The Prop (And Armor) Blog

Update...

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:19:59 GMT

I don't want to jinx myself, but it appears I have the sound problem fixed. A friend of mine gave me a dedicated sound card so I've got that installed in my computer and things seem to be working so far. (The sound isn't fading away or crackling.) I'm still not sure what the problem was-- I guess when one wants to install a new piece of hardware on their computer, they just have to assume a million things will go wrong and carve out enough time to fix any potential problems. (My messing with the BIOS made an extra monitor appear in my Control Panel Display settings, so I had to figure out what went wrong and set that right so I didn't have my cursor flying off of the screen continuously.)

If only the rest of my current problems could be fixed so easily....

HELLLPPP!!!!! I have no sound!!!!!!

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:40:08 GMT

I received a ATI Radeon HD 4770 video card from a friend and just got it installed today. While the video part of the sound card is working well, it seems to have completely killed my sound. (The strange part is, that it didn't kill it right away. I seemed to have working sound for awhile, then it faded out and died. I futzed with a few things, turned the computer off and on and the sound came back, then, after a few minutes, it died again.)

I can't seem to google my way out of this problem (I can't find anyone else whose sound seemed to "get tired and die" after installing a video card. It just either didn't work altogether from the start or it did.)

I tried everything I could think of based on what little knowledge I could glean--I tried going into the BIOS to reset the computer settings, but I wasn't sure what to do. There was nothing I could see that would allow me to enable the motherboard sound card again. I really don't think anything I could find there, short of a "click this to make sound go now" button would be of much use to me since I have NO IDEA what any of the stuff on the BIOS even means. I don't want to futz with important core computery stuff if I don't know what it means...

My drivers are all up to date so that's not a problem. I tried going into the Device Manager and disabling everything that wasn't a part of my old Realtek Audio system, but that hasn't helped bring my sound back. I tried messing with the Sounds and Audio Devices area in the Control Panel, changing everything back to the way it was before the video card installation. Nothing is working.

I really really want to keep this card, but if I can't get my sound to work, I'm going to have to take it out of my computer. I NEED my sound. Any help ANYONE could give me would be greatly appreciated. (Even if all you know is a place or forum where I could ASK for help, that would be...helpful.)

I don't want to waste any more of my e-mail answerin' time fixin' my sound. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

The Things That Sucked About This Week...

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:17:18 GMT

Well, it all started with the ebay auctions. My pony plushie went for far less than I hoped it would (I figure I made about 2 dollars per work hour on it.) Although making it was fun and I learned a lot of skills which will, I hope, help me in future projects, I just can't afford to make anything like that ever again, unless it's to order for a price I dictate. (It's not like I was expecting it to run into the thousands like some of the crazier plushie auctions, but I was hoping the final bid would be more than twenty dollars above the "entice-you-to-bid-but-I-don't-really-expect-it-to-remain-this-insanely-low" opening bid...) A longer auction and more promotion might have helped, but I needed the money for the plush before the end of the month, so my hands were kind of tied there...

I was flooded with an unusually high volume of e-mails and interest this past week, which was good, but it was also tougher to keep track of it all. I also tried selling a couple of items on the Cosplay.com Marketplace and accidentally got my PM usernames and e-mail addresses mixed up. I'm just not used to doing business there. It was like trying to juggle chainsaws and cats while trying not to hurt myself or any other living thing. Not fun. (I'll definitely have to be a lot better prepared if I try selling more finished stuff in any non-ebay venue in the future...)

I had to go down to the Cities earlier in the week to take care of some business and to see my ailing parents whom I hardly ever get to see these days. I did manage to get a lot of e-mail answered before I left, but I've still got a lot to deal with. Please be patient. I WILL get back to you as soon as I can.

New MLP Plushie

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:29:00 GMT

..Sorry things have have been very hectic around here lately. That's because I decided to sell every cosplay thing that's accumulated in my apartment for the last couple of years, (Which means I have to take time out to fix it up since it's been sitting in a box or a closet for the last couple of years.) I also finally finished another MLP plushie and posted it for sale on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MY-Little-Pony-FIM-Sonic-Rainboom-Costume-Rarity-Plushie-/140688094631?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20c1a9f5a7

I also have some kanzashi and a lot of other sewing/cosplay projects at deep discount:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/aa_chan/m.html?item=140687644573

If you could get the word out about the auctions, I'd appreciate it. (Consider it an early birthday present). Hope everyone else is having decent weather these days....

