Dream Somehow

Dear Livejournal,

reaperfox — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 23:38:09 GMT

You have no idea how much I miss you.

You have no idea how much this place means to me, or how dearly I wish anywhere else online came close to the things you offered. The communities, the threaded, genuine conversations, the people, the fandoms, the creativity.

You were a blog, but you were a diary also, you were tiny, one paragraph posts in the middle of the night, famous quotations, gigglefest roleplays, heartfelt apologies, song lyrics and silly MS Paint doodles.

I've been reading through my posts from 2006, 2007, 2008, and finding comments from people I'm friends with now, today, whom I meet up with regularly or at least see IRL sometimes - friendships YOU MADE HAPPEN, Livejournal. Friendships you forged, through communities and comments I've never found elsewhere online. Fandom moved to Tumblr, where people can't just talk to each other or join in on conversations, and where multi-user communities just plain don't exist. Fandom moved to Twitter, which is the most similar place, I think, to this little world we carved here, but it is a platform built for modern, changing times, full of short posts and home to even shorter attention spans. I don't know where else Fandom moved to, but I miss it so dearly, and it aches that there's no way to find it again.

There were trends here, memes and silly quizzes. There was spam, and confessions, and dirty secrets, and lies. You were the place where I discussed so many things, frank and open and honest with the world.

I didn't try to be a good writer, I just needed to write.

I have a lifetime account here, Livejournal. I'd pay for another, and another, and another, if it could bring back the world we once shared here.

I don't post here much anymore, because it feels like shouting over the rubble of a fallen empire, but this place has forever been my online home. I grew up here. I'm so different, now, but I read back through my posts from a decade ago, over a decade ago, and realise that I'm still so very much the same.

You will *always* be my home online.

I miss you so much, Livejournal.

Still here :)

reaperfox — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 05:44:35 GMT

Just got a little paranoid that LJ may purge inactive accounts so I wanted to blow the dust off this place just in case. Anyone else still about these days?

Hello, Livejournal

reaperfox — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 23:01:23 GMT

Man, I miss this place. :(

I blog vaguely regularly over on http://www.reaperfox.com, and I have a Tumblr, and a Twitter, and a Facebook account, of course, but none of them are like Livejournal was. Proper conversation, communities, discussions. Silly icon battles. Actual threaded conversations!

I really miss this old place.

Bridport Hat Festival!

reaperfox — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 08:42:10 GMT

Yesterday, I was invited along to Bridport Hat Festival by my friend Sarah who went a few years ago and enjoyed it! I had a free day and figured it'd be a fun, different day out, so we dragged Luke along too and made a day of it.

The festival was pretty cute and quintessentially English - full of quirky eccentric people parading all manner of headgear, from store bought Santa hats to fully home-crafted towering pieces of art. There were competitions for best hat, of course, and talks and exhibitions. There was a regular market selling all sorts of vintage and second hand things, and a separate hat market featuring, well, lots of independently crafted hats for sale.

The event was nice and cozy but sadly it ended pretty promptly and earlier than we expected - while the schedule looked really packed full of things to do through 'till night, we actually found ourselves at a loss after lunch and realised most of the crowds had dispersed and the live music was packing up. By 3 pretty much everything was over, so we looked around the town (where I managed to buy four new books in Waterstones!) and headed over to a pub called The Bull, which was hosting a 'Cocktails & "Fascinators' party - basically a cozy pop up tequila bar offering specially 'hat' themed tequila based cocktails! I had a 'Milliner's Mule'.

Oh, and the books I picked up were 'Popular' by Maya Van Wagenen, 'The Maze Runner' by James Dashner, 'Timeriders' by Alex Scarrow and 'Knife Edge' by Malorie Blackman - I'm on a bit of a Young Adult kick, can you tell?

<<< this post was originally uploaded to www.reaperfox.com ! >>>

Mahoosive update from my blog!

reaperfox — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 09:21:01 GMT

Apparently LJ's getting a bit of a revival? Man, I hope so. I never liked Tumblr for actual conversation and having my own blog is nice and all, but this place is where community is. Is anyone still reading?? Hi, if you are!

Here's some stuff from my blog lately if you're interested in that sorta thang~

I found some new (oldschool!) MLP stationary in Wilco!

~

And I drew some new art! Featuring Gnar and a Poro from League of Legends, because cuties!

~

My review thingie about the first Doctor Who episode of Season 8 - Deep Breath!

~

I went to the Great Dorset Steam Fair!

~

I also went to BUCK!

~

I wrote a little Tribute to Robin Williams.

~

And Moose and I went to 'Digital Revolution' in London!

Really dumb (probably) Doctor Who thoughts...

reaperfox — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 21:44:56 GMT

I'm posting this here because it's the only place I trust spoiler cuts! This probably isn't anything, but I thought it was quite interesting so here goes... Spoilers for the latest two episodes of Doctor Who!

Okay so this is just dumb speculation and thinking but... this random woman who keeps popping up after 'saving' people as they die or just before they die, coupled with the fact that this episode started with the Doctor saving somebody just before she was about to die. I just wonder if this is a thread in the new series BECAUSE, and this is where it gets dumb and speculative so hear me out ;p

When Capaldi first regenerated, he said something along the lines of asking what his face was like, and said something specifically to the effect of how every face he has is usually someone he's seen along the way, and his memory of this one is just on the edge of his mind, he just can't quite recall it... he rambles on for a little while about it.

Capaldi has been in Doctor Who before, as the dude in Pompeii that Tennant saves against all his instincts. Y'know, the guy who gets saved right before he's about to die?

????

So yeah okay I'm sure I'm pulling theorys out of my butt but it just seemed in my conspiracy theorist's mind too much of a coincidence? OH WELL it was good anyone I rather enjoyed the episode.

Oh, and you guys can read my (spoilery) review thingie about last week's episode Deep Breath here on my blog!

