Meme love
Reply to this post by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.
Stolen from anaquana
Her words for me:
1. Australia
2. Spirits of the Damned
3. Books
4. Asphalt Tester
5. LKH
1. Australia
Well, the obvious answer to this is it's my home, but much like it would be close to impossible for an American to describe what America feels like as their homeland (or almost any other native for their country) words are so difficult to do justice for the bond and attachement I feel to my country. I love the land, I love the contrasts; go to the Gold Coast and you find a picture perfect beach after beach after beach, or go to the rainforests and no jungle or other forest could compare. Go to the NT and the red dusty desert is indescribable, the age and the timelessness of so much that's still around us.
I've been really, really lucky to travel a lot in my life so far, and nowhere has that same connection or spiritual attachment that I have for home. Regardless of how excited I am to travel somewhere or meet friends (new and old) regardless of the adventures I know I will encounter on my holidays, I always feel a pang of sadness and my soul seems to cling to the soil behind me as I leave Melbourne and the plane lifts, and I always get equally teary when the wheels finally touch me back home safe and sound, and the captain does his speel almost always ending with "and for those of you returning back to us, welcome home". It's like having your period and watching those hallmark adds, I get teary every time and can feel in my soul that I'm connected back home. That's a tiny inkling of what Australia is to me :)
2. Spirits of the Damned
Ooooh where to start? *huge grins* I am SO glad I stumbled upon this site. I have met so many people through here who are important to me, even people not connected directly to the site - in the way of the internet I have met people through people on the board and my life has blossomed and been so very blessed since I stumbled here after the old LKH board exploded.
I can vent and rant, I can prod people and it's where I keep track of my 52 books in 52 weeks (and I am SO CLOSE!!! I am reading book 99 right this moment) I can catch up with everyone, I can ignore the diet thread and pretend that I really am going to lose those 20 kg I need to lose, I play and dabble and the only thing more important than the people and connecting is the BOOKS!!! I'd have never found Jeffrey Deaver, Rachel Caine, James Patterson, Jim Butcher, and dozens of other authors - or not discovered them anywhere near as quickly - if it hadn't been for the board. I think the only place I spend more time online is YIM and sometimes LJ. One of the main reasons I am so grateful for the job I currently have is that it gave me the daytime internet connection (Aussie morning and afternoon is late afternoon and early evening American time) and the spare time to find SotD and find all these wonderful people who are like family to me :)
3. Books
Heh.... Books. Books!!! books books books books. I started reading before I was 5. I have ALWAYS - since my very youngest days - been obsessive over books. Mum was a librarian of a number of high schools and night TAFE universities till I was in my mid teens. I cant actually ever recall not being surounded by books. Indeed, while I was 9 yrs old in Grade 4, I was BANNED from reading Enid Blyton (a 1920s British childrens fantasy story writer and still one of my all time favourite authors). The librarian thought it was (and I quote) "unhealthy" for me to read every one of her books. I thought the librarian was being a bit nasty bitch and went home bawling to mum, who went toe to toe with her. I later (in my teens) learned that Blyton was a feminist and a lesbian and as the publishers found this out they decided to label her as a racist to get her books banned. Her series of The Wishing Chair and The Magic Faraway Tree/Enchanted Wood are still books I reread periodically.
I have been known (and still frequantly do) to use grocery money or petrol money to buy books when I am half way through a series and need the rest of the books. Just this week I spent a chunk of my fortnight's petrol money on getting the last three Jeffrey Deaver's from ebay. Mum didn't have them and I can't leave the series unfinished. So yeah. Books books books books :D
4. Asphalt Tester
Oooh, karma to Ana for remembering my work! The short story to this is I got my Bachelor of Science with a Major in History and Philosophy of Science and a double Minor in Biotechnology and Virology/Immunology (read, girl who couldn't decide which subjects she liked better....) I did a two year stint in Hell (Environmental Chemistry Laboratory) and while I partnered up and met a woman who is still one of my very best friends, the place sucked my soul and was going to destroy me. So I cast about for ANY other job, pleaded and begged and finally landed at the Road Research board and my current job :)
I still to this day don't recall exactly applying for it, I figure it was fate/destiny/God - take your pick. A few retiring staff and I am now Bitumen Manager and in charge of our Accreditation. I test Bitumen (the black goopy stuff that makes the roads and is in the Asphalt they lay down) and while I might want to strangle some of the clients, 90% of my work is awesome. I am very, very happy.
5. LKH
Man... where to start? Easter long weekend of 2000. I had 18 months left of uni, my life as I knew it had just been destroyed (long story) and I was casting about very desperately for ANYTHING to read and sink my teeth into and take it all away. A role playing buddy recc'd the Sookie Stackhouse series and LKH. Sookie I gave up after about book 2 or 3 (it was well written, just not what I was interested in at the time) but LKH I ended up devouring over the 4 day holiday. My friend lived out in the sticks and I was a very very broke uni student with no liscence and no car. I caught the train alone very late at night and WALKED in the rain to get the rest of the series from her when I had read books 1-4.
We both waited with panting breath for OB (I can't recall if it was the HB release or the PB release, but it wasnt long we had to wait, a few weeks or months maybe?) and I was so addicted.
NiC, CS and ID I all read while working and busy and it wasn't until I was half way through ID that I realised most of my hunger for the series had gone. Fanfic I had been reading was better and drew me more than the real thing, and I had by ID discovered other authors I was rabid over. Around ID also was when I started reading the message boards and the blogs and things rather snowballed from there.