Yup, it's a brand new year! And with that, people start setting all sorts of resolutions for the year. However, chances of you ever finish them/ accomplishing them is very slim.

Why? Cause they're too far off goals that no one actually wants to finish. Your brain just messes with you and says 'bah, so far off, don't care.'

So let's say you wanna start the year fresh with learning a new skill/ trying to lose weight or learn a new language/ save money etc.

1. Start Small

If you want to run a marathorn, you gotta start training for it. Start with a small distance first that you can manage. Then increase the distance each week.

Same goes, if you want to try save more money - allocate some money to save in a week like $20 Then when you've been good, you can try to save more money each week. 

Don't do some HUGE DRASTIC thing and then find you can't continue the habit cause you made things too hard for yourself - eg. ran a crazy distance and burn out and then don't want to continue training.

2. Try to be consistent and schedule yourself

To cultivate a habit, you gotta just continually do something so that it becomes part of you. Like when I wake up in the morning, I turn on my computer and check my e-mails. Your new habit should sorta be as easy as that.

So like if you plan to finish an outfit by a certain con date, plan a time after work to at least work on it a bit. Even if you're really tired, just do a small thing.

Cause I find if you don't do something just once, you fall off the habit and it's very hard to get back on again.

3. Yay! Finished a goal? Make a new one!

Awesome! Reached your mini goal? Make a new one! If you don't make goals then you'll just kinda flop about and stagnate... So keep going! If you were able to do a bunch of push ups, you could always increase the number to more!

If you were able to not smoke for a month, you can try not to smoke for another month! 

4. Don't forget to reward yourself a little

A friend of mine used to reward herself with a music CD a month using the money she saved not smoking.

Like you can reward yourself with 1 ice cream after a month of not eating desserts.

Of course, don't go crazy with the rewards and have something major after a week.


5. To Do Lists do help

Well it did help the Bride in Kill Bill

Don't know what to do with your life? Make a To Do list. It helps you focus on stuff you need to do and when you've finished it, it's satisfying!


Hope this stuff helps for the year!

A Resident Evil cosplayer was arrested by cops in Nebraska because he ran into a bank to withdraw cash and people thought he was a robber or something...

I can't embed the video so check the link here

Cosplayers, please remember that regular folk don't like it when you walk around town with your prop guns and stuff, it scares people...

On the other hand, if you look like Hatsune Miku, I suppose it's ok.

 
First, I'd like to say: My heart goes out to New York City. That storm looks horrific and you guys got hit pretty bad... stay strong! Hope the power comes back on!

Tomorrow is Halloween. I'm actually dressing up for work (because I can!)

Anyway, here's a great article featured in 'The Atlantic' about Sexualizing Halloween

Here's a section

"Sexy referee. Sexy tiger. Sexy hamburger. Every year, Halloween costume companies offer women a host of skimpy outfits to wear on October 31st. And every year, a lot of people—concerned parents, writers at the New York Times and CNN, cable talking heads—try to convince women, especially young women, not to buy them.

"There's always the mommy bloggers who get really angry, and then there's people like me who get really angry," says Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes and an expert on adolescent sexuality and self-esteem. But, Wiseman admits, the complaining about sexy Halloween ends with "limited success." Young women keep buying, and wearing, suggestive costumes.

That's probably because most of the anxiety about the sexualization of Halloween comes from adults—the very people teenagers are inclined to ignore. If sexy Halloween is going to die, girls themselves will have to kill it.  "

Well, what can I say. The media promotes sexy Halloween, businesses also sell Halloween as sexy cause it makes money. It's tough to make it go away just like that. Also, if Halloween was un-sexy then well, it's not 'fun' enough.

Here's that infamous clip from 'Mean Girls' that sums up Sexy Halloween


Cosplay and dressing up is 'fun' because you become someone you're not. Just for 1 day. As harmless as Halloween sounds, its really turned into this big, commercial making festival that it just loses its true meaning and just becomes an excuse to party, dress up and have fun.

here's another great clip from 'Modern Family' and sexy halloween outfits


It's really hard to draw the line at this stuff sometimes. Halloween is generally supposed to be a family friendly affair but it's also an excuse to party, let loose and have fun, the 'grown up' way.

Whatever side you're on, if I were a parent, I won't allow my teenage daughter to wear sexy Halloween outfits. That's just me.

