Cosplay Updates.

I've been working hard on cosplaying, and all of the sewing I've had to get done. Right now, I'm working on human Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls. There are a lot of human designs of this character, and all of them are a little different.

I've taken a lot of inspiration from different designs. I wish I could draw, then I would show you exactly what I had planned.

Pattern for the tail coat design.

There are still a lot of things that I haven't figured out yet. I want to be able to do the blue flame coming out of his hand. But at the same time I want to be able to take it off when I want to.

I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet. When the cosplay is more wearable, you'll be sure to get some (hopefully) awesome photos.

Here is the base of the eyepatch. 

I've started planning out a few other ideas as well, but so far nothing made yet. For Wirt from Over the Garden Wall, I have most of the outfit finished, but I need to make the cape and     the hat. As well as get a wig. 

The final cosplay I've done, and have sort of finished, but not at the same time is Cecil Palmer from Welcome to Night Vale. I did a post about that cosplay: here but there is a lot I want to change to make it a little better. I want to get a long sleeved purple shirt instead of that one. Maybe a better vest, a bow tie, and some face paint to do the tattoos. But for a closet cosplay, I was pretty impressed with what I had. 

The first tail for the tail coat. 

Finally, for those who follow me for most cosplay, and geek reasons, I am thinking of setting up a Facebook fan page. Of course all of my blog posts will be posted there, as well as a lot of update photos that are just cosplay and geek related. I've been asking around, and it seems that a Facebook page might be a good idea. But it's not going to happen until probably the new year. I have a lot of things I need to be working on, but when those are done, I will for sure consider getting the cosplay fan page up and running. 

I hope you all have a great day, and good luck with your projects. :) 

Nanowrimo Week 3 Update.

Well, week three and we are almost done with Nanowrimo, and though my word count is soaring higher and higher, I find my energy getting lower and lower. This week, and a bit of last week as well has been a little tough for me, as I am kind of, well really sick. And each time I go to the doctor I'm told something different. But with being so sick, I have a lot of time for other things, like writing.

This has been an amazing week for me, my average words per day is over 2000 which is great, and according to my Nano stats, I need to write less than 1000 words each day to finish on time. I've really been working hard, and all of my woken time is spent writing.

I found I love going to the little coffee shop, getting a hot chocolate and sitting down to write. Especially when I am stuck on something, or just need a change of scenery.

This week my goal was to hit 45,000 and as I type this I am at 43,000 so not quite there yet, but I am not done for the day. It's still early, it's not even noon yet so I have the rest of the day to hit that goal.

Plot wise I am just beginning to enter Act III which is where all of the exciting things happen. Battles shall be fought, characters will die (or not I haven't decided) and the fate of the world is decided. This novel has taken so many different turns that I didn't expect and I love that.

This is the furthest I have ever gotten in a first draft. I usually abandon projects right at the beginning of Act II, but I finally powered through that slump and I am getting into Act III. I have never been more excited to finish something.

Before Nano, I was in the big writing slump where I could think of nothing to write, but now I am beginning to get a lot of different ideas. There is a youth literary magazine that is taking in submissions, and that is my next project to work on. What I'm going to write I have no idea, but it'll be a fun project to work on.

So, since the last week of Nanowrimo is coming up, my goal should be pretty obvious, by the end of this week I want to have at least 50 000 words. If I get more than that, awesome that would be ideal. The Nanowrimo counter can be a bit odd, and count things weirdly, so it's better to be safe and have more than 50 000 words.

I'm not sure if I'm going to wait and validate my novel on the last day of November, or if I'm going to validate it when I hit that mark, but we'll see. For now, I need to keep writing, getting to the 45,000 words is not going to happen on its own.

I hope you all have a fantastic day, and happy writing.

Being a Happy, Healthy Cosplayer, and General Geek.

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Now, as a disclaimer, this is my personal opinions on geeks, and geek culture, and there is nothing wrong with them. But I know there are people within the geek community who want to be healthier, and happier. I want to help them out. This is not about weight loss, this is about being a healthy person.

I want to start with being a healthy cosplayer. Being a cosplayer often involves late nights working, and a lot of being hunched over projects. And these tips can be applied to anyone in the geek culture, and anyone outside the geek culture. 

