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I have a new office, which is very exciting for me, but it is quite bare. I want to make it a little bit less like a jail cell, so I was thinking I'd get some plants.
However.
I have a black thumb, I kill everything, and I just don't think I'm up to the heartache of trying to keep a chlorophyll menagerie alive. Where can I get some fake ones? Bushy, preferably. There is about three feet between the top of the cabinets on one wall and the ceiling, and it is either fake plants or that TARDIS playset.
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I don't know about plants, but I have an embalmed alligator head and one of these in my office.
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I am going to have a signed print in my office that my dad gave me for Christmas. Plus a wacky clock, and possibly a map of ancient Rome. And my Hamlet poster. In fact, the Hamlet poster will probably be first.
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I am personally torn between making my office habitable and remaining cool and unknowable at work. I really prefer to make as little as possible of my personal life discernable at work, but I am a bit stumped as to how to make this place look less like a prison cell without being revealing.
Hence the fake plants.
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You might consider a real aloe vera plant. They can generally be had for around $5, they filter toxins out of the air, and they're a desert plant, so if you only water them once a month, they do fine.
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: I am personally torn between making my office habitable and remaining cool and unknowable at work. I really prefer to make as little as possible of my personal life discernable at work, but I am a bit stumped as to how to make this place look less like a prison cell without being revealing.
Hence the fake plants.
I like having candy etc. in my office because it draws people in.
That helps prevents those awkward situations where in the restroom someone you know is talking to someone you don't know (because you know everyone).
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quote:Originally posted by Sterling: You might consider a real aloe vera plant. They can generally be had for around $5, they filter toxins out of the air, and they're a desert plant, so if you only water them once a month, they do fine.
Based on my experiences, if you only water them every six months, they still do fine. Dragon trees are also very drought tolerant, and there's a similar plant that has a short, bulbous trunk instead of a long, thin one, that is even better. The bulb part soaks up water that the plant uses to live off of for a very long time. I think I may have left mine without water for as long as a year, once. The base got a bit shriveled, but it plumped right back up after a thorough watering.
Not that I'm trying to dissuade you from fake plants, but if you would like to a have a few living ones as well, dragon trees are exceptionally hard to kill through neglect.
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The dracaena plant (looks like bamboo, often seen in Chinese homes) does fine in a vase as long as you remember to water it every now and then when you can't see anymore water in the vase. I haven't managed to kill mine yet, and I kill everything plant-like. You can get them at Ikea for like $2 a stalk.
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I love aloe vera. I used it as a kid right off my mom's plants for bad sunburns and cuts.
Imagine my surprise when I moved to FL and found they grew larger than my hand. The only ones I had ever seen were small ones in pots up north. They get HUGE if they have room to grow. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I have found that craft stores have VERY nice fake plants compared to the home improvment stores.
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Hmm...partly because my life is very compartmentalized, and partly because I don't have a safety net. For the compartmentalized, I have work world, family world, school world, home world, social world, and church world, and there is remarkably little overlap. I have friends in all places (ideally, anyway), but they usually don't mix and I avoid talking about other worlds when in a particular world - partly because the people aren't interested and partly because, really, those worlds are so different.
The no-safety-net thing comes from me having only myself to rely on, and I need work to be something I can rely on so I can sleep at night. I hate worrying about money, and so my solution is to make enough for my needs and then protect that money-making endeavor from anything that may interfere. This way, I never have to worry and can participate in my other worlds wholeheartedly when I am there.
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Aloe Vera is the best overall skin-treatment there is. Take off a leaf and slice it sideways (not all the way through) and turn it pulp-side out, and smear it on sunburns, rashes, anything except deep stab wounds--and even then, after the wound is disinfected and sewn up, Aloe Vera will promote healing better than anything else.
Some commercial gel preparations that say "100% Aloe Vera" may still contain alcohol, which will sting.
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quote:Hmm...partly because my life is very compartmentalized, and partly because I don't have a safety net. For the compartmentalized, I have work world, family world, school world, home world, social world, and church world, and there is remarkably little overlap. I have friends in all places (ideally, anyway), but they usually don't mix and I avoid talking about other worlds when in a particular world - partly because the people aren't interested and partly because, really, those worlds are so different.
Perhaps its just me, but that kind of compartmentalization seems psychologically unhealthy.
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It's just you. Thanks for your long-distance, intrusive, non-educated, unwanted and unneeded diagnosis. Don't worry about it.
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quote:Originally posted by Jhai: The dracaena plant (looks like bamboo, often seen in Chinese homes) does fine in a vase as long as you remember to water it every now and then when you can't see anymore water in the vase. I haven't managed to kill mine yet, and I kill everything plant-like. You can get them at Ikea for like $2 a stalk.
I have one too, from Ikea no less. (Whoo?) I can verify that it indeed seems hardy even near a rather cold window, although I have been warned that it may be sensitive to chlorine (I haven't tried tap water yet).
