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I am so bad, so sorry.  I just, uh, school and stuff, and nothing interesting was happening, and I wasn't even painting my nails anything fancy, and...I should have called, shouldn't I?

Or at least texted.

I am just the worst friendblogger.

Also, Ark: Survival Evolved is all like, playable and stuff, and you know me and dinosaurs.  Well, you probably don't know me, or dinosaurs, but my profile picture should be a clue I think.

Oh, um, I went to a couple conventions and The Boy and I dressed up as Col. Mustang and Lt. Hawkeye because we are painfully nerdy and I needed an excuse for the most obnoxious-to-jury-rig costumes ever.  Sis was Freya from FF9 cause I finally finished her staff and hat, and I'm proud of those, except the staff didn't quite make it through the whole con.  It's pvc and unscrews into two parts for transport/storage but I can't get the screw part to stay epoxied in and stay, or be straight.  Maybe I should just fill the whole thing with epoxy.  Throw me a line if you have any insight.

Maybe I'll spam you with costume pictures.

Iiiin a little while, probably.


Oh, yeah, we met a guy dressed as Hughes and it was the best.  He was carrying a picture of his daughter and everything.  Shoutout, random Hughes guy who we took a picture with!

Why aren't there any male Eds???

First I'll picture spam Freya's accessories.

PVC handle, carved insulation foam and styrofoam balls attached

 to wood dowel.

Used superglue for attaching insulation foam to dowel.  Note: DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE.

 Hot glue accents.

Plasti-dip!

Plasti-dip causes some shrinkwrap effect.  Fix with poured white glue fill.  Takes forever.

Funnel!

Painted!  Krylon spray paint is my friend.  Was carded at the store, buying spray paint.

Added some weathering cause it was just too shiny.

Two pieces!  Brilliance!  Sortof!

Freya's hat is a really annoying shape constructed out of kid's craft foam and hot glue.

This was also a pain.

Fabric covered, hand-sewn on mask (also covered in fabric.)  The wingy bits are craft foam painted silver.

I swear I finished this hat, I just have to find the picture.

Reading Challenge

I came late to the party, but I found a new year's resolution; start reading again.  Like, actual books (even if they're silly books.)
Mostly because a blogger I follow had a widget so I checked it out.  Maybe I will do the same for you!  I read the Divergent series already, and now I'm working on The Hunger Games (on my phone so no one can see what I'm reading.)


Nails!

 I had fun with rainbow nails and a stamper plate, and I am totally not hiding the nail I screwed up stamping because I ran out of nail polish remover and couldn't clean the plate well!
I am happy with my collection of polychromatic shimmer nail polishes.  I had a green that was a better inbetween shade, but it took so many coats for opacity I said screw it and used a darker one.
I was originally going to do gradients but it was slow and not going well, so again, screw it.

In other news, my phone dated a selfie as 1969 so I am officially an impressive time traveler who can get a phone to work in the past, and I made a tiny aluminum cut out plane, and it was annoying but I would totally do it again.

This is the personal Disney disillusionment post?

So, as I get older, I start to notice how just...shittily misogynistic/sexist American culture is.  Or how many awful stereotypes are perpetuated, constantly.  And, strangely, how many ...positive? stereotypes are perpetuated too.

But that's not why I'm complaining today, it's the sexism part.

Movies are notably bad with female roles, even when they manage to submit non-awful female characters.  Let's talk Disney, because I like Disney movies and grew up in the Disney renaissance and everything was great and fantastic and we impressionable girls have strong(er) females, like Ariel in The Little Mermaid.  She's a typical rebellious teen who just wants to get out and see the world and give up her voice to literally marry the first man she sees, because we all know women should be seen and not heard to land that man (that you know nothing about.)  Look at her, all quiet and cute and she doesn't know what shoes are, or how to use utensils, it's cute that she thinks she's people.  Hmm.

What about Belle in Beauty and the Beast, the intelligent (and beautiful) modern woman who reeeeeeeads.  It's just unnatural.  (Evidently no one else in town reads even though there's an established well-to-do bookstore in a "provincial town."  Whatever, Disney.)  It's almost as if Disney is lampooning all the Gastons who think women shouldn't be educated, yay Disney!  And then... she gets Stockholm Syndrome for her awful captor who refuses to meet her basic needs (i.e. food) because she trespassed and also doesn't want to eat dinner with her asshole captor.  Well, good for you, unimaginatively-named-female-protagonist, you shouldn't kowtow to guys who think you should love them because they're...present?  And I know the point of the movie is that he's beautiful on the inside (somewhere?) even though he locks her up, denies her basic needs, strikes her, demands that she love him, and this is...starting to sound a lot like a really abusive relationship, Disney, how the hell are we supposed to like this guy?  Why the hell should she fall for him, he's proven that he's incapable of controlling his anger and isn't exactly concerned for her safety or well-being.  It's not even like she's trying to save the rest of the inhabitants of the castle who were cursed because a sorceress decided that a ten-year-old boy prince with no parents or authority figures was a jerk for not letting a complete stranger in the castle.  No, she just decides she wants a fixer-upper and there has to be a good person somewhere in there, and this is what she decided was "more than [her] provincial life."  She gives up her only family, any hope of travel, all other society, any kind of productive activity, all to read books all day and play nursemaid to a guy with ulterior motives and free reign to be abusive.  Yeah that sounds healthy.

