Monthly Archives: January 2013

Endeavors: Corseted Inspired Costumes

So I have been on a kind of corset kick lately… to the point that I have been putting together costume ideas for the next time I go to a convention or maybe even Halloween (shocker!). So why am I on this corset related kick?

Well to start, when I realized that my measurements were fairly proportional to one another (bustline and hips are within an inch of one another and my waist being around four to five inches smaller) the idea that a corset could squeeze that into an almost perfect hourglass shape (nine to ten inch difference between bust/hips to waist), it really emphasized the natural curves that most women seem to lack nowadays.

So now that I know the strength of my figure, the idea of putting together costumes that I know I could pull off well started to seep into my mind… below are just a few ideas…

LULU from FINAL FANTASY X

LuluposterOne of the costume ideas I have been staring at for years was the amazing costume from Final Fantasy X of Lulu. Now there are a lot of well done costumes out there already, but I am a little obsessed with the idea of having a corset as the primary piece and everything else would be rather simple to piece together from everything else.

In fact when Pendragon Costumes recently posted a picture of a new piece – via their Facebook Page – I knew I found my staple not just for Lulu but for a Steampunk costume should I desire it.

The irony of finding my base has led me to find other pieces online that I could use for my costume… most notably all the jewelry / hair pieces, the doll that Lulu uses… and even a YouTube video of someone showing how to use one’s hair to mimic that of Lulu’s without having to get a wig. Which for someone like me with long thick black hair… I prefer using it as much as possible.

I still have a few pieces to put together, namely the belted underskirt, the sleeves and the top fur trim, but I think for the most part I can get those done on my own as soon as the dress comes in. 🙂

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Literary Review: The Guardians of Childhood (Books One and Two) by William Joyce

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After watching The Rise of the Guardians last month I immediately got intrigued (as I often do) with the idea that some of the worlds most loved icons were real and guarding the children. That here is Santa Claus (also known as North), the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman (aka Sandy) who are protecting the children and their hopes and dreams from the evil Bogeyman (aka Pitch Dark).

So when I realized (upon some research) that the Rise of the Guardians were based off of a series of children’s novels by the writer William Joyce, I eagerly found the audiobooks for the first two in the series and am looking forward to listening to the third and the fourth.

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Recipe: Mini Pumpkin Pie Croissants

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Another Harry Potter related recipe that my friend wanted to try was the Mini Pumpkin Pie Croissants. Now for me not being a huge fan of pumpkin to begin with was already apprehensive… but she was all for it, especially since she had a can of “canned pumpkin” that she wanted to use.

Unlike the other recipes we’ve tried up to this point, this wasn’t a hit out of the park by any stretch of the imagination. In fact when just mixing the cream cheese with the canned pumpkin the consensus was that the filling was very bland… so my friend (who was the primary chef this time around) decided to spice the filling up before “stuffing” it into the croissants. So what did she add?
– sugar
– powdered sugar
– cinnamon
– nutmeg
– cloves
And those are only the ones I managed to catch… who knows what else she may have added. In fact when looking at the comments below the recipe it appears that anyone that tried the recipe had a similar issue:

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Endeavors: Bake-a-thon! Round One!

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This past weekend I met up with a friend for an all day session of baking, cooking, and taste testing. We managed to compare schedules months ago and found a day that the both of us were free. So after weeks of saying “we need to get together to bake and cook” we finally did it.

So what did we make? Well… let’s just say a lot of possibilities across the spectrum… but here are the recipes I decided to start off with:
– Cheesy Popovers
– Cheese Bread
– Creamy Artichoke Soup
– Molten Lava Cupcakes (dark chocolate with candy canes)

What else did we make? Other ideas that floated around:
– Butterbeer Ice Cream
– Snickers Brownie
– Pumpkin Croissant

So what actually happened? Well…

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Reflection: Snow White and Bigby’s Seven Cubs

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Recently my trade paperback copy of the Fables series came in the mail… Volume 18: Cubs in Toyland, which included the Fables issues 114 thru 123. Where the first seven issues were about Therese and Darien’s adventures in Disturbia (aka Toyland) and issues 122 and 123 were called “The Destiny Game” where we learn about a young lady whose job is to assign destinies.

But this post is about the first seven issues…. or more specifically a re-analyzation of an old prophecy the was revealed in the form of a one-shot comic released to the public as a giveaway during a Fables panel at the San Diego Comic Con.

