Thesaurus Thursday: "Chimerical."

Today's word is "chimerical," an adjective meaning wildly fanciful or visionary.  It can also mean "related to being a chimera."

The Chimera of Arezzo

Chimerical in both senses of the word.

The chimerical idea that humans would eventually be travelling the skies in metal boxes highly amused the society with which the time travelers interacted.

Confessions of a Wannabe Cosplayer: Part II.

Hello readers!  I am so glad to be back to regular posting after a few life changes derailed the previous restarting of the blog.  I missed you all.

You might recall that a year ago, I wrote a post Confessions of a Wannabe Cosplayer.  With the encouragement of a few fellow bloggers, I have decided to turn that post into a recurring series and chronicle my ongoing internal battle between the desire to cosplay and social anxiety, insecurity, and inhibition.  I'm hoping that eventually the series will culminate in attending a con.  I don't want to put myself under too much pressure, so we'll have to see!

Yes, please.

In that first post, I mentioned that I hadn't dressed up for Halloween in eight years. Where I live, Halloween has become more about casual neighborhood cookouts than costume parties, communal bowls of candy rather than trick-or-treating, and even kids seem to dress up far less often than they did when I was little.

I hate it.  I don't know exactly when or why this transition occurred, but stereotypes about adults who dress up started popping up all over the place: They don't want to grow up.  They're self-involved and narcissistic.  They're ridiculous.  (And often, for women: They're s***s... that will have to be another post). And I bought into it.  I bought into the patently absurd idea that dressing up as someone else says something about one's personality besides, "I like this character, and I like dressing up."  Some people who dress up might immerse themselves in fantasy worlds to a degree that others would consider unhealthy.  Some might be narcissistic.  Some might be ridiculous.  But... the same could be said about everyone, including that guy in jeans and a t-shirt at the gas station.

(Image from wikipedia)

Like Mr. Nerd, he dresses up as an extra from Grand Theft Auto, 

every. single. year.

I will never be a professional cosplayer.  That doesn't fit in with my life and schedule.  But I finally decided that my first step toward any sort of cosplaying would be dressing up again for Halloween. I love steampunk costumes and had seen various pictures of steampunk Disney princess ideas, so I settled on Snow White.  Because I don't (aka can't) sew and didn't want to go out spend much money, I just bought a few extra items like a red bow and welder's goggles and used my own clothes, changing an old shirt into a skirt with a pseudo-bustle in the back (courtesy of scissors and duct tape).

I had no party to go to, didn't plan on going trick-or-treating, and am not a club/barhopping type of person.  So I asked the question on Facebook: Adults running errands and doing daily activities in costume on Halloween: awesome or weird?  The response was overwhelmingly positive.  Most people said things like, "I once saw someone dressed up as [character] at the grocery.  It totally made my day!" or even, "YES DO IT."  And you know what?

I did.

I went to the grocery.  Went to the crafts store to buy cake decorating supplies.  Went to the park. Got lunch.  All in costume.  I won't pretend that I felt totally comfortable or at ease; I didn't.  I often felt awkward and scared and was so worried that someone would say, in a tone that made it clear that they thought I was a nutcase, "Um, why are you dressed like that?" that I sometimes had difficulty getting out of my car.

The truth is that other than a friend from a former workplace, no one commented at all.  I only saw two other adults in costume the entire day.  Sometimes I wonder if people assumed that because a lot of my costume was re-purposed everyday clothing, I was just a girl with a very unorthodox sense of style.  Even though I didn't receive any positive reinforcement, I didn't receive any disparaging remarks either.  A few stares and odd looks, sure.  At times I nearly crumbled under those stares.  I had to keep in mind that those looks weren't inherently negative responses.  I was the one assuming that the motivations behind the stares were negative.   But no one came up and berated me for being "too old to dress up."  No one laughed at me.  No one asked me why I wasn't dressed "like a normal person."  I took solace in that.  I even started to have--wait for it--fun.

So this year, when Halloween rolls around, I might just have to do it again.  

