Desk Diary 20210517
Has it really been 5 years since I wrote the last Desk Diary? Life at work and home has changed drastically - and so has my workspaces too. I'm still constantly on the look to optimize my workspace which involves experimenting with what I need - and looking at what I can do without.
I've been living in this apartment for the past few years now. It's literally a stone's throw away from work - not including the elevator wait, it's a 30 second run from door to door ;-)
The apartment is small so I don't have a single room dedicated for a workspace. Instead, I use half of our bedroom.
My Desk used to face the window. While I would get a nice view, the glare from outside made it difficult to see what was going on the monitor.
My desk is custom-built made from recycled ashiba - planks of wood that have been used as scaffolding on Japanese residential and retail construction sites. The legs are from an IKEA SKARSTA. I still use standing desks which has helped me manage my spinal hernia over the years.
The SKARSTA is only available in white so I used iron paint to paint it black and make it look like...iron ;-) No primer needed but if you are going to adjust the height often then the paint will chip off. The nets below the table were stolen from an IKEA BEKANT at work which helps manage cabling - which is in need of tidying as you can see ;-)
My main machine is the Macbook Air M1 which I take to and from work. I previously had one Mac at work and one at home but the overhead in managing two computers was just not worth the hassle - even with Dropbox, settings for apps just don't sync nicely to another computer.
Speakers are second-hand Bose Computer MusicMonitor - all scratched up which matches the table. I plug the speakers into the monitor so that I can get the sound to switch between Windows and Mac.
My gaming PC is on the desk which keeps Mirai warm. The PC is compact enough for me to take it to the lounge where I have more space for VR.
Manage to nab an NVIDIA 3080 - love the design.
The keyboard is the Keychron K3 although since I took the photo I switched to the Vinpok Taptek as I made too many mistakes on the Keychron - no fault of the Keychron - it's just the way I type I guess. Gaming mouse is the Aerox 3.
I'm not a fan of large ATX cases so I went for an ITX board - the Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO and the processor I chose was the Ryzen 5 3600 - decent for what I need.
The rest of my gaming rig specs are NVIDIA 3080 Founders Edition, MASTERAIR G100M RGB, Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB, Crucial P5 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD and Corsair SF600 -PLATINUM- 600W. The case is the open styled XTIA Xproto. I got the NZXT Kraken Z63 water cooler but felt it overkill for my needs so went for the mushroom MASTERAIR G100M RGB instead. Performance on Half-Life: Alyx is great on ultra settings.
If you think VR is cheesy, check out Half-Life: Alyx - it really sets the standard and shows us what's possible with VR. You should give it a whirl if you have the chance.
My VR headset is the Oculus Quest 2. I don't get decent quality with Air Link and the wire does not bother me that much. I use a vice to hang the headset and controllers from the table.
I'm still trying to figure out why I got so many wires below my table ;-)
I switched the monitor arm to the Kensington which has a small footprint.
My current Steam library.
Cuties Tomorrow and Monday Smart Doll.
Smart Doll Plus Valiant.
The PC is small so can be lugged to the lounge area where I dabble in gaming and VR.
The keyboard I use in the lounge when PC gaming is the Corsair K83 Wireless Entertainment Keyboard - convenient as I can type and control the cursor - but I personally don't have a great experience with the touchpad - the cursor seems to jerk all over the place. But I only use the keyboard for logging in and occasional searching. For games, I use the Xbox Core Controller.
Smart Doll's are like cats - they like to sit on warm appliances.
The view.