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A perfect, geektastic Sunday.
A friend on Facebook posted this morning that Sunday mornings should always consist of tea and video games; in my case, however, I prefer to take my lazy Sunday mornings with a good helping of chocolate and a giant stack of Batman comics.
I just finished reading Batman: Long Shadows, and while I haven't actually gotten the chance to read the precursor events that lead up to it after R.I.P. and during Final Crisis (still trying to get my hands on a copy of these ones!), I've patched together a somewhat muddled grasp of the whole Batman-is-all-dead plot and what went down. Even not having read the material leading up to Long Shadows, it was still so good! And sad!
For the love of god, WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ALFRED A HUG? D:} Watching Alfred Pennyworth mourn for the loss of Bruce Wayne is like having all of the happiness in the world shrivel up, blacken, and die. *Sobs hysterically* For anyone who is a West Wing fan, you know how your heart feels like it's been ripped out of your chest when you watch Donna get the news that Josh has been shot? That gut wrenching feeling when Jed hears that Mrs. Landingham has died? Or when you watch Buffy, how your heart flutters all sad and painful any time you see Willow crying? It's like that.
He's so sad! I just want to reach into the pages and hug the stuffing out of him until there's no more bad to possibly squeeze out anymore! ;_;
As for another of the Batman graphic novels I've read this week, Lovers and Madmen is also a fantastic Batman story, though less in the heart wrenching, soul crushing sort of way and much more in the insane sociopath with a gun way. L&M is another different take on the Joker's origin story, and it's awesome. The writing is top notch and the art style fits the story perfectly. I personally sort of like my Joker background-story-less because the ambiguity is part of what makes him interesting, but canon or not, this version of things fits him to a T.
Two five-star Batman tales in one week! EPIC GEEK WIN.
Buying a new dishwasher and barbecue? One AMEX and six Sears gift cards.
Eating a finely cooked steak off a clean plate? Priceless.
Today we went out and spent a lot of money. Thankfully, the money in question was almost entirely on a pile of handy dandy gift cards so that went a significant way in lessening the financial impact. Shiny new purchases are always more shiny when they're free~
So yes, after a very long overdue wait, we are finally the owners of a new dishwasher (or will be once it arrives in Edmonton in the next four to seven days) and with it the tantilizing prospect of actually cleaning dishes. What a concept. Currently we're forced to painstakenly pre-scrub all of our dishes before loading them into the old machine in order for them to come out half decently clean, in which we then sort through and re-wash the ones that still aren't clean all over a second time, a routine that is agonizingly redundant three times over.
In addition, we also purchased a badly needed new barbecue, as the one we have right now has pretty much stopped cooking food entirely, so if you wanted a steak you better have liked it pretty rare. This one's all shiny and steel and chrome and apparently firey-death free so I look forward to many summer evening suppers of delicious meaty goodness.
Last night we celebrated Canada Day at a Capitals baseball game at Telus Field. This was my first ever baseball game, and if I'm being completely honest, watching baseball in person is almost as mind numbingly boring as watching it on television. Please note that this is not to say that I didn't love hanging out with my friends yesterday, eating copious amounts of tasty stadium fries and ice cream and singing Journey songs at the top of our lungs -- that part was awesome and we really need to try and get us all together like that more often, I just wasn't crazy about the whole staring at a bunch of guys throwing and hitting a ball back and forth thing. I'd rather we go to a field somewhere and actually play a fun game of baseball or soccer among ourselves, rather than be stuck in a plastic chair for three hours watching the game play out before me. The fireworks afterwards, however, were fantastic! You put on a good show last night, Edmonton. :D Happy day-after Canada Day, everyone!
Picking up where we left off.