1. Get up and move. 

Now, as geeks, we like to spend our time sitting and watching tv shows, or reading, or working on cosplay projects, but your body needs to move. At least for a half an hour get up and do something. Laundry, a walk, some gentle yoga, anything. Just move your body a little bit. It'll help your back, neck, and it'll give you more energy. 

2. Drink water. 

I feel like this is my advice for anything health related, but it's super important. No one drinks enough water, but still, we all can use a little more water. So instead of drinking red bull, or pop... or ramune (my guilty pleasure) get some water, and drink that up. I know water doesn't have the best taste to it, but I can promise you will get used to it. Until then, you can infuse your water with fruit, and a million other things. There are tons of ways to infuse your water to make it taste better. 

3. Take breaks. 

When you are marathoning tv shows, or working to midnight on cosplays, please take short frequent breaks. This will prevent strain on your eyes, your brain, and your body as a whole. These breaks can be anything from going to the bathroom, to making a snack, to just getting up and stretching a little bit. Trust me, when you take these breaks, your body will thank you. And as a side tip for the book lovers, make sure you have good lighting to read. I don't want you to strain your eye balls. 

4. Healthy eating. 

Now, I'm not talking eating super clean, and super strict diets, no not at all! Please, don't do super strict diets. Instead, replace junk foods with some healthier options. In the summer, my favourite snack is frozen grapes, and it has taken the place of ice cream for me. Just dried fruit, or unsalted nuts instead of chips. Just simple little changes to make you feel a little bit better. 

5. Sleep! 

Now, I know this is super difficult for a lot of us. I am no exception to this, I know I need to sleep more. But we should be getting between 6-8 hours of sleep. So get some sleep tonight. If you are struggling, then turn off your screens for a half hour before bed. Try and go to sleep and wake up at around the same time everyday. You need to sleep. 

I guess this advice could be applied to anyone, but for me I want to talk specifically to the geeks and nerds of the world. Please, look after your bodies. We do not have robot technology to build you a new body just yet, so look after the body you have. I plan on doing a post specifically on convention health a little later, so stay tuned for that. 

So, to all of the nerds and geeks out there, what do you guys do to stay healthy? 

5 Knitted Scarfs.

I've been thinking for a while now on ways to help people, and the different ways we do this. When I first came to the city, and even now after I've been here a few months, the sight of the homeless still tears at my heart. And I just want a way to help even one person. And I may have found a way to help even one person.

What I want to do is knit at least five scarfs before my winter break. I plan to go out to downtown, and just give one to each homeless person I see as like a Christmas gift of sorts. Winter here in Canada is cold, and the homeless have such a struggle keeping warm. This is one little thing I can do to help.

And this isn't a project I want to stop either. I want to continue it as my knitting gets better, and eventually knit a scarf, mitts, and hat set. Maybe even socks if I can manage to learn how to knit them. During the winter season, it's hard seeing people who have no where to go. And who are freezing. I don't care how they got to this place, as a compassionate person I want to help make their struggle a little easier.

I know I cannot help everyone on my own. And there are possible plans in the works to help keep something like this going. I would also love to be able to send things like this to Native reservations where they also have next to nothing. But those are in the possible far off future.

Knitting is a hobby I have grown to both love and hate. It's frustrating, and my hands hurt a lot. But at the same time, it's fun and I get to make something with my own two hands.

For now, I am going to start with just these five scarfs, and if the project gets bigger than awesome. I will of course let you know if my little project does get bigger. If it doesn't, even then I am happy with the knowledge that I have made ten people just a little bit warmer. And hopefully made them feel a little less hopeless.

If you have a shelter in your area, or something, please ask them what you can do to help. A little goes a long way. Things like socks, toothbrushes, sanitary pads, little things like that can make a huge difference in someone's life. You don't have to give a lot, just a little. Thank you.

On Writing A Memoir of the Craft audio book review.

A while ago I did a post about audiobooks, and my general feelings about them. If you want to read that post, you can read it here: link. And I decided that maybe I should do a review of an audiobook, and the one that I had was On Writing by Stephen King, and read by Mr. King himself.

This will probably be the only review I do on a Stephen King book. I do this because his books are so iconic, and most people know what his books are about, and you can easily find reviews on his books.  There is nothing I can really add to those reviews. But, I figured it would be interesting to do a review about this memoir. 

