Ramblings of a demented cat-dragon-thing

Leatherwork

2008-04-29T21:51:37Z

I'm currently working on a project, and the next step is going to be to create some leather armor and weapons holsters for the creation. I'm trying to do all of the work on this project myself, but does anyone have any suggestions on either good places to learn some of the techniques I will need or suggestions on doing the work itself?

The bulk of the work I need will be in terms of strapping for holding swords and other similar weapons in place, with some armor which should look more ornamental than functional.

Thanks!

Now, on the strike

2008-03-21T16:23:13Z

So, I just posted something with real content, and I admit I intentionally saved it for today to post. It's real content, and something I wanted to put up, which is why I am posting this independently. This is more "meta-content" in all reality.

Why? Like so many others have said, I find this "content strike" a complete joke. As far as I can tell, people are striking because any new accounts which don't want to pay for service have to have ads on their pages. Folks, I challenge you to find any service nearly as large as LJ which doesn't mandate ads of some form or require payment.

Folks, bandwidth doesn't come free, and a business account pays much more for it than we do at home, as it's expected they will nearly saturate their link all of the time. It's basic business. They have to make money, and you just can't do it with expenses but no income to balance it.

If they dropped all existing free accounts or no longer gave an option for ad-sponsored accounts, I could start to see some cause for protest, but they didn't do that. I have also seen some arguments that they should have taken this to the community before making the decision. While there might be some merit to that argument, personally, I've never looked at LJ in the view that I really have any control over the system as a whole. They are a business, and they will make decisions as benefit the business.

So is Google, Yahoo, Slashdot, MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and any other large Internet provider of any sort. Their directors have a (fiduciary, in the case of public companies) responsibility to ensure their business continues. That means they have to balance keeping their customers happy, but not TOO happy. I'd be MUCH more happy if the gas station down the street would let me get my gas for free, but they clearly can't let me be that happy, or they won't survive, nor do they consult their customers when they decide to change the price.

Like any business, in the space of "Blogging" systems, competition drives pricing and policy. If LJ really does become sufficiently customer-unfriendly, their income will suffer, and it won't be a result of a strike or any big public demonstration. It will be the slow bleed-off of customers. And, in all honesty, I don't think more than a handful of people will actually leave because of this policy.

I rarely post meta-content like this, so you'll likely not see it from me again. I wanted to get this off my chest, though.

Aeto, who paid for a permanent account years ago, and hasn't regretted it yet.

OK, Me too.

2007-05-04T02:45:36Z

So, I did the Daemon thing... I asked it to let you folks change it. So, if you're not sick of it, I'd love to see what it changes to with your votes of me. :>

On Becoming a Manticore

2007-01-24T02:49:25Z

Even though a bunch of people saw him, and (alas) figured out his identity at Midwest Furfest, Dar'Rushk made his formal debut this weekend at Further Confusion, so I can finally say that yes, that is my new costume.

And quite an experience it was...

Buying the commission...

Well over a year ago, I came to a realization, and that was that I wasn't likely to complete a fursuit any time soon. It's not a matter of ability, desire, or anything along those lines. Instead, it was purely an issue of finding the time to work on anything new. I work long hours at a stressful job, and when I get home, collapsing is by far the best option. Add to that working staff on FurCon (taking up much of the day on Saturday) and being on the feeding crew at a tiger sanctuary on Sundays, and there just wasn't enough time to build any new critters.

So I finally made the decision to bite the bullet and commission a costume. I took a different approach than most people, though; I decided on who was going to build the commission before even considering what I was going to have built. I came up with a list of half a dozen or so builders, focusing on people who worked on either highly realistic or highly artistic creations. One name filtered to the top of that list and stayed there through my decision. I was going to approach furtech to construct... Well, to construct something for me.

I knew that frysco has a couple of creations from Lance, and he and I speak regularly, so I let him in on the plans even before I'd spoken to Lance. He knew Lance's styles better than I, so I bounced ideas off him as I went through ideas of critters to have built. Early in the process, I decided to go with something from mythology, rather than a "natural" animal or something from anime/fiction/etc... I spent weeks scouring bestiaries online, looking for the right beast. I don't remember exactly, but somewhere in that process, either myself or Frysco stumbled on a picture of a Manticore, not quite traditional, but with a lion instead of human head. So, a few weeks before Further Confusion 2006, I had my builder in mind, a creature to create, and a deadline for completion: first preliminary viewing at MFF 2006, with the official debut at FC 2007.

