Losing it for the sake of Cosplay

I realise this is my cosplay blog, however as this is indirectly about my cosplay career and blogs are a place for self-expression, I will be sharing my weight-loss journey with the internet.

For a long time now I have not been happy with what I see in the mirror. My biggest problem is that instead of the stereotypical "I look better than I feel", I have always been "I feel better than I look". Instead of always being aware of how big I've gotten, I can easily strike a pose and see myself differently in my head. I feel that this has been one of the biggest things stopping me from sticking to a weight-loss routine.

I look at photos of myself in my first costume in 2011, and when comparing to now, I see my biggest letdown is my legs. The corset is the most used object in my closet when it comes to costumes and it vastly helps improve my confidence, alas there is no way to trick my legs into looking thinner. Time and time again I have tried various ways to lose weight. Shakes, bike riding, Wii, running on the treadmill, and even simply eating better. However I have one of the worst curses in my life...a short attention span.
Shakes and healthy eating are always ruined by cravings which turn into my old routine, treadmill and Wii are always ruined by getting bored really quickly, and I simply don't have the funds for a gym membership.

My most recent convention, Oz Comic-Con, was my eye opener. After receiving amazing photos from various photographers that I worked with, I saw it. The costume that looked so amazing on my mannequin, looked awful on me. I had ruined my own creation.
As a photograph, every image looked fantasic! But I have let myself down. In my mind my costume looked incredible, just as it had at home, but my weight (especially legs) took away from all the hard work I had put into it.
This was my wakeup call.

This morning I was eating breakfast with the TV on in the background and an infomercial came on for the T25 workout system. Basically it is a 14 week program that calls on 25 minutes straight of interval training, five days a week. I watched intently as it went through all the details and success stories and I was hooked. This was perfect for me! Short amounts of time so I wouldn't get bored, fast results, and no breaks in the session so I'm not tempted to walk away.

As the program starts on a Monday, I thought I'd try out the 'stretch' session, which you do on your days off, just to get myself kickstarted and man was it good. After just 25 minutes I was feeling great and when it got to the 20min mark, it felt like time had flown by. Obviously this session is nothing like the others, but to get a look-in has helped me get keen about the whole idea.

It feels a bit silly writing about my weight-loss journey on the internet where people judge you soon as look at you, but this is my way of keeping on track. Knowing that there might be people reading this out there and knowing what I'm doing, is my way of sticking with it. So many times I have been on a secret diet and just stopped because I'd had enough. That won't happen this time!

This program has come into my life at the perfect time as it is 14 weeks long and there are 14 weeks left in the year. So hopefully by next year, I will be at a size that I am happy with and be well on my way to a happier life :)

Wish me luck!
xoxoxo

Is it me?

Now this may come as quite a controversial article, but I’m always wondering if there are people out there who feel the same and have the same problems. It can’t just be me right?

The cosplay community has millions of people all over the world, I cant be the only one.

I started this hobby in 2011 and haven’t really stopped since. I go to at least two conventions a year, have a decently sized online following and I’m even facebook friends with quite a lot of Australian Cosplayers.

If this is supposed to be such a loving community, why is it that I feel so alone?

As a person I will admit, I am quite socially awkward and don’t do so well in large groups, but I know others like that who have been accepted quite easily. Every time I attend a convention I see new cosplayers take the spotlight and that’s so amazing for them…but does that mean that my time is over?

My first real cosplay experience was a Sucker Punch group in 2011 and it was such an amazing day…but then I feel like I peaked too early. Was that my most notable costume and now anything after that just blends into the crowd?

Its also the people, I see posts all the time of people saying how amazing the cosplay community is and how they’ve made life long friendships, but I just don’t feel that way. Yes I have made some close friends that are amazing (most live in another state which is unfortunate) but I just never feel welcomed in the con circuit. Like I’m invisible.

Taking a recent example, a good friend of mine has become quite popular in the local scene, and why wouldn’t she. Shes such a charismatic person and she rocks every costume she wears, but then there’s me. We cosplayed together and I was hoping by being at her side, it would help me to be introduced to new people and get my social life back…but it didn’t. One particular instance was when I was introduced to a cosplayer, whom I already knew online, and they just said hi and went back to speaking to people on the other side of the group. But then there’s the other side where I passed by a lovely girl I’ve only met once also not really spoken to, and she greeted me with a smile and a “how have you been? You look awesome”.

Is it me? Am I the aspect that’s causing my own grief? Do people simply not like me and ignore me at cons because they don’t want to talk to me? Or is the fact that I’m simply not charismatic enough to hold a conversation or draw attention?

There are so many factors to consider that I don’t know what the ultimate answer is. It’s not like this is the environment where people will openly say they don’t want to be friends with you…but I wish they would. Then I could know why I feel this way all the time.

This post is in no way a dig at anyone in particular or just a whinge session, but if people don’t know how you feel, it makes social situations that little bit harder to encounter. Like if you are really quiet around people, are you always like that or has something happened in your life that no one knows about, causing you to act that way?

