Show me your pieces of office flair

[FireHazard51 | 2,055]

If you work in an office, show me your pieces of flair that you have.

I use to have a real one for two years before it died from my work moving my office and it not liking the change.

 

My trinkets....

 

The start of my LEGO construction site.  I have a dump truck and crane that I need to take from the house to the office.  My "company" is very construction related so there are just a handful who also have LEGO sets on display but I'm going to blow them all way with 1/3 of my desk just going a LEGO scene.  

[RH | 4,992]

Ah, great topic.  I work from home but when I do have gigs that require me to come to an office, I have a few items that always go with me.

 

Artoo was one of my favorite figures as a kid.  He’s missing his “toothbrush” (aka pop out sensor) but I’ve had him for nearly 40 years and he’s earned a spot on my desk. To me, this little guy is priceless.

The paper crane came from a Play Asia order years ago.  I’m not sure why I keep it.  I just like it!

Last, that circuit board thing.  I use to work for a company that manufactured medical gas equipment like air compressor systems, vacuums, manifolds, outlets, etc. (Oh, sexy, I know!) We were the “Mercedes” of the industry and my boss, the engineering manager, liked to design and build components for our equipment when spec hardware wouldn’t meet our desired needs.  So, this board was a prototype board of one of three different types that would go within our massive compressor controller units.  I helped design it a little, and I wrote the entire networking/building automation stack from the ground up. 

You have to understand, I was under him because an IT dev is a hard position to fit in a mid-sized company that needs just one person to write internal business software, but since my boss was in charge of engineering, one day he dropped a 1,200 page BACNet spec on my desk and said “we need to implement this into our controller boards, and I want you to write the software.” Um… ok!

I was actually excited about it because career software writers often move away from low level C code and for the first time I was getting to write software directly on top of hardware that barely had a kernel.

Anyway, I loved the project, I did better than I hoped and the whole experience showed that a good manager can see the potential in his wirkers and will push them beyond their limits to achieve great things… even if it is writing building automation code in lame compressor equipment.

So yes, it’s a subdued piece of equipment that has been turned into a coffee cup holder, but it reminds me of one of the best times in my career and an accomplishment I’m most proud of.  I had to read that 1,200 page document nearly cover-to-cover and then implement it in code. I would have never thought I could have done that previously, but I did it and it was a watershed moment in my professional confidence.

Sorry for the long story, but it’s one I don’t often get to tell and that coffee cup holder is a reminder of that time in my career, every single day.

Oh, and the sticker is from my daughter.  She had a brave moment at the dentist once when she was little.  Instead of using it, she wanted to give it to me. Giving is something we try to cultivate in our kids, so I’m proud of moments like that and I cherish little gifts like this, even if it is putting a pink Brave sticker on my coffee stand.

Edited August 19, 2022 by RH

[FireHazard51 | 2,055]

19 minutes ago, RH said:

Last, that circuit board thing.  I use to work for a company that manufactured medical gas equipment like air compressor systems, vacuums, manifolds, outlets, etc. (Oh, sexy, I know!) We were the “Mercedes” of the industry and my boss, the engineering manager, liked to design and build components for our equipment when spec hardware wouldn’t meet our desired needs.  So, this board was a prototype board of one of three different types that would go within our massive compressor controller units.  I helped design it a little, and I wrote the entire networking/building automation stack from the ground up. 

You have to understand, I was under him because an IT dev is a hard position to fit in a mid-sized company that needs just one person to write internal business software, but since my boss was in charge of engineering, one day he dropped a 1,200 page BACNet spec on my desk and said “we need to implement this into our controller boards, and I want you to write the software.” Um… ok!

I was actually excited about it because career software writers often move away from low level C code and for the first time I was getting to write software directly on top of hardware that barely had a kernel.

Anyway, I loved the project, I did better than I hoped and the whole experience showed that a good manager can see the potential in his wirkers and will push them beyond their limits to achieve great things… even if it is writing building automation code in lame compressor equipment.

So yes, it’s a subdued piece of equipment that has been turned into a coffee cup holder, but it reminds me of one of the best times in my career and an accomplishment I’m most proud of.  I had to read that 1,200 page document nearly cover-to-cover and then implement it in code. I would have never thought I could have done that previously, but I did it and it was a watershed moment in my professional confidence.

Sorry for the long story, but it’s one I don’t often get to tell and that coffee cup holder is a reminder of that time in my career, every single day.

Oh, and the sticker is from my daughter.  She had a brave moment at the dentist once when she was little.  Instead of using it, she wanted to give it to me. Giving is something we try to cultivate in our kids, so I’m proud of moments like that and I cherish little gifts like this, even if it is putting a pink Brave sticker on my coffee stand.

That is awesome to have a physical reminder of such an event(s).  Not often you get things like that.  I love that you made it into a drink coaster so you can use it.

[RH | 4,992]

10 minutes ago, FireHazard51 said:

That is awesome to have a physical reminder of such an event(s).  Not often you get things like that.  I love that you made it into a drink coaster so you can use it.

I'd like to say it was my idea, but there were three of us on the team designing the computer systems.  One of them made a cup/coffee stand and we all did it.  Might boss might have even made one as well.  Lol.  We had stacks and stacks of these things and it was a way to not waste at least a couple of them.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,608]

I'm not allowed to take pictures, but it's pretty boring.  Pictures of the family, artwork from the family, a poster for 2011 Montana football, and the Sports page from last year when Montana beat #20 Washington.

Most of my walls are empty, and most of my desk(s) are random office shit.

[The Count | 537]

[Estil | 1,265]

I was never important enough to have or have a real need for an office   Or even a daily planner...my late wife kept a daily planner regularly though because she did Overeaters Anonymous meetings online and other sorts of things.  I did half jokingly lament how she must be really important to have a real need for such a thing and I didn't...even when I was working all I need to know what time my shifts were and that was it.