Christmas has come and gone, and remarkably, somehow our tree has remained in one piece this year.  I think my brilliant tactic of spritzing the tree down with smelly perfume each day helped convince Iroh that maybe he'd forgo climbing through the branches and breaking all of my pretty ornaments this holiday season.  *Gives kitty a warning look*

I hope Santa was good to everyone.  I, for one, must have made it somewhere on that nice list, as I received all sorts of shinies, such as a very badly desired clothes steamer (no more ironing, hurrah!); several awesome paintings commissioned by Sister, courtesy of her lovely friend, Jill; and a wonderfully obscene amount of chocolate.  Also, wonderful husband is wonderful -- he ordered me my perfectly perfect new Miche purse, as well as set me up with a year-long subscription to both Batman and Detective Comics~  X3  The timing couldn't be more perfect, what with the whole DC reboot, which I've been meaning to give a try; admittedly, I'm not thrilled from the snippits of Harley Quinn's head-to-toe revamp I've seen floating around online -- and when I say "not thrilled", I actually mean a little piece of my fangirly soul has been ripped out, gored to death, and left to shrivel up and be picked at by scavenging wild dogs *twitch twitch*  D:{ -- but aside from that, I've been told that it's still more-or-less the same Batman I've come to know and love.  I eagerly anticipate glossy pages chock full of caped crusaderdome to begin arriving monthly in my mailbox~  *Squee!*

Speaking of a certain Dark Knight, what's with DC's complete lack of officially licensed Batman art?  In an attempt to spruce up the walls of our depressingly bare basement, I geeked out and ordered a couple of great Doctor Who prints to hang up -- namely, this one and this one -- and have also been trying, without success, to find something awesome and Batman-themed to hang over our shuffleboard table.  Unfortunately, it seems that when you do a search for Batman wall art, all you get is the same dozen poster prints over and over again.  Don't get me wrong -- I schmooze over Jim Lee's sexy drawings as much as the next comic book fan, but is it too much to ask for a little variety?  You'd think with all of the different artists that DC enlists, they would release a steady stream of for-sale prints for fans to plaster their homes with, but there's really not much to speak of at all.  ;_;

Ideally, I would pee rainbows of joy to have a copy of this magnificent canvas print mounted on my wall:

Sadly, it is a tad more ridiculously expensive than I'm willing to pay, so unless an unlikely $20 clearlance copy pops up on eBay, I'm out of luck.  Like all *coughcough* highly illegal *coughcough* fan produced prints, they're hard to find copies of in the first place -- and when you do find a nice one, they're usually pricey.  It's so very unfair that finding pretty Batman art for sale should be harder than going out and purchasing a bag of crack cocaine (this is a guess, obviously, as I actually have no idea how hard it is or isn't to buy crack, or any type of drug, really -- however, I stand by my assumption, as evidenced by the fact that I have met a depressing amount of people who seem to walk around permanently stoned, yet I have met a total of zero people who sport any type of fashionable Batman artwork on their walls.)  Sigh.

Sad fangirl is sad.

Oh, my poor, poor neglected blog.  What has full-time schooling done to you?

No fear though, I have successfully survived my first semester!  Bring on the Christmas holidays, coo coo ca choo~  I'll try to give my blog a little more love during my two weeks off, maybe post some more book reviews -- but for now, here's the entirety of what little you've missed of my life for November and December:

• Exams are finished!  Grades are in!  I finished my classes with three A+'s and one A so far (though we haven't officially received our final grade for English, but based on my prior assignment marks and the final exam, I'm going to go ahead and assume I'll end up with an A for that class as well.)  I'm looking forward to the start of second semester with its early morning classes (leaving more time to spare in the afternoons and evenings) and having one less class in my course load; I opted to drop a class in both second and third semester, in favor of taking them during the summer and hopefully lessening my stress over the next two terms.  *Crosses fingers*
• I'm a mere hairs-breadth away from finishing my Christmas shopping!  This is an improvement over last year, considering I only began my shopping two days ago; however, once again my procrastination when it comes to ordering gifts online has left me fretting if any of them will even arrive before the 25th...  =_=;
• My temporary four month page position at SAPL has been extended to a permanent one!  Hallelujah!  It's still only one day a week, but it'll be on Thursdays instead of Saturdays which will free up my weekends nicely to breath a little and keep up with homework.  Besides, a tiny one-day-a-week library position looks better on a resume than no library position at all.
• After exercising a considerable amount of will power for the last two months, I've finally broken open my copy of Batman: Arkham City!  *Gibbers excitedly with fangirlish glee*  So far, the sequel is just as much fun as its predecessor -- though I hate the new take on Harley, and for whatever reason I'm feeling much more inept this time around when it comes to executing all of the different button combinations...  There has been a frustrating increase in accidentally falling off roofs when I'm trying to ground pound goons, and inadvertently exposing myself headlong into enemy fire when I'm trying to sneak around all ninja stealthy-like.  I'm a sorry excuse for a gamer, but it's Batman and so I shall persevere.  *DETERMINED FACE*

