EHyde

I was really happy with how the makeup came out this time, much better than my last attempt.

Darniil, were you in costume? I'm trying to match a face to your name.

I would like to announce that the Loki costume I've been working on for the past few months won in its division at DragonCon! And one of the judges had seen the film-used costume up close, and she still liked my version!

(also, the prize was money that had to be spent at the con so that's what I used to buy my copy of Legion)

(also, Jeff (Loki) was wearing the costume while playing Magic with Brandon and he won so now he has a hard copy of Infinity Blade: Awakening that is signed to Loki)

I've made a number of mistcloaks (some are posted in the gallery here, so you may have seen them) and I think Inkthinker and I have pretty similar designs. My own isn't hooded, but some that I've made for others are (one couple wanted Assassin's Creed-style hoods on their mistcloaks, that was kind of fun). I think I might like the look of the hooded ones better, though they do seem a bit impractical, limiting peripheral vision and all that. The way I have cut the strips of fabrics limits me to synthetics (I melt the edges to keep them from fraying) but I usually put a mixture of weights of fabric, from a chiffons to suiting fabrics, so that not all the streamers move the same way (some stay in the air and flutter longer than others).

If you cut fabric on the bias (diagonal), it will fray a bit but it won't actually unravel, so that is an option too. And it seems from fanart like a lot of people envision mistcloaks as a bit frayed-looking (though personally I like to think that since they're a noble's garment, they would look nice and well-made).

Yup, that's me! Loki is my husband (and there was at least one other male Loki, but yeah, definitely more women)

I'm here, I was an Elantrian (in the colorful clothing made with Sarene's fabric) on Friday and a mistborn on Saturday but I somehow managed to miss most of the other cosplayers.

I bought a copy here at dragoncon and got it signed, and I've read it already, which is not normally something I do at cons so that should give some idea about how I liked it and also its length.

It felt to me a lot like the shorter sf that used to come out in magazines--a bit like the plot existed as a means to explore a cool concept, but that's not a bad thing since the concept was indeed cool.

The characterization was really interesting and I would like to discuss it more but I don't want to get into too many spoilers just yet.

Is anyone else from here going to be there? I'd love to meet up with you if so.

I'm going to switch from the topic of ranting about parents to say,

There is a bloated dead rat in the vent hose behind my dryer. I know this because I unfastened the vent hose from the dryer to see if I could figure out what was causing the smell. If it were a normal dead rat I could probably deal with it myself--I've cleaned up the presents my cats brought me, after all--but well, concentrated hot moist air has a negative effect on rat corpses and this thing has swollen up to the size of the vent hose and eeegh. I would not do very well in a zombie apocalypse, okay? But it should be okay, because I live in an apartment and they have maintenance people who are supposed to deal with stuff like this. Only they haven't. I told them about it yesterday and they still haven't sent anyone over yet. We've got all the windows open for ventilation (and thus the AC is off, so as not to be throwing money out those open windows) and it's already almost 90F here and seriously, if they do not send someone by this afternoon I'm gonna have to call an outside service because I really don't think I can work up the nerve to deal with it myself. The apartment people probably think I'm some weak-willed housewife freaking out over a dried-up dead mouse but this is a huge, bloated dead rat and ... it's just really disgusting okay?

Does anyone here have any experience with the Samsung Galaxy Note? I'm finally going to get a smartphone and this one is seriously appealing to me ... it's big enough it can double as an e-reader, and it has a stylus so it's a sketchbook too. I think if I tended to carry my phone in my pocket I might be put off by the size, but I usually have it in a purse anyway.

I've got one now too, hydedesigns.tumblr.com. My personal arts and crafts and random fandom stuff (ok, not really random. Pretty much avengers right now.)

I think there should be some kind of differentiation between how strictly it follows the ketek form. (Sliding scale of Ketek hardness, anyone?)

1. All the words are exactly the same.

2. Changes in pluralization and verb tense.

3. Swaps between the same root words (verbs vs. nouns vs. adjectives vs. adverbs; he hunts, the hunt, a hunting party could be used to switch)

4. Small words and articles added for flow (a, an, of, the, and)

5. Basic form is the same, though some larger words may appear unmirrored.

6. A regular sentence.

So what truly qualifies as a ketek? I feel like the book would cut off at 2, maybe 3, though we only see two keteks and both qualify as 2. The note on keteks specifically says only verb tenses, not the same root word. I'd include 3 (I'm pretty sure my ketek is a 3) just because it lets the end of the ketek be very different from the beginning in meaning, which is cool. I don't even know if a 1 possible, and if it was, I don't know how creative or artistic you could really get. Quite a few of my favorites on here are 4s or 5s, but I definitely think that the higher keteks are impressive.

