Here are several pictures taken inside the apartment where I lived for 35 years, September 1979 through August 2014.
Some of the photos were taken in February 2005, others in August 2009, with the same camera (this time using a tripod, so the images are a little sharper).
I hope to add photos of my new place once I'm fully moved in and organized.
Facing north. The tower PC on the right, which runs NetBSD, also holds up a case of music CDs, which in turn helps hold up a bookshelf, which, off the image to the right, bridges a doorway just above my head level. In the foreground is an end table containing reference works, handy to the couch where I post to newsgroups and write web pages such as this, using a VT420 terminal, on which you can barely see some amber-on-black text. To the right of the VT420 is a small radio/TV. To the left of it is a telephone, a modem (with red lights lit) and a CD player (with blue lights lit). In the background is my treadmill, with another VT420 terminal mounted high on the shelf in front of it.
Here's how it looks in 2009. There's a second bookcase in front of the picture window, plus shelves running between the two bookcases. Those bookcases contain not just books, but also DVDs. The couch is noticeably worse for wear. Magazine boxes have been moved to the bedroom to make more space for books. The Apple laptop replaces a TV, which I discarded when the digital transition came in June 2009. The portable TV is put away. The chaise (at the far left) is new. I never watched TV at home or used that picture window anyway.
Facing west. You can see most of my fiction paperbacks. The layers are separated by cardboard. This is compact, but it's a real pain to add more than a few additional books in their proper place. The big heavy capacitor at the right anchors a board which keeps the books from falling off to the right. In the foreground you can see part of my string of Worldcon badges.
As of 2009, there are a lot more paperbacks. The “temporary” cinderblock-and-plank bookcase is almost 30, older than most people in the world.
Facing south. The treadmill's shelf with a VT420 keyboard is in the extreme foreground. On the far left you can see part of a VAX, and part of an Alpha on top of it. You can see a second VAX lurking under the table. There's a shelf just above head level which bridges the doorways to the kitchen and to the entry hall. The round brown thing on the wall to the right of that shelf is a platter from an old RP04 disk pack.
Facing east. On top of the Alpha, which is on top of a VAX, is a third VT420 terminal. In the entry hall you can see my handtruck. On the wall behind it are topographic maps of this area. Shelves bridge the doorways just above my head level. Yes, there are books on both sides of the shelves over the doorways. And yes, the bookshelves and bookcases are all connected.
As of 2009, not much has changed. More books, of course.
The bookcase in the foreground contains WSFA's archives, and other property of WSFA. The sign says that the contents of the bookcase are the property of the Washington Science Fiction Association, and to notify WSFA's president and vice president in the event of my death, disability, or disappearance, and gives their names and phone numbers.
As of 2009, I've long since resigned from WSFA, and that bookcase holds other things, unrelated to WSFA. The short bookcase on the chest of drawers behind it is new since 2005.
Here I'm reading newsgroup postings on a VT420 terminal while walking on my treadmill. The treadmill is always set to maximum incline. You can't really tell in this picture, but I'm wearing a wrist strap on my left wrist, since the treadmill doubles as a Van de Graaff generator, and I don't want to wreck the terminal with static electricity.
Here I'm posting to newsgroups. On the left you can see a UPS, telephone (with extra-long handset cord), and power strip. To the right of the terminal is a TV, stereo speaker, and PC. (I can switch between talking to the PC and talking to the modem my pressing F4 on the keyboard.) Behind my head you can see a VAX and the bottom half of the Alpha. Behind them you can see my bicycle parked, as usual, in the entry hall, with a reflective vest dangling from it.
Another scene of me posting to newsgroups. Behind me you can see the treadmill. You can also see the CD player with the modem on it, and the other stereo speaker to its left. I tend to frequently alternate postures while typing. None of them would make a typing instructor happy.
A closeup of a VT420 screen showing a rasff newsgroup posting. The VT420 is a text-only terminal, 24 lines of 80 columns of amber text on a black background, always the same size, always the same font. No graphics. No sound (except a "beep"). No mouse. This VT420, in parallel with the one over the treadmill, is connected to both the modem and the tower PC, and I can rapidly switch between them, and cut and paste text from one to the other. I can telnet from the tower PC into the VAX and Alpha when those are booted up.
Many thanks to David Friedman for this fine Apple laptop computer, which I used to help update this page. I still use the VT420s a lot more, though.
This chaise longue is where I do much of my reading, eating, and DVD watching. Note the space between the brown bookcase and the paperbacks over it, which holds my portable DVD player and whatever I'm currently reading. The shelf above it is held up and made level with the white cinderblocks-and-planks bookcase with a pair of dead UPS batteries, and some 3-inch diskettes as shims. Note that in 2005 the paperbacks on the brown bookcase were not level with the paperbacks on the white cinderblocks-and-planks bookcase, which made shelving new paperbacks more of a hassle than it needed to be. The lower mini-shelf holding the clock and the wind-up flashlight began life as a “no littering” sign.
This page was created February 15, 2005.
This page was last updated August 31, 2014.