RSS Feed! <3

reaperfox — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 00:13:40 GMT

I still want to post here and I don't think I'll ever let my LJ truly die, but since I do take so long between collecting updates from my blog, I wanted to point out to everyone that I've just set up an RSS feed on LJ for my www.reaperfox.com blog :) It's where I do most of my updating now, and while I DO intend on crossposting everything here, sometimes it takes a very long time and other times I just plain forget, ahem ;_;

So, without further ado!

reaperfox_rss
reaperfox_rss
reaperfox_rss

Please friend that and you *should* get a direct feed from my other blog. Also, well, it's on Bloglovin' if you use that. And if not? Well, I WILL post stuff here eventually, when I remember to ¬_¬

Marker Card Commissions - batch #1!

reaperfox — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 08:41:34 GMT

I've been creating marker cards to sell on Etsy and lately I've been fortunate enough to take some private commissions for them, too! Here's a batch of cards I've created for some lovely people online! Most of them have been sent off now to their new homes now, but if anyone's interested in one themselves, please do take a peek at this blog post about them! :) Enjoy!

This entry was originally posted on www.reaperfox.com !

Why I Love Team Fortress 2!

reaperfox — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 08:34:12 GMT

Story time! I'll warn you though, it's a love story, and not just about how much I love this silly, bloody game.

Team Fortress 2. It's an FPS (First Person Shooter) game on the PC. It's by Valve, aka the Steam Guys or the Half Life Guys or the Portal Guys and it's really, really good.

Growing up, I was never a PC gamer. I had consoles. I had - have - a lot of consoles. I grew up alternating between Sonic and Mario and never truly engaged in the ridiculous console wars of the 1990s. My first PC game of any merit was Sim City 2000, but the PC was always something for work or, later, the internet, and never really for gaming.

I confess, I hated PC gaming.

I hated the constant upgrades needed to stay relevant. I hated how difficult things were, back then, to run. I hated that you had to install things and change settings to suit your machine. Heck, even on the old Amstrad we had when I was super young, all you had to do was type "run disk" and bam!, you were gaming. PC gaming was a dumb chore and I just never really cared to look into it.

Until TF2.

Valve are an amazing company who go all out when they're pushing one of their games, and TF2 of course was no exception. They released videos introducing us to the characters in TF2, which were gorgeous, fully animated shorts. I stumbled across one for the Sniper, and let's just say I was in love!

I realised they'd released a few other videos for the characters, but I kept replaying this one over and over. The humour was perfect, the animation was just perfect and I was just absolutely hooked. I had to try out this game! It suddenly didn't matter that I'd never liked any FPS, or that it was a, ugh, PC game - I had to have it! So, that Christmas I had one thing and one thing only on my wish-list. A new PC. A computer capable of, I dunno, handling video games maybe?

Yep, on Christmas Day, I had purchased The Orange Box (the set of Valve games that TF2 was released with) and by mid afternoon I was downloading it. By Christmas evening, I was playing on an empty server with some friends who already owned it. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was in love.

TF2 became my go-to game. It was simple to pick up, as difficult as you wanted it to be and downright fun to be a part of. We explored the servers together and spent far too long on novelty maps like Balloon Race, Convoy and Mario Kart.

Eventually, we stumbled across a server on Wireplay called ctf_vikings, and sure enough the map lived up to its name. Two giant Viking ships formed most of the play area, with planks between the two of them, giant canons that launched you into the sky and a killer fish in the sea. It was dumb and kind of (very) ugly, but there was a community there of regulars who chatted across the teams and it became my nightly hangout - pretty soon I was as regular as any of 'em.

It's funny really, back then I was so unsure of myself with online gaming. I really didn't play games online so the community aspect was something new and exciting to me. I was happy to meet people and chat to everybody on Vikings by typing, but I was well aware of how dumb the internet can be to 'omg gurl gamers' and wanted to avoid that nonsense like the plague. I wanted people to become my friend because they liked me, for me, and not because I was a girl. For weeks, I was a regular on Vikings, helped form our "not a clan!", the PoA (Pantheon of Awesome), and got really friendly with a bunch of people there, but I never confessed I was a girl. I never lied or mislead anybody, it wasn't a purposeful thing. It just didn't come up, really, and I wasn't going to announce it unprovoked. It was, as far as I was concerned, irrelevant. These guys were my buddies. We killed each other and ate virtual sandwiches together. It was great.

Eventually, I was chatting to one of my American friends from Vikings and it just came up that I was maybe kinda actually sort of a girl, and he was absolutely gobsmacked. Gobsmacked, but otherwise unperturbed! I realised then that the reason I'd taken such a shine to the regulars on Vikings was because they, for the most part, actually weren't idiots. We were friends. Maybe only virtual ones who had a friendship formed out of murder and intel capping, sure, but friends nonetheless. The PoA was a Pantheon of Awesome, after all. I 'came out' to the server, that night, by using my voice for the very first time in mic chat. After the initial "a girl on the internet??" joking, everyone settled down and resumed bloody murder. It was perfect.

Vikings became my virtual hang out spot. It was the place I'd spend my evenings when I couldn't be with my IRL friends (most of whom played TF2 with me now, anyway!) Some evenings it really was more a virtual chat room than a shooting game, but it was always daft and fun. Vikings would be the place we'd go when the game had a fun new update, the place we'd try out new weapons and techniques. Sure, we'd go to other servers together, but Vikings was the place we all called 'home'.

And the reason TF2, and especially ctf_vikings, is especially special to me? Well, it's where I met the guy I'm kind of crazy about right now. Somewhen in early 2009, though I don't remember first noticing him, a guy called Cauldron Moose! joined the server. He was an old time regular, apparently, and tells me fondly that the first thing he ever heard me say was "Since when did this become a Sniper pissing contest?" - which is every bit as romantic and fitting as I'd like it to be.