Nala, the only female character of note in The Lion King (unless you count Sarabi's "up yours" one-liner?)  She pretty much exists to nag a self-professed nihilist into doing his job.  And being the main...wife, I guess, of his harem.  Oh, also, to get him into trouble when he's young, because that's what women do, they give men bad ideas and lead them astray and they're just good for popping out kids.  And nagging.  I did not realize, until this very moment, how misogynistic this is, wow.  Maybe I can blame that on the source material...

Sadly, it's not getting any better.  I just saw Frozen the other day, and it's rife with the same kinds of problems.  [SPOILERS!  Not that I care much cause, come on, it came out like four months ago.]

Anna most looks forward to the castle gates opening so she can...find a man.  I mean, romance.  She absolutely falls (figuratively and literally) for the first man she sees and agrees to marriage.  (At least her sister tells her she's stupid.)  Then, her sister Elsa accidentally curses the whole city (province?  country???) because she is literally incapable of controlling her emotions.  I mean, magic powers.  She also ditches the whole place after being queen for like, two hours, but I think that's more a personal character flaw rather than a commentary on women being unable to handle power.  Oh, wait, nevermind.  Anna goes after her after she acquires a man to keep her fragile/stupid self safe, and is also chastised by that man for getting engaged to a man she just met even though he's pretty much a blatant hypocrite later.  Like, "Sorry, Anna, we can't allow you to run around without a man, that's just unsafe and uncouth.  You need constant supervision and protection because you have zero hope of taking care of yourself."  I was so SO happy that they decided to subvert the True Love's Kiss trope with Anna's self-sacrifice.  At least I feel like they did something right.

[END SPOILERS I guess maybe.]

The saddest part is, I get this shit leveled at me in real life, too, and no matter how often I notice how depressing it is that random strangers and co-workers expect me to be married, have 2.5 kids and a yard with a white picket fence already (and actually check on my relationship status at regular intervals,) on some level, I feel like I am failing as a woman because I haven't conformed to the status quo.  The unspoken social pressure is sometimes subtle, but always there, and I'm just waiting for someone to come around and invalidate my woman card and/or relabel me a spinster.  Even my sister has said, off-hand, that she was "further along" because by the time she was my age she was already married and had a house, as if there are some sort of cosmic landmarks that I'm not reaching.  And I don't think that's how she meant it, and I don't think that's what she really believes, and I know I'm a product of my culture too, and I'm sure I inadvertently perpetuate these stereotypes and sexism, I'm just...trying not to.  I  hope someday I can kick the habit and retrain my brain, but I'm not sure that that's an attainable goal.

I like to think that it is, though, and that we as a culture can start appreciating people as individuals and stop trying to categorize people into ridiculously defined boxes.


Click the link if you want to hear different people point out things that you probably notice on some level but don't stop to think about.
http://www.cracked.com/podcast/why-modern-world-way-more-sexist-than-we-realize/

(P.S. No one asks my boyfriend when he's getting married, ever.  I find this unfair.  Why am I an unnaturally unattached woman, but no one cares if he's a bachelor forever?)

Really, I've Got Nothing.

Lookit me, all like...updating my blog and crud. 

Hey, where did 2013 go?  I have too much stuff to do still, jeez.

So, I'll be taking some classes in the spring semester (yay) which they made me pay for my own background check (what the hell, guys?) starting just after I go skiing in January.  Which, of course, is right after I work too many too long holiday shifts, so don't expect much from me.  Actually just don't expect much from me cause I'm terribly boring.  I haven't been accepted into the degree program hopefully just because I haven't applied.  Hopefully I love the classes or something or maybe I just want a cushy government job (even if it is not that cushy) where I can get paid, like, an actual living wage and not one that requires my boyfriend to get me food or I don't get to eat anything besides rice with some butter.  As a side, I'm always really depressed when I go to the grocery store and can't afford meat.  Yes, I save meat for when I'm desperate and no one has taken me out to eat for a while.  Okay, really it's not that bad, but it will be nice to actually maybe save some money from my checks once in a while.

I started knitting (again) but actually completed some things this time!  It's amaaaaaaazing!

Nails!

I freehanded some ribbons and holly, which was nice but the Tokyo Pearl white has a tendency to chip, so it didn't last too long.  Then I had too many overnight shifts and didn't change it until today when I thought, hey, Christmas Eve is tomorrow and we can't have unpainted nails!

Being somewhat adventurous, I decided to try nail stamping, which, man, is just so much faster than like anything else.  I used Mash #68 which had some pine trees and stars, and awful Christmas-sweater-reindeer and snowflakes that I couldn't resist even though they're really too big for my nails.  I should have used a higher contrast color, but I couldn't resist using red and gold that don't photograph well. :P

I guess that's pretty much it, and I'm not even going to bother with the pictures because, if you haven't figured it out by now, Blogger and I really don't get along well.



