On Sunday, my husband and I picked up our good friend Diego for a fun cosplay photoshoot on the beach in Gulf Breeze, Florida.
Diego is a cosplay buddy from California (in fact, the last time I saw this guy, he was cosplaying as Hugh Maes from Fullmetal Alchemist at Ani-Me Con in Fresno, California), but as luck would have it, he moved here to Pensacola, Florida to attend Pensacola’s Christian College around the same month we moved here!
I’ve been itching to do a cosplay shoot with Diego for ages now, and I never fathomed we would eventually get around to it… on the Gulf of Mexico. Haha! Life sure is a twisty, turny, never-know-whats-coming-next thrill ride, isn’t it?
Anyhoo, check out the shots we got of Diego’s Kaito cosplay from Vocaloid. He made it from scratch with his mum. Whatcha think? ^_^
My handsome hubby and I made Thor and Lady Sif cosplays last year for the midnight release of The Avengers on May 4, 2012. We were one of the lucky few that managed to nab tickets to to the official Disney premiere at The El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California where Stan Lee was present showing off his mega-Marvel collection.
It was our first time working with eva foam for the armor elements of the costume, and at the time we started on our project, there weren’t any existing blueprints or pepakura files for Thor’s armor. So while a lot of costume aspects were rendered from scratch and thrown together last minute, we were super thrilled with the outcome… and Jonathan even placed second in the cosplay contest!
The costume contest at The Avengers midnight release. Jon and I are on the far end. The contest was by selection only… you couldn’t enter, they had to tap you for eligibility. Even so, there were a lot of amazing costumes that DIDN’T come up on stage, while some lame-o ones made it up.
Jon and I with our friends Will and Houkje. We pretty much stole these photos off of The El Capitan Theater website, haha.
You can see us at 30 seconds, 47 seconds, 54 seconds and you can my handsome friend Will cosplaying as Tony Stark at 2 minutes 18 seconds. ^_^
At the time of The Avengers release, when we were still high on the crack of Marvel superheroes coming together into one orgasmically epic film, we had made plans to redo most aspects of Jonathan’s costume to make it more realistic and sturdy. Buuuuuut, then Jonathan joined the Navy. And we knew he’d be in A School during the release of Thor 2. Since there were too many unknowns – where will we be, will he be able to go with his schedule, will there even be a strong cosplay crowd, etc., etc. – we decided to forget about any plans to cosplay to the opening weekend. *sniffles*
BUT! Then we met up with this crazy awesome group of cosplayers, the Pensacola Costumers Guild, and we knew we had to get in on the fun. A dozen frenzied calls to my mother pleading for cosplay care packages and a couple weeks later, we received Jonathan’s Thor costume in the mail, just in time for this weekend release! Oh, and we had to buy him a wig since the Navy chopped off his luscious locks of hair. *sobs*
Which brings us to last night and the opening of Thor 2: The Dark World! We met up with the guild at Books a Million for some geekery and nerdtastic fellowship – with lots of costume show and tell and prancing around for photo-ops. I went sans costume since I had the baby and I’m pretty sure my costume wouldn’t fit. But I got to play camera girl, which was a nice change!
The costuming guild took up the entire lower section / back two rows of the theater.
SO!! Enough with the chit chat! On with the movie review!
Omg omg omg omg!!!! KJNSDFUISNAFKNkjbfiusnbsadn!!!!! After leaving the movie theater I kept trying to gather my thoughts into some kind of cohesive dialogue so I could give at least the semblance of an intellectual review of the movie, but every internal monologue on the film just sounded like an Herbal Essence commercial.
Yes. My mind was sexually assaulted by this movie. And I liked it.
I can only really put it into perspective by saying it is WAY better than Thor 1. But it is not quite as good as The Avengers. (Which, as of right now, is the best movie in the universe.)
The only remotely negative comments I could conjure for this film is that Darcy had a lot of screen time, she dominated almost every scene she was in, and her relentlessly dry humor and quirky comments got a little overbearing at times. That’s not to say that I dislike her character or her lines. It just seemed a little too much for some scenes. But then awesomeness would ensue and all of her forcefulness would be forgotten.
My other complaint is the dry(ish) romance. I did like the subtle love triangle aspects they planted seeds for with Lady Sif and Thor and I wonder what kind of rivalry they’re gonna conjure up there for following movies… and how closely they’ll stick to the comic book storyline? But the only think I don’t like about these movies is that the Thor / Jane romance is a little empty. I mean, I enjoy it, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that freaking Edward and Bella from Twilight seem to have a better relationship build up and much more of an engaging romance than these two. Again, I’m not complaining. But it could be BETTER, I think.
So that’s the summary of my negative comments, review-wise.
