I really ought to have just bought pudding

I went through all the trouble to try to make custard, and when that worked out, make pudding, and then discovered that my audio was off. ARGH. But I still did it! Please excuse the quality, this is the first actual video I've ever made with the intent of showing someone else.

WELL THEN, BLOGGER

BLOGGER, WHAT DID YOU DO?

YOU'RE SCARING ME.

Hey guys, I think blogger changed, it scared me silly when I logged in, I had no idea where I was supposed to go for a few minutes. But I survived.

We forgot to choose another theme for this week. Therefore I shall ramble for a couple of paragraphs.

First subject: Anime Boston 2012

Earlier this month was AB12 and I was a little sad because I didn't get to cosplay my Weeping Angel, nor was I capable of eating due to still having my jaw wired from surgery, but I did get to cosplay Amy Pond! I was her for the whole weekend, I actually want to dye my hair ginger now, not just because it would help for a far more accurate cosplay of her, but also because I really like red hair.

So I cosplayed her outfit from Time of Angels and I thought for a while no one would recognize me until some guy turned around and shouted "Come along, Pond!" and then my weekend began.

I went to the Saturday BBC photoshoot and it was full of whovians and sherlockians, it was fantastic. Some photos got reblogged on Tumblr too, http://doctorwho.tumblr.com/post/20697940769/anime-boston-bbc-meetup-canthisgetanyworse. I was not paying any attention for the ones I'm in here (was asking someone to move my bag I think), but you can probably see others that I'm tagged in on facebook. I should really upload mine. One of my friends was cosplaying the sixth doctor and we ran into two weeping angels and he decided to push me at them all I could think with that was "Doctor, you're supposed to be saving me from the angels, not throwing me in the ring with them!" It was so much fun.

Next year I plan to cosplay Restac and I'm starting my planning early this time because the difficulty level has upped significantly.

I'm going to try and get as accurate as possible so I've been researching the methods used on the show in order to try and duplicate them to the best of my ability.

Also I've been reading like crazy lately. It turns out that reading is an awful habit for me as I never get anything done. But I have missed reading like crazy, I feel like I haven't had time in over two years, which is true. So I can't wait for the summer to be able to read constantly. I've got quite a list of books I need to read. But I also need money in order to purchase books so I think I'll be applying for a job at the Barnes & Noble on Cape. I can't think of a better summer job.

Finally, I've just decided today on which college I'll be attending. I've decided to go to Wheaton College in Norton, MA. It's not that far from where I live, about two hours I think? Not as far as I'd like and I plan to try and transfer into MHC or Smith at one point but Wheaton is a really great place and I'm pretty excited to go. I didn't really have much of a choice, they gave me so much aid that my mother said I'd have to pay my own way if I wanted to go anywhere else. So it's probably a good thing I like Wheaton. It's nice to be certain about next year, a really big relief and now I can focus on just getting through the rest of the year (graduation on June 3rd). I'm both excited and nervous about living away from home and especially the idea of a roommate.

Well This is getting really long so I'm going to cut off awkwardly without any really closure to anything mentioned. Especially this paragraph.

Dear 13 Year Old Rachel

Hi Rachel, while this may come as a shock to you, I'm you... from the future. I don't really have time to get into the mechanics of it (sometimes time gets all wibbly-wobbly and timey-wimey and there's really no more eloquent way to put it) but there are a few things I'd like to fill you in on.

So I know that you've had a rough time; being homeschooled for most of your life and then dumped into the lion's den of a small junior high when you're already naturally introverted makes for a pretty rough transition. I know that you're excited to leave it behind and start fresh in high school, and that's why I chose this moment to talk to you (if it was before this point it would've pretty much been "keep your head up, good luck" and that is just not an effective use of time travelling letters).

