Clever Manka is dressed and undressed

My I'll Go With You buttons arrived, so the locals who said you wanted one? Comment below or email me to schedule a time to pick 'em up.

For those who asked, a quick walk down memory lane of me in my various KCRF dance costumes. If anyone's interested in seeing my whore street character costumes, let me know. I'll put those in a different post because this is quite enough pics for one post, and I don't have as many of those, so I'll have to go digging in other people's photo sites for them. ( Click for photos )

Several years ago, I made an amazing costume that nobody understood and man it pissed me off because that costume was fucking hilarious.





Gas mask, ratty A-line shirt, bullet bra, Ike jacket, black pedal pushers, fishnets, and combat boots? I was MAD MAXINE. Y'all it was the best. And not a single person who saw me (besides mckitterick and my besties, with whom I'm posing) got the joke. So. Disappointing.

Thanks to a post I saw on Tumblr this morning, I've decided that this year I'm going as a War Girl. And anyone who hasn't seen the movie (or who thinks I'm a zombie) can just go fuck themselves because it's going to be awesome.

If anyone has links for tutorials on how to fake scarification, that'd be appreciated, thanks.

Today's Tumblr collection is Tuesday, March 24: Harry Potter.

I posted pics of the Sebastienne Moran cosplay on Tumblr here and here. A million thanks to stuology for taking such excellent photographs.

Five basic movements (shockingly, not from Breaking Muscle--thanks, splix for sharing that on Tumblr) to keep from being the bad sort of stiff.

I am so relieved that it's Friday I can't even tell you. So. Relieved. I've been going to bed at 9pm the past few nights and waking up just a bit before 7am. It's fantastic that I'm able to sleep that much, but I'll be happy when I don't need to sleep that much. We're boxing tomorrow, but I don't imagine I'll be doing much bag work, and sparring is out for a couple more weeks.



So much I want to do this weekend that I've put off for three weeks 'cos of the flu and recovering from the flu. Making a pair of commissioned bloomers, making some freeze-able food for some friends going through a rough patch, catching a movie (either Jupiter Ascending again or Kingsman for the first time), as well as all the normal weekend stuff--laundry, grocery shopping, food prep. All that while being conscious not to wear myself out and set myself back further with the healing process.

God. Bodies.

I'm also pulling together the final elements for the Sebastienne Moran cosplay I'm taking to 221B Con in April. I think it's gonna look pretty hot and scruffy (my favorite!). Wish my arms and shoulders were in the same shape they were this time last year but oh well (I can still sort of see my triceps when I flex them?). I'll be up to sparring with mckitterick by then, and maybe we can time a session so any arm bruises will be in fine form for the con. It would be so great if there were a Moriarty willing to take slashy pics with me. I feel like such a creeper, though, asking someone I don't know to do a suggestive photoshoot. I mean, how does one go about asking a near-stranger "Hey so I have this idea that involves us switching dominant/intimidating poses with each other because we all know Moriarty and Moran have a seriously fucked up relationship--wanna put that on film and share it with the entire internet?" One doesn't. At least not when one is me.

I might put some sneak peek pics of me in the costume up before the con. It's always good to get a test run of a costume, even when it's not terribly involved. Also, if we take pics in the back yard, I can pose with my rifle.

I found this gif yesterday and it's so so so perfect for me right now.



( Cut for 100% pure moping )

On Tuesday...I think? Yeah, Tuesday I finished the new panel skirt for the second costume for Friday's performance. Tried everything on and danced in front of the mirror for about ten minutes, doing lots of leg-lifting and spinning to make sure I wasn't going to flash my panties. I'm going with a vintage 70s American Cabaret theme for my costuming for this and the costumes of that era were pretty fucking naked, y'all. No pants, no choli, and skirts split up to the bottom of the hip belt. Luckily, two of the bra/belt sets I made for Smoker were heavily inspired by 70s American Cabaret style so they were perfect. I added some additional sash chain to the newer one (which I wish I'd done a long time ago because dang it looks better now) and boom. Costumes that are sorta earthy-looking but still club-appropriate when teamed with liquid lamé skirts and not much else.

It's a good thing that all this weight-lifting has helped me feel more comfortable with my body right now. I might not look like some of those flat-bellied, slim-legged dancers of the 70s, but I'm starting to look like a Frank Frazetta woman and I'm okay with that (seriously, that image link there is pretty accurate, even down to the hair style).

True story about the first American Cabaret style bedlah: Like, five seconds after I finished it, I was so pleased I took it over to show redheadfae. She immediately recognized the inspiration and said I did an amazing job of capturing it. Then we both might have teared up a little. It was Just So. Perfect. And I feel great when I'm wearing it.

Cross your fingers that we don't have such a big turnout for Friday's show that I don't have room to do circular veil for my second number.

Back at work today. Yay.

My Whole30 ended on January 31. I didn't talk about it much because it really wasn't a big deal for me this time. Apart from a couple social occasions where it would've been nice to have a glass of wine, I didn't hardly notice at all the changed eating. I was just a little more strict than normal when it came to how many nuts I ate, and the elimination of white potatoes (which I've started using in some of my soups because I like how they thicken the broth).

Anyway, I didn't expect to see a lot of changes, but I did notice some. First off, and most notably, I fit (barely! but I fit!) into a pair of jeans I've not worn in almost a year. This wasn't due to weight loss or even change of size (more on that in a moment). The only thing I can attribute it to is decreased inflammation--which means that booze, increased nut consumption, or white potatoes are causing a significant inflammatory response. I'm going to go out on limb here and say I'm doubting the white potatoes were the culprit. This is easily tested, though, by simply adding white potatoes back in. I'm not sure if I want to try that immediately or wait until after my travel in April.

