Halloween Costume--Scifi Style

This weekend I made my Halloween costume, and I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable things I've done in a while.

I designed it myself and made it from scratch. It's a dress interpretation of this:

which is a dalek from the show Doctor Who (which I love more than almost everything).

A quick summary:

The protagonist "the Doctor" is an alien that looks like a human called  a time lord, and he travels through time and space with a human companion so he's not lonely and so the audience has someone to relate to. He can regenerate when he's dying, so the show actually holds the record for longest running TV show and there have been 11 different actors who have portrayed the Doctor.

The Daleks are a race of aliens also, who are sort of the antithesis of the Doctor. Where the Doctor is incredibly self-sacrificing and tolerant ("the Doctor: the one who makes people better"), the Daleks are sort of like space-Nazis who believe the Daleks are the only species that should exist and try to exterminate all others.

However, because they first appeared in the very first season way back in the sixties, they look ridiculous and adorable and basically just all-around awesome. That's why I'm dressing up like one for Halloween. Well, that and because I don't really look like any of his companions.

Here is my original sketch of what it would look like:

and I'm actually amazed at how well it turned out. I bought the fabric and materials primarily from Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts, but also got a few things at Walmart. Jo-Ann's was great because they were having a sale on Halloween fabric and I found the most perfect fabrics, which really is the foundation of the costume. In hindsight I bought WAY too much fabric, but I always worry about having enough (especially when I'm going off of my own design instead of a store-bought pattern). The clerk who checked me out also was like, "Hey, you know there's a smart phone app that has a bunch of coupons if you download it really fast." So I ended up only paying $100 for what would have been $150 worth of materials.

I spent basically all day Saturday working on it, and then I went on a Walmart adventure because I needed something for the eggbeater thing which shoots a lazer, and the toilet plunger thing which does sucky things, like grabbing things and suffocating people and sucking information out of computers and heads. This is what I ended up with:

I'm not thrilled with the eggbeater, but I think the sucker thing is super fantastic. I made it out of a mysterious item from the auto section of Walmart and a tire pressure gauge. The process of finding these items took like an hour though, because I think I literally walked through every single aisle in Walmart (except groceries) looking for random things that could work because the real toilet plungers were WAY too big.

I stayed up until around 5am working on it, and then got up at noon on Sunday and worked some more until I finished around 4 o'clock. Here it is hanging up:

And here it is spread out on my bed:

Here are the head pieces on my little sister (because she's cuter than me :3):

And then here's a picture of it on:

There will be better pictures posted once Halloween is actually over and I've worn it around.


The head pieces are little battery-powered LEDs inside plastic containers I found at Jo-Ann's, and the dots are Styrofoam spheres that I cut in half and then stapled metallic fabric to, and then hot-glued onto the panels of the skirt. It's all lined and everything, which I usually don't do because I'm super lazy. The yoke and the trim at the bottom are this super-nice upholstery leather that I found, but I think it really does a good job of looking like the rubber on the daleks. I used a really firm interfacing on the vinyl rectangles on the skirt to try to give it the right shape and I think that worked pretty well. I also am wearing a ruffle underneath to support the shape.

The main problem that I've had with it so far is that because on the bodice the outside fabric is gathered and the lining is not, it keeps "ungathering" and folding over so the neckline gets messed up. I think I have an idea of how to fix it, but I won't have time before this weekend so I'll just have to deal with it I guess. Also it doesn't breath at all, so it gets hot really quickly. Like I said, it's lined with breathable fabric, so it's not miserable, but it still kind of sucks. I'm just hoping it's chilly on Halloween weekend (which I'm sure it will be in Colorado).

I really enjoyed working on it though. I started a quilt this summer, but besides that I haven't done a sewing project in probably over a year, if not almost two years. Because of that I was really worried that I was being over-ambitious with this project and my sewing skills weren't going to be up to par. Through the entire process, as one piece and then another was finished, I just kept squealing to myself because of how well it was going. My nerdiness was thriving :) To see it come together and turn out almost exactly like I had planned was really a fantastic feeling.

I also really love playing in it. When I tried it on for my friends I definitely was quoting the daleks ("Exterminate!" "Explain!") and spinning like they do in one episode and waving the little attachments around. I can't wait to run around in it with my friends that are dressing up like the Doctor this year too. It's just way too fun and fantastic.

