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Maridah
07 November 2009 @ 09:24 pm
I need to sell off some stuff to make way for more cosplay!
Here's a list of what I'm hoping to find new homes for~


See them here! )

Thanks for looking!
 
 
Mood: hopeful
 
 
Maridah
05 August 2009 @ 06:04 am
http://twitter.com/maridahhadiram

If you tweet, this is my new account there. I'm using it just for cosplay. It's mostly to follow some of you and sometimes to make progress posts.

I feel kinda dumb being on twitter, TBH. ^_^;;
 
 
Mood: embarrassed
 
 
Maridah
25 July 2009 @ 11:45 pm
I couldn't find the Gundam. I looked for a couple hours in Odaiba. It was already night, and they had turned the lights off. D: (The big ferris wheels looked awesome. The smaller one was lit up like Hello Kitty :3 I wanted to ride them, but it wasn't meant to be.)
On the shuttle ride back to Narita Airport, it was viewable from it's backside from far away. How did I miss something THAT LARGE? SRSLY. It's a gundam.
I really wanted to blingee a picture of it, too. Oh well. I saw some incredible stuff anyways.

I'm uploading stuff to a youtube. I have one thing up so far, but I'll get more up as I sort through it all and figure out how to edit my videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/videosderachel

Go check it out if you are curious :D
 
 
Mood: blank
 
 
Maridah
16 June 2009 @ 06:21 pm
I put this up on my DA, so I'm sorry for those of you who are bing messaged twice about this.

I'm starting making tutorials. Mostly they are geared towards people who haven't sewn much (or at all) before and don't have family or friends to help them get started. I have 2 up so far, and plan on making a lot more, but would like hear from people what they think I should cover.

It's kind of hard to put myself in a mindset of a total beginner because I had my mom to show me quite a bit, and then costume classes in highschool. I'm trying to think of stuff that I might overlook including as being common sense that isn't for someone who doesn't know where to start.

The stuff I have planned to include so far is:
-closer look at making mock-ups out of muslin (Thanks to something Nessa said that got me thinking -^___^-)
-more on pattern making, modifying, and pattern drafting
-Making your own piping and trim
-Finishing edges (why you need to even though they are not visible)

Later on I want to do some armor, prop & wig stuff as well, but I think it's best if I cover the basics first.
My end goal is making a resource for people to use that manages to be easy to understand and useful for all kinds of people in the hobby of making costumes.

Anyways, here is the link. http://maridahhadiram.blogspot.com/

My 2 tutorials are kinda a early progress shot of my Emma Sheen :3 It's almost done now.
 
 
Mood: determined
 
 
Maridah
31 May 2009 @ 03:38 am
I booked for AX. Guess I will be there :3. I'm going to try and bring/wear the armor again. So not looking forward to the bus ride in it though. I'm making saber's plain clothes to change into once the armor bonanza starts hurting (which is like 3 hours into putting it on- at 6 hours it's pretty darn near intolerable).

I'm still trying to figure out what else to cosplay for AX though. I just don't have the drive for most stuff I have the materials for, nor the time for anything too epic. Don't know what to make. Suggestions?

As some bonus spam material, here's a shot of my completed Saber at Fanime (I know most of you have seen it, but a few haven't been bombarded with it yet. Gotta get everyone :P)



 
 
Mood: okay
 
 
Maridah
14 May 2009 @ 09:01 pm
I leaned a word in class the other day. Karoshi.
Finals + this (ONE) costume make karoshi really relevant to me all of the sudden.

My project is still in a million pieces, but progress pics follow.

This is the back of the wig minus the ribbon. I'll get to it sometime soon I hope.
Wooo...wefting!



Here is why I have ceased to have a real life.



Thanks to my mom, I have a bad ass scroll saw. I love this thing! It's the only reason I have half a chance of getting all this done by the 22nd (which I have 2 more finals on D:)
The chest plate armor has been shaped...though I may have to redo some of it. Boobs are my enemy. I just used boiling water for those. The bigger pieces I just cut. So much sanding. I didn't want to be ghetto and leave the edges raw. I beveled the edged on all of these with obscene amounts of hand sanding. Thankfully there is beer. Sanding and beer are BFF.

