2 weeks, a red robin, and body mass. A haiku?

Well I like to keep up on wank, especially since it seems to inspire discussions with my old friends back at the smrff. So now I check on fandom_wank (over at journalfen.net-- I want an account, but I need a code! *wails*) every so often, but of course, some people manage to bring the wank to LJ-- like blackjackrocket did for us starving folks over at playthedamncard. Me loves the wank.

But cosplay wank is a touchy subject with me. I'm not a diehard cosplayer or anything, but I have my squicks.
(1) Man-Faye. He also did Man-Yuna. Frankly, as fun as crossplay can be, the guy just seems to love pushing the limits and other people's buttons. It almost seems insulting to the original character to do what he does. But if that's what he likes (squicking people, getting them uncomfortable), he's damn good at it.

(2) Pathetic cosplayers. These are the people that slap on (whatever color) hairspray and a headband and call themselves Naruto cosplayers. I don't expect everyone to spend $500+ on cosplay; I myself have felt the pain of doing on-the-budget, last-minute cosplay. I didn't win any awards or get loads of pictures of me taken, but that's not the point. You cosplay to express yourself, to have fun, to meet people. But you can do it just as well without a tacky costume on. I think effort is required in all things: either make do with what you have, or don't do it at all. It doesn't always come out the same, looking A+ gold star happy face perfect for everyone, but trust me: effort DOES show.

(3) Wrong size. This kind of fits in with the Man-Faye thing. It's not just a MAN crossplaying characters like Faye Valentine and Yuna, both ladies known for their rather skimpy clothes (at least Faye; Yuna didn't get her hot pants on until X-2) and sexy bodies. Man-Faye is hairy. But he's also BIG. Even costumes made for him don't seem to cover up near enough... and frankly, why cosplay something that makes you look worse? I had this same gripe with many Yu-Gi-Oh cosplayers. Go ahead and cosplay Otogi, Malik, Yuugi, whoever... but at least make sure the costume FITS you.

It's this last one that makes me wonder about the cosplay wank going on over at f_w. I don't care about the size of the cosplayers, or the fact that two seemingly-lesbian girls find yaoi hot (I come from San Francisco; this is not NEW to me). Matter of fact, both of their costumes (and their hair!! ZOMG!) are really, very good. And crossplay, as I said, doesn't bother me if it suits someone's body. These girls aren't exactly hairy or gangrenous or whatever. People are railing on them because they're a little overweight-- but it's not like you can see plumber butt or anything. *shrugs* Yeah, it's a bit weird to imagine Malik as a bigger than me, female, and white (rather than similar in stature to me, male, and Egyptian), but... that's cosplay for you.

Still, I think if people truly like anime enough to cosplay, they should discover options more suited to them. I like cosplaying people who have my hair style or color, so I don't have to go to excessive lengths to dye or cut my hair for cosplay. Yes, wigs are an option-- but they're damn expensive and hard to maintain. So are those REALLY nice costumes. And I can't sew worth shit.

Actually, a great example of a cosplay I admired was zigx's one of that kid (whose name I cannot remember) from Guilty Gear XX. He used a yo-yo, and looked like a nun. Joe did a COLOR EDIT. How many people honestly think of that? And you know what? Costumes often change from season to season (*cough cough* Seto Kaiba!) or from anime to manga (see: Rena Lanford/Star Ocean 2). So the possibilities really ARE limitless. I wish more people would realize that, and not force people who cosplay into this stereotype that zOMG your outfit/hair/eyes/weapon/size are totally NOT like the character you think you're cosplaying as!!

Who the hell cares? Anyone that gets THAT damn dedicated into cosplay should make it their job, not their hobby. And even then, they can take their criticism to the playground and leave it out of the cons.

(by the way, there are some really homophobic and racist people on cosplayfucks. I mean geez. They scare me. --You probably know who I mean.)

I'd like to add that I don't see communities as ygo_badfic, fanficrants, or even cosplayfucks as cowardly. People are allowed to criticize whatever they find on the web, and they're under no obligation to tell the original author they're doing so. Cosplayfucks I think is a BIT different though, because essentially they are making fun of real people for pretty stupid reasons (superficial reasons)-- and in the case of the Malik cosplayers in question, they provided their emails for feedback, but instead someone made a cosplayfucks post about them railing about how they were pretend-lesbians trying to act like teh-hawt-boy-seks when Malik is really a disassociative-personality-syndrome case profile... o_O Trust me, it could get MORE complex.

