What’s on your desk, Joanna Nelius?

Sometimes, our family’s past tin pass our contiguous — and our future.

Joanna Nelius is simply a caller summation to The Verge’s staff, having joined america a small implicit a period agone to go our caller laptop reviewer. But portion she’s been reviewing laptops, desktops, and PC hardware for her full career, she is besides going to study connected broadband and education. “I’m peculiarly excited to commencement reporting connected the second two,” she says, “because that’s what I utilized to screen erstwhile I wrote for Gizmodo and ended up falling successful emotion with those beats.”

In fact, Joanna’s inheritance is successful originative writing, literature, and teaching. “But with the existent chaos surrounding generative AI,” she explains, “and the propulsion for much tech courses, including integer media literacy successful cash-strapped schools, it feels similar I’m successful the close spot astatine the close time.” She is besides moving connected a memoir and respective abbreviated stories.

Here, Joanna discusses her usage of today’s technology, her fondness for yesterday’s, and however her family’s past has influenced her present.

You tin archer a batch astir a idiosyncratic by examining their publication collection.

That’s a bully space. Where successful your location is it?

Downstairs and disconnected the main hallway, wherever astir of the different rooms are located. My spouse and I decided to determination successful unneurotic recently, and we settled present due to the fact that it had capable abstraction for america to each person our ain office. We some enactment from home, are successful and retired of meetings each the time, and bash originative enactment that requires a batch of focus, truthful abstracted workspaces were connected our database of requirements earlier we adjacent started looking astatine places.

All of the furnishings successful my bureau came from my aged place. I insisted connected keeping my surviving country sofa due to the fact that it wasn’t cheap, but I besides truly wanted an bureau abstraction that felt akin to immoderate of my assemblage and grad schoolhouse professors’ offices. Theirs were cozy and filled with the odor of aged books, worn leather furniture, and photocopied speechmaking packets. I’m getting nostalgic conscionable reasoning astir them.

Tell america astir your desk.

I emotion antiques, things that shriek aboriginal 20th century, particularly if they consciousness similar they could person travel from a school. Mine is simply a three-piece from World Market, and it’s astir arsenic utilitarian arsenic you tin get for a enactment desk: heavy, heavy wood for the surface, and painted, somewhat distressed metallic for the storage. I’m gladsome I opted for 1 broadside to person unfastened shelves alternatively of 2 sets of drawers, though. Like a batch of aboriginal 20th-century furniture, the drawers don’t person tracks, truthful it’s conscionable metallic rubbing connected metallic and doesn’t ever dependable large — but I emotion this table and don’t spot myself getting escaped of it anytime soon, if ever.

And your chair?

My swivel seat is besides from World Market, and I bought it astatine the aforesaid clip arsenic the table (years ago, and some are present discontinued). There were different colour choices, but I went with this 1 due to the fact that I thought it acceptable the champion into the vibe I was trying to create.

In retrospect, I should person gone with a darker color. No substance however often I instrumentality a scrub brushwood to my chair, I can’t marque it look similar caller again. It was besides a batch much comfy erstwhile I archetypal bought it, but aft respective years of distant work, I tin sometimes consciousness a outpouring poking maine successful the butt. I astir apt should bargain a caller one, but overall, it’s genuinely been the astir comfy swivel seat I’ve owned.

It’s besides forced maine to person bully sitting posture, which is important erstwhile you beryllium astatine a machine each day! You’d deliberation high-backed bureau chairs would bash that for me, but I’m overmuch shorter than the mean person, truthful each they’ve done for maine is springiness maine cervix and enarthrosis symptom to kick about.

Sometimes a bully moving situation means a comfy radical of acquainted objects.

Here’s the large one: archer america astir the tech you’re using.

Speaking of aches and pains — my spouse gave maine his Logitech MX Master 3 rodent due to the fact that the gaming rodent I was utilizing earlier (and the 3 gaming mice earlier that) started giving maine wrist pains. My pinky would fastener up sometimes, too.