We ended up playing together every night, just like all the regulars, really. When May Expo (London Comic Con) came around, I suggested that he and our other Vikings buddy Wrath should come along and check it out. I think I was cosplaying as the Sniper when Moose turned up, as you do at this sort of convention. The second I saw him, my heart did a little embarrassed flutter, but he was a fair bit younger than me and I was just being daft, so I brushed it off.

In August, we arranged a mini Vikings meetup when a Dutch player came along to London for a short holiday. Truth be told, I think he came over because he had a thing for me, but honestly by that point I only had eyes for Moose. By then, we were chatting every single night, texting each other and staying up until the birds started chirping. We met up again at Expo in October, and again I realised I was nuts about this guy. It was painful! It was this absolutely dumb, pointless infatuation, because there was no way this young, handsome guy would be interested in some older girl he met on TF2, right?

Wrong! Be still my beating heart, in January 2010 Moose suggested he should come visit me (after numerous hints on the subject!) so we arranged a day in Bath to hang out and I went there with my heart on my sleeve, forcing myself to treat this as 'just a friendly meetup' while desperately hoping it would be anything but.

I was terrified. To quote my old Livejournal entry on the subject:

Well, long story short, it was a date. We went to see Book of Eli (awful movie) and mooched around Bath and I spent the rest of the year feeling like the cat that got the cream.

Four and a half years on and we're still together, still rocking the long distance relationship sadly but still gaming together and enjoying each other's company every day. He's the guy I want my future with, someone I just want to share my life with. We've already made some killer memories together, and I aim for so many more, and it absolutely blows my mind that I'd not have even met him had it not been for TF2.

The PoA doesn't really exist anymore, but a bunch of us still hang out every night on Teamspeak, where we all play Wildstar or League of Legends or Minecraft or Starbound together.

And TF2, of course. The game has changed monumentally since I started playing it, with new game modes, weapons and ridiculous cosmetics that ruined the graphical theme goddamn it (rant for another time, man), but Vikings is still there, and we still play there from time to time.

To so many people, TF2 is just a daft 'hat simulator', a cartoony FPS that doesn't take itself seriously. It changed the world for me, though. It got me into online gaming, gave me some wonderful friends and introduced me to the love of my life.

And all because of an Australian ~~crazed gunman~~ assassin.

Thanks, Valve! I owe ya <3

This entry was originally posted on www.reaperfox.com !

MASSIVE crosspost summary!

reaperfox — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 21:45:21 GMT

Hello hello! Sorry I've been so neglectful here. I actually read my flist every day as I use LJ as my main rss reader, but I so rarely remember to reblog the posts I make to my website (www.reaperfox.com). Here's some recap for anyone interested! I want my website to be my main blogging platform but I do love LJ so I'll try and cross-post as much as I can (when I remember ¬_¬) I'll probably do some more recap stuff later to just get everything in one place, but from now on whenever I make a new post, I'll crosspost it here instantly so there won't be a backlog.

Anyway! without further ado!:

Makin' Merch - 30th April - lots of photos of my new convention stock!

My table at DevCon - June 6th - lots of table photos and convention recap!

Bristol Comic Expo recap! - 14th May - just a convention report really!

Wildstar is dead! Long live Wildstar! </a>- May 18th - showing off my Wildstar beta characters just before the beta closed for good!

London Comic Con (MCM Expo) recap! - June 2nd - cosplay (including my own!), convention recap and some shots of Canary Wharf :)

Fun in the Sun - Birthday BBQ! - June 16th - slice of life, and talking about some new games I'd never played before!

BEDA! Hello :)

reaperfox — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 08:26:23 GMT

Hey guys!
I AM (kind of mostly) partaking in BEDA this year, but I wanted to try and generate some views on my website, so I've been mainly doing it there. (cough cough www.reaperfox.com)

However, I always intended of reblogging everything over here on LJ due to my FAITHFUL LOYALTY to this site. but I'm behind because sadly copypasting entries is actually a bit of a faff, I wish there was an auto repost function or something but never mind! I'll go the extra mile for Livejournal!

So, I'm going to do a bit of a catch up now! I won't spam ya'll too much, promise!

First day of BEDA - it's April already!??

April is a pretty relaxed month of convention prep for me. My entire 'convention season' seems to fall in May (three cons, one month, Fox only, Final Destination), so I usually try to spend April making art, printing art and packing art! Of course, I am the queen of procrastination, so I usually don't do any of this until a week before a convention, and the end result is a lot of stressful all-nighters. But in theory I use April to calmly catch up on everything.

This year, my Brother printer forced me to rethink my usual plan of procrastination. It packed in last week, with a problem my previous Brother printer had, so I figured I'd finally blow the budget on a decent printer built for my (thankfully growing) needs. My new Epson R2000 is professional, fast and, so far, perfect. With it, I ordered paper, spare inks and a plethora of jewellery findings and goodies for my convention tables and Etsy store. I've ordered bags and card for prints, business cards and a new card display stand for a range of A6 'postcard' prints I'll be selling... gotta say, I feel totally on the ball!

Oh, yes! Speaking of Etsy - I have an Etsy! I looked into Etsy a million years ago, but was put off by the listing fee and the fact they take a percentage of what you sell. I wrote it off for years, until I decided I'd finally give it a go last month. It's been awesome! I've become addicted to checking the dashboard for stats on my shop, because it lists people's search results and I seem to attract a lot of people searching for 'Booker DeWitt', which would be great if I had more than one (crossover parody!) Bioshock print for sale!

Adventures in Nerdy Jewellery

I love selling art at conventions, but I'm constantly jealous of all the wonderful crafters out there who can make nerdy jewellery and clothing for others to enjoy. I've wanted to start creating charms and jewellery for ages, but honestly, I'm really not all that crafty at all! I can't sew to save my life, so even the few cosplays I've created tend to just be very basic adaptations of regular clothing or store bought outfits. I've dabbled in Fimo and Sculpey, but never stuck with it all that much, despite making a cute little Poro recently for Valentines Day.