You're still really really young and trying to find out who you are, and that's fantastic, but I want to remind you of something: just because you don't know who you are, that doesn't mean you can't still tell who you're not. It's ok to dabble in being an uber girly girl, a stereotypical Christian girl, a punk girl, a geek, an artist, etc, but when you realize that it doesn't feel right and you're having to fake it to fit in, it's time to move on.

(Spoiler!) You....I...(we?) come out mostly on the geek end of things. There's still some of those domestic good Christian wife traits, some artsy, and on occasion some distinctly feminine traits come out, and that's cool - you're a rounded human being rather than a label, so it's okay to have different interests.

Now that you're not feeling great about the prospect of looking forward to being bullied for the rest of your life for being a geek, I'd like to present you with this [13 year old Rachel would be shocked by the a- and b-words, but I'd venture you girls can take it]

 

That's not a joke, or making fun of geeks - those are people who are geeks and act in a popular webseries about geeks, talking about how now they're cool. Yep, being a certain kind of geek definitely becomes cool in a few years. It's worth your while to make sure you get into honors/advanced placement classes in high school, since that's where you'll really start to dig into geek culture.

That about wraps it up, but a few quick notes: don't date that boy you get a crush on in freshman English; he's gay, and it doesn't work out well. In fact, don't date his best friend later either, because you'll only be able to see his douchebaggery and misogyny after the fact. It's ok to make friends with the bubbly extroverted girl in most of your classes, but don't let being her friend become your identity, both because that's not healthy and because she "dumps" your friendship several times, and the more tied into her your identity is, the more that's going to hurt.

Whelp, I need to get to work (no spoilers on that path though), so good luck.

Oh! And when Doctor Who comes out on BBC in about a year, watch it. Trust me.

Hunting for Nerdy Costumes

I was moderately excited for Halloween this year. A friend and I decided to go as Sherlock and John from BBC's Sherlock, mostly because the costumes would be fairly easy to find since it's set in modern times. Unfortunately, somehow I just couldn't manage to find the pieces I needed to be John.

"Well, okay" I thought, "I'll be the Eleventh Doctor! All I need is a button up shirt, suspenders, boots and a bowtie!" But I didn't have much luck there either.

I ventured off to the college town's thrift stores, and one that's very popular for finding cheap last minute costumes. At this point I was just looking for some sort of costume, but I got entirely overwhelmed when I walked into one to find massive piles of miscellaneous clothing, some random sparkly accessories, and people milling about, squeezing past each other through the piles.

As a last ditch effort I stopped at one of those stores that pops up around town around Halloween just for selling costumes, and seems to be vacant the rest of the year. I was a little amused to watch the owner (who happened to be wearing an Eeyore costume) wander around and vaguely hit on college girls. I attempted to piece together a non-slutty pirate costume, and while I found a couple of pieces that I really like I couldn't find anything for the bottom or a decent pirate hat.

So... another costume-less year for me. Since I started working when I was 16, I haven't really done anything for Halloween, either because I got stuck working, or was so tired from taking too many classes and working too many hours, and just enjoyed sleeping in on the weekend.

But, as an entirely different subject, I'm getting some couples portraits done early tomorrow morning. While this means that I'll need to be in early tonight, it's nice to have something else to look forward to after my costume fails.

Happy Halloween!

Effort was made :D

Again, I'm not too sure what to right about because there's no theme but I'm going to make an effort this week.

I haven't really been up to much recently, I went up to Aberdeen at the weekend to visit some friends who are university there. I'd never been there before so I didn't really know what to expect. All the buildings there are grey, I'm not even exaggerating, they're all made out of granite. But yeah I had fun in Aberdeen, it's actually quite a nice city.

I've also spent most of the week geeking out about Doctor who. I don't know if everyone has seen it yet so I won't go into any detail about it. I was just so amazed, I mean, so many emotions packed into one episode, I was a wreak by the time it was done. I also never really like River Song since the episode she appeared in but I hate to say it, she is actually growing on me, I think her and the Doctor have a lot more chemistry than they used to but I think that's actually because the Doctor kinda knows her now and is able to joke a bit more with her.

