I Have a New Recipeh!

Welcome back! It's Friday, and in keeping with my original schedule, here is a new post!

From the title of this post, you might think I made a grave spelling error; after all, 'recipe' does not have an 'h' in it. However, you are wrong in thinking that! The 'h' is on purpose. Let me explain--

So, there's this game series called Final Fantasy. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you've already probably heard of it in some form or another, even if you've never played any of the games. I actually haven't played any of the games (unless you count Kingdom Hearts, which is Final Fantasy meets Disney). But Noah (my boyfriend) really loves the whole Final Fantasy series, and recently bought the newest game, FFXV!

This is a Moogle. I'm not sure what they are, but they
are in Final Fantasy and I am obsessed with getting
my own Moogle doll!

I may not play a lot of video games, but I do enjoy watching people play certain games. This game is very cinematic, so it's interesting to watch. Plus, they released a full length movie that's part prequel, part "this is what's happening elsewhere when the game play starts." Additionally, they made several short anime episodes that explain the backstory and relationships of the four main characters. It's really detailed for a video game, but all pretty interesting.

That's not to say all parts of the game are thrilling and action packed. There's a lot of watching them drive in their car from place to place (and the player doesn't even have to control the car, it auto-drives), and there are lots of odd side quests like when your character has to fish for literally 48 "game hours" to catch the right fish (if you even do catch the right one). But overall, it's pretty cool. And even though I kind of make fun of it while Noah is playing (their kingdom is in ruins and the main character's family has been murdered...but let's take this side quest to get some cat food and catch some special frogs [actual game missions]), I really do like it!

The dialogue is pretty good, and even though the characters have the same catch phrases throughout the battles and stuff, they have more and varied catch phrases than in other games when a character may literally only say the same line over and over. That can be annoying, but in FFXV, certain lines grow on you.

St. Ignis, Patron Saint of Recipehs

Which brings me to this post's title! One of the characters is named Ignis. His special "skill" that he brings to the group (and that you level up) is cooking. So every now and then, when he discovers something new to cook he says, "Ah! I have a new recipeh!" And he says 'recipe' pronounced 'res-i-pay.' It's silly and awesome.

So now, Noah and I are constantly saying "I have a new recipeh!" when referring to things we cook and make at home. Neither of us are huge cooks/chefs, but we've been experimenting with trying to cook and make more things lately. Last night, we tried our hand at fresh baked, from scratch banana bread! He found two recipes online and we combined them a bit and made a couple of small changes-- thus, our new recipeh!

Ignis is contemplating his recipehs

My new idea is to somehow design and get a special notebook made with Ignis's face and his special phrase, and then write all our recipehs in it!

Our delicious homemade banana bread

Speaking of recipehs, here is one of the banana bread ones we used last night, if you are so inclined to bake yourself. It was quite delicious, but I won't leak the secret of what we changed. You can come up with your own new version. Also, if you want to read more about Ignis and the cooking in FFXV, Noah sent me this article today, which you can read here.

And finally, update on our American Mary swede film... still no results or judging from the contest. The "best of the best" are being posted on the Soska Sisters youtube page now, but the uploads are taking a long time. Hopefully they will be posted soon so that we can either link to their page (if we are one of "the best!") or we can upload it ourselves to share. Stay tuned!

So delicious!

"A Post?? WTF! I Know!" or "What I've Been Up To"

Remember when I said I may not be able to stick to my "every Friday a new post" goal? Yeah... I failed pretty miserably right from the start. However, I promise it was because I was doing some really cool things! So here is a quick run-down of all my "goings on."

Women's March on Chicago

I've always tried to stay somewhat politically active (I always vote, I've called my representatives, etc.), but I would never have called myself an "activist." I don't even think I would really call myself an activist right now. However, with the sad truth of Donald Trump somehow becoming president (or something), I have to say the world, my world, and the worlds of many others have changed drastically and could possibly change even more, so the time to be more active is now.

While I 100% acknowledge that I have a certain level of privilege over others because I can identify/pass for being white (and therefore not all of the horrible things this administration is doing will affect me), I still have the disadvantage of my gender--female. Women's rights should be a no-brainer. But those rights are under more attacks now than they have ever been. Reproductive health, the decision and choice of what to do with my own body, job/payment equality. These are all serious issues. And while I am affected, women of color feel those affects even more than I do. These are serious issues we are facing...not just for me, but for all women.

Me at the Women's March on Chicago

So on January 21, I attended my first political march/rally and went downtown to join the Women's March on Chicago. Hundreds of thousands of people showed up, not just women. The crowd was so large, the official organizers "canceled" the marching portion. But with that many people (and a very bad PA system where most couldn't see or hear anything being said at the rally portion), the message didn't take and we all marched anyway. Streets were closed for hours. Signs and puppets and chants filled the city. It was pretty amazing. 

I helped my friend (who went to the March in D.C.)
make "suffragette" style sashes

Since the march, I have tried my best to continue being active. I've made calls, filled out witness slips for Illinois House Bills, and called out people posting and sharing fake or misleading news on social media. 