Oh dear, so behind on everything blog-related! D: Not enough time in my few free evening hours any more! Here's the rest of the book spam I never finished from a post or two ago:
- Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
The story opens with the conviction of Shay Bourne, a carpenter, for the murder of a little girl and her stepfather, a police officer -- given the serverity of his crime, Bourne is sentenced to death. Eleven years later, as Shay's execution date looms, he's desperate to find redemption and salvation when he dies by donating his heart to a terminally ill child, whose mother just happens to be the same woman whose husband and daughter he killed. Drama! Angst! Did I mention that while this is all going on, strange and miraculous events are unfolding in Shay Bourne's little prison cell, leading thousands of people to think he's the messiah?This was a bit of a different twist compared to what Picoult usually writes, still with the courtroom drama but alongside elements very reminiscent of The Green Mile and with just a hint of Bridget Jones' Diary thrown in here and there. It sounds weird but I enjoyed this book. Admittedly, there were some holes in the storytelling which I found jarring and uncommon for Jodi Picoult. Also, Shay's character was a little all over the place; at times he seemed to completely change personalities from one chapter to the next which made it really hard to relate to him (maybe this was intentional? I don't know.) Religion is a big theme in this story, and to that end what it means to be religious and what exactly faith is. I consider myself spiritual by nature, though never strictly religious, so some of the arguments in this book really rang true for me. Overall the plot was very engaging and I liked it. (And BTW, totally called the surprise twist early on. \o/ ) 4/5
- Alphabet by Kathy Page
Highly intelligent but illiterate and with a childhood of care homes and fostering behind him, Simon Austen is sent down for life for murdering his girlfriend. While in prison, he teaches himself to read and write and initiates a series of illicit correspondences with several women, and with it language suddenly takes on a new significance and Simon begins on a journey exploring his identity, his crime, and his redemption. To be honest, I didn't finish this book. To be even more honest, I don't think I even made it a third of the way through. *Sheepish* I'm not sure whether it was the lure of other books on my list I was itching to read, or if I truly just couldn't get into Alphabet's story that made me give it up. Part of me feels like I should give it another try, but the other part of me has already doomed it to the donation bin to move on to bigger and better novels sitting on my shelf screaming to be read. Baaaaa. 1/5 - Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I love this book! One of my all time faves. Piscine Molitor Patel (known as Pi) is a boy from Pondicherry, India, whose family owns a large zoo; when they decide to emigrate to Canada, the cargo ship carrying them and all of their zoo animals sinks in the middle of the Pacific. Pi is the only survivor, or so he thinks, when he struggles aboard a lifeboat and finds himself unexpectedly sharing it with an injured zebra, a spotted hyena, an orangutan, and Richard Parker -- an immense Bengal tiger. While most of the animals succumb to their respective fates, Pi and Richard Parker cling to life in this amazing, believable, and absorbing tale.Okay, so here's the thing. There's really no way to summarize this book without it sounding ridiculous, but trust me, it's not. It's so good. This is probably my third or fourth time reading it and I enjoy it just as much now as I did the first time. I love Martel's storytelling, his heart, his humor, and the way he manages to have this kid survive on this lifeboat with an fully grown adult tiger for several months without becoming kitty kibble and he makes you believe it. Just a warning -- you need to make it through the first hundred pages or so of the book before the ship actually sinks and hijinks start to ensue, but even those hundred pages of Pi's backstory and his unusual practice of three vastly different religions simultaneously are well done, if you ask me. So if you haven't already read Life of Pi, go read it now and love it. LOVE IT. *Shakes fist* 5/5
- Room by Emma Donoghue
Five-year-old Jack and his mother live in an 11'x11' room, and for Jack, who has never stepped a foot outside, it is the only world he has ever known and loved. He's innocent to the reality that Room is in fact a prison where he and his Ma have been held against their will for the last seven years, and when his mother devises a desperate escape plan, Jack's world is turned upside down.The narrative is told completely from Jack's point of view which gives a unique, innocent impression of the events and truth as they unfold as only a five-year-old child who's never known anything else in his life could possibly deliver. This was a really great read with some interesting exploration of concepts like adaptation and how normalcy is only relative. 4/5
- A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) by George R.R. Martin
