Shake your grove thang
Wow I'm hitting only monthly updates
I should post like I should eat, Smaller more often
Costume: Still going rather slow, but starting the 2nd costume for the year. I had Jenny (idle ambition) come over and we were talking about costumes we want to do and she wants to do another Ghost in the shell outfit and she knows mine (GITS 2nd season) has been in the works for awhile now (1 1/2 years) as I am really trying to experiment with using different fabrics. In fact for this bodysuit someones sister had to sew it for me cause normal machines don't go through the Neoprene so well. Its been a headache that’s for sure, but I had jenny put it on, because we are essentially the same size I just have a bit more up top and down below. She fit in it great and I think it looks really good. So I know the fabrics go together. Well I'll try to keep plugging away that till is fits me. It could be one of those designs that aren't suited to my body and I don't want to alter the design so much to adjust for my body type that is loses the lines. We will see how it goes, I'm hopeful!
Here is a picture of Jenny in the costume thus far. Just taken at my place no crazy photoshoot or something. Normally I don't post pictures of costumes till they are done but in this case. The wig warped a bit when I moved so I need to straighten it out but I don't really like the wig as much as I use too anyways and found a one that has better color and better shape.
Jenny and I have been trying to do craft days every Sunday and work on costume or projects. I started a new anime costumes two Sundays ago with Jenny, I should just take a patterning course to make my life easier rather then Frankenstein-ing 3-4 of them together. Jenny is pretty amazing at it so I was lucky to have her there. Also thank goodness for Mockups prevents me from using expensive fabric incase I make a mistake. The costume I worked on last Sunday is from a older anime series that I just thought was a lot of fun. Its no show stopper but its good practice for me, and it got us talking about other costumes, so I'm pretty excited. If all goes well hopefully should be done soon (next craft day) all I need to do it find the wig and do the shoes:). I'm sure very few people will recognize it, but its a surprise till I take a picture.
Also need to take some nice photoshoots of Empowered (and a few other costumes), I have a hilarious idea I just need to find the time to head out there. Also I do want to redo the costume but dunno if I should wait to use the photo idea on that costume. Though not to sure when it will get redone. I guess I could retake the photo later on.
Have some pretty cool costumes this year I think. Pretty much in the mind set where I don't set a date really for a costume. Its done when I feel its done. I won't rush it or do something I don't want to do to just get it out the door and wear it on the convention floor. I mean I'm always tweaking things once you wear it once or twice and realize, "Ok that’s not going to work like that" Its another to just be like "...Just get it done, no one will notice (blank) ". You already put this much money and effort into it why do that so close to the end.
Ordered some latex samples in for a costume and waiting for those to arrive, a little nervous about working in latex on my own but I'm fortunate if I have any questions I have people I can ask...
Computer: Finally got my laptop back, the LAN is working now but I will probably have to send it back because another problem has come up. One thing I hate about laptops is its much harder to get in there and work with the hardware yourself, also I know enough to get myself in trouble but not get myself out of it. Other than that my other struggle has been converting Anime that is MKV into Mp4 with embedded subtitles. DAMN YOU MKV! *shakes fist* Finally with a lot of trial and error and a bit of help from Kwan we were able to come up with a solution that didn't take 8 steps. The reason for this is the only time I get to watch much anime is either when I'm in bed or at the subway (and if I can get my ass up I can watch it at the gym). The laptop is clunky because when I sent it back they re-loaded it with bloat wear, but between what I have removed already and Kwan taking a look at it when I go up to visit. I only hope the computer works a bit better ;)
Gaming: Been online playing some Halo a couple hours a week I still really need to get better at Battle rifles >.< and comboing/duels. I'm not terrible but I would like to be better. I can tweet the hell out of someone before I bet them upside the head, but I rather just finish them off with a gun. Normally I'm in the top 3 most kills with the top kill spread, but I still have my bad games >.<
I know Star Ocean came out but I'm promising myself I won't buy anything new till I finish a couple games, that way too it might be in the bargain bin :P But I notice that generally RPGS (the good ones) are the only games that never to lose their value and some of them even go up in value. I have lots of my old NES and SNES games.
