I realize that I've gotten lazy about recording the books I've been reading lately, which may not be all together a bad thing, because now they aren't so fresh in my memory and hopefully I won't ramble too long about each of them. *Sweatdrop* If you think these posts are boring, then by all means leave quietly and go make yourself a sandwich or something.

• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  
  I just finished this one the other day and it was really good, in that way where stories are really good in a horrible, terrible way. It's a slightly futuristic, dystopian (I never knew there was a term for the opposite of utopian -- look, I learned a new word!) take on a political and cultural revolution of the United States -- now called the Republic of Gilead -- after the reproduction rates of the American people takes a dangerous downward spiral. Told from the point of view of a woman named Offred, she describes her life as a Handmaiden -- one of remaining women still with viable ovaries that the oppressive and violent Gilead government now farms out to high society families with the specific purpose only to breed. They're allowed out once a day to the market, are not allowed to read, and have no purpose in live other than the hope of becoming pregnant by their Commanders in order to secure their worth.
  
  It goes without saying that this book is highly unsettling and disturbing at times, but again, in a fascinating way where you can't stop reading. You don't have to be a feminist to appreciate this story. Highly recommended to anyone.


• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  
  Oh man, I haven't read this book in such a long time! I don't really think I need to recap this one since everyone and their dog is probably familiar with the story (and if you aren't, then you should feel shame. SHAAAAAAAME.) I remember sitting in my sister's room when I was little while she read The Hobbit out loud to me for the first time and being riveted in my seat, and ever since the Gollum/Bilbo riddle chapter has always remained one of those vivid, iconic scenes in literature for me. The last time I read this book was probably when I was in junior high, so it's lost most of the high and thrilling entertainment value I remember it having as a kid (I think mostly due to Tolkien's writing style which I don't enjoy much), but even now as an adult it's still a staple for every bookworm's bookshelf.


• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
  
  The first novel in the Uglies, Pretties, Specials trilogy, I heard a lot of rave reviews for this series. Hundreds of years after an apocalyptic world event occurred, the remains of society across the globe now live in controlled, self-contained cities; and the most anticipated moment in everyone's life is when they turn sixteen -- and undergo an operation to turn them pretty. Sixteen-year-old Tally wants nothing more, until she's forced to betray a friend and in turn learns the horrible truth behind becoming pretty.
  
  Nothing amazing, the whole pretty operation "twist" was predictable fairly early on, and none of the characters were particularly note-worthy; but the story concept and new world and technology that the author created were all interesting enough to keep me reading. It ended in a way that I can't help but want to read the second book too. (Curse you, cliffhangers!)


• Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
  
  This book is set during the 1960s Cultural Revolution, following Chen Zhen, a student from Beijing who goes to live as shepherd on the Mongolian grassland. It showcases the culture of the herdsmen and the way they live with and respect the grassland and the entire ecosystem it supports, with particular detail paid to the Mongolian wolves that are both sacred to the herdsmen as well as the enemy. In order to learn more about the wolves, Chen steals a wild wolf cub from its den to raise himself.
  
  This novel took me a long time to finish because my interest in it flip flopped from chapter to chapter -- it was either super dry and read like a history text book, or was really interesting when it came to more of the spiritual aspects, especially the Mongols views on wolves and how they are both a struggle and blessing to the herders. Even during the fascinating parts though, half the time I wanted to kick Chen's character in the head for certain selfish decisions he makes at the expense of his adopted wolf cub. *Brenna's hackles raise*


• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  
  Great, emotion-packed story following a man and his young son as they try to survive on their own in a post-apocalyptic world, where every day is a life and death struggle against starvation, the elements, and any other individual they cross paths with. (The movie stars Viggo Mortensen, which is all sorts of awesome, even if he is all scruffy and hobo-looking in it.)
  
  I'd been meaning to read this book for quite a while, and while it was very different than what I'd imagined, it still didn't disappoint. There's some really heart-wrenching bits in this one. There's a particular scene where the father and son have been starving for days and all of a sudden they hear a dog bark. The boy immediately turns to his father and pleads to him not to hurt the dog, and the father promises he won't. I mean, these people haven't eaten in so long they're probably going to keel over and die any day, and still this father stands there and without hesitation promises his little boy that they won't kill this dog. Just... wow, you know? Best scene in the whole thing, in my opinion. This was an enjoyable (if not very sad) read.


• Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume by Jeff Smith
  
  What can I say about Bone? It's an American graphic novel series published over the course of thirteen years, or something crazy like that, collected together into one whopping 1,300+ page volume of adventure epicness, full of monsters, princesses, kingdoms, prophecies, love, betrayal, dragons, and three very funny looking characters called Bones. Did I mention that it also includes two half-hearted, dim-witted rat creatures who are occasionally hilarious and have a particular fondness for quiche? It served as a delightful (if not extremely lengthy) bathroom reader in our house for the past twelve months.

Whew. Onwards and forwards, or whatever the saying is. I'm about halfway done a new one right now, another Oprah's Club pick. (Say what you like about Oprah, but her recommended book list is usually pretty good.) With all of the free and cheap books I've been picking up lately, I may eventually have to invest in another book shelf.

I had my first volunteer shift at the Stanley Milner Library yesterday, sorting books for their upcoming book sale(s) down in the basement. There were less volunteers than I thought there'd be, and I turned out to be the youngest among them (looks like most of the EPL volunteers are older people who are retired or don't work full hours and have oodles of spare time... so we have something in common then), but it was a good time. It also helps that for each volunteer session I help out at, I score four dollars of free used books! XB (When we're talking used books, four dollars buys a respectable pile of new novels to add to my collection~) They also have a drink fridge and sneaky filing cabinet drawer full of snacks to nibble on while you're sorting. Definitely worth waking up early for yesterday morning.

Mason and I watched the new DC animated movie, Batman: Under the Red Hood the other evening, based on the whole Jason Todd reborn storyline. Verdict? Pretty sweet. :B I've read "A Death in the Family" and I'm familiar with the general plot points of Red Hood's origin, so it was neat to see a video version of the story (and according to reviews from people more comic-savvy than I, the adaptation is pretty well done.) Pleasing art and animation, good script, and much more blood and violence than I've seen in the past Batman animated videos. My only sad note is that this movie changed all of the usual voice actors I've come to know and love from the animated Batman universe -- it's silly, but there will always be a little part of me that shuns anyone who tries to fill Kevin Conroy or Mark Hamill's shoes. On the other hand... Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing is awesome! *Glee*

On that thought, why is it that random street thugs know that Nightwing was formerly Robin...? o_O Did Batman post memos up all over Gotham? Is there an official Batman newsletter?

I've been watching a little bit of Discovery Channel's Shark Week and it got me thinking. In all of the survivor accounts from shark attacks, someone always remarks that the shark always "mistakenly" attacked the person. You've heard it, all this crazy talk about "Oh, the shark thought the surfer was a seal."

The HELL? When a grizzly bear eats an innocent camper, no one ever says "Oh, well the bear mistook her for a giant salmon," or "Oh, the bear confused him for a gangly-looking, walking, talking raspberry bush." When a cougar stalks and kills a hiker, no one defends the cat by insisting that the hiker resembled a deer. So why are sharks let off the hook so easily? I'm not saying that the unfortunate victim need go all Captain Ahab vengeancy on said shark, I'm just out for a little equal accountability for all creatures big and small here.

I just don't buy into this "sharks don't eat people and if they do then the shark was just very confused" explanation. Yes, a lot of the reports insist that the shark was just curious by the fact that after taking a chomp out of the dude's leg, they all of a sudden abandon the idea and swim off. I personally think we could safely chalk that up to a more plausible theory -- that the shark in question who decides it's up for some Sunday Surfer Supper often realize that while we human prey are vastly stupid and easy to catch, we're also a royal pain in the ass once we're caught. After all, I doubt many seals they grab start to sucker punch them in the eye and kick them in their soft, fleshy gills. BAM! POW! BIFF! Maybe a Great White is just lazy when it comes to messing around with food that fights back and is quick to abandon us for some sweet smelling school of fish where all that is involved on Jaws' part is to swim straight and fast with his mouth wide open like a giant toothy fish net.

