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It rained a lot that day and quite heavily at times. The rain had stopped by the end of the day and the weather had resulted in this really cool looking cloud formation.
I basically stayed home on Christmas Day with the exception of taking a short walk around Greenbelt Lake. I was shooting a video on a Christmas house that’s located right on that lake (it was among the videos of overdecorated Christmas houses that I shot in 2019) and I waited until twilight before I started on my walk. Here’s the video that I shot.
I shot a few photos of the Greenbelt Lake area that are basically outtakes from that video shooting session.
There are some trees planted near the lake that have small plaques honoring various locals who are now deceased. I saw a Christmas wreath placed alongside the tree near the plaque honoring this person: “IN LOVING MEMORY JOHN D. MARTONE 1931-2001 HUSBAND FATHER FRIEND OLD GRIZZLY.”
I took a few Christmas Day sunset photos along Greenbelt Lake.
I spent a few days taking my newly customized Pink Flamingo Mermaid doll to various locations in search of some proper backdrops that I could use as a photo that I could submit to the big video project that was being put on by the YouTube channel Dollightful. Among the places I visited was Lake Artemesia, located in College Park, Maryland. Here are some non-doll outtakes I shot while I was there during twilight. Enjoy!
Here are a couple of recent photos that I consider to be the last summer ones. (I shot both on August 25.) Here’s yet another nice sunset twilight photograph complete with some nice clouds.
Here’s another twilight photo of some Black-Eyed Susans in full bloom.
I was attending a vigil for the victims in Charlottesville at Art Works Now in Hyattsville when I decided to take a few photographs of the area as I was walking back to my car after that event ended. Here’s a shot of both the Art Works Now building and its next-door neighbor, Pizzeria Paradiso, at twilight.
Here’s another shot of Pizzeria Paradiso taken from another angle.
Art Works Now has this giant Art Box that’s located in the back of the building.
Located next to Art Works Now is this used car dealership that has some art on the perimeter of its parking lot. This one is a statue of a bird dressed like a Prince George’s County police officer.
Last, but not least, I came upon these gardens that belong to Fields 4 Valor, a non-profit group dedicated to feeding hungry veterans.
I spent Small Business Saturday just cruising around two towns that are located squarely in the Gateway Arts District of Prince George’s County. First I headed to Mount Rainier where I checked out ReCreative Spaces.
During my time there I created this Christmas ornament using green cardboard, ribbon, and pom-poms.
I also got this free recyclable shopping bag, which was pretty cool.
After my time at ReCreative Spaces I headed over to Hyattsville. The first place I stopped at was at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, where I took these pictures.
Then I stepped outside where I caught this cool lighting effect of the late afternoon sun on the American flag against a dark cloudy
I stopped by the Three Little Birds Sewing Company, where I took these pictures.
Next door to the Three Little Birds Sewing Company is a temporary pop-up shop that’s being run by Tanglewood Works in addition to its original location in nearby Edmonston.
I walked around outside where I took a few twilight photos (including some gorgeous sunsets).
The last place I stopped in while I was in Hyattsville was at Franklins Restaurant, Brewery, and General Store.
I recently took part in the yard sale which was organized by Changing Focus, whose support group meetings I have been attending since the early days after my husband abruptly walked out on me. I managed to get rid of some more unwanted clutter around my home and I managed to have fun hawking some wares to the general public. I stopped by the Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church to drop off my stuff the day before the yard sale and I took a couple of photos.
The crucifix in the next photo is one that I’ve owned since I was around 7 or 8 and I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church. (I think it may have been a First Communion present but I don’t remember for sure.) The cross is made from a very light wood (the crucifix is literally light as a feather) and the rest of the parts are made from plastic. My parents sent it to me along with other items from my old bedroom after I got married and moved in with my husband but I never hung it up on the wall like I did in my parents’ home. By that point my husband and I started attending a Unitarian Universalist church and that faith places less emphasis on crosses and crucifixes. In addition, my husband was never really crazy about crucifixes and I didn’t want to hang it up in our bedroom out of respect to him. Yet I somehow couldn’t bear to let it go so I put it in storage for a number of years. With my husband being gone and with leaving my Roman Catholic past very far behind me, I finally decided to let it go to a new home. That crucifix was sold so I’m hoping that the new owners enjoy it.
