room for living
the cleaning/rearranging project is practically complete! in fact i am so so pleased with it that i just have to share it with all you fine people. i didn't think to take "before" pictures until i'd already moved the computer, but you really didn't want to see the room before anyway. trust me.
this is my new "desk," which is really just a near-ancient gate-legged table that's been sitting in the hallway outside my room since we moved here. this space used to be occupied by a near-ancient (near-giant) hi-fi we got from my grandparents. i switched the table with the hi-fi a few weeks ago, but it didn't occur to me til a few days ago to move the computer. (the white space visible behind the computer is, in fact, a giant hole in the wall. okay, not a hole exactly; an opening.)
the bookshelf (which i got... for christmas? my birthday? i don't remember), which sits against the wall to the right of the new desk. i moved the shelves around and rearranged things. i am resisting the temptation to explain its organizing principles. i am resisting. yes, i am.
the nook, where my computer used to be. when we first moved into this house i thought that nook was perfect for a computer. two years later i realized wow, was i wrong! it was incredibly cramped (i couldn't even cross my legs), and it put the whole room behind me, including the giant hole in the wall and the main light source, which left me staring into a black hole behind the monitor; all very bad for working. now it houses an admittedly ugly stack of plastic drawers (which now holds all the clothes i actually wear, which is a good thing because i hated going into my closet for clothes), a very old filing chest (the white and gold thing, which holds papers that had previously been scattered throughout the room), and a bunch of stuff with as yet no permament home. (the ridiculously thick book is a linux manual my brother gave me--and did you notice the attic greek flashcards? i am teh coolness.)
a fuller view of the nook; included because you can see in this photo how the ceiling slopes back. you can also see a corner of the painting my friend kelly did the night (two years ago) we painted my room, on a blackboard that was here when we moved in (with the leftover wall paint). (the pinkish blob at the bottom is the foot of my bed. told you it was cramped!)
my wall-of-stuff. this house had been abandoned for several years before we moved in, and still contained a stunning amount of (i think rather cool) stuff, including weird books, weirder art, half a pair of assless chaps and some vintage gay porn--but also a giant trashbag full of matchbooks, from various places throughout the country. that wall is made of something soft enough to effortlessly stick thumbtacks into, so i did a bit of budget decorating, starting with the matchbooks and going from there. (the drawing is a visual proof of the irrationality of the square root of two, as created (and illustrated!) by john. (if i get really vain, i might do some close-ups of all the various other weirdnesses. you know you want it.))
my bed, newly openable (!) window, and the coolest deco-est nightstand in the world (housing a lamp the shade of which i made myself). oh, and the ancient tv i never use, except as a nightstand annex. (boo to alarm clocks!)
one last view of the new desk. it makes me so happy.
sorry for the gushing. this may seem like a really minor, silly thing, but it has made such a huge difference in my whole outlook on life.
in fact, it made such a difference that i was actually able to write today. really, seriously write--for five straight hours. i sat down to write a few paragraphs, and ended up writing three and a half (typed, single-spaced) pages. well over half of the first essay for application to st. john's is now finished. i've been trying to do that for the last two years. (why couldn't i have thought of this sooner?!)
oh, and also, i can now move photos directly from the digital camera onto my computer, so you're going to start seeing a lot more pictures on this here journal. (i can tell you're excited.)
despite taking a nap i'm still really tired, so i don't think i have any more writing left in me today. i just hope i can pull another session like that off tomorrow.
i am so happy!!! it's kind of amazing.
okay i'll stop now.
...
eeeeeeee!!!!
this is my new "desk," which is really just a near-ancient gate-legged table that's been sitting in the hallway outside my room since we moved here. this space used to be occupied by a near-ancient (near-giant) hi-fi we got from my grandparents. i switched the table with the hi-fi a few weeks ago, but it didn't occur to me til a few days ago to move the computer. (the white space visible behind the computer is, in fact, a giant hole in the wall. okay, not a hole exactly; an opening.)
the bookshelf (which i got... for christmas? my birthday? i don't remember), which sits against the wall to the right of the new desk. i moved the shelves around and rearranged things. i am resisting the temptation to explain its organizing principles. i am resisting. yes, i am.
the nook, where my computer used to be. when we first moved into this house i thought that nook was perfect for a computer. two years later i realized wow, was i wrong! it was incredibly cramped (i couldn't even cross my legs), and it put the whole room behind me, including the giant hole in the wall and the main light source, which left me staring into a black hole behind the monitor; all very bad for working. now it houses an admittedly ugly stack of plastic drawers (which now holds all the clothes i actually wear, which is a good thing because i hated going into my closet for clothes), a very old filing chest (the white and gold thing, which holds papers that had previously been scattered throughout the room), and a bunch of stuff with as yet no permament home. (the ridiculously thick book is a linux manual my brother gave me--and did you notice the attic greek flashcards? i am teh coolness.)
a fuller view of the nook; included because you can see in this photo how the ceiling slopes back. you can also see a corner of the painting my friend kelly did the night (two years ago) we painted my room, on a blackboard that was here when we moved in (with the leftover wall paint). (the pinkish blob at the bottom is the foot of my bed. told you it was cramped!)
my wall-of-stuff. this house had been abandoned for several years before we moved in, and still contained a stunning amount of (i think rather cool) stuff, including weird books, weirder art, half a pair of assless chaps and some vintage gay porn--but also a giant trashbag full of matchbooks, from various places throughout the country. that wall is made of something soft enough to effortlessly stick thumbtacks into, so i did a bit of budget decorating, starting with the matchbooks and going from there. (the drawing is a visual proof of the irrationality of the square root of two, as created (and illustrated!) by john. (if i get really vain, i might do some close-ups of all the various other weirdnesses. you know you want it.))
my bed, newly openable (!) window, and the coolest deco-est nightstand in the world (housing a lamp the shade of which i made myself). oh, and the ancient tv i never use, except as a nightstand annex. (boo to alarm clocks!)
one last view of the new desk. it makes me so happy.
sorry for the gushing. this may seem like a really minor, silly thing, but it has made such a huge difference in my whole outlook on life.
in fact, it made such a difference that i was actually able to write today. really, seriously write--for five straight hours. i sat down to write a few paragraphs, and ended up writing three and a half (typed, single-spaced) pages. well over half of the first essay for application to st. john's is now finished. i've been trying to do that for the last two years. (why couldn't i have thought of this sooner?!)
oh, and also, i can now move photos directly from the digital camera onto my computer, so you're going to start seeing a lot more pictures on this here journal. (i can tell you're excited.)
despite taking a nap i'm still really tired, so i don't think i have any more writing left in me today. i just hope i can pull another session like that off tomorrow.
i am so happy!!! it's kind of amazing.
okay i'll stop now.
...
eeeeeeee!!!!