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It is within the above one-shot comic that we learn a prophecy that dealt with the children of Snow White and Bigby Wolf:

The first child will be a king.
The second child a pauper.
The third will do an evil thing.
The fourth will die to stop her.
The fifth will be a hero bold.
The sixth will judge the rest.
The seventh lives to ages old, and is by heaven blessed

Up until the end of the “Babes in Toyland” storyline we now know three of the seven cubs have been given their fates:

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

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Review: Profiles Theatre’s Hellcab

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Last week I had the pleasure to see a friend of mine in Profiles Theatre’s production of Hellcab. The first thing I said to him about his performance was that it took til almost the end of the show for me to be any where close to certain as to which character he played.

However, there was just enough doubt in me that I leaned over to my friend (his wife) after the show and ask, “your husband was the blind man, right?” Typically I am pretty good at playing “spot my talented friend” be it on stage or on film… in this case, not realizing which one was my friend was a feat in itself.

If you don’t already know the general production of Hellcab, it is a slew of scenes of various people and their interactions with the cab driver (the main character who was on stage for the entirety of the production). However, instead of having a small slew of actors playing multiple roles, each individual role was cast with a different actor… making this the largest cast production of Hellcab (that I know of to date).

However, considering the concept of this anniversary season of Profiles Theatre is it really any surprise that they would go all out?

When walking into the theatre for your seats the first thing you notice is that there is a full-sized cab sitting in the middle of the stage. The roof was sawed off and both passenger seats were taken out… but for the most part the cab was all there and in reasonable working condition (well reasonable enough).

What do I mean?

Well the cabbie is able to turn left or right and you can see the tires actually turn. The cab’s headlights were working for some of the scenes set in the middle of the night. (Though being an engineer I am kind of curious if they were run from the cabbie in the scene or from a separate tech crew… I should probably ask my friend but I digress).

Since there are so many characters outside of the cab driver, I won’t be able to run through them all (mainly because I don’t remember who they were, or which actors / actresses played what)… so what I’ll do is just notate the highlights.

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Entertainment: Invisible Driver Prank

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This has got to be one of the most entertaining things I have seen in a long time:

Did you watch? Did you?

Well… come on… did you?

Go ahead… watch… I’ll wait…

Done? Good… now jump past the break.
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Recipe: Guacamole (yes… really!)

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So in a concerted effort to eat healthier (not that I haven’t already been doing that with all the homecook meals I am always eating, and choosing to stay with fresh foods over processed whenever possible)… I’m going to continuously rotate fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet.. or create “fresher” dishes to mix in with some of my ready made ones.

First up GUACAMOLE!

Yes… I know… I copped out. So sue me…

Then again… don’t sue me, because I have no money for you guys to squeeze out of me.

I kid I kid!… Anyway.

A nice simple recipe that I am sure you all already know all about:

Ingredients
– 8 avocados
– 4 limes
– 1 bunch of cilantro
– 2 small onions

Directions
1: Squeeze all the juice from the lime and toss into food processor

2: Scoop the avocado from shell and remove pits… toss into food processor

3: Peel onion and chop into eighths and toss into food processor

4: Remove the majority of stalks and rinse cilantro leaves… then toss into food processor

5: Use food processor to chop, mix, grind, the ingredients until they have reached a consistency you are happy with.

6: Pour guacamole into airtight container and put in refridgerator so the flavors blend together for at least four hours.

7: After the chilling in the fridge, take out and serve.

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Review: The Theatre of Western Springs’ Sylvia

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Late last year a friend of mine and I were talking about attending The Theatre of Western Springs’ Sylvia. I mentioned that I would like to go as long as I had someone to go with and they felt the same. When word came around that there was a special announcement occurring after Opening Night my friend called me up and we decided that would be the day we would see the show.

So before I break it down here is the quick list:
Acting: Like
Directing: Like
Set Design: Love
Overall: Like
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Fleeting: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (Supposition)

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DISCLAIMER: I am not in any way affiliated with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries… I am just a fan that recently came across the YouTube online series and fell in love with the storytelling… who is providing her own supposition on what could happen down the road.

From yesterday’s post I did fall down a hell of a rabbit hole… but there was something that was nagging at me.

