One of the best tips for friendships I’ve ever seen was from a tumblr post, years ago. I don’t recall exactly what it said, but it suggested just… asking what people want from you.
A friend comes to you with a problem? Ask them directly how you can best comfort them.
Do you want my advice or help through action?
Do you want a listening ear to vent to?
Do you want to be comforted with affection?
Do you want to be distracted?
It can seem awkward and clunky, and yeah… sometimes it is. But it’s still friendship, and “awkward and clunky” is often better than incorrectly guessing what they want or need from you. Maybe they don’t actually know what they need, but you can invite them to think about it, and that openness of communication makes it easier for them to say “Actually, no, this isn’t working, I want x instead of y.” And you make the switch! It’s that easy.
I do this with my friends, family and fiance and I promise it makes dealing with situations where someone is hella stressed out SO MUCH EASIER.
It was about 1 month out from the convention and a Black Rock Shooter group I was going to be a part of ended up not happening so last minute, I had to decide on a different cosplay. I figured that the best way to choose a cosplay is to think of a character from my favorite games or anime so I decided on th Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. The most notable character from that game is Skull Kid but I didnt feel like I could manage that at the moment nor do proper justice to the character especially when so many have already done an amazing job at it. I personally love to make props and the Happy Mask Salesman seemed to have lots of things to make but not too difficult, he was still an iconic but fairly underappreciated character, and I felt that it would be hilariously fun to try to pull this off.
The masks were all made with this method: Shape the base with aluminum foil and masking tape, paper mache the mask, smooth out all the bumps with a foam filler called “Smooth On”, sand it and repeat till smooth, unify the surface texture with a layer of wood glue, and then paint. Some of the masks were actually recycled cosplay parts from previous cosplays such as the blue spirit mask and princess mononoke’s mask.The bag was completely improvised with trial and error but was one of my favorite parts to make. It is entirely stuffed with plushy stuffing so it’s very light! The outfit is modified sewing patterns and the armor pieces are all made from craft foam!
Oh gosh, I got a ton of smiles, “WOAH!”, and fearful stares! It was actually quite cool to see how enthusiastic people were to see the Happy Mask Salesman. I’ve had people tell me that “You’re cosplay is the best at this con!” to “Omg, did you hop out of the game?!”
I started cosplaying back in 2012-2013 and Sakura Con 2013 (Seattle, WA) was my very first con. I wanted to go to a con only because I saw pictures of some facebook friends taking photos with other cosplayers and I thought making a costume beyond the standard of halloween costumes was amazing! After some research and time, I made a Link cosplay for myself and Princess Mononoke and Kiki from Kiki’s delivery service for my 2 sisters. I didnt want to cosplay at the con alone haha. After we all fell in love with the whole con atmosphere and experience that year, we started planning future cosplays, watching more anime, and learned more about the craft. Cosplay has impacted my life more than just learning how to sew and sculpt though. It opened the world of convention and nerd culture to me. I am now a frequent con go-er because I have started to sell my art at various artist alleys which has helped me to push my art to be better, made friends within the community whic we now follow traditions for each con we go to, and has really helped with making social connections.
With each cosplay that I’ve made, I try to make the level and quality higher with each one I finish. However with the Happy Mask Salesman, I don’t personally feel like I’ve done anything better or worse in comparison to my latest cosplays. It all feels as though it was skills I have experience with and was comfortable doing. In the end, I feel like the passion for the character was what really shined through. It reminds me that I have the most fun when cosplaying from the series I really love or stuck with me rather than cosplaying “trending” characters.I really appreciate all of the love that was expressed for the Happy Mask Salesman on social media and at the con. I’m very excited to put in the same passion in my future cosplays!
I actually just heard about this on the radio; the Michael Berry Show on WRNO 99.5. The hospital was trying to harvest his organs, and declared him dead. His father barricaded the door, and held an entire swat team at bay, until his son squeezed his hand, awake from a forced coma.
It gets better…
The swat team brought their own doctors who, after finally securing the room, started to check the kid. Turns out, the kid was fine, after waking up from the coma.
It gets better…
After the swat team doctors checked out the kid, there was a nurse who came in to “check” on the kid. The swat doctors asked to see her orders. Turns out she didn’t have any. What she did have was a 50cc syringe in her pocket, full of a powerful sedative. 5cc’s were enough to put someone in a deep coma. There were 50cc’s in the syringe, more than enough to euthanize the kid.
It gets better…
Swat doctors took her into custody. She refused to talk. They got a warrant and started checking into the deaths happening at the hospital. Turns out, there were a great many “quick decisions” made by hospital staff, for patients to be put into medically induced comas, from which they never woke up. All of which were finalized with organ transplants. Organ transplants which the families of the deceased did not know about.
TL:DR The hospital was euthanizing patients after illegally putting them into medical comas, then harvesting their organs.
3. Also: you can google the hospital from the OP news story. You’d think that a crazy organ-stealing conspiracy would be the first thing that comes up when you google that hospital. Nothing like that comes up. Also, if you listen to the radio show the second poster keeps citing: nothing about it comes up either. (Quelle surprise.)
4. Fear-mongering about organ transplants, and just hospitals in general, is a classic ultra-right-wing scare tactic. Which would make sense, considering that Tumblr user doubletap-centermass is…
a virulent anti-Semite and homophobe. It feels extra weird to see LGBT and Jewish tumblrs sharing this right and left.
5. There have been scandals about hospitals being pressured to declare unconscious patients brain-dead so that they could harvest organs… such as this scandal from 2012, in New York state, which involved precisely four cases and also is totally unrelated to the article shared by OP, from Texas in 2015. And again, just because I can’t get over this: the part about deliberately putting patients into comas to steal their organs is literally the plot of 1978 film Coma.
6. If you’ve reblogged this and you’re like “Shit!!” and wish you hadn’t: I guess maybe considering deleting the reblog from your tumblr? Or even reblog this instead. I mean, getting the correct information out would be a good way to fix this bizarro thing. Hell, even if you haven’t reblogged the weirdo post but you’re seeing this on your dashboard instead: consider sharing it just to get the correct info out there.
Please feel free to add to this post if you find concrete actual evidence of anything I missed. I am human and fallible.
P.S. I will also add, just for the principle of the thing: somebody saying “I heard it on the radio” is about as reliable a source as “I overheard some man on a bus telling it to his neighbor”. (Especially since so much radio, these days, is about as reliable a source of accurate information as any random conspiracy theorist’s podcast.)
The second largest country in the world just decriminalized homosexuality. The Supreme Court of india struck away a colonial era ban on gay sex. “History owes an apology to LGBT persons for ostracisation and discrimination; It is difficult to right a wrong by history. But we can set the course for the future.” This is such a victory for the lgbtq+ community within India and all over the world. 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
They are trying to ruin his character so hard like how dare Lebron help Black kids get a decent education and go to college for free…🙄🙄
8 million….You mean what they already pay? Since he’s covering all the auxilary costs while it’s being treated as just another building, it’s just being folded in as the 33rd school of the district. Taxes won’t change at all.
Beautifuldifferences 