I'm not like some unfortunate girls who are so unhappy in their skin. I wish all people could be satisfied with themselves, but even I'm not one of those types. I think I've got a bit of pudge on my belly, and people never seem to hesitate to point out that I have a rather large caboose for a white girl. As the girls at work said, "You got some junk in your trunk!" o_O I don't care, I laugh it off, but part of me does hurt because of it. How long is this "nice" or "wicked" figure of mine (other people's words, not mine) going to last? That's why I try to take care of it.

It's wonderful to be happy in your skin, but not that far of a stretch to want more happiness and health for yourself by bettering your diet and exercise habits. Obesity is clearly a problem in the USA, and encouraging it doesn't help matters. I'd like to believe that people cosplay characters because they love them so much, but also because part of them wishes they DID look like that all the time. Maybe not necessarily the psychotic personality or the deeply-engraved tattoos, but maybe the cool hair, the lavender eyes, and so forth. Oh, and Malik's hot bawd. You gotta admit, he's got a nice figure. And even if he is male, the concept applies to everyone: all those girls that cosplay Yuna/Lulu/whoever-- don't you wish you had her eyes/hair/nails/boobs? I know I do. I don't starve myself to look like them, or blow my money to buy color contacts-- but I keep myself happy and healthy, and from there, everything else follows.

I gave P my 2 week notice today, even though I didn't plan to. But K was being such a condescending bitch (she even elbowed me -hard!- and didn't apologize or say excuse me!) I just can't take it anymore. I will try my damnedest to get that job at Red Robin; I only hope the GM Francis stays true to his word and remembers me. He said I had a great attitude and was very upbeat, and by mentioning the training schedule, he seemed to imply the interview went well and he would want to see me again when the store finally opened. *crosses fingers* Please god, let it work!

...I'm messing around with the eFiction drfa again. It's just being a bitch because on my local computer, I had the eFiction stuff in a folder WITHIN the drfa holder, but on the webserver, they're in two different folders. Blah. I need sleep.

Oops, gravity works.

My body picked a lousy time to catch cold and have my period. I've been feeling like I'm walking on another planet all day long-- gravity must be sucking me into the center of the Earth. If that meant a free ride to Japan without worrying about molten magma, I'd be all for it, but somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

I've been so sleepy, I've actually done what I thought was unthinkable-- I not only fell asleep in mythology class (I missed the entire lecture about how Sigmund Freud connects to the Electra complex) but I went to the library afeter class and conked out on the 4th floor near my locker. It was only an hour nap, and I didn't really feel all that better afterward. But I was okay after visual communications; I went and grabbed some lunch with my requisite iced tea, and now all is well. I still feel a bit tingly and weird and out of it, but at least I'm not passing out and drooling all over my keyboard.

ATTENTION SAN FRANCISCO-ITES! Yeah, I'm talking to YOU, Stephanie, Eva, Lindsay, and everyone else whose names I can't remember or whose user SNs aren't accessible to me now! Go sign up for the schools feature here on LJ! It's so quick and easy, you just search for all the schools you've ever gone to/are attending, and it automatically sorts you by username. You can input the years you attended and all that fun stuff, and even see other LJ users associated with your schools. I've already added mine: CSUN, Lafayette (EVA!!!!!), Presidio (EVERYONE!!!) and Wash House (zOMGcleanlaundry!) so you hop to it! Besides, I wanna know who else I know here on LJ that went to any of my schools... *peers*

Also, I wanted to randomly show up in San Francisco from 10/7-10/9, since Scott's going to be there anyway for his NOVA or GEOS interview... not that he'd stay with me or even have time to spend with me, mind you, but if he's going, I could use it as an excuse to go to. I know that doesn't make sense, just trust me on this one. But of course, since it's only 2 wks. before that departure time, tickets are expensive! $214 min. on SWA, and $260 on JetBlue (which, for some stupid reason, only flies from Long Beach to Oakland, and not Burbank to Oakland, even though Oakland is its Northern California major way-station. Durrrr, DUMB!). Hm... wish I could go...

