forgotten_aria

I've mostly stopped reading facebook and bluesky and it has improved my mental health. Instagram seems to be ok. I'd really like a social media that encouraged short-form posts about people I know talking about their lives.

I still can't use my feet much. I'm getting by and my foot is recovering faster, but I also am avoiding so much of the things I love.

Things I already had for my achilles:
tension brace
compression sock
ankle freeze pad

Things I have bought to try to help:
a full foot and ankle microwave/freeze pad
topical lidocaine
slippers that advertised (these have been great)
two kinds of shoe inserts
taekwondo shoes
Dr. Scholl's sandals (less helpful than I had hoped)

I'm just so frustrated because I'm also having the one thing is broken, so your other body parts get sore favoring it and there's this cascade of issues. (I think this problem was a combination of cyr class (from December) and my right foot having the weird pain.) And also during workouts, since the workouts are designed to be a combination of muscle groups, but when you modify, it usually doubles the stress on a body part. I've had weird pains in my calf and shoulder which I think is from that.

I know it could be worse, and I know I'm whining a bit. I've just all my life been told "work harder to get where other people get" and mostly my body breaks when I work harder, and I'm ok with that, I just wish our society was better at understanding that different bodies work different ways and results are not guaranteed.

My plantar fasciitis pain is through the roof and it's TKD that's aggravating it. I would consider taking a month off except we are just launching the demo team and I'm the one doing it. Our first meeting was yesterday and I kind of went all out and now the pain is so bad I can't sleep.

I got a bunch of remedies and the weekend is open, so hopefully I can recover before next Thursday.

My gym is having theme nights (as part of the fright night lights for the CrossFit open. I'm boycotting the games because of their transphobic change to the athlete gender category rules, but my gym has nothing to do with those rule changes,so I am participating with the gym only activities.)

Last week was 80s, this week was superheroes. The catch is I have to be able to do a workout in the costume, so I threw together a season 1 CW Arrow costume. Basically I made fake arrows with the printer (with lots of error prints) and a quiver and sewed a hood. I also bought some fake leather, but I didn't end up wearing the jacket for mobility and heat reasons. The pants were amazing though. They made it through thrusters with no issues!

I felt a little silly with my choice, since Steven Amell (the actor who played the Arrow) can do Salmon ladder, handstand pushups, etc. while delivering dialog and I can't even do a jumping chest to bar. I'm still pretty happy with how it came out and got lots of compliments while lurking in the dark. I had to take the quiver off because I didn't quite get the straps right.

( photo )

Last week we drove the car to the repair place last week. they really wanted to have us drive it there, take photos, and drive it home and then back again when the parts were in, but since I didn't want to drive it more than I had to, I asked to leave it there.

So we phoned the to try to get an estimate on how long the parts would take to come in. They said they were "waiting on some paper work from the insurance company." We phone the insurance company. They had no such record of paperwork. I guess we'll phone them again tomorrow and try to confirm that they have everything they need.

I miss my car.

EDIT: they sent me a text today with a link to a "progress" page, so I at least feel they are working on it now. No time estimate yet.

EDIT2: the link they gave me lets me watch the estimate go up in real time, which isn't good. The deeper the damage the more likely the car will never be quite right.

The Blitzo costume is done. I'm not unhappy with it, though I am having some self-shaming body issues with it.

It all started innocently, as I was making the additions to my Alastor costume, I decided to hand make Blitzo's necklace. Simple magic model project. But that was enough to get the idea in my head. I 3d modeled the thing on the back of his gloves, ordered a red shirt with the high ruffle collar. Then I started modeling the horns. Because the normal PLA would put someone's eye out, I started to experiment with flexible PLA, but then that needed me to learn to use my .6 nozzle (which luckily I bought when I got my .2) I struggled with getting the flexible PLA to print, but eventually got it to work.

I think I was a still in a little bit of denial when I decided to print and paint his gun (mostly someone else's STL that I bought for $6 with two small tweaks.) I learned how to use blender to augment an file from someone else.

I printed the horns at their cartoonish proportions and loved them.

I worked a little on Alastor's wig, but wig craft is not a skill I have yet.

Then I did something I knew I could do. I made the tail. A lot of people have tutorials on complex tail making methods, but I get a lot of milage out of "stick a wire in it," though my stuffing technique makes for too many lumps.

I bought a black tail coat, but then decided Navy blue was more actuate, and bought one a size down.

I finished up the necklace that started it all. I made some comically large buttons.

The Weeaboo-boo short came out and I HAD to make the knife. I love the prop making because they can sometimes look perfect, where as most characters will never look right on this body. I did the model from scratch. I printed the knife out of F-PLA and PLA and had a lot of fun painting it. It is one of my favorite props.

I lined the coat, made the holes and tears, added HTV vinyl to the collar, shortened the front opening, and added the back spikes.

I used a wig because the Blitzo cosplays that go bald, while more actuate, look funny and it was easier to hide the horn support under the wig. It took a bit to get the horns mounted with some worbla under the wig, but I made it work. To all the tutorials that recommended magnets, they didn't work for me at all. I waffled on the extra spikes and decided, in the long run to keep them. They're mostly not very noticeable.

I added some boot covers to some cheap cowboy boots. I should have made them with more slack, because they wrinkle, but it's not a big concern.

I had a first pass at the gloves by buying some superhero gloves earlier, but decided Blitzo's lack of wrists was an important feature and redesigned them to have a flexible PLA frame, a sewn cover, paint, and some PLA claws. I also did several iterations of the back thing to try to get it curved enough and in a color I liked.

I'm not great with the makeup, but I'm good enough. I used the Cricut to cut a stencil for the forehead tattoo.

I tried to make some teeth, but nothing quite looked right, so I think I'll just wear some fangs. Since Blitzo is inhuman there's a lot of balance between him and what looks good on a human.

I took a first round of photoshoot. I'm not happy with my lighting set up. I'll try to get some better photos later.

https://youtube.com/shorts/YNznY6jqIG4?si=e3sT5iER2tMXlyAW

After my test, I had trouble getting restarted on my costuming, so made a necklace for a Blitzø costume, telling myself that I would switch back to the few things left on Alastor, but I've been running with it. I designed some horns. I'm having trouble gluing the TPU, so I've decided to test out some flexible PLA and see if that glues better to make the horns less dangerous to other people (in normal PLA, they are quite stabby.)

I was just going to closet cosplay the rest of the costume, but then I decided I needed a high collar shirt and that my old trench coat doesn't fit quite right.

To tell the true, in a lot of ways I resonate better with Blitzø, especially with ( spoilers )

I do want to wear Alastor for the party, and technically it is wearable as is. I really want to upgrade the wig, however, and moving the red cuff to the new pants would make it more comfortable. The wig is just daunting, since I've never really succeeded at wig-craft. I teased the Catra wig, which came out wearable, but not quite what I was hoping for.

I do find great joy in making. I hope I get a chance to wear my costumes more often. I don't know when I'll feel comfortable going to a con, though.

I've decided that wearing anything from the hella-verse is not acceptable for the TKD halloween party, so I think I'll wear GLaDOS this year, even if I have to not wear the mask most of the time.

I also love printing with my .2 for finish quality, but it means my prints are super slow.