My Experience: Melanie Martinez Concert

Recently I went to a Melanie Martinez concert at the Cleveland House of Blues. The HOB isn’t my favorite venue as it’s General Admission and I’m short. It’s hard for me to see things and see over people. I much prefer having seats because at least the levels are graduated and if possible I can stand on the seats to see things better. I made an entire post about my outfit and makeup at my beauty blog which you can visit here.

I thought the doors opened at 6 pm so my friend and I decided to leave around 4:30 or so. I live about a little over an hour from Cleveland. We actually ended up leaving at 4 pm and arriving at around 5:30. This was both a good thing and a bad thing because there was already a line to get in (and of course because it’s Gen Admission, where you are in line matters) around the corner from the doors. People had been lining up probably around 3 or 4 pm, some maybe earlier than that. My friend paid the extra 20 bucks to park in the parking garage that was down the street from the venue. We were kind of concerned about walking to the car at night in Cleveland so we were glad to find a space in the garage. Where we were in line wasn’t too bad and the line kept on getting longer and longer. The show was completely sold out. And on top of that there was an Indians game that very day too. Tuesday was such a weird day to have a concert.

I ended up standing for more than 2 hours outside. I didn’t want to sit down and get anything on my dress and I wore 3 or 4 in boots because they were the only shoes I had that matched. They’re comfortable shoes but standing in one spot for a long period of time goes straight to my heels and makes my feet hurt so bad. Apparently the doors didn’t open until 7pm, so like I said blessing and a curse that we got there early.

Eventually we got into the venue and I didn’t really get a good spot. I could barely see. Almost everyone in the audience was a teenager, with braces, and being overly excited and vlogging about the experience. I hate that her main fanbase is literally 12-18 year olds. It made me and my friend feel like we were the only two adults there voluntarily, while the other adults were like…parents watching their children. On top of that all these stupid teenage girls were freakishly tall and I couldn’t see a damn thing. By the time we actually got into the venue my feet were killing me. During the opening act, which was Handsome Ghost (some hipster neo emo group I’ve never heard of but were actually pretty decent) I took off my shoes and just stayed barefoot until Melanie came on. The cool thing was that during the break between sets the HOB staff handed out plastic cups of water to the concert goers for free. It was a really hot day and all of us were crowded in such a small space. The water was ice cold and ridiculously refreshing and appreciated. I thought this was really cool of the HOB to do. The bar also set out small cups of water for people to take freely.

Around 8 o clock or so Melanie’s set started. There was like a 3-5 minute intro that seemed to last forever. I didn’t actually get to see her when she popped out the crib but the HOB Cleveland page actually posted it.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FHOBCleveland%2Fvideos%2F10154609771030579%2F&show_text=0&width=560

Like I said I’m too short and was struggling to see most things. I had to experience half the concert through other people’s cellphones. Melanie doesn’t talk much in between songs so she preformed the whole concert in almost complete silence. She said a few things here and there though. Everyone sang along of course. My absolute favorite song is Pity Party and I was so ecstatic to hear it live. I capture a few good videos on my phone actually and posted them to my Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWgI0egykd/?taken-by=spookyboogie13

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWgwXOA36q/?taken-by=spookyboogie13

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWhMZ3A152/?taken-by=spookyboogie13

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWhq2GACRl/?taken-by=spookyboogie13

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWh97zgD6O/?taken-by=spookyboogie13

I think her performance was really good, there was only a few issues with the mic like make once or twice where feedback came out and she seemed to be always fixing her ear piece but I think she always does that. I’m not sure. I thought her outfit was so cute! I would wear it myself. Vocally I think she sounded great! She moves around a little awkwardly but Melanie is an awkward person. Her songs aren’t really dance songs either so it’s not going to be like JLo doing an entire dance number. I think it’s part of her charm and her realism.

Before the encore songs there was a random gap in the crowd and I was wondering why no one was filing it. I decided to step up and found out the hard way that it was because someone had puked and of course no one wanted to step in it. I think i stepped in it a little but it didn’t get all over my shoes, didn’t really make my shoes smell and after not being close enough to see Melanie clearly throughout the entirety of the concert I really didn’t care. The smell in general was pretty much masked and I didn’t find it to be a big deal. Everyone else of course was grossed out by it and my friend insisted that when I got into her car I set my shoes on a plastic bag. Which i get but my shoes weren’t covered in vomit. I barely stepped in it actually. She was so worried that she was going to catch some sickness or disease from it and I was like ok you’re overreacting a bit. We eventually stopped at a gas station and I  wiped the soles of my shoes with some soap and water then washed my hands twice, just so she wouldn’t complain or anything.

What I didn’t like was that even with the 2 encore performances of Gingerbread Man and Cake the entire concert was like an hour and a half (not including the break between for set up) and Melanie’s set was only 1 hour. It felt like it was over as soon as it started. I assume this might be due to 1. She doesn’t talk much or interact and 2. she only has one album out and she did play almost the entirety of it. Once she creates another album I’m sure the concerts will be a bit longer. I would love to go see her again when she comes to town with new music and hopefully she might be in a bigger venue (or at least one with seats). After the concert was over I went to check the line for merch but it was all over the place and Hot Topic has a decent selection of her stuff for cheaper. So I just passed on that and instead went home. After standing 5 and a half hours I just wanted to lay down and sleep.

This was my first concert of the summer and the first one I had been to since October of last year. It wasn’t perfect but I enjoyed myself. This was much better than the concert I had later on in the week but more on that later.

Persona 5 Finally Gets A North American Release Date

Cries because I am absolute Persona trash

Middle Of Nowhere Gaming

At long last, Atlus USA has finally given us what we wanted for years now; a release date for Persona 5for North America.

View original post 235 more words

Favorite Pokemon from Each Type!

