Photo meme results

[bironic]

Oops -- today is actually the two-year anniversary of my opening this LJ account, not posting my first entry (Sep. 22, when I'll do the anniversary post). Nevertheless, here are the photo meme responses! You can click on almost any photo to see it full-size.

For queenzulu and theninth: Bookshelves! (Sorry, Nine, I couldn't pick just one favorite.)

I love my books like a cardinal sin. Book-buying is my worst habit, and I confess that I like to pretend that owning books means I know what's inside them by virtue of them being on my shelves, even when there are a lot of them I haven't read yet.

The main shelves (pardon the wallpaper; I decorated this room when I was nine):	The cabinet under the shelves (Shakespeare, classics, poetry and plays):

Where the Harry Potter books & fanfic live:	The pop culture/fandom/fanfic studies shelf:
The sci fi/fantasy shelves:	The overflow shelves:
Some books living in a box to make room for the TV:	A Dickens set and the books I used in my layout, on a shelf in my closet:
ETA: Almost forgot the ones hiding behind my computer:

And some close-ups, if you want to see titles:








For queenzulu: Any and all pets!

No pets right now, but I used to have a guinea pig:




View from your favourite lounging chair.

This is the view from my side of the couch, where I do most of my TV-watching and some writing. All those House reviews? Happen from right here:






For deelaundry: Also, your favorite outfit. (Sorry, I couldn't think of anything to photograph that reminds me of the WIP that isn't an X-rated cartoon screenshot or the napkin-scribble photo below...)

This summer, my most-worn outfit is this short-sleeved, striped shirt, white tank top, light gray-green cargo pants, and comfy brown shoes I picked up in Asheville:






For roga: And one abstract prompt: kindness. (I didn't make it into town this weekend – I'll get back to you on that one.)

Kindness is helping my father. You can't have a conversation with him without being asked for something, so it certainly feels like kindness to say yes. :) This is us cutting a ten-foot piece of flakeboard tonight so he can make cabinet tops. It was too big to fit in the garage, so we had to do it in the driveway.






For elynittria: An example of woodwork done by your father.

(Hm. I should take some photos at my mom's place to balance things out...) My dad likes southwest decorating styles. Here are a couple of small pieces he made for the bathroom:



(The white formica bookshelves and kitchen table above, and my desk & hutch down below, were also made by him.)




For thedeadparrot: Kitchen sink!

Before and after dishwasher duty:






For nightdog_barks and daasgrrl: Your PC. Your laptop. Whatever it is you're writing on. / View from your desk or from wherever you most use the 'puter.

My laptop, and what I see when I sit in my desk chair (including a stereo speaker, some glass bottles that comprise part of my "Snape's Potions" collection, a wooden clock/pen holder I made with my dad many years ago, and a small rock with pyrite cubes that look like Borg ships that synn got me):




When I'm not writing on the laptop (or on my work computer), I have been known to scribble in notebooks and on napkins.






For purridot: Your favourite stuffed animal (if you own one), looking through the window wistfully like Neil in your icon :D

I don't have any favorite stuffed animals handy, so here is a little dragon my dad brought home from a county fair a few weeks ago. I think he looks suitably wistful. :)






For daasgrrl: Your garden - should you have one.

Indeed we do have a (vegetable) garden, though it is very sad and rather dead:




There are a couple of peppers and some weird-looking cucumbers coming in, but that's about it now that the peas and tomatoes are done. We didn't get much of a yield this year and will probably switch to another part of the backyard next season.





The end! Unless anyone else has requests?

Comments

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

These are awesome pictures! Although, um, I'm kind of intrigued by the book with the huge swastika on its side! ;)

Your dad's woodwork looks great. It must be nice to have someone in the family with a hobby that's actually really useful.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It is! He/we do all kinds of nifty projects, although the furniture-making has died down in recent years. The downside, as I was telling roga below, is that a lot of the things he wants to do, and pretty much all the chores, require help (not only participation but also lifting, moving, rearranging, holding ladders, cleaning up, carrying tools, etc.), so that can be irksome. But all in all I'm very proud of him and will let him know he's getting compliments on his work. :)

*g* The book is William Shirer's hefty The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The swastika is rather... well, let's just say that when I first got that book, I kept it in my closet lest visitors get the wrong idea.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

*peers eagerly into Bironic's world*

You've got some of my favorite books! The David McCullough biography of John Adams! And The Dispossessed! And I can see A Canticle for Leibowitz there! Eeeeeee!!!!

