Mood: Killing time on the computron

I technically just did a meme like this, so I tried to do 25 new things that weren't included in the last one. :P

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged.

1. I routinely look like I just crawled out of a barn. Between the bits and pieces of hay from sitting in my pet rabbit's playpen and the tufts of white feathers that escape from my down-filled winter jacket and get caught on my clothes, it raises the theory that I live in a chicken coup.
2. I used to be a tomboy. It's only in the last three or four-ish years that I've ditched the ugly over-sized man shirts to openly embrace my feminine side. Floral! Color! Dresses! Fitted clothes! OMG look I'm actually a girl and I LOVE IT~! :3 I would never ever go back to the way I was, because being girly is too much fun.
3. I really like my job, and that's something that I never would have believed I'd ever say. But I do, I like the job, I adore the people I work with, I get excited over new projects we're working on and where we're going. It's not very often many people are able to wake up everyday and not hate the idea of going to their job, and it concerns and makes me a little sad to not know whether I'll still be able to be there a year from now.
4. I would love to travel more. I especially dream one day of going back to Europe... England, Paris! *hearts* I wouldn't mind visiting Africa and maybe Japan too~
5. My biggest goal in the next five years (and that's a maximum ETA, preference would be one to two years) to own my own bloody house. I hate renting, I hate it! Look at all my beautiful money being sucked away that I'll never see again! D: I want more space, I want a garage, and I want a yard so we can finally get a puppy~
6. I'm probably one of the few people who was born in St. Albert, Alberta, and never ever wants to leave. It is one of the many aspects that is part of what makes up what has been affectionately coined the "Brenna Bubble". I love my little slice of suburbia and if I get my way I will live here forever. By an uncommon contrast, I despise Edmonton. It's too big, it's dirty, it's stressful, and it's scary, as opposed to my comfortably small city that is by comparison clean, easy, and safe, and most importantly, is close to my friends and family. If I ever make a move out of St. Albert, it will be to another suburb in the nearby area, but if it's left up to me, I will die here in one of the very many local retirement homes.
7. My dialogue is littered with what we in the family refer to as "Saunders Words", and sometimes I forget that the rest of the world has never heard of them. Terms like "gweeblies", "tuffettops", and "goobersmooch" have a habit of sneaking into my dictionary while out in public and end up earning me lots of funny looks and ridicule.
8. I speak to my bunny as if he were a tiny three-year-old. I never thought I'd be one of those people who engages in in depth conversations with my pet and treats them like their own child, but I can't help it! *Hugs Toby* He's so freaking adorable! X3
9. I wish I had more money to buy ridiculous amounts of clothes and shoes! I can't walk into a mall without seeing a dozen things I want to have, and if I didn't have the reserves of will power as I do, I would be very very poor.
10. I am probably the pickiest eater I have ever and will ever know of. (And I can't even blame mine on allergies or anything.)
11. I'm cold all the time. I hate being freaking cold! *Hugs her portable work heater*
12. I'd really like to get more in shape since my current shape is more like a squiggly no-muscly void of nothing, but I am admittedly notoriously lazy when it comes to physical activity. Gyms are an absolute no-go for me. Selected sports I can sometimes pull off, but it really has to be a very Brenna-friendly sport, and that usually means that it doesn't involve a lot of running or painful physical contact. I keep saying I want to get into a habit of playing DDR again every day, but that probably won't actually happen until we have a house and more space to keep the dancing mat out and available to remind me to use it.
13. On the note of Brenna-friendly sports, I'm extremely glad that Mason introduced me to golf. Yes, it's as boring as dirt to watch on television, but I really do enjoy playing it. It gives me some exercise, I get to go for a nice leisurely walk, and it's very relaxing.
14. I started taking piano lessons this year, something I've always wanted to do and finally did~
15. I don't like small talk. I'm much more of a comfortable silence kind of girl. Please don't talk to me about the weather or other things we know that neither of us are really interested in talking about just to fill an awkward void. Either have an actual conversation with me, or keep to the rule silence is golden.
16. When it comes to television and movies and books, my favorite characters always end up being either:
    
    1. villains (ex. Spike from Buffy, Grievous from Star Wars),
    2. arrogant assholes (ex. Alan Shore from Boston Legal, Severus Snape from HP), or
    3. a little bit crazy (ex. Dilandau from Escaflowne, The Joker from Batman).

