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SNHU

October 24, 2015 Jen Ný College, Cool Story Bro No comments

I’ve been pretty busy with schoolwork and finishing up editing a new book that I hope to self-publish before Halloween. I haven’t told many people yet, but I am going back to school via online classes at SNHU now.

I was originally going to get my bachelor’s degree in video game development, which is what my associate degree is in, but I changed my mind and have switched to creative writing. I have a number of reasons for making this switch. I believe that I could combine these two skill sets and become a writer for video games someday, or simply be a freelance writer or independent author while also working on the occasional indie game. I think this is just a better career path for me (not that many people even end up working in the field they majored in anyway!).

I also had significantly more credits that could be applied to the creative writing degree, which is the difference between being in school for just over one more year, or for just over two more years. An extra year would mean significantly more debt.

I will save reviewing SNHU until after I have taken more classes there. I chose SNHU because it is a fully accredited university with an actual campus. Taking online classes is the only way I can keep working while also going to school full-time.

I just wanted to write a quick update, since I haven’t posted anything in a while.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History Wedding

July 28, 2015 Jen Ný Cool Story Bro, Photos No comments

I got married about a month ago, on June 27th! The ceremony and reception took place at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the dinosaur room.

These are our wedding bands. They have triforce and Celtic knot design on the outside and “I choose you!” engraved on the inside. We aren’t dorks at all… Our wedding programs and invitations had a pink Yoshi with a wedding veil and a blue Yoshi with a top hat on them. We got them on Etsy (which is also where I got my wedding dress and veil).

To match the dinosaur theme, I made Pokemon dinosaur cake toppers to sit on the giant cupcake at the top of our cupcake tower. I got a miniature Tyrunt and Amaura from Amazon. I made a top hat and bow tie to make Tyrunt look dapper. I made a veil for Amaura from a sample of the same pink material that my veil was made of and added some adhesive jewels. The mini wedding cake was a last minute addition that we found at the craft store.

Here’s me getting ready. I got pink glasses specifically to match my pink wedding dress and veil, though I ended up liking them better than my other ones, so I’ve switched to wearing them on a daily basis.

I had a beautiful bouquet of cascading pink roses! (Sorry my favorite flower is one of the most expensive ones, Hans! But at least I prefer pretty pink stones to plain old diamonds!) Made by Puffer’s Floral.

The room where my bridesmaids and I got ready had fossils on the wall!

The following photos were taken by our photographer, Brian Valentine.

Hans and I walking down the aisle after the ceremony.

Dinosaur attack!

We had dinosaurs and ferns on each table. Our sweetheart table was the Stegosaurus Table, of course!

Us in front of a T. rex. How romantic!

Amaura and Tyrunt on our cupcake tower. Cupcakes are way more fun than regular cake!

We left for our honeymoon in Hawaii the following day. I’ll post some photos in a future post!

Just another Update

March 4, 2014 Jen Ný College No comments

I didn’t realize it’s been so long since I posted an update. Anyway, spring semester started in January. I was originally supposed to take three classes this semester, but two of them were cancelled at the last minute due to low enrollment. The 2D programming class is being offered as a 10-week online class instead, which I guess is better than nothing since I need to take that class this semester to graduate in time. I’ll have to take the mobile apps class whenever they decide to offer it again. The only class I’m taking in person this semester is digital illustration, which is on Friday and Saturday. On the plus side, this schedule allows me to work more hours than I had originally planned, so I can save up a little bit more money for school.

I’m not going to lie, I was pretty angry about the classes being cancelled. Since that happened, I’ve learned from other people in various other degree programs that the same thing happened with their classes. I’ve heard from numerous people that they’ve either had to push back their graduation or have quit school altogether because LCCC cancelled classes they needed for their degree programs.

This is absolutely unacceptable. No wonder the graduation rate at this school is so low. Right now, my plan is still to finish this associate degree program and then transfer to Kent for a bachelors degree, since LCCC is still significantly cheaper and this will give me another year to save money before transferring (and moving further away). I’m just afraid that the same thing will happen with some of the other classes I need next over the next two semesters and I won’t be able to finish this degree next spring. I’m not willing to push back getting a two-year degree even longer.