Also, sunburns FTW! My neighbors see me out there on my porch enough now that they are asking about sword progress, etc. I'm the new wierdo for my complex :D

Anyways, back to work!

Oh, I'm leaving this post as viewable by all, so if anyone is worried about comments that aren't non-friends only, just PM me on coscom :D
 
 
Mood: crazy
 
 
Maridah
17 December 2008 @ 03:30 pm
 All need styling...just pulled them out of the bags :D

Sumeragi



Fujiko



Emma



Sorry for fail quality, but yeah, camera battery was dead and these lappy picks are kinda fail :D
Too bad this little camera doesn't do the Sumeragi wig justice....it's so pretty in person.


Tags:
 
 
Location: floor
Mood: flirty
 
 
Maridah
25 November 2008 @ 10:10 pm
WIGS  
They came today.
My Emma Sheen and 'Replacement' Fujiko hair.

Pictures will be spammed later :3
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Mood: devious
 
 
Maridah
20 November 2008 @ 08:30 am
 LOL I did get a job offer from them...even though I thought the interview went so badly.

UNFORTUNATLY I didn't the message that day. I got it the next...and they filled the position.

This is my kind of luck, srsly. Sucks because I would have been making like 2k a month easy.


So, I think I'm going to go to bartending school. Next week maybe.
1 week of classes and I could get certified and look to start bar-backing.

I know girls can make bank as bartenders (lol tips) and it kinda seems like a job more fitting for me than desk or retail, right? I hate the 9 to 5 office model and the bullcrap of being so shallow/fake at retail work, and atleast this would offer me flexable hours like retail does.

P.s. The mood 'awake' is a travesty because it's 8:40 in the morning...and you guys know me. It's for the best this job didn't work out!
 
 
Mood: awake
 
 
Maridah
23 September 2008 @ 01:28 am
 

Am doing D; Not sure when, but it will happen.
Who wants to join me? You don't have to be 2nd season or anything...I just like this one better than her first outfit. Things are better with groupies.
I think I might put my Misato on hiatus for this one.

GAhhh...and I don't even like Geass half the time T_T Why does Cornelia have to be so win?
 
 
Mood: awake
 
 
Maridah
03 September 2008 @ 12:16 am
 This weekend was full of so many sexy people, I think I've had a sexy overload.
I wish I hadn't had to work through so much of it.

Why are con friends the coolest? Seriously, you guys need to stop being so awesome. I'm going to start having withdrawal D:
I realized I didn't get some contact info for some of the LA crew, and I'm sorry I was not able to say goodbye in person, but I'm making ALA happen one way or another. Future IHOP lols are too great to miss out on next con. 

I'm looking forward to new cosplay groups! Here's the run down of my to-do list:

Zeta Gundam Group- Emma Sheen (Fanime 09)
Gundam 00- Sumeragi (ALA or Fanime? When do you guys wanna shoot for?)
Resident Evil- Jill Valentine (Sac-Con)
Rune Soldier Louie- Aira (ALA?)
Soul Caliber IV- Xianghua (Fanime 09)

Of course there are more I want to do,  but these are what's being bumped to the top right now.

Lemme know about making plans, if anyone needs to put a group project on hold so I can kinda set a priority list :D

Since I've told a few of you about mabinogi, here is a link for those who want to give it a shot.
http://mabinogi.nexon.net/
It's a very cute *free* game.We are on the server Rurari, and wanting to have more friends to dungeon crawl with :D

I'm trying out Google's new browser, Chrome. I heard about it on NPR today, and like it :D It has what I enjoy about both firefox and IE combined. So far, a thumbs up.
 
 
Mood: busy
 
 
Maridah
02 August 2008 @ 11:10 pm
I don't know if I will be able to get the time off from work for SacAnime.

It's a long story, and I'm not very good at getting into those when they are this personal. Don't ask me why I can't. It's ironic considering what I loudmouth I am usually.

