Day in the Life of an Idiot

 I'll be doing light cosplay today at my Loft Class.

We made some off-hand comment about cosplay. When the students found out that I've cosplayed in the past, they were like "Do it! Bring it!" and we all know that if you agree to such a challenge, you really need to follow through to the best of your ability.

Particularly when dealing with teens.  

But, now I have arrived at class and realized that I have forgotten a critical part of my shinigmai uniform at home! The kosode!  I have a captain's haori, but gah! I'm wearing it anyway.

The other challenge of today is that it's a wrap-up day. As in, "let's talk about anything we didn't previously cover."  So, it's going to be the least prepared, by its nature.  But, I will be teaching it dressed as Aizen, so I will have all the narcissistic confidence of a GOD.

Seriously, these CONvergence people are good. I really rather adore waking up to have my schedule magically in my in-box. Here's today's:

3:30pm-4:30pm
Plaza 2
Anime Series: Year in Review
A yearly showcase of the past year's best anime series, presented by a group of anime fans who've watched and enjoyed them. Those looking to enter the anime fandom as well as those who've been otaku for years are welcome to attend. Panelists: Lyda Morehouse, Jessi Silver, Boris Smelov, Jo Thrace, Heather Deakman

5:00pm-6:00pm
Atrium 2
SF Writing Groups: The 2014 Scene
This annual (since 1986) get together of the Minnesota Imaginative Fiction Writers' Alliance helps science fiction/fantasy writing groups link with writers who are looking for a critique group. Panelists: Eric M. Heideman (mod), Lyda Morehouse, Tyler Tork

10:00pm-11:00pm
Atrium 6
Loki Can Rule Me Any Day
Loki is very popular, even though he wasn't the main character (or even necessarily a "good guy"). An exploration of side characters who have become fan favorites. Wolverine, Agent Coulson, Jayne, Connie Mk II - What makes us like them so much? Panelists: Lyda Morehouse, Kamuran Paradis, Damarra Atkins, Todd Murray, Anne Lyle

11:30pm-12:30am
Plaza 2
Which Supers Should Hook Up?
If Thor and Storm got together, they would have cute little thunderbabies. Panelists: Lyda Morehouse, Kenneth Konkol, Lathan Murrell, Samma Johnson (mod), Christopher Jones


So, a busy day, but all starting afternoon, which will be a nice thing.

Yesterday, I brought Mason along. He last minute decided to cosplay kid-Luffy, from One Piece. We spent much of the morning in search of the Straw Hat crew. Instead, we found a lot of really great cross/cosplay Marvel characters:

These ladies were really good (also traveling with a Thor and Tony Stark, though I only saw them later at the Marvel panel.) I was particularly enamored of Nicole Fury, as she had the perfect Wolverine claw mark scars visible under her eyepatch.


Lady Deadpool! Every con needs a Deadpool, why not a Lady Deadpool?


Fourth of July is Steve Rogers's birthday, so I wished this Stephanie Rogers a happy one and complimented her amazing 1940s style hair. (She defied my picture skills, though. Blurry here a little, but much worse when I tried to get her to pose with the two Peggys that were also at the Marvel panel.)


Another Cap (though, tbf, she might have been dressing as one of the traveling dance troupe.) Probably my favorite thing about a lot of the Captain American cosplayers is that they can embrace the 1940s aesthetic and be beautifully buxom and curvy.


There might have been a secret organization that was placing people in key positions at con, but I won't say who they were (*whispers*Hail, Hydra!*whispers*)


And, Old School Gambit, who isn't cross playing*, but come on! Look at this! It's perfect:


*today, according to naomikritzer this guy often cross plays "Slave Girl Leia." Rumor has it he's coming as "Slave Boy Leo" today, so I'll be sure to try to catch a shot of him, if I can, because that sounds phenomenal.

Mason and I spent much of con wandering around looking at all the cool costumers and wandering around the dealer's room. He bought a new Munchkin pack (zombies this time) and I found a cell phone charm of Renji/Hihio Zabimaru chibi, and I can never, ever resist chibi Zabimaru. Sadly, my cell phone does not have the technology to accommodate a charm. Seriously. It's not a smart phone, so I have no case to which I can hook such things. But, it was cheap and will fit my keyring just the same.

The Marvel Roundup panel was phenomenal. I had great fellow panelists and despite my voice, I managed to squee and maybe even make a few points of interest here and there. With any luck, you'll be able to judge for yourself. One of the panelists, Shaun Duke, is (among other things) a podcaster and he recorded us for his Hugo Award-nominated Skiffy and Fanty Show. If our panel gets posted there, I'll send along a direct link. It was probably the most high energy panel I've had so far, so I would think it would make a fantastic podcast.

Then there was more wandering, and Mason finally caught up with some of his crew:

Here's Mason with Zoro (green-hair) and Nami (orange-hair):


And in a time paradox, an older Luffy!


My final panel was "Cyberpunk 101," which went fairly well. Admittedly, my energy was starting to flag. Probably the most interesting part of the panel for me was the fact that one of my fellow panelists was a light side hacker. He was an honest-to-goodness Mouse, a phone freak from the 1980s. (And yes, he let us touch his hem.) I could have listened to his stories for the full hour.

Instead, we talked about a lot of different aspects of cyberpunk and, once again, the audience had some really amazing, mind-blowing questions and thoughts about the future of cyberpunk. Because the question kept coming up, "If we're living in a world already predicted, where we're saturated with technology, how do you write beyond that point? Or, maybe more importantly, is it necessary to?"

And I don't know. People often ask me if I'll ever return to the AngeLINK universe and I'm hesitant. I love the characters, but the world is getting harder and harder to reach back for because it's become a kind of AU where Facebook and Tumblr and Google glasses never happened.

The point was also made that one of the things cyberpunk spoke to was the fears of the day, "What if we become so dependent on our technology that we're no longer human?" That's not really the thing we worry about these days. We worry about the environment. We *do* still worry about corporations taking over, but a lot of what we feared has already come to pass. I mean, corporations as people? Pretty sure that was warned about in any number of early cyberpunk novels.

Also, as our resident hacker pointed out, it's actually a bit harder to by-pass The Man. Technology has outpaced some simple phone hacks. It's harder to break-in and it's much, MUCH harder to escape without leaving a trace.

Our fiction has also become a lot darker. No one believes any more that taking out one corporation/Power That Be will solve all the problems... without causing others. The revolution is murky and complicated and deeply underfunded...

It was a good panel, but in comparison to the squee fest of the Marvel Roundup it felt far lower key. But maybe that was because it was "meatier."

Since I make SUCH a convincing Renji, I thought I'd try a little SnK/Attack on Titan cosplay, too. I was going for the Erwin Smith look for my new hair cut. Nailed it, right?

Commander Smith:


Me. Separated at birth, am I right?

I'd planned to post the last couple photos from Detour tomorrow, but I think I'll put them up today with the thought that tomorrow, I will attempt to deconstruct my con experience. Probably the funniest thing that happened today was when I was blearily standing in line for coffee in full Renji/shinigami regalia, I got a: "Finally, a Renji cosplayer!" and a high-five.

Here's me an a Ichigo (in bankai, obviously):




A very perfect little Toshiro (with a grumpy expression even, whom I ran after yelling, "Taicho! Taicho!")"


I also had a person stop and ask for a picture of ME, which FLOORED me. I think the lesson here is, the costume makes the man (not the tattoos.) My only other final thought is that I think I may start recommending to my fellow fic writers that they consider cosplaying in their universe at least one time. I learned a lot about walking in tabi and sandals as well as the excitement that is stairs and hakama (and mine were fake!) and ZOMG WTF escelators and hakama....

Interestingly, as I was telling empty_mirrors on email, I'd seen a guy at the Obon festival who was demonstrating an Aikido sword form who did this THING with his hakama, where he'd take a fist full of the material near his thigh and jerk it aside before going into seiza or shifting into stance, and I thought, that's odd. Is that part of the form? Now I think it must be. I found I natrually did a very similar thing when faced with shifting in hakama. This gave me a wierd sort of insight into daily life/walking around. Also, wearing my hair up with the headband/bandana, which is very much a Renji THING was interesting, physically, too. When I was feeling kind of wiped (not hungover because I very, very rarely drink at cons), it felt really comforting. Like a brain hug. I wonder if that (and concealing the balding/tattoos) is another reason why the character might consider wearing it, you know?

Interesting stuff all around. Will talk about panels and people interactions tomorrow.

Now... a nap.

I woke up this morning to discover that, DESPITE ADVERTISEMENT TO THE CONTRARY, the tattoos had almost completely rubbed off in places! The irony? I HAVEN'T BEEN TO DETOUR YET! I know, right? The good news? I wasn't planning on heading over there until after noon (when we drop Mason off for a sleepover), and the dojon (where I left the paints last night, of course,) opens by 11:00 am for classes. So, I'm going scoot over there and pick up the paints in a little bit. Shawn agreed to touch them up for me. All should be well.

BUT, this got me to thinking that I probably need an alternative plan for what to wear on Sunday. Luckily, my friend and fellow writer Anna Waltz loaned me her shihakushô, which she sewed herself. The only thing I didn't have were sandals, but this morning, when I rushed off to Walgreen's to get some coffee and cat food they had flip-flops on sale.

The funny part? I think that the tattoos, even faded, are in fact MAGIC. Because the lady who checked me out, whom I'd been talking to, called me "sir." I haven't been called sir for about twenty years. I thought to myself, "Ha! She sees my inner Renji" (or, more likely? She was _so_ not going to look at anyone who had painted weird crap on their face. I had a a hat on, but she could probably sense I was not someone you wanted to actually engage because I was clearly insane. *snort*)

Anyway, here's what I'd look like if I went in costume (though I'd probably put more effort into the hair since I'd want it to stick straight out more in back.)

I was given a single question interview by Kenneth W. Cain: http://kennethwcain.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/single-question-interview-lyda-morehouse/.

My answer? Chickens.

My internet was down this morning or I would have posted copious number of pictures of SNOW. What I love/hate about Minnesota? School was not closed or even delayed. We got at least four inches, if not more. The plows have plowed most of the major streets, but the residental and side streets are a sloppy, dangerous mess. The sun is trying to shine today, but the National Weather Service tells us to expect more of the same: rain, rain turning to snow, snow.... I think for the forseeable future, I'm not sure.

Pictures may come, though likely the next ones will be of the grand tattooing paint project that my friend Nicki will be helping me with tonight.

Shit. I still have to decide what I'm wearing. I do have sunglasses at least. And some sexy jeans.

Saturday, April 20
9:00pm
Fandom on the Internets (Panelists: Lyda)
Hey guys, I hear there are fandoms on the internet. Come find out if someone on the internet is wrong.

Sunday, April 21
11:30am
What You Need to Know About Writing (Panelists: Lyda)
So you think you want to be a writer? Writers from many backgrounds will give you some tips and reality checks.

And, of course, I'll be in full cosplay as Renji. I have a date for painting on tattoos and "rocket red" hair dye ready to roll. Oddly, what I don't have is a costume per se. A friend of mine loaned me an approximation of a shihakushô. But, given that I don't really have a decent katana or Zabimaru stand-in, I'm not sure how much it matters. I have a Hello Kitty muscle tee which I could wear if I feel like pushing the gender queerness of it all (since it is HOT pink, not really Renji's color, I don't think), while showing off the tattoos.

It should be... IN-teresting. I'm probably insane. But I've decided that cosplay is like karoke. I'm going to go up there and BELT IT OUT and my friends will probably cringe, but I'll have a good time.

Today was meant to be a writing day with the ladies, but instead I blew them off to get together with my friend and play with body markers. Anime Detour is the weekend of April 19, so it's coming up fast. I figured I needed a dry run on figuring out the best way to do Renji's tattoos. For cheap and easy my first attempt was with body art markers from JoAnn Fabrics. Probably these would work best if you were doing the kind of art that involved a lot of color. Renji (the character I'm trying to cross-play) has black tribal tattoos. So, the inital results are mixed:



Our plan is to make the outlines with the markers I've bought and then use a body paint (which I also saw at JoAnn's but didn't pick up yet) to fill in the darker lines so they'll loose that 'marker-y' thing they have here in places. To be fair to my tattoo artist, the pen was running out of ink already by the time we got down my arm, so that isn't her fault at all.

I really ought to update you all on the rest of my life. A lot has happened, but I wanted to post this pic fast so people can see my progress on this crazy cosplay thing I've decided to do.

I'm going to look like such a dope, but it should be fun as all hell. Especially since my friend seanmmurphy has agreed to loan me an actual katana, so if I decide to go full soul reaper outfit, I'll have a Zabimaru stand-in. I'm probably actually going to go with Renji in Human World gigai, because... uh, otherwise no one will be able to see me, right? :-)

Last night I went to a costume party. Ostensibly, it was for our children, but almost every adult came in costume, as well. There was at least one family that was entirely on theme: dad came as Han Solo, mom as Leia, and eldest son as a Clone Trooper (one of the Wolf Pack, I believe,) and the baby as an incredibly adorable Yoda. Another family was mostly on theme, with a mom in a complete Disney evil queen, youngest daughter as Snow White (with apple), and then their eldest daughter veered off into some kind of furry cosplay (a wolf? a cat? something with ears and a tail and a cute furry vest!) and dad out of it and utterly mundane. I told dad that, since he had a beard, he could have come as the huntsman. All he would have needed was a box with a heart in it. Everyone looked at me like I was insane. Apparently, it's been a while since they all saw Snow White, because I'm pretty sure that's in the movie... where the huntsman collects a deer's heart instead of Snow White's? Anyone? Bueller?

Since my hair is long, dark and stringy, I went as a young (female) Professor Snape. I guess this was my first foray into crossplay. But, I think I pulled it off pretty well; I attempted brief moments of Alan Rickman like gravitas, at any rate, and drawled out one, "Obviously."

Mason went as a skeleton. I guess we could be on theme if you imagine I was dasterdly enough to have used an unforgivable curse on my own son, and somehow his Avada Kedavra'ed corpse was up and wandering around.

I have to say, however, there's something innately amusing about standing around in someone's living room with a bunch of adults in costume. The kids, of course, were having a grand time, running around and screaming at each other. But, all the adults managed to look embarrassed and miserable, except for the few of us who have no shame. Stuck forever in my mind will be the guy dressed as Han Solo, sitting on a folding chair with a beer in one hand, looking absolutely shellshocked and dazed as kids ran past him one by one shreiking at high decible levels.

Priceless.

Probably the best adult costume was the woman who came dressed in a giant binder. She was a binder full of woman. Awesome.

I've been talking to another friend on e-mail about cosplay, and I think my problem is that I care much less for the costume and a lot more for the play. If I went in costume, (which, btw, I am considering for at least one day of CONvergence, depending on my schedule,) I would TOTALLY spend the day in character.

But, as I've determined, I'm a lot more playful than a lot of people. I was also always that RPGer who would demand to be called by my made-up name (and nearly always opposite gender pronoun) and jump up to act out various scenes during the course of the game/campaign. I also almost NEVER broke character out loud. I might pass notes to the GM about plans or plots or such, but most everything I said (outside of those moments when you HAVE to roll the dice) was in character. I came of age in a time before LARPs so I missed out on that trend, which is probably just as well, because I might never have put down the "dice," as it were, to write. I'd probably still be out in the woods somewhere in costume pretending to be someone else all day long (and well into the night.)

Now that I understand that's my own weirdness, I'll be able to cope much better at the next Detour, I think. If I decide *I* want to cosplay at Detour, I'll just be sure to bring along a posse of friends who are in on it with me.

Speaking of Anime, I feel so incredibly stupid. I only just yesterday discovered that I can stream ALL THE BLEACH at the Viz Media Anime site. See what happened was, I bought Shawn a new iPad for her birthday (technically it's a refurbished iPad, not the new, new iPad,) anyway, we were setting it up and I realized I'd forgotten my Shonen Jump password. I had to go through all the rigamaroll to reset my password and, in the course of all that, got shunted at one point to the main Anime page (as opposed to the Manga page.) Imagine my suprise (and Shawn's groan) when I discovered that EVERY TUESDAY there's a new translated Bleach direct from Japan!! Whoot. Okay, so I'm only about 200 episdoes behind where they currently are, but, what this means is, after NetFlix runs out of discs we can keep watching. Hooray. (Yes, I know Bleach is ending this year. But Mason and I aren't fast watchers, actually. We can burn through a disc in a weekend, but that's only four or five episodes usually. So basically I'm set for LIFE.)

If I may go on about this for a moment, I have to say that I think that one of the reasons this series has inspired so much energy from me is because, ultimately, it's both DEEPLY rich and UTTERLY broken. A lot like Star Wars, actually, which was very likely the last bit of fantasy/SF that stirred this kind of crazy devotion in me. The world of Bleach (particuarly the spirit world, the Soul Society,) is dense. There's a lot of cool stuff: magical swords, magical combat techniques, spectacular fight scenes, in-fighting, weird and unexplained characters who clearly come pre-loaded with a lot of issues that you never quite get all of, etc. Then, after this amazing explosion of awesome, it's like Tite Kubo couldn't quite cope with the pressure to remain super. Not unlike George Lucas. Because then he seems to fumble the pass (and I don't just mean in the Anime, which I totally get has a lot of "filler.") This sort of combination (awesome/awful) inspires a lot of fan energy, becuase a lot of fan fic (at least my own) comes out of a passion to "fix" what is broken in a show. For instance, my fav guy is clearly the Han Solo in a way. He stars out incredibly fascinating and then gets used as the punchline in all the jokes. It makes me crazy.

Okay, enough about that. In my real life (tm,) I am still a bit driftless. I sent in a couple of proposals to my agent, but today I should probably try to work on the one she wants--which is more fluffy Tate stuff. I'm having a really hard time coming up with this because I'm kind of tired of it... though I'd pretty much write to spec right now if it meant having a contract.

My Loft class is just about over. I was just asked if I'd be willing to teach on-line again, and I said yes. Despite the weirdness of teaching on-line, I think that there are some real advantages to getting to do this sort of thing from home. So, I'm going to give it another try. We'll see if this next experience gets any easier/better. I suspect it's a matter of getting the hang of things (not unlike my first experience with Detour.)

Mason is home from school today with an upset stomach. I think he just had too many weird foods last night as he got a pair of chopsticks from a tutor who'd traveled to China (she gave a pair to everyone in class, not just the kids she tutors) and so he talked us into Vietnamese food. He got pretty good at the chopsticks, but I'm not sure all the spice and whatnot agreed with him. Plus, afterwards, he had a bunch of desserts including both icecream and watermelon.

At any rate, I'm going drag him along to my Women of Wyrdsmiths meeting because I think he's actually already over it-- thanks to a bathroom trip this morning (TMI)-- and I really hate to cancel that get-together because it's one of my favorite weekly traditions.