Martin's renown epic fantasy saga. *Trumpets sound* After hearing raves from so many people, I finally broke down and used a gift card I had to purchase the first four books of the Song of Ice and Fire series to see what all the hullabaloo was about. If you're a book lover you've probably read it by now, and I'm too lazy to write up a summary so I'm stealing one from Goodreads: "Martin's Seven Kingdoms resemble England during the Wars of the Roses, with the Stark and Lannister families standing in for the Yorks and Lancasters. The story of these two families and their struggle to control the Iron Throne dominates the foreground; in the background is a huge, ancient wall marking the northern border, beyond which barbarians, ice vampires, and direwolves menace the south as years-long winter advances. Abroad, a dragon princess lives among horse nomads and dreams of fiery reconquest."Verdict? It was... okay. Here's the thing about this book -- like many epic fantasies, it's a lengthy read. And, again just like many epic fantasies, there were waaaay too many characters and families and places that I just couldn't keep straight. Trying to keep track of who that is and who this is and who's fighting who and what army is invading where and who's up to what insidious scheme is just... exhausting. It didn't help that half of the time I found myself having to force myself to finish a chapter. Don't get me wrong, over all Martin has an engaging plot going here -- and when the story was good, it was really good (in a everyone-go-away-I'm-reading-so-you-don't-exist sort of way); but when it was bad it was really bad. There are certain chapters and character story lines in this book where I was bored to tears. Robb, Catelyn, Arya... omg so dull, I wanted to just skip every chapter with them in it. On the other hand, characters like Tyrion, Eddard, and Daenerys -- thoroughly enjoyable. (Sansa was another character I spent most of the book disliking, but was happily surprised when she finally started getting interesting toward the end.) Did I think Game of Thrones fantastic? No. Then again I'm one of those people who has tried in vain multiple times to slog through LotR without success. Was it worth the read? Well, parts of it were. I'm tempted to read the second book if only to follow the subplots of my favorite characters. 3/5
- About a Boy by Nick Hornby
The book that inspired the movie of the same title starring the deliciously smarmy Hugh Grant~ Shamelessly pilfered book summary: "Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women -- through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bit nerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age."I remember enjoying the movie back when I first watched it, so when I came across it in the library I couldn't help but snatch it up (if only for visions of surly Hugh Grant staring all smoldery and sexy in my head.) It's a sweet and entertaining read, and most of the time Will's character is completely hilarious and obnoxiously arrogant at the same time, and Marcus is also often hilarious but in an entirely different way. I don't remember the movie details particularly well, but I believe the book goes into further detail regarding Marcus' mother's depression as well as his friendship with Ellie. A little slow in some parts, but Will and Marcus' whole awkward male bonding thing is very adorable. 3/5
- Annabel by Kathleen Winter
Set in Labrador in the 1960's, a child neither entirely male or female, but both, is born. With only the parents and the attending midwife privy to the secret, the child's father makes the decision to raise the baby as a boy named Wayne. As Wayne matures into adulthood, the physical, emotional, and mental female attributes that have been repressed for so long begin to surface and he must make the decision for himself about who he truely is.I was instantly intrigued when I read the book jacket of this one on the new releases shelf. Very interesting premise, however I found the story lagging in places, especially nearer the end. It didn't really delve as much into the physical and emotional aspects of the character being born a hermaphrodite as I thought it would; it's much more a coming-of-age story then anything. I guess I sort of went in looking for more of a documentary-like account, to learn something, and that's not really what this book focuses on. Still a nice enough read though. 3/5
Some of those got overly rambly, I apologize. =_=;
And HEY, in between the smorgasbord of novels lately I've also been stuffing my face with Batman and Buffy comics! I polished off three more big Batman title story arcs and compilations: Batman and Son; Batman R.I.P.; and Serious House on Serious Earth, all three of which I made the mistake of reading in the complete reverse order that I really should have, and if I'd done so would have saved myself a significant amount of confusion. As for BtVS, I finally caught up to the seventh volume of the Buffy: Season Eight graphic novel, and FYI, season eight has become a little... weird... *Gives Joss Whedon a hesitant sidelong look that clearly says that she's a loyal fan but is becoming increasingly concerned about his most recent foray into crazy.* Magic world-creating cosmic space sex, indeed.
Assume the dead squirrel position.
Awesome news!
It's my day off tomorrow! *Hand flail* Sorry to everyone who felt like that piece of awesome news was anti-climactic, but for me it really is very exciting after working for six days, especially when today was all sorts of annoying at The Job. *Vexed Brenna is vexed.* Mason and I went out to dinner at Bonanza though when I got home from work and all of the tasty food in my belly was a fabulous cure for all of that horrible vexation.
