KiwiRia

What are the books that, in some aspect, define you? Think about who you are in terms of spirituality, love, economics, values, worldview--the list could go on and on. These might be nonfiction, self-help, fiction, picture books, children's books, etc. Give us your life in books.

This was actually a lot more difficult than I'd expected, but here are my books (or at least some of them - some categories I just couldn't find any for).

The Bible (Everything) Obviously :)

Do You Think I'm Beautiful (Self) I think it's truer to say that this book defines how I'd LIKE to think about myself. It's a book about finding worth in yourself, because you're a diamond in the eyes of God. It teaches not to let your feeling of self depend upon the accept of other people, but on God. I'd like to be able to live it someday.

Little Women (Family) I'm the oldest of four girls, and have grown up in a very loving home environment where Christianity played a huge part. While there are of course big differences between the life of the Marches and that of the Tonderings, the love and comradeship described fits my family quite well :) The characters of the girls also, although not quite in the same order. While I'm Meg and Mixi's Amy, I'd say Nina's Beth and Bekka's Jo rather than the other way around ;)

The Yada-Yada Prayer Group (Religion) My faith is a natural part of my every day life. It's a very big deal in that it means everything to me. It's not a big deal in that it's not a 'show' I put on, it's part of who I am. Praying should (but doesn't always) come as natural as breathing, and worshipping God should (and thankfully often does) make me lift my hands to the sky and unable to stand still. Now I 'just' need the last part - surrendering completely to Him and His will.

Outlander (Love/Marriage) Actually probably the entire series and not just this one book. Marriage isn't all flowers and sunshine. It's hard work at times. But even though you get mad and fight occasionally, at the end of the day you belong together. Two things in particular I got from (or at least was reminded of by) this book: 1) To have a good marriage, you have to be best friends as well. 2) A marriage has room for secrets, but not for lies.

Under the Tuscan Sun (Travelling) The best way to travel is to get to see the country as the natives see it. It's seldom possible, but once in awhile you're given the chance to do just that - and a country viewed that way will never again be the same. For Frances Mayes it was Italy, for me it was New Zealand, but the experience was the same.

So Many Books, So Little Time (Books) The title says it all ;)

What are your Life Books?

Thanks to youtube I've been listening to the soundtrack to Mamma Mia practically non-stop since Tuesday. I'm not usually a huge ABBA fan (can take them or leave them, although I've always liked songs like "Dancing Queen", "Money Money" and a couple of others), but the movie got to me I guess :) A shame it won't be out on DVD for another couple of months.

Oh, I saw a really hilarious interview with Pierce Brosnan about his part in Mamma Mia. He was talking about one scene where they were on a boat, and almost capsized because, as he explained, "Because of my... past... people tend to think I can do anything." I LOL'ed at the pregnant pause before 'past'. Excellent way to say something without really saying it :)


This started out as a comment to pegkerr's entry on the paper journal, but it grew in my head, so I thought I'd post it here.

I kept a paper journal regularly from when I was 14 until 3-4 years ago. My journals were just blank notebooks, as I didn't want to feel 'chained down' to writing every day. I just wrote whenever the fancy struck me, and that actually used to be every second or third day. I started when I stayed at a boarding school in 1994/95 and am glad I have such a detailed account of my experiences there, and even gladder that it meant I was firmly into the habit when I left for New Zealand two years later. That year by itself took up two thick books and one thin one, and has been a great blessing to me in later years when I wanted to recall things happening that year.

I still write occasionally, but I think it'd be a stretch to say I keep a paper journal any longer. My need for that kind of written outlet vanished when I discovered LJ, because I'm a pretty open person so it's really rare that I need to 'write myself out' about some topic I don't feel comfortable posting here in some filter or the other. I used to tell myself to write in my journal anyway, because I wanted an 'offline' account of certain events, but when I found ljbook.com and realised how easy it is to download my LJ as a pdf for future printing, that last reason seemed to disappear.

Until very recently I still lived under the delusion that I wanted to start writing regularly in my paper journal again. It wasn't until very recently I accepted the fact that as long as I have my LJ, that probably won't happen. I haven't written in it in a couple of months and feel no real need to. It was surprisingly difficult to accept though. My paper journal has been such a comfort in the past, and it used to be such an ingrained habit to write most evenings that it almost feel like leaving an old friend behind. I know that's silly, but there you have it. But I know that I simply don't have the time to keep both a paper journal and my LJ up to date, and when push comes to shove, I know which one means more to me. I may or may not take it up again, because I did really enjoy writing a bit in it each day when I tried to follow embodiment last, but for now my paper journal will get to take a well-deserved rest.

By now I have 10 paper journals and 5 years of LJ. After finding my Farmor's journal after her death I started thinking what I wanted done with my journals after my death, and I honestly don't know. If I go before Lars, I'll let him have them and make the decision (as there are some things in them he might not want others to read), if not... I don't know. Hopefully I'll have many years to figure it out in yet.

