My Desk At The Office

So why do I have such an empty desk?  I’ll try to explain.

Some say that “A clean desk isn’t always the sign of a productive employee” (source: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/smth08.shtml). But does it really?

First, I would like to state that personally I feel that the space isn’t mine and I don’t need to “personalize it;” it’s a space provided to me by my employer so that I can do their tasks. Not to mention that the office is in Downtown Denver (roughly a 45 minute commute for me from door-to-door via public transportation) and I just don’t want to lug my “stuff” from my home or home office to the “remote office.” Second, I don’t want the distractions of my “stuff” on this desk even if it does help me to be more creative.  OK, I have to admit it’s nice to have a few things that present to others a portion of my personality and sometimes the “stuff” can be a great conversation starter that leads to new and interesting topics or ideas. Nonetheless, this “stuff” can sometimes just be a burden.

I really try to keep my desk free and clear so that I don’t become lazy and end up with a typical developers’ desk. Here’s an example of how a few co-workers’ desk look like, notice the “crap” that doesn’t need to be there which have nothing to do with creativity, productivity, organization, short-term memory, etc.:

This is just nasty and unhealthy for the rest of us and it’s very hard for me to work with these kind of people because they don’t care about others around them. Besides, I tend to think that these type of people can be productive but I also think they could be more productive if they take a step back every now an then and purge the madness, gain some clarity, and get refocused by cleaning their desk every-now-and-then.

Anyway, according to the article “Messy desk = ordered mind, expert says” the space should be used to help me be creative and organized—which it does. I’m all for the “‘offloading’ of information from the working memory into the environment” but only when it’s needed.  For example, when I’m working on a project I typically have a handful of hand drawn sketchs, sometimes printouts of the designers’ comp., as well as many notes on what needs to be done, how things are done, calculations, processes, new thoughts, etc. But when the project is done, the desk is cleaned and prepped for the next project and gives me a sense of accomplishment.  Doesn’t an Artist or a Painter, once done with their work, frame it and hang it on a clean wall with accent lighting and then proceed to the next project?

Why do psychologists only speak to one side or the other?  Can’t their be a compromise—maybe not a daily clean desk policy but perhaps a project based purge and why don’t psychologists talk about the benefits, or the pros and cons, of both approches so that people can fully understand themselves, their teammates, as well as be cognizant of others (including clients or investors who might be in the office) and their impact on them (i.e., health issues, etc.)?

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We love your family so much!  Sarah is a doll, so nurturing, agreeable, and such a gentle leader.  Ethan is all-boy, so ready for an adventure, and such a hero to my little guys.  Isabelle is adorable, so very charming, and has stolen my husband’s heart.  And Noah is compliant, easy to please, and so happy to just be invited.  And of course you know your family will always include Andrew, in our hearts and minds… and I thought of him so often this weekend.  It was a pleasure to live life with your family, for four whole days.

As a parent, there’s many days you feel like you’re failing.  This was such a nice reminder that we’re doing ok.

Seth talks about Two kinds of schooling.  The first type, is what we as a country have set as the “standard,” because the only “expectable” way to measure a student’s ability is to test for learnt facts and procedures.  Though this is important for some things like dates and times of history or scientific approches (e.g., testing a theory) it’s not necessarily schooling.

The second type teaches the student to learn and gain the “desire to learn” attitude—this is one of the reasons why we home-school our children (because the public standard is so subpar we would be doing our children, our community, our country, and our God a disservice by allowing them to be schooled by type 1 teaching).

In the end Seth’s says, “The second kind…is where all real success comes from.”

Then on May 8th, 2010 at 12:03pm Andrew Scott Kaden was born weighing 5.6 lbs and measuring 18.5 inches long.

Here a picture:

Baby Andrew

Andrew was perfectly beautiful and we were so excited to have him.  I personally was finally happy to meet him.

After about two days in the hospital we were expecting to be discharged and head home but an unexpected event occurred—Andrew was moved to the NICU for further observation because he wasn’t eating and some of his physical responses weren’t normal.

