"We will cross the bridge when we get there."
This what pushed me to get myself hooked up into work from home adventure. When I was young, I do fantasize Hollywood stars acting in the movies where the hacker, the assassin, and the retired-changed-man doing their stuff, living in a remote place with just their laptop computer, with their dog and still get to eat 3 times a day. Awesome, right?
But that is not what I am going to talk about today. I am in no way going to tell you that I am a notorious assassin, a highly skilled hacker, and retired from military. Who does that? right?
However, I will introduce to you my Work Desk, yes Desk. Don't you like desk? You know, that piece of furniture where you put you lovely computer and do your work, but end up just charging your phone and watch youtube or play video games. Yes, that desk.
This is how it looks when I was just starting to get pieces together.
Kidding aside.
During the pandemic it has been relatively hard to go to work, considering that I live around 25km from my work place. Yes, I do love traveling, I do love riding my bike to many places I can imagine, but getting through the traffic everyday is just exhausting. Then, when you arrive at the company building there is this crazy heath protocols that you need to follow, not that I don't like following rules but it's just annoying an limiting my freedom(all hail freedom! hahaha).
Since I was 20, I have been working in different companies, and for more than a decade I haven't really felt like I belong to an on-site corporate jobs. The previous company I had is a big company but sad to say they didn't allow us to work from home. While others, my friends from different companies are enjoying the convenience to be with their families during pandemic and lockdowns without having to struggle just to keep their jobs.
Lo and behold, I did the leap of faith
November 2021, my birth month, I was thinking of what I could possibly gift to myself without having my wallet scream and also actually make a big change for myself and my career. So I slowly gather the parts I need to get a start up working computer set and a Desk.
Here's the list that I started with:
- COMPUTER CASE- salvaged from my younger sister's storage room.
- MOTHEBOARD - a Biostar something motherboard, still salvaged from my sister, it came with the computer case.
- PROCESSOR - and old AMD-A6, still salvaged from my sister, it came with the computer case.
- HARD DISK DRIVE - 500GB Seagate, still salvaged from my sister, it came with the computer case(for expanded storage, for the mean time).
- POWER SUPPLY - Brand new, Silverstone 500w.
- SOLID STATE DRIVE - Brand new, 250GB PC Cooler (for operating system)
- CPU FAN - Brand new, I don't know the brand, I threw the box while I am making this post.
- 16GB DDR3 RAM (x2 8GB) - Brand new, Skihotar.
- RGB CASE FANS - Brand new, InPlay.
- 8GB VIDEO CARD - 2nd Hand, Nvidia 750Ti.
- 24-INCH IPS MONITOR - 2nd hand, Dell.
- MECHANICAL KEYBOARD - Brand new, Generic brand.
- MOUSE - Brand new, Generic brand.
- WEBCAM - Brand new, Generic brand.
- RGB DESK PAD - Brand new, Generic brand.
- RGB HEADSET - Brand new, Redragon.
- CHAIR - Brand new, KLV.
As you can see most of the core parts are actually 2nd hand or used, because I plan to replace them with more decent specs once I got ,my finances more stable and if I feel a bit more financially secured.
Now, lets get into the "Desk" part. The desk is actually crafted by the locals here in our place, it was just half-a-day work. It costed me just a whole piece of plywood, nails, wood glue, and Maple wood varnish. I have to have it custom-made so that it will match with my height and maximize the space in my room since I am living in a limited-space one-story apartment. As you can see it lines exactly from the window wall to to edge of the door opening of my bedroom, the from the bedroom wall just right about the length to the main door corner with enough space not to block the door when the chair is in place.
How did it turn out?
Fantastic! I was hired after a week of submitting my application and up until today I am loving what I do and the freedom that I enjoy as a permanent work from home employee. With the ongoing price hike of fuel nowadays, it definitely reinforced my liking of such benefit since I don't have to travel everyday. Although, I am telling you that it wasn't easy to deal with anxiety of having to worry ending up being jobless and broke after leaving my previous company. Additionally, we were hit by a strong typhoon Odette and went black out, with no electricity for almost 2 months. I was hired around December, but everything went haywire when typhoon hit and was officially resumed and started working with the new company around February. Can you imagine the thrill?
How am I doing today?
Smooth...
I am now slowly upgrading my work space to make it more comfortable and appealing. Since this is now my main space to make a living as a build my kingdom of ambitions hahaha.
I am still happily employed with the same company that hired me on my very first work from home journey.
Upgrades done:
- COOLER MASTER PC CASE - 2nd hand, a gift from my friend.
- BIOSTAR MOTHEBOARD - 2nd hand.
- INTEL i5 PROCESSOR 5th Gen - 2nd hand, a gift from my friend. Faster is better.
- 2nd MONITOR 23.6INCH - Brand new, MSI 144hz wide and curved. Dual monitors really improved my quality of life, especially when working.
- UPS - 2nd hand, APC. so that I can at least say "goodbye boss" before the power completely goes off.
- BLUE TOOTH SPEAKER - Brand new, JBL Go3. Wearing headset for long hours hurts your ears.
This is now my work desk, the same desk I do for living, the desk I do to edit my videos when I do motorcycle riding, Gaming, side hustles, and other "entertainment stuff".
GAMING what other "entertainment stuff" are you thinking???
These specs are still temporary, other has far better specs, but there are other financial priorities I'm spending on right now. I still have future plans for the work desk and in the future hopefully I will find the time to give you an update about it.
What I have learned from this experience is that, if we need to progress in life and grow to be a better person than we were yesterday. We need to have courage to decide and make changes for our selves, even if it means going out of the comfort zone, which is a very scary thing to do.
KEEP WORKING ON YOUR EMPIRE; ONE STEP AT A TIME, A COURAGE SPENT AT A TIME.