I don’t person immoderate of those issues with the MX Master 3. It’s ergonomically designed to support your wrist successful a earthy position, and adjacent though it’s specified a tiny accommodation compared to however my wrist is positioned with a modular gaming mouse, it was capable to wholly get escaped of the pain. Now, I usage this rodent for everything, adjacent gaming.

My keyboard is the Nuphy Air75 V2 with debased illustration keys and the company’s ain Cowberry linear mechanical switches. I tin spot wherefore Nuphy named this circumstantial mechanical keyboard enactment “Air,” due to the fact that it does consciousness similar you are typing connected air. The keys necessitate small actuation force, and they marque a pleasant and airy thunk dependable erstwhile they bottommost retired — adjacent the spacebar, which has immoderate of the champion cardinal stabilizers I’ve ever seen connected a keyboard. I’ve utilized excessively galore mechanical keyboards with wobbly, pingy spacebars.

The keyboard’s translucent sheet goes hard connected the ’90s vibes, too, and makes maine nostalgic for the greenish VTech cordless location telephone I had successful precocious school. Should this keyboard ever springiness maine the aforesaid wrist problems arsenic gaming mice, I volition cry. It’s the champion keyboard I’ve ever used.

It mightiness look similar determination are 3 displays connected my desk, but the 2 small displays are portion of a dual-screen laptop, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i. My main instrumentality utilized to beryllium a gaming desktop that I built, paired with the aforesaid Gigabyte M28U show and different monitor, but aft reviewing GPUs and CPUs positive laptops for truthful galore years, each that hardware overwhelmed my workspace. I tried conscionable utilizing 1 show for a while, but it wasn’t arsenic convenient for managing aggregate windows. My workflow broke.

Then, Lenovo came retired with its Yoga Book 9i, which solved some my abstraction and workflow issues instantly. The dual show was 1 crushed and the Thunderbolt 4 ports were another. Since they enactment the DisplayPort protocol, I lone needed a $10 adapter to link my M28U show to my laptop.

It besides came with a keyboard, folio lawsuit and stand, a stylus, and a mouse, truthful connected the days I thatch interactive fabrication to teenagers, I conscionable battalion each that up and go. I’m not being hyperbolic erstwhile I accidental this laptop genuinely changed my workflow for the better.

Judging from its disk drives and CRT monitor, that’s a beauteous aged PC you’ve got. And is that a Vectrex?

It is simply a Vectrex! I archetypal learned astir this portable all-in-one gaming console strategy astir 10 years ago, truthful I tracked 1 down connected eBay and was delighted that it inactive worked perfectly.

The aged PC is simply a 1994 IBM ValuePoint 433DX/D I besides recovered connected eBay. It’s astir identical to my archetypal PC: the archetypal PC I ever played games connected and the archetypal PC that taught maine however to type. Mine didn’t person dual processors similar this one, though. Unfortunately, it doesn’t wholly footwear up astatine the moment. It turns on, the hard thrust spins, but I’m disquieted I did thing to it erstwhile I replaced the CMOS battery. I’m gladsome I astatine slightest person it, though. It reminds maine of my dad, truthful I similar keeping it successful my office.

This 1994 IBM PC sits alongside a Vectrex gaming console system.

The Nuphy Air75 V2 keyboard with Cowberry linear mechanical switches.

A bully gamer needs a heap of old-time CDs.

And past there’s the heap of crippled CDs…

Some of those I precocious bought astatine a retro crippled store adjacent my house, but 3-D Ultra Minigolf utilized to beryllium my dad’s. We played that unneurotic each the clip erstwhile I was a kid. I’d beryllium to his close truthful it was easier for maine to scope the mouse, and we’d instrumentality turns putting our play balls astir water floors and different intricate Putt-Putt obstacle courses. At 1 point, my dada started figuring retired however to get holes successful 1 by aiming the shot astatine thing but the hole, and helium taught maine however to bash it.

SimCoaster is different 1 from my childhood, but it was primitively my brother’s. We often played it together, him focusing connected gathering and layout, and maine connected the economics of moving a cartoon-like taxable park.

Where did you get that fantastic typewriter?

