#63

I feel like I always start my posts by whining about either how long or how little time it's been since the previous post. Hashtag so original. IT HAS BEEN QUITE A WHILE THOUGH.

I watched season 2 - or what I thought was the entirety of season 2 - of the 100 on Couch Tuner, only to find out the whole thing hadn't aired yet. Anyone else who has bingewatched shows at a pace of like one season a day knows the struggle of suddenly having to wait a whole month for the remaining 4 episodes. Still, I haven't been let down yet - even though the start of season 1 isn't that strong except for an interesting premise (even the characters are pretty weak in the beginning, in my opinion) it's only been improving the further we go into the second season. The writers of the show have this knack for the characters staying true to themselves and still managing to develop, and there are lots of dramatic plot twists. They are always supremely painful yet completely logical and reasonable. One of my favourite things in this show, really. I ordered the books the show is loosely based on: for once, the show is like way better. If post-apocalyptic slightly YA-ish plots and shows interest you, definitely check out the TV version in stead of the novels. I've only read 1/3 so far, and I'm not too impressed.

Speaking of being impressed by books: first of all, I've been reading more Joe Hill. I don't remember if I talked about NOS4A2 yet, but it was  a m a z i n g. A definite recommendation for someone who enjoys horror and/or Stephen King-esque novels. I also read The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, which is some more post-apocalyptic YA thing. Notice a theme here? Hah. Anyway, it has aliens and shit. It's great, especially if you're like me and like to consume entertainment at a pretty rapid pace instead of overthinking it. I think the novel's plot is good, but apparently some of the twists are really obvious to people. I whisk through books so fast it wasn't an issue for me, but maybe something to think about. There's also going to be a movie about it, which will be released sometime in 2016. I have the sequel, but I've been dreading starting it because the third novel won't be released until somewhere in the fall. Hng.

We went out clubbing for a bit last weekend, again. I also caught a cold again. Thankfully I didn't do any significant damage to tendons anywhere this time, though. I did wear some heels (like barely 2" since I usually don't wear heels, but it's still quite a change from flats/combat boots) so basically my thighs and calves were sore as hell the next day. It felt like quite a workout. Also I think the same young-ish Turkish guy tried to snuggle me on the dance floor like 5 times. Sigh. But hey, J's little sister turned 18 (that's why we were partying) and apparently she had a lot of fun, so all's well that ends well! I kinda want to revisit my favourite gay club at some point, too. Have to drag my friends there sometime - we've been going to the same place lately, because they have free entry until midnight and that's just... handy as heck. So. We'll see.

I don't know if I was going anywhere with this. I kind of really want to buy some NYX cosmetics right now, though. Or maybe Sleek would have some nice highlighters? I have tons of eyeshadows and even some lip colours now, I kind of need to get on track with lip pencils though. I don't know. And I haven't been able to find a more natural-looking foundation that suits me yet. Ugh. I'm thinking about trying some BB/CC cream by Gosh that someone on the internet recommended because it's vegan. Oh dear. Also, can I just point out that it's super irritating when I watch some US/UK beauty vloggers talk about their favourite (especially drugstore) products and there is literally no way to get them to Finland? The stores don't carry them, online drugstores don't ship to Finland and neither do most Amazon or eBay sellers. The struggle is so real. Well, I'll see if there's a NYX foundation some people like, maybe I'll just accidentally order some other products on the side too.... Tee hee.

Bye!

#62

Hey!

I just felt like typing something right now. I haven't exactly been on top of my stuff for this past week. Last Saturday we had a kind of collective birthday/cocktail party. It was very icy outside and I was wearing Converse (smart, I know) and walking really carefully. Then on one of the few areas where there was no ice aka on some stairs to the subway, I stepped sideways on my ankle and something snapped. We were headed out and I - obviously - didn't stop to do anything about it until about 4 hours later when we got back home. By then I had a fist-sized bruise on the outside of my ankle and it was swollen to about twice the normal width.

