Hello, lovely blog readers!

Yet again I have sort of fallen off the face of the planet, but I’m here to make amends by doing another little roundup of my favorite videos I’ve posted in the past month or so. If you missed any of them… go ahead and catch up! I’ll wait here.

So, first of all.. this video I’m about to show you is probably my favorite video I’ve ever made. Half the views it has are probably from ME, rewatching it and laughing hysterically alone in my room. I have no shame about this. It’s that funny.

Joe and I did a slightly different take on the whisper challenge. Rather than asking each other inane questions sent in on twitter, we just said nerdy phrases at each other. It was amazing.

The next video I want to share is my wrap-up from the #xmasbooktubeathon. I love booktubeathon. In fact, I am really coming around to just loving ALL readathons, and I can’t wait to do so many more in 2015. But this was the weekend long readathon I did right before Christmas, complete with a lot of struggles:

This year I am, of course, doing the 50 book challenge, so there will be MANY more readathons to come. And, I can imagine, more book struggles.

As we get closer to the end of the year, I started getting reflective. About books, of course. I realized too late that the trendy thing to do was your top FOURTEEN books of 2014, so I look a n00b only listing five. Whatever!

Then I had to show off all my NEW books, of course. This is a very book heavy blog post, I’m finding. No regrets! Here is my most extreme book haul yet:

I posted many more videos over the last month or so, so scoot on over to my channel to catch ’em all! Like a Pokémon master. Or you can stay here and leave me a comment telling me what kinds of videos you’d like to see more of in 2015. Whatever you want.

Thanks, as always, for reading my blog! It makes me smile. I like you guys.

This video went live on my channel today and am just so excited to share it with people — it’s a collab video I did with Joe, and somehow it ended up being the funniest video I think I’ve ever made. I seriously keep rewatching it.

I hope more people make videos using this concept because I want to watch them! Hope you love the Whisper Challenge as much as I do!

Okay, I’ve been slacking a little on this blog. It’s summer! I’ve been busy reading, traveling, etc. It just occurred to me that I’ve totally forgotten to post my videos on this blog, so here’s a few of my most recents to catch you up (if you’ve fallen behind).

This is the video that went live today, a little glimpse into the madness that has become my cosplay obsession. My roommates and I have been scheduling weekly work dates to sew costumes, make props, read tutorials, customize wigs, and so on. I thought it would be fun to give a little work in progress before I reveal the finished costumes at the end of the month:

 

Then I shared this past month’s favorite with you in a standard recommendation video. These are always some of my favorite videos to make, since I’m always obsessing over new TV shows and app games and products, so make sure to watch it if you missed it!

 

And the last video I wanted to share with you for this particular update is a fun little vlog I posted that was much more in my ‘older’ style of videos, musing on the idea of lost things and sharing a few of the items I’ve lost over the years. This one is a tag video, so feel free to make a response if you are so inclined!

 

That’s it for now! I’ll be back tomorrow with this week’s installment of Device Theft Awareness Month, as well as a few more video updates over the course of the week (I told you, I got pretty behind but I didn’t want to overwhelm you all in one post). Thanks for reading and I’ll be back soon!

I can’t believe how close we are to VidCon. Deep breaths, Kristina. Deep breaths.

I wanted to write up a quick little post to let you know everything I am doing at the con, since there’s a lot of it. From panels to meetups to running a convention-wide game — I’m gonna be busy! But as usual, I love meeting you guys, so please feel free to come up and say hello! And scan my QR code… but I’ll get to that later.

Here’s my official schedule:

 FRIDAY JUNE 27:

Striving to be Sustainable (206AB): 3:30-4:30pm
Making millions off your web series sounds nice, but for most creators, just the idea of making a living off your content — consistently, and without going crazy — is enough of a dream. What’s the secret to balancing life and work in the web video world on a long-term basis?

SATURDAY JUNE 28:

Job Hunters Cast & Crew (209): 12:30-1:30pm
 Join the cast of Job Hunters for a Q&A after a screening of not 1 but THREE episodes of the new season of their web series. Then stick around for announcements and fun surprises!

