A New Outlook

No, not on life - a new view.  At work.

I recently got to move to a new office, which is awesome news compared to my old view. The guy across our mini-hallway from me moved to another group, so I was able to move into his old office. It's a little bit smaller, but check out the change...

My walls before...

What I looked at before from sitting at my desk...

And the new one... not a great shot of the office, but check out the greatest perk (besides a real desk)...

Ah, yes, the window... so much better than staring at walls. The photo doesn't do it justice - the window is about 4 feet wide, and goes all the way up to the ceiling.  As much as I love the outdoors, it's definitely helped me to at least have this sort-of-connection to it on the hard days at work. People were surprised when they saw that I left the bigger office for this one (it's not as small as the picture makes it feel). But to me, natural light and a connection to the outside world is so much better for my mental state than being cooped up in a hole full of harsh flourescent lights.  I've even willingly not had the burned-out lights above my desk replaced, just so I can avoid the fake light and soak up the all-natural.

So now, the office itself is just much brighter...

(notice the way we use even cubicle walls wisely - that is my only exit)

And while we're in the sharing mode, here's my normal visual range for 8 hours of every weekday...

Haven't had time yet to add more personalization to the wall - it needs some lovely pictures and other things.

But regardless of that, now instead of only white walls and cubicle fabric,

I can see blue sky...

puffy clouds...

hazy days...

storm clouds...

and even snow.

Add that to a couple weeks of parking space issues that resulted in assignment changes that slashed my walk to work from 5 blocks to 2... and you've got a pretty good upswing in working conditions.  Hooray.