My #1 was an electric kettle for making tea. This is probably the closest we're going to get to that so... Also, it means I can have caffeine or not depending on how I feel and I don't have to bother filters and everything else.
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I get my caffeine in different ways these days in lower doses. This is definitely a vote for a beverage tho rather than just caffeine-vehicles in general. Tea doesn't destroy my body the way coffee does. And I have many people in my life who love coffee so much it's a lifestyle. I try to avoid the stuff now, but it's a big deal. Definitely should be on this list considering how important it is to offices in general.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
My husband bought decaf once (he doesn't drink coffee) and I didn't notice the difference for a week. It's all about the routine for me. I do decaf when I can but decaf dark roasts are rare and dark roast is superior.
I used to be on a constant high dose of caffeine (mostly from drinking Pepsi all day but also some coffee) to the point where I could take it before bed with no problem and missing it gave me headaches quickly. But when I eventually cut out the soda, I lost my tolerance completely, and now caffeine does bad and useless things to me (I get jittery but still sleepy) so I mostly avoid it. All that is to say, I did vote for one beverage but it wasn't coffee.
I also didn't vote for compressed air, but I only overlooked it because I don't have a can handy at the moment. I've actually been thinking of getting a mechanical blower though, which has the advantage of not running out, though you do lose the neat cold-generating effect.
I also didn't vote for compressed air, but I only overlooked it because I don't have a can handy at the moment. I've actually been thinking of getting a mechanical blower though, which has the advantage of not running out, though you do lose the neat cold-generating effect.
Compressed air is one of the more wasteful things we make as a species haha. It's useful to be able to blow shit out of places, but you get so little bang for your buck with compressed air. If you could bring your empty air cans to a place to get refilled the way we do propane, I would be less annoyed with the idea.
I used to drink a lot of coffee to cope with the work day. Problem is:
1) Caffiene doesn't make you not-sleepy, it just keeps you from being able to fall asleep. So I'm honestly just as physically miserable if I'm working while sleep deprived, I just have to contend with jitters on top of being tired if you drink too much.
2) Those headaches are called, "withdrawals" - if you experience them, your body is chemically addicted. I got really tired of my weekends being ruined by them, so I decided to cut coffee out of my life mostly. Removing caffeine didn't actually make it harder to stay awake and do my job; I received no perceptible decline in my ability to work. If anything, I noticed an increase since...
3) Caffiene is a diuretic, so having to use the restroom less at work and being less dehydrated on the regular was a big QoL improvement. Which also included:
4) When I was drinking coffee, it was also both an appetite suppressor (I don't need to diet; opposite in fact!) and also kept me from sleeping more than 6 hours every night. Which meant I was getting less sleep and eating less, meaning I had less energy and was more tired on the regular, which led me to want more caffeine to compensate. It was a vicious cycle, and I honestly feel better for having broken it.
I really miss the taste of coffee though.
Edit: oh, 5) Coffee stains your teeth.
I used to drink a lot of coffee to cope with the work day. Problem is:
1) Caffiene doesn't make you not-sleepy, it just keeps you from being able to fall asleep. So I'm honestly just as physically miserable if I'm working while sleep deprived, I just have to contend with jitters on top of being tired if you drink too much.
2) Those headaches are called, "withdrawals" - if you experience them, your body is chemically addicted. I got really tired of my weekends being ruined by them, so I decided to cut coffee out of my life mostly. Removing caffeine didn't actually make it harder to stay awake and do my job; I received no perceptible decline in my ability to work. If anything, I noticed an increase since...
3) Caffiene is a diuretic, so having to use the restroom less at work and being less dehydrated on the regular was a big QoL improvement. Which also included:
4) When I was drinking coffee, it was also both an appetite suppressor (I don't need to diet; opposite in fact!) and also kept me from sleeping more than 6 hours every night. Which meant I was getting less sleep and eating less, meaning I had less energy and was more tired on the regular, which led me to want more caffeine to compensate. It was a vicious cycle, and I honestly feel better for having broken it.
I really miss the taste of coffee though.
Edit: oh, 5) Coffee stains your teeth.
#38
Calendar
Score: 55 - Votes: 3 - Highest vote: 15th (Issun)
Hey, it's our first non-tie entry! We had to get a quarter of the way through the list, but we made it. That says something about how close things ended up here. We'll see a lot fewer ties going forward as the votes centralize to reveal some clear favorites.
Torzelbaum said:
We received one vote for the page-a-day calendar and one vote for a single-page, full-year calendar (Torzelbaum, of course), but neither of those makes for as good of a visual gag. The third vote was just for "calendar."
