Hello Valkyrie

Hello update.

Every once in a awhile a person gets fed up with something in the community they've been participating in.  It happens to everyone.  I like cosplay and costuming but, sometimes I have to question my sanity about returning to join groups that involve these favorite hobbies.  I still like costuming and cosplay but, when the community starts to become grating it makes me not want to share what I make. There have been huge strides by people to try to combat the negativity and I don't know how much of it helps. I've decided to take a break from posting up any updates to groups online on Facebook for now. I might try to return to the Amino Cosplay app for phones, I didn't have any negative experiences from that other than not really knowing how to use the app. I also had my phone ringing updates constantly when I had that app and didn't know how to turn them off. 

I'll be at Kansas City Comicon Con next week and I don't feel like dressing up in anything. I had picked up an old and abandoned costume and finished it to join in a group of Game of Thrones cosplayers but, none of them, when I asked, wanted to tell me the information of where they were meeting up for costuming. That's not really reassuring and I'm debating if I should even try to wear my Lyanna on Friday. I will be bringing items to sell in Omnia Phantasia's booth, help me clean up some of my costume room! 

I had another somewhat-negative experience at Maker's Faire where I walked up smiling to a group of well known cosplayers and started to talk to the one I hadn't seen before, before I knew it they had walked off without saying where they were going or even a small hello. I don't really get that. I wanted to show that I saw them as well and I sent them all a digital hello through Facebook and much later tried to meet up with some of them to chat. I'm still not sure what to think of that or if I had even done the right thing trying to meet up with later for small chats. 

Lastly on my ranting about what's turned me a bit off from the online community, at least on Facebook is the constant self advertising. I like these people but, I don't like seeing 5 of the same updates from these people on all the shared groups we are in. I've tried turning off their personal notifications and notifications from the groups we are in but, there are so many shared groups and I never get to see updates from those groups now. I also don't get to see their personal updates that aren't self advertising spam and it's all just a sad double edged sword. It's very frustrating too to have a phone that even on 'silent' vibrates when you get Facebook updates, people at work think i'm texting but, it's just notifications going off from the self advertising updates. 

A more positive note on costuming, I've started EVA foamsmithing. 
There are somethings in life you discover later than you wish you had and foamsmithing is something I wish I had done in early college. I would be making really cool things by now and I would have saved a ton of money. I wasn't the best at Wonderflex in college and it was very pricey. 

I'm sure all this negativity i'm experiencing in the community will pass but, it's really disheartening while it's happening now. To try to broaden my networking base i'm going to see about attending out of state conventions and international ones. My hopes is in making my friend pool larger that maybe i'll find a group that i'll mesh with better. We'll see. 

Love and Peace, 
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C.P. Lioncion