Any way if any of have any theories I'd love to hear them.

I also have a suggestion for this blog, rather than use YourPants for a place to suggest blog themes and discuss other things, that perhaps we create a private facebook group. Just because I don't feel that many people use YourPants any more and that we just forget about it sometimes, I know I do. Anyway it's just a suggestion, feel free to ignore it.

Whoops

So, hey.

I could pretend this post is late because I just moved over the weekend and am still in the process of unpacking and getting settled, and didn't have time all day, but that's not true.  I was really pretty lazy about the whole unpacking thing and spent a lot of time standing in my room staring absently at my stuff.

Or I could pretend that the mid-afternoon break that I spent reading ridiculous theories about the recent Doctor Who developments was definitely a better use of time than writing a blog post.

Or I could pretend that it's because I had to go run a bunch of errands with my family in the evening... actually that one's true, but it was only a couple hours of the day.

Or because the new episode of Glee was on tonight and I mean, I obviously couldn't have written a blog post during the commercials.  That would just be way too much to ask.

No, no.  The real reason is because in the hour and a half that I had after Glee, my plan to quickly check my email and Facebook and such before writing a blog post somehow turned into getting sucked into TV tropes...

So, sorry.  I guess I'll await the decision of the punishment thread in the YP group.

I know there was discussion on Rachel's post on Friday about the theme for this week being "I never though I'd say this, but..."  However, since Sarah didn't do it yesterday and I still haven't come up with a good response to it, can we make this another free week and push that one ahead to next week?

As I mentioned, I've been busy moving and getting settled.  It's really weird to move back home after being away for three years.  Especially since we moved here only a few weeks before I left for university, so it doesn't even really feel like home.  The room that I always stay in when I'm here to visit was always essentially set up as a guest room that would work equally well for me or my brother or my grandparents or anyone that was staying here, but for the summer we're rearranging it so that it can actually be my own space.  We've moved a lot of the things that were stored in there so that it's not cluttered up with any of my brother's stuff any more, and we made space for a lot of my furniture from my apartment, and it really feels like home, which is something I've been lacking for a long time.

I never really felt at home living in university residences because, well they were residences.  No matter how long you lived there and how hard you tried to make it your own space, you were still sharing one shower between eight people and the toilet broke about once a month and those are just not things that make you feel at home in a place.  My apartment was a huge improvement, but it was very small and didn't have much storage space so I always felt cramped.  Plus I had roommate issues the first year I lived there and mouse issues the second year.

Long story short, right now is the first time in a long time that I've really felt as though I had a space of my own, and it's wonderful.  I want to make use of the comfortable, nurturing atmosphere I've created as a springboard for self-improvement this summer, meaning I want to do some serious writing, get into a healthy exercise routine, decrease the amount of time I spend on the computer, and finish the knitting project I've been working on for three years.  Those are my plans.

Long weekend was not long enough

We forgot to choose a theme again.
Hey look, Howl and Sophie.

Just this weekend I was at Anime Boston and it was fabulous, I was a Weeping Angel on Saturday in honor of the new series of Doctor Who, which I didn't get to watch the first episode of until Sunday. The waiting nearly killed me.

It was insane, I couldn't move five feet before getting stopped for a bunch of photos. There was a Doctor Who photo shoot at the convention, I got lost trying to find it from outside the convention area to the third floor where they decided to change their minds and make it the second floor instead. There were many Fourth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors running around plus one Nine (armed with a banana), a TARDIS and a couple of Masters.

You know, for an anime convention, there's a heck of a lot of sci-fi.
Here's a picture of me I found on Twitter. Now that I think about it, that guy behind me was also behind me in other photos... creeper.
I'm 41/46 in the slideshow.
Pictures from the photo shoot.
I tried to sneak up on a bunch of Doctors, but they all moved too fast, so much for being lightning fast. The Doctors all snuck up on me, multiple times for some. I'm sure it helped them that the majority of the time I had my hands covering my face so I couldn't see.

