architexas's Profile

I have a skirted desk in my bedroom because I don't currently have space for a desk anywhere else. Instead of leaving my scanner/printer/supplies out in plain view (where they would drive my O.C. tendencies into overdrive), I hide them under the skirt. In my case, it helps keep the room from looking sloppy and jumbled!

I'm in the "I have to have a bath" camp, not only because I love taking a bath at the end of the day, but because it's done under doctor's orders.

I'm from Texas (obviously...) and Plano, specifically (raised in a nice little 1960s ranch, thank you).

Sadly, I can see the McMansion set drooling over the pseudo-Belgian-chic furniture.

As for me - in my little apartment, furnished with a mishmash of antiques and mid-century modern - all I have from Restoration Hdwr. is bedding. It's the only thing I'll buy from them, because nowhere else could I find LINEN queen-size fitted sheets that will fit over a 21" thick mattress for under $250 per sheet, nevermind for a whole set ($199 for the set on sale, for mine).

Organize by type, then length (of sleeve, skirt, etc), then color (I layer clothes because the office is cold, but outside, it's usually not).

In re books: I don't organize my books by color, per se, but occasionally, the bookshelf needs a bit of cohesiveness. So the yellow books in nonfiction are grouped together, and the white-jacketed books in the architecture/art section go together. It keeps my bookshelves from looking quite so helter skelter, and since I reread my books, it's pretty easy to remember that "Middlesex" is creamy, that "The Emperor's Children" is grey, and that "Making History" is red and white.

I agree with the other posters about that keyword: obsessed. A few months ago, I went into a consignment shop that specializes in high-end mid-century modern furniture here in Dallas. There were two end tables that were gorgeous, but I'd gone in to look at two others from the shop's website. After sleeping on it, I went back and bought the gorgeous (and expensive) tables, instead of the decent but well-priced tables. I spent 3x what I had planned on, but I had the money for it, and I don't regret it one bit! The fact that I could not stop thinking about them was the tipoff that I needed them.

Between the time I purchased them and their delivery, at least twenty people asked the store owner if they could buy them (one lady told him she'd pay him twice what I had paid, if he'd refund my money and revoke the sale!). Thank goodness the store owner was an honest guy, and I got my tables!

One of my friends has a (large) dining room with Chinese Red lacquered walls. The table and console are both Japanned (aka black with gilding and gold-painted figural designs), and the curtains are black silk, so its like walking into a beautiful lacquered jewel box, or a movie set from the 1930s. The first time I saw it, my jaw dropped. It's my favorite room in her house (and her house is Uh-mazing).

But yes, it is over the top, and it's difficult to carry off.

I have a LOT of health problems, and every time I'm shunted off to a new specialist, they always ask for my list of medications with dosages and # of times per day I take them, and also lists of surgeries, previous illnesses (gastric conditions, cancers, etc). It's easy to forget some of then, so I keep a note that tells me all the pertinent info, so I can just transcribe it.

@JMD: I hadn't thought of that! Good idea for buying clothes for my dad, as I never can remember his pants size (he loves getting clothes. No, seriously!)

Oh, and I email ideas to myself with the subject "Xmas gift."

@KimberlyRose: there is a bar here in Dallas, called Barcadia, that is full of old school arcade games (skee ball, Ms. PacMan, and the like, along with a dangerous game of giant Jenga), and the term is regularly bandied about by 21 year old hipsters who have only played the game in hipster bars that peddle bottled nostalgia (for things they didn't experience).

@MisterR: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I think on-line courses for some classes are a great idea, and a way to possibly lower tuition (or attempt to keep it from increasing, at any rate). I took a few on-line and correspondence courses (paper and pencil) as supplements to my campus-based education, because they were cheaper than campus courses, but still counted towards my "core" classes: English, history, etc, and I would say that I didn't suffer any as a result.

A lot of the on-line for-profit universities have fallen under scrutiny, though, because their tuition is more costly relative to state universities, and their students tend to be less competitive in the jobs markets, so tend to have higher default rates on government-sponsored student loans. The internet is still a relatively new phenomenon in communication, so it will undoubtedly take a while to get to the point where universities are comfortable offering more classes on-line. And then there are classes that are almost impossible to offer on-line, because they require rapid-fire idea exchanges, or complex visualization techniques, etc.

As with all methods of education, there's no one right answer for everyone.