the_deep_magic | Results of Photo Meme!

Whew, you people are disturbingly interested in my surroundings! ;o) No worries, I asked for it. Also, several of you, including

perdiccas, asked for photos of my dog. I was waiting to do a formal introduction post... and then I kept putting it off... so I'll just give you a little teaser now:

His name's Plato, but he also goes by Little Dog, Platelet, Peewee, Piddles McGee, and What The Hell Are You Eating Now; Spit That Out (that's his Indian name). I promise to do a real introduction post soon, but for now, please enjoy a photo of my dog all bandana'd up for Dress Like Pinto Day. Surprisingly, he did not mind it all that much, I just couldn't get him to stay still for a decent side-on picture

Next is for

zjofierose, who asked to see the journals I write in. Prepare yourself, for they are many:

The biggest notebook on the bottom is just a cheap wide-ruled thing, and that's the kind of thing I usually write fic in, because I usually tear out the pages and throw them away once it's posted. Don't want to leave a paper trail, you know; that got me in big trouble once in high school. I save my pretty notebooks for the stuff I want to keep. The smaller open one with the teensy writing is my personal journal at the moment, the black swirly one is for some memoir-ish stuff I'm hoping to eventually put together into an essay collection, and the others serve a variety of purposes at different times. However, the prettiest journals are the ones I haven't even started to use yet, because I feel like I need to wait until I have something to put in them that's worthy of their prettiness:

This is only a small sample, by the way. I have blank books out the wazoo, and I am always buying more. While we're at it, here's a sample page of my edited fic. Yes, there are at least four different colors of ink, and that's the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I like it. It's an excerpt from "Feels Just Like It Should," and the notes at the top are mostly dates of the press tour.

For

halfvulcan3, my favorite place to sit and read:

Unfortunately, I don't get to use it much, because it's usually too ungodly hot to be outside, even in the shade. But I have a nice cushion I bring out there when I can. And yeah, it's getting a little unstable.

For some reason,

tikra wanted to see the stuff I use to clean my bathroom. Hey, who am I to judge?

This isn't all of it, it's just the most in one place -- actually, cleaning my bathroom mostly consists of Lysol antibacterial wipes. If I can't clean it with a Lysol wipe, it usually doesn't get cleaned. That's just how I roll.

auctorial wanted to see ALL of my nail polish... which about three days ago would have been at least twice what it is now. But I finally went through it after years of just not throwing anything away. I got rid of the unusable stuff (mostly dried-up glitter, I loved glitter) and gave away some I never used. But here's my collection now:

Naturally, it is organized with the OPI in one bag, the basic/French manicure stuff in a smaller bag, and the rest in a third bag. THERE MUST BE A SYSTEM, DAMMIT. Anyway, I figured I might as well show you my favorites while I'm at it:

They are, from left to right:
OPI Lincoln Park After Dark
OPI Bogota Blackberry
OPI Birthday Babe (these are the two used in my current manicure)
Revlon (?) MangoZING (I don't think Revlon makes these anymore, which is a damn shame)
Revlon KhakiZING (which looks awful in the pic, but is really either purple or green, depending on how the light hits it)
Sinful Colors San Francisco (hee hee, Vulcan nails at the Academy)
OPI Sonic Bloom
OPI Black Cherry Chutney (a brand new bottle!)

For

vee_dub, the cupboard under the kitchen sink. Now you see the Lysol wipes. And more pictures of the dog to follow!

As usual,

beederiffic is one lucky bitch, because I have not one but three underwear drawers (depending on your definition of underwear, which I took to include all undergarments, because I figured she would like that)(you're welcome, sweetie). First, the panty drawer:

As you can see, though the underwear on the left appears to have been crammed in at random, there is in fact a single row of panties. I pull fresh ones from the front, and when they come back from the laundry, I put them in the back, so I make sure to rotate through all of my underwear evenly. Unless I have a special event and need fancy and/or lucky panties. Then they skip to the front of the line. MUST. HAVE. SYSTEM. Underwear in the tray on the right are cheap underwear for Shark Week (urrrgh, I don't like calling it that) or underwear that need fixing/I don't really wear any more. I suppose I ought to get rid of those. Oh, and some white undies, which I only ever use if I'm wearing my white skirt.

This is bra drawer number one, which shares space with Comfy Socks. As you can see, there are two rows here, but my bra needs are more specific than my panty needs, as per color and tightness of shirt, so I pull what I need and put it back wherever. That black sports bra hangin' out in the back? Haven't used that in years. Forgot I still had it. Don't particularly need it.

Ahh, and now we get to the good stuff. These are the fancy European bras purchased from the Bra Whisperer, with matching panties to the side (I cut them out of the picture, as they were far less visually interesting). We're actually missing three that were in the wash -- the pirate hooker bra, an off-white bra with some really lovely burgundy and gold detailing, and a very soft gray bra that looks like it's been overlaid with spider webbing. If there's great demand, I can post pics of those separately.

Yes, these were horribly expensive, and yes, my mom paid for them. But she was the one who offered to take me and told me to pick out whatever I wanted. They fit like a dream. My only regret is that there is no one to show them off to at the moment. :o( Except you guys. Which is why I'm going into so much loving detail!

Moving right along,

lousy_science, that greedy wench, asked for TWO things. And of course I couldn't pick out just one for each. Anyway, the first is "Thing that randomly reminds you of fic/fandom/Pinto in your house."

Both these books have been mentioned in my fics because a) I like them; and b) I can cast them so perfectly with Pinto. I would love a Narcissus and Goldmund AU, because even the physical descriptions match up, but it would be very, very close in setting and themes to

ewinfic's porn monk series. As in, I couldn't believe she hadn't read the book. And The Fourth Hand... not John Irving's best, I don't think, but for some reason I cast (a slightly older) Chris as the main character, and it worked perfectly in my head. I think he'd excel in that role, should they make a movie. Too bad the character only has sex with ladies.