SUNDAY JUNE 29: (Disneyland Day!)

I’ll be hanging at Disneyland with everyone else, but what I really want to share with you guys is the Disneybound meetup I’m co-hosting with my friends Sarah, Leo and Joe. It’s going to be a lot of fun and I hope you’ll plan to join us if you’ll also be at Disney that day.

 

The last important thing to note is VidCon Arena — the convention-wide game Job Hunters is hosting. You’ll be receiving a QR code sticker in your VidCon bag once you get to the convention, and if you want to play you just need to stick it to your name badge. Then you’ll need to hunt down other players with their own QR codes, Job Hunters arena style. Rack up points and the top winners will get to play LASER TAG with the cast of Job Hunters on Saturday in official Maewin jumpsuits – and they might win some other great prizes!

I’ll just let this video explain it to you:

 

Please let me know in the comments if you’re attending VidCon, and hopefully I’ll see you there! I am nervous and excited and I CAN’T WAIT TO GET THERE AHHH.

 

It’s here it’s here it’s here! Season 2 of my web series Job Hunters has been a long time in the making and we’ve finally launched Episode 1! It’s a huge sigh of relief for our entire team, as we hate making you guys wait just as much we know you hate waiting. The episode has already been extremely well received, however, and we couldn’t be more excited to finally be sharing this with you.

We have a bunch of news regarding what we’re doing at VidCon (most of our team leaves for the convention tomorrow!) so keep an eye out for those updates in the very immediate future!

Thanks for sticking with me on this, guys. It means so much to me. I hope you enjoy episode 1.

 

I got the chance to play Tomodachi Life early, before the game was out to the general public. I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s definitely become one of my new favorite games. It’s so silly and yet so addicting; I just can’t seem to leave it alone. Here’s my in depth review with game footage and everything. Hope you enjoy!

I have just been terrible at updating this blog regularly. I have a number of exciting things that I’ve been dying to share, but with VidCon and the release of Job Hunters right around the corner, I just can’t seem to find a good balance for all the stuff I’m doing right now. But these wrap-up posts seem to be working just fine for now, so let’s see what’s been happening since the last time I updated.

1. I posted a video I am quite proud of, that people seemed to respond to very well – either they agreed whole-heartedly or they completely disagreed. I feel like that’s the optimal scenario in an opinion piece, so I’ve been enjoying reading through the comments. If you missed this video, it’s called “Tell Them Hi For Me”.

 

 

2. I’ve also been spending a good deal of time on costumes/cosplay lately, which I’m sure you’re probably aware of. I’ve found my forté is scouring the internet (ebay, etsy, google shopping) for that exact pair of shoes or a replica toy rifle you could paint and alter to look like the real one… but I’ve also been trying my hand at sewing. Sewing doesn’t come quite as naturally to me, but I managed my first skirt yesterday! And it hasn’t fallen apart! Well – okay the first one looked terrible so I started over but then the SECOND one… the second one was GREAT. If you want to get regular updates on my sewing and costuming woes and successes (as well as Eia’s!) you should follow our Cosplay Facebook Page.

Our current headache project is a fairy-inspired costume for an event my friends and I are all going to called Faerieworlds, though neither Eia or myself are actually going to be fairies because wings are the worst. Watching our other friend Jenn struggle with bending wire yesterday turned us both off wings maybe forever. It’s been a lot of fun (I say that now – yesterday during our sewing party extravaganza there were a whole lot of expletives coming from my living room) working on costumes for all of this stuff, but we could only handle doing one really involved costume for this event. The rest of the time, we’ll be wearing the stuff in this video:

 

 

3. The final thing I’ve been really trying to work on lately is reading more. It started with comics, which are a nice departure from longer books and something I am so thankful I’ve been learning more about. But funnily enough, it gave me the bug – and now I spend a lot of my time itching to get a book back in my hands. I’ve been doing a bit of lurking in the Booktube community on YouTube and I’m thinking about trying my hand at reviewing a few of the books I’m reading myself. Keep an eye on my channel for potential book reviews this summer. They’re coming.

