Instruction and recreation

Here is the long-awaited post with the photographic evidence of the fabled grad-pad. But first, we have my Monday classroom, where I torture my freshmen with talking of academic writing, theses, supporting arguments, and proper use of quotation marks. To some I have attained magical superpowers of clairvoyance, such as the first day I was in this underground room (by the way, I really am impressed that they made the extra effort to add fake windows to give the illusion that one isn't 10 feet underground), where I talked about my rules and regulations. I asked them to look at my syllabus online, where I had added it with a bright poison green background. The reason for this was hardly premeditated. I simply had to have the website up and running with my syllabus. As I was talking about the class layout from the front of the room, I noticed that the students all had unearthly-green faces from the light of the monitors. My do-and-don't conversation continued and suddenly I noticed that certain people's faces started flashing white rather than green, and that mouse-clickings were heard. I stopped talking, took a big breath and said (with some extra gravitas) "And let me make one thing perfectly clear. Any random web-surfing or IM conversations during class while we are in this room is very bad form. Does everyone understand me?" In a flash, all faces were poison green again, with the added expression of "Shit, how did he know?"

Which brings me to the apartment. It is the upstairs bedroom of what once was a rather pretty house on historic 9th street hill. I push my way past the very wide front door into the narrow foyer and up the stairs to my one bedroom and original upstairs bathroom. Oh, and closet. I have a closet, which also contains the refrigerator. The poor thing appears to be low on refrigerant, as it never has once shut off in the time I've been there.

This pic is from the front door. Just out of the view to the left is the the fab table Holly let me use ( the chair for it is visible), but also the fab bookcase which was already in the apartment, as well as the spacious closet which would be even more spacious if it didn't have an avocado-green refrigerator in it.




Here we have a pan over from the earlier pic. As you can see,
we have a typical landlord big-house-hack-job. The former bedroom now has a counter and range. The sink is convenient, though a bit, um, in the middle of the floor. Behind the jutting-out of the sink, I have my fantastic "cardboard boxes stacked up to serve as dresser" system set up. The bike tends to obstruct easy access, but that's the only place for it, unfortunately. The gas range, though a nice thought, really isn't something I'm planning on using much, save as drying rack, or to heat soup. Beef Wellington is not on the "to do" list.


Here is the view of the sleeping wing. Trust that I am taking these pics with my back to the wall, so as to give you the best possible epic sweep of the living area. Directly in front of the cabinet and range is the inflatable mattress, as seen here. As often as the thing squeaks whenever I move, it's a wonder I don't dream constantly of scuba gear. Also note the splendid nightstands, one being a folding chair and the other being a laundry basket. High class digs.

Speaking of scuba gear, I should probably find something else to do other than editing HTML. More later.