Winter is Here.

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:13:58 GMT

It took long enough to get here. I would much rather have gotten tons of snow dumped on us instead of the nipple-piercing cold we wound up getting. Snow is an inconvenience, but cold makes me want to dig up the ground and rip open Hell just so I can climb in and escape it from it. I'm glad that it hasn't been cold all that often this winter since it allows me to go out for walks and at least try to maintain something resembling physical stamina.

I know I haven't updated much. That's because I've had a lot of projects recently that require crazy craptons of highly detailed busywork, (like knitting or sewing beads for instance.) I know it's winter and I don't have much else to do these days, but sometimes it's hard to gauge accurately how long this kind of work is going to take me, (which means I have to play some furious catch-up if I underestimate the time.)

Here's one of my recent projects: A crown from the 60's era Cleopatra movie.

The project required copious amounts of hand-sculpting and approximately 874,000 gadrillion glass beads. (And no, I probably didn't charge as much for it as I should have, although it was no small chunk of change.) I guess if you want to do a project that's beautiful and exciting, you run the risk of it taking over your life. (Of course, you could keep making bland and reliable things, but that's no real fun either.)

I'm working on another MLP plushie which I hope to finish soon. (Would have liked to have had the time to make more this season, what with the fandom still being hot. Oh well.)

Ubiquitous Happy Holidays Message

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:16:25 GMT

Hi folks! This has been a very busy past couple of weeks. For some reason I had a lot of projects ending at the same time (that I would have to finish and send out all at once,) and some stuff I had to finish before Christmas. I've got another MLP Plushie in the works that I'm working on in my rare spare time. I wanted to get it done before Christmas, but my schedule wasn't permitting.

If you're planning on making any armor projects in the near future, I would recommend going to your local hardware store, big box retailer, or anyplace where Christmas decorations are sold and looking for large oversized plastic round Christmas ornaments. The smaller plastic ornaments made great gemstones and jewel orbs, and the larger ones can be cut up and turned into helmets and shoulder armor. This is the best time to buy them since they're bound to be deeply discounted, and once Christmas is over, they disappear until next year, so buy 'em while you can....

Thanks!

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:57:01 GMT

For all of your help selling the plushie. (The cost will go towards paying off my dental bill). I'm working on another plushie (or rather, I'm trying to find time to fit its construction in amongst the five or so projects I'm close to completing but just can't seem to finish because I want to do one last experimental thing on them to make them perfect that ends up ruining them instead and I wind up having to take apart and fix what I broke and WHY CAN'T I STOP FIDDLING WITH THINGS ALREADY?!) It must be a mental illness I have. I need to cure it asap because ruining something, repriming, resanding and repainting it can add extra days to a project. (It's times like this that I wish I were a digital artist. Fixing something on a computer takes far less time than trying to fix it in the Meat World. Usually.

I guess what I'm really afraid of is that my projects will end up like this if I'm not careful:

I have no idea why I laugh so hard at that. I think the music makes it ten times funnier than it really is. Or it could be the twirling green baby arms. I seriously can't think of a single thing that couldn't be en-funnied with twirling green baby arms. (Okay, maybe the Holocaust, but that's it. )

Teensy Fundraiser.

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 08:47:44 GMT

I'm still hard at work finishing up my current projects, but because I'm in need of money to pay off my recent (very substantial) dental bills, I decided to jump on the My Little Pony: FIM fan-bandwagon and make a character plushie (before the marketplace becomes saturated with them, to the point where they make Beanie Babies look like Michaelangelo sculptures in comparison.) It took awhile, because I had to work in my spare time (including over the Thanksgiving holiday), but I'm hoping I can raise a little money. Nowis not a time when I'm usually swimming in it. The auction can be found here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140652571476?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

(And yes, I know it's almost over. I haven't been promoting it because I don't feel like spamming people --nor registering on fan forum boards for the sole purpose of spamming people.) This isn't like a cosplay or costume-related thing where I know where to advertise and/or post classified ads related to it. I'm pretty lost when it comes to fandom-specific plushie feedback and promotion....

