Inspired by Quixotic’s recent post which was in turn inspired by the On My Desk site I decided to feature my creative/entertainment area as today’s Friday Favorite. I know, I know…you feel like you’re getting ripped off, cheated, bamboozled. Well you’re probably right about that but I promise you that in the process you’ll not only see aesthetically pleasing pictures but will be exposed to some art as well.
In addition to the pictures you can see there are several bold links in this post that will open up additional, more detailed pics. Give them a click!
Before getting to the “place where the magic happens” as I have called the computer room (in jest of course) I wanted to update you visually on the bookshelf project. I painted it recently but have to put a coat of finish on it. I like how it turned out so much, however, that I have been slowly filling up each nook with books and things over the past week and can no longer resist showing it off. You may remember that my father and I built this over 4th of July weekend and Mike helped us install it. At that time it looked like this:
Pretty nice, but incomplete. Well, without further ado I bring you the (almost) finished product:
The very top and bottom shelf don’t contain now what they will contain later on. I’m not sure what I want to do with the bottom shelf but along the top I want to frame some black and white pics (the current ones are from my living room) and get at least one or two more old cameras like the one pictured. I am on the lookout for a camera like this one from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Of course Red is right at home with a couple of her distant relatives…poppets also from the creative hands of Lisa Snellings-Clark:
I know I always want to see what’s on people’s bookshelves, so here are a couple of closeups:
One (I’m not sure Mary was as impressed as I was with how I color coordinated the books…they blend together well, look carefully) There are 31 books pictured here. Anyone who guesses how many of these I have actually completed reading will win a prize…seriously. Drop me an email at poegeek@gmail.com to guess. I’ll close the polls this Monday, August 28th at 11:59 p.m. I’ll send a secondary prize to whomever can guess how many of the remaining books I have started and haven’t finished yet.
Two (I love the collectible Overlook Press editions of Wodehouse)
The Medusa picture is by a local Kansas City artist, Scott Lewis, who has done coverwork for several comics as well as other work.
New room colors will be coming some time in the fall…stay tuned!
And now, on to the computer room! The computer is in the sunroom at the back of the house.
My dad built this desk for us several years ago based on a design I liked in a Pottery Barn catalog. My dad, however, made it uniquely his own and I just love it.
My area is complete with what every good blogger/gamer needs:
A replica Han Solo blaster and Hellboy action figure
Plenty of games close at hand (though this is only a small amount of the embarrassingly large quantity of PC games that I own).
And…”holy geekazoid, Batman”…a trusty batarang (actually signed by Adam West at a convention…long story)
and of course I always have books close by:
I have built my own computers more than once but the first tower I bought is the one I have always used. I did some case modifications a few years back just to do something new. James wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t post a picture showing how ridiculously large my tower is:
Its a big one (you can see my ode to Alienware and comics [Punisher] in the choice of my fan grill covers. I also have a Spiderman one on the back.)
and it lights up!
Moving to the left around the room you can see Mary and my homage to one of our favorite classic television shows, The Avengers (love Emma Peel!).
(If you’ve seen the opening of the earlier shows the hall tree, pearl necklace, and umbrella make sense)
Next on our tour is what every true science fiction fan needs:
because you know some day our (space) ship will come in!
Continuing left at the back of the room:
The Space Girl picture is another Scott Lewis print.
and there are more books of course.
Above the chair that you can barely see is the holy trinity (and yes I see that the top picture is a little crooked!).
Next to that is a very old antique trunk that has been in Mary’s family for some time:
(Click here for a larger image of the books on top)
Left of that is one of my favorite framed prints and a surprisingly comfy chair:
Above that is one of my most treasured geek possessions:
A replica made from the actual movie mold of Anduril, the sword reforged from the shards of Narsil that Aragorn took to fulfill his destiny. Santa Claus brought me this a few years ago!
Coming full circle we end up at the desk again, above which is a signed, framed print by James Cukr that I purchased from him years ago at a Star Trek convention in Tulsa, OK.
