Oh god it's Thursday. This week was fascinating. Monday and Tuesday moved as slow as molasses, and now it's Thursday. Wow is time a cyclical thing. I hate it!

I don't have much today except musing on wow - have people gotten meaner over this pandemic or what? I'm going beyond the typical mask wearing (or lack of masks I should say) but one thing I have discovered to a disgusting amount is people who will not wear headphones. 

Of course there was always someone who would blast their music on their phone even in the before times, which was annoying as hell, but usually it was me squished in a subway car, at 8am or 8pm, waiting to just melt and not be on that train anymore. But now? People will listen to tiktok (goD and it's the same sound over and over) or a Netflix movie or a Youtube video, not even reacting, but consuming mindlessly, and I'M forced to listen as well! 

As someone who clings to her iPod like it is her personal lifeline, I understand having content to amuse yourself, but I wonder if the new iPhones themselves are to blame. Back in the day, when I heard someone being an asshole, I would entertain the thought of flinging some cheaply made headphones at them because clearly they didn't have a pair (and then like, sprinting the hell off the train. Even in my imagination, I didn't want to die). But that wouldn't work anymore because iPhones no longer have headphone jacks! Am I suppose to start flinging low quality blue tooth headphones at people??

Am I ranting? Yes. but it's truly so frustrating in world where I have to buy my own PPE to go to the grocery store (ps, if you need some masks) or our president is like "folks, go google a testing site!" even though lines to those sites are so long it's insane, that I can't have one damn moment of silence because someone decided their tiktok or their instagram or their Youtube watching was more important than the sanity of the people around them. Has being locked up in our homes really caused people to stop giving a solo fuck about people who aren't themselves???

Ugh.

Recs!

• I'm sure 90 percent of the internet has seen this but have YOU seen the photo of Chris Pine carrying a stack of books from his local indie? Now you have. And the top book on the pile?? I worked on it!!!! It's called Summer Light, and then Comes The Night. You too can read like Chris Pine and/or support my work! I know which one I care about more! (Be like Chris. Speaking of which - Chris! I can send you more books if you want!!!).
   
• I've done a terrible thing and read a book a day for the past 12 days (I don't know if this trend will continue but if the audiobook I'm consuming now continues, it might be!), so out of 12 books in 2022, I might as well give a recommendation and I have... a few! 
  • Yearbook by Seth Rogan - I! Laughed!!! So much!!! I've never really been a fan of his (though a TA in college gave me a signed script he wrote??), but his stories were hilarious and the way he told them even more so. Make sure to listen to the audiobook in my opinion!!
  • Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch - If you're interested at all in the way language has been evolving, you should give this book a try. Basically, written word used to be much more formal, but now that we mainly communicate online, our relaxed conversation has become the norm, which is slowly changing languages. It was really a fascinating read!
  • Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - WOW! This book was terrifying! The author was offered a chance to climb Mt. Everest with an expedition for a magazine which, being an avid climber, he took with a gusto. Then, well, a storm happened. And almost everyone in his group died. Which in itself is horrifying but! I wasn't going to climb this mountain before hand, and I'm sure as hell never climbing it now!! From your brain expanding and possibly leaking through your ears, to walking over ladders that aren't really secure, to a LINE TO GET TO THE TOP when every moment you're waiting you're losing brain cells? That ain't for me! But - fascinating book but what a terrible tragedy.
     
• And uh, this is random, but you know how you can go to Trader Joes and buy a cup of pomegranate seeds for like three bucks? Don't do it. Go buy a pomegranate, grab a knife, a bowl of water, an audiobook, and get to work. Here's a how-to guide if you're like "Brieana, wtf" but I did that last night. Got like, 800 grams of seeds to eat now (more than I know what to do with!), it's cheaper, and it's a nice thing to let your mind relax.

And that's all I've got. Have a nice weekend!