4 Ways I Manage Stress

There has been a lot of things going on for me in the past couple weeks.  Grades just closed last week so of course there were about 5 million finals, tests, quizzes, and projects due.  I was trying to work out doing both the spring musical and the drama guild's show for competition.  It was getting especially stressful when my father kept telling me to narrow down my college choices and I hadn't even started to look.  It was hell.  I had no time to do anything so i kept staying up too late and not eating well enough.  So on top of everything, I got sick.  Like really sick.  Like 100+ degree fevers.  I was out of school for a week.  It was literal hell.  So in light of all this, I decided to make a post about how I manage all this stress.

1. Netflix

Netflix is the best.  Whenever I get stressed out I love to take a step back, relax, and watch a couple episodes of some of my favorite shows (provided I have the time).  I always find myself watching Portlandia or Doctor Who as a get away from normal life.  I really like watching comedic and science fiction-y shows.  I love to laugh.  Laughing is a great way to relax and let go so shows like Portlandia are great to watch.  Sci-fi shows are also great to watch as they let you escape your own problems and worry about other nonexistent problems.  Doctor Who is perfect for a sci-fi get away because there are just SO many interesting episodes.  

2. Naps

I feel like I might have said this before but I really like naps.  Sleeping is so nice and it is probably my favorite thing to do when I get stressed out.  Whenever I finally finish part of an assignment I just lay down for a solid 15 minutes and then I try to get up and tackle the next part.  It's pretty awesome and super relaxing.

3.  Tea 

Whenever I get stressed, I basically replace coffee with tea.  It's a lot more calming and I've found that it helps me focus a lot better.  Coffee is a great energy booster, but sometimes I just need to chill so I can actually focus on what I'm doing.  I always like to have a mug of tea nearby while I work on essays.

4.  Music

Music is a big help for me when I'm trying to relax.  I use music for a lot of things.  I use it to regain my energy after being around people for too long.  I use it to help me fall asleep.  I use it to help me focus better.  I use it for inspiration.  My favorite album to listen to for all of these reasons is Homestuck Volume 8 (pictured above).  It just has a lot of really interesting and relaxing songs.  It's great to listen to when writing creative stories.

So there you have it, I guess.  That's how I relax and de-stress myself.  All of these really help me get through the stress so I figured that maybe whoever reads this blog could use some of these methods too.

- René

How to Manage your Convention Spending Habits

My two favorite rooms at a convention? The Dealer's Center and the Artist's Alley.  Why? BECAUSE YOU CAN BUY REALLY COOL STUFF!

There is always so much you can buy at any anime convention.  There are actual companies selling merchandise and along with local artists selling their own works.  You can probably buy anything at a convention.  

You want a wall clock that lights up and looks like Harley Quinn?  Yep, you can get that at a convention.  

You want a body pillow of Benedict Cumberbatch? I've seen several!

You want a phone charm that looks like a tentacle?  I've already bought three in different colors.

You want a beer stein that says "DeanXCastiel OTP Forever"? Only at a con!

But the problem is that all that stuff costs money.  Like a lot of money.  The light up clocks are priced around $70. Body pillows usually go for at least $30.  The tiny handcrafted phone charms are like $6 a piece.  And you don't even want to know how expensive the beer stein is. Separately, they seem pretty reasonable.  But how could you go to a convention and only buy one thing?

Limiting your purchases at a convention is probably one of the hardest things you can do (especially if you're one of those impulse buyers that buy into every raffle they see).  But unless you want to end up broke at the end of the weekend, you HAVE to do it.  There's a lot of money already being spent on your costume and your ticket into the convention (not to mention possible gas and hotel fees) so you really need to try not to go over budget when buying souvenirs. 

Here's a few helpful steps on how to not overspend at a convention:

1.  Make a list of your desired souvenirs before hand.  This means GET THERE EARLY!

When I first enter a con, the first thing I look for is the Dealer's Center.  There's always SO much stuff in there that you might end up getting lost or not even noticing a vendor's booth!  I like to walk around and just look at everything to see what's there.  I never buy something on the first day (unless its a limited edition/rare item).  There are bound to be vendors with the same merchandise so it's good to make notes on which one's have the lower prices and where they are located.  The Artist's Alley is the next place you want to hit and make sure to really look at everything since every piece there will be different.