Watchman - While the graphics are mid/last generation PS2. You can play Co op as Nightowl and Rorschach. The fight dialogue is hilarious, the moves aren't complex and over all pretty easy to pull off. It was a fun to sit around and watch but gets boring fast.
Puzzle Quest Galactrix - Ugh. I Loved puzzle quest: Challenge of the warlords, this game strikes me as something that maybe would have come before the first one. Maps and space stuff seems a bit rough (though the graphic for the main characters are nice), the music does get on your nerves quickly and oddly long loading times.....Essentially its a puzzle RPG, two great tastes that go well together except when it seems to be in space. Perhaps its a gravity thing? Now to be fair I have only played maybe.. 3 hours of it, but the more I play the more I feel I eating a salad when I really want a steak. I'm unsatisfied. The learning curve to get to the finer details of the game is a bit steep. Being it doesn't really explain thing that well, all you can do is just follow the map to tell you were to go. Some of the games they want you to do early in the game aren't a little fair especially if your new to these types of puzzles and they put these at the beginning of the game. Granted in the original puzzle quest forging could be a complete pain in the ass, but you didn't NEED to forge. But you do need to haggle (at least once) in Galatrix. Perhaps its a case of them adding all these little aspects to the game but you can't do it all at once at the beginning, you have to ease a player into it or at least remind them once in awhile what they do. In the end. If you like puzzle quest and don't have your DS modded, don't get this game. If you want to download it and try it but there are many other games on my list that I'm more inclined to play. I know there isn't much out for DS but fire emblem is out and Phantasy star is coming out and since I never couldn't find anyone with a sega who had it growing up.
Molding: In Jan, Jenny came over and we did a body mold of myself for a couple costumes that we want to do and would need it for. Problem was the day we set aside for it was balls cold in the workshop, on top of that the plaster water of course cold for a longer work time. At one point my body was shaking uncontrollably, and tears were running down my face. We got through the process and created the fiberglass mold only to discover once I broke off the plaster, I was twisted slightly and I had shifted my shoulders up in response to being cold. While the mold isn't a total loss, we will have to do another for what we need for a one of the costume. Maybe wait a few more weeks before we do it again, the nice thing is I can mount the previous head mold to the body. Here is the only picture I was able to get. The rest are on my camera and I can't find my cable to get them off.
Big black dot to protect the weak!
See the Tears!??! I'm sure I wept into the plaster.
Jenny is enjoying torturing me.
If you look behind me you can see the life size lion we did a mold of just recently
After it came off.
TV/Anime: Now keep in mind I do watch a lot of TV but usually I’m doing lots of other things when its on. So the Shows never really
have 100% of my attention.
Office/30 Rock : Awesome as always.
Bones: Been watching this around the house while I been doing stuff. Its great background sound and you get awesome trivia bits to make
it sound like you have a Minor in forensic anthropology and bugs. I did get a laugh out of the wonder woman episode.
Top Chef: Ugh I really wish Fabio won. I hope he gets his own show and they call it Top scallop.
Tora Dora: Kwan told me about this show and I absolutely love it. It is sort of that situation where the art isn't amazing but it complements the anime so well and the story is sweet and funny. I'm don't tend to like school drama shows as much because of the lack of cool character designs, but this one totally captivated me. I would love to cosplay at Taiga, but its only good if I could get a group going.
A few other animes I have been watching are Soul eater, Regios, XXXholic:Shunmuki, Myself yourself, index and a bunch of stuff on netflix.
Movies: Other then the few things on netflix, the only movie I have seen in theaters recently was Watchmen, I thought about writing a huge review on this, while it was fun and I enjoyed it and I would highly suggest anyone who has read the book or interested in comics go see this I'm a little 50/50 about it. It isn't like WOW but it didn't suck. Someone I know said it best, it was like Macho Man randy savage reading Shakespeare to you for 2 hours and 43 minutes. I liked the new ending but there are some problems with that (among other things). Also I could get into all the technical production / costume stuff but I'm sure you don't want to hear that. Either way check it out, it was fun. I'm pretty sure the same guy who worked on Nixon nose worked on Doc Manhattans’ junk.
Gym: Normally I don't talk about this... but had a funny incident happen a couple days ago. The gym I'm signed up for is 24 hours and usually I go really late so I can turn on the TVs and just listen to it. So was flicking through the channels just to see what was on.. Bravo, travel.. Porn.. food..