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: It's just you. Thanks for your long-distance, intrusive, non-educated, unwanted and unneeded diagnosis. Don't worry about it.
Well, it's also George Costanza. But please note, I am not worrying about it.
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No. A discussion about such compartmentalization.
I find her description bewildering, alien, and fascinating, and would love to try to understand it better.
But since the first comment about it called it sick, I doubt that Kat is interested in opening up about it any more. I know that I wouldn't be.
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Hobby Lobby usually has a really nice selection of fake plants that actually look really good. Does Hobby Lobby exist where you live?
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So, I was in Michaels going down a huge fake plant aisle. I went on this big rant about how stupid they are. It was funny and all, but then I see this lady, pushing a shopping cart overflowing with fake plants, glaring at me. She looked like she was ready to kill me. It was great.
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: It's just you. Thanks for your long-distance, intrusive, non-educated, unwanted and unneeded diagnosis. Don't worry about it.
Excuse me, you certainly haven't ever given us any other reason to question your emotional stability and psychological health.
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My workspace doesn't have a lot of stuff in it, but that's mostly because my coworkers throw things at each other often enough that decorative objects are in danger of being broken. My demeanor at work is pretty much exactly the same as it is at home. I don't think that there's anything necessarily unhealthy about compartmentalizing, though. It's something that is so common as to be nearly ubiquitous, I think. Most people present different facets of themselves in different environments. I think that people who *don't* do this are a tiny, tiny minority. I do a lot less of it than is typical, but even I do it to a degree.
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quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: No. A discussion about such compartmentalization.
I find her description bewildering, alien, and fascinating, and would love to try to understand it better.
But since the first comment about it called it sick, I doubt that Kat is interested in opening up about it any more. I know that I wouldn't be.
I'm sorry if my choice of words made my comment seem overly hostile. In my mind, calling something unhealthy is not equivalent to calling it sick. Eating chocolate for breakfast may be unhealthy but I'd never call it sick.
I myself am a very private person. You may have noticed that I rarely share anything of a personal nature here on Hatrack. There are very few people in my life who I open up to about certain things. Its something I've thought about quite a bit and I suspect that I would be more healthy emotionally if I had more close confidants and was a bit more open but its still not something I feel very comfortable with and that's hard to change.
Despite that, I don't think my life is compartmentalized in the way katharina describes it. I can't think of anything I'd hang in my home that I'd find embarrassing to hang in my office. I do have a variety of social circles that don't overlap much but that isn't necessarily by choice. I'm happy to have someone from church drop by my office or someone from my family meet my church friends and so on. If I met one of my political activist friends while I was with a church group, I'd happily introduce them even though I generally avoid talking politics with my church friends. When I throw a dinner party, I usually invite people from the same social circle but mainly because people tend to feel more comfortable at a gathering where they know other people.
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quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: I'm sorry if my choice of words made my comment seem overly hostile.
It definitely read to me as an attack, although not nearly as strong as kat's response, or your response to kat's response. I'm glad that it wasn't intended as one, though.
quote:I myself am a very private person. You may have noticed that I rarely share anything of a personal nature here on Hatrack.
I know that this is a bit of a diversion from your point, but you used to do so more frequently than you do now, didn't you? Around 2003, 2004, somewhere in there?
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I think kat might not be at all unusual in that different areas of her life don't overlap very much. I think it might be quite common, especially for people who are introverted.
I'm not sure I can see any reason to call it unhealthy, based on the information provided. I think deception and secrecy can be unhealthy but I don't think that's what she was saying.
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quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: I'm sorry if my choice of words made my comment seem overly hostile.
It definitely read to me as an attack, although not nearly as strong as kat's response, or your response to kat's response. I'm glad that it wasn't intended as one, though.
quote:I myself am a very private person. You may have noticed that I rarely share anything of a personal nature here on Hatrack.
I know that this is a bit of a diversion from your point, but you used to do so more frequently than you do now, didn't you? Around 2003, 2004, somewhere in there?
Every now and then I will post something personal when it seems germane to the conversation. Its possible that may have happened more frequently at sometime in the past but I suspect it was just random.
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quote:Originally posted by Ron Lambert: Aloe Vera is the best overall skin-treatment there is. Take off a leaf and slice it sideways (not all the way through) and turn it pulp-side out, and smear it on sunburns, rashes, anything except deep stab wounds--and even then, after the wound is disinfected and sewn up, Aloe Vera will promote healing better than anything else.
Some commercial gel preparations that say "100% Aloe Vera" may still contain alcohol, which will sting.
yeah, I used it growing up and loved it. It worked really good, but in MI the growing season was so small that everyone I knew just grew it in small pots inside the house.
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The only ones I had ever seen were small ones in pots up north. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
They get HUGE if they have room to grow. ![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
