Smarter Than the Average Squirrel

blows off the dust and posts a Yuletide letter

2023-10-21T06:41:48Z

With the slow sad demise of twitter, I've been thinking about starting to use this thing more regularly again. But in the meantime, here's a Yuletide letter.

( Read more... ) I had forgotten how much I hate how DW does cuts. Anyway, I hope whoever gets assigned to me finds this useful and not excessive. For some reason I talk a lot when I write these.

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It's that time again, I guess

2017-10-09T02:52:20Z

( Ahoy, Yuleperson! )

Well, I feel like I rambled, as per usual, but I hope it was at least a helpful ramble. Thanks again, and happy writing! <3

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Morphicon Adventures Pre-Planning Post

2015-11-19T04:58:40Z

Okay so a few days back I was puttering about Twitter with the idea of putting out a mass email for people who might want to accompany me on some nerdy tourist shenanigans for a day or two immediately before (or possibly after) next year's PMC. Well, long story short, there were a lot of responses, I decided I didn't want to eff around with multiple email addresses, and I decided to put it here instead.

At this point, obviously, nothing is set in stone. I'm roughly 90% sure, finances permitting, that I'll be tacking an extra 1-2 days onto my PMC trip for the purposes of doing stuff in California beyond just "Arrive, recover from jet lag, do con stuff forever, go home." Obviously I would really like some form of company for this. But I see it less as a case of "Let's get a big group together and Plan All The Things" because I hate having to coordinate people. HATE. It's more like "I wanna do X, Y, and possibly Z stuff, feel free to come with me if you're around and interested."

Possible stuff I would be doing with this time includes:

- Notorious Ameritoku site pilgrimage. I wanna go to the Command Center. I wanna take cosplay pictures at the Command Center. I would also not say no to a trip to the temple from VR Troopers. Bring your own vest.

- Beach trip. I want to splash around in the Pacific Ocean because I never have before. (Also POSSIBLY cosplay photos as Delphine, particularly if a Command Center trip falls through.)

- Random LA area touristy stuff IDK.

- If David Yost announces another pre-PMC Hiking With Fans expedition, I'm going. End of discussion. Don't care if other plans were made or not. My Billy fandom trumps literally everything.

And stuff that will be required in order to make any combination of the above events possible:

- Hotel space. Because the hotel(s) for PMC are stupid expensive when not at con rate and I doubt I could tack additional days onto my reservation at this point anyway, the plan would be to reserve a much cheaper room elsewhere and 'move in' to con space on (IIRC, Bats correct me if I'm wrong) Thursday night.

- Transportation. Guys, I have SUPER BAD driving anxiety. While I theoretically could rent a car and tool myself around the greater Los Angeles area, I REALLY do not want to. So if you're driving to the con or renting a car, and you're willing to have a Pocky in your passenger seat, you will be my hero. Also I will totally chip in for gas and/or car rental expenses. Failing that...IDEK anything about public transit in the LA area, but I'm willing to try. :P

So TLDR, nothing is set in stone as yet, this is basically me just shouting my thoughts into the void as usual for the sake of gauging interest. Hit me with a comment or tweet at me if you want in. Let's go have adventures together.

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Yuletide letter take 2, the "fuck you Dreamwidth" edition

2015-11-01T02:15:58Z

So Dreamwidth not only ATE my letter, it also deleted the placeholder post said letter was attached to. I'm reposting in the hope that you'll be able to find it, and apologize for the inconvenience. :P

( Let's try this again, shall we? )

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HA. HAHAHAHAHAHA FUCKING HA.

2015-10-30T23:58:48Z

So awhile ago I made a placeholder post for my Yuletide letter. Tonight I tried to edit my placeholder post with my actual Yuletide letter. And Dreamwidth ATE IT. It is GONE.

Nevermind the fact that the URL for that placeholder post is what was linked in like, my entire signup?

WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO NOW?

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Another Dear Author letter? That's all I use this thing for anymore...