Hey guys! So my friend found this meme (is it a meme?) where you can fill in your favorite Pokemon from each type in celebration of Pokemon’s 20th anniversary. Pokemon has impacted my life greatly. I’ve been playing it for about 11 years and it is one of my favorite franchises. It is timeless and I’ve played at least one game from every generation as well as almost everyone of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. I started off with FireRed and chose Charmander as my starter Pokemon. Ever since then I’ve been predominantly a fire trainer. These Pokemon are my favorite and I’ve had them all on my team at least once (except Purugly, we’ll get to that later). I thought I’d expand a bit on why I love these guys so much. Hope you enjoy.

Bug: Volcarona

I’ve never liked Bug pokemon, ever. I don’t even like bugs in real life. But when Volcarona came out I was really excited and a little scared because it’s sprite was so big. It looked interesting and I really liked it’s Bug/Fire typing. Seeing it in Relic Castle was a bit of a shock and also something cool. It felt almost as intense as a legendary battle because there was only one and leveling up a Larvesta (in later games) takes forever! Now I’m not one to get technical with stats, battling, IV/EV training, etc because I believe it takes the fun out of Pokemon, so my choices are based on aesthetics and my own personal gameplay. I love having duel types on my teams especially ones where they are weak to their second type. I think it makes a Pokemon really special. At the time it was like getting a Lucario or a Zoroark. There was only one (per main game) and having such a high level pokemon that was also a dual type really set it in stone with my BW team.

Dark: Absol

My love of Absol came from playing Emerald as well as the first Mystery Dungeon game. Absol was cool, mysterious, and elusive. It was always difficult for me to find out and as soon as I saw it I had to have it. I loved the sleek design and how it was a bringer of destruction. When I got PMD: BRT (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team) I kind of put a personality to Absols. The Absol in game was misunderstood and wanted to help your team. Being able to play as Absol was also really fun. It was one of my favorite parts of the game. I wasn’t a fan of the Mega evolution that got introduced and since Pokemon Emerald I haven’t really had an Absol on my team but I remember my fondness for it well.

Dragon: Giratina

Oh man, if you knew me in life you would know that Giratina is my favorite legendary (Suicune comes in as close second). It was so scary and tricky to get in Diamond and Pearl and when it got it’s own entire world in Platinium I lost my mind! Platinum became my favorite game because of this as well. The lore, creepyness, and relation to Satan herself, has my love for Giratina going strong. As yes, I know almost all legendaries are genderless but I like associating Giratina as a strong, powerful evil lady, who will crush you in her six arms. Giratina’s entire being and secrecy was my favorite thing. I even stumbled upon Turnback Cave after I had defeated the Elite 4 and had to violently look up how to solve the room puzzles. Seeing Giratina for the 1st time scared me and I loved it. Again, lore takes over how much I love this Pokemon and I think until this day I have about 3 Giratina’s.

Electric: Ampharos

Ampharos is the most boss electric pokemon ever and no one can tell me other wise. I got this baby in Pokemon Silver and whenever it has been available I’ve caught it and kept it on my team. I always try to get the basic fire, water, grass, electric types on my team to keep balance. Ampharos will be my first pick for electric anytime. I like how you can easily get a Mareep and evolve it. It grows with you and has always helped me kick butt within game. I think the Mega Evolution was cool since it became a dual type (not cool that the first time I used the Ampharos mega evolution was against a dragon pokemonXD). It’s cute and cuddily but also deadly-like me!

Fairy: Gardevoir

Let me start by saying when they announced Gardevoir to have a Fairy type I was really pissed. I hate Fairy pokemon. I don’t care how great their moves are against dragons, I hate them. I like Gardevoir being a psychic type-a strong psychic type at that. But besides that I fell in love with Gardevoir after ferociously trying to find a Ralts in the wilds of Pokemon Emerald and raising my graceful little nugget to become the strong beautiful creature she is. Like Absol, I also gave Gardevoir a personality when I played PMD:BRT. Finding out that you had to reconnect with your Gardevoir and she was trying to help you the entire time, just to protect you made me love her even more. Gardevoirs are gorgeous and strong as well as loyal. Having a Pokemon stand by your side no matter what makes me love it even more! Not to mention that its Mega Evolution is even more beautiful and ever more awesome in its shiny form! Again, whenever Gardevoir is available in certain generations I will raise one and take it to the Elite 4 no doubt about that. The reason I chose it for Fairy is because, like I said earlier, I hate Fairy types so it was really hard to choose one. In the end I was able to squeeze another fire dual type in for psychic;)

Fighting: Blaziken

The first ever Fire/Fighting pokemon, the Torchic line was new and amazing. Being a chicken didn’t look cool at first but Blaziken took the cake being a powerful kicking badass. I liked that extra level of power-it adds on another move set pool and gives you more options. I love the design and power that comes with my little kung-fu chicken and I think it’s way better than Emboar.

Fire: Typlosion

Typlosion is purely sentimental for me. It was the first ever pokemon I ever raised to level 100. And I almost lost it. I had leveled it up to 100 after my billionth level grinding battle with Red and I was in the kitchen. My grandma had a sinkful of water and dirty dishes and somehow I managed to drop my Gameboy SP in there. I thought both my Gameboy and Pokemon Silver was lost. But thankfully after drying them both and repeating the battle, my level 100 Typlosion was still intact. He’s a warrior that’s for sure.

Flying: Charizard

Again, I got to cheat thanks to dual types haha! Charmander, like many other people, was the first pokemon I chose. I’ve loved that little fire lizard ever since. Charizard was even my favorite pokemon on Ash’s team because it was sassy and lazy just like me. Mega Charizard X made it even cooler while the Mega Charizard Y (the one I got) was a let down. Charizard X let Charizard be the cool badass dragon it deserved to be and because dragons are my favorite mythical creature I loved it even more.

