April 21st, 2018

Coming Soon: Player 3

If you follow me on social media, you’ve already seen this, but… we’re having a baby! I’m currently in my second trimester and am 22 weeks pregnant.

My husband and I found out before Christmas, so it was kind of like a Christmas present to ourselves 😉 I let family and close friends know in February at 14 weeks, and in March around 18 weeks, I let my coworkers know since I was starting to have a baby bump and couldn’t really hide it much longer.

And yes, we do know the gender! Thanks to the wonders of science and technology, you can find out via blood test at 10 weeks. (It uses my blood, by the way, not the baby’s.) I had it done to find out the baby’s sex, check for chromosomal abnormalities (like Down’s Syndrome), and to see if I’m a carrier of any genetic disorders from a list of over 100. Things came back fine! (Well, I tested positive for Alpha Thalassemia which is common among Asians, but my husband was negative for it, so there’s no issue.)

As for the gender… *drum roll*… We’re keeping it a secret. Sorry, that was probably super anticlimactic. Our reasons are:

  1. It’s kind of nice to have a secret about the baby that is just between my husband and I.
  2. It pretty much guarantees gender neutral gifts. I don’t mind some gender specific things, but I feel like people can go overboard with it when it comes to babies. Like, yes, pink and blue are nice colors, but I don’t need everything in those colors.

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10 · Posted in Life
April 2nd, 2018

Recap: March 2018

March was very much a birthday month, not only for me but for several coworkers. I celebrated mine with lots of food, and then I baked for my coworkers! It actually gave me a chance to try out a few new things I’ve been wanting to do.

For one coworker, I baked mint chocolate chip cookies, which is a recipe I’m already known for. For the others, I did new things:

  • Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream – I normally do a mint buttercream with chocolate, but I made a chocolate buttercream this time to make it super chocolately. I forgot to take photos of this though!
  • Spiced chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting – I wanted to try a smokey and spicy chocolate cake, so I altered my recipe to include cinnamon, ancho, and cayenne. I paired it with a cream cheese frosting to contrast with the spice.
  • Chiffon cake with strawberry jam and whipped cream frosting – Each part was a new recipe for me! (How did I not realize how easy it is to make jam??) This cake was light and refreshing compared to my usual flavor-rich cakes.

They were all a big hit, especially the spiced chocolate cake! I’m glad I have coworkers who are willing to be my taste testers 😉

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15 · Posted in Monthly Recaps
March 24th, 2018

Keep Practicing

Somewhat recently, I saw a cosplayer post about how people frequently say they wish they were as talented as her, and her response was… she’s been doing this for 14 years! It’s not like she was magically good from the start. It’s something she’s been working hard at for over a decade.

This is something I’ve noticed as well. Sometimes people say they wish they took photos as well as I do, but I’m not sure if they realize that I take thousands of photos every year. Photography is something I continually work on. Sure, you can say that some people have a better eye for photography than others, but it still comes down to practicing over and over.

When it comes to cosplay, I’ve been doing it for years, but I’m still not where I’d like to be. However, I fully realize that this is on me. While some cosplayers make 10 costumes a year, I make at most three a year (sometimes just one). While some cosplayers constantly challenge themselves with harder techniques, there’s still many complicated things I haven’t even attempted. My slow progress is the result of me not working on it more often, and I know this.

So when I hear things like, “I would cosplay, but I’d be terrible at it”, it’s kind of frustrating to me. We’re all terrible in the beginning! For those who are frustrated with their progress, I will say that it gets easier the more you work on. I know it sounds cliche, but it’s true.

When it comes to photography…

In the beginning: I struggled with manual settings, and it took me multiple tries to get where I’d want it to be.

Now: I can get the settings right on my first or second try. It’s to the point where I immediately have an ISO, aperture, and shutter speed in mind before I take a photo. So if you are intimidated by switching to manual settings on your camera, it really will get easier the more you do it. (But you need to keep doing it!)

Same location, improved photo technique

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13 · Posted in Cosplay, Hobbies, Photography
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