Blog Chain - Where's My Special Place?

For those keeping count, I've been unplugged from the blog for a while again.  I'm deep in the throes of my Master's degree classes, and I've decided I must be a glutton for punishment - or seriously unhinged.  Only a crazy person would voluntarily subject themselves to this stuff!

Well, it's blog chain time and today's question is brought to us by the ever-impressive B.J. Anderson.  She asks:

Is there a place you like to write that's extra special? Have you carved out a writing niche? Is there a certain time of day (or night) when the words fall into place, and your brain is focused on nothing but writing?

This has been a fun question chain, particularly since we get a glimpse into the chainer's worlds.  I hope you'll forgive me a bit then, since I want to show off my own little world.  Gaze longingly (or with disgust) at your screen...

As you can see here, this (our dining room table) is laptop central.  During the school year, it's homework central.  It's not exactly peaceful nor easy to find focus here, but I do what I can.  A set of earphones and some appropriate music in the background (Thanks to Amanda for mentioning Pandora btw;  I really love it and it is so helpful) makes things a bit easier.  This is usually where I am writing though.  If you'll forgive me a bit of geek pride, here's a closeup of my writing implement.

For the uninitiated, this is an Alienware laptop.  It's a high performance (a.k.a. gaming) laptop that can handle just about anything I throw at it.  My loving wife lavished me with this gift a little while ago, and I absolutely love it.  Besides the obvious gaming fun I get out of it, I love typing on this thing.  I never thought I'd enjoy a laptop keyboard, but this one is truly responsive and can easily keep up with my speedy fingers.

The dining room table doesn't always cut it however (especially since it's next to the living room and a 55" LCD distraction masquerading as a TV), so if I find myself really struggling to concentrate, I can always go here:

This is our office.  It's a bit sparse right now because we just replaced our old corner desks and bookshelf with these new glass ensembles.  It's quiet though, it has a door I could shut if I needed to, and there's not a whole lot to distract me here.  The greatest drawback to it though is that I get really cold sitting down here for long hours.   I'm prone to getting cold easily anyway (due to either not enough body fat or poor circulation I guess), but down here the cold just burrows its way in and I end up with icy feet.  I hate that aspect of this room, but oh well.

Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of choosing when I can write these days.  I'm basically trying to fit it in whenever I can.  Between starting work at 6 a.m., working on my Master's degree, exercising, occasionally doing editing and article writing for my 2nd job, and spending time with the wife and kids, creative writing has taken a back seat.   I'm trying to figure out a decent schedule, but I haven't come up with anything yet.  Life is just so dang busy these days, but I'll get it done somehow.

As the saying goes, that's all I have to say about that.  My predecessor Sandra had an interesting post yesterday (awesome Beatles picture), and Michelle H. is set to follow me tomorrow.  Check 'em out!  For that matter, make your way through the whole chain.  It's been alot of fun seeing where we all write.