One of Those Days

I had one of those days today, guys.

One of those days where I have to step back and crunch numbers to see if it's even worth all that. 

I'm a blur from place to place and have been and will have to be for at least two more years.

It makes me sick to think about it. I can't. I can't keep doing this for that long. Problem is I don't know which direction to go. What to drop, what to focus on to get me out of this rut.

I hate it. I hate the rushing from place to place. I hate not being there for my babies and my current schedule is a wreck. I have to work late to minimize what we have to pay a sitter and then I can't get to sleep at a reasonable time if I want to get anything else done in the day but then I can't get out of bed in the morning and then I rush around until I have to herd everyone out of the house.

Rinse and repeat.

I want to pursue my art but I can't afford to but not pursuing it is killing me inside.

Oh and one of those reasons I can't afford to? 

Crippling student loan debt.

For an art degree.

That is utterly useless.

I just feel like it's bad that the Isolation room in the first episode of Mind Field sounds appealing right now I guess.

So... how was your day? Please tell me something that made you laugh today. 

Friday Fav Five V. 5

Yes, this is a day late but damnit I've had it half done since like Monday or Tuesday so I was determined to post it!!  Plus by next Friday this stuff will guaranteed be old news if it isn't already.  XDDD

 

(via sailormooncollectibles.com)

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.  Other than they probably won't work in the US I'm in love.  How cool would it be to charge my phone with a little moon power, am I right?

(via http://www.geekgirlpenpals.com)

Okay so I only just found this so I don't know all that much about it but I think I'm going to try to get in on it this time but I just heard about the International Geek Girls Pen Pals Club from xo Mia's blog and it sounds amazing.  They have a faq page if you want to hear more but sign up is the 15th of every month and it sounds like a blast.  ps. xo Mia is an awesome cosplayer, has a cosplay 101 series that is fab and so nice so I definitely recommend checking out her blog as well as IGGPPC!

Guys, guys, guys... I can't even.  I was freaking ecstatic to hear about Girl Meets World, the sequel to Boy Meets World which I loved beyond words and now, this new series will follow Cory and Topanga's daughter (just telling you in case you've lived under a rock for the last year and don't know about this, haha) and now we have our first teaser.  I just can't wait for more teasers and trailers and, better yet, full episodes.  Part of me is a little afraid it's going to suck, but right now I'm trying to hold on to the hope that it's going to be just as awesome as the original.

(via StarTrek.com)

From the people who bring us Game of Thrones: Ascent on facebook, we're looking at getting a Strategy RPG that will be available on Android and iOS.  Now on the fb page I follow that announced this people were flipping out about how it's going to be shit despite not knowing a dang thing about it because their little teaser trailer shows NOTHING.  Yes, being something like GoTA it could easily be turned into one of those pay money to get anywhere games (I'm looking at you, Zynga, ya greedy bastards) however since what I've played of GoTA is not like that (& there are ways to earn the in game currency real money buys, albeit slowly) I have high hopes for this.  Many people jumped to yelling about how they'll stick to Star Trek Online which I also like, however, I'm excited for a phone game simply because the way my life is right now I can't spend hours at a time anchored to my laptop to play.  Something I can play on my phone while I'm nursing Khalie at 3 am?  Sign me up.  Though by the time it's out she'll probably be sleeping through the night anyway, LOL.

(via Huffington Post)

Gender Bent Disney characters by Sakimi chan!  My favorites are Urs, Cruel, Sophocles & Howl, Jaq and Maleficent.  I'm not sure about the Beau and the Beast one but the art is just stunning on ALL of them and hubba hubba on several, haha.

What are you loving this week?? ^w^

Finding A New Normal

Well normal probably isn't the way to describe it if you know me at all 😉 but I've now spent just over 2 weeks trying to find my family's new groove, as the kids say, as a family of four (& two furkids). Khalie was born on March 15th and it's been quite the adjustment. Much easier in some ways and much harder in others. We've had a newborn before so we knew what to expect in general however, having a newborn and a toddler is a completely different ball game, haha. Not all bad, as Darius loves to help grab a clean diaper & could entertain his baby sister all day if she'd just stay awake that long.

So obviously this has affected things here. I've fallen off the blogosphere but right now I'm attempting a new method for blogging since writing on my phone is much easier one handed than on my laptop (when I was in school we had to learn how to type & keep our hands on the keyboard correctly to do so, which apparently they don't do anymore, and I just CAN NOT use the hunt & peck method) so I'm going to try posting by email. Maybe I'll be able to do more here this way because I've really enjoyed all the blogging I was doing so I'd like to continue. It's fun & has been therapeutic even if I'm not going on and on about something that's upsetting me. Mostly I don't have local (closest are over an hour away) geek friends other than my husband so it's been nice to go on about things I love and projects I'm working on like the Scrabble blanket for Okaasan.  😁

Hopefully the email method works better than the app or trying to post via mobile web so I can continue to update here & on the family blog (where I'll hopefully post about Khalie's name & maybe a shortened version of her birth story soon which I'll post a link to in case anyone is interested).

So... whatcha been up to the last two weeks? ^w^

Friday Fav Five V. 4

OMG  if you guys don't read Gronk by Katie Cook, you're completely missing out.  Especially on today's comic... which I told my husband pretty much sums us up completely.  XDDD

The comments on this video are full of hate about how this isn't real metal but I like it and I gotta say that it only works because it's JPop vocals over metal music.  American pop just wouldn't have the same effect.  I love how they describe it in this article, though.  "for those of us whose musical tastes fall somewhere in the middle, Babymetal is kind of like a magical, leather-clad, fire-breathing, sonic unicorn."

