I thought I’d have some fun for my next Skeining blog post, and feature something you see every day: your desktop background. I’m often surprised at what some people choose to display on their computer screens — sometimes it’s pictures of family, or a scene from a vacation. Other times, it’s something abstract, like a pattern, or maybe a famous work of art.
My girlfriend Alice changes her background images often; I will use the same one for months or years at a time. She’s a photographer, and chooses images from her repertoire. I’m not nearly as handy with a camera as she is, so I’ll often use something I’ve pulled from the web. For example, here’s what I’m currently using as my desktop picture.
No clue who did this or what it means. Pretty, though.
I’m not even sure what the name of the image is, only that I found it on a weird Russian website about spaceships. I couldn’t even read the writing, but I saw the image, and it looked like a beautiful backdrop to my every day work.
So here’s the deal:
I want to know what you are using as your background images. If possible, and if you’re willing to share, I’d like to feature these images on my blog. Does the image have a story behind it? Where did you find it? Did you take the picture yourself?
I’d also like to hear stories about your desktops. For example, Alice likes to sneak into our office when I’m not there and change my desktop background image — often to something featuring our dog. But we’ve all had weirder experiences: like when, back in college, me and my housemates changed our other housemates’ desktop background to feature something…well…unspeakable. (His reaction upon coming home and booting up his computer made it worthwhile.)
If you’d like to share, send me an email to alex@skeining.com and attach the photo of your computer desktop picture, along with a story or information behind it. Try to keep the stories to 125 words or less. Then, I’ll feature it in my next Skeining blog post along with all the other contributions. Don’t worry: it will be anonymous! I’ll stick to first names, or just “anonymous” if you prefer. (Please don’t send me anything pornographic, or images of extreme violence, or of people doing something patently illegal. “Tasteless” is fine; “lawsuit-inducing” is not.)
Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!
Alex
Skeining 
Current desktop, a photo taken from an airplane as it flew over New York. (Up until last week, my desktop had been a photo of gondolas in the Ventian Canal). Both of these were taken by me and represent this year of traveling in Europe quite well.
Thanks Tracy. You’re clearly traveling more than I am. For years, my laptop desktop was a picture I had taken of a gargoyle on Westminster Abbey in London, UK. It was on there so long that people I didn’t know used to tell me at the library, “Still got that thing on there?”