I tend to get quite a lot of minor ankle injuries because of the 6 years of track and field I did a while back. I snapped tendons left and right - which means that while I might be more likely to injure myself on the ankles, the injuries will rarely result in torn ligaments or tendons because they're stretched from before. But yeah, I've been wearing a support bandage on the bad ankle for most of last week. Then on Tuesday I noticed I'd caught a cold, so I've been doubly indisposed. Ugh.

Luckily this week was kind of our unofficial winter holiday - we don't actually get one at Uni levels of education, except for Christmas - so I didn't have to try to internalise new information at school except for about 2 hours on Wednesday, ha. Also I don't have a lot to do when it comes to our current group assignments so all I'll have to do is take care of an old, overdue thing that's just my own.

I started watching The 100 on Netflix yesterday evening, and I'm about half an hour away from the end of season 1. Thank Jeebus I can continue to the second season my loyal streaming site, and I don't have to wait for months until it appears on Netflix... Eh. I'll get over my slight moral aversion to watching series illegally at some point I guess. Next plan is to watch Agent Carter on Hulu, maybe, because I believe certain TV networks also count Hulu views as legitimate views on shows that I couldn't legitimately watch yet. Eh.

I'm also going to get the Fifty shades series into my hands, so I can make sure my arguments about Christian Grey & Anastasia Steele's abuser/victim relationship are legitimate. Don't get me wrong now, BDSM is a-ok to me (I also like reading fiction that includes elements of it, except I have some criteria when it comes to quality and character archetypes) but Fifty shades is just abuse cloaked as responsible BDSM practice and even romance, for fuck's sake. Whatever, there are plenty of reasonable sources who take apart the entire series for it's horrendous misrepresentation of BDSM not to mention romanticising and idealising a toxic relationship that seems to mirror, for a majority of the time, very closely what an emotionally manipulative abuser does to their victim. Seriously, it's so cringe-worthy. I feel bad. But I'm still going to read them so that any of my arguments can't be "refuted" (in the defenders' minds) as ill-informed. Again, as with any other problematic media, I'm not telling anyone to boycott anything they enjoy - go see the movie, buy the books, whatever floats your goat.

What I want is a media-critical stance where consumers a. are informed enough to recognise problems when they see them or b. they are suspicious enough to do research about things they are interested in. Boo-hoo, it's harder to enjoy things that way. But it's also the only way to be an actually responsible media consumer.

Anyway, that's enough ranting for now, seriously. I'm going to go back to watching the season 1 finale of The 100.

Bye!

#61

Oh my god, I am so caught up on my ish, you wouldn't believe.

Only one assignment left, and that one I just have to improve it a bit by actually sourcing things. Ay.

Also I finished reading the Finlandia Literary Prize -winning novel of 2014, and it was really good. The three main characters all had distinctive, realistic narratives and the plot development was great in my opinion. If you can read Finnish, I definitely recommend it! He eivät tiedä mitä tekevät by Jussi Valtonen. Ugh. Really good though. I've read two Finnish novels in a row this month, it must be a record. Ha. But now I'm starting Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, so there goes that streak.

Our lectures were kind of irritating and mind-blowingly dull today. We have to write a communication plan and some kind of article-like piece and actually try to get it published in some local newspaper - because our Uni of AS is funded based on published works. So they make us write up articles 90% of us don't have a relevant subject to work on for, just in case it'll improve the funding. Great academic goals they're setting, huh? Oh well, that must kind of be the reality of difficult economic situations, I guess.

I started actually playing AC:Pirates on my iPad. The writing is atrocious (as was to be expected, it's not like it's and actual AC game) but the character design is pretty nice, and I love the gameplay where you get to sail your ship around. All in all, I think it's a pretty good tablet / mobile gaming format, and the graphics you can run on tablets and smartphones surprise me positively sometimes.

