Sunday 12 August 2012

Weekly Update 12/08/12


This week:
  • Dad’s birthday party went pretty well, I think it’s the longest I’ve stayed at a party in a long time. It was fun and as usual I spent most of the time entertaining the children (or in this case one child and a friend) that were there. I also decorated dad’s birthday cake myself and though it was only simple I’m quite pleased with myself since everyone complimented it so much.
  • My Kingdom Hearts group meet was the next day and that was a lot of fun too. There was a lot of insanity as usual. I spent most of the day playing with our Mickey’s tail (it was so fluffy!). Later we went to the park and were feeding bread to the birds at the pond. A goose kept biting my shoe and a swan kept trying to eat my coat (or me), and then several pigeons perched on my hands and arms. It was actually an amazing feeling. They actually aren’t as disgusting as people seem to think and their talons (are they called talons on pigeons?) and beaks don’t hurt.
  • I went shopping with my mum at the Elephant a couple of times this week. One time we were in the bank when we suddenly heard a lot of shouting. Some guy in the shop next door had gotten pissed off and just trashed it. I have to admit it was amusing watching the guy argue with the security guard and then try to run away. I don’t know if it’s true but my mum heard that it had started because the guy’s change was 20p short.
  • I mentioned in my last post how excited I was getting about my upcoming cosplays but since then I’ve also been getting into a really creative mood so I’ve been starting making plans for a lot of other things I could make. I’ve decided to fill a project book with ideas and plans.


Plans for next week: 
  • Call Student Finance again to ask about money. I sent the last piece of information they claimed they hadn’t got two weeks ago, so they should definitely have it now. At this point I don’t even care if they haven’t finished processing yet; I just want to know that they are. I need my money.
  • Finish organising my closet. I realise these two were goals from last week but they’re still not done.
  • Practice packing my suitcase for university. I just want to make sure I can do it in a way that everything I want fits and isn’t too heavy.
  • Fill my project book with my plans including how I’ll make them with diagrams.
  • Start drawing and writing more often, I still want to improve my skills more before I go back to university in September.
  • Possibly go to the doctor. I've had a problem with my ear since Thursday. It can still hear properly but there is some pain and sometimes there’s a weird feeling. I might go to the doctor just to make sure there’s nothing really wrong, maybe see if there can be a cause found and anything to fix it. Plus one of my friends keeps begging me to.

Friday 10 August 2012

Cosplay To-Do List - October MCM Expo


Well here it is, the first post dedicated to my cosplays for the 2012 October London MCM Expo, and I’m really excited. I’ve been obsessing over cosplay for a while now but I only really started thinking seriously about it yesterday, so this first post is going to be a checklist of the things I’ve already done and the things I need to do for each one. I won’t be getting any money until about halfway through September, if that, so with limited time I want to know exactly what I’m doing beforehand so I can get it done as soon as possible.

Deidara

Done:
  • Pretty much nothing but research so far.


Still to do:
  • Buy costume. Recently I had decided to buy some parts individually and make others but due to time and having to get other things done, and it being about the same price anyway, I’ve gone back to my original plan to buy the whole costume together. I need to buy or make shoes too because they’re the only thing that don’t come with the costume.
  • Buy and style wig. It’s a pretty simple style so I’ve decided to get a normal wig and do it myself rather than get one made specifically for the character that costs a lot more than a normal one and may or may not be good.
  • Make scope. I don’t know how necessary that part actually is but I want to make it (mostly because I haven’t found anywhere I can buy it). I’m not sure how yet but I’m sure it won’t be too difficult.


Zexion

Done:
  • Well I’ve done this cosplay several times before so… yeah. I have the full costume and wig and everything.

Still to do:
  • Buy new boots. I’m not going to worry too much about getting them perfect considering all but the bottom will be hidden anyway, but I’ll be trying to find some that can work. Last time I had to buy boots for this cosplay I learnt just how hard it was to find plain boots with no decorations or heels.
  • Make new Lexicon. The old one was basically a ring binder with the design painted on, and the cover’s gotten a bit damaged now. Today I researched how to bind books so I’m going to make a real one this time.


Jushiro

Done:
  • Got full costume (except for my feet).
Still to do:
  • Buy sandals and socks for the costume.
  • Buy a wig, again styling it myself unless I can find a reasonably priced one that looks right.
  • Possibly add sleeves to my haori, since mine didn’t come with sleeves but Jushiro actually does have them… I want to be accurate.
  • Make my sword. I don’t think I should explain right now all the reasons I've decided to do it myself but I am, and I plan to do quite a bit of research soon on how to make it, since I've never made a sword before. Luckily, it’s a pretty simple design.

So that’s my to do list between now and the end of October. I’m going to be doing more updates on this as I get each part done. Until then, it’s back to research.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Weekly Update 03/08/12



What happened this week?

