SO MANY PHOTOS

   
      Time to write stuff again! I feel like I'm just getting worse and worse w/ these updates. They've further apart and it makes me sad =\
But, there's a lot that's been going on these last few weeks. A lot of my time has also been spent over at Fett's house. Like, I'll stay there 3-5 days. He lives considerably closer to my work, and cuts out 30 minutes out of my commute to class in the mornings (because everyone has to slow down and look at construction on the freeway like neanderthals), so I just end up staying there, lol. Also because... you know.. he's Fett. ^____^ of course!

We've been out and about a lot, too. Few weeks ago I joined him and his friends to this Brazilian place where they just kinda walk to each table w/ meat and you tell them if you want it or not. And there's an open buffet with sides and stuff. It was pretty awesome.

 These are two of Fetts best friends. 

They don't hate me, so I'm doing something not annoying :D

 it's a huge relief because usually girlfriends in general are annoying as fuk unless they feel they can relax, and that only comes with so much self-esteem already programmed in so it's 50/50. (trust me)

 Fett has hxc baby face.

No amount of facial hair will ever remedy that. 

but I look stupid young, too. 

YAY YOUNGLINGS

 C O S U P R A Y |

  I'm finally done w/ my newest cosplay. And I'm SUPER proud of it because this one was made from scratch, and it's something I've never done before, IN MY LIFE.
I mean, buying a sewing machine was just one of those random $100 impulse buys everyone has every now and then thinking "I'm gonna start a thing!" and then never go through with it, but when you do it's only for little things like.. random patches you found around your room and sewed them together out of curiosity and jammed your machine then put it away for 2 years. It happens.

 Anyway, yeah. I bought the fabric and everything. The color I needed for the hood/cloak had to be customized, so that was done w/ dye. but this was what I started w/. While learning to sew a hood, I didn't realize that in the tutorial her fabric was folded in half, so when she went to open up her hood I was like WTF and got super frustrated and pissed because I had already cut off a bunch of frabric not knowing what I was doing, but it wall worked out. I sewed the pieces back together, lol. Which for this costume absolutely worked in my favor, haha.

 It was an absolute mess. But once I made the hood, it was time to dye it. For this part I mixed purple and grey dye.

 And it looked like this:

 This fabric was perfect for what I wanted because the hood is supposed to look ripped and aged. NO PERFECTIONS HERE :D

 The face was pretty easy. I actually just took some 16g wire and made a circle around my face, wide enough to keep the hood open and retain a round shape. Then I took a dress out of my closet that I never wear and cut the mesh from it LOL

hot glued the circle wire onto the mesh, cut around it w/ some allowance on the edges, and sealed it w/ more hot glue.

 I also bought cheese cloth!
This was originally white, but I stuck it in grey dye for like 15 seconds and rinsed it immediately. Took crazy well.
This would be used for a detail on my hood.

I want to extend my gratitude to my cosplay fwan, Anthony. He made a pair of LED eyes for me to use with this cosplay! And made the eyes too. I met him after my class one day and I treated him to lunch as a thank you for the favor.
Now ... it hurts me to say that the LEDs won't work w/ the mask =(
It's not that they won't or don't work. They do! They work very well, lol. Just, the placement of the eyes, and the layering of what the mask is made out of won't ... work. Maybe it'll have to be for a revision of the mask, but as of right now I can't utilize it in a way that would justify it.  =\


 And then there was the lantern. And the beak mask.
I had to repaint the lantern. It was a rusty bronze color with purple glass. CAN'T DO THAT. GOTTA BE BLACK AND YELLOW. so. Did that.

and the beak mask sits behind the black mesh, w/ the eyes glued on the mesh. I had to repaint them because the hot glue melted some of the yellow stain away, which is what you can see in the pictures here. but over all, it's pretty much done.

 I'm pretty excited. ONLY thing that's left is to add soles to the bottom of my black morph suit, which I'll surely do today. 

It's going to be difficult for me to refrain from chasing all the Link cosplayers around the convention center.

Additionally. Fett's been working on his cosplay as well. It's been a huge thing. SO much trial and error, lol and buying way too much material.

 Wasn't kidding, LOL.

He's not as meticulous w/ measurements as I am, so he just gets enough materials and then if there's extra then... there's extra, lol. It's a waste, but he won't listen to me! lol 

 but the foam did serve to be a good crafting table top on his bed, lol.

 He also bought way too much craft foam, lol.

AND.
I wanted to make another leech prop for my Leech woman cosplay.

 This. wasn't. cheap. lol sigh.

So I had to sculpt a slightly bigger, rounder leech with more detail.

Then make a mold of it, which... for the most part was fine.

 This is where trial and error got the best of me.