And her second request was for my favorite piece of jewelry, and of course I couldn't pick just one, but I did narrow it down to ten. And every bit of jewelry I own has a story behind it, so you're going to have to hear them. Interestingly, these are not the prettiest in my collection by any means, but they're the ones I wear the most:

1) A fish hook made from New Zealand greenstone, purchased in Queenstown. I don't think they let you leave NZ without buying SOMETHING made of nephrite jade. They will stop you at the airport and ask to see your jewelry. Interestingly (?) this is probably the one piece I wear the most, because I wear it for luck when I travel, so it's often the only piece of jewelry I have with me.
2) A koru, another Maori design bought somewhere on the North Island, this one probably made out of plastic. The chain it was on sucked, so I replaced it with tan suede and a little metal jump ring, and I think it looks great.
3) I rarely wear this cuff anymore, but it made the list because I made it myself. In college, I did costumes for a one-act play called The Winged Man, and I needed some way to strap the wings (which were unavoidably heavy) to the actor's back, so I ended up making a harness out of saddleweight leather. I cut the black part out of the leftover leather, punched the holes with a special tool, and cut the strips of green suede for the laces. BTW, my hands were sore for weeks when I was working with the leather.
4) Celtic knot ring purchased in Ireland from a man selling them out of a suitcase by the Cliffs of Moher. It's real silver, too, and was gorgeous and cheap.
5) A chunk of Picasso jasper. Don't know why I like this ring so much -- it just looks like a piece of gray rock on my finger. But I liked the name "Picasso jasper," and it's unusual enough to be interesting.
6) A vintage coin from my trip to Japan? Nope. A prop purchased at Walmart for a college production of Twelfth Night (set in Asia -- long story). After the play was done, I swiped it (there were dozens), bought some cord, and made it into a necklace.
7) Made this one, too, but with beads from a bead shop. The white ones are supposed to be some kind of bone, and the purple/coral spikes are sea urchin spines.
8) A recent purchase in Arizona. I don't know what the design means, but the cutout-with-the-cutout-piece-still-attached is pretty cool.
9) Another recent purchase -- a cheaply made peacock ring that is really too big for even my thumb and clunky and will probably fall apart soon, but it looks fucking awesome, so there.
10) This might be overreaching the category of "jewelry," but the pocketwatch was a gift from my dad, and if you quote Pulp Fiction at me right now, you're dead to me.

The lovely

medea_fic asked for 3 items that reminded me of foreign countries. I tried to go creative and non-obvious-souvenir, but, well...

Right to left this time. The All Blacks hat is obvious, but I was near Lake Taupo and my head was really frickin' cold and I imagined strutting around the States with a hat that said "All Blacks" when few people knew what it means (it's NZ's rugby team, by the by). I do get some weird looks.

The geisha doll was a gift from a friend's family in Kyoto. A girl named Kanako invited me over to her house, where we watched the first episode of Heroes dubbed in Japanese (I'd never seen it before and I was so confused) and ate delicious food, and I remarked on one of several dolls in glass cases. Kanako's father insisted I pick one to take with me. I said I couldn't, I'd never get it on the plane, and he said no, I'll wrap it up for you, and I said well, if you're really sure, and he said yes, take it, and so I left with it. I was blown away by their generosity. It only later occurred to me that this might have been a cultural miscommunication, and I was always supposed to refuse no matter how many times it was offered. They probably thought of me as a greedy American. This happens -- to a lesser extent in Japan than in other Asian countries, but it does happen. So it's beautiful and I love to look at it and think about Japan, but I have lingering guilt issues.

The Brita bottle is my one nod to subtlety -- it was my lifesaver in Australia. They have these in the States now, but at the time I had never seen a filter bottle before. Mostly, I just had it with me so I could have a drink with tons of ice in it (made the cubes myself in the freezer), but when my friend and I went on our more rustic excursions, more than once I used it to drink water that the guide assured us was perfectly safe, just kind of dirty. Not for me. For me it was fresh as a Nordic glacier. :oD

Next,

breath_of_mine asked for favorite stuffed animal, and that wasn't even a choice. No competition at all:

That's Littlefoot from The Land Before Time (the first one -- and to my mind, the ONLY movie), and believe it or not, that's his good side. His other eyeball is worn blank from the way I ~~sleep~~ slept with him tucked against me at night, so it looks kind of creepy if you're not me and used to it. I got him for Christmas when I was four, and he's been my best stuffed buddy ever since. I've looked on eBay, wondering if I should get a mint-in-the-box version, just to have and compare, but what good would it do? This is the one I love.

Finally,

eyesofshinigami asked for an interesting poster, and really, how could I not choose the giant floating head of Orson Welles?

Since college, where he inevitably appears at every college poster sale, I have had him posted somewhere near my desk, and when I need inspiration, I look at him. I don't know why; he doesn't usually inspire me. But sometimes I talk to him. "Giant floating head of Orson Welles," I say, "what should I do?"

"Probably not cast Charlton Heston as your Hispanic leading man," he says. True, but less than helpful. Oh, and if you haven't seen the movie, DO IT. It's equal parts awesome and inadvertantly hysterical.

For you trivia buffs, Wilson from House has the same poster in his office, along with one for Vertigo. But I had it first, so nyah. ::sticks out tongue::

WOW, that was a lot of pictures and words. If you stuck it through the whole way, congratulations, here's a bonus picture of a hipsterfied Tribble:

It was born pregnant before that was cool.

ETA: If some of the pictures are showing up giant, I don't know why that's happening. I tried really hard to make them all a uniform 500 pixels at widest. Dammit.