So this being the general section it still feels a sure damned missing a lot of general talk (beyond the happy / sad threads).

So why not talk about something else that interests you beyond cosplay.

This means anything.

Like most opening posts that means I damn well have to start.

I bought a piano .. why .. well not just because the appeal and novelty of having a single layered very long chess board was necessary to me but mainly because I wished to learn how to use my ham fists on the white and black keys to create harmonious music.

It all started 12 years ago, when I was 11 (Just so we are all clear how old I am and the number 30 is not involved ... some people are harsh at guess my age games). I did a year of piano practice in year 7 and loved it but due to a bat shit crazy evil mother (More info see here) who moved all the time I lost the chance to continue early on.

Then about 3 ish years ago I took up lessons but still found them awkward as my only way to practice in between was via the use of the Barbican Library (amazing place and I worked near by) ... so this pittered out a little. Thankfully my inexplicable drive to impuls ebuy expensive things kicked in about 6 months ago and I bought a full size weighted keys Digital piano (mmmm rosewood casing) and have since been learning on off (due to a slight lack of focus that I am dricing away by the persistent punching of the back of my head) since then.

Hopefully I should be able to improve over time (living with a grade 7 Pianist helps by the way) and get to a point where I can play me some of those funky haunting classical tunes.

I also bought a violin but thats a different story.

Every body else ... ready steady stories GO GO GO!

Well given the musical theme I should talk about my singing lessons. I did up to a grade 5 in high school but it fell by the wayside when I went to university. I recently found a good deal for some group music lessons and enjoyed them so much that I decided to continue with some private lessons. I have a wonderful encouraging teacher and I've been branching out in to doing some classical repetoire. It's tough but I really feel I'm improving at it.

In other non-cosplay things I do I also do live action roleplay. It shares a fair bit in common with cosplay though, as it involves dressing up and adopting a new persona. It's a great bit of escapism from writing one's thesis though!

I study maths in my spare time. I like to pick up random books on the subject after doing a degree in it, at the moment I'm looking at something called speed mathematics. It's so stupid it's interesting.

I also work out. A lot.

I'm sure you all know this, but it's getting a bit silly now. You see I don't train to get bigger, I do it for strength and health, and I work out 4-5 days a week now. Sometimes I'll have 4 days off and that's all I need to recover to full strength.

I don't do conventional excercises, so there aren't any benchpresses or squats. Just a hell of a lot of very difficult evil things. I'll name one or two;
Turkish get ups
weighted king's deadlift
handstand pressups

All of it is designed to create extremely dense strong muscle. But why? Because I wish to live for a very long time, in very good condition. And I'd rather have strength and not use it than not have it when I need it.

I also run FullMetalRevolution. You don't need to worry about that.

Ahhh keep at the singing!

I never really got into larp depsite knowing a lot of people who do larp and also owning a few larp weapons (best prop swords ever). Question what do you enjoy about Larp .. like I know thats the most open annoying question ever .. but can you pinpoint a few bits?

Lol Jae I almost felt like putting 'And Jae in 5,4,3,2...' at the end of my initial post.

Dude you are a beast of training and I understand your ethos, I wish I could have the full on focus to be that way inclined towards working out as well. Though I have started the Alpine Black Coffee Work Out plan you laid out for me

I couldn't resist >_<

Stick with it! I completely forgot that this weekend is expo weekend when I gave you that plan, I'll email you something.

After I lost so mugh weight when I came back from India six months ago I've been non-stop at it. JoJo said I looked like a rake (not her words obvs), I've almost hit my size plateau, just need to hit my strength plateau and smash that.

Also still got the white coffee? I'll come see you about midday this friday if that's alright ;3

I need ot buy more but I have one packet left for ya at home which I shall bring to the expo with me

I won't be at the PTI till about 2:30 ish though by the way, need to pick up all my euro lols from the eurostar

I know a lot of people enjoy it for the tactics and the fighting skill. For me though it is all about characterisation and story telling. Setting a character up with a big goal and watching them gain new levels and skills till they get to a point where they can actually achieve their goal is quite fun. The other part of it is the escapism of being able to adopt a different persona and not to think about real-life stresses for a while, which I guess is one of the things I like about cosplay too. I do also own a few of the weapons and some of them are very shiny.

call it 3pm, I've got some errands to run anyway.