Friday Five taken from callistahogan. I thought the questions were really interesting for once.

1. If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?
No. God can make the best even of the worst situation, and I would be too scared by not knowing what consequences changing the event might have. How could I know that one event wasn't a blessing in disguise and the person's life might be much worse without it?

2. Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being married for many years?
That a very difficult question... Both have its difficulties and its easy points. I think I'd have to say friends though. I'm not saying that marriage is difficult, but it takes more work. Because you love each other more, you can also hurt each other more - especially inadvertantly. If a friend does something thoughtless it's easier to shrug it off, because you seldom spend as much time together with a friend as with a life partner.

3. Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?
No. Or rather, not by my own free will. I've been told to walk away from someone I considered a friend (by that person herself), but would never have done so voluntarily. Also, I walked back as soon as she'd let me.

4. If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?
I know I'm supposed to say I'd tell the truth no matter what, but honestly it depends on the situation. If it's something they need to know, then I'd tell them the truth, but if knowing would make no difference to them (other than hurting them)... well... I don't know that I would lie, but I wouldn't offer up the truth without being specifically asked either.

5. Which would you rather hear - the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?
Again, it depends on the situation. Do I need to know? Is it something I should act upon? Or will it just hurt me to no good end? No, don't lie to me, because I'm as likely as not to not believe the lie anyway, but if I don't need to know, don't tell me unless I ask.

Just came home from watching "Mamma Mia" together with Henni. Girls, you have to see it, it is HILARIOUS! I'm literally hoarse from shrieking with laughter. A chick-flick of the best kind, and so empowering when watched together with an entire cinema filled with howling women. I defy anybody to watch it and NOT be in a great mood afterwards :-D

The second annual National Novel Reading Month is starting in just 10 days on August 1st. We had lots of fun last year, so I'm really looking forward to it :) Last year my goal was to read 5000 pages in the month of August, and I ended up reading almost 8000! :D It always helps having others spur you on :) Haven't figured out what my goal is going to be this year yet - I don't have the two weeks of vacation I did last, so may have to dial down my expectations somewhat.

I hope you'll join us at nanoreamo!

Sometimes it just hits me hard how much I miss Liz (my bestest friend who unfortunately lives in New Zealand). There was a discussion on bad_service about friendly teasing/being rude to friends - all in good humour - which reminded me SO much of how Liz and I used to be to each other I just about started crying.

My then-boyfriend didn't think we really liked each other at first (he quickly got past that misconception) because of how we'd occasionally talk to each other. A fairly standard conversation between the two of us could run something like this.
Her: "Bitch"
Me: "Cow"
Both: *hugs*

We ended up calling it our 'hugging signal' :-D

I miss her so much! Haven't seen her in more than 4 years, which is far, far too long :( It kills me that I'll never again have an everyday life that includes her (we used to see each other or at least talk on the phone every day when I lived in NZ), and I'm sad that we no longer know everything that goes on in the other person's life. I occasionally worry we won't be as close when we meet up next because it's been too long, but then I'll get an e-mail letting me know she misses me as much as I miss her. I DO hope Lars and I will manage to go to NZ again sometime soon.

Bah! I'll go send her an e-mail now.

Books I'll be looking to buy when in London... well, a selected sub-set of them anyway, as getting all would be FAR too expensive, and as we're not leaving till August 28th, the list is likely to grow even longer.

* The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl 6) - Eoin Colfer (maybe... I own 1-3 in Danish, so it might be silly to get #6 in English. May just wait till it makes it to the libraries)
* The Yada-Yada Prayer Group #4 (I bought 2 and 3 from Amazon uk today. Second-hand they cost around £5 each including postage, so this depends very much on the price!)
* Storm Front (The Dresden Files #1) - Jim Butcher
* Too Busy Not To Pray - Jo Carro
* The Beasts of Clawstone Castle - Eva Ibbotson
* The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family - Mary S. Lovell
* The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip
* The Perilous Gard - Elizabeth Marie Pope
* Encyclopdia of an Ordinary Life - Amy Krouse Rosenthal
* The Cross-Legged Knight - Candace Robb
* Nifft the Lean - Michael Shea
* Outer Banks - Anne Rivers Siddon
* Freedom and Necessity - Steven Brust
* Daughter of the Blood - Anne Bishop
* The Sleeping Beauty Proposal - Sarah Strohmeyer
* The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
* People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
* Kitchen Confidential OR A Cook's Tour - Anthony Bourdain
* Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading - Maureen Corrigan
* Sabriel - Garth Nix
* Enchantment - Orson Scott Card
* The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
* Avalon High - Meg Cabot
* Idlewild - Nick Sagan
* What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman
* The Lost Diary of Don Juan - Douglas Carlton Abrams
* About the Author - John Colapinto
* The Trial - Franz Kafka
* The Children's Hospital - Chris Adrian
* City of Pearl - Karen Traviss
* Dragonsdale - Salamanda Drake
* In Between - Jennifer B. Jones
* The Death Committee - Noah Gordon (so far I've loved everything I've ever read by Noah Gordon)
* An Offer You Can't Refuse - Jill Mansell
* The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Alborn
* The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
* Ill Wind - Rachel Caine
* Answering 911 - Caroline Burau
* Hidden - Shelley Shepard Gray
* The Shape Changer's Wife - Sharon Shinn
* A Mango Shaped Space - Wendy Mass
* Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall - Wendy Mass