(Speaking of cosplay and costume things, I have a few items I can post for sale from old projects that never came to fruition. I just need the time to write them up and sell them. -_-)

Toof Update

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:23:09 GMT

The pain from my post root-canal flareup was pretty bad, so before I could travel for Thanksgiving, I had to go back into the dentist and have it looked at. The dentist thought the pain might be caused by my continuously hitting my root canal with the opposite tooth, so she ground it down, then gave me a steroid pack and some antibiotics. The pain went down to manageable levels, although the numbness in my chin and lip remains. (I suspect the feeling will return given enough time though. And I'll take numbness over brain splitting tooth ligament agony any day.)

I'm worried about having the root canal crowned before everything in my mouth has a chance to get back to normal. (I also have to pay for the crown too, which is why I have to dig in my apartment for things to sell. I checked on ebay and the Weapons & Warriors games I have aren't worth crap so I might just wrap them up and give them to the thrift store. I wish I'd held onto the Heroquest game I found and sold awhile back. It's worth about 2-3 times what I sold it for then. -_-)

This is a month where I'm adjusting and finishing up a lot of projects. I'm also trying to keep my sleep schedule reasonable since it's winter time. Going to sleep when its dark and waking up when its dark gets old pretty quickly, especially for one as pale and Vitamin D deficient as I am...

Unholy Zombie Cyborg Tooth of Doom

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:03:03 GMT

If you want to order a PDF version of my Prop and Armor Compendium on CD, then you'll have to order it directly from me by sending me an e-mail. (I updated the info on this page right here but I'm not sure if I made the instructions clear enough.) If anyone knows of a place that makes print-on-demand Book CDs, please let me know. (Amazon offers POD CDs, but as far as I know, it's for music files only.)

This has been a grueling past week. I managed to get a lot of work done and shipped out, but I also had a lot of problems to contend with. One of them was my root canal, which seemed to go well, but a couple of days after it was done, the pain came back with a vengeance and now my lip and cheek are numb. I'm pretty sure that sort of thing is not supposed to happen, but there's not a damn thing I can do about it until tomorrow when the dentist office opens again. (So in the meantime, I'll have to sit and stew in my own hypochondria, worrying if my delaying going in is gonna cause me any permanent damage and also knowing I really have no choice in the matter.) Stupid tooth. At this point, it's really more metal than it is tooth, anyway, like some sort of unholy cyborg zombie tooth of doom. I would've had them just take it out if I knew it was going to cause me this much trouble. (Then maybe sprinkle holy water in the hole it left behind, just to be safe.)

Big snowstorm yesterday. For some strange reason, all of my gloves sets are missing one of the pair. I've got like, 5 or 6 gloves and none of them match! I have no idea how that even happens. Closet Aliens, I'm guessing, but I haven't pinned down any definitive proof yet.

November Nooz

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:32:28 GMT

I feel like such a ninny. I left my car's dome light on by accident thus draining the battery. This wouldn't have been a problem except that I had to do it when my car was parked in the middle of the apartment lot far away from any outdoor power outlets. I had to wait for a friend to get home from his job and lend me a second extension cord so I could finally hook my charger up to my car. (Seriously, I don't know what I would do without that car battery charger. I've probably used it more often than I've used my TV this past year...) I also discovered, (when aforementioned friend tried to jump my car) that my car battery is positioned in such a way that it's virtually impossible to get a pair of jumper cables attached to it. It's crammed into a corner of the engine block with tubes, foam and wire all stuffed around it. I don't know whose brilliant idea it was to engineer the car this way--probably someone who's secretly in league with every major towing company in the world...

Bad news for me. I went to the dentists and found I have a tooth abcess. Insurance will cover the root canal, but not the crown I need to cover it with. I need to come up with at least half of the 800 dollar cost up front before anything can be done. I'm getting close to paying off a credit card so I can shunt the money from that into the dentist bill, but gathering the initial down payment is going to be a problem. I do have some things in storage that I can sell (Some cosplay-related and decorative items I've made,) but I don't think it will be nearly enough, plus I have to shell out money to buy more styrene (I'm close to running out after last month's busy spurt.) I'll have to come up with some fund-raising ideas pretty quick. (If you want to help and were always thinking of buying my book series in print or on CD, now would be a good time. The CD book files are only ten dollars apiece and I can send color PDFs of the CD and printed book covers to you, if you like. Just let me know when you order.)

WHEW!!!!!!

