So Long 2013, You Were a Blast and a Half

This year, like most, flew by.  I was very fortunate this year.  I got to work and travel a ton and, when I was lucky, I got to spend some quality time with friends. So, lets get started with 2013-
January:  The year started off immediately busy and exciting.  A shoot I took part in for Java magazine was published. (YAY!)

Then  I did a crazy little photo shoot for Splitarillos with Cheryl Roden and some other models.

Next up, was the Albuquerque Comic Con! I was invited to go with the owner/organizer of the Saboten Con anime convention along with Armand Villavert Jr., best known for his work on Gladstone's School for World Conquerors. 

 

I got to meet and get beautiful and soulful art from James O'barr, creator of 'The Crow'

Me and my lady Nei Ruffino

The convention was pretty incredible.  Although it was a smaller convention, the guests were great and the attendees were extremely welcoming and excited to have a convention in their town.  I loved seeing all of the smiling faces.  

After the convention I had meetings and started rehearsal on a film called 'Draw' in which I play the lead character.  I missed the Amazing AZ con because of rehearsals but it was completely worth it.  The film is a drama and with me being the lead, and pretty much the ONLY female in the film, I had my work cut out for me.  There was a lot of prep, including a brand new do'

Not to mention I had an absolute blast and made some beautiful new friendships.
In February, it was more trips to make sure my hair was  good, rehearsals, and filming.

 Hanging out on set between takes

 I took a trip to Venice beach for an audition and spent the rest of the day on the beach and eating the most delicious, fresh sea food.  I attended an event called 'Geeks Night Out' where I was a guest and got to see some local fans and friends and was invited by cosplay goddess Toni Darling  to be a part of a calendar with a group of 16 other cosplayers.  I worked on some new and finishing touches to my X23 outfit, because, if I was going to be hanging out with the wonderful ladies of the calendar and signing the entire weekend of the Phoenix Comicon (where we would be debuting),. I had to make sure I had some great outfits. 
March!  I worked and filmed, filmed and filmed more for 'Draw.'  On the last day of the month I took a break and went to my first ever Renaissance festival! How had I never been to one before!!! (In 2014 I will go AND have a custom outfit.  I already have a skirt....hehehe)
April was fun and not so crazy! I got Worbla and got to play and create for the first time.

 I was going to be working with London as Maleficient so I had to make something EPIC!!  I worked hard and made the headpiece, got all of the materials and headed over to Amanda's, at ModifiedMinds, who made, and taught me how to make the gorgeous cape.  By the end of the month I was ready for my shoot.  I filmed in a short film for a friend of mine where I played a puppet, and then..... headed into
MAY ALREADY!!!!~ I started the month off (the FIRST of the month) with a photoshoot for Dorothy Gale from Big Dog Ink's. "Legend of Oz' series. 

Next up was the Maleficient Photoshoot--

and then I did a life drawing class with some of the very talented artists that happen to live in the area.  April Grady-Reyna (whom I ADORE!) did a pretty cool sketch of me....

Next up, I was headed to the Phoenix Comicon! The Cosplay Calendar was out!

Big Chris designed the entire calendar and there were 17 girls in total involved! The ever so famous and cutiehead Jessica Nigri, Ivy doomkitty, Freddie Nova, and many more were involved.  We signed and partied all weekend!

On Sunday, I got painted by artist Mark Greenawalt as a character from The Villikon Chronicles and was on the cover of the comic so helped to promote that as well :)

That brings us to JUNE!! 

Now- since this post is WAYYYY longer than I expected- I'll leave you all with my first 6 months.  I still have  more to go through-- more cons, red carpet appearances, like my movie premiere 'Salvation' 

and director James Wan's 'The Conjuring' premieres which I got to attend, (one was actually a BLACK carpet because....horror--- duuuh)

 

Director James Wan and myself at the official premiere of his film, 'The Conjuring'

photo shoots, more filming and traveling and of course- more cosplay!