Ghost: Misdreavus

Move over Ghastly and Gengar, my favorite ghost Pokemon is the cute and adorable little shit known as Misdreavus. I love ghost pokemon mostly for aesthetic reasons as I’m not very good with them in battle. I’ve had Misdreavus on my team before, for a short while, when I encountered it in Silver. Misdreavus’s Pokedex entries state that it’s a prankster and likes to scare people by screaming. Gengar is good for strength but I never got a chance to have one since you always had to trade it for it to evolve. At least with Misdreavus, she was by my side easily with her cute hair and necklace ready to help me kick some butt every once in awhile.

Grass: Torterra

Now as a fire trainer, grass isn’t my forte. I’ve rarely picked a grass starter over a fire or water. But there was once a rare time where I chose a Turtwig. Why? You guessed it, dual type. My love of Torterra is similar to that of my love for Gastrodon. Earthquake is an amazingly powerful move and that fat turtle will take down plenty of enemies and since grass and ground are both not effected by electricity it makes taking out any electric gym leaders as easy as 1,2,3. If we had Torterra’s around when we had to fight Lt. Surge you better believe that would’ve been the easiest battle of our lives. Raichu’s got nothing on this guy. I also chose it to fill the grass slot so my Roserade can cover Poison as I’m not good with Poison types either. Filling this out was hard!

Ground: Flygon

I love Flygon. You wouldn’t think much of it, especially when you first encounter a Trapinch but once it levels up and turns into the majestic and lovable Flygon you’ve got a great pokemon on your hands. With Trapinch’s typing and selective habitats it can be kind of hard to get one and level it up. Flygon was there for my first run of Emerald and has traveled though my Pokemon games since. It’s been awhile since I used one on my team so maybe I’ll let it make a comeback.

Ice: Froslass

I don’t really mess with ice types that much unless my water type ends up evolving into a dual type water/ice. However when Froslass first came out I wanted one instantly. Not only is Froslass beautiful, I really like that it was based on the legend of the Yuki-Onna. It helps up the creepyness factor while keeping a deadly beautiful exterior. I think it also gave some use to Snowrunt, especially since I really hated Glalie. They aren’t nearly as nice to look at as Froslass. She can also learn some cool moves and to be honest I love any pokemon who can learn Shadow Ball and Ice Beam.

Normal: Purugly

I hate normal types. I picked Purugly because it’s a fat grumpy cat, simple as that.

Poison: Roserade

Roserade is by far my favorite dual type grass pokemon. I’ve had one ever since Dawn stones became available and I think I even had one in Alpha Sapphire. Like I mentioned before I always like having elemental balance on my team. Though grass and poison aren’t effective to many types it works for some things. The downfall is that there aren’t many powerful grass type moves so I always have to teach Roserade TM moves. It is also usually the one that learns Cut on my team. So it’s helpful, good for fighting in caves, and really pretty. I don’t know why I keep going back to Roserade but it’s just become my favorite grass type and a staple on my team. I liked it way better than just sticking with a Roselia.

Psychic: Victini

Before GameFreak traded my beloved Gardevoir over to the Fairy side, she was my favorite Psychic type. Now I get to pick another dual type and one of my favorites. I was actually lucky enough to get BW in the time frame that Wal-Mart was giving out codes for a Victini. Victini was special to me because it was the first event Pokemon I ever owned. I loved it and I carried it on my team all the way until the Elite 4 (which is funny because it helped me be victorious! Good job, Victini!). Though the leveling up was slow I still felt like it was worth it. I’ve traded it over to my Alpha Sapphire game and haven’t used it since I’ve finished the game but again I’m a sucker for fire types.

Rock: Tyranitar

Tyranitar was a tank and a staple on my Silver team. A lot of care went into leveling up this bastard. I hate 3 stage dragon types (technically Tyranitar is Rock/Dark but it’s around the same as a Dragonite) since they take forever to evolve but I think my Tyranitar was worth it. It’s pre-evolutionary stages are a little worthless (mostly Pupitar) but once you get your pseudo-legendary, it’s a good one to have on your team. Tyranitar was my second strongest on my silver team behind Typlosion!

Steel: Lucario

Lucario was like like the OG Zoroark where you thought you were getting a special Pokemon and it turns out it only had the aura of a legendary Pokemon. Lucario is great with speed and would’ve been so helpful if it was available when you had to fight Norman in Pokemon Emerald. I think it’s one of the best fighting types out there and more flexible than most of its kind. And on top of that Riley was one of my Pokemon crushes, right after Steven. Getting a Riolu from him was a gift of our love. Well at least that’s what I told my 12 year old self.

Water: Oshawott

Ok so this was technically a tie between Pinplup and Oshawott. My top 3 favorite water types are those two along with Mudkip. The reason I chose Oshawott over Pinplup is mostly because i’ve been on this otter kick lately. They’re just so damn cute and you can’t help but love how adorable Oshawott is in the anime. He’s the cutest little nugget ever. Not to mention Samurott turns into a samurai narwhall that can probably kill someone with its horn in two seconds. Oshawott was part of the few times that I chose fire over water and I was completely happy with my decision.

So sure, maybe my reasons were a little dumb but at the time of their creation and ever since these Pokemon have had a special place in my heart. I’m not a crazy battler nor do I train hardcore. I like going with the flow of the game and treating these Pokemons as true companions. They’re my babies and having them besides me in a game series that I’ve been playing for 11 years makes me happy that I got to train them. So here’s to 20 more years Pokemon!