It is difficult to say what is to come in the next year (or, God help us, four years), but it is so encouraging to see so many people involved and trying to make a difference for everyone!

Rights for Women--suffragette and Chicago flag style!

My Birthday!

Along with all this political drama, I managed to celebrate my 33rd birthday! It was a pretty awesome day, probably the *best* birthday I've celebrated since coming to Chicago, and definitely just one of the best of the 33 that I've had, in general! 

A surprise birthday cake from Noah! My real name blurred
to protect the "innocent."

One of my obsessions is horror movies. And I LOVE two female horror directors--The Soska Sisters! (Side note--February also happens to be "Women in Horror Month.") Jen and Sylvia Soska are amazing and they make fantastic horror films. Their biggest film is called American Mary. If you have not seen it, do so immediately! If you call yourself a horror fan and haven't seen it...I don't think you can call yourself a true genre fan! (Just kidding...sort of...)

Mary and me during filming of our American Mary swede film

To celebrate the 4th anniversary of the release of American Mary, the Soskas announced a contest for fans to make what is known as a "swede" version of the film. The idea is to recreate the film from memory and to not spend any money--you should only use costumes and props you already have around the house. Fortunately,  my friend Mary (yep, that same Mary I've blogged about before... told you you should get to know her early on!) and I both love the Soskas and have seen the film many, many times. So, from memory was no problem. Oh, and we both cosplay and perform, so having a ton of random costumes and props around the house was also not a problem! 

Our cast of characters (not pictured Maggie as Beatriss)

So, what does this have to do with my birthday? Well, we decided to enter the contest and make our own version of the film. The only date that everyone was available was on my birthday! I was super excited to film on my birthday because I knew it would be a ton of fun, and it was! Mary made me cupcakes, our friend Maggie (who joined filming at the last minute) brought me champagne, and later when we were done filming, my boyfriend Noah surprised me with an American Mary theme cake! 

Noah and me laughing about something while filming!

The judging hasn't happened yet for the contest, so we don't have our film posted yet, but it turned out so good and is so funny! I really hope the Soskas enjoy watching it as much as we had making it! Mary wrote a whole blog about it, so I suggest checking it out HERE! I also stole borrowed a few pictures from her blog, so you'll see a few doubles!

My Birthday part 2!

As if filming all day at my house wasn't enough, I had a great idea to indulge another one of my obsessions on my birthday! I am overly obsessed with the Harry Potter series (mostly the books, but I enjoy the movies as well), and a local theatre was screening Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at midnight on my birthday! It was like they did it just for me. Tickets were sold out. In fact, when Noah tried getting them online a few days before, they were already all gone. However, they still had a few left to be purchased at the physical box office, so I jumped into my car and drove over right away! 

Harry Potter! Midnight Screening! On my birthday!

Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite Harry Potter novel, although it also happens to be my least favorite of the movies. But that didn't matter! Before the movie, they had two rounds of surprisingly difficult trivia. I really thought I did pretty well. They were supposed to email the individual winners...I did not get an email, so maybe I didn't do as well as I thought. Nevertheless, it was still a ton of fun! 

Amazingly, I also did not fall asleep at all during the TWO AND A HALF HOUR movie. Keep in mind... it started at midnight. And I had been filming all day. But I was too excited, so I stayed awake the whole time! 

Other Happenings

I've had a couple of other adventures in the last month. School started back up again, and while I have said I won't go in to detail about that, just know that I'm kicking some pretty major ass at my classes this semester! 

2017 International Motorcycle Show (my favorite custom bike entry!)

Last weekend, Noah and I went to the International Motorcycle Show in Rosemont. This was my third time there--two years ago, I was actually a "booth" girl for the Motoblot booth, and last year Noah and I went just for fun (like this year). One of my birthday presents from Noah is he is going to get me the motorcycle helmet of my choice. I didn't find the perfect one there, but I did try on some brands, so I know what size to order. 

Figure Drawing Art of me by Ethan Colchamiro

I also did a figure modeling session for my friends at Grotesque Burlesque in Chicago. The name makes it sound like a burlesque show, but it's actually a figure drawing group! The name comes from the fact that many of their first models were all burlesque dancers. I used to hold the record for sitting/posing the most, but had to take a couple of years off. Well, I made my grand return and it was so much fun! They encourage costumes, so I chose to be a Cenobite. Some of the artists have shared a few pieces with me, and they're awesome!

More figure art of me in my Cenobite cosplay
Art by Joseph Taylor

And finally, it was also Valentine's Day! I had class, but when I got home, Noah got me my favorite pizza from Jets Pizza, and it was shaped like a heart! Awww!

Heart-shaped Jets Pizza, delicious!

Overall, it has been a very busy last four weeks or so since I last posted. I'm sorry I didn't keep to my schedule...at all... but I hope to be much better going forward. As you can see, it was a very busy time, so I wasn't trying to put off writing. Just busy living! I will definitely be posting about more topics and will post the American Mary swede film as soon as I can!