The Desk Potato!

(solarium tuberosum computare locus)

Are you a desk potato? Here are a few of the telltale signs to watch out for:

1. You're reading this page.
   Bad sign already. If you're reading this page it means you are doing some serious surfing into the far reaches of webscurity.

2. Time moves at a different rate for you.
   One minute for you can mean several hours for people in normal space. There is actually a technical reason for this. It is a temporal distortion field caused by excessive bogon flux eminating from the CRT.

3. You can remember the most obscure commands but not family birthdays.
   You have no trouble remembering that Ctrl-N launches a second netscape window, or that http://www.norsat.com/norsat/microsat/tuning.html will automatically tune your satellite receiver, but you are not sure what day your sister's birthday or your anniversary is.

4. You hope for rainy days.
   Rainy days mean that you won't be hassled about going outside and doing yard work. On a rainy day you can get in a good 16 - 20 hours or more of guilt free surfing!

5. You keep forgetting to capitalize people's names.
   Too many hours of writing email have hampered your ability to communicate with normal.people@realworld.earth.pl.

6. You keep your computer at the highest possible screen resolution.
   You couldn't stand the thought of having only one application on the screen, so you crank up that resolution so you can have two netscape windows, email, a source code, and your Microsat 150 satellite video all available at the same time!

7. Your subconscious can speak for you.
   You have the ability to repeat the phrases "I'll be right there", "just one minute more", "goodnight" and others without needing to trouble your conscious mind with either the question or the response.

8. You'll follow any Link just to see where it goes.
   In fact, you may have occasionally been tempted to click on a link which said "DON'T CLICK HERE".

9. You have Cable and Satellite TV on your computer.
   This qualifies you for the supreme rank of Spud Royale. The ultimate power surfer with all of the information that the internet, world, local TV, and satellite has to offer! News before it happens, pilots for shows that may never air, new shows days or weeks before anyone else.

10. Spelling is a lost art.
    You rely on a spell chequer sow much that you're sentences are awl spelled correctly but often don't make cents (without the speel checker you couldn't spell yur way out of a wet paper bag).

The ABU support team in Bellevue recently sent care packages of Starbuck's coffee, chocolate covered coffee beans, and Frangos to the North Carolina and Texas ABU teams. This is one NC engineer's [brilliant] account of how it was received....

Bruce,

I say, the care package you sent was a big hit here, thanks! Below is a chronological description of the care package consumption:

Sometime before Friday: The Care package arrives. I resist all temptation to open the package and consume an entire box of Frangos. Very impressive.

Friday 9:45 AM:
I arrive early to work and open the care package that was hidden under my desk. I 'm amazed at all the good stuff in side, but somewhat disappointed to find that there were two boxes of Frango (or what ever they are calling them now) chocolate mints: I could have eaten a box and nobody would have known. Oh well. I make a pot of coffee using the robust Yukon blend, and eat three or four chocolate covered expresso beans. I send a message to the group announcing the goodies.

10:00 AM:
The pot of coffee is gone and Erika, my manager, makes another, which of course I have to sample. All the items are a big hit with everybody so far, except the chocolate covered expresso beans, which are only popular with the real coffee fans (who absolutely love them). Not letting a good thing go to waste, I have a couple more, a mint or two, and start on my second cup of coffee. I notice Erika actually drank two cups from this pot, and I start to wonder how I could approach my manager about making sure she leaves enough coffee for the rest of the queue.

10:10 AM:
The pot of coffee is out again so Harvey makes another. I of course must sample the Cafe Verona blend and indulge in a few more chocolate covered expresso beans. Erika again drinks two more cups of coffee. I frown but say nothing and in my depression eat another Frango chocolate mint.

10:30 AM:
There has been a single cup of coffee left for some time, and not to let it go to waste, I drink it.