2.  Plan out your expenses and only take the money you need for that day.  

Now that you have a bit of an idea of what you want to buy, you can prepare a plan for yourself.  Figure out which items you want the most and which items are the most pricey.  The items that are more pricey should be left until Sunday when many artists hold sales and it is easier to haggle with the dealers (note: do NOT haggle with artists).  If you think an item will run out by Sunday, buy it on Saturday.  Try to divide up your desired souvenirs between the remaining days of the convention and then add up the cost of the souvenirs for those days.  Only take the money necessary for those days and those items.  

3. Set your souvenir money aside from your food/gas money.  (Or: Acquire a very nice, rich friend who will buy you food)

There have been way too many times where I've accidentally used my food money on an impulse purchase.  I like to use separate wallets to hold my souvenir money and food money so I can't "accidentally" use the food money to buy an extra souvenir.  

And there you go! If you follow those steps, you should definitely be able to manage your spending habits!

-René

Future Cosplay Plans

So I made a post called "Cosplay List" a while back and like most cosplay plans, it has changed. Drastically. Okay, maybe not too drastically.  A few things have stayed the same but most things have changed.  I've thought a bit more on stuff and I talked about it with my cosplay buddy.  We decided to completely scrap Trip in favor of the alternate, Asahi.  We also decided to scrap Cecil/Cecilia for QCK in favor of one of our favorite cosplays which we haven't done in awhile (I'll show them later).  Anyways in addition to scrapping a few, my opinion on a few changed.  Let's get into it, shall we?

Queen City Kamikaze - Ivan Braginski or Russia (Hetalia)

So this cutie is actually the personification of Russia.  He was actually one of my first cosplays and definitely one of my favorites.  Ivan has one of my favorite personality types: cute yet scary.  He's intimidating yet really sweet, when he's not in one of his moods that is.  I've had Ivan's cosplay for about 3 years and it is always well received.  I totally own his character and it is so fun to talk in a Russian accent for like 6+ hours without stopping.  Although I am a little let down that I won't be Cecilia but I haven't been Russia in awhile and I am really excited to cosplay him again.

Anime Boston :

Friday - Asahi Azumane

So this big nerd is definitely still on the list.  I got his uniform for Christmas and let me tell you, it is SO comfy.  I just need his wig and I'll be all set.  I'm really excited to be Asahi because he is a lot like me.  He's super shy and unsure of himself but he is actually really good at what he does.  Asahi gets nervous a lot when in front of others so if I start to panic a bit because the con is too crazy, I'll still be able to be in character. Haha... 

Saturday - Clear 

Since it was so well-received at AAC,I decided that I will cosplay him again at this year's AB.  I'm really excited to cosplay him again.  I love his character and I had sooo much fun being him.  However, I do plan to make a few slight changes. I might not wear the gloves this time (they were too hard to text with ;-;).  With the gas mask, I want to tint the lenses a bit so it will be harder to see into.  I don't know how I'll do it but I'll figure something out.

Sunday - Shima Renzou

So yep.  Shima is still on the list.  Although I do love Shima, I'm a little unsure of how I'll be at his character since he is a lot more outgoing than me but I'll just have to try I guess.  Anyway, I got his wig and his weapon for Christmas.  I am hoping to get his uniform for my birthday and then I'll be all set.  I really don't know how to feel about him right now but I am cosplaying him in a group so I can't really back out now.  Sigh, it'll probably be really good and I will probably love it but I honestly am kinda stressing out over him.  Oh well, it'll be fine...

Yep, so that's my updated plan for QCK and AB.  I doubt that it will change but who knows? It probably will.  Oh, the joys of cosplay.

-Rene

A bit of an explanation...

Most (if not all) of my readers are from a creative writing class at the high school we attend and I'm that everyone has noticed that I end each of my posts with "-Rene".  I remember that this was confusing to a couple people in the class as I do not usually go by the name "Rene".  In fact, I've never actually gone by the name "Rene".  It's kind of a hard thing to explain but here goes nothing...

Gender is something that most people of today's society view as being very black and white (or blue and pink, if you want).  You're either a boy or a girl.  Most people believe that what a person looks like or what kind of genitals they might have determines their gender. 

