WHO WANTS TO KNOW

 

   Man. Did you guys know that if you, just maybe like exactly 14 seconds before the flu virus infects you- as you see it coming at you- you can Just Gotta Take Responsibility, and it goes away? Just.. gone. It's probably the most solid advice I have ever got in my life.

I think, definitely, in between traveling with my loved ones and genuinely enjoying life, I'll totally reflect on that and just banish the flu virus as it knocks on my immune system and asks to come in.
Well, silly me. And boyfriend. And housemate. and the nurses who helped me. We just... we're simple minded folk who don't know any better. So we all got the flu :(

According to the nurses, this years' strain was beefy. Nasty little fucker that still managed to penetrate immunization defenses. I think we got it while we were flying home from Europe. 12 hour flight, stale air, babies everywhere, coughing... bleugh.

 I was out of work for a week. During that time, I was at home in quarantine, which felt like the longest physically demanding week of my life. My housemate also had the flu. That was a good time. We'd sing duets of coughs, sneezes, miserable groans, and exchanges of our woeful existence.

I was very fortunate and lucky to have incredible loves bring me and have delivered some yummy noms.
Note; The flu is new to me. I don't recall having gone through this level of suckage while ill. I've definitely had the cold, strep throat, fevers, all of the "I don't feel good" boxes checked off, but the flu is a beast I was not prepared for. It's HORRIBLE. My god. It lingered for a total of just short of two weeks for me. Well done, flu virus. Well done, indeed. But next year, I will see to it personally that your efforts fall short... for you are no match, and will be so utterly at the mercy of  jUsT tAKe rEsPoNsIbiLiTY



Little updates.

I officially have a craft area now. Chicken took it upon himself to surprise me with this awesome desk light so that I never have to, essentially bitch about the lighting in my room lol. This is great. Now if only I can get over my insecurities with clay and just do it, we'll be in full swing!

The worst thing about this is that I can't just think of something and execute it. Like, with photos that I want to do, there's more room for trial and error. With clay, it's almost endless aggravating trial and error because I'm dealing with a 3 dimensional object, that I'm creating with human hands. And tools. But when perfectionism comes in to play, it's cruel to passion. I struggle a lot with that sculpture you're seeing in the photo. I took on way too much for my skill set. But.... learn and grow! Important value. I wouldn't trade this for anything else though. I like clay. I like holding things, and working with my hands. Feeling the texture, shape, size, layers and crevices I made... I love holding it in my hands. It just sucks sometimes lol, and I say that lovingly.

The other night, Nyl (my housemate- that is what we shall call her) took us out for the evening. Our first stop was the public library.

It's been a long time since I've been to one. With the internet making books so easily accessible, it's eliminated my wanderlust for those quiet little sanctuaries. But I really liked being there. My camera was being weird that night for whatever reason, so some of these pictures will look wonky. If you can't notice it, great.

For dinner, she wanted fries.

 Best fries; tikka masala poutine

I've had poutine in Canada, and it was yummy. But it was not

tikka masala poutine yummy.

When work has a sidewalk sale and the bags you get there are massive:

ALRIGHTY. Weird talk time

So, this book was suggested to me with the description of it being so beautifully written that the reader almost forgets and empathizes with what is being read. Additionally, it's gained the reputation of being a renowned piece of literature of the 20th century. To that, my response was basically a summarized; what the fuck- that's so messed up. I can't fathom that.

I like challenges. Give me the challenges.


To preface; look

 What I will say is that this book has completely enraptured me. And that it takes a beloved memory, and hauls ass with it into an extreme. It is extremely beautifully written. I will admit. And it's challenging me a lot lol. But, I really like it. I recommend it. There's much let for me to read, but so far, it's been very captivating.

This last weekend was Wondercon. It'd been a while since I cosplayed, and wanted to do something. But this time I just went with a thing I personally really like but was comfortable and subtle enough that it wouldn't be insanely loud.

Chicken is a Stargate nerd

Yay!

Uhh.. so yeah this was literally just a cosplay of a vinyl toy that went up for pre-order last year but I totally missed out on it T_T

If anyone is familiar with 

Luke Chueh stuff, he came out with the white and gold one a little while back, and most recently the black and gold edition. It's cute.

No one recognized it lol. Not even the dude who was selling Chueh's stuff at his booth. But that was to be expected. It was cool though. The only thing was that I kept wanting to drink out of the cup, but couldn't because the stuff in that would've been nasty.

The coolest thing... Luke acknowledged my cosplay via social media. And it made me happy lol. It's the most insignificant thing, but when your muse notices you, it's like.... ahhhhh.

Happened when Charles Band liked my Leech woman cosplay, when Junji Ito acknowledged my sculpture, and now with Chueh. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Makes me feel less crappy about my artistic endeavors, haha


Putting the cosplay together was pretty simple though. I already had the jacket and gloves. Just had to make the helm and drink prop.

 The drink was made twice. I messed up the first time (and spilled it)
The "boba" pearls were just little balls I rolled out of yellow clay and baked.
The "liquid" was translucent slime made from clear elmers glue and slime activator. All found for super cheap at wal-mart.
The black was done with gel food coloring I already had at home, but can be acquired off amazon.

The first drink prop I didn't like because the boba pearls looked too yellow and didn't match the gold on the helmet very well.

Soooo, after an accidental spill (which was for the best anyway) I rinsed off the pearls, let them dry and gave them a quick coat of gold acrylic paint. Unfortunately, the paint didn't hold well within the element of the glue. It began to peel or melt off. But, by that point I called it and it was done and that was that lol. Turned out okay, methinks ^_^

 The con was fun. We got to relax and wander. I missed it!