Still, I found some clear cabachons in a local craft store and thought I'd finally give it a go! I ordered a ton of findings, chains and glue after researching a whole day on what best to use and how. Today, the postman came to the door with a sack full of goodies for me, so I finally set to work! This was the result!

So, I'm primarily a digital artist, but sometimes I just want to break out the watercolours and markers and go crazy with real media. The lack of 'undo' is constantly terrifying, but the satisfaction of having an original piece of art absolutely makes up for all the stress! Finding a reason to draw something in real media is often difficult, though - I'm usually too busy at conventions to offer commissions at the con, and any commissions I take online tend to be digital.

And then I discovered Art Cards! There are two sorts very popular with artists at the moment, and both are hitting the convention scene with great success. ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals) are tiny 2.5" x 3" trading card sized pieces of art. I first discovered them after seeing the lovely Anastasia's table at Exeter Comic Con last year. She had a binder with pages and pages of wonderful cards, themed after her favourite games and movies and shows. She showed me the ropes and I love the challenge of drawing on such a tiny canvas.

A lot of artists, especially fanartists, are also turning to larger A6 'sketch cards' or 'marker cards'. I think the fabulous Karen Hallion probably had something to do with that! I decided to give it a go myself, as an excuse to keep the real media flowing between digital work! I'm also using it as an excuse to draw lots of things I love but just haven't found time to draw yet! Expect a lot of Disney, I'm sure. :)

Here's my very first batch of A6 marker cards! Twilight and Stitch sold already but the other three can be found over on my Etsy! I'm hoping to have a huge batch available before the convention rush in May. They're kind of totally addictive!

I'll continue to update here of course, but you can find more posts and other nonsense over on my website blog place make go www.reaperfox.com :)

Life in Instagram

reaperfox — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 10:12:54 GMT

Watching Call the Midwife with a cheeky glass of Babycham - 'Happy Days' in Bristol with mum - my silver bracelet
Spring has sprung! - Bath Abbey - 'Vintage Life', a new favourite read in a bubble bath!

I'm trying to get into a blogging habit here, but it's difficult! I spend so long on other social media outlets, it feels like I've already said it all on Twitter or Facebook. But when I spend so long looking at other beautiful blogs, I just know I have to keep this going. Someday I want to look back at this online diary and marvel at the memories.

Similarly, I've been trying to use Instagram a little more. It's a fun little way to document the smaller moments. Life's not always big holidays and grand adventures. Sometimes life is as simple and lovely as a glass of Babycham in a vintage glass.

Originally posted on www.reaperfox.com!

Valentine's Thanks

reaperfox — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 01:11:52 GMT

The other day, Moose was ill. It was just a headache but it lasted days and it made him feel thoroughly wretched. We were due to walk Luke back to the station to see him off after his weekend visit down in Plymouth, but Moose looked and felt so poorly that I told him to go back home and sleep. He deliberated a moment, then took me up on the offer, hugging me and saying "thank you... for being you."

I've been with Moose over four years now. He's always telling me he loves me and reminding me how happy he is to be with me, but for some reason, that statement resonated so much with me that now, days later, I'm feeling compelled to blog about it. Call it the spirit of the day, I guess.

I've not made life especially easy for Moose in a lot of ways. I'm not about to say that he's perfect and I'm a monster - we have ups and downs like any couple, and the long distance element of our relationship lays claim to most of the downs - but I have a tendency to obsess over things long after they've subsided. I'm a dog with a bone, extremely high maintenance and extremely emotional. Hey, passion runs both ways!

But in that moment there was this tired, raw, genuine thanks. Not thanks for saying he should leave us and sleep. Not for buying him juice or for being sure that he had painkillers. Just a thanks for being the person who doesn't for one second demand more from him than he should be giving. For being me.

Moose tells me he loves me all the time, and I believe it every single time, but there was honestly something so much more meaningful in his thanks. For every down we've had as a couple, for all the inconvenience of loving somebody who lives hundreds of miles away, I'm somebody he's genuinely thankful for.

And honestly, I'm so I'm thankful for that, too.

This entry was originally posted on my blog http://www.reaperfox.com!

Poro Love

reaperfox — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 11:06:31 GMT

Every year, I try to buy Moose something extra special for special occasions. Sadly, he's not very easy to buy for at all, because his biggest interest is gaming and he generally buys anything he really wants himself before I get a chance. He's also not a huge fan of 'stuff', so whenever he actually wants something, it's usually very cool or unusual, which is why I bought him a Diggle plushie last Christmas.

Our game at the moment is League of Legends, and merchandise is still pretty thin on the ground, despite it being the biggest online game in the world right now. For a start, Riot hasn't cashed in on the huge phenomenon that is the Poro. Poros are fluffy little balls with huge tongues that bounce around the Howling Abyss map. They're adorable and silly and why Riot haven't made official merchandise of them yet is anybody's question.

I've had my heart set on making him a Poro for ages. Ideally I wanted to make a life-sized cuddly one, but while sewing skills continue to allude me, I figured I'd go back to basics and buy some Sculpey. I haven't messed around with modelling in years. As a kid, I used to make clay dragons and unicorns all the time (thanks to my family's collection of Enchantica) but it's not something I've really thought much about recently.

I'm really happy with my little Poro! I sadly accidentally spoiled the surprise for Moose by flipping through my phone's gallery and showing him a photo before I'd given it to him, though. :( But now he sits pride of place on the PC tower, waiting patiently for a Poro Snax.

I'm so happy with how this first figure came out, I'm considering making some to sell online and at conventions. I'm not sure how well figures sell (as opposed to jewellery/charms) but it can't hurt to try! I might also try making some of Lulu's cupcakes, too...