    Or in some cases, all of the above mixed into some crazy Molotov cocktail of creepy. It's especially strange since all these characteristics when displayed in real life piss me off and make me want to punch the owner in the face. Yet in books and shows, I can't get enough of them. They draw me in -- they're just always so much more interesting than the heroes or other protagonists! :B

17. Denny Crane.
18. I'm so happy to be getting back into reading again. I was an obsessive book worm when I was younger, and then for whatever reason I stopped buying books and going to the library for a while when I discovered things like anime and manga and pink Nintendo DS's. Something clicked last year though and I've compiled a giant list of must-read material that I'm working though.
19. I am an Anal Annie when it comes to filling the dishwasher. Everything has a designated place, dishes must be sorted, everything has to fit in order to maximize dishwasher capacity and efficiency! Mason very often simply doesn't load the dishwasher at home because he knows that I'll just walk by, get frustrated, and proceed to take everything out and re-load it my own way. I go over to my parent's house for dinner some times and blanch at the horror that is their dishwasher now that I don't live at home with them. It's a disgrace, and I think they do it purely because they know it annoys me.
20. I like playing board games. One night a week I get together with a bunch of friends and we play a board game or card game of some sort, it's a lot of fun, and I like that I get to see the group of people at least once each week because of it.
21. I am an enormous fangirly geek, and I love it. Being a fangirl is my favorite hobby ever, whether it's watching episodes of a series over and over again, or finding a new piece of amazing fanart, or staying up until the wee hours of the morning researching information and details on specific parts of a story or character that I never knew before.
22. Directly related to / caused by / is the causing factor of #21, I'm a pretty big daydreamer. Not in the teenage girly sense of "and then Johnny Depp comes sweeping in with rippling muscles and carries me off for some full-frontal shagging", but more along the lines of where I write little scenes and bits in my head of various fandoms I'm currently indulging in. It's more or less fanfiction writing, only without the actual typing because that's far too much effort. I like to think up those scenes you'd love to see, or bits of a story and character experiences that were never included but should have been. They play like my own little directed movies in my head, and they can range from little two-minute concoctions to full blown half hour episodes where I end up getting really annoyed if someone interrupts me in the middle of it.
23. I both miss and do not miss my old spiky hair. I miss it because it was very unique, and not a style you saw on every female who walked by; though on the same note, I very much do not miss it because of the same reason. My hair may be more boring now, but it feels more mature and I'm finally no longer recognized every where I go as "That spiky haired girl who worked at Sobeys". =_=; There's a point when creepy old ladies try to run their hands over your hair gushing that you say enough is enough.
24. I live my life by my Google Calendar. *Hearts* I'm not sure I could get along in the world on a day-to-day basis without my online schedule and daytimer.
25. I can't stand rudeness. It is by far my biggest pet peeve and turn off. Egotistical people come in as a close second -- modesty is a virtue, learn to use it, you arrogant asswipes.

Mood: Feeling very domestic~

DAMN. That shit looks TASTY. It's very possible Mason and I are the best homemade lasagna makers ever, we should really look into some mass production and selling of it. Just look at those two pans of marvelous noodles, sauce, beef, and cheese. It's dazzling. Edward Cullen himself could not match our mad lasagna skillz. That's right, Cullen. You've just been PWNED, Iron Chef style.