I'm going to shoot for getting Saturday off. 

I just want to let everyone know not to make any plans based on me 

Mel- I feel like this at the prospect of canceling our Slayers fun -> p(;_;)p but I don't want you to worry about working it into your cosplay list since I know how those get kinda hectic anyhow. If I have to bail, I would feel terrible standing you up last minute.

Jessiah & Auriol- I would love to see you two there, and if you still plan on going, that would be great...I just want to let you know in advance that I might not be able to show, though. Once again, don't want to stand people up. Jake still has a high chance of showing up still.

I know I'm leaving a few of you off...sorry. I'm really supposed to be working on my finals right now... -____-;;  Yet another burden I just need to go deal with and not complain about. 

I'll check back here in a few days once my finals are turned in. 

Wish me luck (with everything...and it's a long list of shit). I need a whole hell of a lot of it.

Love you guys! Sorry to be so vague.
 
 
Mood: depressed
 
 
Maridah
15 July 2008 @ 06:02 am



Operation: Find 'Silky' a home!

So several of you know about 'Silky'. I've posted about her before on here, but I think she needs a dedicated post, seeing as how we still haven't been able to find a loving home for her.

'Silky' as we have nick-named her (don't ask, stupid joke), came into our lives a few months ago. Our first sign of our friend came in the form of cat paws covering my car. I would wash it, and they would be back the next day. We called her our mystery car cat. Eventually, she started hopping on my hood when I would come home from work. It was love <3

Silky is an abandoned domesticated animal, the product of less than classy people moving out of our complex and deciding to not take their cat with them. She now lives in our parking lot, around my car.

We regularly feed her, letting her into our home for a short time each day, playing with her, and giving her as much affection as is possible, BUT Jake is highly allergic to cats, and after she follows me home to eat and play, he wheezes and suffers. I've developed an allergy  to cats over the years as well, so as much as we adore this cat, we can't keep her.

Silky is maybe the sweetest feline I've met. She gives constant 'kisses', really enjoys our company. She's fun to play with and so, so cute.
She's a bit smaller than normal cats, so we aren't sure if she is still growing, or (more likely) just petite from possibly malnutrition after she was abandoned.

After asking people at work and family members to take her, and calling all the no-kill shelters to find they are all horribly overburdened from the economic issues in our area, we have come to a stalemate. She needs a home soon, but we haven't found one yet.

SO! LJ People, I need your help. If you have any room in your life for an absolutely adorable cat, please let me know. Even if you can't take her, maybe you have someone close to you that can?

I'm hoping to find someone in Nor-Cal with a big heart. 'Silky' hasn't had it easy so far. She needs a good home for possibly the first time in her life.

I'm hear to answer any questions! Help me find her a home!

 

Tags:
 
 
Mood: anxious
 
 
Maridah
02 July 2008 @ 06:46 pm

I just watched the raw of the first episode of Slayers Revolution.
<3 <3 <3
It was pretty great. Just the kind of thing I was hoping for.
I hope the hurry up and add Xellos in quick! I'm glad he looks to be part of the main cast in the opening and close. Some of the best episodes in Next were just him messing with the cast, so I am hoping for lots more of this.

Got my shoes for my Sumeragi costume in the mail a few days ago. Man, are they ugly! (but hey, I liked the cheap price tag!) They looked better in photos :/ They fit a bit too big, and they are about the cheapest looking pair of pumps I've ever seen, but I'm not going to be wearing these except with that costume, so no big deal.

I have recently decided to add Mazinger Z to my list of future cosplay. I've been watching the terrible HKs of it, and love the horrible subtitles. Some of the funniest subs I've seen. Old ass animation + funny subtitles= Great Success! I'm in love.
(Oh, for those of you who are new friends and don't know yet, I LOVE the tragic. Anything crappy is gold to me. It's sad, I know, but at least I'm easily amused!)

Tags:
 
 
Mood: dorky
 
 
Maridah
24 June 2008 @ 05:10 pm
So [info]mirai_noah has this meme on her journal, and I feel a strong need to make a post about it.

