The Kreativ Blogger Award

I was blog hopping the other day (week?) when I found that I'd been nominated for another award. This one is called the Kreativ Blogger Award, and it was passed on to me by Resident Gamer. To accept, I need to list 10 randoms facts about myself, and then nominate 6 other blogs.

Random Facts:
1. I am a huge fan of Spongebob Squarepants.
2. As much as I like movies today, I would pick a good book over one any day.
3. Despite spending a considerable amount of my childhood around swimming pools, I never quite managed to learn how to swim.
4. My favorite reality TV show till date was a British show called Fame Academy; it was a sort of cross between Big Brother and American Idol.
5. My favorite movie actor used to be Vin Diesel for some reason. But based on quality of recent performances, I'd say it is now between Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeremy Renner.
6. I've had the song, "Burn It Down" on near-constant repeat for over a month now in anticipation of the new Linkin Park album, "Living Things."
7. I still don't think The Avengers has any chance of surpassing Avatar and Titanic at the box office.
8. I know this is not a fact, but why, oh why, has the release of the Rockstar video game GTA V been shifted to 2013!?
9. I've been struggling to find the time to read Veronica Roth's Insurgent for the past three weeks now, which is a testament to how distracted I've been of recent.
10. It's taken me nearly two weeks to write this post.

Nominees:
1. Pensuasion
2. Sarah Allen
3. Scouring Monk
4. Empire's 5-star 500
5. The Geek Twins
6. Kyd Evolution

P.S: I've been planning towards something major; a project with almost six years in the making. More on that in the near future.

First Loves Blogfest

It's been a long and hectic weekend, during which my sister got married and my grandma marked her 100th year on this planet. I'd envisioned I'd spend today, and the better part of this week, recuperating, but then I remembered I'd signed up for this First Loves Blogfest, created by Alex J. Cavanaugh.

So without wasting much of your time, what follows are my various first loves spanning movies, music, books and people.

Movie - Starship Troopers

I have to admit, when you think science fiction movies, Starship Troopers isn't exactly the first one that would come to mind. But this was the first movie in the genre that I completely fell in love with, a movie that has since shaped my tastes and craving for over-the-top action and excessive blood and gore. At its heart, Starship Troopers is a war movie, one I still consider superior to more recent efforts like War of the Worlds and Battle: Los Angeles.

Music - Linkin Park

While I consider The Red Hot Chili Peppers to be one of my favorite bands of all time, I'll have to bestow the honor of First Band that I loved to none other than Linkin Park. Here is a band that not only managed to find tremendous success during the Nu-metal/Rap Metal craze, but one that has continued to grow and evolve in the years since. Put simply, Linkin Park is the reason why I have close to 10,000 songs on my iTunes today. They basically awakened my love for music.

Book - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Prior to reading Harry Potter, I could comfortably count all the books I'd read from start to finish on one hand, and still have a finger or two to spare. But ever since discovering this first installment in the series, I have read and reread countless other titles, having had my eyes opened to the wonders that lie in printed words. No other book could have pulled me away from my dogged belief that movies were a better storytelling medium than books. I have since come to see the error in my ways.

Person - None

Sorry, but I'm not a big people person, and even if I was, I wouldn't be able to give out any real names or descriptions, especially since the most likely candidate for this title is now married with children. Oh well.

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

Reflections on the 2012 A-Z Challenge

I can't believe it's been a full week since writing my final A-Z post. Mostly because my brain is still very much scrambled up, though I blame that more on the presence of distant relatives than burnout from the actual challenge. What's the occasion? Well, my sister's wedding is this Saturday, and our once quiet abode is literally teeming with said relatives. The good news though is that once everything is over, I'll be that much closer to getting the TV (and Xbox) all to myself... [insert evil laugh here].

Right. Back to the subject of my post. The 2012 Blogging from A-Z challenge has been wonderful. I have not only discovered a number of great blogs out there in the blogosphere, I have also learnt the value of blogging with a theme, something I hope to adopt in the weeks to come, once I've taken care of several so-far-neglected activities. It's been an enriching experience for me, and the main obstacle to that experience was my blogging platform itself: Google's Blogger.

I am one of the (assumed) minority who blogs from their mobile phone. I use a BlackBerry, and I enjoy getting instant e-mail notifications whenever someone comments on my posts (or one of the posts I have subscribed to). But I am forced to jump over quite a few hurdles before my posts are up and running. I have already ranted about this before, but it bears repeating, especially now that I have some eyeballs on my posts: Dear Google Developers, please, please, please create a dedicated Blogger app for BlackBerry, or at least a website optimized for mobile devices.

I would like to applaud the various co-hosts for giving fledgling bloggers like myself the opportunity to meet and interact with like-minded individuals. The list is endless, but what follows are the names of those blogs whose posts I looked forward to throughout my A-Z journey:

Annette Thomson
Empire 500 5-star Reviews
Scouring Monk
Resident Gamer
S.L. Hennessy

Thanks guys for making the Challenge that much more interesting. Can't wait to do this again next year, as crazy as that sounds. :)

Thanks Everyone

It's been a rather lengthy past couple of weeks. Those of us who participated in the Blogging from A-Z challenge should know precisely what I'm talking about here. Who knew that blogging everyday of the week can take such a toll. I seriously applaud those of you who already do so on a regular basis. As for me, well, let's just say it's back to being a writer.

I'm aware we're all supposed to do a reflection post on the A-Z challenge sometime next week, so I'll save most of the mushy stuff for that post. For now, I'll just like to thank all my fellow participants for making the month of April my best month since becoming an active blogger December last year. I've discovered some truly great blogs, owned by equally great people, and I have myself been found by others who'd been willing to grace my pages with their pure awesomeness.

Thanks everyone, and I look forward to reading your posts and following your little adventures in the weeks and months to come. :)