For anyone who doesn't know, I've taken up the sport of golf~! It turns out that despite how agonizingly boring it is to watch on television, it's actually really fun to play yourself. Who'd have thought? I've gone out a few times so far, just to places around St. Albert and only doing nine holes for the time being until I can work up some hardcore golfing stamina. As long as it's not too hot outside I can handle the whole trekking up and down the course for an afternoon, and it's actually pretty relaxing (appropriate weather permitting.) I just went out and bought myself some fancy new golf clubs the other week -- they're gloriously pink and girly. :B

Over all, it's a good sport finally for someone like me. (We were beginning to think such a thing didn't exist.) It's not that physically strenuous in a "omg I think I'm going to keel over and die" or the even less attractive "oh god oh god that ball is going to hit me in the face!" sort of way; but it's still good exercise, which I very badly need for I am horrendously lazy. ¬_¬ I need to start recording my scores to I can track my progress, I got a 67 on the back nine the last time I went out to J.R., which for a giant noob such as myself is not bad~

Toby was let out of his pen for his first field trip into the hall the other day~ ^^ He was so excited, it was hard to get him back into his bed afterwards. Pictures of his marvelous bunny adventure here on Facebook. (Does anyone have any ideas of what I could substitute the makeshift wall with? It's a real pain to set up and take down. I was thinking more of that thick poster board and just fastening them together with ties -- then I could just fold it up when I'm done with it and store it behind the door.)

Mood: Cold. Emoticon fox is wrapped in a shirt, wrapped in a sweater, wrapped in a blanket, and is still shivering.

It's a sad, depressing sight when I look out of the office window and there's gales of snow whirlwinding outside the building. It's late April and it's blizzarding in Alberta. Mother Nature needs a swift kick in the patoot, or wherever an anthropomorphic personification keeps their kickable parts.

Last week I went with Mom to a Condon Barr cooking class...sale...thing. They wined and dined us with fancy cheese and bubbly high class drinks for two hours while a charming, well-groomed young chef prepared sweet dessert after dessert for us. I'd like to say that I'll be trying out all the recipes he gave us at home, but anyone who knows me would know that that's a horrible filthy lie and that despite all my good intentions they will probably end up in the bottom junk drawer of my kitchen. I did however use my one-night 15% off while I was in their store to buy myself a set of very nice metal mixing bowls. Now I just need to get ambitious and make some cookies or something. *Tiny background voices call liar! and bluff! and Brenna fends them off with a spatula.*

I've finally gotten around to begin reading the pile of new Terry Pratchett books I got for Christmas, starting with Guards! Guards! I forgot how much I love the Discworld series and it's lunacy~ The trouble I find with Pratchett's brand of writing is that it's so crammed to the brim with jokes and wit and tomfoolery that I have to pace myself while reading in order to catch it all or I end up missing something important for later on. I have to be in a mood to concentrate when I read Discworld novels. They're awesome, just...brain consuming.

It comes as no surprise now that the long-awaited and apparently new Avatar episode on Friday was a big bust. Nickelodeon is getting very good at building up our innocent hopes as fans and then crushing them into the dirt under the sole of their stupid, lying, corporatey-sized boot. We're the gullible Charlie Brown to their conniving Lucy, with the Gaang and associates serving as the football. Color me sad. Apparently "The Boiling Rock" episode is now slotted for May, which gives them two months to get their asses in gear and serve out the entire rest of the series before the final volumes of the season 3 DVD set are supposed to hit shelves. It's not looking very promising.