This post was originally posted on my blog, www.reaperfox.com

2014! Come at me, Bro!

reaperfox — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 21:10:47 GMT

I've decided that 2014 is going to be a great year. It's going to be a year of financial gain, artistic growth and, more importantly, a year of getting off my butt. Figuratively, at least, because most of the things I plan to do are things that largely involve sitting on my butt:

Vlogging
I was secretly very pleased with my little foray into the Youtube scene last month. It's nice to be new to something with the knowledge that you can improve, its actually nice being the newbie with things to learn and techniques to master. I think about two videos a week is a realistic number, and one I'm capable of doing now that the holiday season isn't getting in the way. Any more than two a week would cut into my art time, and as much as I love the Vlogging world, art will always remain my priority.

Art
This is the same resolution I've had every year, but I want to downright art more. I want it to be a basic state of being. I spend so much of my time looking at art online, at artist's techniques or tutorials, reading inspiring quotes and imagining what I want to draw, but I never actually do the drawing part. I've said for the longest time that I'd be a really good artist if I actually drew between drawing, because at the moment I can go days and days without so much as a doodle, and then sit down and just work on one finished piece. This year I'm forcing myself to just draw more. Anything. So far it's been going well, I'm trying to take my sketchbook out with me rather than my tablet. So far, so good!

I also set myself a 'solid', realistic set in stone resolution (something I rarely do, it's best to keep these things a little flexible!) that I would paint more art that could be taken to local craft fairs/art fairs rather than just comic conventions. Watercolour fantasy/cartoon animal pieces, mainly. We'll see how that one progresses!

Reading
I used to read so much. I'd devour countless books every year! And then the internet happened and gaming happened and lazy happened and now I'll barely read one. It's awful. So, as a special treat to myself for competing in the Dryathlon (2 weeks and counting!), I bought myself the first Game of Thrones book and Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman. Again removing my tablet from my daily life, I've started taking books into the bath with me again, and as a result I've almost finished Noughts & Crosses! Now to tackle the Game of Thrones franchise...

(Ye-es, I did used to take my tablet into the bathroom - stop looking at me funny! There's nothing better than a long hot soak armed with bubbles, candles and Netflix.)

And, lastly, fittlingly...

Blogging
I've had a blog of some kind since 2001, when I got invite-only access to Livejournal. I still love and use Livejournal (and make a point of forwarding all my blogposts here to my old LJ account) but since everything's so quiet over there, I thought I'd take my rambling here, instead.

I still don't know what I want from this blog. I find myself at odds a lot with the blogging world because I'm a girl who loves lifestyle/fashion blogging, but I'm also a complete geek who plays video games all the danged time and who attends conventions in silly clothes and who draws cartoons for a living.

I asked, a while ago, on my Livejournal if people would mind seeing that mix of fashion posts and gaming rants, and the general consensus was to just go for it, scrolling really ain't all that difficult. So, basically, I've decided to just go for it, here, on my personal space. I want this place to be a slice of my life, nerdy and full of art and colour and fun, where I can talk about anything from my latest shopping haul to my anger and rage at League of Legends players.

Which is why I've finally joined Bloglovin', so pleasefollow me there if you'd like. Or RSS me, if you'd rather. I can't promise to always be interesting all of the time, but if you like girlie nonsense, slice of life ramblings, pop culture art, nerdy television, video games or conventions, you'll probably enjoy at least some of the content here, and if I make anyone smile at least once, I know I'll have done something very right indeed!

This entry was originally posted on my blog www.reaperfox.com

G'bye, 2013! You were awesome! <3

reaperfox — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 11:30:09 GMT

Well, today's the very last day of 2013 and I'll be sad to see this year go, really! It's been an amazing, busy year chock full of conventions, travel, video games, fun and love. Now it's time to take down the 2013 calendar and put up one for 2014, but not before I go back through its pages and revisit some of the amazing things that happened this year!

January
January is usually a pretty empty month, but Moose and I celebrate our anniversary on the 26th so at least that's something lovely to look forward to! We had a lovely meal at Zues, a Greek restaurant in Plymouth. There was also a heck of a lot of snow, and dad's annual golf society meal.

February
As a sort of Anniversary/Valentines gift, I got Moose and I concert tickets to see the Kaiser Chiefs in Exeter, so we had a lovely romantic night away together for that! I also sold at Exeter Expo and spent a couple of nights with my rad friends at Center Parcs for Laura's birthday!

March
Turns out, this would be the last Cardiff Comic Con, which is such a shame because it was an amazing event at a hotel with a pool and spa, sigh! I loved ending a busy day selling art with a relaxing session at the spa. More conventions should be held at spa hotels, clearly!

April
For Luke's birthday, we saw the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in Bath! I also attended Plymouth Comic Expo and took part in my very first League of Legends tournament with Moose and his university society members! (We came fourth too, which really wasn't all that bad!)

May
May was a busy month! May's always a busy month! I crammed in three conventions, and they're all pretty big ones! Bristol Comic Expo was the first, followed by the biggie, London MCM Expo (or Comic Con as it's re-branding itself now!) and then Confuzzled, my first ever Furry con! That was an amazing experience and I am heartbroken I can't attend next year (due to a clash with MCM). Seriously, Confuzzled was the friendliest con ever.

June
As usual, June was a nice lazy month centered around DC's Birthday Bash! We had, games, movies (both cheesy and great!) and loads and loads of food. Nom.

July
Birthday month! And I was sure to make this birthday a long one! I went to Marwell Zoo with my parents and Moose, then Moose and I went to Weymouth for a day at the beach and aquarium exploring, and then we had a weekend at my friend Sarah's house for a BBQ, movies, a trip to Bristol Zoo and gaming. And then, later in July, I went off to London to visit the Harry Potter Studio Tour with my buddies Laura and Jess. Nice month :)

August
Headed up to London for Moose's birthday, where I arranged a day of nerding about London with his friends. I also went to Bristol to see Equestria Girls on the big screen with a theatre full of Bronies, attended the very last Ayacon, which breaks my heart because it was my favourite convention, and sold art again at BUCK, the UK Brony convention.

