A Chicken on Every Desktop

It was sometime in the afternoon of April 18th that I installed a new widget on my desktop. For those who aren't quite as 'geeked' out as me, a widget is a small utility that runs on the desktop level of a computer system that performs a function. Examples are a notepad, a world-clock, an controller for iTunes or a battery drain check for a laptop.

I chose to install a chicken.

Amazingly, in my testing over the past 24-hr period I find that I've experienced the following widget usage patterns (keep in mind that I'm on the computer about 85% of my workday):

• Wi-Fi signal check: 0 times
  
• CPU usage checker: 2 times
  
• Battery checkers: 0 times
  
• Weather for 92653: 1 time
  
• Clock to check time in London: 3 times
  
• Clucking Chicken: 6 times
  

Why does one resort to putting a chicken on ones desktop and using it as a form of sick entertainment? If you have to ask, you've never seen a tiger pacing in a small metal cage in a zoo. If you have to ask, you have an outdoor job that lets you see the sun. If you have to ask...

Ironically, when I downloaded the chicken I already had a picture from the Nature Conservancy website of the Oklahoma Tallgrass Prarie Reserve. The chicken looks like the photo at the top of this article. Actually, that's him.

If you understand where I'm coming from, or better yet if you don't, then a glance at the results I've gotten from the chicken's suggestions to my more complex issues at work is in order:

Q: What should I put on iTunes?
Chicken: Tweet tweet tweet

Q: Should I keep working on this business continuity document for my employer or would it be more prudent to check my Yahoo mail?
Chicken: Tweet tweet tweet

Q: Why does Bill Withers make me feel inadequate?
Chicken: Bak bak bak!

Q: Chicken, should I just take some time out to write a blog entry?
Chicken: Tweet tweet tweet

Q: Why am I talking to a virtual chicken on a 78 degree sunny day?
Chicken: Tweet tweet tweet

Q: Only chicks say tweet tweet. Shouldn't you be clucking?
Chicken: Tweet tweet tweet

Q: I believe the meaning of life is love. What do you think?
Chicken: Bak bak bak!

Q: How do I get our eCommerce package to cache it's image content without conflicting with our CMS system's DLL plug-in for IIS 6.0 now that I've created a new Application Pool for each system and the caching still fails?
Chicken: Bak bak bak!

As you can see, the chicken is providing a great deal more to my productivity at work than any other widget could do. For that matter, I believe the chicken might be providing more to my overall life-sustaining happiness then most of my fellow employees (and that's a bold statement because I really enjoy a majority of my co-workers).

So next time you're thinking about doing something silly like asking an Magic 8-Ball what to do with your life or filling the gap in your work-day with something silly like actual real-time communication, think chicken.