It is representative of The Empire Strikes Back, my favorite of the Star Wars films, and I never get tired of it. My mouse pad has also remained the same for several years and is another image (of Luke and Mara Jade) by James Cukr. I continue to keep these close by simply because that was such an amazingly fun. special convention. I purchased my Han Solo blaster and the cobra sword cane (its in one of the pics) at that same convention.
Well, that’s my environment. The place where I spend a great deal of time, some of which is attempting to share my thoughts, interests, and passions with all of you dear readers. I hope you don’t feel too robbed by today’s Friday Favorite post. I have enjoyed sharing my space with you.
Have a special weekend everyone! And don’t forget to drop me an email to enter that contest!!!
Hurrah for many books! Love the arrangement with Red – perfect. Is The Dante Club any good? I have a copy on my ‘to read’ pile, and haven’t prioritised it. I fear it will be too reminiscent of The Dumas Club. Though I haven’t read that either yet so my arguement has not a leg to stand on…
Competition entry! I’m guessing 24 read, 6 awaiting, 1 unfinished.
I won’t answer any questions about any of the books on the shelf until after Monday as I don’t want to give away any hints! I have to say though that I’m not sure what The Dumas Club is.
I’m off to bed Storm….have a good one!
POPPETS YAY! Ahem. Also, I spy The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy – hooray!
Great photos – enjoyed nosing around.
I also spied a copy of Dreamfall – I really need to get that. The Longest Journey is one of my favourite games.
Carl you have some great furniture, I love how everything is so personalised 🙂
And did I spot a Firefly screensaver or wall paper on your computer?
Firefly wallpaper indeed. Here is a link for you to have it for your very own if you want it Fence, it is 1024×768.
Our house is like that in every room really. I have always been a decorator…got that from my mom I believe…and I have never wanted things to be completely generic, I want each room to reflect something about our interests. Our pictures, knick-knacks, etc. all reflect something like that. For example, the little picture of the three hats next to the Wodehouse books? Mary and I have always loved that picture because it reminds us of the Stephen Fry/Hugh Laurie performances of Wodehouse’s characters Jeeves and Wooster.
Quixotic, I really want to get back to Dreamfall and finish it. I am about halfway through and it is a very enjoyable game. The Longest Journey was the most fantastic story. Bought it a few years after it came out because people raved about it so much and just loved playing it. It was like reading a good book. Amazing.
Hope you two sent me emails with your guesses.
love it! great job!
Thank you for the close up pics of books – you know all of us bookworms just love to see that kind of stuff 🙂 Your area looks great.
I love snooping through your stuff! There is a store here that carries many, many, many items similar to that sword (took my brother there and I thought he might start drooling). You can’t go wrong with anything having to do with Han Solo. Still blown away by the custom bookcase which looks fabulous! Well done.
This post is so dejavu to me. Those places all seem so familiar. Aw well maybe it twas a dream.
I really like what you’ve done in the bedroom, well I mean with the book shelf.
Nice space! I’m EXTREMELY jealous of your Han Solo replica balster.
Okay, thus far I’ve only gotten 2 responses to the contest. You’re at risk of missing out. People like Jeff and Mosker and James and Jules can attest to the fact that I really enjoy personalizing gifts and doing fun things so you’re really taking a chance by not entering this very simple contest! Doesn’t matter if you live in the states or not, chime in. You can leave a guess here (although then everyone knows what you guessed and may try to undercut you ala’ Price is Right) or you can send me an email to the email address listed in the post or my personal one if you have it. Get to it people!!!
I think part of the problem is traffic on the blog seems slower on fridays. maybe you should move the friday favorites to say wednesday’s?
You have a well decorated personal space, Carl. It’s nice that you have personalized it so well.
Your bookshelf looks great.
I have thought about it and may actually change it but at the same time I figure doing it on Friday brings the people over who are interested. My rant above was because the people who had posted thus far, who I know would be disappointed if they missed the opportunity, hadn’t taken the opportunity yet. I have since had more responses on email. Traffic is indeed really slow on the internet on Fridays on alot of sites. Plus you have to figure with England/Ireland being what?….10 hours ahead of us by the time I post early Friday mornings some people have already begun their weekend and don’t get on much over the weekend. I should probably start posting them on Thurs. and not do a Friday post.