September
Oh boy! September! The month I didn't think could possibly come fast enough! Our friend Kingsley was spending a few months in New York training for his new job and Moose and I were offered the chance to stay with him and visit NYC! It was absolutely breathtaking! Everything I dreamed New York would be, and more! I'm desperate to go back because we had the most wonderful time and didn't even touch the tip of the iceberg. I went straight from PonyCon to New York, then came home a week later and went straight to DevCon, a small Plymouth convention I'd booked a table at. Nothing like burning the candle at both ends, huh?

October
October's usually a month I focus entirely on MCM Expo (which was ruined by my being really ill anyway, boo!) but this one was the exception! Danny Elfman, lead singer of Oingo Boingo, a band I've been obsessed with since I was 14, was coming to London to perform songs from the Nightmare Before Christmas! The concert was at the Royal Albert Hall, which was a beautiful venue I'd never visited before, and the experience completely destroyed me! I became a blubbering teenager again the moment he walked out on stage. Afterwards, I bumped into Steve Bartek (lead guitar of Boingo) outside, and dragged him back to meet my parents. Absolutely one of the greatest moments of my life.

November
November started relatively quiet but ended up pretty danged busy! I was invited to attend Armadacon, a small oldschool science fiction convention in Plymouth, and had a blast! I absolutely love older conventions, they have such a different feel to them than anime cons or conventions focused on modern (internet) nerd culture. I went up to London to see TMBG, a band I make a point of seeing every time they visit the UK, and then that following Saturday I went to Bristol with Moose, Mum and Luke to see Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary episode on the big screen! Later that week, Sarah, Luke and I saw Paul Michael Glaser (the original Starsky of 'And Hutch' fame!)

December
And here we are, the Christmas month! I'm writing this up on the very last day of December, the very last day of 2013. I had several Christmas meals, saw the Hobbit, arranged the oddest little festive meal ever (turkey dinosaurs, anyone?) and sold art at Exeter Expo. Today I'm off to Bristol, to game and nerd out with my friends before watching the fireworks over the city.

In short, 2013 was busy, expensive and awesome, and I just can't wait to see what 2014 brings!

<3

FINALLY Vlogging! No, really!

reaperfox — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 23:37:00 GMT

So you know how I've wanted to get into the vlogging Youtuber community for, like, ever?

I finally got off my butt the other week and decided to just... do it. No more angsting over whether I can bring something new to the table, no more worrying what people think about me. It's actually really fun! I know my videos aren't great, I know I have a long, long way to go, but that's what makes it fun, really! It's really nice being new at something, having a new project I can get excited about and get my teeth into, knowing I'm improving a little each time.

Sure wish I could fast forward to a year from now when my videos are amazing, I'm sure, but for now, I'm just having fun! And that's the important thing, right?

Here's my latest vids! My intro one is very rushed and weird - it's strange how quickly vlogging becomes a little natural. It took me TWO DAYS to record that first video - as a result, it's rehearsed, rushed, horrible. My last one took an hour. Again, I know it's not perfect by any means, but it's a nice improvement in such a short time.

You can find my channel here. Please subscribe, comment, like, share, do whatever it is you crazy cats do on Youtube!

<3

Blog updates!

reaperfox — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 11:48:52 GMT

Just to let ya'll know I've updated my other blog over on my website with photos from Halloween, and a little con report from Armadacon, an old school science fiction convention I attended last weekend!

Halloween! http://reaperworks.weebly.com/1/post/2013/11/this-was-halloween.html

Armadacon! http://reaperworks.weebly.com/1/post/2013/11/armadacon-25.html

Long time, no speak...

reaperfox — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 15:48:23 GMT

So here's a little grumbly convention report from MCM London Expo this last weekend!

My new motto is to BLOG MORE! I'm going to try to focus it on my website (I need a reason for people to go there afte all ;p) but I'm loyal to LJ and will forward everything here right away. I love you, LJ. You're still my BFF.

October MCM London Comic Con report!

Firstly, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who stopped by my table to buy prints or just simply to say hello! I was super ill Saturday and Sunday so if I seemed a little 'off' that's why! I love meeting you all and nerding out about ponies and video games! You were all awesome, as usual! <3

London Comic Con (or MCM Expo, depending on how long you've been attending!) is the largest geek event in the UK. It runs twice a year (May and October) and typically the October event is the largest of the two. I haven't heard official numbers yet, but this one must have been their largest ever.

Normally, I love MCM. The whole thing has a really wonderful feel to it. People go there to have fun and dork out with friends first and foremost. I don't often get to any of the events because the queues are far too long and because I'm usually behind a table selling art in the Comic Village, but the feeling and vibe of the whole place is awesome regardless.

Sadly, this year was really soured for me because I got struck with a horrible cold Saturday morning. I guess I'm glad it hit then and not earlier, because it allowed me time on Friday to bounce around the convention. Friday's my favourite day of the con because it's far quieter and, frankly, more fun. I don't sell on Friday generally because it's my day to actually have fun with the con and I don't feel I'm missing much potential trade. Saturday and Sunday were pretty awful for me, though, health wise, and I ended up leaving Sunday night instead of staying on until Monday like usual. It really made me upset because, heck, I look forward to MCM for months and months and then bam, illness. It made it extra hard because MCM Is my busiest convention in terms of table sales, and I had to be 'on' with customers and friends when all I really wanted to do was curl up in bed and sulk. I even debated not selling on the Sunday because I was feeling so rough. Ugh. But anyway, enough about being ill! More about MCM Expo!

Read more (and look at tons of photos!) over on my blog!

My visit to Hogwarts!

reaperfox — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 19:06:43 GMT

Well, kind of.