I have respect for sharks. I mean, obviously more so unbridled fear and overwhelming terror, but also respect. You think a shark can't tell the difference between a seal and a person? That they mistake the glint of light off an underwater wrist watch to be tasty fish? If I were a shark I'd be offended. I'd be all, "Fuck you, marine biologist, and guess what, you've just been added to my next weeks lunch menu. What's that, fancy pants shark researcher? You wanna say something about me too?"

So let's give the shark community a little credit here and say that more likely they were super hungry, there weren't currently any seals hanging around, "but hey, here's a convenient nibblet that was dumb enough to swim into my watery domain!" Luckily for humans, we have long agile limbs adapt at punching predators in the eyes with, which if I were a shark would be the last thing I'd want to put up with at the end of a long, grueling day. After all, I'd rather be labeled lazy than stupid. I have my shark pride to think of.

Back from B.C. sister road trip! I'm contemplating changing the name to Bacon Vacation, however, due not only to the undeniable fact that it (sort of) rhymes and everyone knows that rhymes are fun for everyone -- but also paying homage to the additional fact that I don't think we ate one meal in Sean and Liz's home that didn't include bacon. It was a plethora of bacon! On top of, inside, shredded into, sprinkled on, and wrapped around! A variable bacon cornucopia, if you will. I know a few salivating individuals who would indeed have some fine dining at Sean and Liz's House of the Crispy Fried Swine.

Anyway, our trip was lots of fun, minus the actual sitting in the car for twelve straight hours there and back again -- that starts to lose it's appeal after the first hour or two. For the first time in all of our many B.C. excursions, we actually hung out in downtown Vancouver for a day. It's a much nicer city to stroll around in than Edmonton, visually-wise, what with all its envy-invoking mountain/bay scenery that puts us to shame. It also scores bonus points on the personal Brenna scale with it's monumental vaguely-coliseum-like Public Library of All Kinds of Win!

Seriously cool. I bought a used book from their gift shop and every time I turn a page I shall think back to the VPL fondly and FILLED WITH JEALOUSLY.

We also spent a day down in Seattle checking out the Space Needle, and before that the Seattle Zoo (I got super close to a grizzly bear! Like, SUPER CLOSE! D: The entire lack of actual fences around the animal enclosures do not help at all with soothing the fearful concept of serious bear mauling.) I had to stop and have a "the hell?" moment when in one of the aviaries they featured ...wait for it... magpies. *Blink* Really? We could have carted a whole car load of them over from Alberta for you, and I think I speak on behalf of all Edmontonians when I say we'd be glad to be rid of them. Though I suppose they're considered exotic to someone. When you think about it, I'm sure somewhere in South America, the locals are all like "Fucking toucans! Get your exotic profile and beautifully-colored giant beak out of my fucking backyard and off my breakfast cereal! Jeeze!"

On the way home we also made a pit stop by our favorite B.C. roadside fruit vendor and I bought some delicious fresh cherries. Yum~ X3

Tomorrow, CT's wedding! *Excited flails!* Very excited and happy for them. I tried the few dresses I own all on yesterday and realized that they all either: a) don't fit anymore, b) never did fit in the first place but I was too style-stupid to realize it, or c) fit but are made a material so see-through that undergarments can clearly be seen. So I ventured out today to buy a much-needed dress slip to hide unfortunate pantie exposure, except that I couldn't manage to find a bloody slip so instead I spent two hours frantically hunting for a whole new dress. Fortunately I managed to find one that was on sale and ended up being more or less the same amount of money I would have spent on the slip in the first place. That's a win in my book.

Mmm, have no doubt that there shall be cake and possibly other tasty desserts at wedding tomorrow. That's always a delightful perk. Is it acceptable these days to slip the groom a fiver in order to score an extra piece? A corner piece, maybe? With a grotesque amount of icing...?

Survived camping in bear country, hurrah! \o/ Next week I'm off again for our biennial Road Trip of Sisterly Win to visit equally awesome Brother of Awesome and Sister-In-Law of Rad over in B.C. This involves our traditional 12 hour drive through the mountains, the same ones I just returned from this past weekend; the only difference being that if we encounter bears, I will already be safely in our car traveling at 130 km/h on the highway. Ha HA! How do ya like them apples, bears?! *Smug*

Still no interviews. *Sad face* In the mean time I've begun taking on contract work again to at least bring in some sort of income aside from my EI. Last week through word of mouth I managed to pick up a couple new web projects, so that's keeping me nice and busy during the day when I was formerly just laying around watching episodes of Secret Diary of a Call Girl and napping.

