Silently Shouting » BJD

Reading the Manual Helps!

Marie — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:02:59 +0000

I went through some of my things the other day and flipped through the manual that came with Anna. Well what do you know! There is a trick to getting her feet/hands on and off! I tried it tonight and, well, her ankles still gave me issues. The problem seems to be the shook just doesn’t want to come through the ankle portion. At least restringing her arms will be easy. God I feel stupid! Derp.

Anyway, my writing. Thing of it is, since this past Wednesday I’ve been sick. I had an upset stomach Wednesday night, Thursday I came home with a fever, spent Friday feeling sorry for myself, Saturday trying to recover and now I just wish I could breathe normally. So it is doubtful I’ll make the deadline, although I will still try my best, but in all honesty this is the first time I’ve been able to sit at a computer without getting blurry eyed after five minutes.

Oh and also: I finally watched the pilot of Battle Star and wow, EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW! Amazing how that works! I am not like Kate and reading up on everything because while she seeks out spoilers I hide from them, so I was clueless on so much but looking up would have revealed too much. Anyway, now I know.

Protected: So Pathetic!

Marie — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:43:42 +0000

Restringing Tinies Sucks

Marie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:07:57 +0000

Why did I do this

And is painful! I, like a fool, decided to restring floppy Anna. I’m not sure how long it actually took me, but my fingers are still sore. The problem is her two part foot. The ankle part acted as a barrier to getting the s-hook and elastic to mate. For one of the feet I had to basically sit there and hold the ankle/foot and coax the elastic into the shook one little jab of a paper clip at a time. The next foot was easier and I suspect the right foot’s s-hook is just being a little pansy. But it had to have taken at least a good twenty minutes to figure out a way to get her feet back on; all the normal ways were just not working.

All worth it..maybe

However, I did get her back together and she can now stand on her own again. But did I stop there? Of course not! I figured since I was already in pain I might as well finally restring Ayleena. My DoC’s also posses an ankle part in addition to the foot but in their case instead of a s-hook there is a slot you hook the elastic under to connect foot to leg. I had forgotten this detail (it’s been over two years since I unstrung one of them). But in Ayleena’s case it wasn’t the feet and ankles that gave me problems but getting the stupid elastic back up her torso and head. The hole into her lower portion was smaller than Anna’s! That does not make any sense and made things very difficult when the string snapped back into it.

Anyway, Ayleena’s left leg is no longer spinning around like some teacup ride and any other doll that needs restring is just going to have to live with being floppy.

Bored

Marie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:50:07 +0000

This past month I have been heavily distracted by vBulletin drama/IPB conversion stresses.

I am also on the hunt for a new computer. My last two have been laptops but this next one will be a desktop; desktops are easier to upgrade and improve upon, not to mention more bang for the buck. I was thinking that maybe one day I’ll invest in a netbook (oh how trendy) for something easy to move around with and do basic things like email, Word, surfing, etc. I’m looking forward to a new computer because then I can use newer version of Photoshop (Nik can help me out with that I’m sure…) and being able to play Sims 3 in my bedroom and not in view of the whole family.

I bought a hot glue gun today and hot glue sueded Caraline. It makes a difference, let me tell you. Of course now she’s a wee bit squeaky, hehe, but I’m the only one to hear. I mean she’s a doll, it’s not like she’s going to be walking around. Or if she is, at least now you can hear her coming which is a scary thought so I’ll just leave it there.

I’m halfway through the forth book of A Song of Ice and Fire.

My hair grew longer.

Surprise Gift from Niklas

Marie — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:44:48 +0000

Shockingly, Niklas bought me a flash for my precious-and-best-damn-camera-around d90. Even more shocking, his name wasn’t on it! Although I imagine if the option to engrave “Niklas” onto it had been available, he would have done it.

I haven’t played around with it that much because…well I don’t know! I guess without Kate around I feel less of an urge to show off aforementioned camera. That and I am waiting for Elnore to come back home. I will show something of her later in this post.

But I did take a quick comparison!

Without Flash

With bounced flash

I love what it did with her hair. Also, I hate her eyes.

Also also, Elnore will be shipping home soon! She is finished with her new faceup and looks lovely. She still looks like Elnore to me, although maybe all Dilluis look like Elnore to me. :V

For reference, her old faceup.

But Why Dolls?

Marie — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:25:10 +0000

Occasionally I will wonder what in the world led me down the path of BJD collector. I am starting to suspect Caraline’s purchase might have been driven by unexpressed grief and a need for comfort of some sort.

The reason I think this is due to two factors: 1) Caraline was purchased in December of 2006, which would be my first Christmas since my grandmother’s passing and 2) Due to inheritance from said passing I was able to justify Caraline’s price.

Of course the acquisition of the other five dolls can be explained by my collector’s gene. If I had the funds I’d probably end up with more than one DSLR. As Niklas says, I’m like a magpie: always attracted to the shiny.

The doll hobby is a way of escape for me. I don’t want to think about what I have lost and even now as I’m typing about it I’m trying not to think too hard. I get so sad and bitter when I think about her death; when I see others with their grandmothers I get angry and jealous because it isn’t fair. I know, I know, life’s not fair, but since when are emotions logical? At some point my avoidance might cause me to crack like an egg.

I’m on the verge of tears (and god knows I hate crying) so I’ll probably just end this entry here and go do what I do best and lurk on DoA.

Hug your grandmas.

We Look Back

Marie — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:53:30 +0000

Something I had been thinking of doing for awhile is a look back at my first photos of the dolls compared to their most recent headshots. I hadn’t gotten around to it until now because looking at those past photos is just damn painful. Oh my is it painful…. Which is why I now pass that pain onto you! But to show Jan I care, I will now put in the read more tag.

