Book Review, Arms-Commander by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

    So I rediscovered how much I love the library again last week. Ya I am that lame.... I haven't finished a book since Eat Pray Love in the summer... I'm still reading the Golden ratio book... its just heavy and full of math... so I went and put on hold a bunch more Diskworld books but I found the newest Saga of Recluce. Which is probably my favorite fantasy seres.
  

Arms-Commander

by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

     Being a woman in the 21st century and living in north america is prity good. There are options and chances open to us that haven't been always been there, and still aren't form many. If I was to some how be stuck in a world where the chances I have in my life suddenly disipeared I can only hope I would be able to handle myself as well as the ladies of Westwind.

     The Angels of Westwind arrived there when there space ship failed and they had to land on the nearest planet. Those events are covered in the book The Chaos Balance, this story takes place 10 years after they landed. They have since built themselves a place to live in the snowy mountaintop know as the Roof of the World. Even though the land they live on is harsh and unwanted they are continually finding themselves attacked by men in a world who don't believe in equality and are very threatened by the Angels presence. We follow the tail of Saryn who is sent down to the lowland country of Lornth to help them prevent a civil war. The land has lords who are bothered by the fact that the country has a female Regent. 

     In the world of Candar there are two different forces of magic. Order and Chaos, they are both found in nature and work together to create a balance. There are magi use the forces to do different kinds of things. One of the things I enjoy so much about the Recluce books is this idea of magic. Each mage you read about is learning, teaching themselves how they personalty see this magic. The different forces are not good or evil, they just do different things, but are looked upon different by different country throughout Candars history.

     One of the things I enjoy about the series is how each book doesn't always follow the same characters. You can pick them up and enjoy each one on its own without havening ready anything before it. Sometimes you will find characters and events mentioned that you have read about in other books but there is no perfect order you need to read them in. It lets you explore the creation of the world and its history in little chunks and makes the reader a better historian on the world than any of the characters ever could be. 

     Saryn's path in the story is not an easy one, she is working to improve the rights of women in a time where they are still though of as property. Though she does have a lot of women on her side. I know that what she does changed Candar in a way it was fighting against. I respect the women who had to do this in our world. All so that I can sit here all day working on math so that I can go to university and become an engineer. Something that wouldn't have been possible without them. 

Meow?

     Still here... still alive... Life is just normal again. I've just been going to Yoga, doing math (80% in final project... trying to sort out the exam now...) and trying to get a job. We are moving units today... there was some cat drama... its all good now, and we have a nicer apartment so it all worked out... going to Vancouver again on the weekend... which will be fun.
     Don't really have much to say... so...well...ya...

Big treas, Airplane, and lots of watter.

     So yesterday we were given a special tour of the most beautiful places on the island. By someone whose lived here long enough to find them. A friend of Stefan's from work took us out to see the island the way only someone who knows the place can. In his truck Stefan scrunched up in the tiny spot in the back we first visited the great big trees... the ones that are as old as Canada itself... they are defiantly impressive. My camera's battery is dead but I tried to get photos with my cell.. the problem is I can never figure out how to get them off it and I've had the thing for almost two years.
     We found Goats who like to hang out on the roof of a little shop... the kind of shop Auntie Corrine would like... it has all sorts of funky little country things... and a green roof that goats hang out on... Theres also an Ice cream shop that we visited on the way home which had licorice Ice cream... not just Tiger Tale... which they do also have here it just dosn't have much of the licorice part... this was just the licorice part and it made me happy.
     We went to Rob's parents house, which is this amazing place on a lake. Rob has a boat and he took us to see an old Bomber Airplane, the kind that is now used to drop watter onto fires. It is HUGE... it was neat. Sadly the museum for it closed last week and we weren't able to go inside one but it was still really neat. We then boated around and saw the amazing views from the watter. Before heading to town for lunch.
     Then we drove around the mountains looking at different lakes and all sorts of pretty places people other than locals and Loggers (mostly loggers) know about. It was such an amazing day. We borrowed Rob's camera and ended up being able to get photos so there some nice things to see, and if you like Airplanes this ones big.
     Oh ya and we did, after looking all day find a bear... he was kinda far away but we did find one.

normality returns... I feel meh about it...

     Life is very normal at the moment. Just doing school work, and looking for a job. I am not sure if I will be able to volunteer at the Yoga place, it looks like they might have filled up all the openings while they asked me to try things out... :( I also don't really know how long were staying...
    Were going to Vancouver again on Wednesday. : ) Just me and Stefan this time. Should be fun. Still been leaving the house at least once a day... which is deferentially better than just siting at home all the time.

British Columbia

Photo's from BC so far.

Borrowed crabs, Sunburns and video games on an Island...

   We went to the harbor and borrowed crabs this morning. None of the ones who wanted to eat our chicken were big enough to keep so we didn't catch any just borrowed them. I sat on the peer and did math... There were also two Seals who were hanging out by the fisher people. They wanted fast food. I think there was a lady feeding them a one point. Ya for wild seals. That makes the wild animal count to 6 dear and two seals.
     After Bowman went to work Stefan and me took a boat to a restaurant on an island. Where we spent the day. Walking and killing monsters (on the game boy... there wasn't anything I could kill with poisons...).  I forgot my hat and sunscreen... so now I am sad and burnt. I also missed Yoga today because it was all booked up when we got home! But my Library card arrived and its much cheaper to get things printed there so yay resumes! I can had more out tomorrow.
     and now back to gameboy... So...well...ya...

Vancouver weekend

this is kinda late... but I haven't been interneting as much lately so meh...
     Saturday we went to Vancouver, we missed the faerie... but only just.... When we did get to Vancouver Stefan and I went to the Aquarium. The kinda have a sine problem... there will be one... then you walk for a bit pass like  3 or four different paths before finding a new sine telling you to turn around back from where you came... don't even ask Stefan about it... it really frustrated him. We had even worse problems with that on Sunday... we did find the place though and saw Fishies... :D yay fish.
     We had dinner at a nice burger place and found the tail end of a street party. Vancouver and Nanaimo shuts down really early. The mall here closes on weekdays at 5:30!! Like what? How do you make any money closing that early? We spend less than 30 min at the casino itself Stefan lost some money... then played gameboy (dragon quest IX)
     Sunday we were going to go to the PNE but I didn't think there was enough time so we just went to the place for circ de sole. We spend an hour and a half wondering trying to find food... we found the Olympics village (the place where the athlete lived when the Olympics were happening), which is kinda like really fancy housing, and kind like fancy empty space that has been forgotten about... there was no food anywhere... we also got stuck with watter between us and what looked like a place to find food the only way across was a big highway bridge... then luck being with us we found an Aquabus! A little boat that takes you across the watter. It was cute. We did manage to find food at the bottom of a hotel and really quickly eat it before going to our show. It was fun. Then we went home, more boats and more gameboy!!
     Vancouver has also taken the green fad to the next level. It annoys me enough already but in Vancouver they have deiced to blame everything on YOU! YOU waste to much energy. YOU use too much gas. YOU produce too much carbon dioxide. YOU don't recycle enough (even though we as a Provence makes it way hard for you to recycle...) Its kinda annoying... It got to the point where I wanted to tell everyone who mentioned how bad I am to the world everything I try to do... and it makes what I understand of the recycling program even more crazy... you pay a deposit on can's/glass/maybe other stuff and a Recycling tax. Then get the despot back if you bring the cans back... but with 20 cans + some glass and plastic I got like 1.30.... I don't know how many people will recycle in order to get one droller and thirty cents...  I don't even think the moneys worth it I just cant stand to throw it out!
   Anyways that was Vancouver... So...well...ya...