I should probably be ashamed of how hard I laughed over this but it's still making me laugh...


New Blog Love:  Superheroesque.  I especially love the posts How I Learned to Love the Geek post and the Public Geekness post, where we get this quote:

So true and in the comments of that post user "A Bit of Geek" was talking about getting crap about being a "fake" if you mention it too much and I think Mia's reply about how if it were a guy who had written the same post no one would have accused them of being a faker.  Perhaps not, but in my experience guys are the first to jump to call anyone else a fake geek...

Book boyfriends (or girlfriends).  Is there really much else to say?  Haha!  So tell me, who is your book boyfriend/girlfriend?

Life Currently

Working on:  About a half a million different things.  *sigh*  I have serious project A.D.D. right now it's pretty ridiculous.  I'm still trying to finish a couple gifts, my niece's Dalek, plus getting the house prepared for family to visit and a new kiddo to come live, haha.  And last week's Weekly Intentions??  Yeah they're not going so well right now.  Oops.

Listening to/Watching:   Combining these as I'm rewatching Game of Thrones season 2 so we can watch season 3.  We don't do cable or anything so we're always behind.  >.<

Reading:   A Game of Thrones.  Still.  For the past almost 2 years my pace at finishing books is put to shame by snails.  I've finished just a few books in this time (the latest was Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson AKA The Bloggess which is freaking HILARIOUS and I highly recommend it) but have been trying to read more this year.  Perhaps late night nursing sessions will help with this goal. :D  Especially since I need to finish Lover at Last (which I actually started before GoT but lost interest in because good god the will they won't they is ridonkulous in this book) so I can get The King on April 1st.

Eating:  I just finished a delish bowl of chocolate ice cream.  I just want all the chocolate this pregnancy. XDD

Loving:  How much Darius cares about K already.  He asks me if she's happy and now that appointments are closer he wants to know when we'll go check up on her again.  I just hope he's still as excited when she's here.

Thinking about:  How to get things done for the shop either in time for K's arrival or after she's here.  Getting a little freaked out by how I'm going to get things off the ground for Bitten Designs this year with a baby and a toddler.  I know I can, just not sure of a plan of attack at the moment.

Wanting:  the Tums to work.  LOL.

Thankful for:  My boys.  I don't know what I'd do without them.  Even if they drive me bat crap crazy on occasion, I love them to pieces.  I'm also thankful for my little girl who is gonna help even the score around here, lmao.

Friday Fav Five V.3

1.  The beautiful art of Vivianne du Bois, particularly her Little Villains series featuring kawaii little Disney villians such as Ursula, Cruella and Maleficent.  She has a Society 6 shop for prints.  ^w^

 Aren't they adorable??

2.  Mario Kart meets Olympic Speed Skating

3.  Damn you, Think Geek, you are dangerous store...

I need this watch in my life, haha.

4.  More art!!!  This time the art of Craig Davidson which I discovered from this post at Nerd Approved where they talk about how he brilliantly captures kids pretending to be their favorite characters but sadly the collection they show is only Star Wars characters and he's done more than just Star Wars!!

 A Life Bionic

Are You With Me, Men!  Aye Robin

You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry

5.  Naps.  Freaking naps are my bestest friend in the world right now (sorry besties, that's my third trimester exhaustion talking) and on that note, I need to stuff my face with a little food and go to sleep.  Hope you all enjoyed something on my list this week!

Tell me what you've found this week that you're in love, or at least like, with! ^w~

Weekly Intentions

 Crappy cell phone pic FTW!

I thought I'd share my Weekly Intentions this week.  This is something I saw Kaelah over at The Clueless Girl's Guide do and I immediately fell in love with it.  It feels like a lot less pressure and honestly I think I get more done off this list than a list I have to get done by a certain time, haha.  Maybe not but it sure feels that way anyway.

I've actually already checked one off completely, though it was one of the easiest of the list, but considering how terrible I've been at getting things done on time lately I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment, haha!  I got a cute new expandable file at Target (love their "$1 or $3" section) just to keep my receipts more organized than shoving them all into an envelope after I write them down in my ledger.

 Cute!  Though I'm still not convinced I like this whole zig-zag/chevron trend...

The difficult ones will be getting photos done and listings updated simply because I'm so tired lately I usually end up napping when D does, which isn't going to get any better in 2-3 weeks so hopefully I can muster the energy to get it done now.  My problem was that I was doing my product photos to focus on just the product but now I want to go a different direction and show some personality with them.  Plus we've made my studio space a little less accessible so I need to work out a new setup, too and lighting in this house is awful and moving my studio lighting is currently exhausting to say the least, haha.  Anyway, really hoping I can get that done as well as update each listing that I have one RTS (Ready to Ship) before I really don't have time/can't stay awake.

So what to-do list item or weekly intention are you happiest you've done this week?  ^w~

Friday Fav Five V. 2

This week's post is kinda late but in my defense we've been getting prepared for our little warrior princess and been buried in piles of pink clothing, haha.  And new clothes for D, too.  Mostly there's been a lot of laundry and errands this week.  *collapses from exhaustion*

1.  This video.  Sometimes you just need something that restores your faith in humanity a little.  Especially with our media's obsession with prefering panic and distress over something positive.