But, that really isn't it.  Gender is more of a fluid concept.  It really isn't just black and white.  A lot of people don't realize that there is all this gray area in between.  There are people who were designated female at birth who now identify as being a boy and people who were designated male at birth who now identify as being a girl.  There are people who identify as neither boy nor girl nor any other gender.  There are people who identify as both boy and girl.  There are people who identify as being a mix of the two binary genders.  There are people who identify as many genders.  There are people who identify as different genders based on how they feel.  Are you following this okay? uh... I'm not good at explaining things so let's have the Genderbread Person help:

I identify as androgynous (it says it's an expression in the picture but just roll with it).  I believe that there are both masculine and feminine aspects of who I am.  I identify as androgynous because I found it physically and mentally harmful to myself to identify as either boy or girl.  

I only recently started identifying as androgynous because I honestly didn't know that it was a real thing I could identify as.  I found out about it over the summer one day when I was casually scrolling through the posts on my dashboard.  I came across a post that really went in depth about gender identity.  I found it amazing and started researching each gender it outlined.  It took awhile until I found androgyny and I was so happy when I did.  The hard part is actually taking this identity and making it into an expression of who I am.

Pronouns and name changing are two ways to express one's gender (other than appearance) and they are two things that I struggle with.  I don't exactly find it damaging to be called "she" and "Margeaux", it's just that I don't like it.  It's just not me.  Personally, I would rather people use they/them pronouns when referring to me and I would really rather people called me by my middle name, "Rene."  Most of my friends at my high school have already gotten into the habit of calling me by my first name and it's sort of a hard thing to break.  It's also kind of awkward to just slap it on people like "Hey, I know we've known each other for like 3 years now but could you call me 'Rene' from now on? kthxbye."

I haven't really told anyone about this, except a teacher and a few best friends.  It's pretty hard to come out to my parents when I constantly hear stuff like "if you were a boy, I don't know how I'd live."  I'm afraid that they won't understand and won't except me.  Fortunately, my parents aren't too conservative, especially when it comes to appearances.  They allow me to buy "boy" clothes and get my hair cut short, so it sort of works out in a way.

Today was a pretty big step for me.  I don't really know how many people I've just come out to but I'm pretty glad I got it off my chest.  Maybe I'll talk more on this subject some day...

-Rene

Obligatory Christmas Post

If you haven't noticed already: THERE'S ONLY 13 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!
And no matter if you're like this: 

                                                     or like this:






there is no escaping the holidays.

Christmas is everywhere.  It's in the stores, it's on the radio, it's in our schools (unless you're at a public school where you get detention for even muttering "Merry Christmas"), it's in most of our homes, it's on our TVs and our computers.  No matter what you celebrate, when December rolls around you have to be ready for the barrage of red and green decorations.

Christmas is probably one of my favorite holidays.  I love giving gifts.  It's probably my favorite thing.  I love watching people's faces light up when they open the gifts I bought them.  The only problem is that I ALWAYS end up overspending.  My friends usually buy gifts within the $20 range, $20 being the maximum they spend on one person.  For me, $20 is the minimum.  I probably spent about $51 on my best friend's Christmas present alone.  Then I spent about $93 on my other friends combined.  And then I spent another $13 on a secret Santa present.  So altogether, I spent $157 in the span of two weeks.  And not to mention, I haven't even started getting my parents' gifts.  Considering I'm a 16 year old high school student who does not have a job, that's a lot of money for me to blow through. But it's not like those things are for me, they're gifts for my friends!  That makes it okay, right?... 

Although I love giving gifts, getting gifts turns into quite an experience for me.  I have very unique interests.  I know what I like but that doesn't mean my family does.  I usually have to supervise my mother while she buys things online to make sure she gets the right thing and doesn't click on any add that downloads some super evil computer virus.  So when I wake up on Christmas morning, I already know what I'm getting.  
Every year, we spend Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day with my mother's family.  We exchange Christmas lists but that doesn't mean they get me anything on the list.  My mother and I both are usually left out.  We never get as many gifts as everyone else and we usually never get what we asked for.  It just kinda sucks, you know?

But I guess Christmas really isn't about presents (though it is a fun part of it).  It should be about spending quality time with your friends and family.  It's a time when we should be appreciating other's company.  Not whining about not getting what we asked for.  We should just be happy with who we have, not what we have.

