magic @ work: 2011

OMG, has it really been five months since HobbyCon 2010? And to think I promised an update. Tsk, tsk. This just won't do. I realize I've done massive procrastination but never did I expect that time would fly by in a glimpse of a shimmery daze that leaves me unable to account for anything that has happened since December. Amnesia dusts anyone?

Okay, I'm exaggerating obviously. Then again I have been busy with a lot of things (cross my heart). Mainly with my job, a lot of company transactions to compile with ~~a whole mountain~~ stacks of out-standings unaccounted for, that kept appearing on my desk every morning from January through March, as if by magic (and cue, soft glistening bells chiming at the back of my head). I would will it away to Timbuktu if it weren't for no-magic-usage-outside-of-the-magical-realm-if-there-even-was-one rule.

And there was my temporary obsession to being stringently involved with Deviantart which, surprisingly lasted for about three months. After that, the comments and photo uploading dwindled away and my account is back to its embryonic muteness. On a side note, I've met an interesting person over Deviantart whose stories of warrior women and other worldly magic inspired me to continue writing my novel that I wish to complete someday (it would seem far fetched but I'm not giving in until some council of creative composition sends me a talking envelope that announces the banning of my writing once and for all). It's currently on hiatus, again, until we (my family and I) have moved to our new home.

Then, there were a lot of reading; my obsession with books has not diminished over the years, fortunately, or I'd transform into a pretty boring water nymph (not that nymphs could ever be boring). I don't mean to sound conceited but I've read so many books since December that I've forgotten to keep track of the titles and it certainly slipped my mind to write anymore book reviews (exactly when have I written any? Oh, right, there were a few scraps of unpublished blogs in my account).

A good friend of mine (who currently resides in Australia), got me a gift for my birthday in January - to be more precise, it was a Kwik Sew 3052 sewing pattern that I've been yearning for the past year to create my costume for this year's con. I felt like a giddy, magic-drunk pixie when I opened the envelope and saw the content, and thus my next obsession was born. With some saving, I purchased an Akira SW-940S electric sewing machine. It has about 21 built-in stitch patterns that also include the particular stitch for the fabric used in KS3052. I was quite satisfied.

I worked on the pattern for a while, adjusting the size, sketching the seams according to my intended costume, deciding fabric colors, cutting the fabric, etc (found out recently that stretch fabrics are utterly evil). My current progress with my first costume is about 20% in total. Then the frustration came. I never imagined that one sewing machine could thwart a person's resolve so badly. I cannot adjust the upper tension without making the stitch pucker. I cannot change threads without making the stitch pucker. I cannot change stitch patterns without making the stitch pucker. I've tried re-threading, oiling very regularly (I doubt the puckers have anything to do with oiling), cleaning, re-threading again, more cleaning, more re-threading and lots of cleaning, but my stitches just keeps puckering! It's like the machine is secretly conspiring to ruin my attempt on completing a costume.

My sewing is set aside for the time being and once I'm stacked up with fairy dust, I'll be all riled up to face that monstrosity of a machine again. Consequently, I've become very obsessed with playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but this obsession was becoming rather unhealthy as I'm getting more and more deprived of sleep. So, after a month of nightly computer screen staring, game playing had also decreased. Oh, there will be The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which will make its debut on 11.11.11. Bethesda has devoted five years into making that game so I'd expect it to be as spectacular as Oblivion or even better perhaps. I haven't been this excited since The Sims 3 was announced. So here's a trailer of Skyrim for you to enjoy and hopefully would influence you to like it as well.

Other than that, I've also been taking driving lessons in hopes that I could finally drive myself around without having to depend on others. I had my two hour lessons every Saturday for a whole month and I'm now just waiting for a call to go for my final driver's test before obtaining a license. I've only ever driven a car not more than five times so quite frankly I don't feel anywhere close to being ready for the test at all. But still, fingers crossed.

Then like a fresh water sprite's first flight, it dawned upon me that I own a blog. Go figure.

Well, that about sums up my whole five months up to the point where I finally recall the existence of the blogger-sphere. I leave you with some captured momentos taken during HobbyCon 2010.

HobbyCon 2010, day 1

My beautiful friends, Maya as Alisa of Tekken 6 and Mori as Riza Hawkeye of Fullmetal Alchemist

Photo credits to Andrea (if I'm not mistaken)