2015-06-14T03:15:11Z

( It's Femslash Ficathon this time... )

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The latest in awful Dear Author letters: Awesome Women of PR Ficathon!

2015-04-30T00:27:55Z

( Cutty cutty cut text (please forgive me, low on sleep) )

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I YET LIVE!

2015-02-01T18:38:10Z

Wow, it's been a bit since I last posted here. Whoops.

Anyhow, it's Femslash February, and I'm participating because hell, why wouldn't I? Leave me prompts and I'll see what I can do. <3

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It's that time again!

2014-10-03T00:58:03Z

( Dear Author letter for Alpha's! )

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Morphicon. Wow.

2014-08-25T19:27:23Z

So I'm just sitting here in the Vegas airport, waiting for my connecting flight and reflecting on what has been one of the most insane weekends and the single best con experience of my entire life. As a quick overview, since Wednesday, I've:

- Went to breakfast with the members of Power Force and the entire cast of Megaforce.
- Entered my first cosplay contest.
- Had my room party interrupted by a shirtless Hector David Jr. demanding pizza and Najee de Tiege wielding a Spin Sword.
- Had drinks with podcasters and the voice of Goldar.
- In-costume photo op with two of the actual Aquitian Rangers including Rajia Baroudi.
- Somehow got Brad Hawkins to call my husband on the phone.
- Last-minute autograph and handshake with Austin St. John.
- Attended Brad Hawkins after-party and witnessed the most insane charity auction ever.
- Chatted about comic books and got kisses and selfies with Christopher Khayman Lee.

And so many other things I can't even begin to list. I am so grateful right now to be a part of this fandom and to have the friends that I have. Best fandom. Best people. Best con. More coherent post later.

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It's Over-Ambitious Cosplay Time! Post #7: Wait For It...

2014-07-28T01:49:35Z

BEHOLD, LIKE A COSPLAYING PHOENIX I ARISE FROM THE ASHES OF FAILURE AND ACHIEVE...VICTORY!

Congratulations, Pocky! It's a head!

This morning, in a last-minute surge of motivation, I went to Michael's, bought a whole bunch of new crap, and then spent all afternoon assembling it into this. No more molding. Fuck molding. This was BUILT, out of craft foam, Model Magic, and a mutilated baseball cap. I've accomplished more on this costume today than I have in the past three months. I'm not going to say it's perfect, because it's not. The proportions are off and it's rougher than I'd like. But it's SOMETHING. And right now that something is drying in preparation for paint and detailing.

Meanwhile, for the first time since I started work on this godforsaken thing, I got to work on something OTHER than the stupid head:

Here is a brooch-thing. It wasn't a seashell after all. I might never have known WHAT it was, were it not for tptigger and her shiny screencaps. Right now it needs baking, painting, and a pin back.

Seashell belt. I could weep for joy.

I'm not out of the woods yet. The head still needs a lot of work, and I've not even started the tunic yet. But there's hope, dammit, and there wasn't much of that before.

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It's Over-Ambitious Cosplay Time! Post #6: Don't know when to quit

2014-07-21T02:11:08Z

So after the contact lens debacle, I took a break. And then I procrastinated a lot. And then I realized that I'm leaving on vacation in three weeks, and then PMC happens like, IMMEDIATELY upon my return. Aaaaand I panicked.

Cue my partner in crime coming over on Friday night and us molding my head. AGAIN. This time, we dried the paper mache one layer at a time, AND I put the mold in the oven for extra drying power. And things came out slightly misshapen, but workable, I thought. So I finally got to move on, finally got to get out the clay and start sculpting.

...LOL nope.

I ended up punching a large dent square in the middle of the paper and clay replica of my own forehead, and if that ain't symbolic of how this entire process has gone, I don't know what is.

So I now have 2 weekends of work time left, and absolutely zero costume. I'm still half tempted to try again with a different technique, and half tempted to say fuck it all and not have a costume for this con.

Either way, I've already - suicidally, perhaps - settled on my next over-ambitious cosplay effort. Which will be a full mechsuit for TFCon 2015.