Now for the good stuff! I loved, loved, LOVED the humor in this movie. It’s so much more in step with the overall Avengers theme and franchise now, that all of the movies – Iron Man, Thor, Captain America – appear to be taking on a solid form of being the “same story” in the same world, while simultaneously being totally apart, unique and stand-alone.
I noticed on Rotten Tomatoes that people were actually complaining about that. “They kept mentioning Shield. They kept mentioning Captain America. They kept referencing the other superheroes.” Seriously? This movie embraces continuity and builds on a brilliant tapestry of superhero synergy.. and that’s a BAD thing??? Uhhh, okay. That makes sense…. NOT. Those movie reviewers suck.
The Avengers references were AWESOME, the action was engaging, the imagery was stunning, the story wasn’t epic but it certainly was thrilling, and most importantly, they gave us a shirtless Thor scene.
So in my book, Thor 2 was a ten. GO SEE IT IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY!!!!!!!!!
I took to the beach with some new friends from the Pensacola Costumers Guild for a mini cosplay photoshoot this morning!
The beach we were at was called Chicken Bone Beach in Gulf Breeze, here in Pensacola. It was freezing cold, there were jellyfish EVERYWHERE and I stepped on a bunch of evil devil stickers that I STILL have in my feet. (First I mash my finger with a screwdriver, then this? I’m a rugged man-woman… lady. Or something.)
Anyway, we had a lot of fun taking pictures of their characters from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Aren’t these gals LOVELY?!?!
By the way, I just learned that the name Chicken Bone Beach is derived from the practice of Pensacola’s black peoples inability to pick up their chicken, but instead leave the bones spread around the sand in a most ignominious tomb. However, prior to knowing this interesting and highly racist factoid, I had the song Chicken Bone from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack stuck in my head. Still do, as a matter of fact.
Dreamin’, dreamin’, dreamin’ of the chicken bone…. happy, happy, happy with the chicken bone….
Anyway, it looks like Jonathan’s Spike Spiegel cosplay from Cowboy Bebop is the American Cosplay Experience pick for the month of November. If you go to the main website here, you’ll see his pic in the top right corner, in a little window of awesome.
So every time fellow nerds log in to troll cosplay photos, upload their own works, yadda yadda, they’ll be assaulted by my handsome hubbies awesomeness. Considering there’s like a bajillion registered costumes on that site, and only a handful of “Pick of the Month”s, I think it’s pretty frikkin’ sweet. (Oh, the things I swoon over as a doting wife….)
When Jonathan and I moved to Pensacola, we didn’t bother packing any of our cosplays. I figured we’d be far too busy with a newborn, we wouldn’t have any events to wear them to, and having just popped out a baby I doubted any of my costumes would fit (and I doubted right!).
So when we decided to go to FANdom Con, and anime convention here in Pensacola, we started getting some serious cosplay itchy feet. We had to cosplay, and we had to cosplay NOW. We didn’t know who to go as, and we were very much out of time for putting any decent costumes together. So we were resigning ourselves to go “naked” as I like to call mundane wear.
BUT THEN! Jonathan made a comment about his hair looking like Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and then a lightbulb just kinda went off. I’d go as Dark Willow, and Jon would go as Spike! Jon was able to pull the entire outfit out of his closet (just had to buy the red shirt), and I was able to find the pants and denim jacket at a thrift store. And voila! Spike and Willow cosplay.
We call these easy clothing costume “Closet Cosplays”. And while they’re not my favorite, they are fun to whip together for quick photoshoots and to keep the money draining cosplay bug at bay. We took these photos at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida, and our friend Mason helped us watch Tessa / take photos during the shoot. So! Whadya think? ^_^
It felt SO GOOD to be back into the nerdy scene with my handsome husband, and this time we had our little nerdling in tow! This was Tessa’s very first convention, and we dressed her in her pink Superman onesie that one of our Ani-Jam overlords back home bought for her baby shower. Jonathan and I threw together some Closet Cosplays (cosplays we could just pull out of our regular wardrobe), and went as Spike and Dark Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Since Dark Willow wears black pants, black top and a dark denim jacket, and her only iconic feature is black veins on her face, I doubted anyone would recognize me. So I was very surprised when not only did people recognize my character, but one gal had even dressed as Dark Willow the day before! Cra-za-zee! We spent today doing a photoshoot of our Buffy cosplays, so I’ll be posting those once I’m done touching them up.
Anyhoo, at the risk of sounding like a convention snob, Jonathan and I were not terribly impressed with this anime con – it was extremely small (the smallest con we’ve ever been to) and there really wasn’t much to do outside of hanging out with friends – and having just moved to the area, those weren’t exactly in abundance for us. The Pensacola Costume Guild were kind enough to let us troll their booth and let me get my photography jollies out and snap some pictures of their shenanigans, but I think knowing dozens upon dozens of people at mega cons back in California has spoiled us.