**Blog notice: you might have noticed that the "Redefining Sexy" post never happened.  I had it written and ready to publish at the beginning of the year, but then I read it through and realized that I didn't have anything original to add to the discussion that already took place in October 2013.  If you would like a list of the posts other bloggers have done on the topic, see Les Gros Bonnet's Redefining Sexy Round-up.**

Thesaurus Thursday: "Acquiesce."

(Yes!  For once I realized that it is, in fact, Thursday!)

Today's word is "acquiesce," a verb meaning accede, comply or go along with.  If you hadn't heard it before, you might have noticed it in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean:

(t-shirt from skreened.com)

Means "No."

Her brother might acquiesce if she asks to borrow his iPod, but probably only if she agrees to clean his room for a week.

Thesaurus Thursday: "Legerdemain."

Ah, back on schedule again!  Today's word is "legerdemain," a noun meaning sleight of hand, skillfulness or adroitness.  

The magician used legerdemain to execute a particularly showy card trick.

Pick a card. Any card. And I can tell you... nothing, really.

Dam*it, Jim, I'm a blogger, not a magician.

The Blog is Back (and I Need Help from Whovians).

Hello again, everyone!  The new year hasn't arrived yet, but the holiday madness has abated here, so the blog will be fully up and running again soon with a full-length post (likely next weekend; all I need to do is edit/put in pictures).   In the meantime, I have a question for all of the Whovians out there.

I became a Dr. Who fan only recently, but I quickly fell in love with the show.  My Christmas presents from Mr. Nerd were:

  

and

t-shirt from skreened.com

                                                           
... But I would love to watch classic Dr. Who, and I have no idea where to start.  We have Amazon Prime*, and it seems like it has only random episodes within the already random episodes that exist among the various missing ones. I've tried looking up suggestions online, but most conversations I find devolve into arguing about whether or not "new" fans are truly fans, and I just don't have time for that kind of nerd cliquishness. I only need to know if there is a best "viewing order," if you will, for classic episodes, and I would like to know the best way to find these episodes.** If I need to purchase a DVD/Blu-ray, I will.  Of course, if I need to buy episodes, I'll save up to get them at a later date and content myself with more Grimm, Bones, and new seasons of Downton Abbey and Sherlock.  ... That makes it sound like I watch too much TV.   All right, I probably do, but I'm not that bad, guys.  If you'll excuse me, I have another episode of Robin Hood to watch.


What's on your watch list in 2014?


*We don't have Netflix.  We don't intend to get Netflix.  Please do not suggest Netflix (or other competitors to Amazon) unless you are certain that it is the only way to view particular episodes or a similar scenario.
** See (*) again.

Not Stopping, Just Pausing.

Hello, everybody.  After some serious thought, I have decided to take a short break from the blog.  I know there was a theme post that was meant to occur last weekend; it will be posted when I return.  And I do intend to return!

Image from: www.redbubble.com

In the meantime, please let me know if you have anything you'd like to see in future posts, or just share your great holiday plans.  I'll probably check on comments occasionally, and I love hearing about holiday traditions! I know I'll be gearing up for Christmas soon :-).


<3 The Absurd Curvy Nerd

Thesaurus Thursday: "Hyperbole."

Hi all!  Today's word is one of my favorite words in the English language: hyperbole (n.), the use of exaggeration for emphasis or effect.

Instead of giving a sentence, I'm going to give a couple examples of hyperbole.

A dog "as big as a house"
(Clifford doesn't count.)

Image from: www.photo-dictionary.com

Hey!  Play fair.

"Sky-high high heels"
(Such shoes would be highly impractical.)

"Eternally" optimistic 
(If you know someone who is truly always optimistic, I want to meet that person!)

"Total silence" met the announcement 
(People are always making some amount of noise.  Breathing, for example.)


The next post will be up this weekend.  It was supposed to be a post on an October theme, but remember me saying that fall and winter get crazy?  Yeah... that has already started!  I hope everyone has a great weekend.