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:48:43 GMT

Wow. The Halloween season was pretty challenging this year (and because of the day of the week it fell on the calendar, some Halloween themed cons took place several days after the holiday, thus prolonging the work season a bit.) Oy. I had very little sleep in the last week of the stretch,--all in all, I think I had only 10 hours. I hate how going without sleep makes you all achey and super-hungry for sugary crap food. I eventually crashed and slept for about 14 hours straight. (The only good thing to come out of all this,was that I woke up during a reasonable hour of the morning--maybe I can use this fact to alter my Circadian clock so I can stay awake during the limited, waning daylight.)

I spent a good deal of today answering e-mail. I should have a lot more room in my schedule for new projects now (and I have quite a few existing projects that are on the verge of being done.) I would say that things might actually be rosy for me --if only I didn't have this awful toothache. (It's in a section of my mouth I call the "loose, lumpy amalgum of enamel and metal held together with prayer" section.) I doubt I would even have the money to have my teeth pulled, much less have them fixed in a proper way that doesn't leave me looking like a meth addict. I do wish I did artwork on a regular basis so I could have a sketchbook auction or something of that nature to raise money. I DO have a few old props lying around that I could try to sell, but I don't know if I could get very much for them, I have my one remaining balljoint doll that I could sell possibly, but I had to permanently attach his head to his body in order to get it to stay on. I don't know how much that would affect the value, but in a world where potential buyers get bent out of shape over a barely-perceptible-to-the-naked-eye-yellow-patch-on-the-inside-of-the-buttcrack, I can't imagine it could affect it in any positive direction... )

Hope everyone had a nice Halloween! (By the way, I found out that lulu.com is no longer offering CD's for sale and I changed my bookstore descriptions accordingly.You can order CD's directly from me now. Oh, and I also reposted the links buy to my Volume 4 book. Hooray.)

Gears of War Pattern...

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:31:45 GMT

I've finally sketched it out:

I wanted to make it scannable so I drew it onto 8-1/2" x 11" sized sheets. It took 23 sheets to get the entire pattern. I tried making it as easy to understand as a pepakura file (matching numbers along the edges of the pattern pieces) but I had to add notes here and there to explain how the pieces all come together. (This took way longer than I hoped it would.)

If you want a copy printed onto posterboard, let me know at dietzt@cloudnet.com and I can send you a quote. (This pattern is for the Marcus Fenix armor, by the way.)

Happy Pre-Halloween!

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:20:55 GMT

Trying to get out and enjoy the last of the summer like weather since it will probably be snowing within the next three weeks. The problem is, it gets dark so early and I'm still keeping third shift hours so I can enjoy only 3-4 hours of sunlight at most. When did I turn into a vampire, anyway? (And,on an unrelated note, when did Livejournal turn into "Suspicious Russian Spam-Journal?" Maybe it was always that way and I just never noticed until now. I can read Cyrillic, but since I've forgotten what all of the Russian words I learned in college mean, the Spam really isn't imparting anything in the way of useful information.)

I'll try to finish answering all of my e-mail by tomorrow. I'm finishing up my two big projects and have progressed on a few others. I only wish the nice weather would skip ahead in the calendar to November (when I have nothing to do and can actually ENJOY it....)

Oh Noes! Internet Herpes!!!

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:27:24 GMT

People sent me messages saying that my site was hacked. I checked Google and they said nothing was wrong with it, but AVG Linkscanner said otherwise. I detected a malicious IFRAME on my index page, but couldn't find any alterations in any of my other pages. I removed the bad code and changed my webhosting password. (If anyone else gets a malicious warning on any of my webpages, please let me know as soon as possible.)

It's been a frustrating week. I've been trying to finish two armoring projects that just don't want to end. No matter what I do, they seem to stretch on and on, requiring constant little fixes and adjustments. I'm almost missing having to work on Final Fantasy XI costumes, that's how horrible, fiddly and time consuming this new stuff has been. ( I've got a lot of sewing to do this week so I really hope I can get the armor over and done with. -__- )

Mixing Business With Pleasure

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 09:36:17 GMT

Came down to the Cities this weekend to deliver some props and to pick up some more styrene (since I've been selling a lot of it lately.) I also came down to see Cinematic Titanic in person on the first leg of their latest tour. I was there along with the rest of Team Linkara and we had a blast. (Lewis was nice enough to get us tickets to thank Will 'n' I for the work we've done for his internet show, so go watch it! Now! And thanks in advance for yer support.)