As if they weren't being cruel enough, at the New York Comic Con they released a teaser of the finale to let us drool over, which can be watched here. *Paw paw* *Angst* To tide me over until then I've put the first two seasons on my iPod to re-watch on my bus commutes each day. Watching a series through the second time always highlights different aspects you never had time to focus on the first time, and I'm absolutely falling in love with the art this go around -- the animation in "The Southern Air Temple" for the Agni Kai between Zuko and Zhao is mouthwateringly gorgeous~ I love the style of martial arts that firebending is based from, it's so beautiful and fluid. It makes me really want to look into some sort of martial arts classes (again...) I've lost count of how many times in my life I've said I want to do it and then don't. :P I need to get up off my lazy bum like I should have when I was a kid and actually try it out; besides it would be a rare form of exercise for me without the "OMG I hate this and want to die" part of, say, going to the dreaded gym. :3

BTW, one movie I highly recommend to the world at large is Black Sheep. It's about a New Zealand farm where sheep go crazy. And eat people. Kind of a zombie sheep flick with a tasteful hint of weresheep on the side. In any event it's made of hilarious piles of awesome. Go rent it now!

Mood: Getting sleepy...

I'm back from Florida after successfully not getting eaten by alligators. Go me. Ten happy points. The trip was amazing -- we did all the parks and we came back with over 1,700 pictures between the four of us who had cameras, so I've spent the last week sorting through all of them. I've finished six out of the eight folders of photos so I'll post links to the splendid Facebook galleries once I have them all. HOO! HA! PHOTO ORGANIZING NERDFIGHTER! I also did some (almost) guilt-free splurging during some outlet mall shopping. *Glee* I bought hats! Two of them! I'm a hat person now, look! *Flails excitedly at her new fab hats and other pretty purchases*

We're well into our rec basketball season and I'm pleased to say that unlike our sorry attempt at soccer last season we are actually pwning fairy regularly at basketball. It probably helps that we both a) are playing in the right league this time, and b) have some actual ringers on our team this time that really know how to play. HURRAH FOR NOT SUCKING! I wish I could boast that I am also an important asset to the team...but that would be a horrible filthy lie. *Cheers enthusiastically from the sidelines*

I just scored level 10 in Guild Wars! I highly enjoy this game, it doesn't require a lot of thought and gaming skill, and I get to run around as a cute Necromancer in hot armor which I will eventually dye pink once I get my hands on some elusive red dye... We're having a Halo party tomorrow with a bunch of people and instead I will be glued to a laptop playing GW and I'm determined to be no less than level 12 by the time I leave tomorrow evening.

Work is kind of up in the air right now. The entire office is sort of being reshuffled and flung about all willy nilly, so I'm trying to sit very quietly and not ruffle anything until it calms down. Did I mention that I now get to sit on the other side with the programmers and the rest of the world? It's very exciting to not feel like a tiny island apart from the rest of your co-workers, especially when the deal comes with a bigger fancy desk with drawers and a cute little lamp~ :D

I can't believe this. I'm still coughing. I started getting sick during the last couple of days in Florida and it's still there, lingering in my throat and my poor sinuses like one of those annoying store sales people who work on commission and refuse to leave you alone. I am so sick of being sick it's just sick. Seriously.

Mood: Excited for things to come!

Poor blog. *Gives it lots of love. Blog sees through her pathetic apologies and throws water in her face then stalks off in huff* >_<;

We're playing our last game of soccer this Thursday before playoffs start which we technically shouldn't be let anywhere near and yet for some reason still automatically are. We have yet to win a game. We also have yet to score more than two counting goals in a game. *sweatdrop* We try to make up for our suckiness by pretending to be really hardcore during warmup beforehand, in our sweet team jerseys and intimidating aura; but that only lasts so long until we actually start playing and the other team quickly sees through our clever guise. *shifty eyes*

I have officially attended the first wedding of a non-relative friend! Julie's wedding was on the 10th and I went with Mandi and her boyfriend Stephan (Mason being sadly absent due to work and prior evening plans. *sad*) Going to the wedding of a friend is so totally different than going to one for family. There's lots more squeeing and hand flailing and gushing when it's a pal, and all around much more exciting~ And Julie's wedding was so pretty! Everything was accented in yellow and they had these gorgeous center pieces and oooh! cute little asian fans on all the tables! :3 It got my brain into gear pre-emptively planning my own future wedding in vivid detail and I think I may have inadvertently made Mandi's boyfriend very uncomfortable. *Mandi kicks Brenna's leg with spiky heel: "Shurrrdup."* Hee hee.