Review Dying Light

Hey guys, i”ve been watching another Let’s Play. I’v been hearing a lot about Dying Light especially since the expansion came out last week. I decided to watch the first part of it and see what exactly it was all about. If anyone wonders why I don’t just do the Let’s Plays on my own it’s because I don’t have a PS4, my laptop doesn’t have enough memory and I don’t have money, haha. I don’t mind watching other people play either. I think it’s fun seeing what other people do and what you would do differently. Of course I watched theRadBrad do the Let’s Play. I mentioned before he’s isn’t as annoying with voice over stuff (the main reason that turns me away from let’s Plays). He doesn’t play as well as some others, which can bug some people, I know it bugs me sometimes, especially with this game when he’s close to an airdrop and doesn’t pick it up.

Anyway, Brad was given the game in December of 2014 I believe, the game didn’t come out until January of 2015 so the first 6 or so episodes follow the main storyline until you get to Rais, then he does a couple side missions which are a little weird (Mother’s Day) before he’s allowed to do the full campaign. Obviously with this post I will be talking about things within the game. I won’t really do a full explanation of stuff, just wanted to do some over all reviewing but there will be some spoilers.

So storywise I think it’s fairly interesting. there’s a lot of back and forth stuff with having to do missions for Rais, the people at the tower, Spike, Dr. Zere, etc. The missions themselves don’t seem as fulfilling as the cutscenes which of course let you go more in depth with the characters. The missions just seem like missions, basic “I need to get this or I need you to do this so we don’t die because of these zombies” stuff. So i find that a bit lackluster. My two favorite parts of the storyline was definitely the Demolisher boss battle and Crane cutting off Rais’s hand as then when you have to go and rescue Jade. Those two scenes in particular really had me on the edge of my seat and I was wondering exactly what would happen next. The weird floating school thing with Jade was okay mostly because you can see like the virus taking over your brain but you don’t really know if Crane is passed out and dreaming or really walking into random places and he’s not aware because he’s trying to find Jade. The end battle of course wasn’t as thrilling. I mean in a game full of zombies when 2 humans fight it won’t be as scary or thrilling. Techland tried to make up for this I think by adding in the quick time events to try and keep up the suspense. I think as a player it would be frustrating since you have to button smash but it seemed rather lack luster. Overall I think there were some good plot twists and decent character deaths, this is also the first form of zombie media I’ve seen that actually comes close to a cure. There’s always talk of cure but this ending in particular makes it seem like it’s real.

Gameplay is thankfully more interesting than watching an FPS. I tried watching F.E.A.R. and I basically gave up because watching it is so boring (the storyline is interesting however). It’s got a lot of melee weapons and fewer guns, which I think is cool because if you’re traveling by yourself there wouldn’t be a lot of guns lying around anyway. My favorite melee weapon was the Heavy Rebar (sucks on stamina but kills easily) and Tahir’s Weapon (easier on the stamina and does a lot of decapitations.) There’s also a variety of physical actions like sliding, dropkicks, and stomps that you can acquire with the skill points. The skill points weren’t so bad, they definitely helped in the game and imprved your character. As for the scenery and stuff, I like that it’s open world and every section has great textures. The realism is a little ehh at times but overall I think it’s pretty amazing. The colors are really nice, especially for a crumbling Turkish town. There’s a lot of neutral colors but subtle things that make it pop such as the graffiti, water, and tunnels. The parkour aspect is very huge in this game, hell one of the main characters, Brecken, was a parkour instructor before the outbreak. I think it’s interesting, not my favorite since only a few of the zombies can climb and go after you so most of the action is down below. It’s great for when you’re doing things at night because you DEFINITELY need to avoid them them since about 2 or 3 new zombies only come out at night. The stamina part is an amazing addition but i can tell if I actually played it I would hate the hell out of this feature. It adds to the realism immensely but it sucks big time when you’ve got 3 or 4 zombies around you and your stamina is at zero. Some other amazing additions that are probably really annoying for gameplay is when you come out of the water your screen is all wet and blurs your vision, the blood on your face from when you camoflauge yourself with zombie guts is weird because it’s like you have blood in your eye, and the seizure parts since Crane becomes infected. Sometimes the seizures happen at the worst time and I just yell at the screen like C’MON NOT NOW! The seizure parts add suspense because it takes awhile for Crane to recover and your vision gets all blurry.

So let’s talk zombies. This is the only game or form of media that I think i’ve seen that actually refers to zombies as zombies. Sure they have their former name of Volitiles but there has been several instances where Crane says zombies. It makes me think that maybe there was zombie media and entertainment before the outbreak, you know like in real life. I kind of like that aspect as well. The zombies in this game are really itneresting too. I always like seeing how  each franchise no matter in books, movies, or video games adds their own spin to zombies. Dying Light has their weakness against UV rays, Bombers which are similar to Bloaters in The Last of Us (mostly in the sense that they are large, very mutated, and can damage you with their explosion). The only thing is that as soon as you get close enough they start wanting to explode and in about 3-5 seconds they can cause major damage. The good news is that unlike Bloaters, as soon as they explode (and they do so on their own) they’re dead, so you don’t have to have a big battle with them. Toads are weird because they remind me of like…if stereotypical fedora lords that lived in their mother’s basements got infected. I think it’s their dumb little backpacks, lol. I haven’t gotten far enough to see if there is any explanation provided as to why toads ended up looking like, well, toads. Obviously they all mutate (which is another cool thing about these zombies) but I want to know why.

