can get right now though.
Ubuntu is a linux build that has a visual interface. A lot of linux builds use command-line interfaces, things with learning curves too steep to interest me right now. Ubuntu is pretty easy in comparison. I loaded the netbook version, which is if anything even easier – it has hotkeys on the desktop for main functions. Most of them I can’t use because there’s no internet connection (yet – might install a wireless card at some point, we’ll see). But I can turn the machine on (takes a tenth the time my super-strong WinXP computer needs), click an icon to bring up recent files, click the current work project, and I’m off.
I probably would have installed Windows, but I was having issues on the install, so I said the heck with it and just loaded Linux instead. I use OpenOffice on either platform, so no real hardship involved there.
Great story! I would like to hear more details on how your desk managed to come back to you after getting tossed in the dump.
Great story! I would like to hear more details on how your desk managed to come back to you after getting tossed in the dump.