11:00 AM:
Kevin sees the empty coffee pot so he makes another, and then fills my cup under protest. Erika again drops by and fills her mug, and pilfers some chocolate covered espresso beans. For some strange reason, my typing speed has increased from, say, 25 WPM to 60 WPM,

11:45 AM:
For some (unknown) reason, I feel agitated. To bleed of all the excess energy coming from nowhere, I do 92 pushups while helping a University of Oregon grad student with Excel. Out the window I notice Erika is on her second lap running around the building. After all that exercise, I feel thirsty, so I drink another cup of coffee and for a snack down a few more chocolate covered expresso beans.

12:10 PM:
I now notice that there are people dropping by my cube that usually don't, in fact, I've seen the entire queue come by and sample some goodies. I try to chat, but for some reason people seem interested in just sampling the various yummy Frangos and the chocolate-almond mocha's. Erika stops by for more coffee and we exchange unpleasantries. I don't recall the exact conversation, but I do remember the phrases "useless stingy middle-manager" and "whinny engineer". For therapy I eat a few more chocolate covered expresso beans and try to look up how to make a car bomb on Internet's rec.pursuits.anarchy.

1:00 PM:
I skip lunch, but do drink another cup of coffee and make another pot by request. Getting bored, I pick up the Charlotte phone book and start dialing people at random, asking if they need any help with Excel. Erika comes by for another cup of coffee. I miss her with the stapler, but she wings me a good one with one of those cube coat hooks.

2:00 PM:
The entire queue, I believe, is wired with caffeine and sugar. I, being a Seattle native, am immune to these effects. Mike is 10 minutes into teaching his 2nd impromptu aerobics class. It is very interesting to watch engineers do jumping jacks while holding their Aspect phones.

3:00 PM:
Harvey has built a small shrine for the coffee pot in the empty cube next to me, and the low humming has started to get on my nerves: "Huummmmm Hummmm Hummmmm ." Some people, I swear.

3:30 PM:
The Starbucks Guatemalan blend has been polished off, and a fight has ensued in the hallway on whether to ration the chocolate covered expresso beans for later or continue with the consumption. Hastily, I build a laser pistol out of my MS Mouse card and the power supply from my Mac II CI, and the fight quickly ends. Mike shows up and drags the unconscious rebels back to their desks.

4:00 PM:
If I could just talk to the cleaning people into lending me some Drain-O, I can complete the car bomb before Erika goes home. The coffee pot is empty again so of course I make another. Nice guy that I am, I drink a cup to sample the brew and deem it Most Excellent. I have a couple of Frango mints to compensate for skipping lunch.

5:00 PM:
Kevin informs me that Erika has been slipping by in camouflage spandex to siphon off coffee with a long straw. I thank him for this valuable intelligence information. In a time-honored Seattle Male Bonding Ritual, we eat 5 chocolate covered expresso beans each.

6:15 PM:
I send mail to the entire queue announcing a fresh pot of coffee (after drinking a cup first) and await Erika to sneak by with glee.

6:20 PM:
I caught Erika red-handed. I dodge the pen she tried to stab me with, and landed a good blow to her left kidney. As she is crawling back to her desk I hear her mumble something about "time to write a review".

6:25 PM:
I panic and in desperation, log on to the mail server with a VTP connection. I hack my way into Erika's Xenix mail spool file and quickly write, in the Xenix Borne C Shell, a program that will send an email message every 30 seconds using Erika's email name. I address it to the only people on campus at the time, Corporate Security, and title the message, "I Want Bill Gate's Love Child!". I "cc" ingate!ALL@ibm.com and ingate!JScully@apple.com just for giggles and grins.

7:30 PM:
Two security guards show up, one drags Erika away and the other starts packing her desk. I laugh hideously at her shrieks of protest, and in celebration jump in my girl friend's sports car and drive around the Charlotte Coliseum several times at 120 MPH.

8:00 PM:
I'm feeling really tired. Kevin points out that there still an entire box of chocolate covered expresso beans left. Not wanting them to go to waste, we each eat half a box.

9:00 PM:
After successfully typing my 3rd impromptu novel while helping Betty from Orlando with a data consolidation, Mike announces that the queue has been shut off. After the phone call I drink 14 complementary beers, and for some unknown reason, still couldn't get to sleep that night.