A Bit of Everything, Wrapped Into One

A very happy holiday, whatever it is you celebrate or simply take advantage of. I hope that, in this opportunity, you're getting caught up on needed rest, quality time with friends and/or family, and aren't suffering through a cold, or anything like that!

For you Hetalia fans, here's a gift!
[Link]


In other news, all that's needed is to pick up the fabric, and I can finish up this Hungary cosplay. :3 I have the pan, the hair, I can finish up the hair accessory with no problem. It's now just a case of the -hard- part.

Either way, I wish you all:
Health
Wealth
and Serenity.

New York Anime Fest is on the horizon, and it's remains to only be an hour's train ride away from me. Membership has been purchased, and all that remains at this point is to get the train tickets for those three days. It'll be a little tricky, as I'm not sure if I'll have to leave early on Friday for work.

Even more, I've been wanting to cosplay as Hungary (from Hetalia,) sooo much. Partially because she's awesome, and another part being that my hair is at a good length for it. I just wish I had the time and money for it... No such luck.

Guess I'll be wearing some casual-wear, and simply sporting a surrender flag for LARP.

( A rant to release heat, which bleeds in to the Otakon report of events. ) Edit: The rant thing? Just a one-sided thing to release some heat. It was both of us, meaning me as well, but nothing that we were both from.

Alright, now I'm finally catching up to gaming systems!

A decade late. Whoops.



So, Target had a sale this week; PS2 slim for 99 bucks. Then there was a 'buy 2, get 1 free' sale on the games. I've been wanting to get one for a long time now, and with Silent Hill: Shattered Memories coming out in the fall, I knew it was the best time to take advantage of this. Afterwards, I went to Game Stop for cheaper things to add to the system. 

What did I get home with? Let's find out, shall we?

1. Silver PS2 slim (have to start somewhere, right?)
2. Game Stop Controller and used memory card. Both cheap, and the controller is more comfortable than the one that came with the system.
3. Tomb Raider: Underworld.
4. GTA: San Andreas
5. Kingdom Hearts: RE: Chain of Memories
6. Devil May Cry 5th Anniversary Collection
7. Unlimited Saga

Not a lot at first, I know, but all three DMC games, with the third being Special Edition, for 25 bucks? Had to have.




Oh, this is going to be -so- much fun.

Holy fucking ow.

Why such a harsh reaction? Well, you know those back molars, sometimes I believe they end up being called Wisdom teeth? Well, they're starting to grow in. So, aside from the feeling of the tooth going through the gums and tearing them apart, I get blood every time I brush and rinse my teeth! Not cool, mouth. Not cool at all.

It's also been too cold to go out and do the exercise I want to do. Like, I really wanted to go out, bike, and making jog a lap around the mall. It's pretty fucking big, so even briskly walking around will do something to your body.

Instead, for now, I have glutes that are recovering, for whatever reason. That is not an area that actually needs to be worked on.

I was almost in an accident last night, on the way home from work.

It seems that there's this patch on a well-used turn, going up to a bridge, that ices when everything else is dry. So we ended up skidding. Of course, even with a seatbelt on, part of me sits at a strange elevation. While just missing the glass, part of my head hit where you adjust the height of the seat belt's base at the door frame.

I've waited out the headache, with some tea and movies. Now it's the case of letting the nausea, probably from shock, and ache go down. Not to mention, avoiding the right side of my head when it comes to pressure.



Really, it's also brought me to decide to clean out some contact lists, as well as friends lists in various places. I just have a couple more sites to go through. Mostly getting rid of one in particular, who I've grown tired of 'waiting' for. I'm not someone that's there to ignore and talk to when it's convenient, and you have absolutely no one else to talk to. Well, that one person, and people I haven't seen in the last year or so.



Also have been working on cosplay stuff. Itoshiki Nozomu's hanging prop was finally fixed and optimized. When I want, I can fix something up so it looks like I'm actually hanging. No poles flying around, swinging to the side, or anything like that. All that's left is for the yukata to be finished up (which I have to paint X's on before continuing on with that,) and the portable suicide kit that Ada (Putrocca/K-san at Anime Boston,) will be sending this week.

Guess that's essentially it.

It seems that, in these past couple of weeks, I've been given quite the amount of luck when it comes to finding good furniture. The day of Black Friday-

Well, let me clear one thing up. When I deliver papers on Friday, it's in one of the richer places in my area. They're the types that throw out perfectly good furniture, from couches, bedframes, china cabinets, vanities, and dressers, out for the latest styles that they can get for cheap. So we tend to see things out on the curb on Black Friday, around New Years, and at some point in the Spring.

On Black Friday I found this small side-table cabinet that you'd see in a living room. Nothing wrong with it, save for a bit of laminating coming up, and it's in one of those designs that require real, good, wood, that's not made anymore. I liked the shape, it caught my eye, so I ended up grabbing it. Now, while I was afraid of it not fitting where I was planning on stashing the small cabinet table, after taking the knobs off of a drawer on my bed that I never use, it fit perfectly. So I put shipping supplies in there, and had a new place to lean on.

