Desk drives

Now added: zebra van, tree and monkey, safari car, elephant, and more. See previous version here.

I'm going to have to explain this zoo diorama on my work desk. On my birthday, one of my co-workers, GR, bought me a box of plastic Japanese toys. They're part of a set that, when put together, make up a mini zoo. Since three other co-workers have also had birthdays in the last month, GR went out and bought other parts of the same set. We've been putting the whole thing together on my desk.

My desk at work is 6 feet wide and probably three feet deep. Until I put the diorama together, the only things on it were my keyboard, monitor, and Wacom tablet. The funny thing is my desk at home is a junk pile. Since I spend more time at work than I do at home on most days, I guess it's not such a funny thing.

Why the caged lion sings

This is the mini zoo diorama on my desk at work. I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the duck in the foreground is only half an inch tall in real life.

Thirty. Something.

Today was my 30th birthday. My friends and family asked me if I did anything special today. Below is a list of what I did; you can decide if anything is particularly special.

• Woke up, watered the orchid, fed the cat, took a shower, put on blue jeans and my third-favorite t-shirt and a pair of Converse All-Stars.
• Walked to the office.
• Left my cellphone at my desk. Went to the kitchen.
• Got a bowl of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes with 99%-fat-free milk.
• Returned to my desk and discovered that I'd missed three phone calls.
• Sat and worked for exactly three hours straight. Was briefly interrupted by a phone call from CT, one of my best friends from high school, calling to wish me a happy birthday. I wished that I could have spent a whole hour talking, but I couldn't due to impending deadline.
• Went to lunch with co-workers. One of them bought me a sandwich and a chocolate cookie at 'Wichcraft.
• Drank a bottle of Sprite.
• Had a conversation with co-workers about banana split sundaes, gay shoe salesmen, and American Gladiators.
• Attended a meeting.
• Worked until 6:45 PM.
• Took the F train to 14th Street. Met Sarah. Got on the PATH train toward New Jersey.
• Met some church friends at their home in Jersey City.
• Ate pizza and boneless buffalo wings from Domino's.
• Had a discussion about the intersection of work and faith in light of the redemptive nature of the death and resurrection of Jesus, among other light topics of conversation.
• Was surprised by sneaky appearance of three-candled birthday cake.
• Ate cake.
• Took the PATH train back to New York. Got out of the PATH station and decided to walk home instead of taking the subway. Saw about nine people walking dogs along the way. Noticed that there is a record store in the West Village called Bleecker Bob's Records. Made mental note to check it out some time this week.
• Got back home.
• Read and responded to e-mails. Overheard music by The National on the television. Made mental note to buy their new album, Boxer.
• Petted and fed cat.
• Took out trash.
• Wrote this blog post.

Late night

No real blog post tonight -- I'm still at work, and it's 11:18 PM. Besides, the only thing worth blogging about today is the fact that there's nothing worth blogging about.