X-23 v 2.0: Toycon 2011

Well, I finally got my boots cleaned and fixed a few weeks ago. And what better way to re-introduced them but by wearing them at Toycon.

The last time I wore the X-23 Costume was last November 2010. [You can check it out here.] There were definitely more than a few kinks. One was that my hair wasn't quite long enough yet. Second, I was in my rubber shoes [cause I didn't have my boots fixed then]. Lastly, I haven't quite honed my make up skills then.

So, here I am as Laura Kinney (X-23) at this year's Toycon:

X-23 (Laura Kinney)

Me and the Classic X-Men (Havoc, Wolverine, Forge)

Me and the New X-Men (Young Kitty Pride, Dust)

Me and Friends

Here's the reference art that I got the costume from [Just in case you guys haven't seen this yet]:

If you guys don't know who X-23 is. She is basically Wolverine's clone but you can read more about her
here.

I think the major turning point of this version is the make up. It really helped me with the facial expressions. Laura had a rather dark aura that is quite hard to channel if you haven't killed someone before hence I was having a hard time getting into character. Once I had the make up on though and had a little practice run in front of the mirror at home.

I really like the street version of her, but I think I'm going to move up and start on her X-Factor costume soon. If so, that's probably the first time I'm going to tackle masks. And how am I going to handle the midrift! If any of you guys have suggestions about how I should go about it then shoot me a comment.

Science Stumbled on Something

Go with your heart, buddy. Our brains only screw things up.

-Chuck Bartowski, Chuck(2007)

I had the past couple of days off from work. I really needed that since I've been on split offs for a long time. Anyway, my original plans to see my dad didn't really push through. [Yes, I am still bummed out about it] Though, Arckham and I made up for it by having a movie date which we haven't done in awhile.

In addition, I had some me time and I did a lot of reading and catching up with people I care about. And I'd like to share something I came across when I was going through my blogroll:

...a health reporter, I see so many studies of the causes and symptoms of work stress. So it was refreshing to see a study about the converse: what makes workers happy.
Focusing on social workers, a profession known for its high attrition, stress and burnout, John Graham, Ph.D., a professor of social work at the University of Calgary and his then doctoral student Micheal Shier, now at the University of Pennsylvania sent a survey out to 2,500 registered social workers in Alberta, Canada.  Seven hundred people responded.

From that group they took 13 people who scored the highest in nine areas of happiness and then followed them closely through in-depth interviews about their lives at home, at work and through shadowing them at work. Here’s what he found made them happy:
1. Flexible work schedules. The workers had the ability to provide “selfcare” by having the flexibility to manage their personal lives. A flexible schedule helped them to achieve a healthy work-life balance.
2. A strong sense of engagement in their work. The researcher found that was because of behind-the-scenes support the employees received from their bosses and employers. This support included flex schedules as well as the availability of superiors to consult with and bounce issues off of.
3. A feeling of being appreciated and valued, which often stemmed from their being included in organizational decision-making.
4. Having a high degree of freedom built into their jobs, meaning that they wanted the ability to try new things and expand out of their immediate area.
5. A pleasant physical workspace and good relationships with clients and colleagues.
6. Having a diversity of responsibilities, which might include training or teaching others, research, and policy development work.
7. Having a mentor to talk about their life, career decisions and their day-to-day job.

Graham and Shier are currently researching whether these factors make other types of workers happy as well, but the hunch is that these attributes would be important to all workers. What improves your sense of well being at work?

Thank you for this, theminordetail.

One of my goals is to be happy [I believe that goal should be fairly common.] and I spend time looking into it that I am headed in the right direction. This study gave me a lot to think about after all I think science is on to something here.

Well, it's the start of the week. Game on.