So yes, Mondays are my free day so tomorrow I'm going to lay around my house in my pjs like a bum for the morning before heading off in the afternoon to a) volunteer at the library!, and b) go to yoga! WHAAAAAT, you're saying? Brenna is willingly engaging in a class that involves physical exercise? It is my newest attempt at trying to steer myself away from an untimely end at the hands of diabetes, heart disease, or other gruesome fates people meet when they aren't active enough. :P I realize that yoga isn't on the same level at all as going to the gym five days a week or playing sports, but give me a little credit here at least.
I'm actually enjoying the experience though, I find yoga so far to be very relaxing (though surprisingly sweaty.) Because my right wrist will forever be a tad gimpy from when I broke it this past winter I can't always do all of the positions where weight is put on the hands unfortunately, but the instructors have given me some good workarounds for those instances. I'm determined to continue going to classes twice a week for at least the two months my Groupon deal entitles me to, and then after that it will depend on my money situation. I even bought a yoga mat~! It is pink and has flowers and now I won't have to use the sweaty second-hand rental mats, plus carrying it will make me look hardcore.
Oh god, our house is so dirty. So so dirty. >_< Another result of being employed again, the dishes in the sink tend to pile up... for like, an entire week. (Also on the to-do list tomorrow, before volunteering and yoga, though perhaps after laying around in pjs.) We have officially run out of all plates, utensils, and appropriately sized tupperware. We are horrible slobs. When I scrounge around in the mountainous pile of dishes capsizing over in our sink for a half-decently clean fork to eat with, I can even feel the cat staring at me shamefully.
“A home without books is a body without soul.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
Almost two months worth of reading to catch up on! D: I may just recap the first half of them now and do the rest later, we'll see how I'm feeling as I go.
- Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Set in South Africa, a middle-aged divorced English professor is discovered to be having a sexual relationship with one of his students. Instead of apologizing and trying to save his job, he leaves his career and city to stay with his daughter out on a remote farm she owns, attempting to reconcile a strained father-daughter relationship that is tested even more so when they are victims of horrible violence. The story wasn't really what I expected at all, ending up being much more about the relationship between him and his daughter than the aftermath of the scandal at all like I was expecting. It was a slow, tolling read at times, with too much of what I like to call "flowery" literary writing (he is an English professor after all.) Meh. 2/5
- Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
Model and actress Portia de Rossi's self-written unflinchingly honest and complex personal memoir recounting her public rise to fame while privately battling anorexia and coming to terms with her closeted sexual identity. This was a great book, I finished it within 24 hours of picking it up from the library. Portia is a wonderful writer, and the skill and truth in which she delves into the emotions and behaviors of individuals suffering from eating disorders is at times all together inspiring, amusing, and occasionally shocking. If you like autobiographies, this is a good one; if you don't, then I'd still recommend it to you anyway. 5/5
- The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) by Stephen King
The first book in King's well known and highly praised Dark Tower series, set in world that combines sci-fi, fantasty, horror, and western elements; introducing the character of Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, as he pursues an evil nemesis known as the man in black. I had high hopes for this one... but I'm sorry, it was just too weird. That's all I can really say about it. By the end of the book I still didn't fully understand what was going on or who the characters were or what they were trying to do. Maybe it's all explained more in the following books? I don't know, but I can't honestly say I'm motivated to read further on in the series to find out at this point. 2/5
- The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1) by Jean M. Auel
Set over 35,000 years ago, 5-year-old Ayla finds herself suddenly orphaned and homeless after her family is killed in an earthquake. She ends up being taken in by a clan of Neanderthals, a tribe of people both very ideologically and physically different from her own, and as she grows up her presence in the clan is the start of a brutal and dangerous power struggle. Very enjoyable story IMO. Interesting characters and fascinating settings and cultures were explored through out. Being set in the Ice Age it goes without saying that females have little to no social status or rights in this book, a fact that the author repeatedly bludgeons into the readers head to the point of making any woman cringe; however, it serves an important purpose in Ayla's coming-of-age story. I highly recommend this one. 4/5
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
A popular high school English class novel about a mentally disabled man named Charlie Gordon who becomes a genius through a experimental operation. The writing style of the book is interesting in that it's written entirely from Charlie's point of view and so the first third of the story is a maze of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes and somewhat confusing trains of thought, all of which slowly corrects and reorients itself as the story progresses and the effects of the operation set in. The book was originally set in the 60's and so there's a lot of very derogatory terms and treatment directed towards disabled individuals here, so readers beware. Overall, it was all right. Mostly, I found the story just very sad. 3/5
- Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley
I love this book! As I said in an earlier post, Beauty is a retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale, one that I greatly enjoyed when I checked it out repeatedly from my junior high library and still enjoy now. It contains the perfect amount of magic and romance (but not the corny, make-me-heave kind in your typical romance novel) paired with what I believe is a great take on the Belle a.k.a. Beauty character. If not for the somewhat lukewarm exposition-filled wrap up at the ending this novel would have earned a five star rating in my books, but even despite that it's a strong 4/5.