Read the full article here

 
The Seminole Chronicle (town in Florida, USA) decided to do a small report about this year's Halloween Costume trends. It lists in ranking, the most 'in' costume trends:

1. Superheroes

2. Video Game Characters

3. TV Characters

4. Pop Culture Phenoms 

5. Political Figures

6. Zombies

7. Princesses

8. Monster High

9. Hunger Games


Hm. Yup, Superheroes is really popular now thanks to all the Superhero movies - eg. Avengers, Batman, Spiderman etc. And Superheroes are classic so you can always jump into an outfit any Halloween/ Cosplay event

Video game characters - sure! Lots of cool games released this year  - Diablo 3, Borderlands, Resident Evil etc.

Now TV shows is interesting. I haven't seen that many TV show characters around other than Dr Who. The article does state people are wanting lots of 60s style Mad Men outfits. Hmm. And also 1920s style Boardwalk Empire gangster stuff too.

Pop culture Phenoms. - Yup, Gangnam Style PSY is a big deal, also the Meme stuff is really big

Political Figures - yeah cause the US elections are on now. So lots of Obamas and Romneys will be about.

Zombies - cause zombies are frackin everywhere!

Princesses - just cause there are lots of princesses to choose from and some how, little girls like to be princesses (I'm not one of those people though)

Monster High - whoa, what is this stuff? Never heard of it? Oo. it's like Monster Bratz ok got it. Guess it's a tween thing

Hunger Games - yeah, the trend is sorta waning but that would be lots of Katniss's and Effis about.

Well you don't really have to follow 'trends' to be the 'in' halloween cosplayer. Just where classic stuff I says, classic stuff ain't never get old!

 
Wow, I've been really pooped from work but it still brings a smile to my face when I talk about cosplay and when I see some really good outfits!

Philadelphia Weekly just published this interesting article about 'Why Do We Cosplay?' - so what is the psychology behind wanting to cosplay?

The article claims that people just want to be 'recognized' - We want attention, in other words.

Here's a great except from the article:

"It seems counterintuitive. Especially in this age of online handles and anonymous comments, when we’re constantly hearing about trolls and identity thieves hiding behind false facades. Surely masks and costumes are not meant to reveal ; they exist to hide, to obscure, to transform.

And yet, when we select our Halloween costumes, we are consciously choosing how we wish to be seen. We want to be recognized, not as schoolchildren or underpaid interns or office workers living lives of quiet desperation, but as the scary, sexy, colorful people we know we are on the inside. We don’t want to disguise ourselves—our very selves—we want to unveil them."

Yeah now that's interesting. In today's age, people want to be 'invisible' online. To be another persona from their real life and be allowed to do something out of their ordinary life. Some people troll, bully, talk crap about others just because they know they're just a false name and number on the internet. 

And yet when it comes to selecting a character to cosplay as, you subconsciously choose something that's iconic, recognizable and that people will see you as that character rather than 'average joe X'. Bizarre isn't it?

The writer goes on to talk about his Batman outfit and why he wears it

"While I have worn this costume to Halloween parties and science-fiction conventions, I didn’t make it for any one specific event. I made it because I want a Batman suit. Which of course really means this: I want to be seen as Batman. Sure, I’m not a vigilante champion of justice—but I do help the people I meet, in my own small way. Giving $10 to someone on the street or helping a friend get a job is not the same as saving the city from deadly laughing gas, I realize. Which is why I don’t don the cape and cowl every day."

 

Yeah it's true, you don't really want to be Batman EVERY DAY. You just want to be Batman for a short while. Being Batman every day is a different story : )

Great little article, go check it out!

 

So I started a new job as a retail assistant and something I thought that was really interesting that the store manager told me was that when you're in retail, it's not about you, as a civilian, selling something to someone. It's about you representing a brand to sell something to someone and that comes with switching on the 'friendly retail person' persona. You speak in a bright voice, you greet customers sincerely and pleasantly when they enter and leave the store, even if the customer has an attitude problem, don't take any of it personally because you represent a brand and you still have to be nice to people. It's basically like unconscious acting.

Having thought about this, I thought it would be interesting to share an article on Cosplaying in character. The difference between cosplay and just wearing a Halloween costume is when you cosplay, you ARE the character. You're no longer you, you become this persona of your favorite character.

This is an article written sometime back by Cairdiuil of 'All About Cosplay' blog about 'how to play your cosplay character' here's an except

 "What really helped me with playing my character was I didn't just constantly watch footage of Rei (from Evangelion) in the series and seriously studied her mannerisms, I would look at cosplayers who portrayed Rei really well. I would save their photos onto my computer and study the photo and ask myself, "Why I am I getting a Rei vibe from this image?" "Is it the lighting, her pose?"

