Holy Schmidt, my Kimmy cosplay went viral!

So I went to my first MCM London Comic Con in October last year and loved it so much I've decided to make it a regular part of my calendar.

My Lara Croft Cosplay

Back in October, I cosplayed as Lara Croft, but this time I had a more comedic character in mind.

I'm a massive fan of Tina Fey's work, so when Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt appeared on Netflix, I KNEW I was going to love it, and love it I did. And whilst I was watching the first episode, I found I had a great affinity for Kimmy and her happy upbeat nature. I also noticed something.  "Hey," I thought to myself. "I have half of that outfit already, and I've still not decided what to wear to MCM this May..."

Kimmy in New York

And that's when I decided to be Kimmy for London Comic Con. Before I'd even finished the series, I knew I HAD to be her. I trawled shops and the Internet for the items I didn't already have: a ginger wig (I'm brunette, yo), a yellow cardigan (and butterflies to sew on), a flowery shirt (which are surprisingly hard to find in women's sizes...!) and a purple backpack. I was so excited...!

Before I left for MCM (yes I went on public transport like this)

Kimmy enjoying Comic Con!

Then something occured to me.

I was going to a convention FILLED with wonderful cosplaying geeks. Iron Man is a thing geeks like. And this is a thing that happens in episode 1:

"THE CIIIIRRRRRCLE OF LIIIIIFE!"

Kimmy has a best friend. His name is Titus and in episode one, he has a job where he dresses up as Iron Man knock-off "Metal Hero Friend", handing out fliers in Times Square. Kimmy sings the Circle of Life with Titus to encourage them to grab life with both hands, resulting in the above frame, used for much of the show's advertising on Netflix.

I knew there would be Iron Man cosplayers at MCM. I made it my mission to recreate that frame.

So I went to MCM London Comic Con dressed as Kimmy Schmidt, and my wonderful friends helped me to get photos with two incredibly accommodating Iron Men to get two fabulous photos:

This is Matt - he was so confused

This is Ashley - he was also confused, but totally got into it

On the Monday after MCM I put up a tweet sharing these photos and an actual frame of Kimmy Schmidt for reference. It did pretty well but then blew up a couple of days later (after I'd just come out of hospital after an operation! I wondered if I was just dreaming it up on the anaesthetic!!!).

I went to MCM London dressed as Kimmy Schmidt & confused the f*** out of some Iron Man cosplayers. It was glorious. pic.twitter.com/qWQv8BPx7Y

— Ellen Rose (@icklenellierose) May 25, 2015

I have no idea what sparked the sudden flux of retweets (I have a feeling it was a combination of tweeters with large followers and Reddit), but it was a wonderful and bizarre experience, and I ended up getting featured on several websites!

Some ee Cards
http://happyplace.someecards.com/superheroes/a-woman-dressed-up-as-the-unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-in-order-to-confuse-iron-man-fans/

Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/37kvqn/fan_art_cosplayer_goes_to_con_dressed_as_kimmy/

TheMarySue
http://www.themarysue.com/things-we-saw-today-845/

Fashionably Geek
http://fashionablygeek.com/costumes/unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-cosplay/

Kotaku
http://cosplay.kotaku.com/unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-cosplay-1708370672

Cheezeburger
http://cheezburger.com/504581/geeky-cosplay-kimmy-schmidt-confuses-iron-man-at-mcm-london

TenEighty
http://teneightymagazine.com/2015/05/30/vidfest-uk-may-2015-recap/

Quick mention on the Cape Crisis podcast (about 45 mins in!)
http://www.lasertimepodcast.com/2015/06/05/cape-crisis-140-faces-of-doom/

The one I am most proud of, however, is actually getting featured on Wired's weekly round up of the Internet:
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/internet-week-charlie-charlie/

They thought I was an unmissable part of the Internet for that week! They called me "the Unbreakable Ellen Rose"! Eep...!

Anyway, it was all weird and wonderful, so thank you, Internet. You're really awesome sometimes.

Go check out the awesome Iron Man Cosplayers who played along and were generally lovely people:

Matt:
MB CustomDesign on Twitter
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/devilishcosplay

Ashley:
Ashley Piper on Twitter
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amgpiper-props/733512820052336

...and I will leave you with my vlog from the day I WAS Kimmy Schmidt.

Microsoft - I love you. But please do better.

