the Dalaverse

I'm asking for recs of a different sort: simple, reliable, low-priced laptops. Go.

Have taken advantage of the empty room by watching TV, which I finally managed to hook up to the cable outlet. I was lying in bed this morning, thinking, "Gee, I should ask the maintenance people to bring a screwdriver when they come fix the outlet," when suddenly I remembered that I did in fact HAVE a 4-in-1 screwdriver, that I had used it to move components of my computer around the previous day, and that I was a complete fuckwit. But at least I finally got the cable hooked up. The VCR half is still wonky, though. I tried to play "Lawrence of Arabia," which I got from the library yesterday, and the machine made noises like it was eating the tape. Oh well. There's a VCR in the common room.

I also hung all of my posters. I find such joy in them that I feel compelled to describe them to you, in great detail. Pictures will probably come later.

My contributions to the common room this year were mostly fine art, as that was the theme Sarah and Ness went with. So there's my horizontal skinny "Beautiful Dreamers" with the Lady of Shallot, Ophelia, and Miranda. Two of them are Waterhouses, one of them is another PR painter. I always found the label amusing on account of two of them are suicides. Besides that, I have two small prints from the National Gallery -- one is the Young Girl Reading in this icon, and the other is a Vermeer -- a woman holding something at a window, I can't recall what precisely. On the wall across from Jessica and Stephanie's room, we have the poster from last year's National Book Festival, which is orange and has lots of people reading in a tree. Between the two bathrooms hangs the large Beatles poster, which has all of their album covers in a collage.

In the room proper, right next to the door, there's "The Princess Bride" and "Labyrinth" one-sheets. Facing as you walk in, one of the new acquisitions -- a skinny vertical of Jack Sparrow leveling his sword. Another new one, Napoleon Dynamite's dance broken down in panels, is above the door. On the lefthand wall, which is my half, we have: 1. Great American Authors, which is bright and fabulous and from Mark Twain's house in Hartford 2. John Belushi in his COLLEGE sweater from "Animal House" 3. a skinny horizontal with the heads of the Beatles, ca. 1968 as far as I can tell 4. U2 from ATYCLB, standing in an airport in black and white 5. A mini-one-sheet of "Boondock Saints," which is also new 6. Flaming June by Lord Frederick Leighton, my very favorite painting 7. John Cleese doing his Ministry of Silly Walks bit 8. Johnny Depp smoking at the piano from the Vanity Fair shoot, only extra-pretty for being in black and white. Right above my bed is the collage my dad made for me on posterboard, which is further tangible evidence of my being an only child. It's me as a baby, me as a toddler, me as a child, me as a teenager, me graduating, me riding, me at the beach, my family, my friends...it's really nothing compared to the Wall of Dala at home. Someday I will take a picture of that, and then you will totally understand why I am the way I am.

That's it, really. On Vanessa's side, she has a large PotC poster, "Road to Avonlea," and the Northern Lights. It's a tad unbalanced.

I believe I am going out again tonight. Somehow I've managed to become friends with my ex-suitemates only after we're not living together anymore. I think I'll take them some ginger ale -- I feel guilty mooching off their drink supply. And then I will return to enjoy the eerie solitude of being cut off from the wide worlds of AIM and LJ and TWoP.