Right now basically the only reason I'm writing a post is that both my tablet and phone had software updates available, so I'm waiting for those to finish downloading and installing. We'll see if the phone update makes all my keyboard shortcuts disappear again, like they've done with all past updates since iOS 8. FYI: If you have this same problem with keyboard shortcuts (the list) disappearing from your Settings > General > Keyboards > Shortcuts, try turning Predictive keyboards off and on again. It seems to work for me. Some people have also reported that the problem of the shortcuts remaining in the phone as a list but not showing up when you type can be sorted out with the same solution. Of course, all of this information and various other possible solutions can be found on the Apple discussion forums but I thought I'd share it here in case someone else is struggling with this.

I'm sorry I keep talking about how "well" I'm doing at school right now, I'm just really proud of myself. Also, in case someone is interested, I added all of my social medias into my profile.

Bye!

#60

Whoa, I'm up to 60 posts on here. Welp.

I'm currently waiting for my dad to fix the WiFi upstairs, this is a little ridiculous. I've had to use my phone's crappy 3G for everything, and it keeps running out of the allotted amount of data transfer at the highest possible speed. I've had to order 100 Gb of extra data transfer during the past 25 days. WHY?

Eh well, I was going to finish another assignment today but it looks like that won't be happening. I was getting interview answers from someone to base the assignment on, but I haven't received the answers yet. Luckily, it's just an "orientation assingment" so it's mostly about collecting your thoughts concerning a subject the group is going to learn about. Pity that this particular study module is already over by now, but oh well. I'll do it anyway. I'm literally 1 assignment away from having zero overdue assignments, I'm so glad.

The two things I really wish I had more time to do right now, is playing video games and reading books. Thankfully I've been able to make solid progress on the book I'm currently reading (last year's Finlandia Literary Prize winning novel by Jussi Valtonen) and I'll be able to start a new one after that. I have a bunch of Tolkién books and Gone Girl as well as other interesting stuff to get into.

I went shopping for electronic acceessories today, ha. Both my lightning to USB cable and the older 30 spike cable for my iPod Classic were pretty bumped up, so I bought replacements. My new fancy lightning to USB is 2 metres long - The  MOTHER OF ALL CABLES. Honestly, I think it's a bit too long to be super practical in many situations, but if the sockets elsewhere suck as much as on my current campus, I'll have use for it. I'm thinking I might also want to buy the 1 metre version for more regular use. Since my phone and my iPad use identical cords, it's not that unreasonable to have some extra cables on hand in my opinion. Also, I bought a Battery Pack (one of those recharge-on-the-go doodaddies) of 5200 mAh, which should technically be enough to charge my phone at least once from 0 to 100%, possibly almost twice. Yas.

I'm slightly weirded out by technology right now though - my MacBook is bleeping and blooping about received iMessages, since they now work on my computer as well. So strange.

Whatever, that's all for now!

Bye!

#59

I haven't really had the time to work in more details on the Star Lord post, to be honest. Ha.

Anyway, I'm starting to get my overdue assignments in order, and my thesis process is going along at a decent pace. The only thing I have to worry about now is finding a place where I could do my practical training this spring. I'm going to try to get it into the same place where my thesis is based in, so I could maybe work on that during practical training as well (or, actually, building the material our thesis will be examining could literally be my practical training. It all depends on what they'd want me to do, really).

I went to see Big Hero 6 with my friends last weekend, and I enjoyed it a lot. I was cracking up so much during the film, you wouldn't believe it. Baymax is the best. I also, like my friend put it, developed a pretty unhealthy attachment to Tadashi's character. Oh dearie. Anyway, I'm not going to spoil the entire film here (since it's such a recent release here, even though it came out in the US in ... November, I think?), but I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys animated films.

I think getting major worries through even minor milestones really helps my motivation. I don't feel so hopeless now that I've dealt with most of the yet-to-be-completed study modules or I have a plan for how I'm going to deal with them. The only problem at this point is that I can't seem to get in contact with one of the teachers who graded one of the assignments I got back with a "needs to be improved" comment. Eugh. Well, it's just one assignment and I got the green light to deal with it this spring.