Sources of Happiness

My psychology class requires us to participate in psychological studies held on campus, and dictates 5% of our grade. The professor says this is to familiarize us with the practical world of psychology, but I think it's more likely just to make sure they can get enough participants for their studies.

One of the studies I signed up for only required me to fill out a seemingly endless survey, which asked about emotions and whether or not they were "good" or "valuable." The second half seemed to be dedicated more to discussing happiness, and what it entails or what brings someone happiness. I've been reflecting on happiness pretty frequently, and I think a reflection on happiness is something that can occupy a majority of one's thoughts quite easily.

Many of the questions in the survey were along the lines of, "To what extent does the following constitute happiness? Being able to buy things you want. Having authority over others. Being surrounded by people you care about. Etc." Many of these were a bit banal, or at least seemed so to me. Some others, however, inspired some critical thinking about what happiness is for me.

Happiness through Money

One thing that I really didn't understand until I started college and was finally (at least on a day-to-day basis) financially independent, is that money really doesn't bring happiness, to a point. Clearly having enough money to be comfortable is important, because if every day is a struggle for simple survival, happiness is likely going to be hard to come by. What I realized, though, is that the little extras that seemed so difficult to do without during high school when I wasn't working, e.g. the extra cash to go see a movie, or to buy a shirt that I really want, aren't really that necessary, firstly, and secondly, aren't that expensive even when only working around 15 hours a week at near minimum wage.

It's all about moderation and self control. Whenever my parents would take me shopping in high school or earlier, the goal was always to purchase enough clothing/school supplies/whatever to last me as long as possible, preferably through to the end of the year. Obviously this translated into quite large purchases and a lot of excitement, but I've realized that while this may be the only way to do this within a family for practicality, it's far from the best way in order to create or maintain happiness. Most can relate to the joy of getting something new, whether it's a gift or bought with your own money. One would think that this joy would increase as the amount or worth of the purchase(s) increases, but what I've found through personal experience is that it really doesn't. Yes, buying two shirts is more exciting than buying one shirt, but not 100% more exciting, and a third shirt wouldn't be 50% more exciting. I would pose that the excitement based on value or number of the purchase(s) is a logarithmic relationship, with the increase of excitement exponentially decreasing, eventually leveling out to where there would be no increase whatsoever.

With this in mind, the way to get the most happiness out of one's purchases would be to spread them out over time as evenly as possible, so that each individual item provides the most happiness it potentially can. This is also much more practical with budgeting, as one isn't spending large and inconsistent amounts of money and therefore has more financial security. I am aware, because this was the case within my own family, that going to the store every weekend for one pair of jeans or one package of markers isn't practical, and often school dictates when large purchases need to be made, but the way to extract as much happiness from buying things as possible would be to keep gifts and shopping excursions as consistent and evenly dispersed as possible.

Happiness through Others

Examining how one can get happiness from others is difficult for me. I've always been a very introverted person, so much of my time is spent alone doing quiet, reflective activities (such as this). At the same time, however, the primary source of any unhappiness is almost definitely myself, in that I've spent too much time mulling over something in my head and I've made myself depressed or paranoid or something along those lines. I was in a committed romantic relationship for the duration of high school, so typically if I was having trouble with this I would turn to my boyfriend for consolation or advice. After our relationship was over, however, the largest and most surprising difficulty was keeping myself happy without that close, romantic relationship. My solution to this at the beginning of this past summer was to surround myself friends as often as I could, so that I simply wouldn't have time to get stuck in my head and drag myself down. In this way I was gaining happiness from others, but really only because they were a distraction from my troubles.

There's also the happiness that comes from close relationships with other people. For me, this comes from being validated through the mutual respect within the relationship, as well as the peace of mind that comes with being able to be completely open and honest with another person, free from fear of judgment. The sense of connectedness also provides validation, in that you have x and y in common so the x and y parts of you are valid. There is too just a general sense of comfort that I think nearly everyone enjoys. So I think close relationships with other people, romantic or platonic, are also valid sources of happiness.

