Category Archives: creative

crafty 1 Comment

Mission Accomplished

My Kujibiki Unbalance cosplay costume is complete.

Well, almost. I still have to cut my armbands to size and iron my skirt one last time. But everything else is ready to go.

I put my costume on as soon as I had the last circle of felt glued to the helmet. My shadow had a weird silhouette as I walked up the stairs to the bathroom, to look in the full-length mirror.

I only felt a little ridiculous in my big blue skirt and giant poofy helmet of flannel and felt. Even so, I think my cosplay kicks ass. It has its small flaws — but overall, I’m pleased with my very first cosplay attempt.

Unfortunately, the batteries in the digital camera are dead, so I can’t post a picture of my cosplay yet. But we’re going to get fresh batteries on the way to the con, and we’ll take plenty of pics while we’re there. My co-workers are demanding to see a large photo of me in costume, so I’ll have to oblige both them and my general blog readership. 🙂

podcasting 2 Comments

So Tired

Today at work was a pretty blah day. Worked on some boring reports that are sure to put anyone to sleep. I made it through, though.

Then I walked out to my car and saw the flat tire. Nice. Waited for my two co-worker guys to walk out to the parking lot and asked them, “Do you think that’s too flat to drive on?” Oh, yeah.

Borrowed James’s cell phone to call Aaron and let him know I might be late, all while the manly-men are switching out the nail-ridden tire for the donut. They changed the tire in six minutes flat, while I was on the phone. I thanked James and Rob profusely and drove home on the donut.

I had about two minutes with Aaron before he had to leave for work. During that time, he gave me a hug and I got to open the Kujibiki Unbalance patches I ordered from Japan for this weekend’s cosplay. Anyway, he took the other car to work, so he wouldn’t be driving on the donut, and so the Contour will be in position for me to take it to work tomorrow myself, instead of the Kia.

Once Aaron left, it was time to go vote. I’m relatively new at this voting thing, having only become politically active at the last presidential election. Our polling place had changed, since the school where we voted last time is now under renovation. I had no trouble finding it, though, and beelined past the NBC 24 camera before they could get a shot with me in it.

I really, really dig the new touch-screen voting machines. Much better than the friggin’ Scantron-style bubble sheets we had to fill out last time. Having people from the same neighborhood in the same room was kind of fun, too, and made me long for the days of real community. (The Browns fan behind me telling the Steelers fan in front of me that she shouldn’t be wearing that Steelers jacket made for some surprisingly pleasant banter.)

So, voting done, I went home via the gas station to fill up. The Kia had less than an eighth of a tank left, and I filled it for $20.05, which is a welcome change from the $28 of yore (i.e. summer).

OK. Tire changed, husband hugged, voted, gassed up, and back home. Time for food. Threw some sausages in the microwave and voila, dinner is served.

Scarfed that down. Now it’s time to get down to business.

This evening was supposed to entail me researching and outlining tomorrow’s podcast and finishing up my Kujian helmet. Instead, I ended up talking on the phone with Ann, the new LSM Public Relations committee chair, for 20 minutes about what we should do for press releases. Started looking for some podsafe music for my podcast.

Aaaaand I’m done. I am completely exhausted, and it’s not even 10:00 yet. I want to get my podcast done and uploaded tomorrow, so that my biweekly schedule isn’t totally out the window by show #2, and so that I have Thursday to do the last-minute finishing-up of my cosplay outfit. I really wanted to work on that tonight, but I’m afraid I’d fuck it up at this point.

I’m so tired, I don’t even want to add to my NaNo or play Civ 4. Now *that’s* tired. Ugh.

Maybe I need to print out all my low-carb materials, bring them to work, and forego my lunchtime walk in favor of scripting out my podcast. Not a bad idea, although I’ll miss my outside time.

*checks weather.com*

Hmm… mid 50s and windy. Not horrible weather for walking, actually. Oh, well.

sewing

Cosplay Update

Since Aaron’s Fullmetal Alchemist costume arrived today, custom-made in the mystical land of China, I decided I’d better start work on my skirt again.

