alkaline-kiwi's blog

I thought I should do a little look back at some of my favourite things in 2010. There was a lot of other things I liked last year but I thought I would limit the list to things that came out in 2010 (or in the case of my favourite game of the year had its New Zealand release in 2010). This is part one of two. The second part will cover favourite book, game and music performance of 2010.

Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life (album)

What makes you different from everyone else

Hmm that's a bit of a tough one.. I think that it is more a combination of my different traits and interests that makes me unique.
Still.. I think some of my defining traits and interests are my love of books, my faith and my sense of humour.

Plans/dreams/goals you have

My far out crazy dream is to run a literary themed backpackers or B&B one day. I'm not sure if I will ever do it, I'm not particularly business savvy at all. Still it is a dream.
Plans and goals.. well my rooftop garden being successful is a medium term goal with the long term one being that I keep it up.
I guess another dream/goal/plan is to be a published writer, even it is an article somewhere. It is something I haven't really worked much towards so that's another plan. Finish things I start.

I plan to get married though not sure if I want kids (I do want pets so when we move elsewhere we will be parents to fur babies)

There's some more.. read more books, clear my TBR piles, get organised and get fit. Also to be a better cook and learn to bake more.

A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Oooh a tough one.. I can't think of anyone that has hurt me recently.. there have been some people who have annoyed me but thankfully I can't remember their names.
I find I get more pain from inanimate objects (physical pain).. maybe I could write a letter to the chair leg that I run into.. or the junk on my floor that I trip over...

A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

I had a few ideas of what I could use for this picture but when looking around I didn't have any pictures already that would fit. So I though of another way to do it (and will replace the map I got from the Lonely Planet website with another one soon)


Possibly the thing that had the biggest impact on my life so far was moving to Auckland as it set in motion a lot of other big life changing events in my life such as moving out of home for the first time, becoming a Christian, making new friends, studying again and a whole raft of other things. I covered some of them in an earlier post to mark my second year living in Auckland

A habit that you wish you didn’t have

Now this was a tough one as I have quite a number of habits that I wish I did not have. I did think about covering a few but the sermon at church today made me think of a habit that I really wish I didn't have.

Working in customer service I sometimes get really fed up with people and can be quite irate at times. Normally I don't verbalise being cranky to customers at work but I feel bad that I can automatically snap judge someone based on a short encounter. It is something I am trying to stop but it is easier said than done.

A picture of you and your friends


I have different groups of friends and the friends featured in this photo are those who were part of the Wellington to Christchurch road trip for the BookCrossing Convention held in Christchurch April 2009.

On the left we have Kevin. I first met Kev at the Melbourne BookCrossing Convention in October 2007 and since then he has been an awesome friend who I chat to online just about every day. He's huggable, geeky and a booklover so we get along really well. After the convention he stayed up in Auckland with us for a couple of nights. I refer to him as Aussie Kev, as my stepfather is also called Kevin.

Then next to Kev is Jay who is my BBFF (or BookCrossing Best Friend Forever). As I mentioned in my first post of this challenge I first met Jay at a BookCrossing convention in Wellington. Jay is such a smiley and positive person who is a lot of fun. She also knows how to cheer me up and there have been times when she has completely surprised me, like sending me flowers when I had been having a rough week, or calling me for my birthday when she was in America for their Summer.

Then of course that's me in the white BookCrossing tshirt.

Next to me is my sweetie Erik. I first met Erik in late 2003 when I started going out with someone else who is one of Erik's close friends. The story of how Erik and I started dating will be saved for another post but we have been together for coming up to 3 years in January. Without getting too mushy Erik makes me laugh and cares a lot about people. His motivation and plans always inspire me.

Next to Erik is BookCrossing legend Pete aka Skyring. I met him at the same BookCrossing convention that I met Jay at.
Skyring is always good fun and he's famous for his hugs and generosity. We talk about books and he makes really lame jokes which I roll my eyes at but he is really a funny guy. The New Zealand BookCrossers love him so much that they declared him an honorary kiwi.
I love reading his blogs and he has several. My favourite would have to be Hello it's me which he co-writes with Jay.

At the far right is Janice or MissMarkey. The rest of us on this road trip all knew each other to some extent but MissMarkey from the UK was someone new to us. It did not take long for everyone to click. Don't let the sweet look fool you, she's a bit of a rebel (posing for a photo on top of a parked police car in Christchurch for example). I talk to her online whenever I can and hope to catch up in person again one day. When we parted ways in Christchurch at the end of the convention she gave me a copy of one of her favourite books with a nice note.

So that is some of my friends and I could post a lot more about them, or my other friends (most of whom I don't have many photos of). I did have a lot of fun writing this post though.

The meaning behind your Blog name

My blog name is not that interesting, is currently just 'alkaline-kiwi's blog'. My username alkaline-kiwi is because Alkaline Trio are one of my favourite bands and 'Kiwi' is pretty self-explanatory being that I'm from New Zealand

(Just ignoring the fact I have not posted since June...)

A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

The photo of me was taken by either Erik or my Mum at my graduation earlier this year.

1. One of my earliest memories is getting a pot plant stuck on my head around age two or three.
   
2. I think I am fairly good at cooking but not so great at baking.
3. I'm a cat person and hope that when Erik and I move somewhere that allows pets we will get a cat. I have a soft spot for tabbies.
   
4. I'm frequently mistaken for a lot younger than I am.
5. My birthday is five days after my Mum's.
   
6. If you take the first two letters of my first name and the first two of my last name it spells KIWI (which Erik tells me merits as an interesting fact)
7. I don't know how to drive a car. When I was living in Greymouth I would ride a moped around and living in Central Auckland I normally don't need to travel far.
   
8. I'm a geek of the book and gaming sort. Also maybe slightly addicted to the Internet.
9. At a guess I would say I have roughly between 200 and 300 books in the apartment. One day I will count them and be shocked.
10. I've won both NaNoWriMo (2009) and SocNoC once (2010) and going to go for NaNoWriMo again this November.
    
11. When I was younger when I grew up I wanted to be a vet, then an author and then a music journalist. Out of those I still want to be an author but have added a few new things to the list.
    
12. I like to put my headphones on, choose some favourite songs on my iPod then sing and dance around the apartment. Anyone who sees me is highly amused.
    
13. I met my best friend at a BookCrossing convention in Wellington.
    
14. I like t shirts especially cute, funny or band t shirts.
    
15. My favourite colour is blue.