I got pictures! I finally finished the Übershanty that hangs over the corner of my cubicle. I mentioned the Übershanty previously, when the building’s air conditioning conked out. The idea of adding a chimney to the shanty stuck with me, especially when I had to do a cable trace to the little network switch that sits under one of my monitors. It was hot and uncomfortable slaving away under my little corrugated cardboard roof. I might stop up the chimney this winter and enjoy the extra heat. Until then, I’ve got a bitchin’ chimney:

The first thing I had to do was cut a hole in the roof. A simple toilet paper roll provided the material for the upper pipe. It had to be unobtrusive, lest it risk running afoul of the "Thou shalt not have anything taller than your cubicle" commandment we have here.	While attempting to cut out the hole for the chimney, I found that the roof simply was a bit too flimsy in the center, despite its overall cunning construction. I found a suitable piece of compressed laminate floorboard in the dumpster. It made a nifty crossbar.
The all-important and dizzyingly high-tech paper cone that sits atop the heat vent. Cleverly constructed from adhesive tape and a few pages of a boring e-mail message that somebody printed out and left on the printer. Like they were ever gonna read it.	The Übershanty. My little plot on the cube farm. It’s pretty sturdy, taking up to fifteen pounds of pressure before the crosspins in the cubicle wall start to give way. I guess I’ll have to paint it next. Or maybe throw some kind of soft backlight.

So there it is, in all its glory. The chimney works very well, too. I’m pretty impressed with its performance. Seriously, it’s like eight or ten degrees cooler at my desk now that most of the considerable heat generated by my CRT monitor goes right up the stack. As long as the office manager doesn’t notice the scorch mark that’s starting to form on the acoustic ceiling tile, I’ll be able to slave away in my very comfortable darkness.