Thanks Jules…and everyone else…for the nice words on my narcissistic Friday Favorites post. 😉
Woo hoo for The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy! Also, love the spacegirl print.
Carl – I will email you soon with my guess 🙂
Oh and also, I forgot to say – Jeeves and Wooster is the first thing that came into my head when I saw that picture. That may be because I was watching clips of J&W the other night…but still. I loved J&W…
Looking forward to your guess Quixotic, as well as the other stragglers. Jeeves and Wooster are fantastic.
GG, Quixotic…I love both Tim Burton’s sense of humor in Melancholy Death as well as his art. I have always loved his art style.
Niiiiiiiiiiiiice.
Of course you don’t have the REAL Anduril–cause I’ve got it. :>
Gotta get me one of those Han Solo blasters, though.
That’s exactly what I want you to think Wayne…that way the orcs don’t sneak over and try to take it from me.
I’ll guess that you’ve completely read 27 books, started reading but haven’t finished 4. It’s nice to see your office setup and your neat shelf. Love the desk!
Thanks BL, I’ll log your guess (bad pun intended) for the reveal post 11:59 p.m. Monday night!!!
I love looking at other people’s bookshelves and reading rooms, too! I want built in bookshelves….and I love the over the door effect!
I was browsing through a home magazine and noticed this throwaway picture that had a similar bookshelf and it just dawned on me that we could do that with the nook in our room created by the closet that was essentially useless space.
I love being able to act like I have a library and go pull the current book I’m reading off the shelf and put it back on the shelf when I am through for the night. Its so fun!
Love your new bookcases and the desk your father built. Thanks for sharing these.
Cool post, hon. Of course, I love the way our house is decorated, and I really like the way you have captured every little nook and crany. Did anyone notice the special brick on top of the books in the sunroom/computer room? I believe you posted about it before. Also, some of you may know the cute chubby cheeked baby in the black and white pictures on top of the bookcase. She is currently my most favorite 4 year old in the whole world, but she won’t be come next Sunday!!!
Nice bookcase you built and a lovely desk too.
Thanks, my dad is amazing. Next father’s day I need to do a post with pics of all the stuff he has built for us, he is very talented.
I’m completely and totally envious! My dad buildt my mom bookcases when they first got married and then they sold them when the sold their house. He-ll-o — Bookish daughter would have gladly taken them!
Ahhhh. . . I can’t believe I missed seeing the picture of my baby. I really can’t believe my little 8 lb 3 oz. baby is almost five years old. It just doesn’t seem right. Her birthday is on Tuesday the 5th. Anjelia’s is on Sunday the 10th. It’s very confusing!
It’s very sweet of you to have her picture up there.
Thanks for letting me snoop around in your stuff!
That’s a dramatic shift to the finished bookshelf, which looks fantastic. I can’t believe you put books you’re in the middle of reading back on the bookshelf. It makes it much more difficult to guess. I’ll say ten finished, eight in process.
Nice sword!!!
It is indeed…heavy as well!!!
That looks great! I love the shelf unit. You have it looking great – very YOU!
Thanks Karen!!!
you know carl v., you are just the coolest. i didn’t know you were an adventure game player – how was dreamfall by the by?
Dreamfall is a bit of a painful subject. I was about a third of the way through when my PC got a virus. It wouldn’t be quite as painful if it had stopped there, but in trying to remove it without having to reformat the PC I accidentally deleted by Dreamfall file (in my defense it had some other weird name, it didn’t say “Dreamfall”). I was loving it and will definitely get back to it. From what I’ve read it has a bit of a cliffhanger or unresolved ending as far as some of the characters go so I hope that means a sequel is in the works. The Longest Journey was fantastic and I was loving this one as well. So immersive.
I have been itching for a new adventure game of epic proportions – i am just so wary of being disappointed. from all i’ve read of Dreamfall, it’s beautiful and immersive but more of an interactive movie than a challenging adventure game.
