Sunday, September 28, 2008

Picture Update, 9/28/08 - 56K, run away.

Kilowords, etcetera. Too busy working, trying to catch up. Pictures. Have some. A bunch.


Album has more here.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Anyone out there...? Costuming emergency.

If anyone is...
I need a mane. Immediately. There was an issue getting the needed materials to the person who was going to do it; neither of our faults, but I just found out today. I urgently need a mane as a result, including the front braids. I have the measurements. I need this immediately, no later than Wednesday; I depart for Blizzcon Friday.

I hate to say it, but if I can't replace the mane.. I may not go. It will mean the Tauren is unfinished, and after all the excitement, I honestly don't think I could show myself. :(

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Picture Update, 9/20/08

Descriptions not necessary.


Yes, I can walk in them. Yes, I have the Tauren walk down.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

And we're back!

Still cleaning up things from days without power; 5 to be exact. They pulled a cute little stunt on us. Five trucks all day today, turned the power on to our block for 9 hours. Then after everyone had gotten home and started settling in, it went out again. As they tried to drive off.
Nothing quite like seeing people quite literally swarming into the street screaming and demanding answers. Had they turned off the power when requested on Sunday, we would not have been terrified of them turning on the power prior to today. They did not even secure the high voltage lines until yesterday, and apparently nearly killed themselves clearing the tree that had caused the damage in the process. Had they turned on the lines, it would have electrified quite a bit of fence and the telephone and cable lines as well.

Back to work. I have a lot of catching up to do, and not enough time to do it in.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

EMERGENCY: NEED HIGH LEVEL ASSISTANCE AT THE ILLUMINATING COMPANY

If you or your family or your friend works for FirstEnergy / The Illuminating Company, the outage on Baldwin/Wyleswood in Berea, Ohio needs escalated. It needs escalated until they get a truck out here tonight. Not tomorrow. Not the day after. Not this "after Friday" bullshit. TONIGHT. If I do not get power back in a REASONABLE amount of time, which is defined as nothing even remotely like what FirstEnergy is telling me I can expect - which is that we're being told to screw off period, our storm damage is beyond lowest priority, despite being one of the first called in, and just because we reported downed wires doesn't mean they'll actually do anything to make the area safe and secure. We currently have a very large maple or oak bough literally being held up by wires on a phone pole that saidsame tree snapped in half like a twig.

This may kill the Tauren. I can't work because I don't have electricity and I can't transport all the equipment. And I have nowhere to set up.

Don't believe the bullshit that they have all these customers offline; customers in far smaller groups, which had far more severe damage including destroyed phone poles and transformers were repaired and online by Monday evening. They are treating our neighborhood like third class citizens because we have complained on numerous occasions of frequent outages in the past, subpar service, and yes - outage repairs that go exactly like this. They delibereately ignored our line down reports repeatedly, and cleared our outage reports multiple times Sunday night and throughout the day Monday. I need someone with some authority, to get our neighborhood back online now.

Monday, September 15, 2008

You didn't need that electricity anyways... 9/15/08

Thanks to Ike, I now have no power. Yes, I'm in Cleveland Ohio. We got absolutely slammed by the remnants of Ike, to put it mildly. There are power poles down all over the place, trees, the works. A gas station even got it's canopy blown over. I've been told by FirstEnergy that it may be a week before I have power at home again, and it will be at least two days before they can even get someone out to just look at the power lines down behind our houses. More if the poles were damaged.
Despite the "oh gods, I'm going to die" I was actually on track, and confident I would finish in time. Right barely in the nick of time, but in time. Now, I am not so sure. I've been hand sewing the right glove, since it was necessary anyways, but I'm fast running out of glove. And everything else will require that I have power to work on, including the jacket, which is very nearly done. When the power went out, I was setting up the lining on my Bernina for the final stitches before tucking it inside. :(

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Quick Update, 9/14/08

Progress marginal. Left glove 90%, but alterations required. Right glove 40%, no alterations required yet. Body, 95%. Jacket, 98%. Dress, 0%. Purple Blouse, 5%. Slacks, 100%. Belt, need to go buy a belt. For the slacks.
Head still at whoknowswhere. The tail's done, but needs attached, which requires the body being done. Need head bust, but no luck to date. Head is now fully panic mode, but found a lot of weight to save. Enough that I may just be able to pull it off, now that I have SOMETHING to approximate keepout areas.

All travel arrangements are set. We are go for Oct 4th departure.

Back to work.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Picture Update, 9/6/08

Okay, yesterday was my QQ day. Today was a "okay, get back to work, you slacker" day.
So no QQ. Just pictures. Also, I need a new digital camera - I'd like a sort-of basic model, unless someone has something that takes Canon F lenses with or without an adapter under $500. Please send me recommendations! (All my friends with suggestions are pro or semi-pro, and I do not want an EOS 10D or whatever the $1500 body was.)


The #2 most expensive part of the costume; the gloves. Why #2? The boots came in at $$$$$, and did finally ship, it looks like. Was starting to get worried! Pictures next week, with luck. But the gloves? That's real suede and real Springbok there. Gloves just chew up usable fabric because of the complexity and shape of the cuts - I get two glove tops from half a Springbok. That puts the tops alone at $35 of material. Then, they chew up time and expensive thread. Dental floss, waxed thread, 12#, and they devour leather needles. I get a maximum of 4-5 feet of stitching out of one Schmetz 80/12 Leather needle at M1/2 on the 210. By comparison, I've gone through entire spools of thread on a single Universal or Stretch typically. The Evolve can't even touch this with the cutting blade down. The head is #4, as it uses scraps and remainders from the Springbok primarily. The slipcovers for the hooves are #3, as I get nearly to my knee from each Springbok, with a lot left over and almost zero waste.
In the meantime, take a look at some of the prototypes on my hands. They really feel quite nice, and they're amazingly functional - I'm typing in the all suede prototype #13, pictured after prototype #12 which was the final for pattern.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Updated, 9/5/08

Going to be very, very short. I am way behind. I am totally panicking. :(
Gloves are near to being ready for final cuts and sewing. I may have to hand sew the Springbok tops, which is a huge, huge problem because of how much time it takes. The body is going alright, but needs to be assembled, and I've run into a huge, huge problem with the #2 padding assembly on the shoulders. I may dump the shoulder padding completely as a result.
The head is still not even started, having so many ugly ugly problems with it. The gloves are going not so good too, after catching a fatal flaw in the pattern thankfully before cutting Springbok.

I need help with this so bad at this point. But for now, I'm just feeling sick. :(