As for characters, Crane is the same for every video game. 30-ish, white man who has to save the day, blah blah. What I do like is that this takes place in Turkey, and there are Middle Eastern people everywhere. We even have Dr. Zere who may be from a different place (I’m thinking England? He sounds a little british?) but is a person of color. And I like how they got Middle Eastern people to voice Middle Eastern characters. Jade I think has a lot of potential that I haven’t seen yet. Her face I feel is the most realistic out of all of them but I want to know why she wears makeup if it’s the apocalypse. Like, come on, people. Lena I don’t think wears makeup (i haven’t seen that many close ups of her) and she’s still smart and useful (-ish, there’s not that much of her either). Rahim was, well annoying. He played the annoying little brother role well and when he died I was like good. You were fucking stupid, reckless, and thought you could do shit, when the adults told him that he shouldn’t have. I feel old writing that lol. But Rahim was no skin off my nose. Another thing is that I’m not connecting to these characters as much as I connect to the others in zombie games(ellie in TLOU, Michone in TWD, Clem in TWD game, etc). I think Jade seems to be the most interesting and I think that’s because she’s a kick boxer so I know she’s badass. I just haven’t seen it yet. I was pretty upset when she was bitten and on the verge of death. I think that was like the only time that i felt emotion towards a character in this game. I think Crane over all learned from his mistakes and was trying to do the right thing but I can’t help but to think that most of this stuff was his fault. Eventually towards the end of the game I started liking him more and more, especially with the little quips he had towards Rais. Overall i don’t think he was a bad character just not as dynamic.

So pros: day and night cycle, with night time adding increased difficulty and new zombies that only appear at night, different weapon options that aren’t just guns (but why are there elemental throwing stars?), you don’t have to fight all the zombies and they’re more like obstacles but when they pursue you it can be scary, the storyline is more hopeful especially with the cure and Antizin being introduced, gore factor in nice.

Cons: Missions are pretty straight forward, there’s more traveling than doing things, the faces are animated a bit weird and the lip movement/talking animation doesn’t looks as real as it could be. There are some glitches with the zombies bouncing back and forth, floating body parts and getting stuck in scenery. Missions are kind of boring, traveling takes up too much time, 2 boss battles, not enough battles with the zombies (you mostly avoid them)

The common rating for this game is a 7-8 out of 10 and I would have to agree. It’s not bad but it could be a little bit better. I think it’s got some great parts to it. I’m hoping that with the Dying Light:The Following addition it will be even better and some of these things will be fixed and that we may get to see different characters get involved with the zombies more. It’s on my next thing to watch. I don’t think I would buy it for $60 on Steam though. I would definitely wait for a price drop. The game may have 20 hours (or so) on it but i don’t think it’s worth $60.

Alright guys, hope you enjoyed the review, I’ll be back once I get done watching the expansion! See you soon!

 

 

My SD Boy Doll Journey

I say journey because it’s definitely felt like one. It all started with following a few doll collectors and people in the BJD hobby on Instagram. One of them was selling a Little Rebel Seven head for around $190-ish. I don’t know why I wanted to buy this floating head but one thing lead to another and I put my first layaway on a doll (she was gracious enough to do a layaway with me). Now I know there are people who buy heads with the intent of getting bodies for them eventually. I don’t like eventuallys, If I was going to get a head I was also going to get a boy body. She recommended an Fdoll V2 body, which is available on MintOnCardInc.com. The skin tone I needed however was out of stock. So I got one that I thought would be the next best thing, which was pink (the head is Light Normal). I was impatient and didn’t want to wait for the Light Normal body to be in stock, so I went ahead with the Pink body and put it on layaway. I had two layaways and about $400 or so dollars to pay off. It was fairly easy as the payments weren’t synced up and there was enough time apart where I wouldn’t get slammed with 2 payments at once.

The head did come first, I never got a picture of the original faceup. It was good, better than what I could do, a little bit too heavy black shadow around the eyes and not too much details. I decided to look into doing my second faceup, my first full face up (the first attempt was building off the original faceup of my Mystic Kids Natalia, adding eyeshadows and lipstick basically). After purchasing some essentials for faceup removal on VOLKS USA website, i scrubbed him clean.

I had seen a lot of people with fem boy dolls. I had seen so much of it that I really began to hate the idea. It’s really not my cup of tea. I decided that my doll was going to be manly. I wanted to give him a bit of a hipster style too. So I added a beard.

A frontal view

Eventually I think I’ll redo the eyes but it do like most of the faceup. I think the harsh edges on the eye shading is whats bother me. And i’d like it to be a bit more realistic. Other than that I love the beard and his little beauty mark 🙂 So the head was done, time to pay off the body.

I got the body January 2016 a few days after my last payment. The head is more yellow than the body (naturally with the resin color not really due to yellowing). So the resin doesn’t match but there’s hardly a difference. You can see in the picture that for the most part the resins match it’s just a matter of the undertones, one is pink and the other is yellow. But i figured with wearing clothes, you wouldn’t really be able to tell.

So i had the body, I had the head, did the faceup, now it was time for clothes and mods. This doll was going to be my experiment doll. I wanted to put piercings and tattoos on him. As you can see , he already has a nose ring a lip piercing. I had some earrings on him but they kept falling off. I’ve also created gauges for him but I haven’t gotten around to putting them on him yet. I did get all his tattoos done. He has a sleeve, a chest piece, one on the back of his neck, back, thighs, and ankles.

The piercings were done by cutting a jump ring in half with some nail clippers, taking the shape in a bit by squeezing the ends closer together and to create a more rounded shape. Then I used tacky glue to stick it on. For the tattoos, I used printable tattoo paper that I got at JoAnn Fabrics. Each pack only comes with one sheet, but when you think about the size of your doll compared to a human, one sheet is all you need. I fit a lot of the tattoos I wanted on a single sheet. You simply find the image you want, print it, add a layer of sealant to the area when the tattoo is going to be on your doll, apply the tattoo with water as you normally would, then add a final layer of sealant. Apply the tattoos away from joints as the tattoos will gunk them up. You also want to make sure that water doesn’t fall into the joints and get on the string used to keep the body together. Apply the tattoo with circular motions as well as up and down strokes. Sometimes air bubbles can appear, so trying to smooth everything out before hand will help to prevent that. I had a few air bubble myself and had to reprint and reapply the tattoo again.

 

He has a horror movie themed sleeve

After a while and not really having money to buy him clothes (i’m really bad at making clothes myself) I went to Ohayocon. There were a few people I was able to buy some clothes from, so he’s finally clothed! Here is just one of his outfits.

