Ikea | I am Danny Foo

Achievement unlocked: Standing desk

I’ve been meaning to convert my current IKEA desk to a standing desk this year, so I finally decided to do it today. Maybe I became self-motivated after the whole Walter Mitty experience. LOL!

Kinda messy as it is, I’ve had this IKEA desk for more than 4 years now I think. And actually if you look to the left, you’ll see a stick poking out from the side – just above the printer. That was my marker from last night so I’d know how high to raise my desk.

One of the thoughts I did have while measuring was the top shelf may have to go because according to the standing desk principal, your eyesight should be just about the near top of you monitor. But anyway, I can think about what to do with the shelf later.

After clearing the area and thinking I could do this myself, I stumbled on another thought. If I flipped my top shelf like above, I could mount stuff there. Hmm…

So anyway, I had to ask Ariel for help in the end because it was easier to dismantle the desk and build it back.

Not long after, we assembled the desk again and I decided to move the top shelf to the lower portion. I wanted to have space beneath the desk so when it came to vaccuming or mopping, the wires or stuff on the floor wouldn’t get in the way.

A small setback for the desktop machine though, its feet isn’t sitting on the shelf because it wasn’t deep enough. However, it’s a small matter since my desktop machine doesn’t have an exhaust at the bottom of the casing.

20140420-ikea-standing-desk 04 — Bring on Monday!

The one other thing I’m considering is a mat to complete the standing desk setup – read somewhere the mat is to help relieve pressure on your heels, back and legs.

So that’s a strike-through 1 of my goals this year. Woot!

Idea to clean up the big mess

When I was studying in Melbourne, I picked up the habit of cleaning up after I had my food at the fast food outlets because I saw locals doing it. It felt like I was only throwing my trash away.

Of course, I wasn’t always like this. Growing up, we had a housekeeper to clean up and I was rarely asked to clean up after meals. So, it was never a habit for me.

From my observation today, parents don’t do it because they assume it’s the responsibility of the eatery to assign someone to clean it up and their children don’t do it because…I follow my Daddy and Mummy. Doh!

No need to clean wan mar... — No need to clean wan mar…

The scene which makes it worst at times is the new people using the table do not want to clean it up. Most likely because what’s running through their mind is…

I don’t want to clean someone else’s crap left behind so I’ll keep on waving and getting the attention of the staff to help.

Sometimes even when they did “clean up”, it’s stacking the mess and pushing it aside despite having a tray to actually discard it at the proper station. #facepalm

Okay. If you clean up your stuff after you eat too, you’d know how I felt observing tables with patrons like this. And it doesn’t only happen at the eatery.

All this rubbish laying around got me thinking. The idea would be pretty extreme, however I feel if it wasn’t done then it would probably become what I could be imagining. Piles off big mess.

The Big Mess Idea

If there’s an eatery brave enough, they should cycle selected tables which will not be cleaned up after patrons have eaten. It would only be cleaned after a designated period or trays will be left on the table, for newcomers to use it and clean up the table. And understandably most patrons won’t do it without a reward, maybe the eatery staff could approach these patrons and reward them with a free dish or meal for their next visit.

Now, I know you may be thinking about how it’ll affect the hygiene of the place or whatever health excuses because food is rotting away on the table..bla bla bla bla bla.

So what the eatery can also do is sponsor some meals to small groups or individuals to eat at those tables. Or, they could observe patrons who do clean up the table and approach them for the reward. Because remember, I observed others before doing it myself.

And I do not believe we have not enough Malaysians who want to eat for free and teach the younger (and older) generation about cleaning up their mess.

Cool Ikea parents

We made a trip to Ikea today because we’ve been always thinking of getting a full-length mirror for our room but never got to do so. Thanks to one of my BNI members in real estate, I had this chance to use the gift card awarded to me – save money too. 🙂

Funny moment while we were there having lunch. Family’s kid sitting beside us came to the table, telling his Dad, some rude kid touched his butt. ROFL! I kid you not. He then was telling the parents how gay was the kid, while his parents were joking with him on how attractive his butt may have been. Lol! Kudos to the parents for being really cool.

When night came, we had a family dinner to celebrate my Dad’s coming birthday at Jake’s Charbroil Grill. They were having a steak promotion for US Kobe beef, Wagyu and Black Angus. I’ve never had a Black Angus so I decided to give it a taste – wasn’t too bad but think it was a little tough cause the thickness wasn’t ideal.

black angus steak — If it was only 1 inch thick

Though Jake’s charbroil in Bangsar isn’t an ideal restaurant for family photography, I managed to squeeze this much of creativity out.

The balloon was given to the birthday boy (my Dad, not me) including a mug. As much as I really appreciate the restaurants celebrating the joyous occasion with them singing, but do they have to be that out of tune?!

Restaurants who’d like to perform this act should consider tuning themselves, or at least, keep it simple and fun like what TGIF does. That way, it’ll be harder to be out of tune and it’ll still keep it fun.

Anyway, happy birthday Dad, and I’m looking to many many many more with you. 🙂