2.  This Lily Munster Maquette... GORGEOUS.  Sadly out of my price range but The Nerd Store does have a Lily Munster action figure so I may have to settle for that.

3.   This roman candle thieving wiener dog from AFV.  So thankful that Sakura is no where near this brave. (Which will not embed the way stupid facebook claims it will to save my life. >.< )

Post by America's Funniest Home Videos.

4. Jelly Splash  I have a lot of games on my phone that I play with my friends (Zynga, I wish I could quit your crooked ass) but I also like to have a mindless game for when I'm just killing time while waiting for D to give in and finally fall asleep at night or when pregnancy insomnia hits (which has been a serious biznatch this pregnancy.  With D I was out by 9 pm, no problem) and that game used to be Candy Crush Saga until I found out what massive dickwads King, the creators of Candy Crush Saga, were as they decided to sue another game for simply using the word "saga" in the title despite it being a completely different game and that they were trying to steal the trademark of a game they appear to have ripped off in the first place (a game other than Bejeweled) but I digress.

After removing Candy Crush from my phone I added Jelly Splash and it's a lot of fun.  Similar to CCS but you make chains rather than swaps but you have little obstacles and missions the same way.

(Oh and bonus for King haters, this article of BS claims about how they shouldn't publish "cloned" games and aren't trying to go after these people for using words from their game except to protect themselves.  Yeah, okay.  *eye roll* Have I mentioned how glad I am I never paid money on CCS??)


5.  The Match Game Productions channel on YouTube.  I was raised on older TV, movies, and music and the old game show Match Game is always good for a laugh.  This YT channel has lots of episodes including this one (part one of two) with a very spirited contestant.  Lol.

What are your favs this week?  ^w^

Friday Fav Five V.1

Once upon a time I tried doing a favs list on Wednesday titled Geeky Getsuyoobi but it got exhausting focusing only on geek stuff even as geeky as I am.  *eyes sparkle at the thoughts of my overwhelming list of fandoms*  So I'm gonna give this a go.  It might be every week.  It might not.  I don't know how long this burst of blogging will last.  Especially since I should have a newborn in addition to a toddler with more energy than I know what to do with in the next month or so... so yeah.  Anyway, here we go.

1.  Crash Course from the Vlogbrothers, John & Hank Green, is a love of mine with all its educational awesomeness but I've been watching the History playlist in particular as of late and wanted to share this one on Islam.  It's one of those things I've had very little understanding of to be honest and I know very few who do.  I suggest checking out the whole series or just this episode if you're interested or even one of those "omg all Muslims are terrorists" (in which case I strongly suggest you check it out because you are of of the people that make me crazy with your unfair generalizations).

2.  This video from a guy with some brains about Michael Sam coming out as a gay football player about to enter the NFL and how people are saying no one is going to want him now.  *eye roll about stupid people running their mouths*  Regardless, he makes an excellent point.

3. Classic Doctor Who on Hulu Plus.  I put off watching Doctor Who for years because I wanted to watch it from the true beginning but DVDs were outrageously expensive and Netflix and pretty much everywhere online had a "best of" kind of smattering of episodes but now Hulu has finally added at least most of, if not all Classic Who.  So if you're one of those that's been putting off starting it for that reason then what are you waiting for?  Off with you!  Wait, wait!  Come back.  Maybe finish this post first. ^w~

4. Heaven Knows by The Pretty Reckless.  Freaking love this song and pretty much all the songs I've found on YouTube.  This album this one is from is going to be released March 18th.  Definitely going have to snag it.

5.  Quotegrams and Anagram Magic Squares.  While Cody was on a work trip, D & I spent some time back home with his family and mine.  My grandparents have always been big on crossword puzzles and the like.  They usually do a puzzle or two together in mornings (so sweet, right?) and while we were there they got me hooked on Anagram Magic Squares and Quotegrams.  In fact I just put down a Quotegrams to come back and finish this post, lol.  They're in the variety puzzle books from Penny Press that you find among the magazine section. Super excited to find out they offer full volumes of the Anagram Magic Squares and super bummed they don't offer the same for quotegrams as I tend to get very little done in the variety issues.  I've started and left so many puzzles already.  LOL.

Well that's it for my first Friday Fav Five!  (Oh I should make a cute banner for these...)  Hope you enjoyed it and I apologize to those that are also my facebook friends as half or more you've probably already seen, haha.  Happy Valentine's Day to those who celebrate it.  I really don't even though I'm married, I'd prefer flowers or something for no reason than a forced day of romance so I don't really observe the love and romance part of it, but if you do I hope you have a good one!  And if you don't or you hate the holiday then Happy Friday!

^w^

Oddly Liberating

Tonight I deleted a lot of my blogs.  Not posts, but blogs I had started.  Now I'm down to this one, my photography website and my family blog.  It feels good, too.  For years I've felt I needed everything separate.  Manga reviews here, makeup etc here, book reviews here.  In fact here I still struggle with what I want to include on this blog as for a long time this was meant to be my "secret" part of the interwebz.  This way it made sense to keep it and the family blog separate but now I'm not sure as I really don't feel like keeping this blog that way anymore so then I wonder if I shouldn't just combine it all.