My friends Laura, Jess and I decided to take a trip to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London. We booked an evening slot (5:00 pm) to explore the studio at our own pace. It worked out to be perfect timing; as the night drew near, the whole place thinned out and we were able to enjoy everything properly. And wow, it was awesome!

I actually have a slightly checkered past with Harry Potter, as I refused to read the books or care much for the franchise for the longest time. I had this silly stubborn idea that I wasn't going to be drawn into the fad, and my halfhearted attempt to read the first book only solidified my dumb opinion when I put it down and scoffed that it was childish and simple.

As the years went on and Deathly Hallows had a release date, I couldn't avoid the craze. Everyone was nuts about Harry Potter and, struck with the knowledge that this was the last ever book, and that if I wanted to give it all another go, now was the last big shot I'd have at it, I threw myself into the first book again. This time, I'm happy to say, I loved it. I devoured the whole series in a matter of weeks, just in time to attend the midnight release of Deathly Hallows at Waterstones in Bath. Dressed in my finest robe and Gryffindor tie, I even won two cinema tickets in their fancy dress competition (take that, Actual Children). Safe to say, I was hooked.

The Studio Tour was absolutely amazing. I'm a fan of the movies as well as the books - reading them sort of alongside each other, I had the movie images in my head but allowed the books to fill in the (huge) gaps the films had left out. As a result of reading the books along with the movies, they formed my hippogvision of the characters and scenarios, so it was wonderful seeing all the props and sets in real life, right in front of me. Sometimes, it was pretty hard to actually get my head around the fact that these were the actual props, that the actors held and used, and when we got to the creature shop, I was absolutely blown away with how lifelike the animatronic creations really were. We stood near Buckbeak and he started to move, and in that moment I couldn't see anything but a living, breathing hippogryph in front of me. It wasn't like the stunted movement of a puppet on a Disney ride. It was a real creature. It was all absolutely breathtaking.

...see more on my website blog! <3

Mirrored from www.reaperfox.com <3

Boating in Bath

reaperfox — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 21:53:58 GMT

Bath's my old stomping ground. I went to university there for three years and made my best friends there, so of course I'm very attached to the Roman city. We've all moved away now but, fortunately, we're all local enough to make it our day trip destination. Last Tuesday, DC, Pash, Luke and I headed into Bath for a day of boating, picnics and al fresco Mexican food. It was beautiful, as Bath usually is.

Tiny Convention Report Update!

reaperfox — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 09:46:19 GMT

For my birthday (woops! another update I missed, but I'm on it now, guys!), my mum gave me a gorgeous Canon Sx40. I'm hopefully off to New York later this year and I can't wait to take this beauty out for a spin in such an amazing city.

In celebration, I've revisited my old Flickr account, upon learning that they've upped their storage for free users. I've been mainly using Facebook for uploads, but I think any nicer photos (i.e, not just shots of my current Magic decks) will end up on Flickr for the world to see. You can see my old dumb photos over there if you fancy.

Anyway, just to catch up ya'll on the latest happenings here, I'll quickly give you a tiny convention update:

Plymouth Comic Expo #2 was a success, and I actually met a couple of League of Legends cosplayers! The game's so huge, I suppose it was only a matter of time before it hit the fandom and convention scene, which is great for me because it means I'm finally starting to sell the League prints I've had for a while now, haha. I really enjoy the Plymouth Comic Expos, they're tiny but attract some lovely people. A different crew are launching a convention later this year called Dev Con (on September 21st) and it's set to be a much larger affair, but I hope we do get more of the little Expos, too.

Moose became social sec of Termisoc, Plymouth University's computing society, and directly after Plymouth Comic Expo, I headed down to Voodoo, a bar they'd taken over for a LAN event. Termisoc hold several LANs a year but they're usually on uni grounds, which blocks Steam. gg guys. This one was way more laid back (and smaller) but access to Steam and the internet was a massive plus. Also, you know, there was alcohol. In the form of Jammy Dodger shots. I can dig it.

Bristol Comic Expo was as good as ever. This year they introduced a gaming section with a bunch of retro consoles set up for anyone to play and my table was positioned right next to them, which was great for me! It meant anyone interested in games would come my way, and given the majority of my table's subject matter (nerd culture & gaming), I'd say it was a nice magnet to have! It also meant I was able to launch myself from the table and onto the consoles whenever they were free, so I managed to get my Smash Bros and my Rock Band on, heck yeah.

MCM Expo (or London Comic Con now, I guess) is always the biggy, and a goodie. I squeezed out a couple of Doctor Who related pieces to coincide with the season finale and sold out. They're pushing the esports thing at Expo now, with a huge League of Legends tourney that ran over the weekend. I absolutely love that the UK is starting to get in on esports, and that League of Legends is the forerunner of it all. I managed to sneak away from the table for a long time to watch one of the games, just in time to find a huge League cosplay meetup, too. The scene's growing, and it's awesome!

And then, after MCM Expo, I attended Confuzzled. This is a furry convention, and despite skirting the scene my whole life, I've never been to one before. I sent art to Anthrocon a few times, but never got out there myself. I had no idea what to expect, but I threw myself into it and ordered a table in the Dealer's Den, knowing I had very little furry art and knowing how out of practice I was. I needn't have worried, though! I took along a few old prints and drew up some ACEO (art cards editions and originals, basically small 2.5" x 3.5" trading card sized pieces of art) and offered them for commission, and also took digital and take home stuff as well. It was a hit! I was busy the entire con with work, and when I wasn't working, I was busy hanging out in the artists alley, slurping Confuzzled themed cocktails in the beautiful hotel grounds, or swimming in gorgeous pool. It was amazing! Seriously one of the best conventions I've ever attended. The entire feel of the thing was lovely, the people were friendlier than any other con I've been to - I've never before felt confident enough to just up and get chatting to someone over breakfast, y'know? I enjoyed it all so much that, when they announced next years dates would clash with MCM Expo, I couldn't hold myself back from crying in the hallway, haha. #whitestnerdiestproblems ever, right? I'm seriously still so bummed I can't attend next year (though I'm considering trying to make it to one or two days directly after Expo), but sadly I can't turn down the sales I make at Expo even for the fun of Confuzzled. Oh well. I'll be back, fuzzles.