Yikes, it turned out even longer than I expected. Okay, this is where I need you, dear fellow-bookworms. I have to cut this list down somehow, so if you'd care to play along, tell me which 5 of the following I should get (and if you feel like it - why). Also tell me which one I should stay far, far away from.

Thanks! :-)

I'm still in the process of copying tapes to MP3 files (it'll take FOREVER! but be very worth it :) ) and to my frustration discovered I wasn't very good at always writing artists down when copying tapes from LPs or other tapes. Google to the rescue! Thanks to Google I've been able to find even the most obscure songs somewhere online. I'm impressed.

Just for the fun of it, here are the links to some of my favourite songs that I've rediscovered after many years (links go to box.net. I don't think you need to download anything, you should just be able to hear them straight from the link. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to embed them here).

From the Eurovision Song Contest 1991
England - A Message To Your Heart
Norway - Mrs. Thompson
Sweden - Fangad Av En Stormvind (winning entry)
Turkey - Iki Dakika

From the Eurovision Song Contest 1982
Luxumburg - Papa Pengouin (my sisters and I LOVED this song when we were kids and would listen to it non-stop while dancing around the living room :) )

Misc
The Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron (hilarious :) )

Like I've mentioned before, Lars occasionally talks in his sleep, and it can get REALLY amusing at times. Today was one of those days. He's had a night shift, so he came home and went to bed at the time I got up. When I left for work I went to kiss him goodbye. He usually sleeps right past that, but today he stirred and - still with his eyes closed - said, "Just so we're on the same page... if I start out in the kitchen... how long does it take to drive in track 3 at SomeStation?"

I stared at him for awhile. The ... denotes at least 10-15 seconds of silence, so first I thought he was talking about the reception he's going to today, then that he'd do some laundry and ask me to get it out of the machine, but it ended up a completely different place.

"Honey, you know that better yourself. Did you really want to ask me something, or should you go back to sleep?"

"Go back to sleep".

I wonder if he'll remember ANY of it when I come home this afternoon ;)

I'm not quite sure what it says about me that the one person who met me after only knowing me on LJ (I've met three others, but knew all of them outside LJ) took me off her f-list after meeting me in person! ;) Nah, I know the LJ society well enough not to take it personally, but I'll miss her and am sad not to be able to keep up with her life any longer (her LJ is friends-only). Ah well...

On a happier note, I was just sent this forward and cracked up laughing at it. Thought I'd share it with you guys as well.

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to elect competent candidates as President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
(You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
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2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour', 'favour', 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise'. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').
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3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The M*crosoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.
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4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
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5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not ready to shoot grouse.
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6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
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7. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
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8. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
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9. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
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10. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth- see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
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11. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
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12. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don't try competing in rugby - the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.
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13. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
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14. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.
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15. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
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16. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4pm with proper cups with saucers (never mugs), with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

I'm feeling somewhat vulnerable these days, without knowing exactly why. Unfortunately it's coinciding with a long sequence of Lars having evening shifts (2pm-11pm), so while he's good at snuggling when he comes to bed, I don't quite get the TLC I need :( Fortunately tonight is the last of his evening shifts (unfortunately it's a double shift, so he doesn't come home till 7am tomorrow) so hopefully I'll feel better soon.


Yesterday at work some of my colleagues and I had a course in a new program we needed to be certified in in order to become partners with the developers. The training was surprisingly un-boring, we all passed the test with flying colours, and the instructors took us all out for dinner that same evening. The instructors were from the States so the entire thing was conducted in English, and I was surprised to discover how much I actually miss speaking English. I write English all the time, but it's been ages since I had a proper conversation with somebody fluent in the language, so yeah... I'm odd like that I know ;) Anyway, the instructors were all lots of fun to talk with (and I managed to impress two of them quite a bit with my knowledge of the US - thank you f-list! :-D) and we had a great time - good food, good wine, good company - all good! One of them gave me a huge compliment that still has my head swelling somewhat - I got talking to him after the training session, and he asked me about my accent. I told him I'd lived in New Zealand and he replied, "I knew you weren't Danish. I would have picked British though." "Haha, no, I'm Danish through and through, but thanks!" :-D It's not often I get to fool Native English speakers into believing English is my first language, but I love it when it happens! :-D :-D :-D