Shipping: What it is and How it Ruins your Heart

Ah, shipping, my favorite past time.  Shipping is the act of wanting two fictional characters to be in a romantic relationship.  These characters are usually from some sort of book, movie, TV show, etc. Still confused?  Here, let's have Kakashi help explain:

Here, Kakshi (the ninja dude) is shipping Elsa from Frozen with Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians.  This ship is called Jelsa but also may be referred to as Jack Frost x Elsa, Jack Frost/Elsa, etc.  Kakashi has probably seen the similarities between Jack and Elsa as they both control ice and snow and have sad back stories with their younger siblings.  Kakashi believes that these two characters would get along nicely together if they met.  Therefore, Kakashi ships them.  He shows us his appreciation for this ship as he has the two cosplayers hold hands.  Jelsa is special type of shipping, called a crossover ship, as each character is from a different movie.

Seems innocent enough, right?  What pain could be caused from wanting two fictional characters to kiss, right? Haha. Well, first of all you have the crushing feeling of knowing that you're shipping will probably not ever actually happen within the series.  Then, you also have people who do not ship your ship and people who violently hate your ship and try to persuade you that the ship could not ever exist.  And finally, you have all the sad fanfiction that might just make you cry for hours yet you read it anyway because dang do you love this ship.  Shipping will almost always result in feelings.

But it's not just sad, lonely feelings.  Sometimes you see a super cute picture of your favorite pairing and you just kind of end up screaming because they are so perfect.  Or you'll be watching your favorite show and the two characters you have shipped since season one have a little bit together and then you just end up smiling without ever wanting to stop because you are just so happy that the writers see what you see.  When you have happy feelings, you usually end up like:                  
          Or: 

Another very important part of shipping is something called an OTP.  OTP stands for One True Pairing.  It is the pairing (or pairings) that you love the most.  In my own experience, you don't really pick an OTP.  You just kind of realize how much you favor one particular ship over another. A good way to rate which pairing is your absolute favorite is to look up a bunch of pairings and the one you cry over most is your OTP.

Shipping is like being in a relationship with a relationship.  When your ship is happy, you're happy.  When your ship is sad, you're sad.  It can be a lot of fun, especially when you find other people who ship what you ship.  It may result in a lot of tears but it's just apart of the fandom life.

-Rene

Tech Week: Why I hate it and Why I love it

So, as some of you who read this blog may already know, this past week at the academy has been the Drama Guild's crunch time.  The opening night of our production, Zink: The Myth, The Legend, The Zebra is tonight.  We have been practicing after school until 6:30 PM every day this week.  It has been HELL trying to get in all my homework and study for tests/quizzes while simultaneously trying to eat dinner, shower, do chores, and get enough sleep.  Basically this shirt was my life this past week:

  I pretty much hated every minute of Tech Week and I wondered why I ever considered joining the Drama Guild again.  But then I realized something...


Why I hate Tech Week:
As you've just heard, the main reason I hate Tech Week is because of how much time it takes up.  We stay at school until 6:30 and it takes me about 20-25 minutes to get home so by then it's almost 7 PM.  On average, I get about 3 hours of homework a night so by the time I finish it's nearly 10 PM. I still have to eat dinner, shower, and do my chores.  As teenagers, we're supposed to be getting about nine and a half hours of sleep a night, but I only ended up getting about 6 a night this week since I finally got to bed around 11:45 PM. I had no time to do anything.


Why I love Tech Week:
Our director really did not want our rehearsals to conflict with Fall sports this year so she scheduled all of our rehearsals on Saturday afternoons.  This was actually pretty nice except for the fact that we only had seven run-throughs before Tech Week.  Our director had us rank Saturday's rehearsal on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best.  We ranked it a -3.  People still didn't know their lines or their entrances.  We absolutely needed to spend the amount of time we did because at our last rehearsal, our director ranked us again. She gave our performance a 9.  That's when I realized just how important Tech Week was.  Although it took up so much of my time, Tech Week really helped us improve.  We figured out all of our lines (or the gist of them at least), all of our entrances, and all of our costume changes.  I was amazed by how good our last rehearsal turned out.

I feel like Tech Week is like cramming for a test.  You spend time during class hearing the material over and over again and then the teacher speaks up saying that you have a test tomorrow.  First, you freak out and hate yourself for every moment you decided you didn't have to take notes. Next, you just kind of suck it up and pull an all-nighter, reading the material over and over.  Then, when you actually take the test, you're surprised at how much you actually know. 

I hope that actually made sense but anyway, if you are free around 6:30 - 9 PM today or tomorrow night you should definitely come to see the play! It will be awesome!