One of the best parts of this weekend is I'm using it to get CAS credit for school.

I also went to the formal ball at the convention on Friday, I can totally do a waltz... poorly. Tango was probably my best until I danced with this guy who really could tango like a pro, then I had to acknowledge how much I suck at dancing. There was a girl dressed up as Belle from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, they played "Tale as Old as Time" so everyone kind of just watched her dance. Amazing times were had.

After the Melody Ball there was a bit of a gap in which they changed the beautiful ballroom into a rave. It's the same room yet instead of the beautiful slow melodies playing you're bambarded with strobe lights, glow sticks, and blasting music. Odd how the atmosphere can change so drastically in a matter of minutes. I had just been waltzing across the floor and suddenly the place is overcrowded and booming so loud that all thought seems to disappear from existence.

Sunday was Easter and we left the convention. I just ate a Peep from my basket of Easter candy. Now I remember why I hate them. I feel like I just massacred this cute little animal and forced its friends and family to watch.

That's all I have to talk about now. Not much, not really all that organized. Bye!

Galleries and Conventions and Angels, Oh My!

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That's what it looks like when I try to fix the stickers on my keyboard while typing other things.

It's another freestyle blog week, and I have things to talk about.

So tomorrow I'm headed to a Steampunk art and invention gallery in Foxboro MA. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm ruining my own fun a bit by making this research related. I have to write this extended essay and a possible topic for me is how authors like Jules Verne and HG Wells contributed to the rise of Steampunk, or science fiction in general.

Then on Thursday I'll be going to Boston for an anime convention. I don't really go for the anime all that much anymore, I think I just go for the fun of it and all the people. I have not met a single person at the convention in my years of going who wasn't just out right awesome and fun to be around or talk to. It's as if even though you never met any of these people they're already your friends. You'll be sitting in line with them for the next seven hours so you better be friendly anyways.

The events can be great or they can be terrible, but you're going through them all with a bunch of people you have a lot in common with. Conventions are great places to meet people, in my opinion. I'm looking forward to seeing all the different outfits and wacky events that will ensue.

I'm cosplaying a Weeping Angel this year, all I need to do is finish the wing harness, paint the gloves and it'll be done. I hope to find a couple Doctors to try and sneak up on before being seen. However, in a center of more than ten thousand people, I imagine it'll be quite difficult to move around while in character. D: I'm wearing the costume Saturday in honor of the new season of Doctor Who, hopefully there will be others doing the same. Last year I did the same thing when the new season started by cosplaying the Fourth Doctor and there were many other Whovian outfits out there.

So that's basically it, along with a side trip to Suffolk University, that's going to be my week and everything I have to talk about.

Not all that interesting, I wanted to talk about something meaningful but figured I would talk about the stuff that was plaguing my mind and current piece of life instead.

It's bigger on the inside!

So I'll be perfectly honest here - I don't really care where or when I would go with the Doctor.

Well, okay, there's one thing I want: I don't want to go into the future. In the words of River Song: "Spoiiilers!"

But other than that, it seems the Doctor find adventure and mystery wherever he goes. And running, all sorts of running (maybe I should hit the gym a little bit before this adventure, eesh). Plus, I'm sure he's aware of all sorts of places that I could never even imagine, so I'd like for him to choose the place and time we went.

As with Kaity, I'd also be interested to explore the TARDIS - we really only see the control room, and I'd like to see what else there is. Also, I wonder if I could convince the Doctor to teach me how to drive it, since that would be the coolest thing ever.

After the ridiculous adventures I'm sure we'd have, righting history and saving the universe and all that jazz, I'd like to go to the library the Doctor visited with Donna (it wasn't destroyed, was it? I'm a little fuzzy on the ending of that episode, but for the sake of this post I'll assume it was intact and safe), meander through the books and listen to the bits and pieces of trivia I'm sure he'd spit out about various authors, works, etc. I guess I'm okay giving in for a few spoilers there :)

Take me away in the TARDIS.

