I've decided that I really need to get out and meet some new people. At the very least take up a new hobby that includes some sort of social interaction. So I'm going to start cosplaying! Basically it just involves dressing up like your favourite anime or video game characters and going to Conventions where you can meet equally strange people who have some of the same interests. Its also a great opportunity to scare "normal" people.

So along those lines, I've got involved with a group of Final Fantasy cosplayers in the UK and I'm supplying the message board that we're using as a website. Everyone seems really cool and randomly enough, most of them are in the Yorkshires! Since the majority of us are so close together, we're going to try to get together about once a month or so. Right now it looks like the meetings will range anywhere from us hanging out together at someone's house and working on our costumes while watching anime, to having days out dressed up just for the sake of it, and some good old-fashioned field trips to interesting places for photoshoots!

This past Monday I even got to meet one of them in person! (She lives really close to me.) I had a lot of fun too. I've met plenty of my internet friends before, so the experience itself isn't exactly new, but I'm still proud of myself because its been years since I made a new RL friend, let alone one here in the UK. Mostly its because I'm so introverted and aloof. That and apparently I also have a rather "potent" personality that can put some people off... Lucky me. But so far so good! I'm just hoping I don't piss her off somehow, because it seems like we have a lot in common and it would be nice to have a real friend. All I can do is continue to be myself and wait and see. But for the first time in my life, I'm feeling pretty positive about all this. I think it would be nice to finally have a circle of friends and a chance to experience all of those things I've missed out on all my life.

And suddenly, it is Autumn. There is a crispness in the air that had not been there the day before, and as though prompted by that moment of conscious realization, the piles of fallen leaves have revealed themselves to me as well. Even the way the light filters through the trees seems distinctively different now and I wonder how I could not have noticed the change before today. Where once there was Summer...

Recently I did a really nice sketch of my elven version of Sephiroth that I just knew I would have to get around to colouring sooner or later. While I still plan to do an actual painting of it, since I like it that much, I did a quickie CG colouring. I think it turned out really well, considering how infrequently I do this. Strangely enough, it looks exactly like it would have had I used soft pastels...