S. Worthen | Weblog

When I first moved into this place, over two years ago, one of the first things I needed was a desk. We live in a fully-furnished apartment, which means we not only need to juggle our own belongings but all the ones which come with the place as well. The second bedroom has a full double bed in it, which is lovely and comfortable for desks, but made fitting in a desk rather awkward - and one of the major reasons to have a second bedroom, you understand, is so that I can have a study. I requisitioned the narrow hall table, which, with some further reconfiguration, I could make comfortably fit in the study. It's narrow, but wide enough, and it worked fine as a desk.

When we have houseguests, however, I need an alternate desk. When that happens - as it does regularly - I use my wonderful Levenger lapdesk, given to me many years ago by my grandmother. It's spacious and comfortable, and even with my computer on it, there's plenty of room for papers. It's not great on my back since I have to work on the sofa, but it'll do.

We have a wireless network in this apartment. It was working just fine until about a year or so ago, when its range became more erratic. During the daytime, I had internet access in my study, but by evening, its radius had narrowed to the living room, and so I had to move along with it. It's not entirely surprising there are wireless internet issues here actually - from here, I can detect something like 30 networks, plus there are who-knows-how-many bluetooth devices sharing the same radio specturm. But it was inconvenient.

At some point in the past few months, the usefulness of the wireless network had narrowed still further. I can no longer get reliable reception in the study at all. The lap desk is nice as a supplement, but now that I nearly always need to be in the living room, I've shifted to the dining table for regular work. This is still useful for when houseguests come (as printperson has today, in fact), but less satisfying as a long-term solution. The study is still useful for non-internet based work and for storing work-related materials, but most of the time these days, I really do need net access and the ability to do work simultaneously. It's not ideal.