 Stay tuned my lovlies because there are 6 more months ahead to be recapped.  I have to admit, I had no idea that I got so much accomplished this year.  

Have YOU made a 2013 recap? Were you surprised at how much you actually did or will you strive for more next year? 

As for me, I will always work towards more.  ALWAYS!!!  Mwahahahaaaa!  

I'll be posting the rest of my recap soon- 

Until Then- Stay sexy <3 br="">

Science!

I'm starting something new! Every week I am going to be bringing you crazy, fun, interesting science and tech news.  I'll be doing a video as often as possible but every week I will be doing a blog post.  Science, health and technology are some of the most important things that we can all learn about.  It can open your eyes to the incredible and vast universe around us.  Knowledge is power :)

That being said-- I want your input on my posts and videos too.  Also, if I post a story and I miss something important, provide wrong info, or if you have questions --let me know! I want to hear from you!

This year has been an incredible one, scientifically speaking.  Lets look at Jupiters moon, Europa, for example.  NASA has been toying around with the idea of sending a mission to Jupiters moon for some time but, because of budget constrictions, has yet to be able to fund a mission.  Europa, for those of you who might not know, shows signs of having liquid, possibly flowing, water under it's icy outer crust.  It also shows signs of having active plate tectonics, which would make it one of the only other places outside of earth that we've seen this happen.  These factors make it one of the most likely to find life on. The big news? At the beginning of the month, jets of water could be seen exploding from the surface, reaching over 200 Kilometers in height!!!  Why is this huge news? Because this shows that there IS liquid (not frozen like the crust) water! Also, the water jets could be caused by movements in the plates on the Europa proving the plate tectonic theory.  It ISN'T proven by this but it's definitely a possibility! This ALSO means that if there is life, whether bacterial or something more advanced, the jutting water could bring it up to the surface, which we could later study whenever we get the appropriate funding. Come on world!! Let's get to Europa!

Do you like coffee? I prefer tea.. but, mmmm...caffeine.  It seems stem cells are also fond of the stimulant.  This year scientists were able to successfully clone embryonic cells by making a small change to how stem cells were cloned in 1996.  They dunked them in caffeine.  It has previously proven difficult to clone the embryonic cell, which is able to transform into ANY type of cell in the body, because previously the only way to clone the cell was to grab them from embryos left over from in vitro fertilization. This discovery will open up other ways to complete cloning, without scientist having to go through the steps of obtaining them in any other fashion.
Forget, "when pigs can fly," how about 'when pigs glow like a jellyfish!"  Or rather not, because now the latter is reality.  Chinese scientists at the South China Agricultural University have successfully created 10 piggies that glow florescent green under black lights.  Injecting the pig embryos with DNA from jellyfish, that's right, the amazing Jellyfish, has allowed the team to create the first ever glowing pigs.  (This was done with rabbits successfully in Turkey earlier in 2013.)
The experiment was conducted not so that missing piglets can be found in the dark, but to see if the genetic material injected would, in fact, incorporate into the genetic makeup of the animal.  The success of the procedure will lead scientists to be able to experiment with adding other genes to see if the animals will accept it.  Dr Stefan Moisyadi, from the University of Hawaii said that the pigs life span will not be affected. I've heard of scientists experimenting with the bioluminescence of jellyfish to try and create a variety of different applications, like lighting and security for the military and a flurry of medical research but didn't think I'd be seeing them turn animals glow-in-the-dark.
 YAY! Science! :)
If you have any questions about anything I've written about, have anything to add, or have articles for me to check out for the future-- let me know!
Until next week!
Vee




Where I found my info for this article:

Europa info, thanks to
Wired: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/plate-tectonics-on-europa/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/europa-water-plumes/

National geographic: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/08/nasa-ponders-life-seeking-mission-to-europa-moon/

NASA:  http://science.jpl.nasa.gov/projects/Europa%20Clipper/

Stem Cells:
Science News: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/year-review-caffeine-triggers-cloning-advance

Pigs!
Stuff.com.nz: http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/9560054/Glow-in-the-dark-pigs-all-for-science
 

Winter is Coming

At least that feels like an appropriate line considering I'm in Arizona right now and last week I was outside, comfortably, in a tank top.  It finally rained all night though...so I can at least hope for an icy Christmas. 