At some point during the con, I pulled stopped by Lance's table in the dealer's room, and told him I'd like to to "talk about some potential business" with him over dinner. We agreed to meet Sunday night at Spencer's, and he, Frysco, and myself sat down over a wonderful steak dinner. </em>(Hint #1: When approaching someone for a big project, professionalism is key. "Business over meals" is common in the professional world, and leaves a good first impact on the other party, especially as the quality of the meal goes up.)</em> We left the meal with a handshake agreement, to be finalized once I got concept art into his hands.

Concept art...

Next up, I had to find the right artist to do the concept art. There are certainly no shortage of artists in the furry community who would happily take on such a commission, and Lance referred me to a few. As I searched for images of Manticores to help me try and visualize what I wanted, one image struck me as wonderfully rendered, with some subtle details which really could translate well to a bipedal, lion-headed beast. Almost as soon as I found the image, I contacted Britt Martin, the artist and asked if he would be willing to take on a commission to do three or four full-color pieces as concepts for the project. He found the project interesting, and we quickly agreed on the terms of the work, but he couldn't start for around a month, as he had another large project he had to finish first. I'd promised Lance the concept art sometime in April, so that wasn't an issue, and I had my concept art commissioned.

For the next month, I continued to research design details, for everything from coloration to tail design to whether or not he got wings (Lance and I had left that detail unresolved in the first meeting). Final decisions: more red than a real lion, but not really a bright-red, scorpion-style tail rather than a mammal tail with stinger at the end, and large, leathern wings not designed to extend, so we could go more with an artistic than mechanical look. (Hint #2: Design your concept to the builder. Lance is a wonderful artist, and by going with non-opening wings, he was able to take artistic liberties he couldn't take with ones which opened. It was a very intentional decision to not allow the wings to open, and I think makes the costume look better in the long run.)

As soon as he was finished with his other project, Britt started to send me some rough sketches of the concept. We spent a while detailing out how the tail merged into the body, how the tail would appear (being not quite an exact version of a scorpion, but a somewhat stylized version), the size of the wings, etc... Color pieces followed, and we spent a while hashing out the exact colors of the body, and finally the suite of concept art was completed. Britt was wonderful to work with, and I can't speak highly enough of his willingness to dig into the details of coloration, bone structure, and all other aspects of the creature. I'd explained to him how the false-digitigrade legs work, and he kept that in mind drawing the art, making sure it would work with a human body inside. (Hint #3: Even though the concept art only costs a fraction of what the completed costume costs, it's an all-important step in the process. Don't skimp on the art, or it will show in the final product.)

Finally starting the project...

Sometime in April (possibly the last day of the month), I emailed the full suite of concept art to Lance, we discussed some final details, and a week or so later, I got an envelope in the mail with a signed contract. I co-signed the contract, mailed it back to him, and the project was officially underway. (Hint #4: Contracts are your friend. Lance insisted on it, and had he not, I would have. I trust him and he trusts me, but it's just like the old saying, "Good fences make good neighbors." If there's a contract, there's no question on what the expectations are, and if there is any disagreement, there's something to resolve that disagreement.)

Before Lance could start any work, he needed measurements and a duct-tape dummy to get my exact sizing, since I live far away and in-person fittings are difficult. rcking got brought in on the project, and helped out with the dummy and taking a standard set of measurements. Those, too, got shipped off to Lance, and my enthusiasm for the project grew a few steps.

It was frighteningly difficult not to email Lance every day (hell, every hour) with a message asking, "how are things going now?" In any project of this scale, there's a ton of "slow work." By this, I mean the brainstorm of techniques, the acquisition of materials, and in a case like this, the work with National Fiber Technology for the custom fur used in the suit. Without Lance even having to tell me, I knew it would seem as if the project wasn't making any project for at least a month as these details worked themselves out.

A bit later, a FedEx box arrived on my front porch. In it were a bunch of fur samples with different details in the coloration, fur length, and even material of fur. I laid these out on my floor, took pictures of them all, and spent about a week examining them. Once I had the decisions made, I dropped an E-mail to Lance, the order went out with NFT, and finally, beyond all question, the project was "on."

As a side note, there was nothing quite as amazing as getting those 2 or 3" square fur samples, holding them, and suddenly realizing... They're stretchy! I probably spent five minutes with one of the samples I knew I wasn't going to select, just stretching the fur, and watching how it reacted. I so want to use that fur on a project of my own now, but am not about to do so on whatever I work on next. I haven't actually completed a full costume in at least 3 years, and the last thing I would do is start on something with thousands of dollars worth of fur now.

Delivery...