That idea is a little bit anxiety-ridden for me for some reason, though.  It's kind of funny to me right now, actually.  Though I guess it goes along with how I felt once earlier today.  This blog is wholly ME whereas the family one focuses on the family (uh, duh).  This week I lost another lip ring and I thought, as I have the last dozen times it's happened that maybe it's time to give up my last lip piercing, so I didn't put it back in.  Then, suddenly, I started to miss it on day 3 and tried to put one back in.  It's gone.  My last lip piercing (of only 2 originally) is gone and I was crushed.  I honestly cried and wondered WTH I was thinking by leaving it out.  Then today I took out one of my ear piercings to clean the hoop and my ear and it's one of my first piercings besides my lobe piercings so it's been one I could always put back in without looking.  Until today.  I kinda lost it for a bit, suddenly feeling like these things that were a part of me, just me, were suddenly all fading away and they were doing so so much faster than I was ready for.

I did get the hoop back in, but my ear is pissed.  For some reason when I'm pregnant my ears get really angry about my piercings.  It's weird but it happened when I was pregnant with D, too.  They get very sensitive and after Cody tried to help me he said it looked like some of the skin was torn, so I'm babying it and the rest of my ear piercings with some Bactine and love.  Now that I think about it I had to start doing that last time, too but I think it was earlier on.

Funny story, as I started this post I thought it would be all about how I was trying to convince myself I needed to keep the two blogs separate and in the second paragraph I realized I really do need them separate.  I think it's hard when you're a parent, you give up a lot for your kids but you also really need to keep you in tact to a point.  They won't always be there needing your every moment and if you give up everything what are you going to have when they get to that point?  Or when you do get breaks?

Ah, nothing like a diary-like blog post, eh?  So now that that's over... uh, new header... updated some stuff in my side bar over there --->  Stuff like my photography logo/link, added my etsy shop preview, updated cosplays and stuff like that.  Not done but feeling a little more me.  Just need to fix up a better about me and possibly add an about me page, I think.  Then maybe I'll be done with the changes I started sometime in the last half of 2013.  XD 

So have you ever given anything up for someone you wish you hadn't?  Or picked something back up that you had previously given up?  Let me know in the comments. ^w^

When to Blog & Some Projects

Guys, I've been trying so hard to blog here the last couple months it's ridiculous.  Especially these last couple weeks.  As in I wish I had a dollar for every time I worked on or started a post that's now just sitting in my drafts folder and then I could buy something worth blogging about or something.

Today I think I discovered most of my problem is I wait until the evening after D is in bed to try to blog and by then my brain is complete mush and all I want to do is crochet and zone out watching YouTube videos.  Oh and eat, 'cause, you know, pregnant.  Thing is I have little time before then to blog because my son has more energy that I know what to do with and having a laptop open around him is playing with fire and during nap time these days I'm napping with him because third trimester exhaustion is in full swing up in here.

Anyway, I want some of this to be actual blogging and not just talking about it so here's some things I've been up to.

I have been catching up on all the Geek & Sundry YouTubey goodness.  I love the channel but just haven't been watching much the past year because most of the TV time in this house goes to watching Despicable Me for the 4 billionth time.  We started watching once we adults go to bed, though and blew through all the Tabletop episodes we'd missed in a few days.  That show is like crack and makes our wishlist get fat and lazy.  And really expensive.

Then I started watching some of the Geek and Sundry Vlogs most of which I've fallen in love with and am obsessed with.  I was going to list a bunch of favorites but I'm thinking I might just have to make that a post of it's own because there are so many I love and still several that I have yet to check out.

I've been crocheting up a storm.  I opened an etsy shop for my amigurumi creations last year (which I recently updated with a logo, banners and all that goodness) and have been doing lots of outside orders and things really seem to be taking off this year.  In fact I'm still trying to finish Christmas presents because of orders I've gotten.  Speaking of Christmas, I'm also making Okaasan (my mom) a Scrabble Board blanket for 2014 Xmas after seeing this on Pinterest.

This particular pattern is available here.  But as with most crochet things I find there's enough I want to change that I'm actually doing my own pattern using "solid" granny squares (chart pattern below).  That and the site was nearly impossible to navigate while on my phone anyway- note to website owners, a lot of your users are mobile and if we can't use your site that way it's unlikely we'll bother once we're on our computer.  Now the granny squares I'm using are called solid granny squares, however, I found one that was more solid but I like this pattern as I prefer them not being completely solid but I didn't want them as holey as your traditional granny square.

When I'm done crocheting 225 of these bad boys, attach them and add the borders I'm wanting to add by my estimates it should be about the size of a full/queen size blanket (90"x90") and I also will have gone through approximately 26 skeins of yarn, lol.  This ought to be interesting.  

Here's my progress so far.  I'm using Caron Simply Soft in Bone for regular squares, Ocean for triple letter squares and Soft Blue for double letter squares.  I'm planning on using Soft Pink for double word squares and the middle star square and Autumn Red for triple word squares as well but just haven't grabbed those colors yet.  Plus I'll be using White, Black and some Off-White but I'll talk more about that later.

So yeah... that would be why I'm starting now because it takes up to 40 minutes per square unless I'm super speedy at them by the end of this, haha!!  It's going to be so worth it, though and I'll keep the blog updated on how things are going.  And hope my mom doesn't find it, haha!

I also made this Ood for a friend of mine and will be adding them to the shop soon, too.  

Sorry for these being crap cell phone shots, not even sure why I watermarked them but when I get time I'll try to remember to update this post with quality photos.

 Oh and I started working on a Sailor Moon collection as well.  This Sailor Moon is not the final but I haven't gotten it remade because of orders (hell of a problem to have, huh?) and I've also done Sailor Mercury but haven't gotten a pic yet because I hate her hair.  Lol.

