Ropecon 2013

Oh, there's so much I could tell you about this. For those not in the know, Ropecon is (on our humble North European scale) a great big convention not about rope, but roleplaying. There are lectures, LARPs, tabletop gaming, card gaming, board gaming, tournaments, a cosplay competition, a sales hall... It's a weekend full of awesomeness, and this was my 10th year taking part — my 4th as part of the volunteer force of 600+ people making it all become reality. This time, as the two previous years, I was on the team running the GM info desk, looking after tabletop GMs and their players alike.

I won't go into detailed description of each day, but I will mention a few highlights. Pictures are included. There's already an album on my Facebook page, but I figured, why not throw a few shots here as well.

First things first. Being the DW fangirl and tea lover that I am, I decided to paint a metal tea tin to emulate the TARDIS and use it for my frequent need of tea leaves on my trips to the back room. The paint job was not entirely successful, but I'm happy enough with it that it doesn't matter too much. To my knowledge, no one took up the offer written on the label there, but I'll probably use the same tin in future years as well. Perhaps they will one day observe it. And if not, well... more for me! What I also discovered was that badges make for pretty good tea tin openers. No joke.

The cover reads "Propertea of Lami". I am so punny. :)

Continuing in the same Doctor Who vein, let me show you a dear friend the acquaintance of whom I made in last year's con. This is Sampsa. He dressed up as Eleven then as well, which is actually how we met — I asked him for a picture, he requested that I e-mail him the shots. The rest is, uh, slightly angsty history. Slightly. However... whatever troubles knowing him might have caused me, I'm still glad that he's in my life. He's pretty great. And, as you can see, pretty adorable.

Note the TARDIS emergency self-destruct button.

He actually held a lecture on "fantastic topography", meaning, obviously, fantasy maps, their clichés, and their relation to the real world. There's a video of it somewhere, but unfortunately the presentation was in Finnish, so there's no point to post a link even if I did manage to find it right at the moment. I would like to locate it at some point, though, because I was late to hear it and did not get a very good seat. The room was rather packed. Maybe I'll remember sometime this week.

While hanging out, we both tried a bit of archery. There are strict rules about weapons, even simulated ones, on con grounds, so naturally the arrows were as blunt as they could be made. Still pretty awesome, though, and I would like to perhaps begin it as a sort of hobby. I've already looked up some instructions on how to make a rudimentary bow and arrows. Maybe one day I'll have the financial means to enroll on a course or something, but for now, I think independent dabbling will do.

So, the archery was on Friday. Saturday was probably still the most fun for me, as it often is. Aside from Sampsa's map lecture, there was an assassination tournament (didn't even have the chance to kill my target because I hadn't seen hide nor hair of him before I was killed, but I did get to carry around a tiny water pistol in my cleavage, which was kind of fun and no, there are no pictures of this), a game, and the Discolarp.

The game, Monsterhearts, was run by a friend of mine. Initially I had not intended to participate in any tabletop games since I often want to keep as much of the time I'm not spending on shift reserved for lectures and wandering as possible... but then my captain (this year it was not Jukka; as the Bastard took on other duties, the responsibility went to Patrik, one of my fellow minions from previous years) recommended it to me and I caved. Pretty damn glad I did. :D

Monsterhearts is about a bunch of supernatural teenagers at a summer camp for rich kids. They're all undercover, pretending to be normal, like all the others stuck there with them. Weird shit happens, but that does not directly correlate with the fact that there are freaks present. We had a witch (myself), a fae, a werewolf, a ghoul, a ghost, and a mortal as player characters. My character's crowning moment was when she had a tryst with a fae NPC. A female one. Other than that, and a little bit of breaking and entering in search of marshmallows to toast, she did not have all that much excitement. General excitement, yes, but personally partaking of, no. It was hilarious to hear what everyone else got up to, though. We started half an hour late, which was completely my fault since I was slow at closing the desk. But work's work, and what must be done must be done. Thus the session stretched all the way to 2 AM instead of the intended 1 AM. I don't think any of us really minded, though — we all had a lot of fun. Should she run something similar next year, I think I'll sign up.

Afterwards I did a quick change of clothes and went in for some dancing. Attending the Discolarp is a personal tradition that I started a couple of years ago to challenge myself and now truly enjoy. There's something very liberating about this kind of dancing. No set moves, just going with the music. It's one of the rare situations where there's lots of people and lots of noise and it's okay. I cannot stress the wonder of it enough, the sense of freedom it gives me. Just take my word for it, yes?

Then, sometime around 3, it was time to quit for the night and trudge home. As I was on foot, I didn't get there until a little before 4. Did fall pretty much straight into bed for a glorious wink.

This was the scenery that greeted me when I walked across the bridge from Espoo to Helsinki.

 Sunday morning, I had the opening shift at 10. This basically meant that I was to spend the whole day running on half a brain, if even that. Good thing not much thought is generally required on Sundays. Through some miracle, however, I survived the day and came back home to be a zombified kitten.

Can this be considered witty? It was something past 10 in the morning and I was feeling very foggy.

 Next, a few random observations...

This was the only Potter-related cosplay I spotted. Good thing it was Draco. Not a bad one, either. (I've a deal with Trin that should I see any Potter cosplays, especially Malfoys, there should be photos.)

Is this the cutest gryphon you've ever seen? This sweetheart was part of the art exhibit they always have on the landing of the big staircase leading up to the biggest hall.

