Getting to know me through the treasures in my office

Posted 3 days ago

I enjoy visiting people’s offices and seeing how they decorate. I like exploring their bookshelves or seeing all the different pictures, toys, or other artifacts that they have collected. Each of these tell a unique story about that person’s life–their interests, hobbies, or things that are important to them.

Several years ago, I gave my teammates a virtual tour of my home office as part of a virtual retreat day. I thought it would be fun to give a tour of my office and share some of the stories about the things you will find on the bookshelves, on the walls, or on my desk.

Bookcases

One of the first things that you would learn about me as you entered my office is how important books are to me. I love to read. Most of the books on my shelves are related to my Christian faith. There are also a lot of books about web design and development, my career. There are sports related books. Several of those books celebrate World Series, Super Bowl, or NCAA championships. Two of the most recent celebrate the Chiefs Super Bowl wins in 2020 and 2023. I also have several books that I collected from the destinations we have visited in Europe.

The wall next to my bookcases

The first items form a trio: the shield on top, a collection of coins in the middle, and the flag at the bottom. Most of them come from my first trip to Hungary in the summer of 1990. The flag was the first thing I bought. I had seen it while visiting Tihany—displayed in several businesses—and eventually found a store that sold it. Unlike in America, you couldn’t count on finding the same item in multiple places. So when I saw it, I decided to buy it right then, knowing I might not get another chance.

The original cross piece had two circular caps on the end. That got broken somewhere along the way so I replaced it with a wooden dowel.

The collection of money is from my first two trips to Hungary in 1990 and 1996. The money on the left still has the communist seal. I also bought some communist era medals and pins. The items on the right have the Hungarian shield which was the symbol of country free of Communism. That money was replaced by new currency during my third visit in 1997-98, in which we lived in Eastern Hungary for nine months.

I bought the bronze shield from a kiosk along the lakefront in Balatonf?red, the city we lived in for six weeks.

Treasures on the bookcases

I went through a phase in where the ship motif was important to me. A friend of mine gave me the first ship. The ceramic ship I bought on my Hungary 1996 trip. These sit on opposite ends of a bookcase near the Hungarian trio. The ships share a shelf with my blue beanie that I got from an Adobe employee many years ago. He had mentioned giving them away to celebrate Blue Beanie Day and I requested one.

The next shelf contains my two sport themed Funko POPs. I bought Patrick Mahomes to celebrate the Chiefs’ second Super Bowl win in 2020. It is very distinctively Mahomes with the curly hair and headband. The Rays POP is Austin Meadows. Not as distinct. But it is a visual reminder of my 2020 MLB The Show season that I played with the Rays and Meadows was one of my star players.

Between the two sports POPs is one of two postcards from the Sagrada Familía that I visited last year with my son. It is my favorite cathedral of the ones that I have visited. I loved this space. Read more about my visit to Sagrada Familía

Most of my collection of Marvel POPs share a shelf with a deck of Avengers playing cards. Captain America was my first purchase even though Spider-man was the first one I had thought about buying. I really like the character of Sam in the MCU and had to get a POP of him in the Captain America suit from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Spider-man was my favorite superhero as a kid. I did not really follow Captain America until the MCU.

These postcards sit on different shelves. My daughter graduated from Trevecca in 2022 and currently works there as a student success advisor. My son is currently a junior at Murray State studying graphic design.

My MailChimp plush. I got him through a promotional campaign on Twitter. The packaging came with the warning to “never, never ever stare directly into its eyes or feed it after midnight.” I always think of the movie Gremlins when I recall that warning.

My wife and oldest daughter bought me this soldier for a birthday or Father’s Day. They said that it represented me being their hero.

Speaking of heroes, this Aragorn action figure sits on the top shelf of the middle bookcase. I never got into the Lord of the Rings as a kid. I read the books for the first time after seeing Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring. I fell in love with the story and it is probably my favorite stories. The Battle of Helm’s Deep is one of my favorite settings and represented Aragorn the warrior to me.

I got this wooden representation of my name at Santa-Cali-Gon days in Independence, Missouri. My family use to go to this annual celebration every year when I was growing up. My mom loved looking through the different craft tents.

I added a piece to this item that use to sit on my desk back before I was a web developer and had all the equipment on the desk that I do today. Bálint Postás (Post Office Mascot) is from Hungary. I bought him when I lived in Debrecen in ’97-98. I loved the Hungarian Posta branding in which he was a central part. This is just one more little piece of Hungary that connects my heart to the place and the memories I built there. I have always referred to him as “posta ember” or post man in English.