While they're surely the least useful of the bunch, page-a-day calendars are the most fun. I got my wife a puzzle-a-day calendar some time ago, but she didn't want to advance the page until she'd finished the puzzle, so we've got May 2019 sitting on her nightstand to this day. I'm sure she'll get back to it eventually.
What's the best calendar you've ever had/seen?
For years I would religiously import the official Studio Ghibli wall calendar and hang it in my old office. They were really nice affairs, with two hinges so you could flip the images and the calendar pages separately to mix and match which image you wanted with any month, and a clear cover to protect the art. At some point I fell out of the habit as I used them less and the images started repeating from older ones (not to mention the things aren't cheap to import). But I still have a big stack of them somewhere; I could pull them apart and paper an entire wall with Ghibli movie screenshots if I wanted to...
This is the same one I have on my wall. (I also have a day planner.)
Sun's out, buns(?) out!
These days I mostly use the calendar on my phone, though we do have one at home hanging by the kitchen if anyone needs to take a quick glance.
I do refer to the calendar at work often so I can remember what week of what period of the fiscal year it is, because for some reason companies can't just use normal months but instead have to corporatize time itself like a bunch of fucking weirdos.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
We do have a paper one in lab as a quick reference for determining expiration dates of things. Solutions have 48 hour-3 months stability depending on their composition and have to be labeled with an expiration date when made.
But I didn't think of it, and don't think I can say that I use it more than the other things I voted for. Meh.
But I didn't think of it, and don't think I can say that I use it more than the other things I voted for. Meh.
#36 (tie)
Tape dispenser
Score: 58 - Votes: 2 - Highest vote: 4th (Daikaiju)
Dracula said:
What is PEZ without a dispenser? It's just a fairly bad candy. But dispensers -- oh my. Now that's an industry.
I'm not saying that dispensers serve the same role for tape. However, there's a reason the iconic black dispenser is such an office staple. (Hey, I think I just realized why they gave the store that name.)
I have come across one that I think was full of salt but I didn't try to verify that.
It works, but with the dispenser you can do it one-handed, which is super useful if you also need to be holding down the thing you're taping.
Didn't have this on my list because I don't have one in my home office, but I've used them in several previous offices.
Welcome back to the weekend! I've got another thematic pairing for you.
I have to admit that fingers are some of my most-used office supplies, and yet it didn't occur to me to list them. JBear is the only other one who thought of his fingers when writing his list.
#61 (tie)
Fingerless typing gloves
Score: 35 - Votes: 1 - Highest vote: 1st (JBear)
Fingerless typing gloves
Score: 35 - Votes: 1 - Highest vote: 1st (JBear)
JBear said:
#76 (tie)
Fingers
Score: 31 - Votes: 1 - Highest vote: 5th (Yimothy)
Fingers
Score: 31 - Votes: 1 - Highest vote: 5th (Yimothy)
Yimothy said:
I have to admit that fingers are some of my most-used office supplies, and yet it didn't occur to me to list them. JBear is the only other one who thought of his fingers when writing his list.
What office supply stores do both of you shop at!? Because I have never seen "fingers" at any of the ones I have used.
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Counterpoint: I have never seen a store of any sort that didn't have fingers in it.
Yes but could you buy them?
You can in Madripoor.
#36 (tie)
Rubber band
Score: 58 - Votes: 3 - Highest vote: 7th (Issun)
JBear said:
Rubber bands are undeniably fun. They're great as projectiles, bracelets, ropes, and just general fidget material. I guess you can also use them to bundle things together, but don't do that long-term -- like, say, on a deck of cards -- because rubber bands decay easily and leave sticky crud in their wake.
Despite the name, there's no such thing as a 100% rubber band. Rubber bands require a combination of materials to get that combination of tensile strength and elongation, and clay is the most common secondary material. The bands pictured above are actually primarily silicon. I apologize for the deception.
Clippit said:They're also known as elastic bands, gum bands, and... is this right? "Lacky bands"?
When I made my list I threw in a few items fairly specific to my job along with the more generic stuff. Mostly surgical instruments, but also fingers. As I mentioned in above, they’re good for at least temporary control of bleeding, but they’re also what you use to handle almost all of the other office supplies.
This is absolutely right, and I had no idea this was Australianism until right now. I think it’s short for elastic band. “Gum band”, on the other hand, I have never heard before.
I didn’t list these, but I do use them at work. They’re good for holding packets of stitches together, and we also sometimes (spoiler for maybe gross medical stuff) tie them under a flap of tissue and use them to hold it open. Gotta watch out for latex allergies, though.