 Thank you for putting up with my weird interests lol

Also this booth is beautiful

 Rococo Nightmare before Christmas cosplays were incredible. They were in the middle of a shoot, so I didn't interrupt, but omg T_T so beautiful!

Aye Howard

 SO CUTE I LOVE THEM

This show was one of my favorites growing up. I'd watch it with my fam while eating dinner. Ahhh

 Dinnnnooooooooo

 Was a fun weekend, ended with milkshakes and amazing company ^_^


Earlier this week, we had an appointment to make in Hollywood.
 It literally started out as someone from work saying he went out to Cloak, and people there asked if he knew me, and I was like wtf is Cloak? He said it's a club. I looked it up. Members only. I was gonna just let it go at that, but decided to try to sign up anyway- totally not thinking I'd get in.

WELP. Fast forward to earlier this week aaaannnnnd, I'm dragging Chicken with me back to my Hollywood club days. Poor thing. 

He got black clothes just for this event, precious boy.

Note; Chicken is not goth. At all. He's .... a very quiet, tech motivated geek who is afraid of big groups of people, loud places and bright lights. So for him to be there with me was a big step out of his comfort zone- also I wasn't expecting to get in, so this all kind of was a little bit out of the blue. I don't go to clubs anymore. I would, if my best friend and I went together. But the zest for that lifestyle is pretty much gone. Still, Chicken's been great about tolerating (and even accepting) my weird thingies when they pop up.

 When I parked and we go out into the street, it smelled like pee.

Um, so we were supposed to be there before a certain time, and we were. But apparently too early. The event didn't start until 10pm. We were there around 9:15pm. I figured if we arrived early, we could leave early because we had work the next day. But... I forgot how late clubs open.

So, after apologizing too many times, we got dinner at some sushi place.

Was one of those places where presentation matters more than anything else. Our Hollywood fish was not as glamorous as our usual sloppy all-you-can-eat sushi joint, but it looked cool I guess. 

Jesus. 

SO. We went back a little after 10pm. First in line. Chicken jokingly said that it'd probably still take a while to open- "fashionably late." It was a joke, but he was right. Unsure of what to do, I asked the door guy a question regarding meeting someone. His response was a dry "depends. who wants to know." as he took a puff out of his oversized cigar, not even looking at or addressing me.

This..... LA Weekly, Ministry reject looking fucker gave me the shittest attitude because I asked him a question. And shrugged me off pretending I didn't exist. I wanted to respond with "your low budget background music video extra" but kept my cool. Said what I said and left it at that. 

You know what. Maybe he had a bad night. Maybe he's a cool dude, and was just in a bad mood that night, and I was unfortunately the target of that projection. But... I deal with projection every day, and I'm exhausted. okay. If you're pissed off, deal with that shit at home and leave it there. Ya look bad, man.

THAT ASIDE, 

Everyone inside was awesome and really nice.

This little gift we each received was really nice too. 

The place was beautiful. We mosied over to a booth in the corner and watched as people began to arrive and fill in the emptiness of the venue. 

We basically were just gremlins in the corner. Then, out of the darkness and smoke, emerged a familiar figure. He looked straight at us. My jaw dropped. His jaw dropped. Annnnnnnnd joy consumed me while I succumbed to the familiarity in Taliesin's bear hug. Ahhh it was so good to see him! He gave Chicken the biggest bear hug too. We chatted for a bit before he made his way elsewhere. And we resumed our gremlin station. Shortly after, Erika stopped by to say hello. I can't stress enough how nice it is to see familiar faces in a completely alien place lol. It's a massive relief. She looked incredible T_T 

And finally, I recognized someone from work! HUGS. HUGS EVERYWHERE. She brought us over to her table and we cozied up there until we left around midnight. 

The night started weird-ish, but ended on a great note. It had gotten extremely crowded so we had to just kinda aggressive wiggle through the crowd, but finally made it out. The line to get in was insane outside. We were ready to split. 

I was in bed by 1am. I had to be up for work at 5:15. 

Suffice to say that everything that day was awful, at least through my mental processor. As soon as I got home, I laid down on the couch, played Candy Crush on my phone before I began dozing off. Then moved to the other couch in the den, and passed out around 5pm. I woke up at 12:32 AM. Got up, washed and went to my room and passed out the entire night. Until I had to get up at 5:15 again.

So. 12 hours of sleep was nice.

This week, Chicken surprised me with the arrival of the pre-order he made for me as a Christmas present last year. She FINALLY came in!!

Kotobukiya came out with a Pinhead and I... I can't. She's so beautiful.

These pictures of horrendous but I was just excited to open her and set her up. But the DETAIL. Ohhhh my god. SHE'S BEAUUUUTIFULLLL.

One of these days, I'm gonna try and capture some nice shots of some of my horror figures. My room is just the worst background because there's a lot happening. It looks extremely busy in photos, so it's hard to have the subject be the main focus. If I had a better eye with a camera none of that would even matter, it's just a crappy excuse but... I suck lol

she's soooooooooooooooooooo pretty omgggg

Anywho. lol.... patience is a virtue. It really is! I'm learning that a lot lately. I like to think that patience is a strength of mine- but when it comes to upholding that when someone projects on me... that's a new challenge. I'm well aware that those moments are rarely about the target, and more to do with the person who can't hold it together. My challenge is meeting that with sympathy instead of a freezing dismissal. But it's hard because I don't care lol.




:D