no_apologies: (Excited Charlie B. Barkin)
Marianne Ancapikitty ([personal profile] no_apologies) wrote2015-08-18 12:15 am

30 Day Blog Challenge Meme!!

While just Google Image Searching on a whim, I found this really interesting meme on this random blog site I found. I'm going to give it my best shot. Along the way I'm sure there's much to know about me, and some deep and fun things to discover that I wasn't aware of before.

I'm editing this a little, since this is Dreamwidth, not Blogger.

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself (this entry)
Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Blogger Dreamwidth and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Your favorite song.

Day 1: Recent Picture and 15 Facts

This one is my most recent selfie. What I'm holding is a half eaten plum! Mmmm, plums are one of my top favorite fruits.



Okay, I'll come up with 15 facts about me you probably don't know about me yet.

01: I'm near-sighted in my right eye.

Not that it's really all that big of a deal to me to begin with. It's not really in my way of living my life. I've been born with a lazy eye. I haven't gotten picked on or questioned about it by nosy people either...

I'd only need to wear glasses when driving, though, getting a new pair and renewing my driver's permit to master parallel parking in order to get an official license is too much of a bother, because altogether is expensive. I never liked wearing glasses to begin with. Keeping track of them and in good condition was a constant annoyance when I went to school at times. ...Contacts are just for people who can't see well through both eyes, right? I don't know, I probably wouldn't bother with those either.

I'd rather save up for something else that's expensive. It's not like I have to go out often either. Riding the bus to work is also cheaper than paying for gas! Much cheaper! (Having a ride back home after work is not a problem for me.)

02: I've traveled out-of-state twice in my life so far. I once been to North and South Carolina. One summer, when I was still in high school, I went to South Carolina for this youth group camp. I went to the same kind of camp, though the location was in North Carolina that next summer.

Hilton Head, SC, was a nice looking suburbian area. I remember it being very hot while I was helping out in painting someone's house.

During the following summer, I was in Greenville, NC. This was sometime in the summer after I graduated my junior year in high school. The ankle I sprained by accident over there was pretty much recovered, though to be safe, I was assigned a different task to help people out, by interacting with these cute kids at a Boy's and Girl's club place.

I have these old photos friends and I took with disposable cameras those two summers. (I might share them in a later entry.)

03: I share my dad's genes for the love of music, theatre/show tunes, and writing.

My writing origins come from him. Long ago, I once helped him name some of the main characters for this children's story that was only locally well known for a time, titled The Land of Lost Socks.

Sometime during the middle of my sophomore high school year, I was invited to join my dad and some of his theatre students for the Maryland State Theatre Festival. I think that was when I first started to get really interested about theatre. I had so much fun at the improv workshop, and seeing people from the different high schools across the state, and the shows they've done. Those two days in the winter of 2001 was a blast.

My dad knew how to play various instruments, including the piano, and a guzheng he used to own--which is this Chinese string instrument. It's amazing. Go look that up on YouTube!

Some years back, before the organ we had wasn't slowly wearing out with age, he played that while I played on one of the few keyboards I still have.

04: In relation to having keyboards... I can play just about any melody by ear!

I self-taught myself this from when I was very young. I never had piano lessons, and taught myself how to play the keyboard. It all started with the really simple stuff like Jingle Bells and Mary Had a Little Lamb to a bit more complex melodies from New Kids on the Block songs (yeah, I used to like them loads) and the Indiana Jones theme.

05: My first ever completed fan-fiction happened when I was 9 years old.

I still remember the title of this, "The Jaws of the Jurassic", named after this song I sang in 3rd grade choir class about dinosaurs. Yep, you guessed it. I had dinosaur characters in this, though this fanfic crossover was just absurdly wrong, lol. The other main characters in this story were Sonic the Hedgehog and two of his friends; Tails and Princess Sally. In the beginning, Pongo from 101 Dalmatians briefly appeared as working as the head butcher.

I won't really go into anymore details on what the story is about, etc. Just know it was written terribly, and the plot hardly made sense in some places. XD

06: The very first anime series I've ever loved: Samurai Pizza Cats!

It used to air on Saturday mornings, ages ago when I was a little kid. I have the opening theme song burned on a CD. I'd totally own this series on DVD if I see any volumes or a boxed set of this in a store.