I'm having trouble finding a speech to go to for Story #2 for WRPII. The ones at CalTech already ended; besides, Pasadena's too inaccessible on the weekends. There are supposed to be some Executive Speakers coming here, but I'm not sure if they've already made their speeches in the past week (when they started) or not, and even if they didn't, would I be allowed/able to go? The speech I'm interested in going to is by CBS Studio Center president Michael Klausman, but he's speaking primarily to Cinema, Television and Arts students-- which is in my college, but it's not my department. There's also a speaker from NASA's Mars rover program this Friday at 7:30pm, but that would mean missing Anime Club and possibly my 2nd cousin Joey's (oops, call him JOE now, he is 20!) birthday party-- if he wants to have one. Grr! And the story is due Oct. 5th! What do I do?!

...Hmm, there was a thing downstairs about the opening of the Guitar Research Archives here at the Oviatt, but I don't think that's the kind of speech I'm looking for. Besides, it's rather impromptu and more about performances than information, so I think I'll pass (and spend another hour here on the comp! :P)

Someone on the eFiction board helped me look at a problem Dragonfayth was having on its new modded Authors page; I've been tinkering with some of the mods offered there, and one of the people is named 'Lazuli.' o_O No relation to OUR Laz, right, smrff!? o_O Anyway, what the new mod does (or is supposed to do) is differentiate between Authors (people who have submitted stories) and Members (people who sign up to read fics and recommend fics, not write them).

I'm sure there are all sorts of other mods that I would like to implement; as they're a lot more feasible for eFiction than InkTank, I'd like people to check out the list over at http://efiction.wallflowergirl.com/forums, under Mod Releases. There are about 3 pages of mods, 2 or so individual mods of which I've implemented already. The full release list (not sure whether this includes all mods and requests, or just completed/tested mods) is located here: http://efiction.wallflowergirl.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=875.

Go check it out, mmk?

So apparently I can only study driver's ed at school (which I like doing, because I don't have the distraction of my MP3s, fanfiction, chatting, the television, my grandparents, food, or my bed) on the WHITE GST computers here in the Collaboratory. o_O I wonder why? Anyway, I'm almost done with Lesson 3 of... er, I think it's 10 or 11. Sure, that's not a whole lot, but I think I'm learning. I've done well on all my quizzes so far, and all the interactive lessons. Still, how do I memorize this stuff? Do I take notes? Print the pages out? ;_; Eeek! There seem to be many laws regarding feet estimates: signal 100 feet before turning, never enter a bike lane more than 200 feet from the turning corner or driveway, and stop at least 15 feet in front of a railroad crossing. How do you estimate that distance, anyway?

Also, if I'm still awake and somewhat coherent tonight, I have a short list of things to do:
(1) Reformat the damn laptop... again. Maybe the clean install will work better this time with more memory?
(2) Add a scene or two to WDKY19. I wanted to end it on a somewhat happy/teasing note, as I have been alternating between zOMG cliffhangers and "aww." moments lately. But I'm also neglecting other characters and relationships in the process, along with some teasers I need to work in, so I think the addition of this one scene I've been thinking about will do the fic good. I might even get doubly inspired.

I'm hoping that if all goes well and I can make it to the CTVA Exec. Speaker, then on Friday I can go to anime club as usual and FINALLY get a DVD from Phil of Adam & Joe Go Tokyo. Various specific Google and BitTorrent searches have turned up bupkis in the way of actual episodes, so it really *is* as rare as Phil said. A right shame, but he better keep his promise this time around and get me the episodes. In the meantime, I'm downloading episodes 3-9 of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, Chibi and I are arranging an exchange of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and Trick, and I need to see Last Order and probably read "The Complete Story of FFVII" or something like that on GameFAQs. Unless one of you l33t gamer guys (*stares at staplerx, zigx, psyjoe_dilandau etc. etc.*) wants to inform me... MMM?

Only 15 minutes till I have to leave for class, so I might as well update this and catch up on my reading for class. The good thing about WRPII is we don't have any pop quizzes or tests based on the reading-- whether or not you read shows in how fast you can get in-class exercises done and in the stories you turn in. So far, so good. I'm glad I made the decision to stay in Salido's class, even if the rest of my body is protesting today. Oy!