So, if that magical blue box appeared in my back garden and The Doctor popped out and asked me to go with him I would say yes, I wouldn't even stop to think.

There are several places and times I'd like to visit, I think The Doctor would probably get annoyed with me making demands all the time.

First I'd like to go back in time to be able to see some of my favourite bands play, like The Clash, that would be my first stop. Then I would want to see Johnny Cash. This would combine my love of Johnny Cash, '50s America and '50s fashion, meaning I'd get to dress up and hopefully get to keep the dress.

Also in Earth's history I'd like to visit the Roman Empire, particularly Roman Britain. I think it would be really interesting to see, I really loved learning about it when I was in primary school and it has always fascinated me and to actually see it right in front of me would be so amazing. And it would be another opportunity for me to dress up.

I'd like to visit Mars. In the future once humans have colonized it. I know in reality Mars is pretty much inhabitable but I hope that one day we will live there and I want to see it. I really hope there's a University of Mars like there was in Futurama because I'd like to go there. Most of all I want to see what our race does with the planet and why we go there. Because of something disastrous on Earth, over population (looking at China) or just because we can?

I'd also like to the end of the Earth, like Nine did with Rose, only I'd like to see it from the TARDIS, looking out of the doors possibly eating some ice cream or popcorn. I know how sad it would be to see the end of my home planet but to know I could always turn back time and see it again would make it better, that and it won't happen for billions of years too.

Of course I expect there to be lots adventures during all of this and an awful lot of running.

A Trip on the TARDIS

To answer the initial question of yes/no: Yes.  A million times yes.  I couldn't imagine saying no.

As for where and when I would want to go, that answer comes in three parts.

Part one: My real absolute most honest answer is that I would want to go somewhere and somewhen so amazing, so fantastic, so unbelievably incredible that it's outside the realm of anything I could ever even imagine on my own.  I would want to have such a magnificent adventure that it would really actually be beyond my wildest dreams.  Although this is my true answer, there's not much more to say about it, and what I've written so far is not very interesting to read and doesn't make for much of a blog post.  This is why there are two more parts.

Part two:  Place/time from the show that I would most want to go.  Given that I've only seen the new series, and not even all of that, yet, my options are somewhat limited.  I think my choice would have to be New Earth, though.  Erm, the nice top part with the apple grass, not the undercity part with the Macra.  It just seemed so idyllic and beautiful and wonderful.  I would like to explore more of the planet.  I'm assuming there were probably New versions of everywhere, not just New New (New New New New New New New New New New New New New New) York, so I'd like to see the New versions of the places I know and how they've been changed and reimagined and whether or not anything of their 21st century versions are still recognizable in them.

Part three:  Time in earth's history I'd like to visit.  So many options!  I'm very tempted by things like dinosaurs and Ancient Greece, but I think I'm going to have to say Renaissance Italy.  There's just so much happening at that time, and there were so many great geniuses going around saying wonderful things and creating beautiful things and it would all be so exciting.  I think it would lovely.

I'm Going to Steal the TARDIS

Okay, this week we're going to be talking about what we would do if given the chance to travel with the Doctor. Yes, no, where, when, any montsers, how about running? Stuff like that.

So what if the chance were presented? Certainly, yes! Yes, I would jump at that chance. Where? We are going to Mars, not to mess with Ice Warriors or dangerous water zombies, no, I just want to go there to say I've been there, we can go some place else after wards. What follows will include a really, really vague account of what will happen.

We will fight forty-two monsters in forty-two adventures on forty-one planets, because you know there's going to be at least one accidental repeat planet, most likely Earth. I'm not counting Earth in my quest to make everything be answerable with forty-two.