Here's where the really interesting part comes in, though. My measurements (I'm only tracking Waist, Navel, and Hip) were exactly the same as they were on January 1. In fact, the measurement at my navel might have been up a wee bit. And yet I was able to fit into those jeans. So obviously it's not the actual inches but how they're distributed--and I can definitely see some different distribution. My ass is starting to stick out a little farther in back (aw yeah) and my lower back muscles are really developed. When I'm just standing, no flexing, no nothing, the line of my spine makes a significant valley/hollow from my ribs to tailbone. Basically, my posterior chain is starting to take up a lot of real estate. And now here comes the kicker: I'm up nearly three pounds. THREE POUNDS! Up three pounds with no change in abdominal measurements. That means I put on three pounds of muscle in one month.

I am a forty-four year old woman who put on three pounds of muscle in thirty days. I'd say those testosterone supplements are working.

I want to start incorporating more fermented foods into my diet. Does anyone have suggestions on how to actually go about doing this? I mean, not the making them, but the adding of them to meals? You know, actually eating them instead of just thinking about it?

How much do I love this theory about Mary? A LOT. I LOVE IT A LOT.

Also, now is a good time to reveal my pennswoods-inspired cosplay for 221B Con: CIA Agent Mary. Gotta drive to Leavenworth in the next few weeks to hit up the Army/Navy surplus stores for tactical wear.


This showed up on my dash this morning and I'm all FUCK YEAH less than a week and a half until Coriolanus at the Tivoli in KC.


Tonight is Laverne Cox speaking on campus! I am so excite! I shall probably be the only person in the audience who hasn't seen a single episode of Orange is the New Black but OH WELL.

I canceled Saturday's PR test with Andrew because there's a basketball game that afternoon and no way would I get a parking space when I returned from the test. And there's another Saturday afternoon game on the 15th. Note to mckitterick: we need to do other stuff before returning home from Coriolanus that day. I'm thinking there's no point in getting home before 6pm. UGH.

I reprised Dead Girl for my costume at work.

I've been at my desk for an hour and nobody has said a word to me. I should dress like this more often.

Oh hey look. A Sherlock tee shirt that I think (finally) is actually pretty.


Unfortunately for me, I prefer more abstract designs on my tee shirts. Le Sigh. I really need to find at least one Sherlock tee before 221B Con.

I think most people who know me know how I feel about fitspo pics and slogans. And if you don't know know, you can probably intuit from my general hatred of social programming and generalized statements. So this Tumblr post pleased me immensely. FUCK FITSPO BULLSHIT. JUST FUCK THAT NOISE.

At Sunday's session with Andrew (where he near killed me, yay!) he mentioned that I was starting to visibly lean down. I told him that was largely due to my absolute lack of appetite lately and not to expect similar rapid progress for much longer. =/ I pitched to him my latest idea regarding long-term goals, which is to spend the rest of the year getting as strong as possible and then, starting in January, leaning down. He said that worked great because that's already what we're doing. So...that was easy.

My reasoning for the goal is that I'm going to 221B Con in April 2014 and I'd like to cosplay Sebastian Moran provided the BBC doesn't provide us with a specific and contradictory styled one in Season 3. Hm. Maybe I should ping my Spoiler!Sherlock peeps about that. I haven't been actively avoiding spoilers for Season 3 (I don't have spoiler tags nixed on Tumblr), but I also don't click links that say spoilers, either.

ANYWAY.

I've seen some good Rule 63'd Moran cosplays, but hardly any of them convince me of the character being a real badass. I want my arms, shoulders, and legs to say I can and will fuck your shit up, yo. Also, I think it would be awesome to be strong enough to fireman carry a cosplaying (handcuffed!) John Watson away for nefarious purposes. That would be a great photoset.

In other news, boy did I not feel like performing at KCRF yesterday. Spotty audiences aren't helping my motivation. It was a decent enough crowd, but if it weren't for the three groups of friends I had in attendance, it would have been a shit tipping day. There was a group of four tables right in the middle of the feast hall that didn't tip my first round. Nearly twenty people (out of a crowd of ~60) and not a single fucking dollar. I stopped dancing and put my hands out in an "are you shitting me" gesture and asked them "Seriously? None of you?" They all shook their heads and looked down at their tables. I gave a shrug, flipped them off (I was only holding up my zills, honestly!), and shimmied to the tables behind them where my awesome graduate students were sitting. I got a few dollars from the cheap-ass douchebags the next two sets, but only one person at each table both times.

My last performance at KCRF's Event-Formerly-Known-As-Smoker will be Columbus Day, Monday, October 14. I've already planned to take off the following Tuesday because it's KU's Fall Break. But I'm seriously considering taking the rest of the week off because FUCK I could use some vacation time. I'm headed to Indianapolis the first weekend of November, but visiting my parents is really not a vacation. Nice, but not a vacation.

And speaking of work, I've got a huge stack of data entry stuff sitting on my desk...pitter patter let's get at 'er. Bleh.

Super low energy (still) after Crypticon, and I'm not up for making a post about it yet. My body is being all sorts of weird right now. Low energy, spectacular swelling issues, discomfort in my guts, general all-round unwell. But here are a couple pics.

Pit Girl.

Full-size pic here

On Saturday, I got to make out with a Predator. A highlight of the weekend.




Today's Tumblr collection is Tuesday, August 20: Devils.