Later on I was able to get him some other stuff online.

The next battle was the wig. I got a wig on ebay for $12. It had a few layers of split pink and blue hair then the rest was an auburn-ish color. I first cut the pink and blue layer down to the length I wanted then the auburn I tried leaving longer. I’m no hairstylist. I usually hack my way through a wig even though I try to go layer by layer, none of it turns out even or looks right. Like I said, the hair wouldn’t hold for a bun in a hair tie so I cut it shorter. Eventually I kept cutting and cutting until I got the hair you see on the doll. It looks alright with the beanie on but if you take it off the wig just looks like a mess (because it is). I don’t know what really possessed me to buy this wig. I think it was probably because I was looking for something cheap that I could get easy. I had good intentions for it but in the end I ended up hating it. I have now ordered a black fur wig which i hope is easier to style and not really have bangs. I think the wig he has on now makes him look too feminine, especially with the color, bangs, and style. It also doesn’t match his facial hair so that’s a problem.

Overall he needs more clothes. He needs basic and non patterned pants and a few non patterned t shirts. All his pants are checkered patterns and all his tshirts are stripped, i don’t know how that happened. He does have a white shirt and plain grey cardigan though. I would just need to get some jeans or black (non harem style) pants.

As for poseablility, he can’t stand on his own and his body flops around all over the place. It’s so frustrating. And somehow his ass always pops out more than needed and it makes him look like he has scoliosis. It’s difficult to stand him up on his own and do things but sitting poses are ok. He can slouch as well. The arms don’t stay in more natural poses either. They snap back into a place that’s comfortable for them, which is frustrating for me. I really hate it. I don’t think I’d get and FDoll boy body again. I might try to get floating bodies from different companies and hope that it works better. My other doll can stand on her own more. I’ve thought about sueding the joints but I don’t know how to do that and I’m too afraid I’ll mess something up. I might do it eventually.

I don’t think that SD’s are my doll size of choice. I think they’re too big and clunky. I see a lot more clothes for MSD and MNF, and I really like my MSD doll more. I think I might sell the boy doll one day but as for now I do like him and he is really cute. I think once I get everything situated with him he will appeal to me a bit more. I think i’d feel guilty for selling him though. Right now he’s kind of just boy with normal boy fashion. And Luna is like kawaii, lolita, pastel fashion which I think can offer me more creativity. I still do want a badass boy character though. He’s like dark, mysterious, a giant nerd. It’s perfect. AS you can see I’m on the fence about it haha. I do love him though and can imagine myself cuddling this chunk of plastic and going to bed. Plus putting Luna beside him makes him look like a big brother and that’s cute too. I think I can punk up his style too.

Sighs….I’m a hot mess, just like him.

Ohayocon 2016

Last weekend I went to Ohayocon in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve got to say that this con was fairly disappointing when it comes to panels. Out of 3 days I only went to around 5 panels, which is really bad for a 3 day con. For two out of the three days I dressed up; Friday was Lolita day and Saturday I dress up as Super Sonico. I made a post on my makeup blog on how I did the makeup for both looks. Friday was a decent day. After much struggling and going back and forth, my sister drove me to Columbus, two hours from where I live. My ex goes to school there so I stayed with her. Every year it always seems like a big mistake because she usually makes the con horrible for me but eventually things evened out. Neither I or my sister could afford an extra badge for her (i had pre-ordered mine) and so she had to wander around the con being bored for several hours while I did stuff. I felt really bad and annoyed that my ex wouldn’t let her stay in her place to rest while we were at the con. it just seemed really stupid. To make up for it I set out to get her a bunch of Sailor Mercury stuff from the dealer’s room and a few things from Bioshock (her fave video game franchise). I also paid for the parking ticket, our food, and gas (another reason why I didn’t have money for her badge).

Friday was a pretty chill day. I went to a panel about BJD’s (ball jointed dolls). It was my first BJD panel and I was super excited to meet other people who had the same hobby/interest as me. I haven’t been in the bjd hobby for long but I still love it. I made some new friends with Maria and her wife Gabi. I got to ogle her gorgeous Mini Me doll of Bill Kaulitz, too. The BJD panel’s were my favorite as well as the Steven Universe panel.

I was super nervous about dressing in Lolita too. Not only did I wear two sports bras, two pairs of spanx, and pantyhose, but I had a heavy wig on also. I was afraid someone was going to like say I didn’t make a good lolita or something. Not that I would’ve actually cared but i’ve heard that people in both the bjd and lolita community can sometimes be assholes. But i had a few compliments here and there and even got called a “pretty lolita” in passing. I was really happy. On Friday I also went to the Girls Generation Panel, which is my 2nd time going. I love that panel because it’s always fun to dance to GG, and i love Kpop. It’s a win win situation. But let me tell you, dancing in Lolita gear is no joke! I was sweating, my spanx kept falling down (layering spanx is apparently not a good idea as the materials slide against one another) and my feet were hurting in my 3 in heeled boots. I took them off during the dance but I had been wearing them all day so my feet were pooped.

Saturday I dress as Super Sonico. I hand sewed the vest from scratch (meaning I got yards of fabric and cut things out). It was the hardest thing i’ve ever done but also the best. it actually functioned, looked cute and I was very happy with my cosplay. I even got a few people to take my picture. The best thing was that I actually got 2 Sonico figures as well. That was my goal for the dealer’s room. Get a sonico figure. It was ahead everything else and I’m really happy with my purchases. I also got a lot of things from artist alley. Like I said, I didn’t go to many panels so I spent most of my time in the dealer’s room, artist alley, avoiding furries, and sitting down to rest my feet. I wanted to keep my sister company too, so I met up with her anytime I wasn’t busy.