OK first up Caraline:

Oh. My. Sweet. Jesus.

Caraline

The Twins:

...

Katsuro

This is so painful

Ayleena

Elnore:

What a lovely printer

Elnore

I’m rendered speechless by my own lack of talent. Holy Jesus! Somehow those old pictures are worse than I remember. Amazing what a difference brushing your doll’s hair makes! Although neither that shot of Ayleena or Elnore was really ever meant for anyone but Kate to see, it doesn’t really excuse it. And there is no explaining the blur effect going on with Caraline. Too excited to care at the time.

Over the course of two years in the hobby I learned how to take decent pictures with my old camera, which is the primary reason why there are no “before and after” shots of the tinies. Over the last I don’t know how long…four months, I’ve began wanting to actually experiment a bit thanks to now having a dslr. Might as well get my money’s worth before Jan steals it! I’m finally starting to feel more comfortable being in full Manual mode (although for quick snapshots I’ll probably still go Auto for now *lazy*) and I think the next thing I’ll want to play with is off camera lighting. Well that and filters.

I know it sounds like tooting of my own horn or patting myself on the back, but these days every now and again I’ll take a picture and be like “oh snap! awesome! ”

The things that help?

Tripod
Controlling the background/props
Tripod
Lots of light
Tripod
Paying attention to the rules of composition

I have a headache

Marie — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:47:31 +0000

Ugh, I got a headache this afternoon and it refuses to go away. I thought it might be work related, but going home didn’t help, so then I thought it was hunger, but food didn’t make it go away. So now I think it might be a sleep related headache. Or should I say, lack of sleep. But I’m not ready to take a nap.

I am pretty happy right now (headache aside) for reasons only Kate and a few others can appreciate:

YoSD Lin

Christmas Shopping Time

Marie — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:26:09 +0000

I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. Well, I bought one of dad’s gifts, and Kate’s are done (once they get to my house…), which is only two people, so maybe I am not “almost done”! However, I’m closer to being finished than normal. I am not looking forward to having to ship out said gifts, especially since, as of right now, the only time I’d have to do it is on a Saturday. I guess the lines won’t be too bad if I go right when the Post Office opens.

I’m on a diet; that diet being “don’t spend money on food while at work”. Since Volks (surprise surprise!) rereleased the Yo I want sooooooooooooooo bad, I find myself having to budget for it. I want to win it, and at the same time I don’t, because Volks likes to ship via UPS which in turn likes to leave stuff sitting outside the front door. Not an issue when I was lazing around, but now I’m just so paranoid. I’m wondering if I could call them and ask to hold it or deliver some other day or something. I really don’t like the idea of a $400 doll sitting outside! Of course, I’d have to win the “privilege” to buy her, first.

OK, the other thing is, I really want a new camera. Cameras cost money. Especially the ones I like; heck, the point-and-shoots I like are around $300-400. Not to mention, I still need to buy everyone their Xmas crap. The Yo isn’t that big of an issue since I have around $200 in my doll fund (although, that was the camera fund), so there is that bright note.

I still can’t decide between Nikon and Canon. I’m leaning heavily towards Nikon, but the Canons are cheaper. And it’s not like I could go wrong picking one over the other. I’m looking at either a D80/90 or a Rebel xsi (or whatever the hell it’s called). Or maybe I’ll look into some other Canon EOS systems. I know I want at least 10 megapixels.

Haha! I just bought this camera mag at the store and it came with a brochure for Canon DSLRs. They are trying to win me over.

November is here, and almost gone…

Marie — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:13:21 +0000

I kept meaning to post about my mom’s dog, Maxwell, and a couple of pictures I took, but I was far too lazy to get them off my camera. Anyway, Maxwell had a kidney stone and couldn’t pee it out, so he had to have surgery. Mom made this big deal about how he was going to have to have a cone, and she wasn’t sure how he’d do with it, so I had to spend the night and watch him one day blah blah. So I go over-with my camera-and the dog isn’t wearing any cone! I put it on him, however, so I could get my satisfaction.

Maxwell in cone

Whenever he had the cone on he would go sulk somewhere.

Max in cone

In other news, I have to be at work at 5:45 AM this Friday. Oh I’m sorry: Black Friday. I live far enough away that it basically means I have to be awake at four, and ready by four thirty. Seriously not happy. At all. And I have to be there until three. Plus side I get Saturday and Sunday off. Feels like a very small plus right now, though.

And finally, Leekeworld order came in. Only the carrier the other day decided he didn’t want to come back so I would just have to go pick up the package. Never mind that EMS is suppose to be attempted three times before being left at the P.O. Then the redelivery page was giving me a stupid error. I wanted it redelivered today, but it kept saying that the earliest it could be redelivered was…today. If only I could hurt their server. If only that would do any good. Oh, and so I go down there and I have to show ID (fine) I have to sign and print my name on one of those electronic things (like when you shop with your credit card at a store) which was awkward, and then I had to use that same machine and write out my address. Seriously, enough of a pain in the ass to make redelivery seem like a godsend.

So anyway, Perseus’ wig is definitely not MSD size, so we’ll see if it is CH size. Whenever he shows up. Ayleena’s wig needs some wig spray, but will be easier to handle than her massive curls one. It is also really really long. Picture is blurry, but I am so not retaking it.

Long wig

I also had Caraline try Kate’s shoes to make sure they were indeed for SD size feet.

Kate's shoes

I did not need to unbuckle to get them on.

Also, Caraline wasn’t wearing any sort of bottoms, only a shirt. Just thought I’d add that in.