Wait.. what? PORN!?
We aren't talking like the soft core, this was hard core the
type you don't want to get caught watching.
Or it could have been a medical video with how close the camera
was to the action. Being the big jerk I am I thought about switching all the
tvs to the channel when I left :D But I didn't har har.
Dance: For Christmas as one of my gifts was 10 Dance classes at an adult dance studio. Now when I say Adult dance I don't mean like Pole dancing, it’s just a place that’s only for adults to try various different classes, its rather far away so I have only been able to attend 3 so far. I did
2 ballet classes and one Disco. Ballet wasn't too bad, I was really stiff but essentially I remember most of the moves from when I took dance when I was younger. I thought I kept up fairly well, one teacher didn't appreciate my jokes though. She called a turn with a head twist something like a whirvel or something... and I asked her if that was the technical term. She got kind of bitchy about it. Bah! Who needs her, the 2nd teacher was much better.
Now I have a unbridled passion for disco, but tonight I discovered I am terrible at it....I know dance isn't a competition but I got my ass handed to me by a woman at least 3 times my age. Of course I'm sure she was around when Disco first came out (She is so damn lucky), so she hand the upper hand. I told her after class I thought she was awesome and I hope someday to be as good as her.
Japanese: I just got a call a few days ago that my Japanese is starting back up. Hooorah! I haven't study since it stopped. Shit! I'm looking into auditing the 101-103 classes on other days to refresh and relearn while I continue forward with 201. I will CONQUER THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE. Even if I'm to shy to use it :P I'll at least know if someone is talking smack about me.
Other then that I have other stuff going on but want to wait to see how it pans out before I post about it.
Though this Sunday I plan to take a few people and eat a 11lb pizza (30 inches) at a place we saw when we watched man vs food. I'm sure it'll feel like a kung fu fight just went on in my stomach after wards but it'll be totally worth it... I will take pictures of us eating slices of pizza the size of a baby. Nom nom nom nom.
Also I sent my passport out to be renewed so hopefully it'll be back soon and I can go up to winnipeg to visit. Part of me wants to wait till it warms a bit though :)
I should post like I should eat, Smaller more often
Costume: Still going rather slow, but starting the 2nd costume for the year. I had Jenny (idle ambition) come over and we were talking about costumes we want to do and she wants to do another Ghost in the shell outfit and she knows mine (GITS 2nd season) has been in the works for awhile now (1 1/2 years) as I am really trying to experiment with using different fabrics. In fact for this bodysuit someones sister had to sew it for me cause normal machines don't go through the Neoprene so well. Its been a headache that’s for sure, but I had jenny put it on, because we are essentially the same size I just have a bit more up top and down below. She fit in it great and I think it looks really good. So I know the fabrics go together. Well I'll try to keep plugging away that till is fits me. It could be one of those designs that aren't suited to my body and I don't want to alter the design so much to adjust for my body type that is loses the lines. We will see how it goes, I'm hopeful!
Here is a picture of Jenny in the costume thus far. Just taken at my place no crazy photoshoot or something. Normally I don't post pictures of costumes till they are done but in this case. The wig warped a bit when I moved so I need to straighten it out but I don't really like the wig as much as I use too anyways and found a one that has better color and better shape.
Jenny and I have been trying to do craft days every Sunday and work on costume or projects. I started a new anime costumes two Sundays ago with Jenny, I should just take a patterning course to make my life easier rather then Frankenstein-ing 3-4 of them together. Jenny is pretty amazing at it so I was lucky to have her there. Also thank goodness for Mockups prevents me from using expensive fabric incase I make a mistake. The costume I worked on last Sunday is from a older anime series that I just thought was a lot of fun. Its no show stopper but its good practice for me, and it got us talking about other costumes, so I'm pretty excited. If all goes well hopefully should be done soon (next craft day) all I need to do it find the wig and do the shoes:). I'm sure very few people will recognize it, but its a surprise till I take a picture.
Also need to take some nice photoshoots of Empowered (and a few other costumes), I have a hilarious idea I just need to find the time to head out there. Also I do want to redo the costume but dunno if I should wait to use the photo idea on that costume. Though not to sure when it will get redone. I guess I could retake the photo later on.