Parallax finally took down Hal Jordan

So in the media over the past few days, you have all become aware of the incident that occurred upon the Green Lantern Ride at Movie World.
If you haven't heard, several people were trapped on the ride after a wheel dislodged from one of the cars.

Movie World as a park has always wanted their rides to be a"world first".

Justice League, which you may recognise from the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disney, was bought as an "improvement" with new ride software and scoring systems...which has caused nothing but trouble for the staff running it with constant evacuations and downtime. The ride was promised to be able to cope with up to 20 vehicles at a time, yet more than 12 cause it to fault.

Superman Escape was the first launch coaster by it's creator to feature a "dark ride" before the main coaster, which is where a majority of the ride faults happen. Another feature is the launch area. Normally this area is a flat piece of track but on Superman it travels upwards on a gradient...again causing faults and several evacuations a week, sometimes even several a day.

Scooby-Doo, made custom for Movie World by the creator, features a vertical lift and turntable system not used before. As a ride, this is the most safety-driven position a staff member can be put in. Days of safety and evacuation training prepare the staff for at least one evacuation a day in peak periods. Mainly, these faults occur because of the lift (for those who have been on the ride before, you know the lift I'm referring to). Some days, at least three evacuations can be completed. Several times before the cars have actually crashed into each other.

Wild West Falls is one of the oldest rides at Movie World, and in my opinion, needs to be retired. With the extreme lack of attendance on a normal day, there aren't usually any problems with the ride, however the most common problem is boats getting stuck. If you have been on the ride, you'll know of the section where you reverse down a hill then turn around on the other side. This reversing element is its own "world first", yet another that causes problems. Although it is quite entertaining to watch the maintenance crew kick the boat out of the wedge to fix the problem when it happens. Also to the idiots who think it's cool to rock the boats, it's not. If that boat capsizes (which it can) you will actually die. Either by drowning or getting caught in the machinery from the water being drained. So don't do it.

Now we come to the Green Lantern Coaster. A ride originally created to have four seats, not eight, therefore putting immense strain on the undercarriage which had not been updated for the extra weight. For the four years of it's operation, this ride has been know as the Green Lemon. Consistently receiving faults, being closed down for hours, even days, and this isn't the first time it's been on the news.
Turn your minds back to January 2013 when the ride broke down twice in one day from electrical faults. Around midday, a full cart of 8 people were stuck on the ride for more than an hour, having to be kept cool by water and umbrellas provided by staff. After they were eventually freed, the ride continued operating until a second fault occurred less than an hour later, trapping 8 more people.
And now just over a year later, this incident occurs.

As shown in these photographs, the car is definitely off the track. Recent photos reveal that two sets of wheels detached from the car and these photos show just how severe the accident was. A fireman that was involved in the rescue of these guests stated that they were lucky to be alive. It was stated that the only thing holding the back half of the cart to the front, was two bolts. If these had been severed, people could have lost their lives.

I do hope that for the first time, Movie World takes this event 100% seriously and genuinely attempts to investigate the accident instead of just reopening after a few days.

2015, the year of new beginnings

Happy New Year everyone!!

Now to start, I know everyone makes New Year's Resolutions and never follows through, but I've never made them before so this time will be a bit different.
My partner and I sat down and wrote out all of our goals for this year which of course involve the usual suspects like weight loss, get out of debt, etc. But it's so much more than that.

For a while now I haven't been very happy with my appearance, so I have set up a regime (which I trialled last year with success) to help me lose the weight. I will be setting each con as markers in the year and pushing myself to lose a certain amount of eight by these events. I won't go into specifics because this type of goal shouldn't be broadcasted all over the internet, it's something I'm doing to be more happy with myself.

Then of course there's the cosplay goals. This year I really want to step it up!
I want to start selling prints, doing a lot more charity work, collaborate with more cosplayers, work with heaps of photographers, take my costumes to the next level, and basically work and work on my costumes until I'm 100% happy with them. That means no more last minute costuming, I've set myself a goal to have everything finished at least a week in advance.

I'll be keeping my page and this blog much more updated (at least one post a fortnight) and keeping communication open between my "fans" and I.

If you see something in my cosplay portfolio that you like and you want some help to recreate it, just ask :) I'm more than happy to offer advice on pieces that i've made.

This year means big things for me in cosplay as well. I have been drawing and redrawing my design for Spyro the Dragon since I began cosplaying and I will finally be making it a reality. I've also got a few pair/group cosplays planned but always looking to get involved with more people :)

Back to the point about doing more charity work, I'm super-duper keen to do this after making $770 for the Look Good Feel Better Charity from our Bombshell Calendars :D Feels good giving back and doing something meaningful with my cosplay and I wanna continue that.

I really want to meet more people and make new friends this year so don't be afraid to chat to me, because being such an introvert, it's more than likely i want to talk to you, but I'm too shy :P


Hope to see you all at upcoming cons and hope you like what I produce this year :)

Keep on sewing
Bloom xoxo