This Friday we were doing the route, and automatically passing one house, my eye caught this black trunk. Like one of those older-styled trunks that would be placed at the end of a bed. After getting more papers cleared out, I took a look at it. No real stains, and the worst damage was the leather covering being torn at one corner, and a little gunk on the back. Inside was clear, and nothing for lining at the time. 

Know what I think it'd be perfect for? Cosplay supplies, the cosplays themselves, and if I get some wheels to screw and bolt in there, with the handles I'll only have to bring that one piece of luggage around with me. If I go to Lowes, I'll probably end up finding something good to stick for lining as well.


Recently, I was able to find Anna Tsuchiya's latest album (Nudy Show,) Kanon Wakeshima's single (Skip, Turn, Step? Or is Suna no Oshura the latest?), and Olivia Lufkin's latest mini-album called Trinka Trinka.

I'm also happy on one other thing. Though the chances are high that I have PCOS, which does make it hard to lose weight, and half the women with it end up overweight/obese, I have been losing. It's gradual, but I'm definitey making progress on a visual level. My niece, who had married around Thanksgiving, was even surprised. Then again, this also had reminded her of my late father, in that with the thinner I've gotten, I look quite the amount more like him than my mother.

I don't know, I've been working hard, so I think I'm being rewarded with the holiday season coming on through. I just want this to keep coming in.

So I'll continue working hard, and when Census comes around, I'll be applying for a job there as well. Due to the economy, and the fact that I'm not part Latino, (which shouldn't matter legally, but it does with the population in my area,) it's become more difficult to get a job.

Ah, and I'm trying to work on something art-wise that's not design doodles. I hope it's an improvement, despite how long it's been since I've drawn anything.

So, today I spent another 5 hours doing yard work. Towards the end (as it started to get dark,) some woman and her brood of kids walked by. Some of them stop, look at me, then go in to our yard to jump in one of the piles.

]:<
Damn brats.

Some may argue that it's our fault for not having a fence. I counter with the fact that our last fence had been knocked down by someone's car. I also counter with the fact that people should teach their kids not to trespass, or ruin 4/5 hours worth of work!

...
I can't feel my hands. D:

Really, I swear I'm not dead. Not yet, at least.

So a bunch of technological crap happened at once. My laptops apparently joined together in a suicide pact, and died on the same day. So I've been working on getting everything to fix them. Funny thing about this pact, is that they didn't go out in the same way.

Old Laptop:
Hard drive failure, after all these years. No way I'm giving up on it, though. It ran smoothly, and has Wave Out Mix for video recordings. Current laptops don't have that feature for the sound card drives! Either way, after that 08 Fail on the HDD test, I went to Newegg and purchased a new, better, HD, as well as a memory card.

New Laptop:
Apparently the motherboard was faulty, which is why it started to fail. Once I got the diagnosis, I contacted HP to set things up for repair. It arrived at the repair place yesterday, so I'll hopefully get it back in a couple of weeks. It might not become my main laptop at home, but with the battery, I'm definitely toting it around on trips. (It's much lighter than the older laptop.)



I've also been doing a bunch of other things. A new morning regimen of biking for about half an hour, more if feeling well, no matter the weather. Soon I'll be adding a lap of walking as well, after the biking. A shame it's winter, though.  I'm so sensitive to cold!

Hats are working on being made, but there's only one completed one at the time. I've tried applying to jobs, but over here they don't want you if you aren't hispanic, as they take over the majority of the population around here. A shame, huh?

Convention stuff! Oh, convention stuff... Still planning to go to AB and Otakon, and I'm working on a cosplay all on my own this time. After sewing up the yukata and undergarment, I'll be in despair in no time! (Itoshiki Nozomu, if you couldn't tell from that hint.)






Oh, I'm also a goon now. I fell to the dark side. Oops? 

So, I've been hard at work on something. It's far from big, and the point is to make it small. If it goes well, and the response is positive enough, I'll hopefully open up commissions for making more.

One thing I'm liking for this, is that I'm adding loops, so one can choose to thread through a hair clip/bobby pin, or a ribbon based on their tastes.




For now, that's just the progress. As you can see (hopefully,) I painted pinstripes on to the hat, and the bottom of the brim, and top of the accessory itself, with white. I think that, and the loops, would be the easy part. I'm working on the ribbons, and a bit of beading as well.


As I said, if I get a positive enough response at Otakon, I'll provide commissions for a nice cheap price. At most, it'd probably be 15 dollars, and then cheap priority USPS shipping.

Inventory:

Ribbon & Acrylic Sting Pearls

Tulle

Beads & Feather accessories

Fabric Paints


Bah. With work, preparing for Otakon, and this... I'm exhausted.