King writes about his personal life, particularly his writing life, and his teenage years. And he paints such vivid images of the movies he loved, and the world he grew up in. As well as his addiction, and some of the darker moments of his life. He doesn't talk too much about his books, but if you are familiar with his works, then you can pick up some of the inspiration. The more iconic books (Carrie, The Shining,) have a lot more detail about how they came to be. 

I really enjoy listening to Kings voice. He is calm, and clear. I have no idea if other memoirs are read by other people other than the author, but they should be read by the author. It makes it feel a lot more personal. 

The first half of the book, is a lot of autobiography, but when you get to the middle of it, then he talks about writing. I feel like his advice is such good advice. He compares the art of writing, to a tool box. And each part of the box is a different skill writers need to have. From grammar, and language structure, to style, and voice, to vocabulary. As a wannabe writer, I take his advice to heart. Especially his advice on talent, and where talent comes from, and the importance of reading a lot and writing a lot. He talks about practice isn't really practice if you love what you do. 

King's life is such an incredible thing to learn about. I don't want to spoil any of the book, but I will tell you, within the first chapter, you'll learn how weird his childhood was. His life is just super interesting, and has a lot of goofy moments.

This book does have a little bit of 'bad' language, if you are sensitive to that, just be aware.  When listening to the book, I could easily imagine him just kinda hanging out and telling me the story of his life. It's super casually written, and doesn't beat around the bush for any of the topics. It's very real, and I really enjoy that aspect of it. I don't know a lot about King's personality having never met him, but I feel like this book really reflects the personality I expect him to have. 

I really don't have a lot of complaints about this book. However, I still don't like the audiobook, but you guys know my feelings about audiobooks. I would totally get a physical copy of this book to read. I feel like I would get more out of the story if I am able to read it. But I feel like that's because I am very visual, and need to see things in front of me. 

I hope you guys have a wonderful day. What are some of the things you're reading or listening to? 

Nanowrimo Week 2

Alright, I'm going to do something a little different from last week, because I kept forgetting to record throughout the entire week, so I'm just gonna summarize.

This week has been good writing wise, I've been getting ahead, and it feels good. I'm not super far ahead, but far enough so that I can relax a little bit and not feel too stressed out.

Mentally there have been somethings going on that I may write about in another blog post. But that's for another day.

The first day this week started out super strong with 5,000 words, but I did trail off to about 2,000 each day. Which is still really good. I want to start doing weekly goals as well on this little blog, so the goal I wanted to hit this week is 30,000. And at the end of each post, I want to share with you my word count goal for the week.

I actually feel really good about this year. I don't usually write to win, but this year that's changed. I want to have written the 50,000 words. And I feel much better about getting to that large goal. I've found a schedule that works really well for me, and that's awesome.

Friday I also went to my first write in. I grew up in a small town, and the closest region was still an hours car ride away. This year living in the city, I have been actually able to go do things. It's been a blast.

I was easily the youngest person at this write in, I think I want to go to one of the teen write ins next. At least that way I would have more people to connect with. But despite being the youngest person there, I had fun, and I got a lot of writing done. I also ordered my first Starbucks, and I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't impressed.

Even though I don't get as much writing done in the same span of time as I could on my own, I find I really enjoy going to write ins. Being new to the city, it's a great way to meet people who are into the same things.

So, at the end of this week I hit 30,006 words at the time of this blog post.
This week I want to see if I can hit 45 000 words. I think I can do it. It's a big jump, but there isn't a lot going on at school this week, and I think I can do it. Looks like it's time to get back to writing.

Mori kei lookbook.

I've been kinda wanting to do this for a while. I love fashion, and I love dressing up. My style is very much Mori kei inspired. And I thought this would be kind of fun to show and model. Just as a disclaimer, I am not a model. I'm actually kinda camera shy. Okay, very camera shy, so there is only one photo for each look.  And before anyone asks, everything I'm wearing is either thrifted or a gift. So, this is my very first lookbook. If you are interested, I'll of course do more, but for now enjoy the photos. I wanted to do a blend of both dark mori, and mori. As well as a blend of feminine and masculine looks. I don't own anything really in white, so the regular mori look wasn't really what I wanted. But all the same, I love the looks I came up with. All of the photos were taken with my cellphone, so they aren't the best quality, but I did try.