The next photo shows the remnants of my ex-husband’s old comic book collection that he never picked up. I used some of the issues to make my comic book coasters, which I sold at the previous weekend’s Greenbelt Mini Maker Faire. I sold half of the uncut comic books at the same event. All I did was transfer the remainders to a smaller box then donated them.
As I was leaving the church, I noticed that it was a warm sunny day with the tulips being in full bloom.
The following day was a different story altogether. The day was very cloudy and it was cold. (I don’t think the temperature ever got beyond 50 degrees Fahrenheit.) At times the weather forecast called for rain but, fortunately, the rain held off until the evening when everything had already closed down hours earlier. Despite the lack of sun and warmth the yard sale was well attended. There were plenty of interesting stuff on sale, such as these three inflatable Christmas lawn decorations. All three of them were sold that day. Someone in the group told me that these decorations, along with other smaller Christmas ornaments and decorations, were donated by a woman who had suddenly become homeless. I don’t know what her story is but it really sounds sad.
I found this lamp that was so kitschy that, if it weren’t for space issues in my home, I would’ve bought it for myself. On the surface it looks like someone had placed these two stuffed mother and child teddy bears next to the lamp.
Until you looked on the back and saw that the lamp pole was fitted through a hole on top of the teddy bear’s head.
What’s more, there was a wind-up mechanism on the back so if you wind it up, it would play music. It’s a lamp! It’s a teddy bear mother and child plushie set! It’s a wind-up music box! It’s all of them! That lamp was definitely a hoot!
It’s a black cat candy dish. Granted it was made for Halloween but that cat really looks scary as hell and it would definitely induce nightmares.
I saw a TiVo on sale. I can remember when those things were a big deal years ago. My late mother-in-law and her second husband were given a TiVo by one of his children for Christmas and they used it frequently to record PBS shows and Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show. I don’t really hear much about TiVo anymore so I have no idea if it is even relevant these days or if it’s one of those items that should be in a museum somewhere.
I saw this really lovely doll and I came close to buying her. But then I found that one of her feet is broken. (You can see it in the photo as one of the feet seems unusually twisted.) I ended up not buying her because she has no joint movements at all. I tried moving her arms and legs but they just would not budge. Plus she was made from porcelain. I once owned a porcelain doll that also had no joint mobility so she just stood there on the shelf for years gathering dust. I grew tired of dusting her so I ultimately gave her to Goodwill, American Rescue Workers, or some similar group. At one point a man who has repaired dolls in the past was interested in buying her to refurbish her until he got a good look at her foot and he found that the foot was broken into a bunch of pieces and he couldn’t remove her show because it was glued to her foot.
That doll ultimately ended up in a thrift shop that sent a truck to pick up all of the unsold sale items at the end of the yard sale.
The Changing Focus Yard Sale was held as part of a larger event that’s held in the spring and the fall in Crofton that’s called the Festival on the Green. The yard sale was held on the lawn of the Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church. The church itself was holding its own book sale inside the church where it sold a variety of used books, periodicals, CD’s, DVD’s, and even VHS tapes. I found a section dedicated to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. For a total of $8 anyone could get all four books in the original Twilight saga, which was a fraction of the cost of just buying the first book in a regular book store or on Amazon.com.
I also walked over to the craft show that was held on the grounds of the Crofton Country Club. It was a relatively small show but there were a variety of nice items on sale.
Despite the gloomy cold weather I took a photo of one of the flowering trees that was in full bloom that day.
FREE TUTORIALS
Planning a night garden party once the weather warms up for the spring? Here’s a free tutorial on how to make glow-in-the-dark jars that only costs 20 cents each.
This free tutorial on how to make weathered-looking signs includes instructions on how to transfer anything printed on an ink jet printer to the surface of your project.
Here’s a free tutorial on how to make your own Raggedy Ann-style doll.
Here’s a video tutorial that shows how Sonia Singh of Tree Change Dolls takes used thrift shop dolls, removes the original factory paint, and re-paints their faces. She especially has a talent for taking Bratz dolls and making them look less like overly made-up tarts and more like real people.
Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Still haven’t found anything appropriate for your Valentine? No problem. Here’s a free tutorial on how to make a DIY Confetti Painted Heart Mug that you can quickly whip out in about an hour or less.
MISCELLANEOUS LINKS
Here’s a map of the United States that emphasizes the most iconic movie filmed in each state. It’s kind of cool that The Blair Witch Project is considered the iconic movie for my state (Maryland) since I thought it was an interesting film. (Avoid the sequel at all costs—it totally sucks.)
How the anti-domestic violence organization, No More, is more focused on branding and feel-good corporate marketing than on actually helping domestic abuse victims.
Here is a cool stop-motion animation showing artist Jon Rolph recreating a Piet Mondrian masterpiece with Legos
Here’s a realistic looking midcentury American town that is actually made up of 1/24 scale miniatures.
A fascinating story about a novelist named Barbara Newhall Follett who published her first novel to major critical acclaim at 13 only to mysteriously vanish without a trace just a few years later. (By the way, you can now download for free her first novel that she published at 13, The House Without Windows & Eepersip’s Life There, right here.)
Another fascinating story about a man known as Australia’s oldest man, 109-year-old Alfie Date, who spends his days knitting small sweaters for penguins injured by an oil spill.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, which is when the much-hyped movie is finally unleashed to the world that I like to call Fifty Shades of Twilight Fan Fiction (because Fifty Shades of Grey originally started as Twilight fan fiction—all this “writer” did was to turn the vampires and werewolves into human beings, made the female character just a few years older than the teenaged Bella, and included lots of sex and BDSM). Instead of shelling out money to watch this in the theaters, here are some cheaper—and far more enjoyable—ways of experiencing the movie for yourself.
- Gilbert Gottfried reads Fifty Shades of Grey in a hilariously booming voice.
- George Takei drolly reads the same book, which is also hilarious.
- The Fifty Shades of Grey movie trailer as reenacted by Lego Minifigs.
- The Rambling Curl: Fifty Abusive Moments in Fifty Shades of Grey.
- Fifty shades of grey, tacky merchandise.
- Fifty Shades of Grey: Some of the novel’s funniest, least sexy lines.
- Fifty Shades of Buscemi, featuring Steve Buscemi as Christian Grey.
- 7 kinky books and movies that are way better than Fifty Shades of Grey
- Fifty Shades of Earl Grey.
- Fifty Shades of Pink, starring Barbie and Ken.
- Rosie Reviews: Fifty Shades of Grey.
- I felt dirty watching Fifty Shades of Grey—and not because of the sex.
- Consent Isn’t Enough: The Troubling Sex of Fifty Shades.
The night before the start of the first day of Otakon I took a plastic grocery shopping bag and reused it in order to pack a few extra things to bring to Otakon with me. I had heard of various meetups that were taking place and I decided to pack a variety of small items just in case I happened to run into a meetup already in progress. The items were a mix of tiny Asian ball-jointed dolls, My Little Pony figurines, and a couple of Japanese-imported Arpakasso plushies I purchased at previous anime conventions. The below photo shows what I brought. The figure in the foreground is Derpy Hooves. In the back are (from left to right) a small pink Arpakasso plushie, Rainbow Dash, Orient Doll Ji, Soul Doll Kimmy, Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo, Bobobie Sunny, and a larger light beige Arpakasso plushie.
I didn’t get any opportunities to open the bag on the first day but on the second day I found one meetup where I could display what I had brought.
Anyway, I had every intention of checking out this panel titled "Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland’s Effect on Anime & Manga" even though it was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. (which meant I would’ve had to get up really early for the commute to Baltimore). But then I woke up in the middle of the night with total muscular pain throughout my whole body. I tried shifting around in bed but it was no use. I finally had to get up and take some ibuprofen before the pain finally stopped. As a result, I overslept so I not only missed that panel but also another panel that was scheduled for 10: 15 a.m. that I wanted to go to titled "Nintendo: Entertaining Since 1889." I was so tired and stiff that it took me a while to get my body into gear so I could do something simple as to take a hot shower (which helped loosen my tight muscles). I also decided to put on some compression socks that I originally purchased when I underwent my hip replacement back in 2008 and I suffered from edema in the immediate aftermath of that surgery.
