The Devil And The Sea
"To hell with the handkerchief."
Well *I’m* still gonna hold out for a (cyborg)hero.
Jul 26th
If it wasn’t for work, I would easily slip back into my nocturnal habits.
I’ve decided that my lack of inspiration for things largely stems from my lack of constant exposure to 1980s’ music. Aside from 80s’ fashion, I’ve got to say the 80s produced quite a lot of amazing things. Most of my favorite books come from the 80s, for example. Tanith Lee definitely reached the peak of her writing in that decade, as well as a few other writers. A lot of my favorite video games were born in the 80s, too.
Really, I’m more of a sucker for 90s’ productions, but there was something about the 80s that was just so…hopeful. Flying cars still had a chance to be the norm in 2000 when there were 20 years left till the new millennium. You could say “Twenty years from now, how do you think they’ll solve the problem of traffic with flying cars? Airway lanes like aeroplanes follow?” or “God, I can’t wait until we have robots to do the chores. Come on, Millennium!”
Damn, when was the last time you even thought the word “millennium”? That was such a huge deal back then. Everything was about the color silver More >
You know what’s a bad idea?
Jul 19th
Reading fanfiction until 5:30 in the morning when you have to be awake at 8am for work.
And the stupid part is, I do this ALL THE TIME. WHATISWRONGWITHME O_O
Actually, I do extremely well with only a few hours of sleep – I’m feeling pretty good right now. Only just begining to feel a headache and a coffee at lunchtime will clear that up nicely.
Speaking of work, I last commented on it just to say it was a new workplace – for anyone who’s curious, it’s also a great workplace and it is a huge improvement from my last job. I never thought I would like a 9-5 job this much, but my god, weekends are glorious things.
Lately I’ve been playing a lot of video games. I never realized how much I missed them. I’m just all around happier when I get a good dose of gaming in.
The three that’ve really got my attention right now are Chrono Trigger (old, I know, but so damned good!), Final Fantasy XIII (yes, I am the Slowest Gamer in the World. That’s my official title, right along with Slowest Reader in the World. I like to savour things), and all of a sudden, Stronghold Legends. More >
Hellooooo
Jul 14th
Holy smokes, where have I been? No idea.
It seems that everytime I say I’ll vlog, I don’t post for a century or two. So from now on, don’t ever expect a vlog from me. I think we both know that anyway, but I feel the need to say it, just in case.
SO. For those of you who haven’t abandonned this blog (and there were very few of you to begin with, so I don’t know how many are left), here’s what I’ve been up to.
A-Fest preperation!
Actually, I haven’t been doing too much for this, which is just stupid on my part. I have been better at planning, though.
Cosplay plans:
1. Aeris – Final Fantasy 7
2. Dean Venture – The Venture Bros.
3. Fire Nation Citizen – Avatar The Last Airbender
4. I dunno yet
But yes, there are FOUR DAYS of A-Fest. I find that wonderfully exciting XD
If I can’t get a costume for the last day, I’ll probably re-wear Aeris. And for pre-Reg, I’ll probably pre-wear Dean, since it was really fun seeing people dress up for that.
Here’s the coolest part so far: my Fire Nation costume is already made! Woo hoo! So all I have to make is Aeris’s dress and jacket, More >
Brief A-Kon Recap
Jun 7th
So I’ll be doing a vlog about this…sometime (It may be in a week because I GOT A NEW JOB, YEAH! But I’m working two jobs until my two weeks are up, so time is cramped), but I just wanted to throw a few photos up here and briefly talk about how awesome A-Kon was.
So I ended up only doing two costumes: Misa from Death Note and Ranma from Ranma 1/2.
Reference Pics:
Misa
Ranma (The character in full-view.)
Just to explain, Ranma is a boy, but he’s been cursed so when he gets splashed by cold water, he turns into a girl.
My Misa costume was one I just assembled. I didn’t sew any of it and styling the wig just involved pulling the hair into pigtails (I didn’t have the right wig. The one I had ordered for the costume has yet to come in…No idea where it is).
My Ranma costume, on the other hand, was completely sewn by me. Shirt, pants, sash, cuffs. The only thing I was missing was my collar because we ended up needing some time before the con on Saturday morning to actually finish our homemade costumes and I decided that was just something I would have to add More >
What Games Today Really Need, and Why Little Big Planet is Still on the Store Shelf
May 31st
I am a total pain in the ass in online games.
Awkward, Frozen, and I have started playing Little Big Planet online and I’ve gotta say, it’s really fucking fun. We’ve only been playing fan-made levels so far but we’re going to go through the campaign (for the second time, but first time online together) soon.
What’s really cool is that while you’re in a fan-made level, other random players can join you until there are four people in the room, and A, F, and I all have mics, and the random players who join mostly likely don’t, and what ensues is just total and complete pain-in-the-ass-ery. Most of the other random players join in by typing through their gamepad or keyoard, so no real hard feelings. But god, this game is just awesome . Why are there not more multiplayer games out like this?