This is so cool. Kudos to your dad for wearing a super-giant faceshield and ear protectors.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Safety first! We quote Norm Abrams all the time ("And don't forget to wear these"--*tap tap*--"safety glasses"). I was wearing ear protectors too, but had to take off my gloves to snap the photo -- quickly, since we were in the middle of cutting. :)

Now, see, I haven't read any of those yet. *facepalm* The Adams biography was a gift from the staff at an internship; A Canticle for Liebowitz was one of a bunch of sci fi books from a high school English teacher who was cleaning out his basement; and The Dispossessed, I cannot wait to dig into. I love Ursula LeGuin's work -- The Lathe of Heaven and The Left Hand of Darkness, genius -- so much so that I bought a second copy of The Dispossessed because I forgot I already had one. Heh. I've tried to start it once or twice, but an hour before bed is not the ideal time to get into a LeGuin universe. One day soon...

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

I have to read selections from Barthes Mythologies for my class next week, and there it is on your bookshelf! :D

What a fascinating selection of photos. I always feel like I can feel more comfortable with a person once I've seen their bookshelves.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Pleased to re-make your acquaintance, then. :) They're strange things, book collections -- mine definitely reflects my interests, but not necessarily my knowledge. Rather, it's how I present my knowledge, to myself and to anyone who looks: these are the books I have read and want to have read. The unhealthy thing is to think, Because I own these books, I know them, and then go out and get more.

I have to read selections from Barthes Mythologies for my class next week

Neat! That copy was from my grandmother's attic. She had a bunch of sci fi novels/magazines and random nonfiction up there that I was always encouraged to pilfer whenever we visited. Have fun reading it! I remember it being very twisty and postmodern but interesting; but then again, that was many moons ago, and maybe it'd be easy reading now. ...Rambling, sorry.

[roga.livejournal.com]

An entire shelf about the third reich - what fun light summer reading.

I love the picture of your dad - he is le cute with that face shield, and anyone who can build stuff is automatically awesome.

Very sneaky not enlarging the notebook pic. I want to see your handwriting! and what you're writing.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hee. If you look very closely, you'll probably be able to make out some of what's on that page. Let me see what else I've got in this pile... Okay, here -- some notes on a Post-It for an SGA sestina:

Yeah, not quite light reading, but a long-time interest of mine. Part responsibility and part fascination.

he is le cute with that face shield, and anyone who can build stuff is automatically awesome.

Hee! Glad you like it. With all the sawdust that thing kicks up, a face shield is pretty useful. We probably looked ridiculous out there all geared up and shouting at each other because we both had the ear protectors. And yes, having someone around whose hobby is carpentry and who knows how to do all the handyman tasks around the house, while irritating in that it requires constant work, is quite useful (and saves money!).

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Part responsibility and part fascination.

Why do you say responsibility?

*trying to figure out if I know the answer or if I'm just projecting*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Responsibility as a Jewish person to know as much as I can about what happened to my people; responsibility as a citizen of the world to ensure that history doesn't repeat itself by learning how it happened before; responsibility as a human being to read survivors' accounts, and their accounts of people who did not make it, so their memory lives on.

Yes?

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Yes?

*smiles*

Yes.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Glad that's settled. :)

Our town's independent bookstore recently had ... the book you read whose title and author I've forgotten, about the man tracing his lineage in Europe and interspersing it with tales of the Holocaust, on its monthly recommended list.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Hee.

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn.

Excellent, excellent book. I've gotten Mr. Nightdog to read it.

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, particularly by the last two. When I was researching my dissertation, there were times when I felt like I didn't really have the right (strange as that sounds) to stop reading when something disturbed me.

On a totally unrelated topic, guinea pigs have the best noses. They look like tree sloths'.

That is all.

[roga.livejournal.com]

1. Yay, SGA sestina! 2. I love your handwriting. 3. I totally get the reading material. Although I tend to go for movies, documentaries, articles and fiction, rather than fat history books.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

3 - Movies and fiction, too, definitely, although I haven't seen many documentaries or read many articles since college.
2 - Thanks! I liked your artsy notebook photo too.
1 - Sorry to say that's all there is so far, but one day...

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hee - I loved the pics. Your lounge room and garden look lovely, I adored the 'potion bottles', and I enjoyed playing a quick round of 'book snap'. You have MAUS!!! And amusingly, both Alive and Into Thin Air, which I always tend to put together. And no comment on the quantity of Anne Rice XD

So many people write on laptops! I honestly can't understand how you can do that...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Too cramped for you? I've used a laptop since college, partly because I like the feel of the keyboard, partly because it's totable, and partly because there isn't enough room on my desk to fit a regular monitor and keyboard. A flatscreen, maybe, or one of those all-in-one vertical types, but the latter aren't stable (I've tried) and we don't have any of the former floating around. Ergo, laptop.