I'll stop spammin' yer thread now ;D

Ahhh I can understand that, all about being the character .. true escapism aye ;P (nothing wrong with that!).

I keep looking at the Imperial collection over at Forgotten realms .... too much want


Also @Jae .. lol even if you just poste dpictures of spam I bet it wouldn't be spam

Music!

I play the viola, and my pride and joy at the moment is an 1894 Charles Resuche offering. I like to think of it as my baby. Which is probably lacking a certain element of perspective, but it makes me so happy I just can't imagine life without it.

I'm also surgically minded. I do agency shifts in theatre (Paeds usually), so a bit of a gore fanatic. I can't abide plastics, or max fax, but I do love a good thoracotomy, or pectus repairs! Dangerous with anaesthetics and scalpels? Moi? Never.

I like reading too. Especially foreign things. I've got a penchant for Russian literature. ( Doctor Zhivago ftw!)

And that's me outside of cosplay.

Well a little music *ocarina and Flageolet* when I can find time and space, im moving out soon so hoping to make it a very musical house as my GF plays Saxaphone and Bass. I studied musical theatre and would like to again get back into singing on a regular basis.

I read a heck of a lot! and I enjoy languages and History. I paint as often as I can but that can be a space issue as well

I enjoy Desktop roleplay games and some miniatures games *heroclix*

i dont do anything musical (the only one at the moment)

outside of cosplay i do explorers which is the 4th section in the scout accosiation and i go on lots of camps and build big fires and sing lots camp songs

i also study animal care and i hope to be a vet but that usually dosnt interfear with cosplay

althought im not going to kitacon due to a camp and i might not be going to the london expo as i might be in jersy with the college

I'm a ballroom dancer I've been a dancer for eight years now and it's unlikely that I'll ever stop It's quite easily the thing that I love the most in my life.

I'm also doing a degree in video games development.

I'm a gamer, does that count? Honestly I don't really have many hobbies other than spending time with my friends.

I write on and off (Well, it's been off for a helluva long time, but I have planned to get back into it.) which I can enjoy, apart from when I get halfway through something and think "Well, damn this isn't anywhere near as fun as I thought it would be." My best work to date was probably my short story I did for English about a family that gets torn apart by the Great War, I was really chuffed with the response I got!

Other than that, only thing I have kept up is my Kung Fu, which is always a lot of fun. Hard and sometimes downright frustrating, but always fun!

I envy all you musically talented people, by the way! It's the one thing I wanted to do but never got the chance!

Uh, alot of people are music people here! I personally don't have any sort of hobby relating to music, unless you count rock climbing with earphones in?

Uh yeah, outside of cosplay I rock climb, high. Not the cheap crappy indoor walls, I mean weal wock climbing! I also abseil, naturally. Anything to do with the outdoors, I do! Kayaking, mountaineering, rock climbing etc etc. You get the drift..

I like to talk to everyone so .. here goes..

@Nymphie Are you a nurse / attendant for the ops? or training to be a surgeon? .. you going to go all Black Jack(ette) on our asses?

@ryukredapples hah I have always had an on off love with Games workshop for my tabletop figure based fun times ... going back 15 years now .. (which actually makes me feel old) ... Heroclix looks much more accessible ;P

@Dan-Dan That's pretty awesome, good to get out there and learn the skills needed to survive the obviously incoming apocalypse (I am voting for Zombie ... I will be in the 5% who survives ..).

@Mungojerrie in my head I just see you doing sweeping twirls while designing a new games engine xD.

@Han totally counts dude, fucking love gaming it relaxes me a lot more than most stuff ever can. Can be hard to ge tbakc into something if you leave it a while so I expect you to write me a short story about a goose trying to take over the world but failing due to an issue with one wing .. yes/yes?