I think what makes it pretty unique is the ability to make the sackboys (the characters you control) move their arms, heads, bodies, and facial expressions at will, (and even their mouths when you talk through the mic). The level of expression possible while playing is just amazing and it really does a good job at involving you More >
*Cricket, cricket*
May 25th
You know, crickets really make more of a chirping sound, but I worry if I wrote that you’d think the post was about birds and not the silence that’s been hanging over my blog lately.
Nothing much to report.
Ranma costume: 80% completed.
Misa costume: 95% completed.
Death costume: 98% completed.
Still waiting on a few wigs, still bumming around looking for a job (I am not really bumming, I’ve still got a job. I just feel like I’m bumming), still not making video game review shows.
I keep saying to myself, “After A-kon, things will get calmer because my free time won’t be used to get ready for A-kon.” But who knows if that’s really true.
Next comes the costume I’ll be wearing to The Last Airbender midnight release. Has anyone seen that new trailer?! The Blue Spirit was in it! I almost shrieked in the theater. I loooooved the Blue Spirit.
I think I’m definitely going to put together a fire-nation costume for that. I’ve always liked the water element better, but the fire nation is just so misrepresented by their leader. Allllthough…maybe I should do a costume for each movie release and go as the themed element? That means water, then earth for the second, More >
The cake is a lie. Or in this case, success after getting a degree is the lie.
May 20th
Give me an argument and I can write a wonderful paper disputing or supporting it. Ask for a story and I can give you one better than at least Dan Brown, if not many more respectable authors. On my free time I read, I write, I sew, I study languages, I study everything – I am a researcher by nature. If not for academic articles on the internet, I would have gone mad at work ages ago.
I am, in a word, a scholar. And I am good at being a scholar.
I am not good, however, at figuring out how to make money on being a scholar alone.
I could write, and I am, but that takes time. And while writing, until the writing starts to pay for itself and then some, I still need a job, which takes away time and energy. It’s sort of a small, vicious circle.
I could teach, but everyone is doing that right now and I don’t have a university certified teaching degree, just an alternative certificate, and while that would ordinarily work for me – seeing my gpa, my work with kids, and whatnot – I graduated during the worst recession in whatever amount of time More >
Steam Finally Broke Me
May 13th
I signed up for Steam.
I say that as if it’s a resignation, as if I’ve been trying to avoid it and just wasn’t strong enough to do so any longer.
That’s not really the case. I have no problem with Steam. In fact, I know very little about it, other than when I first looked into it, I knew two things:
1)It was intimidating as hell (I have no idea why, though, because it’s a very user-friendly site.)
2)I would damn myself to a life of poverty if I joined.
…
I hear they say you get used to eating cheap canned food for every meal…
And now, if you’re even remotely interested in games, I’m going to damn you, too, because it wasn’t just a lack of willpower that finally put my name in the Steam database – it was finding out that until May 24th, you can download Portal for free. (Click those words, it’s a link.)
Now some of you might be saying, WTF Dev, you don’t already have Portal? What kind of gamer are you claiming to be? Jesus.
I’m claiming to be the kind of gamer who doesn’t have or want an Xbox or Orange Box or, before now, a Steam account.
Rag on me More >
Woohoo!
May 5th
I’m so excited. About two days ago (I haven’t posted this sooner because I went to the casino with a few of the affiliates yesterday and didn’t have time), I made my very first pair of pants, and they look GOOD. Like, I’m amazed. I’m in awe. I can WEAR THEM!
Haha. It really is one of the coolest things. I took a large swath of black broadcloth, cut it into shapes, and stitched up like, five lines and I had a completed pair of cute pants.
I made them for my Ranma 1/2 costume, but I’m definitely going to be making them again. Already I fell asleep in them because they’re just so damn comfortable. I am not planning on making it a habit to sleep in my cosplay outfits, btw. But I am planning on making a second pair as lounge/sleeping pants. And I want a pair to just wear out – I threw on a pair of heels just to see how it would look, and it worked out perfectly. Now I know what to do when I want a pair of cotton summer pants for going to the beach club in or to just go shopping in.
I’ll take More >
Hello, my name is Dev, and I have a problem.
Apr 30th
I have an addiction. Now, that’s nothing new. I’ve always had one, to comics and animation and whatnot, but this. This is something I can’t even explain. I mean a full-strength, life-debilitating addiction. For work by Rumiko Takahashi, and most recently, particularly her romance series Maison Ikkoku.
I got access to this manga series about…a week ago? Two weeks maximum. I hadn’t even planned on reading it in the first place, but a lot of users on myanimelist.net have it rated highly, and many in the manga/anime community in general claim it’s the best romance series out there. Now, I don’t know about that – I haven’t read enough romance manga to make that claim, but that statement got me to look into it and holy smokes, if it’s not the best, it’s damn high on the list.
Briefly, the series is about a group of people living at a boarding house. You have Mrs. Ichinose and her son and husband; Yotsuya; Akemi; and Godai. They’re an eccentric crew, and the story opens in chaos – which is also where the story ends up staying most of the time – and chaos is the first thing that greets Kyoko, the brand new manager More >
