Right, so here we are then, the last in the series until we get ourselves some more permanent writers, this'll be my 'crib', as it were.  When I write, I could be here, on the train, in my actual office at work or on my bed, but more often than not, I'm right here, where these pictures show...

Right, you'll notice more than anything that it's a bit musicy-looking.  This is because I generally use the space to make music.  I'll take you through the numbered items now.

(Read on to see, obviously...) 
 
 
1.  Small PC monitor.  I've just swapped this over for the large PC monitor (no. 7, qv) so that I can see more when producing music on my laptop.  The screen's quite small on the lappers, so a bigger monitor makes more sense.  This little one was out in the conservatory, doing nothing, so I thought I'd switch.

2.  Alesis Micron analogue modelling synth.  It's a synthesiser, obviously.  The idea is that it's a digital synth pretending to be an analogue synth.  It has twiddly knobs, but they control digital parameters.  It's great for those really edgy synthy sounds like off the 80s that are so popular nowadays with the grittier producers.

3.  Lighting feature from Habitat.  It sort-of fades its LEDs on and off in sequencem like a really minimal Christmas display.  The Post-it (other sticky notes are available in a similar price range) show scores for guess what games in our podcast.

4.  Mixing console.  It's only small, but it does the job.  It's into this that my guitar, synths, laptop and microphones plug for recording and producing both music and the UFO podcast.

5.  61-key controller keyboard.  It's a dummy.  All it does is produce MIDI signals and can therefore be used to control software-based synthesisers (softsynths) and hardware synths, such as the Alesis Micron (no. 2, qv).

6.  Toshiba laptop.  It's a good machine, that.  It has a fingerprint reader and is a good few years old now, but it works well and runs music software well.  This laptop also hosts the soundboard that is used during UFO podcast recording.

7.  Large laptop monitor.  This one is generally plugged into my Advent netbook (I'm currently using that now to write this article in a pub).  The netbook is quite minimal and so uses its processor well for producing music, so I'm hoping to move across to it from the Toshiba laptop (no. 6, qv) for production.

8.  Scamp.  This is one of two cats and likes to get everywhere.  Here he is, slightly burry on account that he doesn't stay still for photographs, checking out the worktop.

If we take a closer look of the main workspace, we can see what's really going on in this area.



9.  Toshiba laptop.  See 6, above.

10.  Hair products.  Some are mine, some are not, all are fairly old and mid-priced. 

11.  30gb iPod with video.  Before the release of the fifth generation iPod classic, the fourth generation iPods were like this.  It's basically the same, but has a different user interface. 

12.  Too  many memory sticks.  I've got an 8gb, two 4gbs and a 1gb stick.  I just can't help buying them when I see them going cheap! 

13.  Writeable disc media.  Lots of discs, mainly DVDs, some dual layer DVDs, that kind of thing.  As a qualified Sony Certified Vegas User, I like to edit video quite a lot.  This is sort-of proof.  Maybe.

14.  Desk lamp.  Not required, but it looks kinda cool.

15.  A glass.  Formerly filled with water.  Contrary to popular belief, I drink a lot of water.  I mean, granted, I drink a lot of much else as well, but it's mainly water nowadays.

So that's it.  My 'office' in a nutshell.