Have some pretty cool costumes this year I think. Pretty much in the mind set where I don't set a date really for a costume. Its done when I feel its done. I won't rush it or do something I don't want to do to just get it out the door and wear it on the convention floor. I mean I'm always tweaking things once you wear it once or twice and realize, "Ok that’s not going to work like that" Its another to just be like "...Just get it done, no one will notice (blank) ". You already put this much money and effort into it why do that so close to the end.
Ordered some latex samples in for a costume and waiting for those to arrive, a little nervous about working in latex on my own but I'm fortunate if I have any questions I have people I can ask...
Computer: Finally got my laptop back, the LAN is working now but I will probably have to send it back because another problem has come up. One thing I hate about laptops is its much harder to get in there and work with the hardware yourself, also I know enough to get myself in trouble but not get myself out of it. Other than that my other struggle has been converting Anime that is MKV into Mp4 with embedded subtitles. DAMN YOU MKV! *shakes fist* Finally with a lot of trial and error and a bit of help from Kwan we were able to come up with a solution that didn't take 8 steps. The reason for this is the only time I get to watch much anime is either when I'm in bed or at the subway (and if I can get my ass up I can watch it at the gym). The laptop is clunky because when I sent it back they re-loaded it with bloat wear, but between what I have removed already and Kwan taking a look at it when I go up to visit. I only hope the computer works a bit better ;)
Gaming: Been online playing some Halo a couple hours a week I still really need to get better at Battle rifles >.< and comboing/duels. I'm not terrible but I would like to be better. I can tweet the hell out of someone before I bet them upside the head, but I rather just finish them off with a gun. Normally I'm in the top 3 most kills with the top kill spread, but I still have my bad games >.<
I know Star Ocean came out but I'm promising myself I won't buy anything new till I finish a couple games, that way too it might be in the bargain bin :P But I notice that generally RPGS (the good ones) are the only games that never to lose their value and some of them even go up in value. I have lots of my old NES and SNES games.
Watchman - While the graphics are mid/last generation PS2. You can play Co op as Nightowl and Rorschach. The fight dialogue is hilarious, the moves aren't complex and over all pretty easy to pull off. It was a fun to sit around and watch but gets boring fast.
Puzzle Quest Galactrix - Ugh. I Loved puzzle quest: Challenge of the warlords, this game strikes me as something that maybe would have come before the first one. Maps and space stuff seems a bit rough (though the graphic for the main characters are nice), the music does get on your nerves quickly and oddly long loading times.....Essentially its a puzzle RPG, two great tastes that go well together except when it seems to be in space. Perhaps its a gravity thing? Now to be fair I have only played maybe.. 3 hours of it, but the more I play the more I feel I eating a salad when I really want a steak. I'm unsatisfied. The learning curve to get to the finer details of the game is a bit steep. Being it doesn't really explain thing that well, all you can do is just follow the map to tell you were to go. Some of the games they want you to do early in the game aren't a little fair especially if your new to these types of puzzles and they put these at the beginning of the game. Granted in the original puzzle quest forging could be a complete pain in the ass, but you didn't NEED to forge. But you do need to haggle (at least once) in Galatrix. Perhaps its a case of them adding all these little aspects to the game but you can't do it all at once at the beginning, you have to ease a player into it or at least remind them once in awhile what they do. In the end. If you like puzzle quest and don't have your DS modded, don't get this game. If you want to download it and try it but there are many other games on my list that I'm more inclined to play. I know there isn't much out for DS but fire emblem is out and Phantasy star is coming out and since I never couldn't find anyone with a sega who had it growing up.
Molding: In Jan, Jenny came over and we did a body mold of myself for a couple costumes that we want to do and would need it for. Problem was the day we set aside for it was balls cold in the workshop, on top of that the plaster water of course cold for a longer work time. At one point my body was shaking uncontrollably, and tears were running down my face. We got through the process and created the fiberglass mold only to discover once I broke off the plaster, I was twisted slightly and I had shifted my shoulders up in response to being cold. While the mold isn't a total loss, we will have to do another for what we need for a one of the costume. Maybe wait a few more weeks before we do it again, the nice thing is I can mount the previous head mold to the body. Here is the only picture I was able to get. The rest are on my camera and I can't find my cable to get them off.