Regardless, we had a really fun time. We met some new people, bought some fun shwag, and got to spend a fun outing with our daughter. Here are some photos from the convention!
Every once in awhile we stumble upon our cosplay photos being featured on various websites, or reblogged, or occasionally mistaken for screen caps from the movie, or mashed up into desktop backgrounds… it’s fun to occasionally do Google image searches of the costumes we’ve done and find whats out there and the comments our photos get. Sometimes we find some really interesting results. For instance, just a couple of weeks ago I found these photos on polyvore.com of people using our Princess Bride cosplay kissing photo:
I really miss cosplaying as much as we used to! We churned out 33 costumes in just four years of cosplaying together.. and that’s not counting generic pirate and Renaissance and miscellaneous costumes for parties.
This past week, Jonathan and I whipped up some last minute cosplays for Pensacola’s FANdom Con and went as Spike and Dark Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer today. We plan on recruiting one of Jonathans friends from the base and taking some photos of the costumes sometime soon. Even though these costumes were “Closet Cosplays” as we like to call them – mostly clothes we pulled out of our closet – it feels good to be “the cosplay couple” again.
I’ll be posting our next cosplay photoshoot and photos from our anime convention weekend – Tessa’s FIRST EVER convention! – soon! It’s been 10 months, but Everythingman and AnimeWench are finally back. ^_^
Last Friday Jonathan and I attended a meeting with the Pensacola Costumers Guild at the local Books a Million. While indulging in some nerdy “you show me yours I’ll show you mine” with some of the other costumers, we realized our cosplays are scattered all over the interwebs and not easily accessible for show and tell.
I mean, I have them all loaded here on my blog, but when you click on the “Cosplay” category on my blog sidebar, you have to scroll for a small eternity to look through my posts. Then there’s our cosplay group on Facebook, which is annoying and awkward to navigate through on a smart phone. We also have our photoshoots on cosplay.com, but that site has gone crazy downhill with the website administrators going AWOL. And finally we also have photos on acparadise.com, but the site is super anal about having profiles featuring ONLY photos of the cosplayer the page is for. So basically, Jonathans page features only pictures of him, and my page features only pictures of me. Which makes showing off full shoots nigh impossible.
So! I wanted to post a blog with links to all of our costumes and photoshoots for ready reference and bragging sessions. ^_^ So here is the full list of our cosplays as a couple, in chronological order, starting with the summer of 2009!
CLICK ON THE SERIES TITLE TO SEE THE FULL COSPLAY PHOTOSHOOT.
Anyone that knows me, knows that I consume books like I eat food – quickly, mercilessly and without any restraint. I am a glutton for mind candy. As a result, I breeze through novels in a matter of days. I forego sleep if a book really strikes my fancy. I tune out all distractions and go into a book bubble, where it’s only me, my coffee, and my imagination.
On our first date, as Jonathan and I both started the traditional nerd mating ritual of preening and parading the fantasy novels and geek literature we enjoy and have in common, Jonathan insisted that I read the Dresden Files books. I’d never even heard of them, New York Times best seller though they be.
But read it I did, and have found that I really do enjoy the series. Jonathan and I have been following the books as they release, and breathlessly awaiting the follow up novels. The Dresden Files was actually the third cosplay we ever did together. We love this series. It’s become one of “our” things.
So I really don’t know why it took me four whole freaking months to finish this book. (It could be because I was busy growing a peoples, packing up for my cross country move, moving into my new home, being put on bed rest, and then shoving a human out my nether regions, followed by 24/7 care of and attention to said human. Maybe.)
Anyway, this is the 14th book in the Dresden Files series. I’m not going to even BEGIN to touch on the story intricacies. I’m just going to assume everyone is up to speed on the plot and story development. So to be honest, this book didn’t do anything for me. It was an enjoyable read but it just kind of… meandered. I guess I’m still just reeling from Butcher destroying every iconic and recognizable icon in the Dresden-verse with the book Changes.
After unraveling everything that had been built up over the course of 10 novels, this book just felt like reading a giant filler episode. Yes, things happened. Things were explained. Some major characters got killed, and recruited to new roles and la la la. But the way it all unfolded just felt so… flat. Maybe it’s because I read the whole book in tiny snatches over a course of four months. But I didn’t experience the breathless page turning, edge-of-my-seat excitement that I normally get while reading a Jim Butcher novel.