With the number of students in the intro class last semester, I really can’t understand how only three people (including myself) registered for the second semester classes. I have heard that a lot of CGSD students never finish the degree because they fall behind in math. I could go on and on about students not being ready for basic college level math by time they’re in college, but that particular rant might be best saved for it’s own post (protip: being good at math isn’t about memorizing boring formulas. It’s about actually understanding the concepts so that your brain can do cool problem-solving things.)

Anyway, I have only finished one assignment for my 2D programming class so far, but I’m enjoying it a lot more than any of the other programming classes I’ve taken over the years. We’re using the XNA framework in Visual Studio C# 2010 Express. Outdated, but effective. Programming games is a lot more interesting than making lame console applications and windows forms, that’s for sure.

In unrelated news, I was a finalist in Kotaku’s Photoshop contest last week. This was my “expertly” ‘shopped image of Sonic:

Well, I thought it was funny. And apparently so did the nice people at Kotaku… That’s the first time I made something for one of their contests. I usually don’t check Kotaku or Facebook as much on the weekend.

Xbox Live VIP Reward

June 21, 2013 Jen Ný Gaming No comments

Because I have absolutely no life whatsoever, I achieved VIP status in Xbox Live Rewards for wasting well over 20 hours playing arcade games and spending over $40 on buying arcade games. Microsoft was generous enough to give me this super awesome reward for all the time and money spent on their arcade games.

Wait for it…

Prepare yourself for the most awesome prize ever:

A super awesome little banner image for my website or forum signatures.

I can’t wait for my 25 cent birthday surprise from Microsoft in October.

(Seriously Microsoft. At least give out something at least kind of cool for “VIP” rewards and birthday rewards if you’re going to have a rewards program. Like avatar items. Or at least 80 MS points.)

At least they decided to not screw us over as bad with the Xbox One. There’s that at least.

Just an Update

May 22, 2013 Jen Ný College, Cool Story Bro, Cosplay No comments

As always, I’ve been busy and forgot to update this blog for a long time. Since the last time you’ve heard from me, my boyfriend and I have moved out of our small apartment and into a townhouse. I’ve also decided to go back to school for video game design this fall. So here’s everything that’s going on in my life right now:

Our new place is pretty awesome. We have an extra bedroom, which I have turned into a classic gaming room (pictures to come!) We still need to get some poster frames so we can finish decorating.

As long as nothing happens with my financial aid, I’ll be going back to school for video game design. I realized that, at this point, I’m probably never going to “grow up” and decide on a grown-up type of career, so I might as well try to make a career out of something I actually enjoy.

I bought a Kinect as soon as we moved into our new place, since we have enough living room space for it now. I’ve already lost a little bit of weight playing it. I’m hoping to get into awesome shape so I can go to the beach this summer, not look like a gamer stereotype when school starts, and be able to pull off a Golden Axe cosplay.

I won’t be at Colossalcon this year (unless we decide to go for maybe one day), since my friend is getting married that Saturday, and I’m going to be a bridesmaid. It would be pretty douchey to skip a friend’s wedding for something like that. But I’ll hopefully be able to go to other cons later this summer.

I did go to Shinbokucon, which was pretty much how you’d expect Shinbokucon to be. We just reused our Elfen Lied costumes for that, since that con isn’t really worth making a whole new cosplay.

I guess that’s about it for now. I don’t have any photos for this post, so I’ll use one from my Elfen Lied cosplay. Notice how I switched from the horns to bows.

I Didn’t Die

January 3, 2013 Jen Ný Cool Story Bro, Cosplay No comments

With the new year, I’m actually going to attempt to start posting occasionally. I know, I said that last year, and I this year will probably end up about the same.

I got a new job a couple months ago, which is partially why I’ve been too busy to keep this blog updated. I also haven’t done much that would be relevant enough to this blog to post about.

The last anime convention I was at was Midoricon (where I wore the same costume I made for Matsuricon, which is why I never got around to posting about it), but I will be going to Ohayocon in a couple weeks. With the holidays, my boyfriend and I both forgot about the con until someone at a New Years party asked if we would be there. I’m tired of my Skyrim costume since I wore it for two cons, a cosplay picnic, and Halloween, but I am attempting to put together a new cosplay for Ohayocon.