I was just thinking yesterday about how reading as a pleasurable hobby is dying. I was considering the fate of bookstores in the next 100 years, and the direction of literature, considering it always follows a popular trend. The future looks bleak. 
Most people find it a chore to read, and I hear that a large population of the US still read at a 6th grade level?  I had read Lord of the Flies 3 TIMES by the 6th grade...

We need the opposite of Fahrenheit 451's firefighters. We need people to go around and burn houses of people who have no books. That might fix things :D 



According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.

(ONLY 6 IS AVERAGE????? *RAGE*) 

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

Many of these books I've read long enough ago that I don't remember them, and I'm leaving off a few because I can't even recall clearly if I did or did not read them anymore. Ah, thanks to modern medicine for endless fun with memory damage <3 A few I did not finish, and made note of this.



1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
[ Did not finish]
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible 
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare [ Ceasar was my fave. Beware the ides of march, foo~ it's a shiesty day.]
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16.The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien [Did not finish]
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald [Pretended to for school, but totally didn't]
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams [heard the book on tape, but that's just not good enough, I know. I'll read it soon]
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding  [This just might be my favorite book of all time]
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


So on the note of reading, I'm in the middle of a fun read I want to recommend. It's Dracula, Prince of Many Faces. It's more than just supplemental reading for a person who enjoyed the Bram Stoker novel.
The best book I have read in a while was The Rose of Martinique. The biographer had great insight into Josephine, and created a well rounded image of her and her motivations, which most biographers fail at doing sufficiently IMO.
 
Tags:
 
 
Mood: drained
Music: Utada Hikaru's Beautiful World
 
 
Maridah
20 June 2008 @ 06:05 pm

 Sorry for the obnoxious title, but it's necessary.
I'm notoriously slow at seeing stuff, and the new designs for Soul Calibur IV are no exception. 

Xianghua, while you will always be my favorite and I'll never forget the good times beating my friend's asses soundly with you on the dreamcast, you have competition.

The new character, Scheherazade :3 Cute little elf person, how I hope you don't end up sucking! This I may never know, for I have not purchased a PS3 and don't plan on doing so for a while. I just don't have that kind of money.

This reminded me of when I was Scheherazade in my elementary school's 1001 nights play one year...LOL it was just the Aladdin section of the script modified like woah, since that was relevant to all of our 9-10 year old interests considering that movie was made like the year before. There was no way the theater teacher could have managed to get a bunch of little kids to memorize that whole script anyways. I was so pissed I couldn't play the princess LOL

Anyways, I say I'm gonna be broke because I just keep find more things I would like to make. Need to stop looking at stuff, in general. 
 
All these wigs I'm planning to buy are gonna break the bank as it is. D:

I'm still just dawdling with my Misato. The dress is pretty done, but I still have yet to go out and get my jacket pleather. Oh to not be a hermit...

I'm about 99% sold on the Sumeragi still. The wig will be the big expense, but the costume is so darn easy to make, it feels stupid not to do it just to have it for future Gundam 00 meets!

My Emma is still in pre-production. I'm being moody over the prospect of needing to make gloves for it...but it's a for sure thing. Fanime 'Feddie Shore Leave' and all since I'm retiring Sayla for a while. 

Because I also have to consider the Jake element in this, some of my other costumes are on hiatus for yet another year. I need to make him a Bright Noah, and that Xellos. If these weren't just awesome cosplay prospects for him.... GAH.

Any encouragement to get off my ass and just finish a few of these would be appreciated! :P

OH! Who needs cyperous wigs??? I'm just going to go ahead and place an order mid to late next month with them. If any of you want to get in on that to split shipping, holla!

Tags:
 
 
Mood: awake
 
 
Maridah
07 June 2008 @ 09:24 pm
MY DAY SUCKED. More than usual.

"Why today sucks" An online tantrum by Rachel; starts with Jake's phone being canceled yesterday night (his mom didn't pay the bill to the tune of $500) so we had to go get him a prepaid.

