I like to sculk about the office late at night when I'm stuck here, wandering around the desks and cubicles. I never touch anything or get too close, but I observe while wandering around while waiting for tasks that require me.

Not really for any reason but to look at the signs of people and civilization without actually having people as a distraction.

We're immediately drawn to people, faces in pictures, the sound of talking, etc., but only when it's really quiet, and no one is actually around, can you concentrate on the trappings in which people live.

I have a great book called Tokyo Nobody which is pictures taken around Tokyo during the daytime when absolutely no one is in the shots. It's filled with eerie citiscapes devoid of life, but with all the remements of it. You can see trash, buildings signage, parked cars, everything but people.

Without the distraction of humans, you can start to see details in the city you never would have noticed before.

Such as in an empty office. Office decorations, stacks of notes carfully placed, or slopped over a desk. Drink glasses and coffee mugs, pictures and the like all tell a story that can't be heard until the daytime dwellers have left for the evening.

It sometimes makes me feel like an alien observer; some sort of archaeologist trying to learn about mankind from the things they left behind.

As if I could deduce something about the nature of people from their offices (well besides, that people have too much junk).