I never learn...

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So many ficathons OMG

2014-06-26T03:13:50Z

And letter for Femslash Ficathon goes here.

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It's that time again...

2014-06-25T13:31:45Z

Oh. Assignments for PRD went out, so I should probably get on putting an actual letter here, ne?

Fact: I hate writing these.

Fact: If you're signed up for this exchange, you probably already know me, to at least some extent.

And Fact: I am incredibly easy to please. You really don't have to worry about me not liking my fill. Really.

That's...probably not helpful at all. Like I said, I hate writing these.

The prompts themselves are pretty descriptive; I have a bad habit of doing that. So feel free to use any or all of the suggestions there, but feel equally free to take a left turn at Albuquerque and write something completely different. I like surprises.

I will also say that even though this is a gen exchange, I am not in the least opposed to there being ship in the fic. I like ship. Ship is good. And there is really next to nothing ship-wise that bothers me, so go nuts.

That's about it. Thanks for writing for me, you're awesome!

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It's Over-Ambitious Cosplay Time! Post #5: The hits just keep on coming

2014-06-15T05:12:53Z

So my contact lens appointment happened, and...fuck, I don't even have anything funny to say about this. It was not funny. It was unpleasant and frustrating, and after roughly 40 minutes of attempting unsuccessfully to get a contact lens into my eye I wound up leaving and crying in my car.

Yay.

So here we are, less than three months until the con, and not only do I not have a costume, I also would not be able to SEE anything in my costume if it did exist.

While I appreciate and am heartened by all the cheerleading these posts have gotten, my persistence is beginning to wear thin.

At this point, I've decided to give the molding one more shot since I have all the supplies anyway. I may or may not give the contacts another shot; part of me is inclined to say "fuck it, I'll be blind for a few hours, cosplay is not about comfort" because the entire thing was just that traumatic.

And this post is so much less witty than the other ones. Sorry, folks.

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This is a thing? I guess?

2014-06-13T18:44:19Z

It's been brought to my attention that you can use your email to make DW posts. Handy, since the damn site doesn't ever let me post from my phone. Handy if it works, that is. Call this an experiment.

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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It's Over-Ambitious Cosplay Time! Post #4: How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

2014-05-31T16:15:22Z

Ha. Hahahahaha.

Fuck.

Back of head mold was so glued to the wig head that I broke both of them trying to get it off.

Front of head mold grew a bunch of MOTHERFUCKING BLACK MOLD on the inside over the past week.

Both are now in the trash and I am back to square one.

Again.

Really not sure how to proceed from here. Make another go with the paper mache? Try a different material?

My knee-jerk reaction is to want to return all the other supplies I bought last weekend and abandon this project entirely.

See guys, this is why I don't do 'real' cosplay.

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Apropos of absolutely nothing...

2014-05-27T04:01:04Z

...Would any of y'all from the PR fandom be interested in an online-based, PR-themed, D&D-style roleplaying campaign?

Basically I had planned to run a one-off session of this at Couchcon, but that ended up falling through because reasons. And of course, me being the person that I am, the storyline from that session has evolved into a full-fledged plot bunny that won't leave me alone.

To carry this off, I'm going to need 5-6 people who have the following:
- A general desire to RP as an OC Power Ranger
- Access to a chat program on the order of Google Hangouts or Skype
- Dice if you choose to, but an online dice-roller will also do the job
- Ability to be online for a few hours on a pre-determined evening roughly 2-3 times per month

And if you're thinking to yourself "I've never played a tabletop RPG before and I've heard they're hard", fear not. My platform of choice is Dungeon World, which is the single greatest RPG for people who don't know how to do RPGs that I've ever encountered. It is super user-friendly and requires WAY less math and bullshit than D&D or Pathfinder tend to.

And also I've never DMed before so you can rest assured I'll be fucking up at least as often as you do. Probably more.

(And for those of you already involved in Bouken!Pathfinder...this might be a cool thing to do on off weeks? Think about it.)