I arrived at the North Linthicum light rail station where I saw these cosplayers.
By the time I arrived in Baltimore I managed to miss the scheduled 1 p.m. showing of a video that I really wanted to see titled Beijing Punk. I managed to get into the Baltimore Convention Center through the front doors because the line of people waiting to register and get their badges was way smaller than the last two days.
Once I got in I went up to the 400 level of the Baltimore Convention Center where I found one of the many Asian ball-jointed meetups that were being held throughout Otakon weekend and they were all organized through the Den of Angels forum. I’ll admit that I had my trepidations about attending because I still remember this bizarre incident from last year when, at the first meetup I attended on the first day of Otakon 2012, these two women came up to me, claimed that I had posted a photo I took of a bag that belonged to one of them on my own Kim’s World of Art website five years earlier, asked me to remove that photo, then walked quickly away before I had a chance to ask them any questions (like "Do I know you?" or "What photo are you referring to?"). While the other doll meetups I attended last year were all free of similar weirdness, I was still unnerved by that incident.
Fortunately the meetup I attended on the second day of Otakon 2013 was free of such weirdness and everyone present were pretty nice and friendly. I also got a chance to take a lot of photos of gorgeous dolls while I took my own dolls out of the plastic grocery bag and displayed them in public.
Fortunately the meetup I attended on the second day of Otakon 2013 was free of such weirdness and everyone present were pretty nice and friendly. What was cool was the willingness of one meetup participant to help another meetup participant re-string her doll after her doll literally fell apart during transit. (That’s why some of the photos include doll parts.) I also got a chance to take a lot of photos of gorgeous dolls while I took my own dolls out of the plastic grocery bag and displayed them in public.
It turned out that the 400 level terrace was a very popular place to hold meetups so there were usually many of them going on at the same time. In addition to the Asian ball-jointed doll meetup, there were also meetups for Star Trek,…
Dr. Who,…
and furries.
In addition to the meetups, a group of cosplayers (including one dressed as Santa Claus) were playing cards in the same area.
When the Asian ball-jointed doll meetup began to break up, I headed down to the lower levels. I wanted to visit the Artists Alley but I found the best way to reach it is through the Dealers Room, where I took this photo, which is a bit on the NSFW side.
I didn’t spend much time in the Dealers Room because I really wanted to visit the Artists Alley and I didn’t get a chance to do so yesterday because my feet grew very tired and sore after all that walking in the Dealers Room. I finally made it to the Artists Alley, where I ran into someone cosplaying as Luke Skywalker standing next to R2-D2.
The Artists Alley focused on aspiring artists and crafters who sold a variety of handmade items including drawings, jewelry, plushies, hats, lolita dresses, and self-published zines.
While I was in the Artists Alley, I looked in on the progress of this giant work of art that Eric Maruscak of Pepper Ink was working on throughout Otakon.
I wanted to go to Video Gaming room but it became a challenge to do so because the security would block off certain stairs or escalators in the name of crowd control. I found that walking around outside then going back inside the Baltimore Convention Center was the quickest way of going to the Video Gaming room. While I was outside, I took a photo of the bleachers that were recently set up in advance of the upcoming Grand Prix of Baltimore, which will be held on Labor Day weekend.
I managed to re-enter the Baltimore Convention Center where I found these cosplayers.
After much maneuvering around the security’s maze-like crowd control efforts, I finally made it to the Video Gaming room.
There were a variety of video games that were all on Free Play. However getting to a video game console was difficult because nearly all of them were occupied with small lines forming behind the current players.
The one video game I was able to reach wasn’t working and one of the Otakon staff told me that he thinks that someone had beaten the game and the game became inoperable as a result. One interesting tidbit about this busted game: it used a vintage pre-Wii Nintendo controller. (I’ll admit that I didn’t realize I was holding the controller upside down until a few days after Otakon ended.)
I managed to try my hand at one of the pachinko machines because they were less crowded (I had never used one before and I couldn’t find instructions in English on how to play one so I just shot the metal balls at random and I have no idea if I did well or not) but that was the extent of my hands-on experience. The proceeds from the pachinko machines went to a charity called AbleGamers and I was given three free unopened packs of Magic the Gathering cards as a "thank you" gift for paying to play pachinko.