To this day, I still think this oldie is adorable.


07: I've been told once that I write like a 17-year-old.

Someone on this chat that looks almost exactly like the one in the anime Durarara!! mentioned this to me on MSN Messenger--while it was still around, as Windows Live Messenger.

I've taken as a compliment, lol. I'm 31 as I type all this out, but I still don't feel old! I hope I'll always be 17 on the inside... That may not even happen, but it's nice wishful thinking to hang onto.

08: Back when I was a shy, quiet kid at school--there was this childhood friend who would sometimes call to talk to me on the phone.

On the phone with her, I talked up a storm. I never really socialized much towards the end of elementary school throughout most of middle school. I got picked on a lot, and often felt like an outcast most of my peers there.

Now that I'm starting to think about it, my bad habit of bragging a little too much that would once in a while happen started while on the phone at home, yakking that poor girl's ear off. She didn't mind it all that much though, bless her tolerance. ^.^ I don't blab out loud much at all these days. Sometimes in person, I tend to appear as reserved.

09: I used to collect loads of stuff when I was so young!

Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Pogs. Bird feathers. Sand Dollar fossils (big ones in particular). Stuffed animals. Sports cards--only because I liked the pictures. Rubber snakes, and other toy reptiles...

I still have most of these things. I'm inwardly debating on starting a yard sale out front of where I work. The only reason I've kept the little cars is because so the kids can play with them some while babitting them. Now that I'm hardly asked to babsit for anyone's kids these days, I'm debating about holding out an outdoor yard sale over at where I work.

10: My newest favorite thing in my room is this gorgeous stained glass cat vase. One of my board gaming buddies let me have it! <3



11: When I'm off work, sometimes I stay up as late as 2 AM to 3 AM.

However, later on when I get up in the morning it's hours later into late morning. When I'm feeling tired and drained at work on a slow day, I relax and take a 30 minute nap.

12: My most favorite kind of food is Italian!

Pizza, spaghetti, tortellini, calzones--Mmmmm! I like most foods though Italian is number one. Chinese comes at a close second because I like the way they prepare food. Love their pork fried rice! :)

13: I got to pet a deer once.

This was years back, somewhere in the early 2000's when I went with my youth group to a winter retreat at Camp Lake Summit, located somewhere in Emmetsburg, miles west of the Calvert County area I've lived in all my life.

This was either a young male deer that hadn't grown his antlers yet, or a full grown female deer. The animal was really tame, and wore this bright orange collar. Petting a deer feels very similar to petting a dog. No worries; I didn't get any ticks after I got to pet him (or her). I also got to be in a photo with the deer and some of my youth group friends.

14: I still collect some things, though not nearly as much as I used to so long ago!

DVDs of most favorite movies and TV shows. Manga. Fave anime on DVD. CDs of my favorite music artists... I've collected and sorted favorite YouTube videos into various playlists.

15: I have the same birthday as one of my most favorite movie comedians of all time; Jim Carrey!

January 17th. That guy's amazingly talented and hilarious! It's just as amazing to share a birthday alongside him. :D Some movies he's in that I have on DVD are Liar Liar, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Number 23, and Bruce Almighty.

Woot, I did it! I came up with 15 things about me at random! Now, to start on Day 2. :)
prunesquallormd: (Shrooms and sparkles - Skins)

[personal profile] prunesquallormd 2015-08-19 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm just listening to a guzheng piece now on Youtube. It's beautiful.

I don't know if it's just me but none of the photos have shown up.

Does your love of Italian food come from your love of Samurai Pizza Cats or is it the other way round? :p
Sometimes it's best to leave the things we loved as children a memory. Sometimes they're just as wonderful as you remember, other times much less so! I recently read a couple of Piers Anthony's Xanth books, which I adored as a child. I was so shocked and disappointed at how misogynistic they are. Not subtext-misogynistic but right there, in your face, in so many words. I'm happy my younger self didn't notice and just loved the magic and fun stories but it makes me so sad that I can never enjoy them again.

Other things are just as (or more) wonderful experiencing them as an adult, so it equals out, I guess.

Your birthday is near mine (mine's the 22 January) though I'm a few years older.

I always love reading these kind of things, but I'm rubbish at doing them!