Happiness through One's Accomplishments

Many of the questions in the happiness portion of the survey discussed personal accomplishment as a source of happiness. For me this has always conflicted a bit with modesty, but I think generally it's easy to see how personal accomplishments can bring happiness. The feeling that one is working for a betterment of society in one way or another is followed by the idea that through that betterment, one leaves his mark and becomes immortal. I don't think I've ever met anyone that doesn't want this sort of immortality in one way or another, whether it's through an invention, children, education of others, or a new idea.

Here I want to digress into why I really want to stay in academia. A long time ago I stumbled upon this infographic that shows how education causes one to specialize more and more until one is able to finally add to the knowledge of humankind. While this encourages breaking out of the current academic system in order to find interconnections between subjects and ideally see "the real big picture," I think it properly illustrates why I want to get a PhD. It says that through academia one can't make those connections between subjects, but I feel like I do that all the time. I'll concede that I am getting a liberal arts education, but I think it's really the responsibility of the student to make these interconnections whether one is receiving a liberal arts education or not, as even liberal arts professors aren't going to make those connections for you.

For example, on the surface, or at least to those unfamiliar, my majors and minors all seem fairly unrelated, besides all being within arts and humanities. International studies, philosophy, and German, however, are all quite interconnected in my mind. Clearly, as Germany is another country one can see the relation there, but philosophy too frequently discusses politics, and one could argue that international studies is really only a contemporary example of philosophy. Additionally, much of classical and contemporary philosophy is written in German, so in order to gain a more thorough understanding of philosophy, and thus international studies, reading the texts in the original German is incredible useful.

So how does this, then, relate back to happiness? For me, adding to the knowledge of humankind through papers written as a tenured professor is the mark I want to make on the world, in addition to educating students and raising children. It isn't so much about immortality through fame, for me, as it is knowing that I brought something new to the table that can then inspire others to bring their own new ideas to the table. This for me would bring a great deal of happiness.

Why College Ruins Relationships

Upon reflection I've decided that college is pretty much the worst thing someone can subject a romantic relationship to. Here are some potential scenarios, and how college completely ruins them.

1. You're in a committed relationship from high school when you start college.
How college ruins it...

a) Suddenly you're separated from each other because you decided to go to different schools. You try to call each other and Skype and instant message each other. Maybe you even do something romantic like write each other letters. It doesn't change the fact that you are hundreds or even thousands of miles apart. Eventually the physical separation will get to you, and the two of you will start fighting, or just "grow apart" because everyone changes in college.

There's always the issue of suspicion when you're in a long-distance relationship also. You don't really have any way of knowing that your significant other isn't cheating, and this can be especially worse if either of you are the jealous type. You can try to solve this by checking up on the other person ALL THE TIME, but this will inevitably lead to conflict because no one wants to have to report back to someone, especially in college when you've finally gained independence from your parents. Even if your significant other doesn't mind, his/her friends likely will, and suddenly they're being convinced by all their friends that you're a terrible person to date.

b) You decide to go to the same college, or to two colleges that are very close together. Both of you are now surrounded by thousands (if not tens-of-thousands) of attractive people your age that you're interacting with on a daily basis. Jealousy, or at least being possessive/protective, is almost impossible to ward off. Particularly because a main goal of most college-bound students is to make friends and meet people.

Both of you have now become incredibly busy as well. Sure, you were going to do things together all the time, but with conflicting schedules and not wanting to miss out on any opportunities, suddenly the time you both could spend together has become almost non-existent.

You might even find your interests diverging. People change in college, and for the most part it's for the better. Unfortunately, that may mean that you and your significant other are no longer compatible. It's no one's fault, but it happens.

2. You're single when you start college.
How college ruins it...

You think to yourself, now that I'm in college, it will be super easy to meet people and get into a relationship with someone awesome.

What you don't realize, is that there are three types of people in college:

(1) The people who just want to hook up at parties and maybe have a friend-with-benefits that lasts longer than a night, but not much longer than a few weeks. If this is what you want, good for you, you're in the right place.

(2) The people who somehow are sincerely uninterested in having any sort of romantic relationship. They're paying X number of dollars to be here, and they want to focus on school, or clubs, or whatever it is they're so passionate about.