 

 Last month flew by. November November, what the hell happened to November? I attended to the Tucson Comic Con at the beginning of the month and brought some pics from my shoot with Larry Alan

After the convention, I came back to Phoenix for about a week and got to shoot with Larry again for a project called The Fun Book.  I went through a billion outfits .. well, not quite outfits - here is a behind the scenes:

 

We shot for a few hours.  The book includes a bunch of different girls (and I think 1 or 2 dudes) and alsoo has cosplayer Jessica Nigri, model Tara Hitchinson, features clothing by ModifiedMinds.  You can order a copy here : http://larryalan.storenvy.com/

Very shortly after our shoot it was time for more traveling.  I am working on a costume with Kip from Kipsworld so I spent an entire week in San Diego working on the armored pieces.
Then came The Long Beach Comic Con, which I have been wanting to go to since it's inception 5 years ago.  I had so much fun at that convention! First of all, Kip helped me build a new banner stand so now I have my banner and 6-10 other pics that I can hang from it to display.  Since I had my new Dr. Mrs. The Monarch prints I hung them and ran around all weekend in the cosplay. 

Prints available w/FREE SHIPPING through the 25th at my Store

I had a lot of new visitors, got served wine all day Saturday (thanks guys!- it made for a really fun and interesting day/night) and then on Sunday I hopped around talking to everyone and hanging out with guests.  I ran into some friends like Phil LaMarr,

Dean Haglund (From X-Files-- REMEMBER!?- He's a super cool guy), Peter Steigerwald of Aspen Comics

 and I got to meet Motherfuckin Lance Henrikson!

There were many more people that I got to meet and got to visit with during the weekend. I walked so much my feet were aching but because of my constant running around, I snagged a cool collaboration type project that I'll be a part of with an incredible artist.  More info on that later.
From the Long Beach comic con., it was back to San Diego to work more on the armor, then back to Phoenix  for Thanksgiving and into December.  At the beginning of the month I was asked to introduce some films and do a red carpet/media walk at the Filmstock Film Festival.  I introduced with actor Shane Dean, got to watch some good indy films, watch the acting competition and see local actors. ModifiedMinds and myself made 2 dresses for the festival and I helped to design the blue dress :)

 After the festival,  I had the lovely Miss Toni Darling to hang out with for a week.

Next up, was a new pin-up shoot.  I have 2 new outfits- one should be up next week :) Here is a little sneak-

 

Tonight- I am going over to Amanda's  so that we can tape a drunken costuming/cosplay/makeup tutorial.  Larry Alan MAY be on photography duty..but seeing as it's his BIRTHDAY-- there may be more shenanigans for us to all worry about.  There will be video evidence so don't worry about missing out on too much. 

Next up for me is the Albuquerque Comic Con January 10-12th and then the Amazing Arizona Comic Con January 24th-26th.  I'm crossing my fingers because I may have a movie out by that time too! I can't wait to announce which one it is :)

February is pilot season, so after the January conventions I may be heading to LA to audition audition audition.  I only have a month because in March I'll be script supervising a web series.  All month.  Busy Busy..but we all know that's how I like it.  

I'm also going to be working on a science/tech blog to go along with video recaps I'll be doing so my blog will change a little bit.  I'm still going to be posting about what's going on in my life, with my career and tell you where you can see me and get my prints, but once a week we're going to go a bit more intellectual. 

It's always a ride when I'm involved.  Enjoy it.  ;p