So, I haven't had the Internet for a while, been very busy, and am currently ill. I am therefore a little behind on this piece of news and will be writing this as a blog post rather than making a video (I also look awful but cannot go for a shower - or film anything anyway - as there are 2 plumbers loudly installing a new hot water tank 2 days after they said they would - exciting!).

Anyway, here goes.

WHY, MICROSOFT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I was scanning the web to catch up on some tech gossip & I stumbled across this little news story about the Xbox One.

This is supposed to be a funny, interactive and engaging piece of marketing to help potential buyers encourage their partners to "let" them buy the system together, but to me it comes across as a cringeworthy, dull and enraging piece of marketing. It's basically a letter pleading for men to plead with their girlfriends/wives to get the "amazing" new Xbox One. Here is the default letter, which allows you to change certain parts to make the letter applicable to you and your partner...:

The problem is, this "letter" comes across as a man calmly & pathetically pleading for permission to buy a new toy from his possibly-angry-and-game-hating girlfriend, rather than a funny tongue-in-cheek ad with reasonable arguments as to why a household should invest in an Xbox One. MS have since made changes to the text, which suggests that it wasn't as totally non-offensive as they had hoped it was. For example, you can now prefer to do taxes over gaming, instead of knitting. 

I do not enjoy doing taxes and I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO KNIT. I can however do pretty damn well in Assassin's Creed Multiplayer. 

Also, another small thing: in your big Xbox One TV spots, I have only seen ONE woman using the system, and she was watching Netflix. Not gaming. 

There is a guy in an important office meeting who gets invited to ride in a giant robot, a guy in a football stadium is invited to take a free kick, a guy driving down a highway is invited to drive a fancy sports car, a guy studying in a library gets invited to go shoot some zombies, a guy in a suit relaxing outside a fancy cafe with some papers (can't tell if newspaper or letters) gets invited to be a roman soldier.

The woman? Stopped whilst standing around at a train station (not doing anything in particular, just standing there reading a book whilst waiting for a train) by the new pretty Spock, invited to watch him be a badass in space. He's so pretty she drops her book when she first sees him. No, it's not in shock at him suddenly appearing out of thin air, she has her back turned the whole time when that happens, she just turns round & sees him there with a phaser & pretty pointy ears, gesturing her to follow him - watch him, though, not join in on the action. Just watch.

OMG, it's SPOCK. *fangirls & drops book*

Basically, all the gamers are men, doing things, and there is ONE WOMAN in the whole advert who just stands about reading what looks like a novel then WATCHES A MOVIE WITH A PRETTY MAN IN IT BEING A HERO. Honestly, I wouldn't mind this depiction of a woman - it's really not the worst - but it's the ONLY ONE.

Wanna know something MS? I encouraged my boyfriend to get an Xbox 360 instead of a PS3 so we could play online together. I, a female, got a guy to buy one of your gaming systems. I actively created a sale for you. I also talk about games available on your consoles, including exclusive ones, on my channel - it's only small, but people have told me that they've made one or two purchases based on my recommendations. I have also played your system since 2009, and played games on MS PC systems since I was a small child. I LOVE your systems. Please let me know that the people creating those systems also love me and value me as a customer. Get some more girls and women gaming in your marketing, pretty please!

(Although, just gonna say, the Xbox one announcement got really uncomfortable when that guy from the Killer Instinct team said the words "Relax, just let it happen, it'll be over soon" and "wow, you like this" whilst virtually beating up a woman. No. Nooooo. Nonono. Plz no. Never do that again. Plz.)

It just gets very frustrating when you don't feel represented by a company you have supported for many years. I really hope this changes soon.

Regards,

A frustrated Xbox 360 owner xx

Other names Microsoft could've given to the Xbox One

I have a LOT to say about the Xbox One, but for now I'm just going to focus on the name.

I understand what they are trying to achieve with the name, to show that it is "all your entertainment needs in one box", and gamers' first choice for next-gen gaming, but it's just not the first Xbox.

So, here are some alternatives I came up with:

• Xbox Focus
• Xbox Central
• Xbox Singularity
• Xbox Single
• Xbox all the Single Ladies...?
• Xbox...
• Xbox... 

Ok... I guess Xbox One is a lot more consumer friendly than the ones I came up with... The ex-maths student in me just has an issue with the video game industry naming series of things with the wrong numbers (I love you, Rockstar, but I'm lookin' at you!)...