My Worlkstation

This may be one of the most hotly anticipated posts ever, in the entire history of teh interwebs. Here I reveal the exact design of what I lovingly refer to as my worlkstation.

There are a few things I should point out at the beginning of this discussion:

1. I am very lucky in that I work from home full-time. This means that I have a lot of flexibility as far as worlking is concerned (doesn't bother co-workers, cause any kind of distraction, that sort of thing).
2. I'm going for economy, not style. That means I haven't put a lot of effort into making this worlkspace "nice" because quite frankly, I wasn't sure if it would last. If I find myself workling 6 months from now I'll probably consider making some aesthetic upgrades. For now, I'm going the cheap route.
3. You may not criticize my worlkspace in any way, shape or form. I don't just mean you can't post critical comments because this is my blog. You're not allowed to even think badly about it. See rule #2 for additional details.
   

So, okay. With those disclaimers, let's get into the nitty-gritty of this contraption. Click here to read the entire post.

First of all, I should point out once more that I didn't come up with this idea by myself (although I did coin the phrases "worlking" and "worlkstation." (If you do a Google search for "worlking" you'll find Stairway on the 3rd page amidst a sea of links to pages with typos. Searching for "worlkstation" on the other hand, finds me in the fourth slot on the first page... infamy, here I come!) Update: Only two days after I originally wrote that, I find it is no longer true. I appear to be slipping in the ranks. Serves me right for jokingly caring about it in the first place...

I originally heard about the concept of a treadmill desk on a blurb on NPR, and promptly forgot about it for months. After reading a random article on CNN.com about a wife/mother who decided to get in shape and went from being morbidly obese to being a marathon runner, I remembered the treadmill desk and looked it up. I haven't purchased any Plexiglas, but I put together something that works well for me. I'm sure for enough money you could get something pretty nifty and mobile. I wanted something that allowed me to worlk but still buy, y'know, food and all that.

I checked out the Want Ads that my company hosts, and the very first entry in the 'Sporting Goods' category was a treadmill for $100. That seemed like a pretty good deal and I snapped it up. As I mentioned before, I work from home so I was able to utilize some shelving that I put up without much hassle - I just put my monitor on the top shelf, my laptop and docking station on the bottom, pointed the treadmill at it, and started worlking. Voilà!

Well, I guess there was a little more to it than that. I also put together a platform for my keyboard, mouse, and ridiculously over sized Cubs insulated sippy-cup (see photo below). I don't have a wide-angle lens for my camera (more accurately, I don't even have a camera that takes different kinds of lenses) so it was hard to get a decent shot of the workstation - I can't get far enough away to get everything in one shot so it's not the best perspective. Still, you get the idea. It's definitely rough, but it does the trick, as they say. It certainly does that. Enjoy the photos!