We managed to get some cast autographs--Bill Corbett of Rifftrax fame showed up at the theatre and that was extra nice. (My old KTMA fan club card only needs signatures from Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy now. Hopefully they'll come back to the Twin Cities for some kind of fan venue so we can get their signatures. Someday.) I gave my club card to Lewis to go with his Tom Servo puppet (and another friend of mine gave him a cast photo.) He's got a nice MST3K collection going now. Somewhere I've got more MST3K memorabilia hidden amongst my stuff, and I'll have to dig it up at some point. I often wonder how much KTMA-era stuff has actually survived to the present day. (And how much it could be worth ^_^)

Second Lifers: My in-world store is participating in the Discover the Duche Hunt I made a couple of nice freebies (which you can enjoy or give as gifts, if you like.) I still haven't been able to get my SL store blog up and running. Too much RL work to do. And Wordpress doesn't seem to acknowledge my username anymore. It might just be a problem with my browser's security settings. I'll have to see... )

My mother is finally back home from the hospital. She's more awake now and can move about with a walker. A Physical Therapist is going to drop by and help her a few times a week. I'm glad she didn't have to go into a nursing home after the hospital, although her continued recovery will depend a lot on her dedication to changing her lifestyle. I'm hoping she'll be able to get out and walk more, since that would probably be the best thing for her. (Laying off the candy will also be a big help...)

I should be back in St. Cloud before the weekend is out. I have to drive around tomorrow and buy some white reflective tape for a project I'm working on (I pretty much cleaned out all of the hardware stores in St. Cloud. I wasn't able to find the tape selling in bulk on ebay, which was a disappointment. Oh well. Sometimes ebay comes through and sometimes it doesn't.) I 'm working on an armor project that I wanted to film as I worked on it--but it was too complicated. (It's a woman's armor and that's always been particularly tricky to shape. Oh why must women have boobs? They're nice and aesthetic, I guess, but so inconvenient from an armor design standpoint. Sigh.)

I gotta stop staying up this late....

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:24:58 GMT

I spent much of the day cleaning half of my kitchen. The Leaning Tower of Dishes I had going on top of the counter was getting pretty precarious, like some gross, sauce-encrusted Jenga game. The other half of the kitchen holds an even more precariously balanced mountain of art supplies sitting in makeshift shelves and boxes (which have grown far too small to hold all of this crap.) I may need to buy some new shelving--something I really don't want to do since I just spent 38 bucks buying a small tub of RTV silicone for an upcoming project. (It was the shipping that killed me in this case. 16 bucks to ship a 22 dollar container of silicone! I wish they had offered an economy shipping rate. I hadn't thought to check TAP plastics or some other crafts supplier for cheaper silicone prices before going ahead and buying the stuff on ebay. All of that cleaning sucked away my ability to think I guess...)

Will try to answer all of my e-mail tomorrow. I want to go down to the Cities sometime soon and have some projects I must finish and deliver there.

Hallo Folks!

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:05:10 GMT

Sorry I haven't updated in so long. My diabetic mother had some health issues which resulted in her going to the hospital and I had to go out of town to visit her for awhile. (She's still pretty frail. If she wants to get healthy, she's going to have to undergo a lot of lifestyle changes. Not dieting and spending 80 percent of your time propped upon the couch sleeping are not activities that are conducive to one's continuing health. Especially if one is old and diabetic.)It's tough to see someone go through a health crisis and even tougher to see them refuse to make the changes which could help them get better so I'm hoping this time Mom will cooperate with the doctors and do what's best for herself.

I'm still working and trying to keep on top of my e-mail. (I had one of those dreadful, highly detailed futuristic armor projects to deal with this past week, which did nothing to unfrazzle my nerves.) I just have to continue on and pray that things will turn out for the best. My friends have been very helpful and I appreciate their being there for me.

One good thing that happened this past week was that I finally got my sister's car. (She got herself a newer one and gave me the one she previously had, which was identical to the one I owned before, just cleaner and less dent-prone.)Insurance remains the same, so that's good.

Hope y'all have a good Labor Day, everybody!

Cosplay Website Update

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:46:41 GMT

Added these new projects to my web gallery: (Click to go to the pages.)

