Downsizing

I love the tiny house movement. I spent my adolescence watching nothing but McMansions get built. I spent time wondering why nobody was building houses like the ones from my childhood. Houses that were 1,200-2,000 square feet. Families are getting smaller so how much space do we need?

I subscribe to Tiny House Talk's email and often realize how easy it could be to live tiny. I saw this video of a couple who converted a bus into a tiny mobile home and it's absolutely lovely. (Although I do wonder how they have 'adult time' with minimal curtains.) It made me realize how simple it would be. In theory, I could do this.

I'd just have to give up a few different hobbies I really enjoy.

I like to cosplay. Nothing too intense but if you like to wear costumes, it requires stuff. The costume itself, accessories, possibly makeup. Makeup is another thing I enjoy. Even if I parsed down my collection, not that much would go. I enjoy being able to experiment with this lipstick, that eye shadow, this eyeliner and maybe this blush. I've maxed out on lipstick storage. It's too the point where I own enough stuff that I feel bad not wearing makeup some of the time. I want to be able to wear out some of.

I love to read and after my birthday, I will be doing a culling of my collection again but I can't imagine life without physical books. I stopped buying ebooks because I realized I rarely read them. I enjoy holding the story, feeling the pages, seeing the typeface, maybe catching a new/old book smell.

I want to own fewer things and cut back on my consumption but I'm not ready to give everything up yet. Living tiny is an extreme choice that reminds us we need to swing back to a happy medium between McMansion and micro-home. I love and admire the tiny lifestyle but it's not what's best for me right now.

What Should I Be?

I’m not sure what I’m going to do for Halloween this year. I was originally thinking a feminist Hulk but that requires more pieces and makeup than I can really afford to buy. I need to come up with 2 costumes for 2 different parties. Here’s what I’ve got available to me:

-Victorian widow
-Pirate
-Vampire
-Serial killer (they look just like everybody else)
-Stand-up comedian (they look like everyone else except broke)
-Cereal killer
-(Fallen) Angel
-Death/victim of higher education
-Catholic school survivor

Last year I was the color purple and the year before that I was a witch. I might be able to pull off a fae but it’s reachy. I have a bunch of RenFest stuff but that maybe be a little overdone since our RenFest wraps right before Halloween. There’s a little too much of me to love for me to be comfortable as the TARDIS or Lolitapool all night.

I could do a ‘spirit of Halloween.’ I could reuse some of the same pieces I used for the witch but I want my costume to be a bit more straight forward this year. I did a conceptual costume last year.

I’m leaning toward the pirate for one weekend and the widow for another. The widow will require some makeup but I should be able to pick something up at the drugstore. I’d have to make my face very pale but I’ve already got the rest of the makeup for both looks.

A Festival and a Shopfession

MAGFest was last weekend. As I predicted, I was bad with my shopping freeze. How bad you ask?

-Sparkly purple dice for upcoming Pathfinder campaign + two 6 sided dice        $14

-Super Art Fight program (autographed by several featured artists at con)                     $15

-Portal Tee with Cave Johnson’s rant about lemons                       $20

-Plush puppy cow (created by a Super Art Fight artist)     $10

-Mystery box (I kept the hairbow and candy)                                 $5

-Several charms (made by Super Art Fight artist)               $24

-‘Don’t Panic’ hand towel                 $14

-Fabric bracelets                                 $2

That equals a grand total of $104 spent at this con. I kept getting dragged into the dealer’s room where it’s hard not to spend money. I got a great birthday gift idea for The Boy but I spent way too much time around temptation. On the plus side, most of what I spent was cash instead of charging it so no interest. I was also putting money toward local artisans instead of some massive corporation.

I have no guilt over any of my Super Art Fight Artisan purchases. It’s one of my favorite things about some of these cons and all the stuff I’ve seen has been great. I’ve even turned some of my friends into big fans. Most of the folks I saw were small entrepreneurs making some really great niche products like the customized nerd towels. I have a birthday coming up in about a month and no major cons again until April so I should do better in February.

It was interesting to speak to one of the artists having just finished New Domesticity. She just quit her ‘real’ job to go full time at her crocheted coolness. It sounded like her husband still had the standard gig but she’s in such demand that she won’t need him nearly as much as some of the moms in Matchar’s book. 

Craftigurumi is doing so well that when I inquired about a custom order she said she probably wouldn’t get to it until March. Her impressive work ethic combined with her unique material and consistent con presence should keep her business booming for quite a while. She said she crochets at about 3 feet per hour for the scarves and she’s doing it for about 8 hours a day. I recommended 4 podcasts I absolutely love since she listens to TV a lot.

