So, about the lack of updates...

This year, I've been horrible with updates.

See, I was supposed to be on the road to Blizzcon, yesterday. Costume done or not, this afternoon was the drop dead day. I was really hoping it would still happen, but it won't. I've been laid up too much to finish the costume, or even manage to post shots of it. I can barely walk in the hooves, forget dance, at this point.

Back around April, my health started taking a serious nose dive. I already have a chronic condition, but things went from manageable to worse and worse. It's somewhat managed again at this point, but I'm still in constant pain.

I got the call from my doctor's office late this afternoon. Absolutely no flying. Absolutely no going on long trips alone. Something showed up on the latest MRI, and they want to check with another specialist. Going on a long trip before they know what it is would be ill advised, to say the least.
And before anyone says cancer - no. It's not cancer. We are 100% positive it is not cancer or any form of cancer. And we're 99% certain it's not going to kill me now or even next year. But it is leaving me exhausted and in too much pain to even think about traveling.

So, not only will I not be in costume, I won't be able to attend Blizzcon at all. Unfortunately, even if I were able to attend, I'm forced to concede that I'd be unable to enjoy it. I'm just in too much pain; I wouldn't even be able to walk the convention hall.

I hate conceding defeat more than anything else, but I really don't have a choice. Hopefully, later in the year, when this is cleared up, I'll be able to finish up the costume.

Unfortunately, this was to be my last Blizzcon. I will not be attending Blizzcon 2010. I realized several key things. WoW is going in directions I do not agree with or like; WoW turned into a job; WoW just wasn't fun any more. Certainly, Blizzcon is about more than just Warcraft, but Warcraft is why I attended. (Sorry, I'm just not that into Starcraft or Diablo.)
This isn't to say I might not show up as a Tauren somewhere else, in the future. Certainly, I would like to - Cassinae is a wonderful character in so many ways. My muse truly blessed me with her. And someday, people will get to meet her in the flesh so to speak. Unfortunately, it will not be at Blizzcon.

Good luck out there. Hopefully I'll have something less depressing to post soon.

The Main Mane

My mane arrived from CosWorx this afternoon! I can't find my camera though, so pictures will have to wait till tomorrow.
For now, have a swatch.

The consumerism begins!

Vendor dump!

This year, the mane is being sourced from CosWorx since they now have pre-wefted extensions. (And excellent customer service! They didn't have the color I wanted listed, so they added it.) Epic mane is epic - four pounds of synthetic on it's way to my door.
This year's staff is coming from a friend, who hasn't sent me the link for the rest of you yet. It will be nothing short of "OMG OSSUM."
Much of the electronic components will be coming from Digi-Key. Highly recommended; I've done business with them for years. They have excellent customer service, and amazing stock, even for small orders.

Parts I'm still looking for include the fur - 4-way stretch short-pile has proven difficult to find, though not as bad as trying to color and texture match last year. I'm also trying to find smaller EL Panels that can be driven by battery pack. (I definitely do not need 60"x300ft!) Sadly, EL Wire looks like it can't handle the bends I need to do with it.

Also, I've changed the template of this blog. Hopefully this will make it easier to read. :)

Ticket Status

This year? This year was different.
Panic? Oh yes. Lots of panic. Many panic. Anxiety. Terror.

Both tickets are purchased and confirmed.

Arm your slash-moos.

Long time, no write!

Well. I kind of disappeared there after Blizzcon - you can thank work for that I'm afraid. Yes, I'm still alive. I just dove right into one giant rat's nest of problems and it never improved, sadly. As soon as I'd fix one, another would pop up to replace it. We finally went live on our upgrade, but I was already up to my eyeballs in planning our upgrades. Then?
Well. Last Friday, I was laid off. No warning, except the knowledge that the company was not doing so well overall. They decided to restructure IT, and being the newest hire, I was first - but not alone - on the chopping block. I can't say that anyone who's still there has any confidence in this restructuring doing anything but harm, but it's well out of my hands.

What does this mean for Blizzcon this year? Well.
Yes. I'm still the Cow Level. That's not changing. This year is going to be a different cow. This year will also involve far less real leather and fur, as it's hideously expensive and hard to work with. It will make up for this by employing electronics.
No. I'm not going to disclose much of anything yet. But it's now 3 months to Blizzcon (give or take a week or two!) so it's time to get cracking. This year, I plan to actually buy tickets instead of having to beg for them. ;) I may also be selling some various sewing things to help pay for expenses. Also, if possible, I plan to auction one or two tickets to help pay for expenses. Watch here for updates on all of that.

Updates will be slow in coming

Please let me apologize in advance here. This is due to circumstances out of my control. Otherwise known as the reasons why I can never, ever take vacations.

My coworker fell deathly ill - quite literally - on Friday night. There's only two of us covering the entire department. I got a voicemail from him this morning, and he'll be out for three to four weeks at least recovering. So I will be covering everything for that long.
Obviously, this will make it pretty damned hard to update you all on things, and get the last remnants of the trip itself sorted out. I'm dialed in to the office already as the urgent things start piling up.

This is why I can never take vacations.

I'm Home! 10/18/2008

It's official, they can turn out the lights at Blizzcon. The last person is finally home safe and sound.

Lory and I had a wonderful week in California, and a wonderful drive. I have various entries typed up on my laptop, but I'm too tired and sore to put them in tonight. Later on this week I'll put them up. We have over 8GB of photos from the trip.

For now, I'm tired. I'll be on AIM. imalamuya -at- gmail -dot- com is both my email and my AIM name.

Summary: Too many lines, really long drive back, had a blast, Amana, IA has awesome food, definitely try the Tangerine Chicken, Coco's is epic win, I need to drink more often, and don't stay at Motel 6 if you can afford better - realized after spending the night at one.