What also helps is study your body in front of the mirror and take lots of photos of yourself. Practice your facial expressions and see how their come out. The more time you spend in front of a camera, the less shy you will be! Get a family member or friend to take photos of you in your cosplay and try acting as your character. Even at home or when along in your room, in the bathroom say some lines as your character, acting as them. Well known theater actors and film actors like Danial Day Lewis do this, when coming up to a play they walk around staying in character. I try do this subtle when coming up to a shoot."

It's a helpful article written by a fellow Singaporean, very cool and thanks for sharing!

Mandy as Black Cat

Cosplay in America stuck this blog link written by a Cosplayer who was at New York Comic Con over the weekend who talked about her uncomfortable interview with a bunch of pervy, male chauvenistic guys who asked her degrading questions that were meant for some porn star.


Here's a section of what she wrote about what happened:

"This group of men from some kind of Stan Lee fan club blah blah internet video channel blah blah asked to interview with them on camera about Comic Con. I said well okay, sure. Camera is rolling. The “host” is a middle aged, rotund dude. It’s an all-male crew and lots of people (mostly guys) were beginning to crowd around. The following is the interview as burned in my mind. Keep in mind that I expected this to be about Comic Con in general.

• Him: I’m here with…
• Me: Mandy, aka Felicia Hardy aka Black Cat
• Him: ..And she is HOT. Do you think I’m hot enough to pull that off?
• Me: Uh, I’m not sure, I’ve never seen you in drag.
• Him: I’ve got a great ass. Go on, spank me.
• Me: (look at his large ass, popped up mere inches away from me then look into the camera like are you kidding me . No thanks. I may hurt you, I’m a lot stronger than I look.
• Him: Aw come on!
• Me: No, seriously. Stop.
• Him: Damn, alright! Well let me ask you an important question then…what is your cup size?
• Me: (big talk show smile) That is actually none of your fucking business.
• Him: Oh! I think that means to say she’s a C. 
• Me: I actually have no breasts at all, what you see is just all of the fat from my midsection pulled up to my chest and carefully held in place with this corset. It’s really uncomfortable, I don’t know why I do it.
•  Him: (to the male crowd) Aw, come on what do you guys think? C cup? 
• —a few males start to shout out cup sizes as I stand there looking at this guy like this has to be a fucking joke, then look at the crowd and see that no amount of witty banter or fiestiness will stop making this whole thing fucking dumb. It was clearly a ploy to single out cosplaying women to get them to talk sexual innuendos and flirt with this asshole and let him talk down to them simply because they were in costume and were attractive. Whether I’m in a skintight catsuit or not, I’m a fucking professional in everything I do and I don’t need to play nice for this idiot.
• Me: This is not an interview, this is degrading. I’m done. (I walk away)
• Him: (clearly dumbfounded and surprised) ..Come on, it’s all in good fun!
• Me: Being degraded is fun? That was unprofessional and I hope that isn’t your day job because you can’t interview for shit, my man."

 Read the full article here


So here's the thing. Even though cosplayers look hot and sexy and everything, guys, it's NOT COOL to ask girls these kinds of rude questions. It's same how you won't ask a booth babe at a trade show these things, you won't ask a cosplayer these things too.

Cosplayers ARE NOT porn stars. If they are then that's another story.

Girls, if people do ask you inappropriate questions that make you uncomfortable. BE VERY FIRM THAT YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE and TELL THEM. YOU DO NOT LIKE IT.

I know in Asia, people are shy, it's not in our culture to fight back but in this case, YOU ARE BEING INSULTED and DEGRADED. FIGHT BACK.

There are all sorts of people at a con and not every fanboy is weird but there will be weird ones out there and some of them will say weird stuff to you like above. Walk away when you feel grossed out.

Just saying my 2 cents
 

TOO MANY CHARACTERS

I apologize that there's not much awesome stuff to report on until.. NEW YORK COMIC CON HAPPENS THURSDAY! MUAHAHAH. Wish I could be there. : (

In the mean time, Nerd Caliber has this great article that talks about 'Why People Can't Tell You What to Cosplay'

I've seen this happen a lot of times on forums where people ask 'eh.. I dunno what to cosplay, suggest me something'... and.. people don't really know what to say. Here's why.

In summary of the article

1. We honestly doesn't know what you look like

2. We also probably DO NOT want to know what you look like (unless you really are smokin hot, your photo would be everywhere)

3. The internets folks don't know you in real life

4. We also don't know how skilled you are crafting wise

5. We don't know how much $$ you're willing to spend

6. We don't know how much time you're willing to spend crafting, tailoring

7. We don't know when your nearest con event is

8. THERE'S JUST TOO MANY FRICKIN CHARACTERS TO CHOOSE FROM. 

9. People also don't really want to read a character profile of you.

10. End of the day, be really honest with yourself - read my previous article 'Know your look and cosplay to it'

Great article by  Shauna Leva - aka Sheik : )

 
Artists And Their Moods

Artists are creative people. They like to fill their heads with interesting images, ideas, fiction, music and then some. Artists need to create and make things in order to feel like they have meaning to their lives.