I keep referring to mailing or talking to "Lance" in making this project, but that's not really far. I'm really working with LX, Ltd. Lance works with a few other people, including Lynette, in Indiana, who does a lot of the design and tailoring of the body suits. Rather than ship the body back and forth before MFF (trust me, shipping this beast isn't cheap), Lance flew out to Indiana the week before MFF to do the final assembly with her. He couldn't make MFF due to a conflict, but the Wednesday before the con, she drove to my house in the Chicago suburbs, and we spent the evening doing the final fitting. In what seemed amazing to me, based only on a few measurements and a duct-tape dummy, the body fit like a glove. Even more amazingly, with nothing more than a cap measure, the head not only fits perfectly, but the tiny openings for the eyes line up exactly with my own. I still don't know how he did that bit of magic.

As Lynette carried the parts in and we laid them out on the floor of the living room, I suspect I was just looking down at them in a mix of awe and shock. I'd printed out 8x10's of the concept art on photo paper, and had them sitting next to where we were laying out the body. When I held up the head and compared it to the concept art, I know I stood in awe. The likeness was bordering on uncanny. (Remember what I said above in Hint #3???)

I put the costume on that night, pulled out one of the werewolf's swords, and did some poses in my living room. Somehow, I don't know how, I wasn't bouncing off the walls as I looked at myself in the mirror and in the pictures Lynette took. She left the next morning, without having to make a single adjustment to the fit, and I had to figure out how to get the beast onto site at MFF without being noticed.

The pre-debut debut...

Getting him into MFF was actually quite easy. I hid him in plain site. I had a box almost large enough for the wings, so I wrapped them in an old bedsheet and just carried them wrapped up making no attempt to hide them. I typically carry enough AV gear or stuff for my other suits onto site, me carrying big boxes is nothing unusual, so I don't think anyone noticed anything. Robert and Frysco helped me get into suit late Thursday night, and I did a quick walk-around the con. I didn't bring the sword, since that's a guaranteed way to reveal who I was, but the lack of anything to do with my hands added to the problem I was having of moving too much like my other costumes. Virtually everyone who saw me and who knows me well immediately figured out who I was. Thankfully, while they knew, as far as I know, everyone respected my desire to remain hidden until FC and I don't think anyone publicly posted who I was. I made a total of three trips out that weekend, each time growing more comfortable in the costume, and gradually becoming less "Aeto-ish" in my movements.

The official debut of the costume was slated for FC2007. This was for a few of reasons; first, the delivery of the suit was always listed as "due by FC2007, or by MFF2006 if possible." Lance made the MFF delivery, for which I am thankful beyond measure, but he could have missed it had things gotten overly busy. Second, I wanted a chance to wear the suit during less "visible" times. I tried to keep my outings at MFF away from big events (he didn't make the parade for example) so I could try and get a handle on the character the costume demands, as well as to be prepared for emergency retreat to my sleeping room should something unexpectedly fail in a catastrophic way. Finally, FC has always been my "home con," even if I live closer to MFF (by a few orders of magnitude). I'm not one of those who's been on staff there all 9 years, but I do have 7 years of staff work under my belt there now, 4 of which were on the exec staff. For better or worse, there's a certain loyalty there.

Further Confusion 2007...

I shipped the costume to the con ahead of time, by FedExing it to smashwolf's place, where it would be stored with all of the A/V gear to be used during the con. It arrived on the main stage Thursday night (technically Friday morning, probably), and I got a couple of final bits from Lance on Friday as the dealer's room opened. Further Confusion could have been a disaster for me; I was one of the two people running programming this year, and had any emergencies come up where I couldn't make it out in costume, I think I would have popped. Luckily Fyx, my co-director of programming took over much of the time, and I was able to be derelict in my duties and turn into some horrible beast from your worst nightmares (or, perhaps best fantasies, depending on who you are). I figure I spent around 10 hours throughout the weekend wandering the halls as Dar'Rushk, and another few in costume in connection to the Masquerade, in which he competed.

Inherently, I don't like masquerades. Or, more correctly, I don't like competing in them. I love managing or (especially) MC'ing them, but not participating as a competitor. I never did a good job MC'ing at FC, though, as the con duties I had prevented me from really giving MC'ing the FVS the attention it deserved, and I was eventually not asked back to do so (a decision which was entirely correct on the part of the director), so this was my first time on stage at FC in a few years. Given how much I do on stage at MFF as well as one bit of MC'ing at Eurofurence (let me know if you folks want me back for that! I *LOVE* doing that kind of thing!), I was surprised when, the night before, I couldn't sleep a wink, because of nerves. I was very dry and uninspired on stage I am sure, but the costume took first place in the professional division. Frysco, who was as active and involved in the costume on stage as I was unconnected, took Best of Show.

