Writing this is daunting, there’s no two ways around it. We’ve featured some downright palaces in this column. Monuments to nerdom and awesome kick-butt-and-take-names efficiency. The only way to top some of you people would be to have a live miniature dragon snoozing on a doggie bed in the corner. (Note to self: Check Internet for mini-dragon breeders.)
My job here at Brockport is officially called “Web Writer” but its morphed quite a bit since I arrived here in July of 2009. I write for the web, handle social media, shoot and edit video with the help of a team of student interns and do various and sundry other marketing and PR tasks. It’s a journey I wouldn’t have expected when I started here, but a very enjoyable one. And similarly, the location of my actual workspace has had its nomadic moments as well. I started in a cube, moved to another cube on a different floor, and finally into this office. It’s the first time in my nearly 16 years in the workforce I’ve had an office with a door. And oddly, I never close it.
- My hydration station. My girlfriend gave me the Ugly Doll coffee mug for Christmas. Those aren’t coffee drips on it. Those are tears. Joyful, coffee-filled tears.
- I have a TV in my office. It doesn’t get too much use, but I do like to leave it on all day during March Madness, as a “public service” to my colleagues. Really, its all about taking care of them.
- One of my colleagues hung this on my desk after my beloved Steelers somehow lost to that Tebow joker.
- For a SUNY-wide video project in 2010, SUNY sent every campus a beachball in order to make a video that looked like we were passing the ball from campus to campus. I kept it. It’s a great stress reliever and it makes a lovely noise banging against my coworker’s office wall. The board in the background is where I keep a running tab of video project ideas.
- This is something my daughter painted for me when she was 3. I heart the heck out of it. Her teacher wrote “This is for my Dad. It’s a dragon. It’s a he dragon.” Well, duh.
- Everyone needs a talking Donald Rumsfeld in their lives. Press a button on his back and he spouts one of 20-something phrases, some of the great blather he spouted during his nonsensical time as Secretary of Defense. “Known knowns,” “Calibrate Me on this, Dick” all the hits. The patter is funny and soothing. And next to Don is The Black Knight from Monty Python fame. You can rip his arms and legs off. Great stress reliever.
- I’ve got a Macbook Pro I use for work, and I hook it up to a Dell monitor. Downstairs in what is my old cube, we’ve got a 27” iMac for my interns and video editing.