Do we know anything about linguistics on Roshar? How their language works probably has a big effect on how strict the mirroring has to be, and on how difficult it is to adhere to the form. For example Russian (that being the only foreign language I've studied) doesn't use articles so #4 is not as much of an issue, on the other hand, it has cases (meaning, nouns and adjectives change form depending on what part of the sentence they are) so that makes it a lot harder harder for it to be the exact same word front and back. Other languages I'm sure have their own issues.

Just made this. Thanks for the recipe zas, it *was* pretty great!

I tried it too, except having no raspberry jam, I used currant jelly instead. Very delicious.

Yes, it felt like all the characters got plenty of time for their own development, and no single character stole the show. That was handled really well.

So I went to a midnight showing of The Avengers last night. I loved it.

I have never read the comics, so I only know these characters from the movies. And for me, pretty much everything just worked. So many great moments, and hardly anything to complain about. The only thing I felt was a bit off was how earlier in the movie, Hulk was completely out of control, and later, he was able to sort of function as part of the team. I buy that there could have been an explanation for this ... it just didn't come across in the film. Also how when the alien base was destroyed and all the aliens on Earth died/stopped working--up til then they had seemed to operate independently so that didn't make sense either. And the close-fitting jumpsuits that everyone on the flying aircraft carrier was wearing just made me think of Star Trek. But those are really minor things.

I was pleasantly surprised by Black Widow actually. I hadn’t liked her much after Iron Man II and had been under the impression that seduction was her main superpower (probably due to her outfit), which is something I hate. But it totally wasn’t! While the fact that she is female was a big part of the way she operates, it wasn’t about using her sex appeal, it was about taking others’ preconceptions about what women are like and turning them on their heads.

I would like to announce that The Avengers is freaking awesome.

12:08 AM Alice: Disc 6? ;-)

12:09 AM Vin and Kelsir just went to meet their fake nobleman dude (R-something) for the first time

can't spell any of the names

And Vin is eating fruit and being impressed by cleanliness

My sister, describing where she's at in Mistborn, which she's reading for the first time (yay!). For some reason I find it very amusing. (oh, and she's listening to the audiobook, hence the name-spelling issue)

I would like to announce that you might be a Sharder if you unconsciously capitalize Harmony every time you write/type it.

I'd like to announce that you just made me think of what might possibly be the weirdest Mistborn/BtVS crossover ever.

It has recently come to my attention that there is some awesome fanart buried in the TWG archives. If any of it is yours, we'd love it if you'd consider reposting it in the gallery, where the world at large can admire it.

I made coconut shortbread cookies this evening, as an experiment. The experiment worked! Here's what I did.

1 part sugar (I used brown sugar, but white would work too)

2 parts coconut oil (this has about the same consistency as butter)

3 parts flour

Shredded coconut, to taste (I used about 1/2 part) (optional)

Mix sugar and oil, then mix in the flour, then the coconut. Preheat oven to 350F, chill dough while the oven preheats. Shape the dough into cookie shapes about 1cm thick, and bake for about 15 minutes.

I agree, Shivertongue. Sometimes 9 is my favorite Doctor ... especially during the 9-to-10 and 10-to-11 scenes.

Currently I am watching/rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. As "costume research." That's my story and I'm sticking to it! (as a side note, it's surprising how quickly awesome shows can turn into costume research...). I actually haven't seen the show all the way through, though I've read all of the manga. It seems to do an awfully good job of following it.

I'm still waiting on my second email (I got delayed because the first one went to my spam folder, and it took me a while to realize it had come). I am MirrorThestral27975.

I would like to announce that I have just found pepakura files for Alphonse Elric's armor (from Fullmetal Alchemist) and my list of "costumes I need to make by Dragon*Con" has gone up again...

Ok I just have to say, when I read the thread title I first envisioned something like this but with the allomantic symbols.

I'm re-reading Tamora Pierce's Alanna books, because nostalgia.

I would like to announce that my sister has heard back from all the colleges she applied to, and chosen Georgia Tech, which makes me happy because that's the closest one to me (granted, it's still a 6hr drive away ...)