Oh yeah, and obviously I'm back from our cruise!  I kind of forgot to get around to writing up a whole vacation recap post in the midst of looming project deadlines and exam havoc.  Rest assured though that the vacation was very awesome, despite this Carnival ship being especially rocky for whatever reason -- we heard someone say that the Carnival Dream didn't have "stabilizers" or whatever the crazy boat magic is that's supposed to keep the ship from pitching back and forth wildly under your feet in crazy 16 foot swells.  So a slightly dizzying trip, yes, but still awesome.

Did I mention that we swam with sea turtles?   WILD SEA TURTLES.  They swam up for air right next to you!  If not for the strict rule we were given beforehand of "no touching, no hugging, no licking" (no lie)  of the wild life, I could have kissed those sea turtles right on the nose -- that's how close they came!  So amazing~

:3

Awesome thing one:

Omigod omigod omigod I've been offered an interview at the St. Albert Public Library next week!  *Ecstatic hand flail*  This time next week, after almost two years of standing outside with my face smooshed up unflatteringly against the window, I may finally have a job at a library.  (Knock on wood.)  Granted, when I said before that it was very part-time, it really is -- we're talking only several hours per week, but damnit I'd take it!  I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high obviously yet before I even go into the interview (because that always just calls upon lots of horrid, heart crushing wrath from high atop somewhere), but I'd like to think I have a pretty good chance.  (Knock knock knock.)

Any contributions to Team Brenna in the form of good wishes and heaping buckets of telepathic lucky vibes would be appreciated and encouraged.  X3

Awesome thing two:

Once again I was fortunate to experience the Box Of Fun today at work!  What is the Box Of Fun, you ask?  Simply put, it is a box that contains unparalleled happiness, joy, and downright silliness.  Imagine, if you will: a random cardboard box on a random cage cart of stock that by all means appears completely unremarkable and boring on the outside... but then you slowly cut through the packing tape... and pull open the cardboard flaps... and suddenly you are assaulted by a RAINBOW OF COLOR and SPROINGY SPRINGS and FUZZY POM POMS all exploding in your face like Fourth of July fireworks!  OMG SO MUCH FUN!  :D  IT CANNOT BE CONTAINED!

Basically it's a box of brightly colored cat scratching posts, but I'm serious, after hour upon hour of unpacking boxes full of duct tape and Lysol bathroom cleaner, there is nothing more surprising and exciting then to open a box and have a bunch of furry pom poms pop up in the air like hilarious and adorable Jack-in-the-boxes.  It's pretty much the next best thing to opening a box full of actual real life frolicking kittens.  This is the third time I've been assigned a stock cart with this particular product on it and every time I squee and giggle and just like that my day always becomes significantly more cheery.  No one else really seems to understand the full entertainment value of it though.  You really have to be there to fully experience The Fun.

Awesome thing three:

Guess what finally arrived in the mail today?  That's right.

Fuck yeah.

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.

Mood: Fangirly

In an effort to get in some much-needed Joker-drawing practice for a project I'm very slowly gearing up to start on, this is what I've spent most of my time on over the past few days:

Aside from a few random headshot scribbles -- and one earlier art attempt that went all BLAH and will probably forever remain unfinished -- this is my first stab at any sort of Batman fan art. It actually turned out more or less like I wanted it to, which is a pleasant change from the way art usually pans out for me. It took me way longer to draw than usual, because I'm all sort of fail when it comes to drawing interacting characters and objects, so this was actually drawn in three separate pieces: first the parlor chair, then one for J, then finally Harley. This is not the first time I've been thankful to own my own light table.

Since I've finally accepted the fact that I never get around to ever coloring anything *shame*, I've put out a couple requests for someone to ink and color it for me, so hopefully I get some responses from that right away and can get it prettied up~ :B