I love the look of this Spider-man POP from No Way Home. The gold and black are awesome. I also love the pose that Spidey is in.

I have a whole shelf dedicated to memorabilia from my favorite sport, baseball. George Brett (bobblehead on the right) was my favorite Royal growing up. Behind George is a model of the newer Kaufmann Stadium. I became a Rays fan when our family lived in Orlando. The Rays baseball was signed by Reid Brignac at a Rays Fan Fest we attended. The cow bell is a perfect souvenir because it was a staple of game experiences at the Trop. There are several baseball cards of my kids that we collected over the many years of going to games together. I even have a rubber baseball of my current city’s minor league team, the Lookouts.

I was a big fan of Whit Merrifield. He was my favorite player when I played MLB The Show 17 with the Royals. My daughter got me the Brandon Lowe bobblehead for Christmas. He has been one of my favorite players on the Rays since we left Orlando. I also set a HR record with him in MLB The Show 20 while playing with the Rays.

The next shelf is dedicated to Star Wars. It included an R2-D2 which was one of the original action figures that I got after seeing the movie when it was first in theaters. I also have LEGOs of my favorite ships from the saga. I still have my original X-Wing and Snowspeeder that go with the action figures. It was a lot of fun to build these LEGO models. Star Wars and LEGO were my favorite toys growing up and it was not until I was an adult that that they came together as Star Wars LEGO.

My son bought me the Mandalorian after we watched the first season together on Disney+. I really liked Ewan McGregor’s portrayal of the younger Obi-Wan and bought this bobblehead from the Disney+ series. And Darth Vadar was the scariest villian when I was a kid so I had to have this New Hope POP.

This Trabant toy came from my year in Hungary in ’97-98. I saw quite a few Trabants in my first three visits to Hungary. I got ride in one in Eger in 1998. The car is quitessential communist Eastern Bloc icon. The engine sounds like a lawn mower engine. The panels are a resin-plastic and they are very cramped inside. I won this toy as part of a white elephant gift exchange that my ministry team had for Christmas. We played a version of white elephant where you roll dice for so many minutes and if you got a certain number, you could trade gifts. The Trabant was quite popular and I was glad to come away with it. It still works by pulling it back and letting it go.

My other postcard of the Sagrada Familía. I loved the structure of the ceiling.

My son and I visited a local attraction a couple of years ago. Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall that you access through caves in Lookout Mountain. I loved this artistic interpretation of the falls.

I didn’t realize until recently that I acquired this bus in London as a child (2 years old). My mom and I visited my dad while he was stationed in the Mediterrean with the U.S. Navy. I just found out last year that my mom and I spent a few days in London on that trip. I had not realized that was part of the trip in which we also visited Malta, Sicily, Rome, and Athens. I knew that the bus came from that trip but did not realized we purchased it in the UK.

A California Raisin playing trumpet. The character is from a fictional musical group that was part of an advertising campaign for Sun-Maid raisins in the late 80s and early 90s. I played trumpet from fifth grade until my sophomore year of college.

My first POP was Frodo. I bought him on a trip with my son to Atlanta in 2017. I had to get Sam. Frodo and Sam’s friendship is a great inspiration to me. Samwise is my favorite character in the Lord of the Rings. The POPs sit in front of my Tolkien collection, including The History of Middle-Earth.

I love having this action figure of Sam hang on my bookself–the same shelf as the Frodo and Sam POPs.

3D printed models of the Tennessee Aquarium, a popular attraction in Chattanooga. A button I made at Family Weekend at Murray State last fall. A chipboard ghost that my son cut out when practicing with the laser cutter for one of his first year studio classes.

A plush “Jayhawk”, the mascot of my alma mater, the University of Kansas. Poky, a found object sculpture that my son made in his first art studio class at Murray State. These two sit next to each other and represent my time in college and my son’s time in college. For many years, I had a model of one of my architecture projects that sat of the top of the shelves. It fell into disrepair several years ago and I got rid of it. I wish I had kept it to put next to my son’s project.

My Hungary shelf contains both books from my European travels along with several souvenirs. The key chain and the fish were from my first trip in 1990. The cannon is from my trip to Eger in April 1998 when I lived in Hungary for nine months. The coinset was a birthday present from a teammate during that same time. The coin purse contains coins from different visits. I bought the painting of Budapest while there in 2000 on a two-week trip.

The glass paperweight is of the Chain Bridge (Lanchíd), which is my favorite bridge. It is a 3D etching that I bought on a trip in 2006. It sits in front of an Angol-Magyar dictionary that I bought the first summer I spent there.