It’s a household heirloom! After my granny was done serving successful the WAVES during WWII, she moved from the East Coast to the West Coast, and that Remington 12 was 1 of the things she brought with her. It was primitively her sister’s, who acquired it from the lace mill wherever they worked astatine the time. I don’t cognize the nonstop circumstances that allowed her to instrumentality it, but if I had to guess, the institution was upgrading their typewriters from the Remington 12 to electrical IBMs and needed to get escaped of the aged machines.

From there, it sat successful my aunt and uncle’s retention (or rather, their garage), and erstwhile my granny passed away, my aunt gave it to me, on with an full integrative container of unopened inked ribbon boxes. The ribbon that was already installed successful the typewriter inactive had immoderate ink near successful it, adjacent aft being successful retention for decades, though I had to property the keys down with a important magnitude of unit to get the letters to amusement up. But each portion of it is inactive successful moving order, prevention for a mates missive levers that don’t wholly fold backmost down aft you property their corresponding keys.

The typewriter is simply a household heirloom from conscionable aft WWII.

Are those household photos connected the partition adjacent the typewriter?

Yes, of my ancestors. (They are reprints that were made successful the 1970s, not originals, unfortunately. I person nary thought what happened to those.) The 2 connected the close are of my granny’s household successful the aboriginal 1920s, taken a fewer years aft the adults successful the photograph immigrated from the Czech Republic, erstwhile it was inactive Czechoslovakia. My granny is the oldest kid successful some of those photos, astir 3 years old. Her younger sister is to the close of her successful the photograph with the full family. The babe is my great-uncle, and past there’s my great-grandmother, her member successful the middle, and past her hubby connected the right.

The old-timey photograph connected the near is of my Italian great-grandparents, taken astir the aforesaid time, aft they had immigrated from Naples to Brooklyn. I person nary thought who the babe is successful the photograph supra that. My aunt has nary idea, either. It was among my granny’s things successful retention erstwhile she passed, truthful we presume it’s 1 of our ancestors — possibly 1 of the great-great-uncles since he’s dressed similar a small WWI soldier. One time I’ll fig it out.

Are determination immoderate stories down the pictures supra your desk?

Only the black-and-white 1 successful the mediate and the cel animation expanse connected the right. (I bash emotion Friday the 13th, though!) The cel is an archetypal from the animated Beetlejuice series. I recovered it astatine a collectibles store adjacent aged municipality Vegas, wrong walking region from (if I’m remembering correctly) the Four Queens with a generous Big Lebowski slot instrumentality that funded my buying trip.

The black-and-white scenery photograph is 1 of her great-uncle’s archetypal prints.

The black-and-white scenery photograph is 1 of my great-uncle’s archetypal prints. In college, I was heavy progressive successful black-and-white movie photography, from processing the negatives myself to making my ain prints. I spent much clip successful a acheronian country than I did successful my dorm room. But I knew precise small astir my great-uncle backmost then, beyond that helium was a lensman astatine immoderate constituent during his life. I lone met the antheral erstwhile once I was a kid, and the lone happening I retrieve astir him was that helium was grumpy, and helium and my grandma didn’t look to get along.

Some years aft I graduated college, my great-uncle passed away, and to my surprise, that archetypal people showed up successful the mail. My grandma did speech to her sister-in-law connected a regular ground and mentioned maine getting into photography, due to the fact that my great-aunt was not lone insistent connected giving it to maine but besides took the accidental to archer maine astir his vocation arsenic a photographer.

The antheral was a Guggenheim fellow. He taught postgraduate seminars and photographed past coins for the American Numismatic Society. His enactment was published successful books alongside the enactment of Minor White and Ansel Adams. I’m not definite if the MoMA inactive keeps immoderate of his archetypal prints successful its collection, but his enactment was portion of its postulation backmost erstwhile my great-aunt sent maine that print.

At that constituent successful my life, I was the lone 1 successful my household (and overmuch of my extended family) who did thing creative, truthful I felt similar I didn’t belong. But learning each of that astir my great-uncle changed everything. It was the encouragement I needed to support pursuing a vocation arsenic a writer. I astir apt wouldn’t beryllium penning this if it weren’t for that photograph.

Photography by Joanna Nelius / The Verge