Putting Lights into Things

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:56:40 GMT

..is what I've done a lot of this past week. What I was trying to do was create the weapon held by this character:

I was fortunate to have a craft warehouse next door that sold red plastic film and clear rigid sheets of cuttable polyester. Not sure where else I would have gone to to get these things. Ebay perhaps, or some online industrial plastics supplier. (I suppose I could have gotten clear plexiglass from a local hardware store, but I would have needed stronger and more precise hand tools to cut it.)

Anyway, this was what the project looked like when finished:

I was able to find the rest of the materials for this project at the local hardware store--- plastic chain, wire, and epoxy putty to make the "prongs" holding the crystals. (By the way, as far as hardware store epoxy putty goes, I find WaterWeld to be the best. It has the nicest texture, is pliable for a good ten or so minutes, and smells the least foul. I've heard that any leftover unmixed putty can cure and turn hard within a month's time, but I've never had enough left over after a project for it to sit around for that long.)

The lights in the crystals were a pair of emergency LED glowsticks that I found in the flashlight section of the hardware store.

I was able to take the part of the LED flashlight that contained the batteries, lights and switch and place them into a foam coupling, which I installed into a cap that I then connected the length of chain to. (I wanted to be sure that the LED light could be turned on and off and have its batteries changed.)I suppose I could have used LED Power Dots for this installation, but I wanted something with a handy on/off switch, not something that had to be taken out of the cap in order to be shut off.)

More pictures of the prop can be seen here and here.)

BTW, I made the surface of the crystal "frosty" by using translucent plastic that I cut from the approximately 87,000 spring water jugs that I have lying around my apartment that I've been too lazy to drag out to the trash. (I knew they would come in handy if I just let them lie around long enough. Too bad the rest of my trash can't be so obliging...)

Oh, before I go--if you want to hear some of my rare voicework (and possibly hear for yourself why I tend to keep it rare) watch this soon to be classic review of a classic comic! (And yes I did actually look up how to pronounce "Nimue." If enough people have a problem with it, I could pronounce it a different way I suppose. I was trying to go for a Female HAL/ Zen from Blakes Seven kind of thing there...) Enjoy!

CONVERGENCE 2011

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:23:17 GMT

I had wanted to post a longer, more detailed run-down of the convention (which took place in Bloomington, MN, in early July.) I wasn't able to make any costumes for myself (although I did manage to help my friends with their costumes, so I at least had some of my work represented.) I couldn't be in the Masquerade either, because my friends and I had daytripped, and a car on a 90 degree day is no place to store an elaborate costume that's at least 80 percent hotglue by composition. (I think this is probably the very last convention I'll ever daytrip to. It saves money, yes, but I'm past the age when I could walk around in a big hotel without some reliable, quiet place to rest my head from time to time, not to mention the problems that come with storing and putting on enormous, showstopping costumes.) Dragging myself across a city full of crowded traffic and then walking 20 minutes in the summer heat because the closest parking space I could find was a mile away from the hotel, those are two things that can go straight to hell as well.)

I went with my friend Will and local internet celebrity Lewis Lovhaug.(Yay! I'm canoodling with the famous! Well, not so much canoodling as "helping them carry their stuff through the hotel, while still having a fun time.") Lewis was recognized and got some good compliments on his review work, which was some nice ego-boosting for him. And we all generally had a pleasant experience (although we largely called it quits by Saturday. Lewis had work to do and I had an out-of-town sister I had to visit that weekend, so I didn't get to hang around at the convention with my buddies as much as I would have liked.)

The convention itself was well run, as far as I know. Had a broader, older fanbase than most of the anime conventions I've been to. The party rooms were really well put together (and many of them had themes that revolved around big franchises, like Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked. I was dead tired even before I got to the convention and even the effort of lifting a digital camera wasn't something I felt like doing, unless there was something I really wanted to record for posterity. Anyway, here's my 2011 CONvergence gallery:

http://www.cosplay.com/gallery/212448/

(I don't know if you need a Cosplay.com account to view the pictures, but there's the link if you want to see it.)

Been playing catchup and I was actually current with my e-mail for awhile. (For about two seconds.). Sigh. It piles up so fast....

Website's Back Up

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:28:49 GMT

http://www.amethyst-angel.com/cosplay.html

All of the thumbnails and links should be working. (Thanks to a coding error, I had to go back and fix every gallery page --all 325 of them-- which gave me the opportunity to make a last minute check of all of the display pictures. Oh sure, I could've joined the late 20th Century and used CCS to code my pages and thus, be able to fix them all at once with a keystroke, but what's the fun in doing things the easy way?)