Hello from Utah, 10/8/08

For future reference, I70 through Utah? Avoid at night. Avoid period. "Damaged road" is a cheery way of saying "Bo and Luke ain't got SHIT on you after this. If you survive." "Frequent Deer and Elk Crossings" is "Dodge The Moving Animals," and you get real familiar with "Ranch Exit." Oh, and no services for over a hundred miles.

We're currently in Center City, UT, a touch past I70-I15. We'll be riding I15 the rest of the way into California, and I forget where it goes from there. Not much progress has been made on the costume.

I need to talk to Clover, and see how many gigs of room are available on blizzconphotos.com. I have about 3GB of hi res images from Colorado, which is some of the most beautiful travel in the world.

But for now, sleep.

Belated Update, 10/7/08

Last Thursday, the main joint between the face construction and the skull broke.

I'm writing this from Fort Morgan, Colorado. I've made every attempt to fix things, but those 5 days without power just ran down the clock too hard. It's unlikely that I'll be able to repair in time, or finish in time now. *sigh* Left on Saturday for Michigan, spent the night at my handler's, then made for points west. Day one ended in Des Moines, Iowa. Let me say two things; Motel 6 wireless sucks, Des Moines rebuilt really quickly, there is a fuckton of corn between Michigan and anywhere west, and if you do not make a point to stop in Amana, IA and stop at the Village Inn, I will personally warstomp you. And don't think I won't; I have hooves.

Trip has been rather uneventful, save driving through some nasty storms and rain. And finding out that most places in Iowa and Nebraska have never heard of 91+ Octane. My Regal is less than pleased with their Ethanol tainted fuel substitute. I will have to draw an illustration of what these farmers can do with their corn.

Might be in Anaheim by Wednesday. Post more when I have time.

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.

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. :(

Picture Update, 9/20/08

Descriptions not necessary.

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

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.

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.

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. :(

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.

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.

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. :(

Tenative Schedule and Update, 8/31/08

Schedule updated 9/1!

Lost almost an entire day's work to inconsiderate people who think they're above business processes. End result, they took down several mission critical systems completely, for going on 8 hours, and forced me to take four hours out of my day just to drive in, sit around waiting, then drive home. I am significantly less than pleased, yes. To say nothing of their whining that fixing it would take a while, because they had planned on doing things today - yes, and certainly I planned to spend my whole day fixing what they screwed up, right?

So, without further ado, our TENATIVE SCHEDULE OF APPEARANCES FOR BLIZZCON 2008! (All in costume unless otherwise noted. Dates and times subject to change. Your mileage may vary.)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9TH
Purple Blouse, Jeans or Slacks

• ~2:00PM-~4:00PM - Ticket Pickup
  Please do not ask for your picture while I am in line!
• ~2 hours after Ticket Pickup - Photography Opportunity, Anaheim Convention Center, North Entrance
  I will be available for photos in front of the North Entrance. Yes, I will pose with you.
  
• ~1 hour, evening - Anabella Hotel, Fountain Area
  Bring your own flash or lighting equipment. This will be a relatively short session.
  Likely to be after 8:00PM.
  

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10TH
Red Dress, Red and Gold Jacket, arriving after Denny's Raid.

• 11:00AM - 11:30AM - Blizzcon 2008 Floor
  I will have an area staked out for photographs on the Blizzcon 2008 Floor. Very short session. I will be leaving no later than 11:45. This is dependent on panels and costume contest length.
• ~1 hour - Anaheim Convention Center, East Entry - Kid's Shoot
  This is exclusively for parents and their children. Please note the ground rules well, you will not be permitted to join in if you don't. The rules are thus; children must be relatively well behaved, and must not pull on my costume or outfit. Please note that I cannot and will not hold younger children! Families are welcome, of course.
  
• After AIMcon Dinner - Blizzcon 2008 Floor
  I'll be available for on-the-spot photographs as I wander the floor. This is dependent on panel and concert schedule. Departing ~9:45 at the latest for afterparty.
  

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11TH 2008
Outfit Undecided, Arriving after Denny's Raid.

• ~1 hour, morning - Anaheim Convention Center, East Entry - Kid's Shoot
  This is exclusively for parents and their children. Please note the ground rules well, you will not be permitted to join in if you don't. The rules are thus; children must be relatively well behaved, and must not pull on my costume or outfit. Please note that I cannot and will not hold younger children! Families are welcome, of course.
• Evening - Blizzcon 2008 Floor
  I'll be available for on-the-spot photographs as I wander the floor. This is dependent on panel and concert schedule.
  I will be staying until convention close.
  

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12TH 2008
By Request.

• ~1-2 hours - The Aftershot!, Anabella Hotel
• ~1-2 hours - The Aftershot Continues!, Hilton and Marriot Hotels
• TBD - As Requested
  

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13TH 2008
By Request

• By request. I am available all day at this point in time.

See you all there!

Update, 8/29/08

Mostly stressing. Mostly mostly stressing. Still desperately need a ticket for my handler, but no such luck yet. Time's about to run out, so I honestly don't know what I'm going to do there. I can't go alone, doctor said "are you nuts? No." So, there it is.
Bodysuit is about 70% done on take three. The fur is not the problem, it's the padding that keeps screwing me up. Stitch it up, check it over, well crap it doesn't sit right. So, rip it out, do it again, repeat. Lots of glue, lots of thread, lots of cussing in frustration. And there isn't too much padding, it's the trick of making it look like there isn't ANY that's such a problem. I will get it though, oh yes I will. Because I have to. And because it is going to so be worth it. :)