That's all for now. There's still five more books waiting to have some quick summaries and reviews written up for them but I'll include them on a later blog entry. (You see? This is what happens when I procrastinate. The list grows too long and tedious to tackle in one single post. I must stop being so lazy and post them as I finish reading each book.)
Another con of being back to working full time again: less time to read. :c The kitty and I had a good little ritual going where each morning after breakfast I'd read for an hour or two while he cuddled on my lap. Now Iroh meows sadly as he watches me walk out the door each morning and I try to squeeze in a few pages any chance I get on my breaks at work. Let me tell you, the break room at work is sadly lacking cuddly cats. *Sigh*
Dragged back to the real world against my better judgement.
Sorry for the tardiness in honeymoon blog posting, the return to real life has sort of gotten in the way of my blogging. *Sad face* In any event, quick honeymoon cruise recap!
- Friday, May 13th: We discover that our flight leaves six hours earlier than we originally thought it did! Panic! Frantic running around! (Apologies to Mike who housesat for us while we were away, even though I didn't end up having time to clean as much as I wanted to or tidy the bunny room.) We spend most of the day sitting in airports and airplanes and more airports and airplanes. Then when we arrived in Miami we ended up being evacuated from the airport because of a bomb scare. Collapsing into bed that night was the best thing ever.
- Saturday, May 14th: Cruise time! Met up with the rest of the gang to taxi it down to the port and board the fantastic Carnival Liberty! *Flash flash sparkle sparkle* We spent most of remainder of the day exploring the ship and reacquainting ourselves with the smorgasbord of free buffet food that we would be gorging ourselves with for the duration of the trip.
- Sunday, May 15th: Our first port, Half Moon Cay. The epitome of classic white beach and blue water Caribbean island paradise. The island is actually owned by Carnival, so literally the only people there were the people from our cruise ship which was cool. Copious amounts of beach laying, ocean frolicking, and squealing was had -- the squealing a direct result from our first excursion, swimming with stingrays! OMG. They're huge! And awesome! And terrifying! Every time one brushed my leg or swam underneath me I squealed with exhiliarating fear into my snorkel mask which sounded a little like "*Muffled scream* *Bubble bubble bubble*".
- Monday, May 16th: Sea day. As much as I love days at port and going on excursions, I really like the days at sea. So relaxing. I spent the entire day sleeping, and reading, and eating, and sleeping and eating some more. Also, mini golf! FYI, trying to mini golf on the top of a ship in the middle of the ocean in the ripping wind is very difficult.
