Show us where you stand...or sit...

[balon!]

Luci, is that mason jar of river stone? Quoi?

[Cameraman Jenn]

Now THAT'S a desk!!!!!

[balon!]

I love the random pennies scatered all over the place! Great!

[Cameraman Jenn]

The scary thing is that I know what everything on the desk is including all papers in the crazy file on the left. The top is pending payments and tire shipments with my automotive battery application catalog and my Triple A files, below that is pending warranty parts invoices and pending repair parts invoices. The shelf below is finalized parts invoices and the bottom is menus and equipment user manuals and one file of all the paperwork pertaining to a complaint put to the BAR that was decided in my favor from two years ago.

[Wyldewode]

Nice desk! You work in finance/bank industry--something with TD, correct?

GAHHH! TD?... blech. Nononono, I work for RBC Royal Bank! THE MOST POWERFUL BANK IN CANADA!!! <cue dramatic/heroic music>
Named Canada's most respected business for 3 years in a row! The largest and greatest bank with a gold lion as its logo ...

OK, TD is the cuddliest...


Actually I'm not one of the bad-guys in the bank (if you think in those terms). I'm one of the helpful guys. I open and manage accounts for people who are coming to Canada as immigrants (or under student or work permits) while they are still overseas. Often the canadian embassy demands that they proove they have a certain amount of funds to support themselves and an account has become their primary way of prooving this. And currently RBC is the only major bank in Canada that has procedures for this ... And I am one of three in the whole country that does this.
It's great. People love me.... I help them come to the country and give them tips on what to do once they are here (not necessarily part of my job) and try my darndest to create a smooth transition....

okokokok, enough of the company brand flogging and life-job affirmation... now back to our show...


(besides ... I didn't want to be a banker. I always wanted to be a LUMBERJACK!...
<cue music> ....)

Sorry to have cast aspersions on your place of employment--however inadvertently! And you should be proud of your job--you get to help people start a new life, or at least a new chapter!

A lumberjack, eh? Do you like to press wildflowers? Perhaps you like putting on women's cothes and hanging around in bars?

[lucimay]

Luci, is that mason jar of river stone? Quoi?

nah...it's an oyster jar of tide pool. sea glass, stones, shells, bones, stuff like that.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Oh, and by the way, when I first started to work there, I was unfamiliar with Russian culture and the guys from the body shop next door would come over and they and Igor would yell in Russian for ten minutes or so per exchange. I kept asking, "What just happened." and Igor would tell me that they were discussing the weather in the Ukraine or some other stupid stuff so eventually I stopped asking. Prior to my quitting asking, at the tail end of one of these exchanges, one of my customer's got to witness, she laughed and said it sounded like a heated argument to her too, she then printed a "What just happened" sticker that you can see just above the keyboard that I hold up to Igor during his seemingly heated exchanges with the guys next door. Just for you guys who don't know, Russian is spoken LOUDLY and the personal space required for a conversation with a Russian is much closer than the American accepted space. I used to feel like the Russian raised people that I deal with were being overtly aggressive but since have learned that it's just a cultural thing. Imagine your American personal space being quartered and that is what Russian convo is like.

[Wyldewode]

Oh, and by the way, when I first started to work there, I was unfamiliar with Russian culture and the guys from the body shop next door would come over and they and Igor would yell in Russian for ten minutes or so per exchange. I kept asking, "What just happened." and Igor would tell me that they were discussing the weather in the Ukraine or some other stupid stuff so eventually I stopped asking. Prior to my quitting asking, at the tail end of one of these exchanges, one of my customer's got to witness, she laughed and said it sounded like a heated argument to her too, she then printed a "What just happened" sticker that you can see just above the keyboard that I hold up to Igor during his seemingly heated exchanges with the guys next door. Just for you guys who don't know, Russian is spoken LOUDLY and the personal space required for a conversation with a Russian is much closer than the American accepted space. I used to feel like the Russian raised people that I deal with were being overtly aggressive but since have learned that it's just a cultural thing. Imagine your American personal space being quartered and that is what Russian convo is like.

Hehe! Sounds just like this little Ukrainian lady I know--Lena. She is always very close to you, and speaks VERY loudly. Any time something is wrong, or has even gone mildly awry, she says, "Ees terrebel." And it sounds just like that--very thick accent. I swear it feels like bad television writing, or else Yakov Smirnov should burst into the room any second (which he could--he lives nearby--and has a habit of showing up in random places, but that is a story for the famous people thread!). Anyway, Lena is the greatest. Just about every time she sees me she says, "You still single? I find you nice Ukrainian boy." I guess she must think I can't manage to get a boyfriend on my own. But she's a dear.

[Avatar]

I find that Europeans in general, both Eastern and Western, tend to have considerably smaller personal space than I consider normal. Must come from living so cramped up on each other.

Us South Africans have pretty large personal spaces. For strangers, 1.5-2 meters is considered acceptable. Just. Anything closer is considered being "in your face."

--A

[Vain]

I used to have a desk like that CJ

[Seareach]

I used to have a desk like that CJ

I still have a desk like CJ...urgh...

But, yeah, Jenn: ok, so I'm impressed. That is certainly messy...not as messy as mine can get (but I have a sneaking suspicion that you, perhaps, cleaned your desk up a bit before taking the photo...takes one to know one...it's the placement of things...I can tell you were going for the "I'm messy...but I'm kinda neat" look! ). We have one thing in common: penny scatter (although it's just called cent scatter in my part of the world). I have a small fortune hidden under all this junk.

[Vain]

Well now I just use my laptop so my desk is mobile

[Loredoctor]

This is my work desk:

[Seareach]

Well now I just use my laptop so my desk is mobile

Now, I'd like to see that!

[Usivius]

Lore:

hey, wait! You're not a United Statesian!....

...


aw, heck. Go ahead. It would be nice for a difference prespective in that office... (tee hee)

[Warmark]

This is my work desk:

Ah! so its all your fault.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Well, I did just finish all my invoicing so the parts invoices were put away, when I have a stack that is waiting due to the fact that I am perusing the watch it can get ugly!

[Menolly]

Oh, and by the way, when I first started to work there, I was unfamiliar with Russian culture and the guys from the body shop next door would come over and they and Igor would yell in Russian for ten minutes or so per exchange. I kept asking, "What just happened." and Igor would tell me that they were discussing the weather in the Ukraine or some other stupid stuff so eventually I stopped asking. Prior to my quitting asking, at the tail end of one of these exchanges, one of my customer's got to witness, she laughed and said it sounded like a heated argument to her too, she then printed a "What just happened" sticker that you can see just above the keyboard that I hold up to Igor during his seemingly heated exchanges with the guys next door. Just for you guys who don't know, Russian is spoken LOUDLY and the personal space required for a conversation with a Russian is much closer than the American accepted space. I used to feel like the Russian raised people that I deal with were being overtly aggressive but since have learned that it's just a cultural thing. Imagine your American personal space being quartered and that is what Russian convo is like.

Wow! Beorn will fit in wonderfully in Russian society. I need to inform his Speech Pathologist, who concentrates on pragmatic speech and social skills with him, about this!

This is my work desk:

Hail to the Chief!!

[danlo]

So that's where Nixon placed the bugs-in the potted plants!

[balon!]

Luci, is that mason jar of river stone? Quoi?

nah...it's an oyster jar of tide pool. sea glass, stones, shells, bones, stuff like that.