Glad you liked the photos! Yep, we read Maus in a Holocaust course at college, which was an excellent excuse to buy it. I tend to pair Into Thin Air with The Perfect Storm, probably because I got them at the same time and they're both survival (or not) stories of men against nature. The tall flask with the brownish liquid is one of my favorite "potions" (it's molasses in a bottle that says "extracts" on one side); the other is a jam jar with pink lemongrass shoots on another shelf.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

So you do exist and are not just a figment of my imagination!

I think we are cosmically linked! I believe we have the same laptop -- a Thinkpad R60? And a shared affection for The Fountainhead, Anne Rice, and Guy Gavriel Kay! Book buying is possibly my worst vice as well (of course, VISA doesn't think so).

I love the little wistful dragon. He's *perfect* :D

[bironic.livejournal.com]

That photo was the most fun to take, I must say. Thanks for the inspiration!

And yes, I love all those books and authors! Even in the guilty pleasure way we discussed the other day. Oh, and I finished Outlander the other day -- quite fun, light reading. Claire got on my nerves sometimes, but she was all right overall, and I did very much enjoy all the damsels and heroes in distress -- including all the hedging around the times various nobles had been after Jamie's arse, and the final assault and his super-dramatic recovery. (Then I felt kind of bad about having wished for it to happen, since he got hurt in so many other non-fun ways.) I didn't realize till afterwards that I'd cast Jason Isaacs as Randall. He has the right mix of sexiness and evil (and Britishness) about him, not to mention teh lurking gay.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Ah, glad to hear you enjoyed Outlander! It is a rather fun romp (though I suspect I wasn't supposed to giggle at some of the parts I did). I admit I don't actually like Claire, so it amuses me greatly that she *really* doesn't like Jamie's gay best friend (whom I don't think appears in that first novel.) Jason Isaacs makes such a good villain, 'tis very true. I prefer evil when it's sexy, because at least it has something going for it then.

My mom likes to read "historical romantic fiction" (you know, the novels with covers that depict men with billowy shirts and women whose lacy gowns are falling off) and looking through some of them I was surprised at all the hoyay. From best-selling authors of the genre, no less. I mean, Diana Galbadon is "big" in that circle, and yet nobody usually mentions the homosexual aspects to it ("Oh, she writes the gay Scottish stuff!"). It's like a well-kept secret. Or, I'm just out of loop (sadly more likely).

[purridot.livejournal.com]

BTW, I wonder if you could give me some advice on teaching literature. Can I e-mail you privately?

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes -- sure! You can email anytime. Hope I can help.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I haven't (hadn't) come across any hoyay in romance novels -- perhaps because I've only read one of them, heh, unless you count the first Anita Blake novel, and two if you count Outlander, which I think we must -- and was (am) surprised to hear that there's so much of it. Is there more worth checking out? (By Gabaldon or others?)

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I am not sure what my mom is reading these days ;-) I do remember reading Through A Glass Darkly (http://www.amazon.com/Through-Glass-Darkly-Karleen-Koen/dp/1402200447/ref=sr_1_2/002-7988858-1429627?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190002962&sr=1-2) a few years ago (it was on her nightstand) and it was full of teh hoyay! Hee! And was a bestseller at the time I think. If you really want a historical novel to read while nursing a cold in bed with an endless supply of hot chocolate, this would be the thing.

I sort of liked the Gabaldon novels. I haven't dived into the Lord John ones yet (I am the slowest reader on the planet), but I would expect lots of hoyay there.

P.S. I am listening to "Jolene" as I type this: how deliciously mournful!

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Seeing all these pictures is quite intriguing—sort of like looking through a window into your world. I really like your Dad's woodwork. (Dads who build furniture—especially bookshelves—are very cool.) His stuff has a much more contemporary feel than the furniture my Dad builds. (He tends to like to make replicas of antique furniture.)

I don't have time at the moment to take a close look at the titles in your bookshelves, but I intend to at some point. I just love checking out other people's libraries!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I felt the same way when you posted pictures of your new kitten, since the shots included parts of your house. 'Twas nice.

(Dads who build furniture—especially bookshelves—are very cool.)

:) I'd like to see some of *your* father's stuff one day, if you ever take pictures.

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Yay, pictures! Your living room is so clean. I don't know whether to admire you or move in. Or both.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Heh. Friends of the family have called it a museum before. A byproduct of cohabitating with a neat freak beyond my own neat freakdom (everything must be vacuumed every week! no dust anywhere! no piles of paper! nothing on the floor! no dishes in the sink! but of course *he* can leave piles wherever he likes...).

[synn.livejournal.com]

oh, I miss that room.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It misses you too.

[thedeadparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, I totally know that, "OMG SO MUCH STUFF IN THE SINK" feeling.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It's one of those Sisyphean tasks that makes you wonder why you bother -- the sink will just fill up again and the dishwasher will need emptying, no matter what you do.