This is one of the custom orders I've done so far this year.

I don't normally like the hair being so plastered to the doll's head but seeing as how this is for a baby I didn't want it loose enough for her to be sucking on strands or curls of hair.  Other than that I like it, though the embroidery on the front of her little overalls made me want to throw a tantrum.  Lol.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to so far this year.  Also did some cup cozies and am in the process of remaking one of my first custom orders so I'll post photos of those when I get a chance, too!  What projects are you all feverishly working on this year?

^w^

In Absence of Writing

Well another NaNoWriMo has come and gone and this year things are a bit... odd in the aftermath of it.  Let me start off by saying that this was my fifth year doing NaNoWriMo (whaaaaa?) and this was my fourth win.  Several times today, though, I thought about "when I write tonight" and then I was like "wait, no that's over, thank god."

I'm not sure but I think it was my story this year.  I liked it at first, but then I realized I should have been doing a ton more research in October.  I had three weeks and I wasted them.  Now I've been a "pantser" every year I've done NaNoWriMo.  I've never written more than a few character facts and a few events that I knew I wanted to happen, maybe an excerpt or two of those events.  I never start with what writers are supposed to start with like an outline.  I fly by the seat of my pants, hence "pantser".

So I was off to a horrible start.  Fine, but then it got boring.  I took to bitstrips to vent my frustrations.  (Sorry if you hate bitstrips but I love them IF the creator actually edits it to be more than the boring panels that are the default message).

So then I threw in some real villains rather than just the bitchy girl antagonist and it still just wasn't enough.  There were times that I was like oh I like this scene but previous years?  I LOVED scenes.  I cried, laughed and cursed at my characters and their story.  This year it was pretty much all cursing and not like previous years where I was like "you idiot don't do that!" it was more like "could you be any more one-dimensional and awful??"

I honestly hate my first draft and not just a little bit.  With a passion.  I now have 4 rough drafts and only three are interesting enough to me, the writer, to touch again.  In fact I almost have a second draft for one of them if I'd sit down and work it all out.  I guess I feel like I wasted the month.  This year's NaNoWriMo doesn't even feel like a win really.  I wrote but... that's it.  I wrote.  I guess that in itself is an accomplishment having written 56,169 words but it just feels like a hollow victory.

*sigh*

Bitten by the Cosplay Bug

Okay so honestly I was bitten a while ago by the cosplay bug but I've finally decided to really run with it.  Until now everything has been modified pieces of clothing I own or can find in stores or even just clothes I have, like my Luna Lovegood in regular clothes that I wore for the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2, which I REALLY wish I'd have gotten pics of because it actually turned out really cute but now I'd have to get a wig (the dangers of ever-changing hair colors) and I wouldn't fit in the clothes anymore, especially now with the baby bump, haha.  Plus I wish I'd have gotten better pics of my Ravenclaw school outfit and even the Rebellious Ravenclaw that I did for Nan Desu Kan last year.

*sigh*

For being a photographer you would think I would be more concerned about getting good photos of such things, huh?  In fact I need to remake the fake lashes for my NDK cosplay I made this year before I change my haircolor again, haha. (I did get a few shots though which I'll share with my NDK wrap-up post)

For years I've been trying to really get into cosplay and failing, largely because I'm a procrastinator queen of the procrastinators and tend to wait until the last minute for everything so things always fall apart.  In fact, I've been working on my Neo-Queen Serenity cosplay for almost 2 years now and still haven't gotten past having my wig half done (mostly because I didn't realize I need TWO wigs to correctly modify it and create one wig, haha).  So now I've decided to start working little bit by little bit all year long in order to get things done.  Plus it's not like I can just run out and buy this, that and the other all the time because I have a family that comes first (not at all complaining, js).

So from now on, I'll try to post on my progress and I'll be keeping tabs on what cosplays I'm working on and how far I am with each one with the little cosplay section over there. ---->

I'll also probably add a page to the blog of cosplays I'd like to do, which is a long list I'll have to add to over time.  Not to mention always finding new kickass characters that I want to cos so it'll always be growing faster than anything will be completed because my goal is only to finish one cosplay a year.  If I finish more, awesome, but for now one a year seems more than enough.

^w^

Love It or Hate It: Heroes of Cosplay

The last couple weeks I've been hearing speculation about the show.  Will it be positive or negative for cosplayers/geeks, etc.  Then it aired and OMG my cosplay friends and cosplayers I love and follow EXPLODED with opinions.  Like whoa y'all, simmer down.  Though I get a little riled up in the following "review", lol. (Er, that means I cuss, I do that when I'm riled up, lol. Or just talking, haha!!)

Tonight I finally got a chance to watch it, no thanks to Hulu's ridiculous ads that don't load correctly so instead of a 102 second commercial break it ends up being more like 400-500 seconds despite the fact I pay these jerks for their service but I digress. #firstworldproblems  Now I feel like I need to preface this by saying that I have not read any online reviews short of a status here and there and after cosplayer Charmedseed mentioned something on facebook about a nasty article everyone seemed to be sharing, I avoided them because it sounds like this particular reviewer was downright NASTY and I don't need that shit.  In the world of cosplay there is entirely too much nerd on nerd hate and I'm sick of it.  We all love what we love and if we love it enough to dress up as a character then we should be able to.  /this particular rant. For now.