This will be the first anime con where I’m cosplaying an actual anime character! I will be Lucy from Elfen Lied (Hans will be Kohta, or as I like to call him “generic anime dude”). Since the outfit is so basic, and since I waited until the last minute, I’ve just ordered everything I needed for my costume from Amazon and eBay (except the horns, which I’m making). It was cheaper to put together a “closet cosplay” of the outfit I wanted than to buy a pre-made costume online that barely even looks like Lucy’s outfit in the anime (there are some awful looking costumes available to purchase out there!).

In other news, I’ve decided to actually learn guitar. Maybe in a few years, I’ll be good enough to post videos here. (Probably not…)

Well, that’s about all I have to post about right now. Check back later for updates on my costume (I’ll tell you how I made Lucy’s horns, and if all goes well once I get my pink wig, how to wear a wig over long hair without having to use a wig cap).

PS: What do you want to read about in my blog? More cosplay stuff? Reviews and rants about video games and anime? Cool stories about my life that you really shouldn’t care about anyway? I’ll try to include tips for other cosplayers in those posts to at least give this blog some kind of value, but I can really only do a couple costumes a year.

Moving!

March 31, 2012 Jen Ný Cool Story Bro 2 comments

Great news: Hans and I are moving to our new apartment this Sunday! Okay, if you are someone we actually care about you already know by now, and are probably getting sick of hearing about it. If you are just some random internet stalker, you now know a new cool story.

After looking at a few places, we found a great one bedroom apartment that we both really liked in an undisclosed location. We viewed the apartment for the second time and got the application Monday, applied Tuesday, were approved Wednesday, and signed the lease Thursday. It has been a busy week. We are now enjoying 2 days of rest (AKA packing) before moving in on Sunday.

Our apartment is in a nice, quiet community of mostly 40-50 year olds, so it won’t be infested with small children or drunk college kids. We won’t be bothered by annoying people our age, unless we decided to invite our friends over! We also hit the neighbor jackpot, as the landlady said that all of our nextdoor neighbors are rarely there during times we’ll be home. The walls are also thick enough that we probably won’t hear them (and vice versa) anyway. Yay not having paper thin walls in our bedroom!

We have all of our furniture covered too! Through the wonders of FaceBook and actually having real-life friends, we’re getting an awesome couch and chair set and a lamp from a good friend. We also got a not-so-awesome, but functional, computer desk from a friend of a friend. Between the two of us, we already had everything else we need.

I can’t wait to finally have our own place! We’re going to have so much fun building couch forts and playing awesome board games like Hungry Hungry Hippos, Candyland, and Pokemon Monopoly all night. (That’s what couples who live together do, right? Build forts and play children’s board games? This is the first time either of us has lived with someone, so we’re new to this!). Since Hans just turned 8 on February 29th, I figured he’d like to have some fun games to play. I need to keep him entertained while I’m kitchening. (Who am I kidding? After a week or two, he probably won’t let me kitchen any more).

Maybe I’ll post pictures of our new place in a future post. Or maybe they’ll just go on FaceBook if I even bother to take photos. We probably won’t get internets until the middle of next week sometime, so I probably won’t post right away unless I go to the college to borrow some internets.

Yay! 🙂

Nýr Ár

January 2, 2012 Jen Ný Cool Story Bro No comments

Looking back at 2011, I can’t believe how much I’ve done and how much my life has changed in one short year. In 2011 I finished my Associate Degree, competed in two tai chi tournaments (3rd and 1st!), finally got the courage to end a horrible abusive relationship, and met a man who actually makes me happy. I’d say it has been a good year! Hopefully 2012 will be even better! And now you get to experience my life with me as you follow my brand new blog! (You are going to read it, aren’t you?)

With the new year, I thought that it would be a good time to completely rework JenniferAwesome.com. Rather than wasting my web hosting on a static portfolio site that no one cares about, I’m starting a new blog (that no one cares about – but at least a frequently updated blog will rank higher in Google). Out with the old, in with the new.

I was going to turn this site into a general social media marketing blog, but I decided it would be more fun to write a more personal blog. You know, interesting things that happen to me, weird things I think of, etc. Like everyone else who has ever decided their boring lives were interesting enough to blog about. Don’t worry, I’ll try to only blog things that might actually be interesting to a few people, rather than blogging about what I had for breakfast. Mostly because I usually don’t eat breakfast (cool story, bro).

Anyway, check back later this week for more awesome posts! It’s sure to be full of cool stories for all of you bros!