Did the planet that the Vinvocci are from ever get named? Because I would like to go there. However, Definitely going to the future, anywhen and anywhere more than 200 years into the future. I really want to see how far technology advances and all the places we end up. We will then find something suspicious going on that the Doctor believes to be unfitting to the scene, I will probably not notice what with me being an airhead gazing at everything and not knowing what ought or ought not to fit into the scene. There's also a shady fellow who stands awkwardly in the corner and seems connected to the suspicious thing. The shady man will notice that the Doctor noticed him and scamper off.

This suspicious thing is affecting the public in a negative fashion and the Doctor points out that it must be stopped. So we go to investigate it. This investigation leads us to what may be the source of the suspicious thing and then there's some crazy stuff, dramatic stuff, action-y stuff, the Shady Guy is actually another guy's pawn, and the Doctor wins!

A total of four people will die, because people always die, one in the very beginning, two in the middle of all the events and Shady Guy will have some sort of epiphany that makes him help the Doctor but kills Shady Guy in the process. This is only four out of five or six significant people related to the events.

Does that sound like a vague enough Doctor Who episode? Throw in some humans and humanoid-amphibian aliens all over the planet, a crablike villain and make the suspicious thing some chemical in the water supply. Then the event is more specific.

I would go nowhere near Alfalva Metraxis, having contacts makes me blink a lot.

So that's what I would do if I got to travel with the Doctor. Probably not very interesting, and I'd probably just spend most of the time wanting to explore Mars. I love Mars. If I just get to go to Mars, that would be enough for me.

Those Things That I Don't Dislike

This post is saying Sunday, March 6th. I will have you know that it is 12:28 AM on Monday, March 7th. I'm also really sorry about how long this is. I didn't realize that before. There are 550 words.

Okay so this week's theme is about our favorite things. And this is going to be a challenge for me because I like a lot of things and I'm not going to be able to think of them all and then later when I do think of them I'm going to feel like I insulted that favorite thing because I didn't show it enough respect to put it in this blog post.

So here is an apology in advance to the favorite things that I won't manage to think of in the time that I write this. So, I'm sorry, and remember that even though you're not here, I will always love you.

I like Doctor Who, in fact, I love it. I love the stories from the classic and new series, they are so fun and full of adventure, they're full of emotion and such lovable characters. I love how it combines fairytale and science-fiction. Normally I get annoyed when a series gets the science wrong. But for some reason it doesn't matter when Doctor Who does it. I also really like its spin-offs, but that would add an extra five paragraphs to this post and I don't want to bore you guys for too long.

My favorite color is red but dark green and navy blue are acceptable, sometimes.

I like space. I like learning about the stars and planets. I like science in general. Atronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology, it's all so awesome. I really like archaeology and paleontology, I used to want to dig up dinosaur bones an explore pyramids before wanting to be an astronaut.

My favorite hobby is drawing. One day, I'll start a webcomic. My favorite tablet is my Intuos4 tablet and I love my Photoshop and Manga Studio programs while they don't love me. Currently I can't stop drawing pictures of lizard-people (call them Silurians, Reptilians, or whatever).
Whenever I join a website and I get to use profile pictures and avatars, I draw them. I've decided to draw them all now, doing that is really fun.

I like cosplay. That's my other favorite hobby. I don't watch anime or read manga as much as I used to, but cosplay has never stopped being fun. Last year I went to Anime Boston while cosplaying the Fourth Doctor (how I love my scarf), this year I'll be cosplaying as a Weeping Angel (how they terrify me and have really difficult costumes to make). I am quite proud of the wings I sculpted.There's one. I'm going to repaint them.

Have I mentioned Harry Potter yet? I don't think I've mentioned any books yet. Favorite books would be Harry Potter, Good Omens, The Cry of The Icemark, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

You're supposed to italicize books right? Let's pretend I wrote all the media titles in the correct format/font. When in doubt, italics are your friend.

Well that's it. Those are my favorite things. It was pretty difficult to not slip in something that I don't like as a comparison.