@Panwah Climb the excel building* ... the parking side is genuinely ridiculously easy to climb a fair way up (*note - Not to be done while drunk)

I also wish to learn a language .. now because I have to be different than my housemate .. (otherwise we may end upo dividing by 0 and we all know how that ends .. not with zombies!). I have currently chosen Mandarin because well if the Chinese work force and political ethic doesn't collapse I do see them as the most likely to be our future world leaders after the zombie thing occurs. On top of which fuck learning Japanese (thats pretty much how my brain put it when deciding).

I currently have Rosetta stone which I keep jumping back and forth too, I must say it is a brilliant method in which to learn I do feel like I start to symbolise the words properly with what they represent (I see banker it teaches me the word Capitalist Pig .. seems legit).

A colleague of mine got me into rock climbing, but I've yet to do outdoor stuff. I've absailed outdoors in newquay, that was a lot of fun!

I should get myself down to the climbing walls more often as they make every tiny little weakness I have incredibly obvious. And I learn a lot as well, such as technique over strength etc etc.

I go every couple of weeks, no harnesess just the thick crash mats and the walls don't go higher than 10-12 metres I think. I'd like to try outdoor stuff one day, but I dislike rope assisted climbing. I think its called bouldering/scrambling that I'd rather do.

There is a constant hurdle I have of being able to support my bodyweight, everytime I get close to being able to be comfortable with pulling myself up I lay on more muscle and it gets harder. This is why I'm trying to get lighter and stronger :3 The pull up bar is becoming my best friend and I'm pushing my grip/finger strength to near circus grade power.

Jae wishes to become essentially the "titanium" of humans, strong yet light weight.

And incredible resistance to heat ^_~

I love it when we talk material specification.

Outside cosplay and anime I bake and cook because I want to be a chef. I don't really experiment all as much because I don't really have knowledge to do that yet so I mostly just practice really hard with recipes. I collect cookery books because I wanted one then another, then a better one, then a themed one and then my obsession carried on. My favourite one is a huge one meant for professional pastry chefs, its very detailed and big, my friends often joke how it could kill a man! (So we keep it close to the door just in case XD)
Recently I've discovered how much hard work goes into writing a menu but how it is worth it, so far I've only written one which mostly consisted of cakes and pastries from around the world for a college assignment but I'm also writing a Japanese themed menu without sushi and a Spanish menu for a college competition.
As well as that I sometimes rock climb when my brother invites me to go which isn't often, I used to be in Scouts since I was like 6 (I'm 19 now) but my area doesn't have a Network Unit which is sad because I enjoyed it =(
If it counts I practice anime dances because you never know =D

Beryllium ... anddd GO.

@Catnip .. soooooo Cakes for everyone?

Hm, outside cosplay...

Well, usually, I'm studying science. (My friends say I remind them of one of the characters from The Big Bang Theory ~___~). I love Biology and Chemistry, not so fond of Physics, though. Lately, I've been attending the science lectures at UCL on Fridays, they're really interesting. :3

Other than science, well... I draw. ^__^ I enjoy drawing comics and manga in my spare time and I also write fan fiction and some stories on FictionPress.

And then I read manga. Manga, doujinshi, comics, everything. Just sitting at my laptop with music and tea is good enough for me.

Not as such. I trained as an ODP, which is the unsung hero of the NHS (so says I). It's basically the same pay band as a Staff Nurse, except we work solely in theatres (or A&E). So rotating between Anaesthetics, Circulating, Scrub and Recovery.

Personally I can't stand being scrubbed, but Anae and Circulating are pretty good. I'm dabbling with the idea of going down the Perfusion route at the moment because I love Cardio so much, but it's hit or miss, and a pain in the arse to get into.

You're quite safe though; I rarely have to use my chloroform rag these days.

I didn't know UCL was doing Friday lectures in Science, that's pretty shameful since I've been working there for so long! I do find learning about science can be pretty fascinating. Its good to broaden your horizons and all that .

When I'm not cosplaying i'm normally Fighting (reenactment, not out in the streets XD) Either at training or an official event, this takes up a lot of my time XD, and during the other small patches of free time i'm usually creating something, either for Cosplay or reenactment