epiic (SpookyElectric)

I'm in New Jersey. Will be till Thursday for Otakon.

My Fujitsu laptop died a few weeks ago, so I'm left with using my sister's older PowerBook G4. Gaah. 512M ram is barely enough for the way I do web browsing. So, I'll be getting even more out of date on reading LJs & blogs. And speed/memory are very inadequate for RAW photo processing. So, it seems I won't be doing anything with the thousands of photos I have to sort though until after Otakon. And probably won't be posting any until after SDCC. To hold you over, some eyecandy:


For Otakon, I don't have a scheduler per-se, but in general, my priorities are (in order):
1. Kanon Wakeshima Concert
2. Evangelion shoot(s) w/ Maria & Amelia
3. MELL Concert
4. Cross w/ Cloud 9
5. Any photos other people want

Hey...remember that con a few weeks ago in San Jose? I have more pictures!

( more Neo Angelique... )
Next set to get through will be wintressrain as Lilith from Anima Mundi

This past Saturday was a pretty lousy day, where something that was supposed to be less than 2hrs, ended up taking essentially the entire day due to everything imaginable not working right and then some. Sunday however was an excellent day. tsuzusushi came by for a late breakfast. We hung out a bit after. She was looking for pictures, so I took some. (the one I thought cutest, and a few others to the left / on flickr) Then yoshikochan came over, we had lunch, worked on cosplay (mostly electric waves girl from Furuba for her, Nyx for me), had dinner. Made decent headway I think for the time I spent on it. Though I probably should have spent more time.

This is partially a note to myself, but several of you may find it useful as well.

Exploring the FD today, I found a really expansive zipper store. They sell other fasteners and trimmings too, but they are primarily zipper oriented. Personally, this is exciting, because I was missing a place to rival NYC's Active Trimming Co (website, seems to be timing out... my catalog from them says 250 W39th, but google search says 247 W38th... so I guess one of those if they're still in business).

The LA place is Zip-Up Zipper: 829 Wall St., LA CA 90014 / http://zipupzipper.com

So, you you're looking for zippers with say a more unique pull to match Range Murata's designs or something, that seems to be the place to go in LA.

Unrelated, Pika Pika Light Painting Experiments. (discovered by a recent post from digikoomi)

Mitto.com: The best Safe, Secure, Buzzword, Synergy, Online, Web 2.0 Software as a Service for Password Management and Sharing and Ultimate Enlightenment
Mitto is my company, started as a spin-off of an internal project at my previous employer. We are now initiating a push to widen our user base beyond the initial testers. As such, I'd appreciate it if you took some time to check it out, and relay the message to anyone you know who may be interested. And if you want some random YouTube content to explore, watch Mitto commercials.

( A spiel on what Mitto does, what I do, etc )

Oh... and if you want free stuff, like Netflix, Southerwest, or Amazon gift certificates, you may be interested in out one-day only promotional contest. Get others to sign up and list your E-Mail address when they do, and you can win stuff.

Regularly scheduled programming of photos, cosplay, and random outings will resume when I get some more photos processed. I promise I won't spam again any time soon. On the subject of cosplay, I was meaning to visit FD Friday or Sunday, but neither worked out, so my next plan is visiting FD this Friday (or *possibly* Thursday). Anyone interested in meeting up? Maybe for lunch around there?

It seems pictures on my site had a weird pixel aspect ratio issue. So for some people, my pictures ended up looking stretched when opened in some software. The resize & label script has been revised with an extra step which solves that problem. (Not sure what caused it, but saving it as a different format & resaving as JPG fixes it) So, all future image should be fine, but if there are any already posted pictures that you had problems with, let me know, and I will re-save them for you.

No Neo Ange pics yet. Too busy. