I also got my nose pierced on my birthday (by the awesome, amazing Marie! ♥), and Maggie commandeered my camera during the process to take a picture of my pain. Haha. It actually wasn’t as bad as that picture makes it seem. And it’s healing up quite nicely; there’s barely any crustiness and it’s barely sore anymore.

It seems that, eleven months later, a certain someone still can’t accept that he’s no longer a part of my life. I’m sure you all know who I’m talking about; the same jerk who’s been plaguing my life for the last four years. I created an account over at Formspring.me, and wouldn’t you know, my inbox is constantly filled with anonymous questions and accusations. Hmm. I wonder who they could be from. Beats me… *rolls eyes* He needs to realize that the reason I’m no longer with him is because he treated me badly. That’s it. And there’s no way I will ever, EVER let that dirtbag back into my life. He needs to get over it, and let go. All of the harassment, the threats, the insisting… it’s only driving me further away and digging his own grave deeper.

I’ve had my Orihime wig for about a year. Every time I come home from a con, it’s tangled, frizzy, and ends up getting thrown in a closet or cupboard that way until the next con or event rolls around. So how do I keep my Orihime wig looking sleek, sexy, and brand new every time I wear it? Simple. I take a straightener to it.

WARNING: Proceed at your own risk when straightening a synthetic wig. My wig is made out of high-quality Japanese fiber. I would NOT attempt something like this on a party store wig. If you’re not sure if it’ll work, test on a small section of the wig in an area which won’t be noticeable if you fuck it up.

When I first got my Orihime wig, it had a loose curl to it, but it was the only wig I could find in that length and color. I’d read various tutorials online on how to straighten a curly wig using hot water, steam, etc. None of them were practical for me. So I made my own attempt.

If your wig is really tangled, you’ll want to condition it first. Fill a sink or large basin with lukewarm water, dunk your wig in to thoroughly soak it, then apply regular conditioner to the wig and really work it in. Rinse out the conditioner by swirling it around in the water and squeezing it with your hands. Once it doesn’t have any obvious amounts of conditioner in it anymore, gently squeeze any excess water out, and then place it on a wig head, comb out (DO NOT USE A BRUSH) thoroughly, and let air dry.

Once the wig is dry, get a straightener that you can adjust the heat, a spray bottle full of water, and I usually have a spray de-tangler or light-weight de-frizzer handy. Make sure your straightener is on the lowest heat possible. I work in sections, starting at the back of the wig and working towards the front/top. Combing is essential. You don’t want to heat-seal in any kinks or knots. This part requires a LOT of time and patience, because you’ll need to work in small sections to get the best results, and depending on the length of your wig, this can take a LONG time. I use the spray bottle of water to keep the wig slightly damp so it doesn’t burn, and I use a de-tangling or de-frizzing spray to keep the fibers somewhat lubricated.

That’s about it, hope it helps those looking to revive/restyle their synthetic wigs, but are afraid of using hot tools. Does anyone else have tips for keeping their cosplay wigs in tip-top shape?

Yeah.

Anyway, Mikey Burnett has been staying with us for the past week, because he’s been doing seminars and private lessons at the Lion’s Den. Mikey’s definitely a character, so things have been a little less dull around here. He told me that I deserve a medal for putting up with Eric, and any time I yell at Eric for something, Mikey says “I’m rootin’ for her.” He also says funny random things, like yesterday when he was looking out our balcony, and commented “you’ve got some kind of wilderness adventure camp in your back yard.” (In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that behind my building is woods and a stream.)

Anyway, I’m not doing that casual Naruto shoot that I was planning on, but I am going to a con in Hoboken, NJ, on the 29th. My friend Shelley is driving down from Massachussetts, picking me up on the way, and we’re staying with my friend Jessi who lives in New Jersey. It’ll be my first time hanging out with my friends since I moved, so I’m pretty stoked.

Since there’s virtually nothing to do around here, I’ve resorted to building cosplay props. I’ve decided that one of my future cosplays is going to be a “grown-up” version of Ed from Cowboy Bebop (since I’m obviously too “curvy” to cosplay her anime self), and I’ve been spending the last week and a half meticulously transforming a cardboard box into a rendition of her computer, Tomato. It looks pretty good so far, if I do say so myself, and I’ve been having fun working on it. I’m also making a Neliel (from Bleach) mask for my friend Stephanie, which is also almost done, but it’s been giving me a little trouble. The model magic clay I was using was being a hassle, and I had to overlay some plaster on it to fill in cracks, build up some areas, and generally smooth it out. I have faith in myself, and it’s probably going to come out pretty good.

Tomorrow I’ll be going over Christina’s to help her style her wig and finish her costume. Comicon is four days away! I’m so excited. Things have been pretty shitty lately, and this is the only good thing I’m looking forward to.

Sorry for the short post, but typing on a phone is a lot slower than on a computer, and I keep getting sidetracked.

Anyway, I revisited some of the pictures I made for people, and decided to post some of them here. It turns out I’m better at MS Paint than I’m supposed to be.

That last one makes Christina angry, because it’s actually really good and looks a lot like him. The point of MS Paint pictures is that they’re supposed to be bad.

Also, since I attended (and blogged about) Mokucon back in November, I’ve received a healthy dose of hits from searches for “mokucon.” It’s actually my 3rd top search term.

Honestly, I don’t know how people find my site with some of these. I’ve tested some of them in google, and can’t even find my site in some of the results. Anyway, some of my favorites (and yes, these are actually in my stats!):

- Flickr giant boobs
- Scorpios suck
- Jerry springer tranny
- New yorkers are assholes
- Her taking a shit
- Shiny preteen
- Plop stall -escapee
- Shiny hose
- Blowjobs for a living
- Skinny black trannys

I also use StatPress, which gives me a list of most recently used search terms used to find my site. This one is all-inclusive, and usually has ones that my WordPress stats have omitted. Right now, I have these search terms in my StatPress:

- Building up alcohol tolerance
- Red bull papageno
- Orange pee workout
- Random

Anyway, I’m off to work on my costume some more and make dinner. I had to re-dye my gi, because yesterday when I rinsed it out (and I followed the directions exactly), it went from a deep tangerine orange color to a light peachy orange. Wtf?

Christina and I have been working on our cosplay costumes for New York Comicon in February. We’re both cosplaying characters from Bleach; she’s being Soi Fong and I’m being Yoruichi. (Except since I’m actually shorter than her, I’m adding cat ears and a collar to my costume and being “Neko Yoruichi.”)

Yesterday we went fabric shopping at a place on 8th avenue called Ebad Fabrics. I love that place. They have sooo much stuff, and they gave us so much fabric for so cheap. I also had to make purchases of ribbon, elastic, fabric dye, and thread. Christina spent $30 (she bought way more fabric than I did) and I spent about $20 altogether.

With the skills I learned in my high school fashion class, I helped Christina cut out the fabric for her hakama pants (without a pattern!), and helped her start sewing it. We got the basics for the pants done, all she pretty much has to do now is the pleating and hemming, which her mom is going to help her with.

In addition to helping her, I was able to crop and hem a karate gi, and make arm warmers, leg warmers, and a sash for my own costume in this past weekend. The gi I hemmed by hand (the fabric is too thick for the sewing machine and the thread kept breaking), and my fingers are throbbing so bad from the needle and pins.

I’m almost done. I have the gi sitting in orange dye right now, and I just have to add elastic to the legwarmers and arm warmers. I also need to glue a few things in place, but that will be done once I procure a glue gun.

Pictures will be posted once my costume is complete.

Last night I was talking to one of my friends and he asked me to make a photomanip of him as Grimmjow Jeagerjaques from Bleach, because I’m so awesome with Photoshop. I had nothing better to do (and was avoiding finishing my new layout, hah) so I got down to it. It took me less than an hour, and the results were more badass than I’d expected them to be.

(Click the thumbnail to go to the deviantart page and to view full size)

Needless to say, my friend was completely enamored with it, and instantly made it his default picture on his myspace.

In other news, I’m pretty sure Penlope is going to be okay. The cut seems to be between her toes, but she won’t let me look at it. She’s still limping a tiny bit, but has no problem roughousing with the dog upstairs. I’ll just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t get infected, but I’m not worried about her being hurt anymore.