I left these for GMs and players (or any other passersby, really) to play with on Sat/Sun night.

This cosplay troupe won some kind of recognition at the ending ceremony. I forget whether it was an actual placement or an honourable mention. Still really effing cool, though.

All things considered, I think this is one of the best Ropecon experiences I have had. Hoping the next one is even better. Before that, I really ought to get my hands on all the videoed lectures that I missed seeing live.

Next year I shall attempt to submit some art in the exhibit, supposing I manage to create something by then. This one is already a good candidate — I am rather proud of it — but I also want a newer piece or two.

I've also made it a goal to get in shape and scrounge together a decent cosplay of the Major, who has for a long time been one of my biggest fictional femmecrushes. It may even be that the former is easier to accomplish than the latter — but I can be resourceful when I want to. And I really, really do. I've dreamed of this cosplay for quite a few years, but never really felt up to it. Now I say bollocks to that. I shall go forth and grasp my highly inconsequential dream!

I'll keep you (the very, very small readership of this blog, that is) informed of my progress.

Sudden Summer and Other Observations

Summer arrived last Friday after about a day or two of spring. I'm serious. Temperatures just suddenly went up; before that it had still been rather cool. Not that I'm complaining much. I like that it's warm now... but my body doesn't know what to make of this. It feels like I'm melting at 20°C, which previously has been close to an ideal temperature for me. Then again, I've been more sensitive to heat since that one case of heatstroke I had a couple of years ago. Wasn't much fun. Ah well. This weather also doesn't help the near-constant sensation of thirst I've been experiencing ever since I began taking Sertraline. But I guess that's a small price to pay for feeling more balanced. :)

Now, a brief musical interlude:

This song was played to us in DevLit (in the lectures last autumn, not when I took them before... I'll get round to talking about that mess somewhere below) and I immediately liked it, so it stayed in my head afterwards. Perhaps I ought to look for more mediaeval songs to listen to.

I don't listen to nearly as much music as I used to before Jussi and I moved in together. That's actually one of the bigger gripes I have about co-habiting. Otherwise, miscellaneous relationship snags notwithstanding, the situation suits me. I'm not even sure I would know how to live completely on my own. I've never had to. As much as I hated living with flatmates and would have preferred to have the entire space to myself, I don't know that I would have dealt with it very well. It's way too easy for me to slide into full hermit mode when alone.

Apparently, the medication I started a bit over a month ago should also help with the social stuff. I have yet to notice a marked improvement in that regard, but I do handle being stressed out a lot better, and when I start feeling glum I can pull myself back from the spiral that would lead me to suicidal thoughts. I lacked that ability before. I still get bad moments, but they are fewer, and the black is not quite so black anymore.

This, by the way, is where I keep my happy pills:

When I saw these tins at a store where they sell all kinds of cute little stuff for really cheap, I decided I want to store the meds in an adorable box instead of popping one out from the slip every night. I really like it better this way.


So. Literary and Linguistic Developments 500–1660, also known as DevLit. I originally attended the lectures back in the autumn of 2010, passed the exam the following January, and stupidly left the essay to dangle even after receiving an extension all the way into the end of June. Silly, silly girl. As a result, the course remained hanging for some time until I finally came to a decision to simply re-take the whole thing. Thus, I went in for the lectures again, and passed the exam (which by now had the essay component integrated into it)... in April. Because I just fail that much. This was the last chance, too; they're shutting down the course and separating it into at least two independent ones. Wonder how that'll go. It's not for me to worry about, though. I finally have those 8 study points in the bag, and with a grade 4 to boot! Something to be happy about, at least.

Other courses I had this year include (but are not limited to) some Art History as a new minor subject, a few English courses, obligatory Swedish (the written portion of which I passed on the second try, pah) and German. I'm reacquainting myself with the language. It's slow going, but I may be able to obtain some level of fluidity eventually. I did get a 4 from that course, which is encouraging.

I still have a crapload of essays to write, and next Monday I have a book exam on a Lit course I tried to write a lecture journal for but failed. It's lovely that us minor students can handle things by book exam.

I sat the Grammar 2 exam (yet again) and unless I get a pity pass I'm pretty certain I bombed it. I live in hope, though. Either way, when I finally deal with this course and the damned Phonetics one, I can let go of a little bit of the stress I carry around all the time. Of course it'll just be replaced with worries about something else, but hey, change is change.

Yeah, right.


Just got myself an appointment to see a shrink. Woohoo. I really hope it won't take too long to find a compatible one. As a matter of fact... no, wait. I was going to say I hope this one will be good, but she's downtown. That means bus fares. Well, now in the spring and for much of the autumn I suppose I can ride the bike but still. Meh.


This post was supposed to go up yesterday evening, but then we popped over for an impromptu visit to Matt and Anna-Laura's place. They have a bird's nest in a hanging flower pot outside their window! We've ascertained that it's some sort of thrush, but aren't sure of the exact species.

Matt and Jussi talked MtG while A-L and I discussed art nouveau (mostly Mucha) and tattoos. We also had some tea that Laura's fiancé Marc brought me from China. It's a green tea, smells heavenly and tastes pretty good, too. As you can see, Jussi appropriated the box it came in for storing some of his cards. I am fully intending to snatch it back if I ever get a deck or two of my very own. Will have to ask the brother about maybe lending me some of his, since he doesn't play any more.

Well, that's all for now. If you got this far, I commend you for an impressive attention span. Later today, I shall talk about Postcrossing. Ta!