A former teammate painted this picture of our guinea pig, Butterscotch. We bought Butterscotch along with two other guinea pigs right before the pandemic started. Butterscotch was sick most of her life and only lived for nine months.

We decided to buy some new pigs after our first pigs died the year before. I had told the kids to not fall in love with the first pigs they held at the pet store. From past personal experience, I knew that pigs at the store could be sick and you don’t want to buy a sick piggie. Of course, what did I do. I fell immediately in love with this very soft and sweet little pig.

My teammate used an Instagram picture I posted as the basis of the picture. She sent it to me several weeks after we lost Butterscotch. She knew how much Butterscotch meant to me. Her gesture meant so much to me. Thanks Molly.

My colonial viper from the original Battlestar Galatica series. It came with a torpedo that you could shoot (it still works). Later models did not have this feature (safety hazard). I was a big fan of the short lived series.

A postcard from my visit to Budapest last year. I loved this line drawing of the building along with the Chain Bridge and other iconic landmarks in the background. My son and I were able to tour the Parliament building on our last morning in Budapest. We got there early and were able to get one of the limited amount of tickets.

A souvenir of our honeymoon in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I love the beach.

A print of Royals Stadium the way I remember it from growing up. This has the original scoreboard and logo that you would see from 1-70 when you drove past the stadium. This was before they added seats in the outfield and took away the open air feel of that part of the stadium.

This was an envelope celebrating George Brett’s induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. As I mentiond earlier, Brett was my favorite Royal growing up. I loved watching Brett both on offense and defense.

My diploma from the University of Kansas. I got my degree in architecture. I never practiced but I felt like I came back around full-circle to a creative career in web design and development.

Two banners for my alma mater, the University of Kansas or KU. The Rock Chalk banner has been there the longest. Rock Chalk is a chant that supporters voice at sporting events. It came from a geology professor. Limestone or chalk rock is common in this part of the country. The chant originated as Rah, Rah, Jayhawk, Go KU” but was later modified to “Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, Go KU.” The second banner came in a promotional package that the school sent to my daughter when she was a high school senior.

My baseball sundae helmet collection. I had originally collected similar helmets from Dairy Queen when I was growing. All but one of these came from eating sundaes at actual major league games. These helmets represent my favorite team (Royals and Rays) and cities that I have attended a game. The Padres were a favorite team when growing up because my best friend had moved to San Diego when I was 8.

Project Grid

Three years ago, I came up with this idea to create a grid of screenshots of different projects that I worked on over the year and had some importance or personal significance. I prototyped the project on Codepen and then put together 16 projects. I used MixTiles to print the tiles.

Read more about showcasing my past projects

Other wall decorations

My wife and I bought this print when we moved to Manhattan, Kansas for our first assignment with Campus Crusade for Christ. We believe it is a scene from an Italian city. We just liked the look of it. It hung over our couch in our first apartments and later our first house. We didn’t have a place for it in the living room of our current house and it eventually found its way to my office.

My wife bought me this banner a couple of years ago for Christmas. I started following and rooting for the Rays when we lived in Florida.

Desk Wall

I have several prints that hang near my desk.

Lawrence, Kansas is the home of the University of Kansas. My wife bought me this print a couple of years ago.

My print of Cameron Moll’s typographical print of the Colosseum in Rome. This is a quarter of his entire print. He sold this smaller prints and I really like the perspective. I visited the Colossem in 1998, when we lived in Hungary for nine months.

Three prints for Eastern Europe. The top left is from Krakow, Poland. I had a similar view in cafe at night in the summer of 1996. The one on the top right is one of my favorite views in Budapest of the Chain Bridge and Matthias Church (Buda) from the western side of the Danube (Pest). And the third print is of the Charles Bridge and St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. We visited Prague in October 1998.

A print of one of my favorite views of the city I currently live in, Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Tennessee River, Walnut and Market Street bridges, the Tennessee Aquarium, and Lookout Mountain in the background.

A space shuttle LEGO that my youngest daughter bought me for my last birthday. I remember getting up very early to watch the very first shuttle launch on TV. We witnessed several shuttle launches from Orlando when we lived there. Night launches were a sight to see. We also heard several of the sonic booms when the shuttle returned to Earth and landed about an hour away.

Aragorn the king. I just recently put this out on a smaller bookshelf by my desk. I had seen a picture of it when it was on a bookshelf in our bedroom in Orlando. I retrieved it from the box I was storing it in and once again can enjoy it.