In addition to contract work, I've started volunteering at the St. Albert Public Library! :3 (I've also put in an application at the EPL, but they haven't contacted me back yet.) It's great because it'll finally give me a little experience to put on my sad, library-lacking resume; plus, I'm really enjoying it. The people there are super nice and I find the shelving work very relaxing. They have me for a couple evening hours each week, though I'm hoping that I can eventually increase my hours -- then the next time they have a part-time page position open for hire they'll be all "Hey, that Brenna girl sure is a hard-working, enthusiastic volunteer! She's just the lady we're looking for, yes sir!" and BAM! Hired. That's my brilliant plan anyhow.

Over the past week, Mason and I have paid a couple of trips to various home hardware stores in an attempt to start planning out a tentative budget to remodel our very sad, ugly kitchen. No huge construction renos or anything, mostly just aesthetics -- painting the cupboards, new countertops, hardware, light fixtures, getting rid of ugly apple-print drapes, maybe a fancy shmancy new faucet~ I would love a new dishwasher as well (because it's getting to the point that our cat could lick clean our plates and utensils better than this silly machine) but that's a whole different time and budget all together. We've also picked out some paint swatches and have wonderful plans for when we eventually want to spruce up the upstairs walls. Very excited. (For the work to be finally done and finished, that is -- I am not looking forward to the actual physical labor of remodeling at all.)

FYI, the sexy Old Spice guy has managed to somehow defy the laws of awesome and become EVEN MORE AWESOME. They're putting out new spots (some of which that are quite hilarious) on their YouTube channel in which he personally responds to comments and questions from fans. This man is so awesome, in fact, that I have added him to my Hug Bucket. I bet hugging him would be like hugging every awesome person in the world at the same time, while listening to Journey, while standing in the the most beautiful sunny and grassy panorama, among the grand scenic backdrop of looming mountains made entirely of chocolate, immediately after being rescued single-handedly from a hoard of ravenous bears. Ooh. Not to mention my Hug Bucket would forever carry the wonderfully manly fragrance of Old Spice scented body wash.

The following is the one and only positively rad bear-related portion part of this blog post:

Me:	@danawhite I had a dream where I was being attacked by bears and you came in and were all "I'll handle this" and fought them off, saving me.
Me:	@danawhite Long story short -- you're sort of my hero.
	*No reply for many days*
Me:	No reply from @danawhite in response to my msg about dreaming that he saved me from a bear. I think I may have made him uncomfortable.
Me:	Or perhaps @danawhite was in fact in real life bear battle and was brutally mauled? Bear fighting prowess does not exist beyond dreams?
Dana White:	I didn't see it. Glad I could help :)
Me:	@danawhite Huzzuh! Glad to hear you were not in fact mauled by angry bears. Rock on.
Dana White:	lol

\o/

I am having serious doubts about this mountain camping trip. I was having doubts before, but after reading Fairfax Lake's far too convenient "Bear Smart e-Book" I feel like I'm mere moments away from a panic attack at the thought of driving four hours away tomorrow just to camp at some backwater mountain campground with a chance of bear encounters and "serious mauling" (the e-book's words, not mine) thrown in. There is something we have termed the "Brenna bubble" and bears are not a part of that bubble.

If you can't already tell, I have a pretty solid history -- which I believe I genetically inherited in some fashion from my mother -- of being terrified of bears. I have never seen one up close, but I positively, 100% sure, instinctively know that if I ever do I will end up dead. Watching The Edge when I was younger was like sitting through my own personal 2-hour nightmare.

If I end up actually going tomorrow I'm not even going to be able to walk to the bathroom alone. I will be a campsite Nazi. "DID YOU PUT AWAY ALL YOUR FOOD INTO THE CAR?!" "YOU CAN'T GO TO BED IN THE SAME CLOTHES YOU COOKED DINNER IN!!!" "IS THAT TOOTHPASTE I SEE IN YOUR TENT?!" Oh god. Hated and shunned by close friends, or hideous bear mauling? What do I do, what do I do, what do I do.

:x