I’m not sure how, I but I somehow miscalculated the number of pleats my skirt is going to have. I’d planned on 12 pleats in my six-paneled skirt, but… wait… *thinks real hard* No, that’s right. It’ll be twelve pleats. I’m thinking I might have sewn the pleats in a little too far, though, because the skirt is supposed to poof outward from the hips, and I have the pleats sewn in for about ten inches down from the waist. I didn’t think about the poofy factor at the time; I was thinking about the fact that the heavy material I chose isn’t going to hold a crease very well.

Well, if it comes down to it, I do have a seam ripper. I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it, though.

I have an idea of how I’m going to make my helmet, but I haven’t started it yet. The hardest part is going to be attaching the frame for the helmet to the ball cap I bought at Goodwill. First, though, I want to get the skirt finished. One project at a time.

Did I just say “One project at a time”?

*shakes head*

Tell that to my multiple webpages, soy candle backlog, neglected plants, and my upcoming podcast.

writing

Give It Away Now

So, it’s prewriting time.

The NaNo rules clearly state: “Outlines and plot notes are very much encouraged, and can be started months ahead of the actual novel-writing adventure.” Therefore, my prewriting exercises are completely legal.

Now I have to decide whether to keep my plot ideas to myself, or to share them with my readership for comments and suggestions. Or whether to just share them with my Aaron and Amy (my husband and my old roomie).

I’ll share the basic premise, anyway, I suppose: A vampire living in a modern-day college town falls in love with a mortal woman, while in the midst of attempting to avenge himself upon his father.

That’s the almost-run-on one-sentence version, anyway. I’m kind of proud of how the major plotline finished writing itself while I was reading the alt.vampyres FAQ yesterday.

I don’t know. I tend to be just as secretive with my prose as with my poetry and my music, so maybe making my NaNo public would do me good. Still, though, it’s a big leap. NaNo attempts are inherently *bad*, being Very Rough Drafts. (Really — when you’re cranking out 2,000 words a night, who has time to proofread?)

I don’t know. We’ll see.

writing 2 Comments

Writing

Despite my laundry list of things to do (various websites, mainly, and fabricating my cosplay outfit), I’m still seriously considering participating in NaNoWriMo. I participated last year (although I cheated by working on my existing story), and I’m already signed up for this year.

The interesting thing about my writing is that… well, it arouses me. Yes, in that special way. Back when I was pubertizing, writing was my favorite way to get my ya-yas out, and I wrote some really cheesy (and utterly unrealistic) soft-core porn during the summer of ’88. (I wish my Mom hadn’t made me tear it out of the back of my journal after she found it, because that shit would be worth a giant laugh 15 years later.)

I can look back on that and chuckle… but as that was my longest and most intense stint of fiction writing, it did make an impression. Now, when I sit down to write, I have to fend off the urge to write erotic scenes between my characters, even if it really does makes sense for them to hook up. Once I write the Big Scene, I lose all of my momentum, and my story suddenly seems stupid and vapid.

All of my old stories were still living on my Power Mac up until this evening (which might tell you how long it’s been since I’ve written). In all, I have the beginnings of thirteen stories. Of those, sex scenes are a vital part of four and an incidental part of another three. In just the beginnings. Beginnings consisting of 1,000 to 19,000 words. (Most are between 2,000 and 7,000 words, FYI.) I feel like such a perv, admitting that I write smut a lot of the time… but admitting your problem is the first step to solving it, right?

According to the NaNoWriMo rules, you *are* allowed to do outlining and note-taking before November begins — but no actual writing. So this year, I think I’m going to flesh out a story idea I had years ago… and the few sex scenes, though integral to the story line, won’t be overly graphic. Neither will they be early in the story (I refuse to call it a book or novel).

This year’s NaNo will also not be related to my 19,000 word project that seems to be mortally stalled and in need of a major rewrite before it’s even a third of the way completed. (Incidentally, I only managed to add 2,000 words to this story during November 2004.)

I’m going to give it my best shot this time, and I’m going to try to make it PG-13. If I’m not embarrassed when November is over, maybe I’ll share my results.