I did finally find the character briefly during the weekend. I was back to traditional Aeto moves at the time, but modified enough (I hope) to give the character some uniqueness from my others. After the fursuit parade, we met up at the convention entrance. After the huge group photo (287 fursuits, as the final tally!), the critters started to scatter, but I wondered over to LindZ's robotic giraffe (if you didn't see it, you missed something quite impressive). Reaching up, I played "cat swatting a toy," and LindZ played along, lowering the head down. I spent a few minutes circling it, examining it, trying to move to the beat of the music playing. I knew as I moved there was a circle around me, tons of cameras going, and I didn't want to completely hog the spotlight, so moved off.

Alas, as I did, CatCoon was there, waiting for me. For some reason, whenever we meet, we get into a fight. I raised my staff, he raised his (fake) sword, and we circled for a few moments, with some bit of music playing in the background perfectly suited to that sort of combat. If anything, with the two of us fighting, we were more in the spotlight than before, and it felt like the "combat" went on for 5 or 10 minutes. As we circled, I fell more and more into the feel of the suit, and I could tell how the wings and tail moved as I did. As the truce fell (which always seemed to happen), I turned to the giraffe, trying to mount a group attack on it, but I think the CatCoon chickened out on attacking something so big and scary. (I assume everyone reading this realizes the "fight" is impromptu stage combat. It started with the werewolf character at the first Eurofurence I attended, I believe, but since then, we can't meet without dropping into that staged combat. It's about the same thing every time, but I feel like I am getting better and more convincing in my movements every time it happens.)

The reward...

Presenting the costume at Further Confusion was every bit as emotionally rewarding as the very first time I walked out in costume. I certainly have the feel that this wasn't just a costume at the con, but was, at least to a fair selection of the attendees, the costume of the con. To this day, when I look at it, or at myself wearing it in a mirror, I can't believe my eyes. From the first gleam of a project in my mind to the final, public debut of the suit was something like 16 months, and I'll tell everyone reading this, keeping myself from giving hints that something was being built for me, even leaving out what it was or who was building took every bit of willpower I have. When people were talking about it after MFF, keeping myself from replying to those posts, even if they knew it was me was no less difficult. The day I walked onto site at FC, the secret was officially done. My staff badge had a picture of the character on it, and a couple people walked up to me, saw it, and asked, "so that means it's not secret any more, right?" To be able to answer that it wasn't secret, and actually talk about the costume to people felt wonderful.

Con duties kept me busy most of the day, but when I finally grabbed Frysco, dragged him up to the room, radioed con-ops the "Events 1 was off radio for a few hours," and got into costume, the rewards of seeing the reactions, hearing lots of "yeah, I heard about this from MFF, but didn't see it / wasn't there / etc..." and generally watching people's jaws drop was a bigger reward than I would have ever imagined 16 months ago.

I was unsure about how I'd feel about a commissioned costume when I started the process of getting the commission. I'm still not sure; when people give me compliments, I feel very self-conscious. I want to always say, "I didn't make this, compliment Lance." I do say that at times, when someone sees me in human form and comments on it, but you can't when you're out performing. More than any other costume, I almost feel guilty if I don't give the level of performance (be it on stage or in hallways) this moving work of art deserves. As I get used to the suit, I know I get better, though. I'll tell anyone now, there's nothing like wearing a costume like this, even if you didn't build it yourself. To Lance and Lynette, I can only say, I feel honored to be able to wear Dar'Rushk, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. He's a masterpiece, and I think you've outdone yourselves.

If I had to do it all over again knowing what I know now, would I repeat a commission like this? Absolutely. It's more than just given me a costume which I can wear with a level of pride I can barely put words to, but it's brought back my enthusiasm for costuming in a way nothing else could. I'm actually thinking now, "I should make the time to go down into the shop and work on things." He's giving me the inspiration I've been looking for so long.

Pictures of the suit are online at http://aeto.chameleon.net/main.php/v/manticore. I'm setting up a place there to upload pictures you have, and I'd LOVE to see anything you have of him. Oh, and Jeryc, I MUST have a copy of the video you took of CatCoon and myself!!! Similarly, his accessories have a general scorpion theme. If anyone knows of anything scorpion-based which would look good on him, don't hesitate to make suggestions.

I think you need a hint

2007-01-10T14:55:19Z

While some of the guesses were quite entertaining, I think you all need another hint... One person did get quite close, though!

Here's one of those green things in use.

Look what I just fixed!

2007-01-09T03:59:19Z

I just repaired these two objects. Anyone care to guess what they are?

In regards to Katrina

2005-08-29T01:25:34Z

By now, everyone has seen or heard this. My comment to someone else is worth repeating, I think, keeping in mind I work as a meteorologist / weather analyst.

