D.I.Y. Standing Desk

Being a graduate student is dangerous work. For example, your lifestyle is so sedentary that you may develop severe pain in your hips, lower back, and shoulder and neck areas. Also, this lifestyle will apparently kill you. Recent headlines*:

Is Sitting a Lethal Activity? (NYT)
Your Office Chair is Killing You (BusinessWeek)
How to Stop Your Office Chair from Killing You (Forbes)
How Sitting All Day is Damaging Your Body and How You Can Counteract It (Lifehacker)

The solution probably includes regular exercise, more intentional activity, less laziness. But what to do if you've sworn off exercise until your dissertation is due, despite your persistent and distracting pain? People seem to be pretty excited about the "standing desk." I've seen one or two while walking past the philosophy offices, and they look pretty convenient. But they're also expensive, and though there are some plausible D.I.Y. set-ups described on the internet, I have neither the time nor the space in my studio to construct one.

Good thing that I already have one!

Turns out that all you need is a baker's rack from the Flower (a gift to me when she moved in with the Fat), and a GIANT Cuisinart toaster oven! While I still sit to do most of my writing and editing, I like to grade papers with this arrangement. Here's hoping this keeps my body from completely falling apart in the next month.


*Apparently even on my blog, I can't resist creating a select bibliography.