Shortly after (just a few days) the NICU doctor ordered some tests and had a Pediatric Cardiologist take a look at Andrew to which we discovered that our little guy had Coarctation of the Aorta a congenital condition whereby the aorta narrows in the area where the ductus arteriosus inserts.  In other words, the main artery going to his lower half was stifled and his stomach, intestines, legs, etc. weren’t getting enough blood.  This might have explained his lack in appetite.  However, this didn’t explain his abnormal physical responses, perhaps he just wasn’t getting enough food to support his growing body and thus a lack of strength.

In addition, the doctors also ordered a ultrasound of Andrew’s brain which suggested that his mid-brain section hadn’t developed correctly and that there might be some minor issues with how his brain signals crossed over from one sphere to the other.  Nonetheless, they told us that there was no concern but we would have to watch how he would develop over the coming years and that there might be some physical therapy to help him overcome any challenges.

So the decision was to transfer him to a hospital that specializing in Pediatric care for heart and pulmonary surgery.

After we had moved Andrew, we scheduled the surgery and moved forward with lots of pray and faith in God.  Then as part of the surgery routine it was decided to do an MRI of Andrew’s brain to get a clearer picture.  After a successful surgery, we discovered from the MRI that Andrew had Gray matter heterotopia a neurological disorder caused by clumps of grey matter being located in the wrong part of the brain.  From what has been discovered about this disorder most baby’s don’t survive birth even if they have it only in a portion of their brains—Andrew had it in his entire brain!!!  That means that Andrew was a miracle baby because he was not only born, but lived 22 days and went through heart surgery.

By the way, Andrew is Greek for Manly or Warrior or Courageous.  Andrew was no doubt a warrior and fought for his life.  In addition, in the New Testament the apostle Andrew, was the first disciple to join Jesus, and was the brother of Simon Peter.  In a weird way it’s interesting to think that in our family Andrew was the first to go home to be with Jesus.

Andrew the Warrior

Anyway, when we learned of his brain condition a lot of answers were explained including that Andrew would never live a normal life and could have never lived without artificial assistance.  The best case scenario would have been 10–15 years of life with maybe a smile or grunt from him with a lot of tubes and mechanical devices.  Nonetheless it was obvious that Andrew’s body was shutting down and was unable to sustain—he was building up fluid in his lungs, his heart was erratic, and he was having multiple seizures (in one case when I was holding him, he had a five minute seizure) amongst the many other abnormal physical examples.

Because of his rapid decline we quickly moved him to a hospice where we were able to spend that last few hours with him.  It was an awesome time because it was the first time we got to dress him up in his clothes, give him a car ride, hold him without tubes and wires, and just love on him.  The doctors told us that babies usually take one to two weeks to pass but Andrew passed in under 48 hours.  During those precious hours we were able to have family photos taken, have friends, family, and acquaintances meet him and hold him.

In the end, we know that God was with us, strengthened us, and used Andrew, his short life, and us as part of his ultimate plan (even if it’s hundreds of years from now before we see the “true” impact; 1 Thessalonians 4-10).

Andrew Scott Kaden Moore was his name and is was selected by us as his parents.  The first letter of each name is part of an acronym that sounds like “ASK Him” (ASK-M); Deuteronomy 4:29.  Even though we truly don’t know why we lost Andrew, we have faith in the reason why.

We love you Andrew.

Seeker

The Seeker explores internal and external realities and is willing to give up security, community, and intimacy for autonomy. Seekers find out who they are by differentiaiting themselves from others. At worst, they are just outsiders. At best, they find their unique identities and vocations.

To a certain degree, I would have to concur.  I do enjoying discovering things, finding out about stuff, looking for answers.  But the question still remains what is that good for and how do I make a living at it?  I don’t want to be a librarian or research analysts.  Also what about my artistic and creative problem solving abilities where do those come in and how can they be integrated for the greater good?

One things for sure these kind of tests can only describe a portion of oneself and that’s good.  But on the other-hand it only makes it more difficult because it’s way to vague.  I guess I’ll just keep “seeking” for the realities of who I am and what I should do on this earth.

Office are indeed becoming antiques, great post about this at http://hivelogic.com/u/861:

When you want to go somewhere and meet and work together, do it. But like Seth says, it doesn’t have to be an office.

How can this be communicated any clearer to the “man?”  Maybe talk in dollars!  Office space verses online video conferencing software and a smaller shared conference room.