March came in like a Lion in terms of word count but it is leaving like a piece of wilted lettuce. My writing petered out mid-month and while I got some good thinking and planning in, I wrote very little else. I’ve got a second (3rd? 4th?) wind with a decent idea and hope to start writing about it tonight or tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I’ve been working on a different project. At first, I was looking for a desk to use with my laptop away from home. You know, like down at the river or something.
Then I got my new chair and I realized I was going in the wrong direction. I needed a desk that attaches TO my chair. So I hit the ‘net.
I found some fantastic ones out there, like the Helpmate at the LapTraveler website; the CS2 Fold-down from DJTech; the DaeSSy from Daedalus Enterprises; and the MyDesc from Rhamdec. Problem was, the cheapest of these was $209 (the Helpmate) with little information to over $900 (the DaeSSy) with lots of useful information on mounting and use.
None of them seemed to have everything that I wanted. The ones that looked promising, wouldn’t have the mounting options I need. The ones that had mounting options didn’t have the maneuverability I was looking for. So I decided to make my own. I went to the PanaVise site (which is lousy) and then to PanaViseOnline.com since they have all the parts. I measured and sketched and thought and asked around and consulted and measured and sketched some more. There was the smell of smoke around my head from all the thinking I was doing.
The design is figured out now. All the parts will cost me just under $150 (before shipping) and I have the mounting figured out too. I put up a page on the internet so that others can see it and help out if they have any ideas. My final-ish sketch and links to the parts are there. I’ve got more text to add later as it becomes more clear. I may be able to order the parts on Monday.
Now, why am I so interested in doing this? Because I am a writer and I need to be able to work without worrying about how long I can go at it before the pain makes me scream. This new chair, with its wonderful tilt, can do that for me. But I currently can’t use my laptop and the chair at the same time. I need to remedy that if I want to write more. All writers need to be concerned about ergonomics. I just need to be a little more so.