Okay I couldn’t find a way to expertly make this last video relevant, but I also did a really fun unboxing video of a Ninja Crate, which is my current favorite mystery box subscription service thingy. Everything inside is kawaii and adorable and handmade and I loved it:

Thanks for continuing to read my blog, even when my projects keep me from updating it regularly! There will be a few new posts in the coming days, including where I’ll be at VidCon, so stay tuned! Hope everyone is having a lovely start to their summer!

I have always been a HUGE advocate of programs like Free Comic Book Day – and as excited as I am by the prospect of events that urge young children to read, I’m also equally excited to partake in the festivities myself. May 3rd was Free Comic Book Day, and as usual, I took my camera along for the ride:

 

I think this year was a personal record for me in both A) number of comic stores I managed to hit up in one day and B) the number of comics said stores were allowing participants to acquire. No previous Free Comic Book Day has lead me to regularly reading comics in the off season (besides those from the haul I picked up at the event) but I think this year is going to be different. I’ve already worked my way through about half my collection and I’ve got a growing pile of “comics I need to go buy more of because they were great”. I think this is the year, folks. This is the year I become a full-fledged comic book nerd.

What are your favorite comics? Which did you pick up during Free Comic Book Day and which were you a fan of already? I’m going to be doing reviews of my favorite new comics here on this blog, so I’m hoping to share some favorites with those of you who read this. 🙂

Hello, lovely blog readers. I’ve been neglecting you and for that I’m sorry. However! I am not sorry for the reasons I’ve been neglecting you, which is a whole long list of fun stuff and projects. So rather than trying to break it down into a whole bunch of different blog posts, I’m just going to do an all-inclusive life update. Here are some of the things that have been taking up my time: 1. Cosplaying! Eia and I had a blast dressing up as Anna and Elsa at Emerald City Comic Con, and we’ve definitely caught the bug. We’ve been hard at work planning more costumes, getting our cosplay Deviantart account ready, and figuring out how this whole crazy community works. Expect much more fun us in the future on that front. 2. I was in LA! I headed down with Joe earlier this month and had such a great time hanging with friends – and the highlight of my trip was absolutely the day we hit up the LA Renaissance Pleasure Faire. It was great to jumpstart faire season early this year and it just gave me the itch to attend as many faires and festivals as I can in 2014. You can bet I’ll be filling you in on my adventures as the summer progresses. I can’t turn down another chance to hang out in costume for an entire weekend. 3. A secret Adventure Time project with Cinesaurus. I can’t say much about this yet, just that when it’s finished it’s going to be AMAZING. I think the plan is to have it finished by VidCon, but I will keep you posted. 4. Another secret project that will be announced tomorrow. Just one day of waiting, I promise! Keep an eye on my website for the details! 5. A total rewatch of all four seasons (and three movies!) of the original Sailor Moon from the 90’s. If you want to follow that adventure, make sure you’re subscribed to updates from my second twitter, MoreKristina. It’s been an amazingly enjoyable thing to do, which is a good thing, being that there’s nearly 200 episodes to get through. We’re about 60 in, so we have a ways to go! As usual I have a few new videos that have been posted since the last time I wrote a blog post. First up is my April Favorites video, featuring a lot of anime and television and misc. nerdy stuff:

 

And my most recent new video – the TMI tag. This video has 50 questions and answers covering just about everything you never realized you might want to know about me:

 

That’s about it for now… it’s getting a lot nicer here in Seattle so I’m feeling more motivated to be active. I’m hoping to use that energy for good and start roller blading again, or even dig out my hula hoop and start working on learning hoop dancing. I’m considering making progress videos, so please let me know in the comments if that’s something you’d be interested in at all! How have you guys been? Let me know in the comments, and also, tell me what sorts of things you like to do to stay active when the sun comes out! Have a great day and I’m hoping to start blogging a lot more frequently again, so thanks for sticking around.