There were smaller less-known video game companies who were showing demos of their latest video game.
Even though it was the Video Gaming room, there were plenty of card games and board games as well. The non-electronic games were just as crowded and popular as the video games.
There were plenty of cosplayers in the Video Gaming room.
After a while I left the Video Gaming room and just took pictures of cosplayers in the hallways and outside the Baltimore Convention Center.
After my earlier failed attempts at attending workshops and panels, I finally managed to get to one scheduled Otakon event but I had to really go through all kinds of obstacles to get there. I saw the English-dubbed version of this feature-length anime titled Wolf Children. I hadn’t originally planned on seeing that movie until I saw a description about it in the programming booklet while I was eating the dinner that I had brought with me while sitting in one of the comfy chairs in the hallway. I thought the plot of the movie sounded interesting. On top of it, when I pre-registered a couple of days ago I had a choice of a variety of designs for my badge (most of which were anime scenes) and I picked this one design because I thought it looked really cute. When I looked at my badge and saw "Wolf Children" on it, I thought it would be really cool to see the movie behind my Otakon badge.
I know that crowd control can be a challenge for a really big convention like Otakon but there were times when I questioned some of their methods of crowd control. The event I wanted to get to was held in a room that was located on the lower floor of the convention center and I was on the floor directly above that room. Normally one could take either the escalators, the steps, or the nearby elevator to get to the lower floor. I had no argument with reserving all of the elevators only for people with major disabilities. But access to the steps and the escalators was also closed off. In order to get to the lower floor, I had to exit the building, walk around the building from the outside until I hit the front doors that led to the lower floor, then re-enter the building. I have no idea why people had to leave the building in order to get to the lower floor.
Once I got to the lower floor there was this scrum of people that I had to literally push my way through in order to get into another line so I could get into the theater showing the film that I wanted to check out because the synopsis intrigued me. In this case the term "line" could be used very loosely. It was almost like you had to pick a large group at random then endure more waits as the security alternated between letting each group get into a more organized line that led to the doors where the movie was being shown. There were so many people trying to get in that the movie ended up starting a half an hour later than originally scheduled. At least the room was very large so there were plenty of seats for a giant crowd like the one that I was a part of.
The movie was worth the wait. It’s got a similar "human female student meets fellow male student who’s a supernatural creature" story to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series except I thought that Wolf Children was way better than Twilight. The main female character, Hana, faces (and eventually overcomes) all kinds of obstacles that would’ve brought Bella Swan to a total nervous breakdown. The animation is incredibly beautiful and the story was very well written. I saw the dubbed version and I thought that the dubs were done very well. It’s too bad that a film like Wolf Children doesn’t get a wider theater distribution because I think that movie would definitely hold its own against the likes of any Pixar film.
Since the movie started a half an hour late, I ended up arriving at this workshop that I wanted to check out late. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get in at all because over the last few Otakons, the conventional wisdom is that if you want to guarantee of even getting inside the door, you should arrive at least a half-an-hour early. If you want to guarantee of getting inside the door and getting a seat, you should arrive at least 45 minutes-1 hour before the start. But, amazingly, I was able to get inside and get a seat with no trouble at all. The workshop was titled "Introduction to Deleter Neopiko2 Marker" and it was a hands-on demonstration of the Japanese-made Neopiko2 markers that many artists use when creating manga. I was very impressed with the quality of the markers and I felt that they were way superior to Sharpies. (FYI, in case you were wondering, I didn’t do that drawing below. It was originally a black and white photocopied drawing and I only colored it with Neopiko2 markers.)
After the workshop ended I did a little walking around the Baltimore Convention Center. For once I was actually at an anime convention past sundown and I noticed that one of the hallways of the Baltimore Convention Center was bathed in this really pretty blue light that reflected on all the people walking down it.
While there were a few late night panels and events that intrigued me, I was totally exhausted. The good news was that the compression socks I wore the entire day helped my feet alot and I was able to physically last longer on my feet than the day before. However, even with the compression socks I had hit a point where I couldn’t take Otakon any more so I decided to leave. As I was on my way out the door I took this one last photo of Otakon’s second day.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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