Whatever the event may be, I usually end up coordinating at least some of it. Group assignments, movie nights... etc. I don't really mind, I enjoy it. I think I also have kind of a knack for doing the organising. I might not have the most new or innovative views on what methods to use for the most remarkable outcome, but I do get shit done. There is not one group assignment that has been handed in late - because of my lack of doing it within a proper time frame, at least. I'm pretty happy about that. Although it seems like even the most sloppy students in my "class" really pull themselves together for group assignments, since no one wants to let other people down. I figure that's a pretty good view of it: you can fuck up your own studies as much as you want by missing deadlines on personal assignments, but if you do that with group work I'm going to cut a bitch.

Well, this has been a spectacularly rambling post. I'll be off now.

Bye!

#58 - HORNS

Hey!

At some point during September or October, I read a novel called Horns by one Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King. The book was one of the best I've ever read. I think I've mentioned it here before, as well? At any rate, if you're interested in a book that's a combination of crime thriller, dark fantasy and theological philosophising, try that one. I literally read it in under 7 hours. People say certain books "can't be put down" - that was actually true for this one.

Anyway, since it was close to Halloween - although we don't really celebrate it here in Finland - I got the inspiration to do a costume centered around some latex horns. Petrilude has a really good tutorial on how to make these in general and what you need, and I've pretty much done the same. Anyway, here's a pretty thorough run-through of what I did before Halloween.

Firstly, you need some equipment for this. Clay or something close to it is good for building a model/base for your latex prosthetic. Then you're going to need some liquid latex - I bought mine at Punanaamio and used a transparent one. I bought a 500ml bottle, which is definitely enough - even 100ml could work if you were making a rather small prosthetic. The Grimas Liquid Latex is available in a skin-tinted formula as well. I haven't tried it, but I imagine it would be easier to mask. In addition to these, you're going to need cheap, single-use sponges. Latex is pretty much going to ruin anything you use to apply it, so you might want to try and find cheap art brushes or even a 20-pack of grocery store brand makeup sponges, whatever suits you. 

What I did was creating clay models of what I basically wanted my horns to look like.

I used the back of a small art brush to create some texture
on the surface of the clay.

Created a horn shape out of clay.

My hand and the A4 cardboard for size reference.

Making two symmetrical horns was pretty difficult!
One of them was a bit thicker than the other.

I left my clay forms to dry for a day or so - if you make thinner ones just leaving them overnight should be fine. 

Here's me trying the model on my head:

I don't know if you can tell, but this is a bit too
big for my forehead. Looks rad though!

After the clay models were dry, it was time to start painting layers of latex on top. To make your prosthetic thick enough to stick out of your face, you need a thicker layer of latex in comparison to, say, scar prosthetics or textured skin. It took me the better part of a week to do enough latex layers. 

Cue picspam of latex application.

My workspace! I used a smooth metal lid to hold the latex.
It's very easy to clean up - you can roll the latex off things
after it's dry.

One horn after a couple of latex layers.

The other horn.

I switched to a plastic base to avoid my latex pieces
sticking to the cardboard I was using before.

This liquid latex is white when it's wet, but turns into
yellow-tinted transparent, sticky rubber when dry.

Also as an FYI, there's going to be some leftover latex from whatever container you use to hold it while you paint. You can just roll it off and throw it out, it's rather low-maintenance. The smell can be very unpleasant though, so if you can, try to make your latex prosthetics in a well-ventilated area!

A mess.

And this is why you don't want
to use expensive tools to apply it.

Wet latex.

On the day (October 31st) I was done with my prosthetics, and did the rest of my "costume". I also utilised some elf ear tips from Punanaamio. These are also by Grimas, although they're foam latex. The model is number 32, in case you want to get the same ones elsewhere.