- Tuesday, May 17th: St. Thomas. Shopping, yay! I scored a new fake Prada purse (pretteh!) that I love from the flea market. Then in the afternoon we went snuba-ing -- basically like diving but with a snorkel mask attached to a long air hose. Very cool, except I didn't have enough weight in my belt to actually sink at all, so our very nice diving guide pulled me down by the hand and pretty much dragged me along the bottom of the bay bed. Wait, did I say nice diving guide? I meant horribly mean and cruel! He scared the crap out of me with a fake shark set up along the bottom of the water that I had been convinced earlier was very real. Yes, I'm just that gullible some times. =_=;
- Wednesday, May 18th: San Juan. We went on a tour excursion of the rainforest, which was actually much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. It's gorgeous up there -- super hot, but very pretty. Surprisingly little to no bugs either, apparently the altitude and temperature is too high for them...? (Obviously we need to relocate Edmonton to the top of a mountain so I can stop worrying about spiders and bees.) I have to admit that despite the good time I had, my respect for the people of San Juan went down a few points when our tour guide proudly proclaimed that the number one sport on the island is cock fighting. Seriously? That's sick. Dear San Juanians: please take up an actual sport like soccer or baseball that doesn't entertain the masses at the expense of innocent animals. :P
- Thursday, May 19th: Grand Turk. My first time kayaking! It wasn't as difficult as everyone made it sound, it wasn't until the last stretch on our way back to the dock that my arms started to feel the strain of it, and mostly just in my shoulders. It was a lot of fun actually, and the kayak had a plexiglass bottom so we could watch all of the little jellyfish swim amid the reeds below the boat. The only part I could have done without was when the guide dragged us all out of the boats and up onto a sandy, incredibly hot hill to talk endlessly about the tress and the shrubs and the eco-whatnot. Oh god, the sun burn! D: More kayaking, less eco safari! My legs were a hideously mottled red finger painting of PAIN.
- Friday, May 20th: Sea day. More sleeping! More reading! More eating! (I had to make the eating especially count this day as it was our last day on the ship and my last chance to gorge. Oh food, I miss you so much!) We also spent some time down at the casino and Mason introduced me to a game even better than slot machines -- video poker! Well sort of, you're not really playing against any other people or even virtual players, but it's horribly addicting and we played Jacks or Better for an hour and a half and won $12. :3 *Cackles maniacally over their big twelve dollar payout while actual serious gamblers look down on them with disdain.*
- Saturday, May 21st: Arrive back in Miami and must debark the ship and make the long flight back home. *Epic sad face*
Coming back home after a vacation is always bitter sweet. I miss the cruise ship terribly and its maid service and towel animals and balconies over the ocean and wonderful amount of free already-prepared food. But on the other hand, I was glad to get home to Iroh and Toby (though I doubt they missed us very much once they realized that Mike now provided their food for them. How easily they forget me.) I was also relieved to finally have taps running cold water. I don't know why, but the staterooms on the cruise ship have no cold running water. The best you could ever get was sort of a luke warm temperature, it drove me nuts. At times I was tempted to steal ice and cold drinking water from the lido deck buffet just to brush my teeth.
So yes, it's back to real life now. *Sigh* This is amplified by the fact that I have finally, after more than a year of freedom, returned to working full time. Yes, you read correctly. Brenna is no longer an unemployed bum (sadly, might I add.) I started work at (insert name of major automotive/hardware/houseware department store here, which I will thus refer to as "The Job" so as to avoid any potential complications if my blog is Googled) this past week -- it's not glamourous by any stretch of the imagination and I'm not wild about being in the land of retail again, but it's a job and it's paying me money and it means I can stop doing the web contract work that I loathe so much. I've been hired on as sort of a multi-department monkey -- I help with stocking on the floor, and I'm being trained as a cashier next week, and I also do morning deposits some times and will eventually be trained for customer service.
So far deposits are my favorite thing to do, mostly because it's quiet, solitary work off in the cash office for the whole of the morning, away from the noise of the store and all of the customers. My biggest gripe so far, apart from the fact that it's shift work and I forgot how much I hate not having a steady weekly schedule followed by a customary two-day weekend, is the complete lack of any sort of training I've received so far. I was fully trained for the deposit part of my job, but as far as my afternoons so far spent entirely out on the floor stocking and helping customers, I've received absolutely ZERO training. I mean it, nothing. I was given a price gun and assigned a pallet of stock and that's it. It's been five days and I still don't know the procedure (if there even is any) for locating or dropping off stock in the warehouse, I get customers coming up to me every five minutes asking me questions that I don't even know the most basic answers to, and I spend most of my time bumbling around trying to find other employees who can answer questions for me and the customers I'm trying to help and just generally looking and feeling like an idiot. I've never worked somewhere where I feel so completely frustrated and unprepared. Will someone please instruct me on how to do my job?
I miss the cruise ship. :c