Mason and my first anniversary is coming up at the end of August~! *squee!* He had the cute idea that every year we'll pick a different theme for our anniversary to be planned around and this year I chose Paris. Mason says he's got things booked and planned and he won't tell me what, it's very exciting! *glee* I have such a wonderful man~ *dances around*

GASP! And there are tentative plans for me to move out by the end of September! *HAND FLAIL* Another few weeks and I'll have the money saved and then I can pack up all my boxes and trot it across the city to Mason's apartment~! La la la, I received the new IKEA catalogue in the mail and I've been tagging all the moving-out stuff I want to buy, and I got to pick out the new paint and counter tops that are going to be put in, and I sat down with Mason and made a list of all the expenses and bills we'll be paying; and now I just need to snatch my dear sister away from her hectic schedule long enough to glomp and and love and help me make a moving-out budget! WHEE! (Well, not really whee! to the money part but definite whee! to the moving out part.) Depending on said budget, I may have to cut down on some of my IKEA tagging, but that doesn't mean never it just means later. La la la~

Only fifty days until Florida! I haven't bought a new bathing suit yet! :x (Though considering the possible weight of my moving-out budget, maybe I should just stick with my old green one. The Floridians won't kick me out of their nice state if I have a slightly too-small bikini, I'm sure. *Florida looks shifty in the corner*)

Mood: Going INSANE

Okay, let's just get all this other stuff out of the way because we all know what this blog post is really about.

My bus stopped for a line of baby ducks crossing by the road today! It was really cute! XD

I got some of the hair on my arm almost burned right off from Mason's BBQ. *sad that arm still smells burnt. . .* :P

Nexopia is going good so far! I like this job! Huzzuh!

Transformers movie! Awesome!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie! Not so good, mostly meh, but then again the HP movies always are. HOWEVER, OotP movie in 3D IMAX, AWESOME! XD

We had our first soccer match last Thursday and got ourselves royally ASS WIPED. It was sad. It was also very hot. We do have sexy team shirts though, which increases our awesomeness level by ten points!

Enough canon fodder, on to the real point of this post:

All right. I'm not sure whether you've been tuned into the world at large this past week, but the basic gist is that several copies of Deathly Hallows was leaked onto the vast interweb on Monday morning. Some of them are slightly different from each other, many of them look very real. Chelle read the biggest of them on Monday, told me all about it, and basically what she read sucked beyond all imagine. It can't be real. It's so off, it's so un-exciting, it's so cheesy, there's so many things that weren't addressed that JKR would promise would be, editing errors galore, the list goes on and on. Thus, it's an elaborate forgery.

And yet, reviewers of news publications and newspapers who have read book seven are giving hints that sound disturbingly like this infamous "CarpetBook", and much more disturbingly, giving it good reviews. It also has the real chapter illustrations that are always included.

WTF?

The HP fandom is in complete and utter pandemonium. You can't even understand. No one knows what the hell is going on and the publishers and JK herself refuse to say what's real and what's not. The only explanation we can come up with is that this is not a fan hoax. It is also not a leaked version of the real book. Popular opinion is starting to form that this is the most elaborate and brilliant marketing ploy a publishing company could ever come up with. Make a fake book, put it on the web. BAM. Unheard of advertising; as well as avoidance of actual book leaks because everyone thinks it's already online.

It has to be. This can't be the real book. I'll cry. People will flame. Chelle will owe $200.00.

If you're at all obsessive like either of us, follow the mob at: http://community.livejournal.com/its_a_fake/ for the most recent news. Two more days. GYAAAAAAAAAA!

Countdown until Harry Potter book seven: OMG OMG OMG, only 2 freaking days!