10 From 100- A Profile of Canadian Book Challenge participant BARBARA BRUEDERLIN

John's Preamble: See that picture to the left? That was Barbara and I in 2009, when we first met in person after following each others blogs for a good 2 years before that. Which means we've been friends for 7 years now. We've met up again in person since that photo, but it's still the only one I have. However, we're about to meet up again, as my family is currently vacationing in Alberta (skied in Banff today-- so much fun, so very exhausting). Truth be known we built this whole trip around getting a more up-to-date picture of Barbara and I. In the 5 years that have passed, I have gotten a face tattoo (The Wu-Tang W on my left cheek) and Barbara's taken to wearing novelty fangs all day, so I figure it's high time that was captured on film. Or on jpeg stuff. In the meantime, you can learn more Barbara right here:

10 From 100

1. What is the oddest job you’ve ever had?

Chicken catcher. Fortunately, it only lasted two days because it was also the worst job I've ever had.

2. Ocean or mountains?

Apparently neither! I have never felt comfortable in the mountains, have always found them oppressive and inhospitable. And although I love water, I have always been leery of islands. What would happen if you needed to leave suddenly? So when I discovered, during a recent trip to Maui, that swimming in the ocean is nothing like swimming in a lake and that the undertow is determined to kill me, I realized that oceans are best enjoyed at ankle depth. Evidently I have unresolved issues with geography.

3. The worst punctuation or spelling mistake that people make is ___________________________.

You don't really want to get me started. The space given is not long enough to contain my grammar-Nazi rage.  Rampant disregard for the proper use of their/there/they're and your/you're never fails to send me into spasms, but even more unforgiveable is the random insertion of an apostrophe into words for no reason whatsoever.

Lately I have been really annoyed by run-on sentences that lack any punctuation at all. These usually show up on facebook statuses that have likely been entered via mobile. I can understand not using punctuation whilst texting, as - on my phone at least - it's a bit of a production to access periods, commas and capitalization. (And in all honesty, writing without capitalization, if done sparingly and correctly, can be a very effective stylistic tool.)  But these facebook posts are not texts, and they only serve to make the writer look illiterate. /rant

4. When was the last time you threw up and why?

About five years ago, when I finally came to the realization that I had developed a sensitivity to squid. It took me three tries to figure that out.

5. You have five choices of pizza topping. Go:

Spinach, pesto, asiago, onions, kalamata olives

6. How long have you been participating in the Canadian Book Challenge?

Since the beginning!  Although I have never successfully completed the entire challenge (thank you tendency to fall asleep in bed after reading only two sentences!), I expect to turn in a personal best  performance this year.

7. Do you promote your online presence?

I am a shameless self-promoter. It comes with the territory of being a freelancer. My blog address is on my business card and the blog itself acts like a sort of catch-basin for all my other social media entities, with links to my facebook, twitter and linked-in accounts (where I also shamelessly promote myself) and to my print and online publications, so the curious can check out my writing. Hey, a girl's gotta eat.

8. Describe your current bookmark.

Like most people (I would suspect), I have several bookmarks. Many of them come to me from friends, often tucked into a gift book and usually bearing the name of a bookstore in a city that I would love to visit. I use these in the secondary and tertiary books that I am currently reading.

For my main book on the go, I use a bookmark that I somehow acquired during the first job that I had after grad school. It's brown leather with  the name of some sort of poultry coccidiostat on it and a stylized picture of a chicken. Both images have largely worn away over the years. The bottom is fringed into ten strips and the middle two fringes have torn off halfway up, the result of a long ago feline attack. It gives the bookmark a sort of goofy gap-toothed look that I quite like.

9. Marry, date, or dump: Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, William Shakespeare

Marry Margaret Atwood because she is fascinating enough to grow old(er) with. Date Stephen King because it would be a little too creepy to share a house with that twisted imagination but  a dinner or two would be awesome. Which leaves poor old Willie to be dumped. Someone else will scoop him up as husband material, I am sure.

10. Where is your favourite reading place?

My bed, just before drifting off to sleep. It's quiet, warm, comfortable, and removed from the millions of interruptions that ambush me during the day, including that nasty work ethic that keeps nudging me and telling me to go do something productive. Reading myself to sleep is my reward at the end of each day. Of course, sometimes I only manage to read the same two sentences over and over again before I wake up with the light still on and my wrists aching from holding the book upright in my sleep.

A close second for favourite reading spot is one of the Muskoka chairs on my front porch, on a summer evening.