I've never done this before, so I had no clue how to approach this or what to use. All I know is... mold.. and silicone. and then go.

so I bought silicone. I didn't know they made black silicone, so my dumb ass tried to scoop out all of the silicone in the tube and mix it w/ black fabric dye, then try to get it back into the tube to inject it into the mold.

it was mixed in that plastic tupperware thing there.

 worst idea ever. It cured before I even got to put it back into the tube.

Error #1: insanely stupid, insanely messy, insanely preventable but also really insightful.

Fett had to get some rods, nuts, and bolts from Home Depot that evening, so on our trip back there I picked up black silicone and a caulk gun. (yep, i'm a nub.)

this time things went a little less messy. The silicone was injected into the pink mold that was held together by tape and help up by a starbucks cup, lol.

Here's where everything goes wrong.

I forgot the mold is also silicone.

The end.

For if you didn't get it:  they fused together, the mold of the negative and the positive.

The pieces that I did manage to get out to just... see where really cool and exactly how I would've wanted it. so... NEXT TIME, I need to make a mold out of something that isn't silicone, lmao. Also, this was challenging because the leech doesn't really have a solid end to its shape like most things that get molded do. It's oval and tapered w/ no way of standing on its own, so figuring out the best position for the sculpture to sit in the silicone without it sinking to the bottom (impossible) was also a challenge.

So, Nibbles will be joining us for Wondercon after all :) lol



_________________ My housemates like metal. They also like parties.

so a few weeks back.... Trent hosted a black metal party.

 He made everyone wear corpse paint. I had to make it cute so I put little black "blush" spots on my cheeks. hmph.

 Vincent, our new housemate, wanted to troll Trent and came as a bee.

 Trent is short for human Redwood Tree.

 My housemates like to dance a lot.

I call it dancing, they call it fencing and sword play.... same difference.

 It was really fun.

 And Trent got drunk enough for me to spring to action and take advantage of the moment.

A R T  S H O W thingie |

Fett's friend had an art show at Cal Arts a few weeks back. He asked me if I wanted to go, and at first I wasn't going to because of work at 4AM. but then I said fuck it, it sounds cool. napped that evening to compensate, and we headed over there.

Something Fett warned me about Cal Arts is to expect people to be pretentious elitists. This made me giggle.

It was upstairs, and super packed. And warm. but the stuff on display was intriguing.

I wondered, where does he store all of this shit?

there was also food, so that was fucking awesome.

There were a lot of props and costumes (pictured above) from a short movie one of his friends worked on. It was showcasing two dudes' works. Artist painter sculpture guy and movie dude w/ tons of props. Both of them are friends of Fetts' and their whole clique.

Everything in blue is Mike, obvs painter dude, everything in red was Dan's stuff.

looping Bioshock background made me feel relaxed.

screening of one of the shorts with Mikes sculptures

It was a fun night. I got to see a lot of hipsters in a social setting, which was fascinating in its own respect. 2 people told me I was beautiful. felt nice, as I was mostly wandering around on my own, trying to avoid conversation and the chattering groups of friends. I just wanted cheese cubes and Swedish meatballs.


DEAD THINGS

So, on my way to work I saw this massive opossum on the road, obviously dead from being run over.
I thought about it... and thought about it.. and thought about it.
after almost arriving home, I grunted in regret, annoyed that I didn't stop when I saw him, and made a u-turn to go back and get him. (he was a boy. i have his balls in a jar.)


This was one of the coolest experiences for 2 reasons.
STORY TIME: reason 1

As I approached the site where he lay, I had to make a left turn onto a side street to park my car, as he was on the opposite side of the road now, where as he was just to my right before as I was coming home. I park, and think fuck... how am I going to grab him?
I look to my back seat and see nothing but work aprons. ALRIGHT, THAT'S ONE WAY.
Then I remember that sometimes I leave totes in my trunk. BOOM.

Lets do this.

So, I get out of the car and idle at the corner, watching traffic pass me hoping no one runs over his body again. Everyone was pretty much avoiding him, which was good news for me. As I approach the median to gauge my time, a younger woman on the other side of the road pauses in the left turning lane, rolls her window down and calls to me:

Do you work at *********?

I called back, "yeah!" dangling my apron with a smile.

Oh, alright! 'Cuz I'm just on my way over there and saw your apron! 

haha, yeah! I know there's one just down the street if you're looking for a close-by one!

Oh, okay! There's actually one I go to that's a little ways down further, but did you need a ride to work? It's no trouble, I just need coffee, haha!

 Oh, wow! Thank you very much! I don't, actually. I'm just trying to get this oppossum out of the street! I have to use what I got, haha!

Ohhh! Okay! I just figured you might need a ride, haha!