First of all I thoroughly enjoyed the show.  I would have liked to have seen more of the costume making processes but this is reality TV so they're not going to focus on that despite that cosplayers, people who enjoy seeing others cosplay or want to start cosplaying are their audience.  They are going to focus on the DRAMA.  Which brings me to my first annoyance- people are judging these people on the show with "OMG she's such a bitch" blah-de-freaking BLAH.  Syfy hasn't been the same since they were Sci-Fi for one and two this is reality TV and drama is their priority.  Drama brings in viewers or the reality TV fad would have died when it should have years ago.  (Ok not ALL reality TV should die but crap like the Bachelor, Big Brother & Survivor? WHY IS THIS SHIT STILL ON??)  Someone had commented on a friend's fb status that they knew someone that actually knew one of the people on the show (or something along those lines) and said she really wasn't that nasty in real life.  Here's the thing you need to remember when watching reality TV: It needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  They're going for views.  The crazy lady who flips out on everyone around her is more interesting than the girl that calmly gets her cosplay together. 

Second:  Cosplay can be freaking stressful.  Anyone who has ever cosplayed knows this, so going on about how crazy someone is being is ridiculous.  These people are at the level where most are perfectionists.  I'm a perfectionist which is why I have so few completed cosplays because unless it's perfect I won't do it at all with few exceptions (ok, one exception).  Some people are like that.  If you can throw something together last minute and be cool with that?  Good for you, but don't judge someone for wanting their craftmanship to show how much they love what they're cosplaying as or to show just how hard they've worked on it.  This is also for competitions so there is an added level of stress and needing to be the best for some people.  Which again adds the the drama I discussed in the previous paragraph.

I've heard that people are upset with the show because they chose to follow "ugly" cosplayers.  Stop right freaking there.  This is bullshit and it makes me stabby.  As Becky says in the show, the internet is unforgiving.  Fat versions of characters, etc.  This is the kind of shit in the nerd/geek world that pisses me off the most.  Now I'm not comfortable cosplaying as say Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist with her stomach showing which is my choice. If you're a curvier gal and are comfortable with it?  Good for you!  This body shaming crap needs to stop.  As nerds we've all for the most part spent a pretty good chunk of time being bullied by non-geeks and the fact that we have so much nerd on nerd bullying is flat out sickening. Now I understand that some are upset that majority on the show is white females, which I can understand, but saying the people they're focusing on are ugly is beyond ridiculous.

All in all, I liked the show and I'm excited to see more.  I think it shows reality of cosplay.  Cosplay is hard and stressful when you're at the level where you're doing competitions and not just for fun.  Hell it can be stressful even when it's just for fun.  Things fall apart, plans fall through, bodies change shape and require costume alterations, and that one thing you thought was going to work could fall apart last second. *sniffles while thinking about her OC: Sailor Mimas' staff breaking in half*  Really as of this first episode it's real and also all in good fun so I honestly don't see what people are getting butthurt about. :D

Hey Strangers!

Well obviously my plan to update regularly fell apart.  Such is the life of a SAHM me.  LOL.

I fully intended to write up a nice post on so many things but by the time I have time I'm too tired, haha.  I'm not sure where these mommy bloggers get the time to write every single day.  Then I tend to put way too many irons on my little fire.  Damn me and my too many interests.  Seriously it's always a struggle when I need a bio for something and there's a character limit.  I'm like I can't fit everything!!  WTF am I supposed to sacrifice??  Haha!

One of my larger unnecessary time sucks is gone though.  I used to play SimsSocial and SimCity Social a LOT.  Now the game is being closed come June 14th and I decided to stop wasting time on it.  It wasn't until then that I realized exactly how much time I was spending on those games.  And for what?  Fake stuff that won't exist past the 14th of June.  Now that's not to say I won't spend time playing the new SimCity game, which I love, but I have honestly disliked facebook games for a while now and played very few.  My husband told me to play Farmville, which I do but I refuse to let it turn into the time suck that SimsSocial and SimCity Social did.  It was ridiculous.  Plus I can't stand Zynga.  They're greedy pricks IMO.  Haha.  Though I know a lot of people feel that way about EA too.  In fact some people are flat out livid about SimsSocial and SimCity Social closing.  Why? Mostly because they spent hundreds of dollars on fake stuff.  Umm I think that's more of a personal problem.  I could go on and on about where I think they went wrong with stuff and lost money *cough* weekly updates *cough* but I think the most upsetting thing is all the people they had to lay off which is what closing these games was a result.

Then again..... I just wrote a huge paragraph about crap that doesn't matter... so uh, yeah.

I've started crocheting amigurumi and I LOVE it.  I'm obsessed and I started an etsy shop, but get this... I'm too busy with outside orders to add anything to it!  O.o  Hell of a problem, I know but I'm super excited.  I'm nearly caught up too, though so hopefully in the next few weeks I can get some things added soon.  In the meantime I have a whole two scarves in the shop, but I'm going to be adding my original creations the Gothique Girls, lots of nerdy and geeky themed cell phone charms, coffee cup coozies and custom dolls where you can pick out what you want!  The shop is Bitten Designs and I have a Facebook page where I'll be doing facebook exclusive giveaways so be sure to like the page so you don't miss the goodies!  And I promise I'll be changing the icon and banner to something less wintery soon because I don't know about any of you but I'm beyond over winter, haha!

On that note does anyone else go through redesigning kicks?  I meant to change my banners through the seasons for my shop but I've changed my mind but still I redid the family blog and put a different template on this one and I'm finally ready to get to work on Bitten Photography's layout too.  Talk about a wild hair, I guess, haha!

