2017 in Review: Cosplay, Gaming, Life and more!
Cosplay:
2017 wasn't the best year of cosplay for me, due to multiple life and career issues. However, what I did make and the cons that I went to were very enjoyable. The only cosplay I made was Ellie from The Last of Us: Part Two trailer. Overall, it is a pretty simple costume and is constructed from bought elements that I weathered; however it was such a comfy costume! 2017 was also the year of the tattoo! I finally worked out how to create realistic looking tattoos and let me tell you, I felt very badass with my Ellie half tattoo sleeve and the with my Chloe full sleeve! Chloe was my second cosplay of the year, and while the costume was on its second outing I improved it by sewing the patches onto the jeans, re-cutting the wig and creating the tattoo. I was also making Aloy from April, however the desire and time to make her fell away over the summer and into autumn. If everything goes okay, Aloy shall be debuted in 2018 :). There will be singular blogpost about 2018 cosplay plans coming soon and can be found HERE when it is posted.
Gaming:
While in one sense I feel as though I didn't get to do much gaming in 2017, and I know it is nowhere near as much as other people, I did complete some games and for most of the time I enjoyed what I played. Horizon: Zero Dawn was the stand out game for me in 2017, I have yet to finish it, but damn it is pretty with Aloy as a fantastic protagonist. I find it very easy to get lost into the world and have spent many hours just wandering, and then running away as I accidentally wandered into a thunderjaw location! I was so excited about this game and had it pre-ordered from 2015, so was very happy that it wasn't a let down.
E3 2017 brought about Life is Strange: Before the Storm, returning to Arcadia Bay was a much needed sense of faux nostalgia and Daughter became one of my most played artists in 2017! While the first two episodes I thoroughly enjoyed; I felt the story unravelled in episode 3 and became less about building on normal, yet interesting events, and tried to go for shock factor that just didn't go dark enough if that was the angle Deck Nine were going for. I won't say anything else to avoid spoilers, but it is well worth the play for any LiS fans.
Finally I played a little bit of Witcher 3, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Rise of the Tomb Raider (pretty sure I maybe dipped my toe in others, but can't remember for now!). Gaming in 2017 was very much as and when I could and became a means of escapism in the summer. However, very often I couldn't play for long and episodic or games I could dip in and out of became the ones I gravitated towards. In 2018, I can see this trend continuing, I'm looking forward to Vampyre, Detroit and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (if that comes out in 2018); however I am not actively buying new games in 2018; instead just looking back at what I already have or ones I have missed over the past few years. In particular, I want to dig my 3DS out again because I bloody love that system and yet I have barely touched it since Pokèmon: Sun annoyed me far too much with all the hand holding! To be honest, I could probably do with going back to that!
Life:
Yeah, 2017 was a bit shitty. From global events that made you concerned to Twitter on a morning to atrocities that became local news. The bombing at the Ariana Grande concert became far too close to home, especially as I had planned to go the concert. I fell behind on my PhD with March/April/May becoming a time where I did the bare minimum just to move on to the next stage. I felt awful with my only solace being going to bed and dreaming up an alternative life. I nearly quit my PhD because I thought I couldn't do it, it was only the encouraging words from my family and friends and a fantastic meeting with my supervisor that convinced me that I could do it. I planned out the remainder of May/June and did what I needed to do. The end of year meal I had with my co-hort friends was such a memorable night because I had done it, we had done it. It is kind of bittersweet that in July my mum passed away after she had tried to push me on the months previous; despite being disabled and needing full time care. Summer and autumn became strange months, again I fell a bit behind where I wanted to be with my PhD and days just merged into one another and I returned to gaming as a way to cope with how I was feeling. With everything that happened in 2017, I wanted to give something to my dad, he always wanted to go to NASA, and my mum became too ill to go. He thought he'd never go and I was waiting until I graduated, but I checked my savings and thought. Fuck it. I booked a small break to Cape Canaveral with the intention to go to NASA for both of us. I gave it to him on his birthday and I feel as though it was the best thing we could have done during this time. I wanted to show that despite the dark times, there is always something to look forward to even if you don't know it yet. This is what I am taking forward into 2018.
Biggest shout out goes to Joe, my partner of now over nine years. I'm not even sure if he reads my blog (hi if you are here!) but he has truly been such an unconditional source of support, laughter and joy in 2017 that I could never pay him back. Thank you :)
Also to my best friend of 17 years, she definitely doesn't read this blog! However she has too been the friend I needed in 2017. Along with the con crew, I am honestly lucky to have these people and during bad times, I need to remember that I am not alone.
Films:
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| Fact |
Films have been pretty great in 2017, highlights include Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Bladerunner: 2049, Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnarok and Atomic Blond. Thoroughly enjoyed the quality of female protagonists alongside pretty good stories all bathed in ultra violet. Love it. I didn't like Star Wars: The Last Jedi though, sorry!
Not a film, but honorable mention to Star Trek Discovery!
Books and comics:
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| GOHD Books |
I didn't get to read much in 2017, my heart just wasn't in it and it was hard enough to read academic stuff that I needed to read. So unless you wanted my favourite journal article of 2017 (fyi, it was Drake, 2002 "This place gives me space: place and creativity in the creative industries" - I'm sure you are thrilled to know that!). In total I read 7 books, most were just fluffy ones. However, the book I enjoyed the most in 2017 was actually a classic one, Venus in furs. I have meant to read this for a while and thoroughly enjoyed it one rainy November afternoon. If you are open to books involving sexuality, it is well worth a read and is fairly accessible for a classic novella.
YouTube:
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| Inthefrow |
In 2017, YouTube continued to be my little space of niche programming and enjoyment. At times though, I did binge too much and I'm trying to not let that happen in 2018. What I watched in 2017 includes Inthefrow's vlog series, Fleur de Force's vlogs, Zonzonzombi's channel, Geography Now, Travellight, Where's Poppy, the ever brilliant Caddicarous, Cinza dubois, Pop Culture Detective and Kiera Rose. Shout out to Mango Sirene (now Fawnina) who moved on from being a content creator. I sure do miss her content but glad she is in a better place now :).
Pateron:
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| Emily McGovern |
The way I work Pateron is I funnel some of my Etsy earnings into supporting other creators. This means that I don't always have continued support for some people, I like to swap and change. However there are a few that I have stuck with all year, these are Kiera Rose, Emily's Cartoons and Sneaky Zebra. I did have Mango Sirene every month until she cancelled her Pateron early last year. Currently I also have Axcelleration cosplay for January onward.
Blogging for 2018:
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| Pexels |
As you can see, 2017 had fewer posts than 2016. This year I'm not going to set goals of one per week like I wanted. I'm not a full time blogger and I have plenty of other hobbies! So for 2018 I am aiming for 1-2 posts a month, I know, not a lot. But hopefully this should be achievable, hey here is the first one already!
So that is 2017, pretty shit, but also lots of good moments too. Here is to 2018. I wish you the best of new years and hope that you too have something to look forward to, even if you don't know what that is yet.
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