When looking at the various YouTube accounts for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries… during the time that Lydia was separated from Jane and Lizzie she created the YouTube Account: The Lydia Bennet. So when Jane and Lizzie are off on their real world adventures, Lydia kept up her own account which have now been featuring… you guessed it: George Wickham…

Interesting how something that would appear to be so small before would mean so much now…

Well while scouring the internet I came across this little gem: The Gigi Darcy YouTube Channel.

Yup apparently the little sister of William Darcy has her own YouTube Channel… granted there haven’t been any videos uploaded at the moment… but if you have caught up with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries AND know Pride and Prejudice like that back of your hand like I do (well almost do)… then you should know where exactly in the story this is all coming about.

If you are unfamiliar with the Pride and Prejudice story and do not wish to **potentially** be spoiled do not read any further and just move on your merry way through the internet.

If you ARE FAMILIAR but are still confused and do not wish to **potentially** be spoiled then again… do not read any further and just move on your merry way through the internet.

If you are familiar with Pride and Prejudice and you enjoy the story like myself so much that you can’t help but put clues together and living with the characters then you probably should have figured out by now like I have that…

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Review: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (aka LBD)

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I fell down a rabbit hole… a major rabbit hole. It was a rabbit hole so deep that I haven’t really taken any time to get out of it because it is so much fun in this rabbit hole.

So what am I going on about?

Well.. as I was lurking at the Pemberley Discussion Boards, I noticed via the Austenations board the acronym LBD with a vast number of episodes. I got curious… when looking at a few posts and how it would appear to be Pride and Prejudice related and how certain characters were emulated other characters I can’t help but be intrigued with this conundrum.

Thank goodness for Google… kind of.

A quick Google look up for LBD revealed a long list of various companies and groups with the initials LBD… but nothing Jane Austen related… which is what hit me.

Another quick Google look up for LBD and “Jane Austen” revealed the website The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: An Online Adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice which led to the online web series of the same name… And OH. EM. GEE.

According to the website it is…

The home of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries an online modernized adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Developed by Hank Green and Bernie Su

And they went all out… a fair number of the characters have twitter accounts, there is a tumblr, there is even an online presence for the companies featured on the show (Collins and Collins, Pemberley Digital) outside of the actual Lizzie Bennet Diaries series…

First a quick round up… here is how the characters have been changed / adapted from the original Jane Austen novel:

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Fleeting: Parking… in General

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Anyone that has been in a car while I have parked (primarily parallel parking) would probably know that I do rather well in being able to squeeze my car in spaces with just under a foot of extra room total. Lots of practice, I assure you…

So earlier this week I was parking in a traditional parking structure and with my penchant of enjoying backing my car into a spot, I found a spot and squeezed my car in. Squeezed because both cars on either side were drifting from the center of their own spots and towards the spot that I decided to claim:

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If you noticed with the other two cars… technically they are both drifting into the spot that I decided to park my car. Now mind you, the above picture is just an example of the kind of parking I deal with regularly… so the parking in question is relatively similar with the cars in question and with my car… if only for the fact that my car is perfectly center while the other two were drifting into the spot.

So why am I posting about this particular instance?

Welcome to the note I received when I went back to my car later that day:

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UPDATE: Changing Up My Writing Style

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So… after rereading some of my past posts… I realize that my writing style tends to sound that of… well… a monotonous professor.

*sighs*

What am I going to do now? Well… I am going to try to infuse more of my non-work personality into some of these posts in the hopes of being more… conversational. Yeeeaaah.

We shall see… shall we?

Fleeting: Chess the Musical (Film Adaptation)

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While driving to rehearsal one day I was listening to Seth Rudetsky and he mentioned how the musical Chess could be adapted into a movie if there is a stronger script and then segued into a song from Chess… but it got me thinking if Chess could actually be adapted for film? Particularly with the (arguable) success of Les Miserables.

So I decided just for the hell of it to listen to the Chess in Concert at Royal Albert Hall featuring the vocal talents of Josh Groban, Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel and Kerry Ellis.

If there were ever a song that really drove the point of this musical home it would be “The Deal (No Deal)”

Paying close attention to the lyrics you can’t help but notice how every character within the piece is their own version of chess for whatever their own reasons are.

Chess the musical wasn’t just about the chess game, but the game of life and how everyone was trying to manipulate everyone else to get what they want in the end… from front to end everything was a chess game.
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