December Days in Photos: Day 11: Doing Science

[Me sitting in what the bloke calls "NASA HQ": my home office.]

silveradept asked for a photo of me doing science. I'm afraid this may have turned out to be less exciting than anticipated, since most of what I do is sit in front of a pair of large flat screen monitors and tinker. Anyway, here I am at my desk at home, with my overly long hair half-pinned up. Essential fuel sits in front of me on my desk: a glass of water and a cup of tea. Precariously balanced, semi-organised piles of paper are to my left and a printer/scanner to my right. My notebook, in which I still faithfully record by hand the instrument status every day, as well as meeting notes, etc. On the left screen can be seen instrument ops (this is why the photo is deliberately out of focus) and on the right, a Word document containing an abstract submission that I'm procrastinating on by writing this post in progress.

My desk is not actually a single piece of furniture. It is a piece of wooden kitchen worktop balanced on a pair of lime green filing cabinets (which are packed to the gills). It provides a large surface at a comfortable height, and it was a lot cheaper than buying a desk this size would have been.