Sunday I was in and out of the con really quick. it started to get colder and I had to be home to help my cousin’s girlfriend dye her hair. I had commissioned the awesome Consuelo over at Cogs and Creatures to make me and SD size beanie and t-shirt for my boy doll who had been naked ever since I got his body off layaway. She was super awesome! Anyway I ran in, spent a few more in artist alley then headed off towards North Market. North Market is my favorite place to it. It has the best pizza, pierogi’s and macarons! I just had to take my sister there to taste the awesome food. The guy working the parking lot ticket both was a prick though. He gave us attitude and a hard time because we didn’t get a stamp from inside, saying that we actually parked in the lot to go to North Market. I had forgotten you had to do this as I don’t freakin’ live in Columbus or go to North Market constantly. I would usually walk there anyway. Anyway he gave us attitude about it and was a complete dick. But after all that we were on our way home.

I wish this year had been better, panel and con wise. Last year I did a lot more stuff. I’m hoping to go to Colossalcon this summer so I have no idea if i’ll be able to go to ohayocon next year but we’ll see. I made a quick slideshow of some of the pictures and videos I took at the con. Hope you enjoy!

Adventures in Online Dating Part 5

MAN I GOT SOME GOOD STUFF FOR YOU GUYS TODAY!!!! An entire conversation!!

Its 4:30am. I need to go to sleep because i have to get up for a ohayocon tomorrow. But at least there is a beacon of light keeping me up, a fuckboy in the distance. Behold the slutshaming!!

Now you may ask, why did i respond? Two reasons: one, it WAS FUNNY AS ALL HELL OMFG and two, i always love a good shade throwing session and brin5ing down men. It’s good for the soul. But it gets better.

WHOMP

THERE IT IS.

My response was truly a vision of sarcasm.

So you understand hes a pathetic lowlife asshole right. BUT

WAIT THERE’S MORE.

#sippinonthemmantears

WHOOMP THERE IT IS AGAIN

HE IS STILL TRYING. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD LAUGH.

It only gets more vulgar, so be warned. Im not sure if this is making him laugh as much as i am. He seems to be trying but he could also just be a large troll. But this is the reality of the minds that some men have when it comes to women.

He proceeded to say that my response was “grahpic” as opposed to what he said beforehand??? Yep, definitely makes sense.

I’ll probably add onto this post as it gets more ridiculous. See if you have a good laugh too.

Monster High Doll: Isi Dawndancer Review

Let me start by saying that for me it’s really difficult to find the new dolls as soon as they come out. I’ve been an avid collector of  Monster High since they came out, I even have an OG Frankie and Ghoulia (whom were my favorite at the time). Of course there are still a ton of dolls I do not have that are on my list to get but Isi came out at a time when I suddenly got obsessed with deer. That’s right, deer. And it started with Fawtine Fallowheart who is part of the frightmare collection of mini centaur like dolls. I fell in love with Fawtine because of her gentle design and she looked the most down to earth compared to the other frightmares. And all the other frightmares look mighty bitchy in their design art 😛 She was just so cute and only $10 so I got her. Then I started painting my small Obitsu doll into a deer design. And then I saw Isi.

I loved her as soon as I saw her (I love Batsy Claro too and she’s next on my list). This is Monster High’s second Mexican doll, Skelita being the first and representing Day of the Dead, and Isi is “Boo Hexican”, which based on her design, I would assume would be like a Native Aztec spirit. I was able to find her on Amazon, i think through the official Mattel since she was still only $20. I told my mom about her and it was like an early Christmas gift. I normally have to tell my mom and aunt which dolls I don’t have so they don’t buy me dolls I already have. It’s a hassle but this is what I go though, haha.

Anyway, Isi I literally everything. I love her so much. Her face design is of course different from the other dolls because she has the deer facial features. Her nose is the cutest and her eyes are super big. The lines around the outside of her irises are a little uneven but you cant really tell unless you look real close, factory errors happen all the time. She also doesn’t have antlers, which I’m assuming is because she’s a female deer. The antlers however are represented in her headband. I would eventually like to see a doll with  antlers (a normal doll, because Fawntine has Antlers).

Her outfit is a one piece jumpsuit, a overlaying poncho, calf high heels, and a yellow beaded necklace. Her purse is a large circle bag with a dreamcatcher design.

I love the jumpsuit design which is a halter top one piece. It’s a combination of aztec print with a little monster high skull design. That’s my favorite part of the design. The poncho seems to be more of a traditional Aztec design (that I know of) and it stands out because of her blue hair, bag, and heels. Her hair is so soft, btw!!

Love the little Monster High Skull!

L

Yes, her feet are hooves

I can’t tell you how much I love this doll. She I think is hands down one of my favorites, maybe even more so than Abbey, Rochelle, and Robecca. I can’t wait to see how Isi is in the movie (hopefully they’ll make a movie, I think they have one already though). Abbey really spoke to me after I watched a few of the Monster High episodes on Youtube so I’m hoping Isi is the same.

Until Dawn Review

I’ve been watching theRadBrad play Until Dawn. All my opinions are based on the actions he took and how his story played out. Obviously there are some variations because there are multiple endings and things that can happen. Also, of course there are spoilers ahead because I did watch the entire play through, so I will be discussing the ending Brad got.

Basically the story is about a group of college age friends that go to a cabin the woods and proceed to have every horror movie trope ever created bestowed upon them. Now graphics wise, I think the game is completely beautiful. The game play is good too. There’s constant reminders of the controls (Which i think is great) and quick time events that help build the suspense. There are a few jump scares but for the most part watching it all wasn’t that scary. It read mostly like a suspenseful thriller. Story wise, I’m not pleased at all. There were good bits and pieces here and there but when we get around Chapter 8 (total of 10 chapters) we see things come together that do make sense but it throws off other parts.

