Confessions of a blogging failure.

Why? Just because. Also seemed like a good time to change up the look of this blog.

I started this blog two years ago as a fresh publishing student ready to make my mark on the world. I used it as a place to review the sessions of Writers and Readers Week I'd managed to make it to on my student budget. It seemed like a good idea at the time. This turned in to reviewing anything I could get my hands on for Booksellers New Zealand. When I remembered, the reviews made it on here too. The post with the most hits was my review of Secrets and Treasures. Stunning book.

My year of publishing eventually ended, and I began volunteering with The Lumière Reader. Reviews, proofreading, transcribing, and an interview have been my (ongoing) legacy with the fantastic website.

I went through two jobs at NZICA over 13 months. I now pay my bills working for the government. Publications and Administration Co-ordinator is my 'official' title. I like it. 

Ultimately I want to work in editing, preferably proofreading and/or sub-editing, for an institutional press (university, museum, etc.). For now, I'm trying to pick up as many proofreading jobs as I can. I really do love proofreading (just not my own work).

Words in any shape or form build our entire culture and fill our society with more than we care to think about on a daily basis. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do though. It's hard to be 24 and lock down a career path. I'm also aware I don't need to, but it's nice to feel like you know where you're going. 

I'm a big believer in if it's meant to be, it'll happen. However, I know that good things don't come to those who wait, but rather those who go out and work hard to get what they want. But if you try sometimes, you might just find you get what you need.

So, we shall just see what comes my way.

"That's not writing, that's typing."

I would say it's noticeable I've been MIA for a little while, with the exception of reviewing. Life has been rather hectic the last few months, and then it settled, and now it's back up and busy. Unfortunately the work I've been producing recently has looked more like typing than writing, so hopefully things will settle soon. Bit of a rant below, you have been warned. 

So in November my year of publishing came to a close, and while it was one of the most fantastic years of my life, it was also the busiest ever. Four and a half years at university did not prepare me for how busy I would be this year. I spent the year editing copy, checking images in Photoshop, learning very quickly how to use inDesign, creating marketing and publicity plans, dealing with clients, and everything in between.
The year ended with a pretty sweet party, and luckily I was able to find a job before Studylink stopped lending me money. Until mid-March, you'll find me in the Tower building on Customhouse Quay in the offices of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants. I'm helping out with proofreading, so you'll see me reading for eight hours a day, my eyes are loving me this summer. They're in the middle of publishing technical standards and needed some extra eyes to proof. NZICA has been a really fantastic place to work so far; while the content isn't the most riveting, the people I work with are simply great. They've been wonderful at making me feel welcome, and I'll be sad to be leaving when that day comes.

So I had from 21st December until 7th January off work. A nice decent break to spend with the family, and mostly just sitting around, reading and not doing much in general. Christmas was an adventurous time - drove to Taupo on Christmas Eve for the night, and come home to Wellington via Masterton on Christmas Day. My brother and sister-in-law were here from Philadelphia, the first time I've seen them since 2010, so that was pretty excellent. New Years was spent quietly at a friend's in Petone, having a BBQ, some cider and sitting on the island in the middle of the road waiting for the fireworks. They never came.

Oh, I did get to go and hang out with some meerkats at Wellington Zoo before New Years. That was choice. Here's a photo. 

There are more new and exciting things coming up: moving flats, some new reviews and adventures. Stay tuned.

K.

New job = no more retail.

So I got a new job. This is a very exciting time for me; it’s my first non-retail job and, in theory, will mark my transition from retail into big girl work forever. That is if I get a publishing job at the end of the year. Although this job will exist until around 2014, so I guess I’m set to not work retail again.

I've been working since I took over my sister’s paper run in Taupo back when my age was a single digit. Since then, I’ve worked in a bakery, sold home goods, made smoothies and salads, given advice on a variety of sporting goods, as well as sold books, organised your post and taken your coffee orders. There’s also a chance I’ve also yelled at you if you were undergrad at some point in the past two years.

I quite like my CV, it shows the crazy amount of things I’ve done since 2004, and there’s never been a job I didn’t like – just ones that didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d have liked in the end.

ANZAC Cove, from my school trip in 2006. 

So this new first non-retail job of mine is at Archives NZ. Fancy, I know; I even get a swipe card with my picture on it. I’m in the Digital Copy Centre from 7-9am every weekday scanning NZDF World War I soldier files, so they can be uploaded to Archway. From here, anyone can access them. I’m an easily distracted person, so I listen to music while working in an effort to concentrate better. However, that doesn’t stop random words and sentences jumping out at me from the files.

I had the file of a soldier who had previously served two years in the Army but had been discharged; the reasons for this weren’t given. However, he was deemed medically unfit to serve in WWI due to problems with his eyes; I assume this may have been the reason for his discharge. Just his willingness to serve for his country made me think a lot about what must have been running through his mind when he signed up and was told he couldn’t fight. Makes you wonder.

The other day I had my first Killed in Action soldier. Which was followed by another one. And I just couldn’t stop thinking about these men, who had both died early into the war, how they were just young guys that probably thought they were invincible, going off on their daring adventure and never returned. Since that red ‘K.I.A’ stamp was struck down on the yellowed paper, there’s a chance I’m the first person since then to touch this record. The NZDF have gone through and put some of the papers on to microfilm, so those chances are greatly diminishing, but there’s still something special to me about being the person that gets to digitalise and immortalise on the internet soldiers’ lives and service records. People use Archway every day; families to find their loved ones, schools for projects, and I have no doubt Historians use it for research.

A poppy wedged in to the NZ Memorial
at Gallipoli, 2006.

However, the one soldier that has really jumped out and stuck with me was a gentleman who began his service in 1918, but was discharged in 1919 due to being “no longer physically fit for War Service on account of illness contracted on Active Service”. Bit of a mouthful. The main reason this man stood out at for me, though, was his occupation. Neatly written at the top of his history sheet was ‘Bookbinder’. Bookbinder. There are thousands of files to scan, and I happen to pick up a bookbinder’s. I thought it tied my current study and his life together quite well.

I said earlier this scanning job will exist until 2014; Archives have said they will digitalise all NZDF WWI personnel files by 2014 – the centenary of World War I. This job fuels my love of History while I’m busy studying to be a publisher, instead of doing History Honours as I intended. This beautiful balance between work, study, and lifestyle is more than I could ever ask for; 2012’s coming up great so far.

This was my Easter weekend.

This is how I spent my Easter weekend: whatshouldwecallme.
You will love it.

New post coming soon, like a real post I mean.

Hope everyone ate WAAAAAY too much chocolate.

A picture I liked. Plus a movie I love,
and will probably watch today.

My Green Bookshelves, take one.

Growing up our bookshelves were green. They took up the majority of a wall in the rumpus room downstairs, and I often remember my Dad standing in front of them, figuring out what he would read next. As I grew older, I would go to my Dad and ask him what I should read. He’d take me downstairs, and, seemingly at random, pluck something off the shelf. But he was always right. The first ‘adult’ book I remember him giving me was Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan. This easily became, and still is, one of my favourite books. When I had finished and I went to give it back to him, he refused to take it. This still continues, and is the reason my own (now blue) bookshelf is becoming rather full.

I thank my parents, especially Dad, for my love of books, and for being the main reason I’m choosing to study towards a career in publishing.

This isn't my blue bookshelf, but I wish sometimes that is was.

This blog will probably be full of ramblings, but hopefully some interesting things will filter through. But, hey, I figured that's ok, I live by Ray Bradbury's words when it comes to writing: "Write only what you love, and love what you write. The word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for."