No applied AI here. Enter without caution. I just want to share some photos, videos, and descriptions of all the parts of my home workspace. Please enjoy this short, beautifully put together video showing off my new workspace. There's a few more pictures and a comic as well, if you're not into reading.

I finally finished building my first PC after having to replace both my original power supply and motherboard. It's built now and works pretty well. I did not skimp on the graphics card as the AI field has the gaming industry to thank for encouraging these beastly processors that are quite capable when it comes to certain AI techniques. Also I might be able to do some crypto mining on it (particularly in the winter) to help pay for itself (also just sounds fun).

Pretty much my only existing option for a montior was my 23" TV I got in college. Without a desk, it'd have been fairly hard on either my eyes or my back to try to use that as a monitor so I found a beautiful new monitor that should serve my purposes well. The best part is the ability to use a monitor arm. I can have the monitor floating over my bed now since that's where I spend most of my free time for various AI-ish projects.

Most of you probably can't relate, but for those of you who work full-time jobs that demand lots of typing, you might understand the value of ergonomic keyboards, depending on what you do when you get home. If you're unaware, my day job is in software development. "So you spend several hours a day typing at work... so what?" But I also spend several hours a day typing at home (on a good day). If you spend as much time typing in a single day as I often do, your likely to have sore wrists by the end of the day. My split keyboard has been amazing. Taking it back and forth between work and home can be a hassle, but as long as I get to spend part of my day off of a standard non-split keyboard, my wrists seem to be fine by the end of the day. Also the keyboard is unfortunately not bluetooth and the halves need to be connected, but I managed to get some extensions and adapters to route the necessary cables under my bed so they are relatively out of the way.

With my PC, monitor, and monitor arm, I have the luxury of really only needing a keyboard and mouse on my lap. The split keyboard can work okay without a lap desk, but it's at least nice to have the option to have a nice flat surface. But all the lap desks I found out there were pretty boring. So I came up with some fun features I would want in a lap desk, and I set out to build one myself. I missed room 217 in the good ol' Euler Science Complex at Taylor, so for one, I wanted whiteboards within arm's reach. Secondly, I wanted to have wrist rests for my split keyboard, and I wanted them to be easily adjustable but also sticky enough to hold the pieces of the keyboard up if I want to have my knees up or something. So I bought some nice strong neodymium magnets - strong enough to stick to something metal but easy enough to slide around to readjust. Since I already was planing on having metal and magnets as a part of the lap desk, I decided I'd make the cushion detachable via magnets as well. Because for one, I couldn't really decide if I even wanted a cushion. Additionally, being detachable meant more surfaces available for whiteboards.

I had actually planned on leaving the top nice and wooden, but I ended up using gross duct tape bezels to help keep the whiteboard over the metal plate on one side. The tape still looks not great, but it's much better when contrasted with the whiteboard than with the wood. I may make a version 2 of my lap desk someday, but this is good for now.

Bringing it all together with my husband pillow as a backrest and my mini fridge as a side table, I must say it's super useful, relaxing, and ergonomic. I am glad it is all put together now though. My software projects have been feeling a little neglected and I am happy to get back to them. But I did want to show this off, because it's a pretty sweet setup where I will hopefully get a lot of fun work done.