-              I tidied and reorganised my room on Sunday, I’ve only needed to do that for a month or two now. I ran out of time though so I just had to shove the rest of the stuff I was keeping into the closet instead of organising them properly. The room itself looks great though.
-              I had a friend stay over from Monday to Wednesday afternoon. It was really fun, we had all sorts of stupid conversations and we got to go to Tokyo Toys and Forbidden Planet (two of my favourite shops). I also got him addicted to Bleach.
-              I went shopping with my mum to get the food for my dad’s birthday party tonight. Hopefully that’s going to be fun. While we were out my mum bought me two new pairs of earrings, one of which are little bells, like the ones you find on cat collars. I love the way they jingle when I move.
-              I found a new webcomic (new to me, not new in existence) that I love and, as usual when I fall in love with something like this, read every page within a couple of days. It’s called Neko the Kitty, and if you haven’t seen it before I suggest you check it out. It’s really funny, and the cats are so cute. Here’s a link to it:
http://nekothekitty.smackjeeves.com/

Plans for next week:

-              Tomorrow is the monthly meet up for my Kingdom Hearts roleplay group. It’s going to be good seeing everyone again and I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m also going to love cosplaying again (I kinda did it when we were out the other day but it was only really half cosplay because I don’t have the wig yet). And it’s going to be somewhat special considering I’ll have to miss the next one, since it’s on the day I need to go back to Liverpool.
-              I may or may not have plans with another friend, waiting for them to get back to me.
-              I also need to finish organising my room, and that means the closet. It shouldn’t be too hard, but it might take a while.
-              I might need to get into contact with student finance again. They’ve still only approved the tuition and maintenance loans. I had to resend the information they need to decide whether or not I get the grant because apparently they didn’t get it the first two times.  I’m still worried because that’s the money I need for food and the rest of rent (maintenance loan only covers most of the rent) so if they don’t give it to me I can’t go back to university because I’ll have nothing to live on.

Friday 3 August 2012

Top 10 Jobs I’d Love to Have


Another list for fun, these are some of the jobs I’d love to have if I could, assuming I were qualified to do them. A lot of these are really generalised, naming areas more than specific jobs, but still. It is slightly restricted though in that they can only be jobs available in my country and time period (there are lots I would love to have from hundreds of years ago).

10. Army
This may be a bit of a weird one considering I don’t necessarily agree with the wars going on. I’m sort of in between on them, against war in support of peace but for war in consideration of the fact that it is in human nature. But I like the idea of being a warrior type person, the idea of fighting and survival and things like that. I guess this sort of fits into the time period thing I mentioned because the idea is of more interest to me historically. And okay it might also have something to do with the games I play (don’t get me wrong, I know there are lots of differences between games and real life).

9. Teacher
Specifically for primary school or younger aged kids, they’re so cute and easier to get along with, usually more respectful and excited to learn. It’s a nice idea, being able to teach little kids about the world. My experience in secondary school easily turned me against the idea of working with kids that age. I definitely think I’ll only do that for my own children.

8. Musician
Music has been a big part of my life for a long time and for a while I really thought I was going to be a musician or music producer, something in that area. A part of me still does though not as much. It would be fun though, but I know I really don’t have the skill for it.

7. Veterinarian
This is the job I thought I would have for almost my entire childhood. Animals were always my favourite thing as a kid and I knew a lot more about them than most kids. So it made sense that I would want a job where I could help them.

6. Film
Doing media studies in college (and being a lifelong fan of film) gave me the idea of working in this area. Any of the jobs in the film industry would probably be fun for me, actress, director, screenwriter, location finder… I also really wanted a job at the BBFC, which would mean I would get to see new films and games before they came out and decide on the ratings for them. Which aside from being really fun because I get to see films and play games for work, but I would get to see the inappropriate stuff that would be taken out before they were released to the public. It would have been awesome.

5. Police
Kind of like the army thing but better.  This is another kidlike thing, fighting the bad guys and all that, and it would have some pretty interesting stories, with murder cases and other creepy/disturbing stuff. Doing the crime scene photography would also be fun.

4. Dead bodies
Okay yeah, this one is really general. I guess this one kind of relates to the last one. Anything to do with death interests me, particularly with autopsies or preparing the body for burial, though even grave digging or other cemetery work seems interesting to me.

3. Doctor
This is another job I wanted for a while. I have a really big interest in medical science and medical problems and injuries and things like that, and I also watch a lot of medical programmes be it fictional ones like Scrubs or ones based on true stories like Untold Stories of the ER. Specifically, I would want to be an ER doctor because you get a wide variety of cases and get to save people’s lives.

2. Geneticist
To do with the last one I mentioned and again it’s mostly due to things I’ve read or played but lately this area of work really fascinates me. I’ve also done a lot of research in the area for different stories I’ve written and found it really interesting.

1. Author
Of course, this is the job I am certain I will have in the future. I love writing, particularly fictional stories, though I hope to start creating graphic novels as well. I’m doing a lot more writing lately after a long break (not including what I had to do for university work) and it seems to be going well. I’ve also been trying to practice drawing more.

Thus ends another list. A strange mix of jobs I know. So what jobs would you want to have?