Cosplaying is not a cheap hobby. You do need a certain amount of money and time to achieve a certain level of quality and detail in a costume.

It's easy to go crazy and spend lots of money on just 1 outfit and then you get distracted and spend lots of money on outfit number 2, and then maybe 3 and then by then you realize, YIKES! I'M BROKE!

So cute! XD

Here's something interesting! lezgetreal.com reports that Icelandic Mayor, Jón Gnarr Kristinsson, who's also an actor and comedian, dressed up as a Jedi to attend the premiere of 'Comic-Con IV: A Fan's Hope' in Iceland!

That Jedi is a Senator I mean Mayor!

Jon Gnarr the Iceland Mayor of Reykjavík

The article goes on to question: What would happen if US politicians cosplayed and would that be a good idea?

Nnoo. Probably not, as the media would probably rip them to shreds. 

Check out the article here

 
Stumbled upon by accident, found this article on Campaign Asia-Pacific talking about marketing products to geeks and Otakus in Asia.

Here are some interesting points made in the article
 

1. In the East, nerds and geeks have never been regarded as uncool. 

This is true! I'm from Singapore and everyone LOVES SMART PEOPLE. I don't know anyone who's got any flack for being a nerd. There's huge support for video game culture, buying of consumer electronics and toys here and its more or less widely accepted as a hobby.

Smart school kids advertise a health tonic on a Singapore bus ad. WE LOVE NERDS IN THIS COUNTRY!

2. Due to recent tech, socio-economic advances and the rise of IT industries in Asia, there's been sharp rise of Otaku/ geek communities in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines

Hmm fascinating. People are having more disposable income in these countries to spend money on geek stuff! And also with a biggish population, that's a lot of money to be made! Here in Singapore, everyone LOVES all things Japanese. Food, geek stuff, going there on holiday. I guess Singapore and a big chunk of Asia all aspire to be like Japan because they're the most culturally advanced nation. Everything just seems so fascinating and unique about them that people just like all things Japanese. 


3. Otakus and 'Zhai' (Chinese equiv of Otakus) are extremely passionate people but sometimes, their passion goes to crazy extremes. Like going for cosmetic surgery to fit certain cosplay looks, video game addiction, cyber hacking and more. And then, there's AKB48. The fact AKB48 made "US$212 million in record sales last year makes them one of the world’s most successful pop groups, with members appearing in commercials for everything from chocolate to mobile phones to government bonds."

 Yeah. It's true, it's easy to just throw yourself into stuff you exceptionally like that it does lead you down the path of ruin if you're not careful. Then again, commercial entities aren't your parents to warn you and tell you 'hey, don't buy too many toys!', they're a business and their job is to sell you stuff. AKB48 took off insanely well in Japan because they know exactly what otakus like.

Insanely obsessed AKB48 Otaku

How does AKB48 work?

"Much of their success is down to popularity contests for the girls, with fans getting to vote with tickets included in CD packages. Some fans spend massive amounts buying the same disc so that their favourite girl has a better chance of winning. "

I'm not kidding, this stuff is NUTS. I remember I was in Japan few years ago when AKB48 was first taking off and there were a bunch of guys just emptying out the gachapon machines (twist and turn egg machines) just to hope to get a ticket to watch the AKB48 perform at the theater. It was SERIOUSLY DISTURBING but well, like I said, commercial entities aren't your parents to caution you about your spending habits. They WANT you to spend money!

 4. 'Zhai' spend a lot of money on stuff they like but the issue is a lot of cool stuff is already free.(online MMOs) Also, most 'Zhai' are people in their 20s and they don't have a lot of money yet. An interesting point is “A lot of Chinese marketing is about aspiration,”

Ok I really wanna talk about 'Chinese marketing is about aspiration.'. Which is basically calling it 'the show off factor'. It's a fact, the general population of Chinese peeps feel rather insecure bout themselves and they like to own cool stuff as a 'show off' thing to feel better about themselves'. To flaunt that they have money and to own cool stuff means 'I'm more bad ass than thou.' Which is how branded goods sell so well in China (Yes, all those LV bags, Coach bags, Hermes etc.) why Chinese peeps want to own the latest iPhone and why Chinese gamers like to buy elite gear for their online game characters

She's beaming!!