I put a brand new search function text box on my site that allows you to search for a costume by character name or series. So that should at least be worth some of the down time, I'm hoping.

The next thing I'll need to do is fix my main index page-- make it a gateway for all of my activities...Not sure what I'll do with the old anime, webcomic, and fanfiction parts of the site (aka my Old Shame). I had a nasty habit of undertaking big epic projects and abandoning them when things get tough for me, which is why I think I stick to costume projects (things I can finish within a day or a week) and eschew things like writing and comics (which can take longer than the life of the entire universe to finish.)

I did pick up more styrene (mucho thanks to a certain Catboy who generously helped me in that regard,) and I did send out all that had been ordered from me this past week. So if you've been waiting for it, it's on its way.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the website!

EDIT: I received what looked like a suspicious anonymous phishing entry saying they couldn't get the e-mail address on my site to work. If anyone else is having that problem, please let me know.

Status Update

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:06:30 GMT

Getting close to relaunching the site. (She said, worrying that she might jinx the whole project at this late stage). If you've ordered styrene from me, I will send it to you. (It has been bought--it just waits for me to come down to the Cities and pick it up, which I intend to do as soon as opportunity permits.)

Sorry for vanishing for so long. Been doing a lot of coding and page uploady things lately, so I haven't felt much like tapping out blog entires. Too much like work these days...

Insert Clever Entry Title Here...

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:15:56 GMT

I've had my nose to the grindstone since getting back from CONvergence. I want to post pictures and give it a proper post-mortem and will do so as soon as I can. In the meantime, I finally caught up with my e-mail. (Well, most of it. I had to trash some out of date advice inquiries that I didn't have any time to devote to.) Now I don't mind people asking me to clarify things that they've read in my tutorials,--and this I try to do whenever I can-- but sometimes people will ask me how to make a certain costume from scratch,even going so far as to ask me to make an itemized list of needed materials for it--and I just don't have the time to do that sort of thing. Besides, the Cosplay.com forums boards are brimming over with all sorts of useful advice for costuming and unless you're cosplaying some obscure Martian Webcomic Character that no one on Earth has ever heard of, you should have at least SOME luck finding advice from a person who's constructed it before....

I got the Anime/Manga Navigation page of my website done finally.

http://amethyst-angel.com/cosplay_animemanga.html

(Remember the Search Function now works too!)

Cosplay Website Update

dietzt@cloudnet.com — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:43:17 GMT

I'm still posting the gallery pages. I was delayed a bit when I found that my search engine didn't work (but that was because I had made multiple FreeFind accounts by mistake and had signed in under the wrong ID number.) Although none of the main page links work as of yet, you should be able to use the search box to look for a specific costume by name or series:

Click here to access the beginning of the gallery list

Sorry I've been so busy. I'm planning on attending CONvergence this weekend and I had a ton of Anime Expo items to finish, so I haven't had much time to talk. I don't know yet if I'll be wearing a costume to the con but I am helping others with theirs. I'm hoping I can get some business cards printed up to hand out. Although I've had all of this time, I kind of feel like I'm ill-prepared. I'm not even sure what to take to the convention. I'm pretty sure they won't have any ball joint doll enthusiasts there since that's more of a Japanese thing. I wanted to make something steampunky to fit in with the con theme but I didn't have time. I don't even have anything nice to wear--All I have are ratty T-shirts and baggy elastic pants--clothing designed for maximum comfort and disposability thanks to a messy day job. It would be nice if I still had my Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail T- Shirt, but I wore that to shreds years ago.

Local comic book reviewer Linkara is coming to the convention, so if you want to come and hang out with us (if you're in town and if you're a nice, not-crazy person) then you're welcome to do so. ^_^

OMIGOD. I can so totally relate to what Rarity in this episode is going through this week. Who would have thought I'd find relevant-to-my-grown-up-life wisdom in a show aimed at little girls?

WHY WEREN'T THESE KINDS OF CARTOONS ON WHEN I WAS A GIRL? All girl cartoon characters did in the '80s was throw tea parties and learn to share. Eff that. I want a cartoon that makes derpy people on Youtube comment boards argue about a lack of scientific, real world skepticism in a show that features magical unicorns and buildings made of clouds.