I'm painting them with Grimas' skin paint,
which is appropriate for use on latex.

The ear tips are still skin-shade, but both of the
horns have been pretty much shaded in.

Here's me in the middle of makeup. I also covered my eyebrows, painted the ear tips grey and put them on, and did some cartoony face decorations for a kind of gargoyle/demon look. Inspiration for the makeup also came from a look done by Petrilude. 

Totally appropriate for use in the daytime as well!

Here I've already added some shading around the horn,
my eye and the contours of my face.

 For hair, I just decided to tease my hair to turn it into a "mane" of sorts. One of the horns ended up drooping a little - I think the prosthetics were a bit too big or I overstuffed them with filling. Anyway, it was pretty cool. Random people commented as we went by like "Shit, it's Satan!". Hashtag life goals. My two friends had on skull-inspired makeup as well. We went clubbing and then home. The meagre amount of people in actual costumes was kind of saddening, but at least we had fun!

The club lighting really did me justice, huh?

I carried a cheap sceptre from Punanaamio.

Anyway, Halloween was a lot of fun even though one of my horns kept almost falling off, and dancing while wearing a pair of wings in a crowded club was kind of a pain. I'd definitely suggest trying to make shorter / skinnier horns if you ever decide to utilise latex prosthetics!

Bye.

#57

It's been a while since I posted anything.

Basically I took a month off from everything (except wrapping up some schoolwork and working on the improvements for my Star Lord costume). I think it was good for me! Not that keeping up a blog (especially when this is more of the journal sort, instead of an active community where I'm required to post for followers) is a big burden, but I just couldn't be bothered to think up stuff to write here, basically.

Christmas happened. What a surprise. I just had a regular kind of quiet Christmas at home with my family and my sister's dog. M is now a 6-month-old perky little Yorkie puppy! He's great. I still wouldn't want a pet of my own, though, but thankfully my sister lives away from home so I don't really have any beef with her having one. I got the UK edition of Cards Against Humanity from my parents, which was awesome. Also some other miscellaneous gifts.

I also spent NYE at home. I've spent the day on a camp for the past 5 years in a row, so it was sort of a strange experience to be home for it for once. Again, I just stayed home. What I consider a great achievement is that I completed Outlast, the Whistleblower DLC and Bioshock: Infinite during the holidays. I also played quite a lot of Far Cry 3. I hadn't really had time to play anything during the autumn, so it was nice to be able to spend some time on games I'd been neglecting for a while.

School started, and I'm trying to work as hard as possible to catch up on the few remaining overdue assignments that I still have. One of them - originally a group assignment - was luckily also overdue for one of the other students in my group, so I can finish it up with her and the amount of required writing was subsequently halved. Yes!

On the subject of assignments, I'm actually at the Helsinki campus library at the moment, working on my report from the work placement period of last fall. I found some good source material, and returned books I was using for my papers on contextual theology and multicultural work in the Evangelic-Lutheran Church earlier - I got the best possible grade for both of those, by the way. I'm pretty proud. Also I did rather well in our professional English course, so that's good.

I was going to go to Taizé again next spring, but that plan was kind of cancelled. Only a couple of people ended up wanting to go, and I wasn't that excited about going with them. Also the logistics of taking the trip there changed, and I wasn't too fond of them. But oh well, I can always go again later with some friends whose company I know I'm going to enjoy a lot! Also I now have some extra money left over, because I'd saved up for the plane tickets to Geneve earlier.  I'm currently debating whether I should buy either a Wii mini, an used Wii, or the Wii U possibly before the summer. I've had J's hand-me-down Wii for over a year, and haven't been able to get it to work. Damn.

Anyway, I think I'm going to work on my report for now. In case someone who's interested in my Star Lord costume improvements, I'm going to edit them into that masterpost from September at some point. Mostly I got some new props and modded them a little bit. But I do have suggestions on where to buy them, etc. so hold out for that!

Bye!