I had 6 (maybe?) hours of sleep. If you know me, you know I funtion best on 14. Yes, to those new to this fact, it is a lot...to a normal person. I' don't enter the last stage of sleep like you guys though...(Night terrors! "AHHHH COBRAS!")

I had to go to work. Always a bummer.

Work crawled by... mostly just  huge returns to the store so we were waaaaaay under our goal.

I get a call from a friend to go hang out downtown (Hurraaay! I never go out and have fun!) So we plan to meet them.

I fuel up. $40 for my tank of gas? 0_____0 My gas tank is tiny.

I try to start my car. Instead of starting, the alarm starts going off....hmmmm....and won't stop? WONDERFUL! 

Stuck at pump 11 at the gas station. 2 tow trucks and one batter repair guy later, and I'm home. I won't go into the inbetween parts here, because it was all cusswords and tears, and re-living it right now seems unnecessary torture.

Oh, I forgot to mention my AAA had expired... Yeah. They never sent me renewal papers. Nice way to find out.

There is an upside to today. I have a very cute stray cat sleeping on my floor right now. This cat fell in love with me a few weeks ago, and now she's crashing on our floor. I'm a sucker for cute things, and now I need to find her a home.
She's the sweetest cat. Insists on giving you 'kisses' when you pet her. It kinda hinders the petting :P She's full grown but still tiny like a kitten, and colored like those calico maneki nekos.
Oh, and she gave me a hi-five today. That was pretty awesome. 

 
Tags:
 
 
Mood: crushed
 
 
Maridah
05 June 2008 @ 05:45 am

Took this personality test liked by 

[info]bluestraggler   

 My personality type: the spontaneous idealist. Take the free iPersonic personality test!

LOL same as you Nat!
It seems pretty apt, considering I was an ENFP on that one test I can't recall the name of... 

This relates to my drawing class last night where we took a right brain/left brain test to determine which lobe we think in most.
Most artist are dominated by the right hemisphere, while the general person is left dominated.  I was in the balanced brain category, which is a small percentage of the population. I'm 12 points right ,and 8 points left which basically equates in terms of the test as balanced between the two. Makes sense why I'm not quite as 'unique' as a lot of my art peers.

Funny enough, I took a gender test too and received a really in-between kind of score. More male than females, but not male... 0_o Am I doomed to be in the median score area on all tests? Bah, that was a biased test anyways. Any gender test that asks if you are good at reading maps is full of crap. LOL 

"No, I will not pull over for directions!"
I love that male stereotype, because I do that so much it hurts while Jake tries desperately to make me pull over and ask for help. Flipped much? But that doesn't mean anything besides that I'm a pain in the ass (which I am very proud of, thank you).

 

 
 
Location: Desk
Mood: uncomfortable
Music: Utada Hikaru
 
 
Maridah
30 May 2008 @ 12:23 am
Okies guys, photos to share! I didn't take many, but here's most of them!

Find yourself, and comment :P 



Sorry I'm a lazy person and didn't rotate them all :P

OH! Quick edit. I also uploaded all my photoshoot pictures to flickr

Lina: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maridah/sets/72157605301739035/

Sayla: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maridah/sets/72157605301901283/

Thanks for the awesome photos, Jake. <3
 
 
Mood: chipper
 
 
Maridah
27 May 2008 @ 03:57 am
Fanime is over (sadly) and I have to say, it has been years since I've had so much fun at a con.
Even the weather was wonderful . I can only say good things about the whole thing.

Jake and I managed to finish my armor (very last minute down to the wire kinda stuff) and it stayed on miraculously. I even managed to take time to have him photograph it...and for the few of you who know me, that's a first!

So many new cool peeps, too. Good times!

I'm so tired, but I really wanted to sing more praises for fanime...but I can't think well with this little sleep ;_;

Moral of the story, Fanime is my new favorite convention, and next year will be even better  when all the bums who bailed on coming this year show up  in 09 :3 *cough* and feddie shore leave *cough* 

I leave now with this image of mudkip and I:
 
 
 
Mood: enthralled