My next convention is Ayacon, but I'm not selling there, just nerding out for the weekend. Then it's BUCK (where I'll be selling originals, prints and other goodies), PonyCon, Dev Con and MCM Expo October style. Busy life! And that's just the conventions, haha. I'm going to catch up with a 'life update' post later, but for now, I got me some art to do!

Oops, fell out of the blogosphere again...

reaperfox — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 10:09:42 GMT

I've noticed that whenever someone posts on Livejournal saying that they're still here but nobody ever seems to post anymore, they end up with a ton of replies from people saying that they, too, are still here. Makes me think that if everyone actually made the effort to post here rather than wait for people to poke about it, we might actually have a good community here at LJ again.

Maybe?

I have Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, DeviantART journals and Furaffinity journals. I also now have a shiny new website which hosts its own (currently empty) blog. None of those places have ever held a feeling of community and conversation like Livejournal ever did. Fandom's all moved over to Tumblr but you can't have threaded conversations there. It's dumb and sad and I hate that I'm as guilty of perpetuating it as everyone else. I've not updated in weeks, but my excuse was that I was super busy, and then when I wasn't busy, I realised I just had so much to blog about here that the task got larger and larger and more daunting, so it was easier to put off the idea and pretend it never existed.

Which is dumb.

So, here's a little update as a placeholder for all the big updates I'll be making in the next few days. Since my last update I have:

-attended Plymouth Expo
-attended Bristol Comic Expo
-attended London MCM Expo (London Comic Con now, apparently)
-attended Confuzzled, which was just so damned good.

We've also had our annual BBQ Birthday Bash for Ben, I went to London a couple of times, played at a LAN in a pub in Plymouth, saw Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in Bristol, had a spa day courtesy of Sarah and Center Parcs, and bought myself a Yiynova 19" tablet for arting.

Life's really, really good right now! I'll come back with photos and things later. :)

Best of the South West! Well, nearly.

reaperfox — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:17:37 GMT

Two days of missing BEDA, partly because I've been out and so busy I've not even been home before midnight to write one up! I'll try and make up for it now... with an entry that nobody will understand!

Yesterday, Moose and I took part in the League of Legends 'Best of the South West' tournament, held at Bath University. It's the first of its kind in the UK and I'm so excited to have been a part of it. Hopefully the UK esports scene will only get larger and better now, with League's popularity growing every day.

Our team was made up of Moose, two friends from his computer science society Termisoc, one of their friends, and myself. We had a couple of practice sessions together as a team, but that was about it. As the event got closer, I started to worry that everybody else would be super serious and we'd be the only team made up of 'friends who kind of play the game'. As it turned out, the tournament actually had a really nice mix of both 'real' teams and folks just in it for a good time. I didn't think for one second that we'd win the whole event, even with Moose's skills to carry us, but I was pleasantly surprised when we won in our first bracket, taking us to round two and a guaranteed prize. We did extremely well that game, Moose went 12/1 I think and I went 3/0, which isn't as impressive, but the fact I didn't feed the other team any kills at all certainly means a lot to me! Garen and I (Brand) had a lot of fun laneswapping at the start when they decided to pull an AD Thresh out of nowhere. In the end I stuck mid against Kassadin. It was pretty great.

Sadly, our second game was not quite so successful. We were pitted against Bros In Suits, who completely annihilated us. They banned Soraka, our support's main champion, which didn't help matters, but frankly I don't think even Soraka could have saved the day. Their midlane was Kha'Zix, who I as Brand just couldn't touch, their Volibear jungle destroyed bot, where Moose tried his damndest but just couldn't carry us all, and their Cho' just chewed (dyswidt?) through our Garen like nobody's business.

I'd like to say we put up a bit of a fight, but we really never got the game going. We did provide their team with the day's only pentakill, so I suppose that's something! Right? Positive thinking! Yeah!

The whole event was streamed live, and they're in the process of editing the footage to put online later, including some interviews Moose did as team camptain which had me sitting in the audience just bubbling with pride, seeing my boy up on stage all official-like. D'aw.

The day was amazing, really fun and so nice to see esports finally getting the look in on a smaller, more local scale. Hell, it's nice to see an event like this at all happening in England, so I'm definitely keeping my ear to the ground for news of more. There's rumour another will be held around November given how popular this tournament was. Anyway, here's some photos of the event thanks to Sarah who managed to snap a few while we were busy gaming!

Icon Commission

reaperfox — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:52:59 GMT

Eep, ten minutes before today's BEDA entry is late! Uhhh, here, have some art I did today:

£5 ($8) icon commission for a lovely friend of mine, of his deer character Leif. If you're interested in one yourself, just comment here or email me at laughingfox@gmail.com <3

Dream Somehow

Dear Livejournal,

Still here :)

Hello, Livejournal

Bridport Hat Festival!

Mahoosive update from my blog!

Really dumb (probably) Doctor Who thoughts...

RSS Feed! <3

Marker Card Commissions - batch #1!

Why I Love Team Fortress 2!

MASSIVE crosspost summary!

BEDA! Hello :)

First day of BEDA - it's April already!??

Adventures in Nerdy Jewellery

Adventures in Nerdy Jewellery

Art Card Bonanza!

Life in Instagram

Valentine's Thanks

Poro Love

2014! Come at me, Bro!

G'bye, 2013! You were awesome! <3

FINALLY Vlogging! No, really!

Blog updates!

Long time, no speak...

My visit to Hogwarts!

Boating in Bath

Tiny Convention Report Update!

Oops, fell out of the blogosphere again...

Best of the South West! Well, nearly.

Icon Commission