Well the boy is restless so I better wrap this up and make dinner before he throws something at my laptop. -_-  Hope you all are well.   Let me know what kind of games you've gotten addicted to in the comments.  Or even what kind of stuff you hope to see in my shop.  I'm always open for ideas and am currently working on a pattern for a Moogle from Final Fantasy. ^w~

素晴しい水曜日(Wonderful Wednesday) #5

First up is an amazing app I just discovered thanks to this post by Rowan Pendragon, called Evernote.  It's sooooo nice.  I'm terrible and have a ridiculous amount of blogs to comment on but then I forget and end up with a huge list.  Until now my phone has been covered in Sticky Notes and I lived in fear of losing them so this app is perfect. It's a pain to comment from my phone on blogs so now I have a notebook of what I wanted to comment on, what I'm saving to read later, blog ideas, etc.  Hopefully it'll help with these posts too!  I'm so in love with it already and you can use the Web Clipper to save pages.  Seriously if you need help staying organized this is awesome.  Rowan also has lots of good tips and I've started a journal and made two of the goal charts too. 

Second, I have this Timelapse of the Earth from the International Space Station.  I just... I love this video.  It's so beautiful I can't get over it.  Just... WOW. 

Third, Dina Goldstein's Dollhouse Series. She's the same one who did the Fallen Princesses Series which I'm sure you've seen as it's made it's rounds on the internet several times.

Fourth is this info-graphic of A Snapshot of the Photography Industry. It makes me a bit sad to see companies ceasing production of film types.  Traditional photography is what made me fall in love and it's so depressing to not have a dark room to continue to do it with.  The feeling of developing your own film and prints is unrivaled.  *sigh*  Okay so there are things I miss about college.

Lastly I have a theory that cute kids are a bajillion times cuter when dressed in geek gear or doing geek activities.  As proof of this theory I present the Cosplay Kids Tumblr.  I can't wait to send in pics of D at NDK.  I'm working on 2 cosplays for him. So excited.

I swear one of these days I'll post more than just links but I'm tired and meh.  Lol.  Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!! We're halfway to another weekend!

Just Create Something

I have a sticky note on my Droid that it is overflowing with blog post ideas and no time to do them now that the boy has decided to be clingy. Again. Just when I thought we were over it, it started up again. *sigh*  But I digress...

We read to D every night.  He has a fairly good collection of books (that will grow- we're a book family) and the other night for a little something different I started reading A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, one of my favorites.  The other night I read one of my favorites, PUT SOMETHING IN.  For those unfamiliar with the book or even just the poem here it is.

PUT SOMETHING IN

 Draw a crazy picture,

Write a nutty poem,

Sing a mumble-gumble song,

Whistle through your comb,

Do a loony-goony dance,

'Cross the kitchen floor,

Put something silly in the world

That ain't been there before.

It's fun and I always think that other than just silly stuff I feel like creating follows the same needs.  As an artist (Photography mainly though I do draw, paint, write, etc) I think it's important to encourage each other and ourselves to create.  It's good for not only our souls but others.  You never know when your painting, short story, photo, sculpture, song, dance, etc may move someone or even save their lives.

I read PostSecret every week and I can't count the times I've seen something about a book series (especially Harry Potter, a favorite of mine) is credited with saving someone's life and giving them hope and that's only the people sending in postcards!!  Imagine how many other people were saved by someone else's creative output.  It's important to put yourself out there.  Yes it can be terrifying too, I've been there a LOT but I also feel the most heartfelt creative works are the best received.

Sure, there are lots of things that you may think are terrible (I swear to cow if you use Twilight or 50 Shades as an example I will reach through this computer and punch you- stop beating a dead horse, you don't like it that's fine stop hating on those who enjoy it.) but it may have spoken to someone else and if it helped just one person isn't that what really matters?

This is one of the reasons I love NaNoWriMo.  Its "literary abandon" is the appeal.  Don't think (well not too hard anyway if you're a planner and not a pantser like myself), just create.  Go back later and refine.  Maybe it's a terrible draft but go back and edit it, make it great or even just good.  If nothing else it's a learning experience you can apply to your next work.

So go!  Take a chance.  Write that story you jotted down some notes for.  Paint it, draw it, dance, write those lyrics.  If you just inspire one person, even if it's just yourself, you've done something great and Put Something In.

^w~

素晴しい水曜日(Wonderful Wednesday) #4

1.  The Global Dynamics Charm from agirlfrommars on etsy is awesome.

My birthday is in November.  PS I am still super mad that the pricks at SyFy cancelled Eureka.  Also a bit upset that I'm missing this season to give it the ratings it deserves to show SyFy how big of morons they are.  Js.

2.  These next two things aren't really geeky but I've found them super useful.  I recently started working out and doing Couch to 5K.  You can see my journey here.  In the interest of getting fit I started Couch to 5K and found an app by Run Double that allows you to listen to external music on your phone or it has a music player and I love it.  It tells me when to run and walk, when I'm halfway and how fast I'm going.  Super useful and you can find it in the Droid Marketplace/Google Play.  I wasn't originally going to worry about counting calories but wanted to see how much I was burning so I got My Fitness Pal which is free and you plug in your food and exercises.  It also suggests what your daily calorie intake should be judging by how much weight you want to lose too.  Also in the Droid Marketplace/Google Play.  Both are available on the computer as well though Run Double is to check your stats and stuff.  My Fitness Pal lets you enter stuff online though.  ^w^
(Note: As of the most current Firefox Beta Run Double doesn't agree with it and it only partially agreed with Chrome but in Firefox 12 it's perfect.)