Big black dot to protect the weak!
See the Tears!??! I'm sure I wept into the plaster.
Jenny is enjoying torturing me.
If you look behind me you can see the life size lion we did a mold of just recently
After it came off.
TV/Anime: Now keep in mind I do watch a lot of TV but usually I’m doing lots of other things when its on. So the Shows never really
have 100% of my attention.
Office/30 Rock : Awesome as always.
Bones: Been watching this around the house while I been doing stuff. Its great background sound and you get awesome trivia bits to make
it sound like you have a Minor in forensic anthropology and bugs. I did get a laugh out of the wonder woman episode.
Top Chef: Ugh I really wish Fabio won. I hope he gets his own show and they call it Top scallop.
Tora Dora: Kwan told me about this show and I absolutely love it. It is sort of that situation where the art isn't amazing but it complements the anime so well and the story is sweet and funny. I'm don't tend to like school drama shows as much because of the lack of cool character designs, but this one totally captivated me. I would love to cosplay at Taiga, but its only good if I could get a group going.
A few other animes I have been watching are Soul eater, Regios, XXXholic:Shunmuki, Myself yourself, index and a bunch of stuff on netflix.
Movies: Other then the few things on netflix, the only movie I have seen in theaters recently was Watchmen, I thought about writing a huge review on this, while it was fun and I enjoyed it and I would highly suggest anyone who has read the book or interested in comics go see this I'm a little 50/50 about it. It isn't like WOW but it didn't suck. Someone I know said it best, it was like Macho Man randy savage reading Shakespeare to you for 2 hours and 43 minutes. I liked the new ending but there are some problems with that (among other things). Also I could get into all the technical production / costume stuff but I'm sure you don't want to hear that. Either way check it out, it was fun. I'm pretty sure the same guy who worked on Nixon nose worked on Doc Manhattans’ junk.
Gym: Normally I don't talk about this... but had a funny incident happen a couple days ago. The gym I'm signed up for is 24 hours and usually I go really late so I can turn on the TVs and just listen to it. So was flicking through the channels just to see what was on.. Bravo, travel.. Porn.. food..
Wait.. what? PORN!?
We aren't talking like the soft core, this was hard core the
type you don't want to get caught watching.
Or it could have been a medical video with how close the camera
was to the action. Being the big jerk I am I thought about switching all the
tvs to the channel when I left :D But I didn't har har.
Dance: For Christmas as one of my gifts was 10 Dance classes at an adult dance studio. Now when I say Adult dance I don't mean like Pole dancing, it’s just a place that’s only for adults to try various different classes, its rather far away so I have only been able to attend 3 so far. I did
2 ballet classes and one Disco. Ballet wasn't too bad, I was really stiff but essentially I remember most of the moves from when I took dance when I was younger. I thought I kept up fairly well, one teacher didn't appreciate my jokes though. She called a turn with a head twist something like a whirvel or something... and I asked her if that was the technical term. She got kind of bitchy about it. Bah! Who needs her, the 2nd teacher was much better.
Now I have a unbridled passion for disco, but tonight I discovered I am terrible at it....I know dance isn't a competition but I got my ass handed to me by a woman at least 3 times my age. Of course I'm sure she was around when Disco first came out (She is so damn lucky), so she hand the upper hand. I told her after class I thought she was awesome and I hope someday to be as good as her.
Japanese: I just got a call a few days ago that my Japanese is starting back up. Hooorah! I haven't study since it stopped. Shit! I'm looking into auditing the 101-103 classes on other days to refresh and relearn while I continue forward with 201. I will CONQUER THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE. Even if I'm to shy to use it :P I'll at least know if someone is talking smack about me.
Other then that I have other stuff going on but want to wait to see how it pans out before I post about it.
Though this Sunday I plan to take a few people and eat a 11lb pizza (30 inches) at a place we saw when we watched man vs food. I'm sure it'll feel like a kung fu fight just went on in my stomach after wards but it'll be totally worth it... I will take pictures of us eating slices of pizza the size of a baby. Nom nom nom nom.
Also I sent my passport out to be renewed so hopefully it'll be back soon and I can go up to winnipeg to visit. Part of me wants to wait till it warms a bit though :)