Yeah! Thank you, that's really nice of you! I'm just waiting for traffic to slow a little bit, maybe a red light soon so I can grab him quick! ((I begin to scan both sides of the street for an opening))

No cars for another light! Here's my chance.
The young woman is still in the left lane, watching for cars too. I quickly open my apron and approach the carcas when I look up and notice that she pulls out in a half U-Turn and positions her car at my left to create a blockade for on-coming traffic. Touched, I look up and smile at her and wrap the apron around the body as fast as I can.
He's HEAVY. The weight of his head took me by surprise and I felt a little weird for a second, holding his body in my arms. I shimmy him into my tote, rise, and head back to the side walk.

I look at her and give her a final gesture of gratitude, bowing my head, smiling and thanking her for going out of her way for me the way that she did, and I told her that I'll always remember her kindness. She wore large sunglasses, and had her hair back in a ponytail. She couldn't have been more than 25. She was just a chick that wanted to do something nice for someone, and totally did, and it touched my heart so much.. that I was actually touching my heart as I spoke to her, lol.
I hope that one day we run into each other and she recognizes my hair. I told her the area I work in, so maybe one day... I'd love to tell her how much that mean to me.

SO. Yeah.
He was a heavy motherfucker. He smelled like raw steak, as he was really fresh, too. He couldn't have been out in the sun for more than a few hours as he was still pretty wet. I hate it when animals get killed like that. And on my way home I thought about how suddenly he died. Just like that, he's no more. but he was alive, and he lived well from the looks of it. A huge, fat opossum? It was just weird having his body right next to me without animation, realizing that he's dead, and no one will notice. Made me kind of sad, honestly.

So I drove home and set him on the stool chair w/ a note for my housemates in case they got curious as to why a large black tote was in the kitchen, and why something in it is wrapped in fabric.



I had to get supplies. It was extremely hot out and I couldn't leave him in my car for very long, lest risk the chance of stinking my car up of ... corpse. He was exposed, and his entrails were out. His entire lower half was destroyed save for his legs and tail, and balls. He was probably a pimp.
So I dropped him off here and headed back the way I came to the 99 cent store to grab some things I may need.

The whole thing was a learning experience.
Sadly, there wasn't much to preserve. He was pretty destroyed, unfortunately. His skull wasn't even intact. His ribs mostly made it, but some were broken. His spine was gone. His lower jaw obliterated. Even his tongue was ripped. How he maintained the shape of his head after such trauma was decieving, as his skull was something I wanted to preserve most. But alas... :(

The tub was a mess.
And I ended up using only one jar for what I could salvage.
A paw, his tail, partly intact, his balls, his lungs, his ripped tongue. Had I more experience with fur and skinning, I could've done something with his pelt, but it had been 3 hours that I was washing and working on him in the tub, and I couldn't do it anymore. My back was killing me, and I had previously agreed to meet Fett later that day.
It was definitely a feeling I've never felt before. I had to separate myself entirely from what I was doing to his body. One could say that it was a way of switching off the brain's natural defense mechanism, to look away or be disgusted with the act... but I did. I held his head in my hand and examined his face, held his little paw in my hand and fought my sadness with a stern determination to finish a duty. He was really cute :(  I'm sad that he was killed.

I learned that cutting through bone and even fur is not easy.
Also... that one thing that I always figured would be really satisfying (dropping a decaying limb into a tub of peroxide to experience the fizzies) TOTALLY WAS. That's exactly what I did. He wasn't anywhere near decomposing, but to clean everything... there were many fizzies. And it was satisfying.

As for pictures? Well...
It was difficult. I had my hands busy for 3 hours and couldn't touch ANYTHING outside of the tub, while wearing gloves covered in blood, fur, skin fragments, and just entrails... all over my arms.
I couldn't. I thought about taking a photo of him before, but it was too depressing, let alone graphic. I wouldn't feel right posting a photo of an animal in that condition. We all know what road kill looks like, but this was some seriously graphic stuff, so I spared it. All that's left of him now is this, that sits on my dresser, to remember him by. Maybe I'll transfer things out to other bottles so they're not as cramped, maybe not.

R A M E N

One of the greatest things about this relationship I'm in is that after introduction Fett to ramen, he's totally addicted and it's become a thing.

 I mean, this was at Doomie's but..

 This was at Tatsu. I've never been, but he goes w/ his friends after the gym (lol... sigh) and he asked me if I wanted to come this time. HECK YES.

 The noodle match Ollie's hair.

 Fett was right. It's not as good at Jinya, but it's the only place that stays open really late.
It's okay. Everyone settles.

 If you flip their logo upside it looks like balls.

 This ramen burger was at Ramen Yockocho Fest last year.

Which brings this entry to a close.

And Speaking of Ramen Yokocho Fest.. we totally went again this year. His friends joined in too, and it was epppiiiicccccc. The poops were disappointing, but we'll get to that.
Also, Monsterpalooza! PREPARE TO BE DISAPPOINTED!




I totally got Outlast today from Humble Bundle for $6 and idc. And my pizza's here.
Work at 5:45 am tomorrow? THAT'S NICE.

:DDD