All in all a really good evening :) Unfortunately that meant I didn't get home until quite late and when I finally did get to bed, I couldn't fall asleep, but lay tossing and turning until somewhere between 3 and 4 :( I feel like crap today which definitely isn't helping my feelings of vulnerability. I intend to take the consequences and do something to spoil me tonight to make me feel better. Not quite sure what yet though, so if you have any ideas, let me hear! Going to bed early will definitely be on the list though ;)

* My mail was down all weekend. Thank goodness it's up again! I could keep up with comments posted to my entries via the inbox here, but not replies to my comments elsewhere. I felt all alone :(

* I'm currently copying all my tapes to mp3s and am getting hit with wave after wave of nostalgia in the process. Some tapes I'm splitting up into separate songs, others I'll probably just keep as two long files (one for each side of the tape). It's slow work, but it'll be great to have it all available once I'm done :)

* We have a debate going on christianity at the moment - what is heresy? How to define it? It's a LOT trickier than I'd expected it to be, because while I know intuitively what I'd consider heresy and what not, it's not that easy to formulate in words, and just because I believe something to be heretic (or not), who's to say I'm right? Well, I'm pretty certain that preaching everybody is saved, that there is no Hell, that reincarnation is real or that Jesus isn't God is pretty heretic, but what about minor things? Stuff that varies from denomination to denomination? Like the perpetual virginity of Mary, the immaculate conception, infant baptism vs. adult baptism. Personally I just think those are differences of opinions, as they are not topics that will hurt anybody's chances of salvation, but honestly, who am I to say? I've had NO official training in theology whatsoever and only know what I know because of 28 years of reading the Bible and being raised in a Christian household.

So yeah... it's a lot more flighty to define than I would have thought.

* I read surprisingly little at the moment. I think it's because I have a bunch of books I feel like I ought to read (among others "A Suitable Boy" which is still plodding along. It's not bad nor boring, but at 1400 pages I'd really prefer a page-turner to keep my interest). On the other hand, I'm not sure what it says about me when "surprisingly little" means "I only finished one book over the weekend" ;-)

* Yesterday I went to the international service at the church I discovered last week, and loved that a lot too. It was less structured than the Danish service, but I enjoyed it. I'm really getting into a atmosphere of worship these days and can feel what a difference it makes to my general mood :-) I'm excited about trying the Danish youth service there once it starts up again after the summer vacation, as I'm hoping it'll be a nice compromise between the English and the Danish services. Not that I disliked either of them, but think a mixture would be great. I got more out of the sermon this time (that we honour God by enjoying life), but as it's a different speaker each week, that's probably just a coincidence.

My only beef with the church so far is that it seems to be really difficult to join the fellowship as a new-comer. Not that people weren't welcoming, but it's always hard to break into established circles, so I'm not holding it against them yet. And even if I never feel completely at home there, the worship is great and definitely worth coming for anyway. Actually not feeling at home will make it easier for me to still have my church home at Haraldskirken and just go there when I'm in the mood for their style of worship. We'll see.

LJ, why have you stopped e-mailing me my comments? Grrrr!

Writing these manuals was actually quite interesting and made me put words to a number of things I hadn't fully realised about myself. I definitely recommend you try it out too. Generally I guess I can be summed up in these two things: "Be honest" and "Be kind". But then, can't most people?

I haven't quite decided yet whether or not I'm going to show Lars the manuals. Not that I don't want him to read them, I'm just not sure he wouldn't find it silly. This kind of introspection isn't really his type. Ah well, we'll see.

For easier access and in order to add them to my memories more easily, I'll make this a 'collection' post and add links to all the other entries.

The Maria Manual - An Introduction
The Maria Manual - How to become friends with me
The Maria Manual - How to turn me on emotionally
The Maria Manual - How to make the jump to a long-term relationship with me
The Maria Manual - How to turn me on sexually (Sorry, girls only.)
The Maria Manual - How to fight with me
The Maria Manual - How to ruin a relationship with me

( How to ruin a relationship with me )

( How to fight with me )

( How to make the jump to a long-term relationship )

( How to turn me on emotionally )

( How to become friends with me )

The Maria Manual

Inspired by quaryn_dk, I thought I would sit down and write my own manual. She did it mostly relationship-wise, and I'll definitely be copying some of her 'themes' (those that I feel comfortable enough sharing here anyway ;) ), but may add some of my own if I think of any.

quaryn_dk and her husband wrote these manuals as part of a relationship retreat, and I'd definitely recommend you to either write them together with your husband/wife/significant other or share them with them afterwards. I'm going to do the latter, as writing lists like this is really not Lars' thing. But even if you're single it's a great exercise in introspection.