And the whole struggling to maintain his identity and quell his darker nature and internal power struggle thing just doesn’t float my boat. It’s like reading the memoirs of an angsty teen with raging hormones. It was more a one man show of Dresden off on his lonesome, and less personal interaction between characters. And it’s the character interaction and snarky dialogue that I really enjoy in the Dresden books.
Plus, Harry and Karrin STILL haven’t bow-chicka-bow-wowed. That’s just unacceptable.
For the first time since starting the book series, I’m not overly excited for the next release. I don’t NOT want to read it, I’m just okay with waiting. And for the life of me, I can’t see how this series is going to continue for another six to nine novels. It’s already reaching a serious “winding down” quality to me.
Anyway, Jonathan thinks I’m crazy for not being in love with this book. He was apparently enthralled. Which means the whole machismo, internal struggle theme must be bigger with the guys. I, personally, need more cheesy romance and nonsensical fantasy to keep me captivated for 14+ books. ^_^
So at first I was far too embarrassed horrified to post this, but after spending half of the day in tears from laughing so hard, I thought I may as well share this with the blogosphere before I explode. (Maybe this is why my husband and mum call me Little Miss Disclosure?)
So today was Tessa’s two week check-up at the doctors. It was a great visit. Her jaundice is now completely gone, she has just passed her birth weight by one ounce (she had gone from her birth weight of 7 pounds 3 ounces, down to 6 pounds 10 ounces in week one, and is now up to 7 pounds 4 ounces in week 2), and she was calm and bright eyed for the whole visit – even during the poking and prodding. The hospital staff kept raving about how relaxed and observant she was. So I left the hospital in a rather chipper mood, content in the knowledge that my baby is the cutest, coolest, chillest, healthiest baby on the planet. EVER.
As I was leaving the hospital, my handsome husband calls to ask if I’d like to meet him for lunch and a coffee date. Well, duh! My husband just this past weekend got leave to move out of the barracks and move in with me. For the first time since his joining the Navy on June 3rd of this year, we are now living together again. BUT, on certain nights when he works late or has to get up particularly early, he’ll be spending the night on the base for convenience sake. Tonight is one of those nights. So a coffee date was an unexpected treat.
We sat for a few hours at a Starbucks, cooing and oohing and ahhing over our gorgeous princess. As the pain of childbirth gets farther away and my stitches start to heal, I keep finding myself ruing the fact that I can’t, shall we say, get jiggy with it. Watching my sexy husband in his NWU’s – holding our precious daughter, brazenly babbling in baby talk to her in the middle of a Starbucks – and already feeling the kindling of desire to make another baby and grow our little family has kind of heightened that resentment.
I always thought the curse of “the pain of childbirth” spoken of in Genesis 3:16 was all bundled up in the single moment of shoving a 7 pound human being out of your hoo-haw. But now the sexual frustrations whilst sporting a vagina that makes me wish for death while pooping gives a whole new meaning to how “your desire will be for your husband” can be a curse.
That said, my brain was feeling inclined to wander to the dark side as we left Starbucks and I dropped my husband off at work.
Since my ADHD mind was still thinking about all the baby making I’d like to do, I naturally thought the lines from that scene would have made a great sex lead-in joke. So – feeling clever and geek chic – I sent my husband a sext that only a nerd would find both humorous and arousing.
After sending my masterpiece, I sat snickering to myself over my clever naughtiness, anxiously awaiting the response of “Mellon!” followed by an equally nerdy repartee. (I’m sure this speaks volumes for the healthiness of our marriage / sex life.) When my phone finally made it’s little iPhone “you’ve got a text” chirp, I pounced on it to read:
I don’t think I’ve ever been so red in my life. Seriously. I’ve been blushing so hard for so long that I’ve got a frikkin’ RASH on my neck. The gal from Starbucks texted back, knowing I was Jonathan’s wifey because we sat loitering for hours in the store, me sitting across from Jonathan with a drink in my hand with my name on it. Out of all the innocent, random, G-rated texts I send Jonathan, THIS is what I send when Jonathan leaves his phone at Starbucks. Seriously. W.T.F.
When I picked up the phone, there was no mention of my text, but there were a LOT of broad grins and half-heartedly concealed snickers and giggles. Especially when they had to ask the obligatory security question before handing the phone off.
“What is the picture on the home screen?”
“Uhhhh, my husband cosplaying as Thor.”
“*snicker snicker*”
Oy vey. And the worst part is, I don’t even know if the barista even GOT the Lord of the Rings reference, or if she just thinks I’m some awkwardly worded skank that sucks at sexting and likes to play dress up with her husband – who makes a mighty fine Thor if I do say so myself.
Jonathan, of course, thought all this was just hi-larious. Man. That boy OWES ME. Amiright?!
Domestic Geek Girl 