Hey, She-Ra!  I made that bed for you!

I Think Russia Is The Thunderdome

http://elitedaily.com/humor/42-gifs-solidfy-russia-craziest-place-earth/

Here's a thought experiment:
If America had all these dash cams, would it be as insane?

It's Showtime

So I just saw today that my upstairs neighbor has both a Lion King musical poster and a Les Mis poster haning in his living room becahse I'm creepy and stare in peoples windows late at night.  Anyway, this made me wonder a) if he can hear me when I sing in the shower, and b) if he notices how often I sing On My Own in the shower.
Not because I'm lonely or anything, it's just super fun to sing.

On second thought, pretty sure he can hear me, cause I always heard the girl above me.  Shit.

It's time for ranting!

You saw it here first, it's time for ranting and link-spamming.

I love Cracked, I don't know if you've noticed.  Really love.  Just every once in a while they put on their serious face (or as serious as they get anyway,) and tackle some serious pertinent issues.  Or as pertinent as sexism in video games, anyway, which I find, being a female who plays video games, really pertinent.

It's funny, because sometimes I feel like it's so ingrained I don't even notice it anymore.  Then I watch a movie or play a game or read a book where there's a token female character who just really really needs a man to be fufilled or to save her dumb ass or what have you.  In Mario games, it's Peach who is always getting kidnapped because she can't figure out how to protect herself, oh, it doesn't matter because Mario will come save her.  And she's a princess.  And she keeps her damn self in the kitchen, where she belongs.

Because even princesses need to be able to bake cakes.  For the plumber that keeps saving you from the giant turtle you never see coming somehow.

I want to play the new Tomb Raider game, because she seems more like a real person, but...I keep seeing screenshots of her crying.  Like, a lot.
I don't know if I can handle that.

Want to read the saddest comment tree ever?

Sometimes, I feel like I've been culturally brainwashed so hard that I haven't even noticed.  I hate to think what women in less "progressive" countries feel (yeah, I'm looking at you, country that still heavily practices racial segregation.)

There's lots of interesting articles and blogs on the subject.  It's hard, because once you notice something is wrong, it's hard to stop noticing.  There's even a blog devoted to women who are harassed by online gamers.  If you've ever wondered, this is why I refuse to play multiplayer online with people I don't know.  This is why I usually pretend to be male, or say as little as possible, when I'm on an open forum.  There's a reason there are no girls on the internet.

People don't want to play games or watch movies with strong female leads.  That's what the industry says, to a woman trying to become a screenwriter.  They just don't.

Well, I do.  I would love that.

If you have to make them eye candy because you're kinda a bigot, okay.  But pleeeeease stop with the damsel in distress.  Stop with the "girls are only healer class."  Stop with the ridiculous "armor" that covers nothing, or the fixation on the approval of men.  I wanna be a real person too.


Hey, have you ever checked out toy aisles?  They're a great way to see that gender disconnect.
Is it pink, has dolls, kitchen playsets, and frilly dresses?  It's the girl aisle!  Is it dark green or red or blue and has action figures, Tonka trucks and those really cool animatronic toys?  It's the boy aisle!

Conform to your gender stereotypes, conform!  Girls like pink!  Boys like [any other color]!  Girls like playing house!  Boys like playing cops and robbers!  Girls don't like to get dirty!  Boys like gross things!  Girls are sugar and spice and everything nice [and make sure to send yours back if it doesn't conform to factory specifications!]

Girls can't do math.

Girls can't do science.

Girls can't be CEOs because the boys won't listen.

Girls can't be journalists...but they can read you the news!  Yay, good job, girl!

Girls can't be action heroes...unless they're Sarah Connor...whoops, that was cancelled!

Girls can't have cool superpowers...I love this one.  I find X-Men to be fairly good overall in the character department, but even they're questionable if I think too hard (girls shouldn't think, that's where I went wrong.)  Storm?  You mean the capricious wind-witch whose emoshuns cause terrible and utter destruction?  How about Rogue, who kills (men) with her touch, or steals powers from mutants?  Jubilee, she's cool, she...throws sparkly fireworks at people.  But they don't set anything on fire or anything, they're just...flashy and make noise.  Jean Grey is the damsel.  When she's not the damsel she's busy destroying everything as the Phoenix.  She just won't stay dead!  The Dazzler is manipulative and has powers a lot like Jubilee.  Hell, Mystique's powers are uniquely suited to being an evil, manipulative bitch.  But hey, at least she doesn't constantly need saving.
Kitty Pryde's power is...running away (through the wall!)  Jeezus.  At least there are other...more minor...characters which aren't so bad.

Sue Storm has the best power a woman can have:  being invisible.  The best part is, she even tends to forget she's invisible.  Maybe if she'd learn to shut her mouth and stop talking to herself while invisible, she wouldn't get kidnapped so often.  (That was a really great article, though, Cracked.)

Wow.  That last one was really bad.  I'mma stop now, I guess I'm done being offended for the moment.