Photo meme!

[raven]

The photo meme! People commented to ask me to take photos of things, and here I am being obliging.

I actually had a really good time getting all of these. First of all, gamesiplay wanted to see my bookshelves.



Here they are, in all their glory. I'm lucky to have such nice ones - most college rooms have one shelf above a desk. I should point out here, before you see the rest of the pics, that I am one of the messiest people you'll ever meet. It should therefore be clear that this isn't all my books - quite apart from the ones at home up north, there's at least another shelf's worth strewn around the room.

Moving on, yes! The bottom shelf was supposed to be all my own personal books, with the middle shelf for reference and textbooks, but it didn't quite work out like that. That said, the bottom shelf is the fun one. It has lots of Doctor Who in the middle, and the book on its side is my birthday present from gamesiplay herself: The Portable Beat Reader. It shall be devoured in ninth week.

Along with Catch-22, still lurking unread on the shelf above. But apart from CDs and DVDs, those are mostly dictionaries and Oxford handbooks. The big grey book on the far right is the University Examination Regulations. Yes. I know. Most people use them as doorstops. The little red one in front was a present from Sky - The Little Book of New Labour Bollocks.

The two pictures at the top are my sole concession to religion in the room - the one on the left depicts Saraswati, goddess of learning and education (I should imagine most Hindu students have a picure of her somewhere) and the one on the right is Durga, who is my kind of goddess. Yes.

speccygeekgrrl wanted a picture of the notebook I write the most in.



I would dearly loved to have shown it to her - it's a purple hardback notebook with Eeyore embossed fluffily on the front, which hathy_col brought me back from New York - but I idiotically left it up north this term and have missed it sorely. So in its absence, I can only give you the once-160-page-now-sadly less pad of lined paper that my revision notes are slowly filling up. (Those are my political theory notes you can see. Yes, my handwriting is atrocious.)

le_parapluie wanted to see my favourite shoes!



I couldn't decide, so you get two for the price of one, so to speak. The boots are my winter favourites - they're big and warm and make wonderful clunking noises and are girlie while still pointy enough to kick arses. What's not to love? (Also, girl_doctor has them too, in brown.) And the red ones are the ones I'm living in at the moment, although to be honest I haven't really been wearing shoes lately.

icepixie wanted the attic in general, and jacinthsong wanted to see what was up on my noticeboard.



Here is is, and I have to say it's not the world's most academically focused. The photos are all my favourite ones - the two on the bottom at the right feature Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman! - and the bit of paper on the right is the lyric sheet to the Gordouli. The purple flyer, which I like very much, is for Wyrd Sisters, and thus has sebastienne as Nanny Ogg on the front. Of course, all the rest are examination entry forms, because you can't have everything in life.



The attic in general, taken from my desk. Yes, such a mess. The whiteboard usually hosts my to-do list - the_acrobat, I advise you look closely at it! - and the bed is usually made. Honest.

cscottd wanted to see my desk.



I thought about tidying it up, but thought that would be missing the point. In retrospect, maybe I should have got rid of the socks. Or the boots. Or the mouldy coffee cup. Ohgod. But that's my beloved Loki with LJ on screen, and you can see the amazing fluffy pink speakers and the attic porthole, so I guess it's not that bad.

minttown1 wanted to see my favourite piece of jewellery.



Again, I couldn't decide, so I give you my favourite earrings and necklace. The earrings are from India, nice silver and I absolutely love the flower design. The necklace doesn't really match, but I wear them together anyway - it's an ordinary silver chain, but the pendant is an ankh I got in Cairo.

jessikast wanted the view from my window. For some reason, I'm never in my room during daylight hours these days, so you get the night view, taken just now, and the day view which I took back in Michelmas.



That's the Randolph, where Inspector Morse used to drink, with the Martyrs' Memorial just out of shot.



And that's the Ashmolean.

jessikast wanted to see where I study, and in_purple_skies wanted to see the Social Science Library. This was a slight problem, as I can't take pictures in the library proper - my camera makes odd noises and everyone glares at me - which I think is a shame. The SSL is a marvellous place, but decidedly surreal. The best way of describing it - and I've given this quite some thought - would be, um, well, can you imagine a head-on collision between a university library and the International Space Station, if they then took out all the walls, replaced them with glass, added a water fountain and upholstered all the remaining furniture in lurid purple?

So, yes, it's a shame I can't show you that. But this is the Bodleian, where I study sometimes-



and this picture was taken from the balcony above the Social Science Library, which at least gives you some of the space station flavour. (Well, sans the clasutrophobia.)



And for good measure, Pat, sitting there watching me and demanding to know why I was taking pictures of everything. (The table looks like we work very hard, doesn't it? That top sheet is actually a list of Fun Things To Do Once Exams Are Over.) Here at least you can see how pretty it is outside the library, what with the trees and the river and the punts. It's enough to make you despair of ever finishing exams.



elyim wanted to see the next spider I saw. Well, the SSL has lots of the things. Sadly, it was much too dark to make out this monster, and as he was oside the window, I couldn't use the flash. I am including the picture so you know I tried.



the_acrobat wanted to see the tower window I threaten to throw myself out of during Economics tutes - sadly, going up there is a perilous exercise now I have no legitimate excuse. I shall do so during ninth once the man has moved out!

She also wanted to see some swans - I haven't met any recently, and while I did want to take pictures of the college pet ducks, the Colonel and Martha - I had sadly misplaced my camera at that moment.

But I can offer up a picture of me wearing my "well-behaved women" t-shirt.


I have to point out that jacinthsong took this, not me, and captioned it "the Eleventh Doctor."

Also for the the_acrobat, the café where I hang out.



This is the Alternative Tuck Shop, which is not only right on the way between Balliol and the SSL, but serves the best food in the universe. Ever. No, really. Best food ever. It's also small with only a few people working and there's no room to breathe inside and it's wonderful.

orientalflower wanted me against the backdrop of my college. This wasn't possible, because I was doing my photo-taking solo and couldn't get anyone else to take the picture. Regardless, I offer a Michaelmas photo of Balliol.



It's much, much less grey now.

bekkypk wanted a picture of my hands. It had to be hand, singular, because of one to hold the camera, but here we are:



And looking at that, I begin to think I have the scariest hands ever. Look at the length of my fingers! Jesus.

And lastly, for balthaser, my favourite place to go to. This is the view from Balliol's garden quad, just after dinner on the lawn, looking out through the long grass at the fellows' garden and the library.



It's quite possibly my favourite of the bunch.

All the others were, for various reasons, technical impossibilities! But I enjoying procuring the ones I could.

And now, as I have procrastinated quite enough, to economics! Oh, yes, wonderful stuff.

Comments

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heh! I think I'm a special case, because I live in college. The flat I'm in from October has a very pretty view over the Master's Field.

Hee, thank you! The sun is sadly bleaching it orange at the moment!