Emerald City Comic Con is this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited! This is definitely one of my favorite cons of the year – not only because it’s right here in my backyard (travel is so easy!), but also because it’s just totally fantastic. I’m going to be speaking on a few panels, exploring Artist’s Alley, and trying out my very first cosplay experience! If you’re also going to be there this weekend and you see me wandering around – please say hi! I’m pumped to get to meet some of you!

I’m only moderately busy at this convention, which should hopefully lead to a good mix of relaxing/hanging out and running around to get to things on time. In case you were curious where I’ll be at the con, here’s my personal schedule:

Friday: Nothing! A day totally to myself to hang out, walk around, meet people and go to panels!

Saturday: This is my big cosplay day. My roommate Eia and I are going as Anna and Elsa in their coronation dresses, and I am equal parts SUPER EXCITED and… a little nervous. If you see me walking around on Saturday, please feel free to talk to me or take a picture. We’re so pumped about these costumes and can’t wait to show them off.

I’ll also be on the following panels:

Makeup For Geeks at 3pm (Room 2B)
The geek-beauty channel I’m part of (OneUpMakeup) will be teaming up with Espionage Cosmetics and Atomic Cosmetics to talk makeup! It’s going to be a good one, with creative giveaways and fun geek banter – if you’re interested in makeup or beauty tips at all, I highly recommend attending!

The Couple The Games Together… at 5pm (Sheraton Issaquah Room – GAMING)
I am probably the most excited about this panel – Joe and I (along with three other fantastic geeky couples we know) will be talking about the trials and tribulations of being a couple that games together. I’ve never been on any panel like it, so it should definitely spawn some fascinating discussion about gaming with your s/o!

Sunday: Another relatively open day, thankfully! However, I will be at one event you won’t want to miss if you’re a fan of my web series…

Job Hunters Screening at 1pm (TCC LL2)
Season 2 is right around the corner, so why not prepare yourself by doing a re-watch of Season 1 with members of the cast and crew? We’re also going to be showing the teaser trailer for Season 2 on the big screen, which we’re pretty excited about. The space doesn’t allow for an official Q&A, but if you stick around after the screening and we’ll be happy to answer your questions – but no spoilers!

 

I’m also interested in attending the following events and panels (though I have nothing to do with them in any way… just a fan!)

Friday:

11:00am – Intro to Costume Craft and Cosplay [Room: TCC 302]

12:00pm – Cosplay Is For Everyone presents: Ani-Mia [Room: TCC 302]

2:00pm – ECCC presents Eliza Dushku [Room: MAIN HALL (6ABC)]

5:00pm – Punk Rock Business: A DIY Model to Releasing Your Own Tabletop Game [Room: GAMING (Sheraton Issaquah Room)]

6:00pm – ECCC presents Cary Elwes [Room: MAIN HALL (6ABC)]

8:00pm – Welcome To Night Vale Live Show and Thrilling Adventure Hour movie Sneak Preview [Room: MAIN HALL (6ABC)]

 

Saturday:

12:30pm – ECCC presents Andrea Libman [Room: HALL A (611-614)]

5:30pm – ECCC presents Cree Summer [Room: HALL A (611-614)]

8:00pm – NERDprov: The Return  [Room: HALL A (611-614)]

 

Sunday:

10:30am – Welcome to Night Vale: Turn On Your Radio and Hide [Room: HALL A (611-614)]

11:00am – IDW: The Super Secret Cartoon Network Panel [Room: TCC 301]

12:00pm – Feminism & Gaming  [Room: GAMING (Sheraton Issaquah Room)]

1:30pm – ECCC presents Jeremy Shada [Room: HALL A (611-614)]

4:00pm – ECCC presents Karen Gillan [Room: MAIN HALL (6ABC)]

 

Only a few more days! If you’re attending the convention, let me know in the comments below! Are you cosplaying? What are you most looking forward to?