3.  Bear Food is a new site from the creator of The Oatmeal that users can vote on awesome links for the day.  I might be addicted.  Who needs productivity or to feed their children anyway? ^w~

4.  This hilarious and scarily accurate cartoon from one of my favorite webcomics- Gronk by Katie Cook.  If you don't read Gronk, well you should.  It's adorable and hilarious.

5.  Being an art nerd I freaking love this site of Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings.  Am I the only one that imagines him as he was in Ever After?  Genius but hilariously off his rocker?

素晴しい水曜日(Wonderful Wednesday) #3

So I'm working on a new way of compiling a list so I'll actually post this every week, lol.  Wish me luck. XD

1.  For those that don't know I collect cameras.  Mostly vintage ones but I was intrigued when I saw a post on FStoppers about this artist's cameras.  They are crazy.  Seriously, this one utilizes a skull:

Why did he use a skull?  It related to the subject he intended to photograph: "the beauty of decay".

Another? Has an infant heart in it which he used to take maternity photos.  He also has one that has blood from someone who has HIV in it which he "Designed to study and photograph a geographic comparison of people suffering from HIV."  Each camera has specific reasons for why he used what he did so I definitely suggest checking out the rest of the cameras from Boy of Blue Industries Cameras.

2.  Settlers of Catan Online.  For those who still don't watch TableTop on Geek & Sundry, this is one of the games they featured/played and in searching for it to add to my wishlist I discovered there is an online version for free.  Now I honestly haven't played more than the intro version because it's only free if you play with real people and I'm too afraid to.  Sad, but true.  I wanted to play a few computer rounds and get used to it but that didn't happen.  But it's there and I was super excited and hopefully I'll grow a set in the next few days and play a legit game, lol.

3.  Pintershit is back!  For a bit I was a  bit of a Pinterest addict and then I forgot to log in for a few weeks and I'm just now starting to check it again but this site takes ideas from Pinterest and tries them to see if they work and posts about them.  Yeah that button bowl?  Full (as full as a broken, holey bowl can be) of failyos.

4. Test Your Vocab is a fun little short test to gauge how large your vocabulary is.

5.  This Stargate T-shirt from PaganChick on etsy

Sorry this week isn't all that exciting.  Nasty headaches kill my creativity...

When Life Gets in the Way

First of all I'm not sure if I ever actually mentioned it here (I can barely remember what I ate for dinner last night) but I have moved my Pagan Blog Project blogging to a tumblr.  This was always meant to be my personal blog and while my spirituality is a huge part of my personal life it just felt like since that was all I ever got a chance to post that this had become a spiritual blog that may have bordered on preachy so if you're interested in seeing the rest of my posts for PBP (which I'm behind on, again.) Please head on over to my Sanctuary.  ^w^  Thanks and blessed be.

The following contains whining.  Feel free to skip it.

So recently we took a few moments to entertain the possibility of moving back home to Eastern Colorado.  Now I was reluctant to even talk about it because I was afraid it would get my hopes up but because there appeared to be only a question of jobs it seemed like enough of a possibility to talk about it.

Yeah... I realize now I should have just stuck to my not talking about it policy because I totally got my hopes up and now the reasons it was brought up aren't as definite as they sounded.  >.<  I hate the city.  Funny thing is for a while I thought that maybe there was really no way that we could do it.  We're used being able to run to hellmart in the wee hours of the morning if we have to or have several options for eating out, etc.  But then as we got to talking about it I realized that most of the things I'd miss are pretty much already gone or something we can't afford anymore anyway like Hastings is closed, eating out at a restaurant only happens once in a great while and we're too broke to go shopping anyway.

So really the only reasons I wouldn't want to go is reasons that have to do if we were to have another baby.  Other than that there's not a whole lot of reasons to stay I realized but there are so many reasons moving back would be good, like Darius growing up around his grandparents and great grandparents.  Oh and getting out of the house once in a while because we know people down there.  Here?  Pretty much all of our friends graduated and got the hell out of this craphole.

*sigh*

So last weekend we went back home for a long weekend to help throw a party for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary and coming back to Greeley sucked.  It was so depressing.  I was ready to get back to my own bed, see Takara and that kind of stuff but I wished that those things were there so we wouldn't have to go.  Now I know that he'll grow out of it and before we know it and D will remember who his grandparents are and stuff like that but right now he only sees them once a month if we're lucky so it makes it really hard on all of us.  We need a break, they want to snuggle and play with him and he wants to know who the hell these people are that keep bugging him.  It's depressing.

So on top of all this is the fact that I keep trying to think of ways I can help out with the whole money situation and that's not working out well either.  Have a mentioned lately how big of a waste of money college was?

Oh and I lost my wallet, my awesomesauce NES controller wallet, last weekend too.  What kills me is I lost it a day that I know my every last step and it's nowhere to be found. WTF?  It makes no sense.  Best part is if even if someone honest has found it my license has the wrong address.  SWEETNESS.  Mostly annoying but it just kind of added onto everything else ya know?

So there's my whine-fest for a while.  It's just some stuff I wanted to get off my chest before my head explodes from it.  

Also, I fully intend on trying to post more.  It's just by the time I get my internet time at night I'm too tired to do anything more than veg out on tumblr and Sims Social and not do anything that might require any kind of thinking or editing, lol.