(3) The people who actually don't really like casual physical relationships and want some emotional support and commitment along with it. These are the people you're looking for. Unfortunately, pretty much every single one of them are going to already be in a relationship, so you're out of luck. If you do manage to find someone like this who is single, and is interested in you, grab them up quick. Keep in mind that you're now in a relationship in college though, and are subject to the pitfalls back up in 1.b.

This being said, if your relationship does manage to survive college, good for you. I realize that these descriptions aren't true of everyone. For those of you trying to navigate your romance through your collegiate studies, I wish you the best of luck!

RA Training

This past week I’ve been going through RA (Resident Assistant) training for one of the first-year residence halls at my university. When I got the job back in the spring I wasn’t really worried about it—it seemed easy enough. Once I was back on campus and learning about all of my responsibilities, however, I started to freak out a bit. Fortunately, as we’ve been going through training I’ve been feeling more and more confident in my ability to do my job, and after training is finished next week hopefully all of my worries will be gone from my mind.

My days have been going something like this:

Wake up really early.

Shovel down free breakfast.

Get through morning training lecture.

Shovel down free lunch.

Get through “team time” with my fellow RAs in the building.

Feel guilty about earlier shoveling and eat a small or non-existent dinner.

Suddenly get a bunch of energy.

Go out with my friends until 1am or so.

Get home and pass out.

Repeat.

Also, as a side note I’ve been reading a super-nerdy book, and in light of hurricane Irene attacking the east coast I wanted to say that when I read this quote:

“In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed much of New Orleans in late August of 2005, scientists have suggested that hurricanes might really be controlled, or even dissipated, by bombarding them with microwaves from space.” Parsons, Paul. The Science of Doctor Who. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2010. 223-224. Print.

I thought this:

Water World

Last Sunday my friends and I went to a water park called Water World. It’s in the top ten water parks of the nation, and it was super fun. I was like this the whole time:

We went on a tube ride that had robotic dinosaurs, which was super awesome.

I almost drowned at the bottom of the ride that reminds me of a toilet bowl.

My friends made fun of me because I’m short and I couldn’t go as deep as them in the wave pool.

The cement got really hot in the sun, but it was a pain in the ass to keep your shoes with you so we just opted to run from one patch of shade to another.

As a Colorado native I had been before, but it was definitely much more fun to go with my friends than with my family (if my memory serves me correctly).  At the end of the day we were completely exhausted, and everyone fell asleep in the car while I was driving home.

Student Dinner

What I had for dinner at my friends' student apartment (in order):

1. Scrambled eggs with cheese on toast
2. Chocolate chips cookies
3. Quick cheesy tater tots
4. Potato dumplings
5. Frozen peas and corn with garlic powder
6. More quick cheesy tater tots

College Independence Back at Home

After a year of college, moving back into my parents’ house was just about the last thing I wanted to do. Unfortunately, my financial situation (read: "my empty bank account") didn't really lend itself to any other options, so here I am.

I certainly wouldn't say I have a bad relationship with my parents, but I couldn't say we're super close either. Our relationship has improved since I’ve started college, but now that I’m back it's been difficult (for all of us) to balance their interest in my life and my new independence.

Issues that have come up:

• How do I tell you a funny story from college without mentioning that my friends and I were drunk?
• Do I need to ask every time I use your car?
• Do I need to tell you where I'm going?
• Are you allowed to tell me when I need to be home?
• Am I allowed to ask for a glass of wine/can of beer when you have one?
• Can I ask you not to ask about my love life (or pathetic lack of one)?
• Where is the line between a “rebellious independent” and a “disrespectful dependent?”
• And can I somehow manage to eat extra food now so I won’t have to pay for food when I go back to the dorms?

I admit most of my inner conflict has been from wanting the freedom of college back—namely going where I want when I want and not having to report to someone—but feeling obligated to report to my parents so they don't worry. I’m more aware than ever of my deep, sub-conscious desire to reject my parents and become an adult, but I don’t want to be a jerk or make them concerned about my “ability to make good choices” as my mother would say.

It has been really nice, however, now that I’m feeling more like an adult in their eyes. Despite this awkward transition phase, there have been moments that have made me feel like I can make relevant contributions and that we’re really becoming equals. It’s just difficult to know how far I can take it.