I got to spend all day today at work, issuing forecasts on this storm to our company, answering questions, etc...

When out team of mets saw that come over the wire, it floored us. NWS just doesn't issue statements like that. A couple of the senior guys, who have worked dozens of hurricane seasons, have never seen anything like that come from NWS.

As we read it, the most frightening thing was that we all looked at each other, and said, "the bad thing is, I don't think they are being over-sensational." If it takes one of the "doomsday" paths, there won't be a hell of a lot left of the city.

This is just no good.

---

I'm on duty until 1 or 2 AM tomorrow morning (from home now, at least). This storm is unprecidented; nothing like this has made US landfall. The New Orleans "doomsday" scenario (which drops the entire city under 30+ feet of water) is within the 12-hour error radius. The entire Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production is shut down now. Oil is over $70/bbl, gas over $10/Bcf. There will be damaged and even missing platforms. There probably already ARE damaged or missing platforms, we just don't know about them yet.

People are holding Hurricane Parties in the French Quarter. There's a reasonable chance most of these people will be dead in less than 12 hours.

It's too late to hope there won't be serious loss of property and life. It's not too late to hope to keep the doomsday scenario away, true, but the best thing to hope for is, once everything has passed, that we find sanity *somewhere* and recover as best we can. If you live anywhere in the US, this WILL impact you, from everything from people you know to how much you pay for gas and electricity.

And for anyone in New Orleans, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope you've already gotten the hell out.

--

EDIT: It's 9:00 CDT, and it looks like an eyewall replacement cycle looks like it may be starting. This COULD drop it a category, which may help quite a bit.

How much does all your stuff weigh?

2003-09-06T00:36:16Z

According to the movers, all my stuff (not counting me, my car, or the stuff which will go in there), my stuff weighs 4,400 lbs. So that means there are 4,400 lbs of Aeto-stuffs in a truck, somewhere between here and Chicago, as I type this. Seeing as they left with my stuff only a couple hours ago, I suspect it's much closer to here than it is to Chicago.

So now, my bedroom is completely stuff-free. Well, it's stuff-free, so long as you don't count all the trash on the floor as "stuff." The movers did all of the packing for me ("We have to, for insurance reasons."), so every now and then I find little bits of stuff mixed in with the trash which should have gotten packed. ("OK, what was special about this aquarium filter that they decided not to pack it, but they packed all the rest?!?") The movers tagged all of the boxes with barcodes, and scanned all of them in, indicating the contents so I could get a printout of which bits of my stuff are in which boxes. Given that, I know that my 4,400 lbs of stuff fit in 68 boxes and one crate, plus a few things they didn't bother boxing, but just tagged directly. (Somewhere in a warehouse until I move into my new place in Chicago will be a life-sized me with a little barcode on it! I wonder what they will think.)

It's odd to look around the house, and realize that other than the laptop and occasional things I realize I should have packed, nothing here is mine. Over two tons of stuff just left the house today, and in just a couple of days, I'll be following it. I love the bay area, and yet, I am leaving. I got a call last night from a company out here who I'd spoken with before, and was talking about a salary close to what the Chicago company is offering, who wanted to talk to me again, but it's too late now. I was so close to saying no, and will probably always wonder if I should have taken this offer or not. This is the first move I have made in my life where I wasn't sure it was what I wanted to do, so it's been the hardest. Ask me again in a year. Or two.

BTW, my ETA in Chicago is now Friday night. I am trying to push it up a bit, if I can do the drive in few enough days, but we'll see if I can make that, or still arrive Saturday. It also depends on how long I want to visit the cats up at Tiger Touch; this is the last chance I'll get to see them for a while. If I get semi-settled by Sunday, maybe I could have some folks over for dinner or something...

Moving to Chicago

2003-09-02T07:00:17Z

Well, I finally succomed, and got the LJ account, largely because I'm moving to Chicago, and it seems most of the planning of parties, BBQ's, etc... of the folks around there happen via LJ. I'm not really the "journal" type of person, so I'll stick to just the facts, ma'am.

My schedule for the trip out is as follows:

Sept 7: Depart Fremont, for Tiger Touch in Fallon, NV.
Sept 8, 9: Spend the day with the cats. Possibly my last "regular" visit to the kitty friends.
Sept 10: Depart Fallon, for Chicago, IL.
Sept 12 or 13: Arrival in Chicago, living downtown.

I'll be in corporate housing downtown for a month or so, by which time I should have my own place to live. Still debating between renting and buying, though with interest rates so low, buying is looking really good. Right now, I am looking closest at Winnetka, though am by no means fixed on that community.

Well, that's my plan...