The con itself was great. Most of my friends were there and I got to see all of them for at least a little bit. I played my favorite arcade game, saved the earth from aliens with The Boy, checked out some indie games, and sat in on a panel about Girls in Geekdom. This con is always fun but this year it was especially great. Being with friends really just made the con for me.

I did a Con Bingo list of all the crazy costumes I saw. I was able to check off:

-A furry

-A brony

-A punny costume (Teenage Mutant Ninja Bros)

-The Doctor (4, 6, 7, 11)

-A member of the Disney Princess franchise (4 total)

-Guy with a Japanese body pillow

-Person on stilts (full Groot costume)

-At least 3 Deadpools or one with a twist (2 with twists, 2 women, and at least 2 standard)

-A pregnant woman who worked her pregnancy into the costume (Season 1 Khalessi)

-Unnecessarily slutty costume (Charmander)

-Waldo & Carmen San Diego (separate counts but bonus points if they’re together)

-A crazy expensive screen accurate costume (Master Chief)

-Gender bent costume (Princess Peach followed by Ash from Pokemon)

I missed:

-Man in anime girl outfit

-Hot guy in shirtless costume to show off abs

I found a few different cartoons that I might have to adjust and make an actual Con Bingo for my friends and I for Awesome Con in a few months.

I Like It

At my office party I was explaining how I was done 3 for 6 parties. I said one of the parties I had coming up was with my RenFest friends and we love to dress up in costume. That got a few funny looks.

I’ve dealt with enough non-nerds that I’ve gotten pretty good at explaining why I do what I do. I don’t understand why golf, designer fashion, sky diving, or excessive drinking are fun but for some reason those are easier to explain. Here’s a few suggestions on explaining why you love what you love to the ‘typical’ folks with whom you deal.

Explaining LARPing or RPGs: “I liked playing make-believe when I was a kid and I didn’t feel like stopping as an adult.”

Explaining Cosplay: “I liked playing dress-up as a kid and I didn’t feel like stopping as an adult.”

Explaining being a brony: “In a world of gratuitous violence and harmful machismo, it’s really refreshing to be part of a warm, welcoming, and non-judgmental show and fan community.”

Explaining comic cons: “It’s a chance to us to meet authors of our favorite books and other folks who have the same interests.”

Explaining comics: “Many of the stories have excellent character development and thoughtful narratives. The art adds an extra dimension to the story and eases the need for exposition.”

Explaining sci-fi shows: “It has the same elements of most regular TV shows but the universe allows for a lot of extra plot points and storylines to happen. In some ways, the universe becomes a character in itself with how it shapes everything.”

I wonder what it’s like to never have to justify what you like.

Music: Once Upon a December by Dean Carter

Nerd Blackface: Dressing Up

Wearing costumes and role playing doesn’t make us losers.

Let me start by saying that cosplay and LARPing are different. Costume play (cosplay) is just dressing up. Some folks do the full character but most are just themselves. Live Action Role Play (LARP) involves a group all playing characters as part of pre-established scenario. Since LARPing can involve fantasy elements, it is different from the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) which focuses heavily on historical accuracy.

None of the above are automatic losers. People dress up in costume to communicate their passion and excitement for a particular character at events with likeminded people. Since it’s all in good fun, there’s rarely any drama over people being the same character.

Some cosplayers do it for the attention. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a tiny factor in my decision. Mostly, I love finding the different pieces and putting it all together. I have a bunch of funky things in my wardrobe and do the same thing when I go out. I loved playing dress-up as kid. Why shouldn’t I get to do it as a grown-up?

I’m debuting two costumes in the next month or so and I’m really excited about it. I’d love to do a Dr Who cosplay with Boy Toy. I’m doing one with two of my girlfriends for Shore Leave this weekend.

LARPers dress up as characters within their scenario. They play roles and they generally don’t have issues with overlap. It can be fairly similar to the DND-style tabletop games. It can also be very physical which minimizes the fat virgin in the basement stereotype. One I know is quite attractive and a bit of a womanizer.

I’ve never LARPed before so I can’t say too much more about it. IMHO, if cosplay is like dress-up, LARP is like playing make believe with your friends. The main difference is the level of forethought, detail, and quality of weapons. Leather armor and a foam sword beat the hell out of the stick that fell off the tree last week.

Adult life with desk jobs, mortgages, car payments, and bad TV can be such a slog. Nerds have unabashed permission to go out and have fun like we used to as kids. When was the last time you saw an adult more enthusiastic than a kid? Some even get their kids in on it. I saw a Pokémon family at awesome con. The parents were Brock and Misty, the six year old was Ash, and the baby was in a Pikachu onesie.

To quote the Doctor, “There’s no point in being grown-up if you can’t be childish sometimes.”

Music: Do You Want to Date My Avatar by The Guild