What I mean is that up until Chapter 8, Josh’s actions make no fucking sense. Okay, his motive’s make sense, yes. But how it ties into everything else…well it doesn’t. Josh’s actions basically read off as shit pulled from the Saw franchise. He captures his friends (under the disguise of a mask) and ties them up and makes them pretend to choose who will die and survive. Chris gets the first task. Ashley and Josh are strapped to these upright tables and a saw blade is coming towards them, aimed for the stomach. Chris is made to choose who will die by changing the saw blade’s direction. Brad chooses to kill Josh which we later find out he didn’t die and used a body dummy to have the blade go through. There is another situation where Chris is made to choose between him and Ashley, who should live or die. Around this part is where we find out that the “killer” (he never actually killed anyone up until this point) is Josh, “playing a trick” on his friends, scaring them to make them feel how his sister Hannah felt when they played the trick on her. Now I won’t go through every story piece as I want to give an overall summary and I hope my readers will watch and/or play the game.

The whole thing with Josh pretending to be a killer and pranking his friends to prove his point and reach his psychotic breakthrough was good, predictable but good. What makes me upset if that his stuff doesn’t fit into the overall picture. It just doesn’t!

Later one we learn about the curse of the Wendigo, how the miners were killed and how Hannah became one, Josh’s stupid little Saw traps make no sense. I honestly think Mike could’ve been the catalyst once he and Jessica were at the separate lodge and the Wendigo took her. I think he could’ve still gone to the sanitarium and did all his exploring and effected the characters so they would still find out about the Wendigo’s. This is the part that pisses me off. It really has no impact on the overall story especially since from the beginning we have the notions of the Indian tribes, the totem, and butterfly effect, as well as the story of the Wendigo. All the folklore and Native Indian aspects could’ve taken the story from point blank, especially since the prank still takes place and Hannah dies (and therefore becomes a Wendigo because she ate her sisters corpse).

I think the game would have still be amazing without Josh’s craziness and wanna be Jigsaw traps. He doesn’t really kill anyone (or for that matter, I don’t think he wanted anyone to die) and he’s just…unstable. I think the creators should have picked one story or the other, either Josh makes everyone do Jigsaw traps and keeps his insanity (extremely cliche and overdone) or they keep the Wendigo story, which I think would be the better choice. Josh’s actions driving the first half of the game could have been easily been replaced by the Wendigo terrorizing and going after the characters.

So we basically get a combination of Saw, The Cabin in the Woods, and The Descent. It would’ve been better if we have like one clear set path as to what is happening instead of a combination of things. I think Josh could’ve been a more prominant figure to the plot as Josh instead of as the “killer” and towards the end his insanity could’ve been pushed over the edge and he could try and get his friends to die by the Wendigo”s by saying basically, “it was all your fault my sisters died.”

Basically the story would’ve been perfectly fine without the dumb Saw traps and setting up Josh that way. Like what if Josh found Hannah had turned into a Wendigo and invited all the friends back to the lodge in order to feed them to Hannah and keep her alive. That would still keep his insanity failing and make the characters run away from a crazy figure. And then of course it would make since for like the friends to distrust him afterwards and you could still get the whole is Josh dead or the new head Wendigo thing. I swear that makes much more sense!

But other than that I think overall the bigger picture and the game play is great. Like I said the graphics, atmosphere, and locations are very nicely done. I especially like how the girls look. The lips are what always got me. I have no idea why but I think each pair of female lips had enough color, fullness, and shine that it made them look extremely realistic. Ashley’s facial design was my favorite honestly. Overall I would like to play the game for myself to make my own decisions but seeing the gameplay that Brad has done and the overall story and such, I’d give it an 8/10. I take points off for the random Josh story that I think could be edited out and I heard Brad say that some of the controls are inverted, as in Up on the D pad would go down, etc (which is the dumbest game mechanic in history I think). I think it’s cool to play things out like a horror movie too!

I’m off to watch Heavy Rain soon since people have said it is similar to this game. Hopefully there’s not a character’s actions that pisses me off as much as Josh 😛

*fun fact: My fave line in the game is “Jesus Hot Sauce Christmas Cake.”

Adventures in Online Dating Part 4

I had several conversations with the fuckboy and I shouldve known from the getgo that he was a piece of shit. Exhibit A: I told him not to call be “babe” and he does it just to annoy me. Not cute.

Exhibit B: i talk about my onesie pjs (kigurumi) and i get this. I wanted to mentally slap myself.

You’re just trying to hard. And i dont fall for the “nice guy” image at all. Trust me, the site this comes from doesnt allow for that, so i have to be even morr cautious. When it comes to turning away someone, i look at their profiles to see if they have anything written on theres and if we have things in common, then i check the pictures to see if im attracted to them. Im pretty sure this guy had nothing and his lame pickup line (because yes, you are in fact trying a horrible pickup attempt)about spiders webs and whatnots didnt work. Sorrynotsorry.

How ive “become” asexual? Like its some fucking magical girl transformstion! I hate when people ask me shit like this and make me seem like im some failing science experiment. There’s google for a reason and personal boundaries for another. I wanted to punch this guy in the face so bad. I could go down the whole “he meant well” route but i dont really give a damn.

NO ONE AND I MEAN NO ONE should ever message someone this as the first like. Youre also 41 and without a picture, you disgusting creep.

DONT call me baby. Second verse same as the first. Youre old, creepy, and disgusting. And what do I fucking care if youre queer???

Again, my profile states do NOT open up with “Hello, sexy, beautiful, cutie, etc” and again men think it’s real cute to open up that way just to piss me off. Other than that, what the absolute fuck is happening in this message?? Like if youre goal was to not sound like a serial killer you failed, miserably. That isnt really something to joke about either. It just sounds like all kinds of kidnappings gone wrong.

Wtf is wrong with people??