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It's Over-Ambitious Cosplay Time! Post #3: Alas Poor Headmold

2014-05-27T02:52:19Z

( Last time, on Power Rangers... )

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It's Over-Ambitious Cosplay Time! Post #2: Making a Mess...I Mean, a Mold

2014-05-18T03:55:07Z

( Step 1...Maskmaking! )

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It's Over-Ambitious Cosplay Time! Post #1: Why Oh Why?

2014-05-18T03:18:02Z

Ah, spring. When a young nerd's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of cosplay. Con season is upon us, and the eternal question looms...what to WEAR?!

As many of you are aware, I am something of a novice cosplayer. I tend to veer toward things that require...well...minimal effort. Every once in awhile I get it in my head to do something more complicated. And I inevitably get intimidated and give up. I don't want to do that this time, so I'm making these posts in part for accountability and in part because I'm shamelessly seeking cheerleaders. If successful, the result will be showing up to Morphicon in August, the single most badass cosplay I have ever done.

The HBIC herself, Delphine.

This is a character that means the world to me, and who I find is sorely underappreciated. I hope to do her justice.

Right now, the plan is to get the hard part out of the way first. I'll be casting a latex mask using the process outlined in this tutorial. Stay tuned. :)

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It's May!

2014-05-02T02:19:45Z

And May is Mental Health Month, so it's time for my annual offer to make use of my education and chosen career for the general benefit of fandom. Ask me about mental health stuff, friends list! I will answer anything put to me, to the best of my ability. That means both fandom-related stuff ("Do you think [insert character here] could have [insert psychiatric condition here]", "How can I portray mental health issues more accurately in my fanfic?" etc.) and IRL stuff ("What's your opinion of this antidepressant medication?" "Is this an issue I should be seeking help for?" "I'm worried about my friend/family member, what can I do?") and anything in between.

If you feel more comfortable asking something privately, send me a PM or comment anonymously. But unless you flat-out ask me not to, I will be posting answers publicly. Because chances are, if you're asking, you're not the only one it's relevant to.

So let's raise some awareness, kick stigma to the curb, and perhaps even have a little fun, eh?

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This is gonna get jossed in a week, I just know it

2014-04-07T04:33:00Z

It's been less than 2 days since the episode aired, and you're looking at the proud mama of the fandom's very first Orion fic. So...yay, me? I guess?

(And it's not on AO3 either because there's no Orion tag yet and IDK how to make one. Herp a derp.)

Title: Aliens
Fandom: Power Rangers: Super Megaforce
Pairings/Characters: Troy, Orion. Shippy if you squint at it.
Rating: G-ish.
Summary: Orion is literally alone in the world. Troy feels like he is, but that's nothing new.
Notes: Troy being in foster care has been my headcanon ever since Gosei mentioned him having faced adversity and then completely failed to elaborate. This is just the first time I've managed to actually write something about it. Expect more at some point.

( And he wonders, sometimes, what it says about him that he feels more kinship with a robot and an alien than he has with any human he's ever met. )

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Meme wrap-up...sort of

2014-02-01T03:32:38Z

angel_negra asked if doing this meme was a good idea. And overall, I'd have to say yes. It's given me the opportunity to think about and post about some interesting topics. And hey, if I somehow contributed to the existence of more Ji/Jayden's dad fic in the universe, that is an unexpected but welcome bonus.

I'm a bit annoyed with myself for not managing to post every day, but as I had mentioned before, there's been some recent medical weirdness that's rather nerfed my motivation on some of the days in question.

(Relatedly, if you are prone to spine-related shenanigans, I would NOT recommend attempting Couch to 5k, as I'm pretty sure attempting to force my weirdly built body to run is how I have fucked up my neck. End PSA.)

But all whining aside, since I didn't get to all the topics this month, the only logical thing to do is continue. Maybe something like one post per week, or whenever I get bored.

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Revenge of the Topic Meme

2014-01-26T02:16:40Z

punkpinkpower asked me to discuss things I enjoy about femslash. GLADLY.

( Hello, ladies! )

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