The Longest Journey was fantastic; story, puzzles and above all, graphics. though there is some argument in the adventure game world about whether graphics are important, i think a good mix of the three are the best. the only complaint I had about it was that many of your decisions didn’t make any of a difference to the story line. it was either fulfill the prophesies or stop playing the game. ah well, i guess i miss the days of choose-your-own adventure books, when decisions actually mattered. i wish more adventure games were more like that, with multiple endings…
i do hope you finish the game (and then let me borrow it 😉 )… sorry about your computer trouble.
Thanks for the sympathy…it was more of a user error than a computer one! 😉 If you liked Longest Journey than you should like Dreamfall. It is more of the same with newer graphics. I like both of these because it is like a choose your own adventure story to some degree only there is obviously on one end result. I like feeling like I’m playing a story though.
I think you’re probably going to have to go with something like Oblivion for epic proportions…of course that is more roleplaying than adventure gaming. An old classic adventure game that I played and want to play again is called Sanitarium. I’m sure you can pick it up cheap. All mouse driven but very creepy and perfect for this time of year. As is the first person shooter/horror combo came Clive Barker’s Undying. Perfect game to play at night with the lights out…creeped me out tremendously!
I don’t have any problem loaning you Dreamfall if you want to borrow it.
Strictly for Jean Pierre’s voyeuristic tendencies, mentioned in the Children of Hurin book review comments, I give you updated pics of the bookshelves (click each, except the first, for a larger version):
Forgive the blurry pics.
Here’s what they look like today. Some shelves are pretty much the same, others have changed. Poppets have increased in number.
Here are close-ups of the top shelf, right to left:
The Red shelf, mostly unchanged:
The next shelf down:
and next:
almost done!:
and finally, the dusty bottom shelf:
you weren’t joking when you said you take care of your books… they are in immaculate condition!
theres a distinct charm about the way you group them in little piles. like i mentioned in the other post, i kind of gives each little pile its space and place amongst the rest of your books – making me consider them individually.
i like having my books as a phalanx, all together. i want them to hang out together.
but i really like how you’ve done yours -its like you’re letting them know they’re special to you, by doing that.
Yes, I am very fastidious about my books. I do my utmost to keep them looking new and I pick over them pretty thoroughly in the store before I buy them. That is the only thing I find frustrating with Amazon.com…over the past year they have gotten really sloppy with the way they package things, and at least 50% of the things I’ve ordered over the past year have had to be sent back for replacement because of large dents, tears, crushed spines…very annoying!
Thanks for the compliments. I have a really good time decorating, and decorating with books is one of my favorite things to do. I have piles of books on the couch behind the table, on my entertainment center (really just a large bookshelf with a tv on it), on my desk…I have several vintage paperbacks with Robert McGinnis covers in a basket in the living room.
I do like to group things together and they really are special to me.
And you’re not alone in your book voyeurism, I love to see people’s personal spaces, especially when they are book lovers.
that is incredibly annoying about amazon. especially for someone like you who takes such good care of books! they’re always willing to take them back but they think that makes it all right – which it doesn’t, you know. its a hassle sending it back. plus the downer when you get something that you’ve been looking forward to and you suddenly realise you have to send it back (and thus, you don’t have it and will have to wait again…)…! and what if its a gift?!
i LOVE LOVE LOVE those mginnis covers! they are very cool indeed! do you read them or just buy them for the covers?
i want to post a pic of my books soon on my blog. they’re not as i would like to have them at the moment, but i’d still like to share how they look. like chronicling their experiences, sort of. their journey.
oh, i’m still spinning from those covers…!
I have yet to read any of the McGinnis books, but I really want them. I am simply buying them now for the covers as he is a cover artist that I really admire. I have several Frank Frazetta paperbacks as well, but I’ve read some of them as they are for Edgar Rice Burroughs books.
I can’t wait to see the pics of your books once you get them the way you want them.
Say, I notice HERE THERE BE DRAGONS on one of those shelves. How is it? I got the audiobook a year or more ago but have not listened to it yet.
I haven’t read it yet, Richard, but I’ve heard good things from fellow bloggers who are reading the series.