Check out my new office
So I moved and finally have the internet setup. I was expecting it to be much faster, but the wi-fi connection wasn’t working so I had to get a wire run in. So here it is, not huge but anything bigger would be a waste of space!
February 6th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Your office is way bigger than mine. And I can see that your can of coke is ready for you :-)
February 6th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Is that deodorant by your can of coke, money, and cell phone? :P
It’s so nice and clean though. My desk has all kinds of stuff on it because I have no room for it anywhere else. Just a straight desk like that looks nice.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:51 am
LOL yes, it’s deodorant. I’m still unpacking and for whatever reason that ended up on my desk and hasn’t made it’s way out yet =P
February 6th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I am thinking you are just too clean and organized…whats your secret???
February 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
crap someone already commented on the deoderant
February 6th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
That is tooooooooo funny. Well least the desk will be deodorized lol. Nice and neat, you should see mine.
Now be honest how long will that stay that way? :)
Barbara
February 6th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I just thought you must live at your computer, so you put your deodorant there so you wouldn’t smell bad between showers. :) hehe
February 7th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
This is the first online office I’ve got a glimpse of, thanks for sharing; description of the cadgets will top it for me. Lol
February 9th, 2008 at 2:04 am
LOL, everyone is so focus on the deodorant, coke, money, and phone. I personally thought the can of coke was the most obvious of the group of random objects in the foreground. That could just be because I am familiar with Tim’s loyalty to the coca-cola brand.
I think perhaps Tim was really trying to teach us a valuable lesson about photography and marketing with this picture (whether he knows it or not); namely just how important the foreground is to an image. As we can see from this image, the foreground of an image can really add a lot to the background, or even overshadow your background. Those objects in the foreground of Tim’s photograph were very small and yet they drew everyone’s focus, because our eyes are naturally drawn first to the foreground. No one would have noticed them if they were in the background. While the background is the hub of an image, the little subtleties really come out in the foreground. For that reason, the foreground can really make or break an image. Accordingly, the foreground of your image should always compliment the background. In this case Tim’s use of the foreground provided us with an insight into his personality and preferences, but may not have complimented the background quite as he expected.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:31 am
@jon
It is hard to evaluate this particular photograph using the principles of any one composition rule because it does not strictly adhere to any particular established compositional trend in photography. I would say that your evaluation of the photograph based tim’s use of deph of field brings up some relevant points from within the forground/background relationship. However, no one object in this photograph helps guide the eye from the foreground to the background, therefore the viewers eye jumps from object to object trying to make sense of the randomness of it all. As a result, the very first thing that I noticed was not the items on the desk but rahter the hook on the closet door.
I believe this picture was meant to be more of a candid snapshot than an exercise in aesthetics. The real beauty here lies in the intent of our blogger and his use of mixed media to convey excitement about his relocation. As I was taking it in I had a real sense that although tim is forging a new frontier for himself and his family, he would not be leaving behind those familiar tokens which have carried him so far. In this way, coca-cola and deodorant become much more than trivial antidotes casually observed on his desk, they are the items that define him as a husband and a father.
February 11th, 2008 at 8:13 am
I think the things on the desk are noticeable because the rest of the room is so clean and neat. Oh and by the way, there are now boxes and a dirty plate and cup from breakfast this morning. Oh and a batteries and wires in a mess as I was helping my brother in law with his computer last night, and I was trying to find the right wire to plug my monitor into his old school monitor port (my monitor is DVI)
February 11th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Jeremy your comment sounds very thoughtful and all, but your logic does not seem all that sound. First I don’t think it is correct to say that someone is defined as a husband and father based on “trivial antidotes” since trivia is by its very nature ,well trivial, and of little or no significance. So, you have kind of projected an oxymoronic tone into your entire paragraph just by making that last statement. Also, you failed to define any compositional trends in photography, and have resorted to simply calling the photograph randomness. While you may very well be right that the photograph was intended as little more than random, there may actually be more axiological value in this image than you give credence to. If we examine the photograph from the perspective of the diagonal rule you will likely notice that those hooks on the closet door (which you noticed first in the photograph) lie on a nearly perfect diagonal to the three main “random” objects on the desk, and accordingly guide your eyes right down to the coke, deodorant, and phone; which define the three diagonals in this image. So the photograph is indeed of ontological value on many levels, whether or not it conforms to any of your established compositional trends. Although, I must admit I did like the metaphor of Tim forging a new frontier and bringing the familiar with him, that was good.
February 11th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
The commonplace nature of cola-cola and deodorant, two of the most familiar household goods in America, may cause some to attribute their appearance in tim’s snapshot as a trivial matter. After all, this picture was taken in order to provide a simple glimpse into tim’s new office and under these casual circumstances it should come as no surprise that casual items should also appear.
Any dedicated reader of this blog knows that tim linden is a man in perpetual transition. I believe this entry was meant to do much more than share yet another layer of change in his life, but rather to define where he stands in the mist of his traversing. This blog post is, in effect, tim’s declaration to the world that he is in fact “doing well”. Anyone who claims to know tim, after all, understands that he would never truly be well if he was deprived the use of his two most trusted substances. In this way, coca-cola and deodorant become the proverbial child’s teddy bear, those transitional objects which become constants in times of uncertainty and promote a sense of safety and comfort.
When we evaluate the snapshot on these grounds we find that the overall message does not chiefly rely on the rules of composition, but rather on the presence of those objects which drive tim linden. Even a viewer with little background information about tim would be compelled to ponder the symbolic significance of this visual: the coca-cola and deodorant are the only objects of unique character featured in an otherwise plain room. In fact, they are showcased upon a computer desk, the very basis of tim’s livelihood.
February 12th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I don´t have an office, all I need is my laptop :)