 
As crazy as it sounds, THAT'S HOW THEY ROLL. So if you know this and if you have something to sell that makes Chinese people feel more badass about themselves status wise, YOU'VE GOT IT DOWN.

Anyway, go read the article for yourself

It's a really interesting and I highly recommend you check it out!

Abby as Lady Jones

I came across this article in Fangirl written by San Francisco based cosplayer, Abby Dark-Star which I thought was rather interesting.

Lately there's been a lot of hate and mud slinging on the net bout female cosplayers: girls wearing too revealing outfits to seek attention to themselves instead of being true fans of their character, levels of geekiness and that 'people aren't allowed to break characters by re-inventing them and making them sexy versions'

Instead of reporting Cosplay news, I thought I'd write an article about knowing your 'Cosplay Look' and running with it.

Let's be frank: Everyone has a look. Some are sexy, some are cute, some are badass, some are bishounen. Some people are curvy, some people less so, some people are mr muscles, some people are elvish.

Cosplay is not just about wearing a costume and pretending to be said character, it IS about the look. The people who are able to get as close as they can to said character's look makes a great cosplayer. 

If you break down popular comic/ game/ anime characters, they all fall into different categories. Let's start with Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII

Cloud is slim built athletic guy. He has muscles but they're not super action hero huge. His face is rather effeminate for a heroic male character.

It's true, finding guys that actually look like Cloud is quite challenging. Which is why lots of girls have attempted being Cloud.

pikminlink as Advent Children Cloud

 pikminlink who mostly does Link from Zelda did this amazing cosplay of Cloud from FF7 Advent Children waay back. He fits the body type, the face shape and his overall costume is great, plus, he's smart to use shades cause you know, everyone loves shades and he's able to preserve the cool tough guy look for Cloud.

Let's look at Super Heroes from comics in general. Most times, the ladies are all very athletic and curvy. Let's look at Jean Gray from X-men

Jean Grey has very fiery red hair, an athletic busty build, and has a tough girl but sweet kind of face when she's not kicking ass.

gillykins as Jean Grey

 Here's gillykins as Jean Grey. She has the tough girl but kind face for it, also the body shape and yeah she looks great overall!

Alright alright, Grimzy, you're being unfair! You're picking all the good looking people! It's true, we're not all given great looks and fantastic bodies but if you play to your strengths right, you can cosplay characters that fit you.

It's true, there aren't many plus sized characters about but if you do find them and if you fit the look, then that's super awesome!

Like look at King Pin from Marvel Comics

Kingpin is a HUGE guy. He has a suit, a cane, a cigar and he's a badass!

This guy is just perfect

Then what about big girls! It's true there aren't many big girl characters in comics and games HOWEVER big girls are the funny characters!

Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time

Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time looks like a blob but this can work to your advantage when you're a bigger girl!

PERFECT!

This girl is just PERFECT. The outfit, the purple gown, that priceless expression. She's NAILED it.


Also another thing is side characters are more forgiving than iconic characters. You can still have fun cosplaying!

Crazy 88s from Kill Bill are easy!

hey Hey! Team Rocket grunts! - Pokemon

FF7 Shinra Guards!

If you know some people and they're really good armor crafters, you could attempt armored characters. Armor however is not easy to make and things do get quite expensive so don't attempt if you're just starting out cosplaying.

Halo Spartan

Then what about THE GLASSES PROBLEM. It's true most characters don't actually wear glasses and people like me absolutely hate putting any foreign object like contact lenses into my eyes. There's always characters with glasses to choose from. Of course there is some limitations but still. You work with what you've got.

Quistis from Final Fantasy 8

Quitis is very bookish, she has blonde hair, blue eyes and she has glasses! She's also very prim and proper, slim (and she's also my all time favorite FF8 character)

Not too bad at all!

 I mean, generally, play to your strengths.

If you have the curves, do the curve thing
If you have the muscles, do the muscle thing
If you're small and cute, do the cute thing 
If you don't have boobs, you could do bishounen characters (guys that look like girls). Or you could do military, armor, stuff that doesn't show off boob.
If you're a big person, you could do big characters or mascots, fur suits, armor characters etc.

But of course, everyone is choosy and wants to be someone they're not but hey, we gotta work with what we got to make a great cosplay!

Inquirer Lifestyle Philippines just wrote this great article about a mini event that just took place - Fantasy Quest II at Fernwood Gardens in Quezon City. They interviewed a bunch of cosplayers, Jerry Polence and more! They even have a video here of the event supplied by Studio Omoshiroi



Check out the full article here. 

This is an old article but a great one that was recommended by a friend

It was written by Sarcasm-hime back in 2007 but I believe the info is still relevant today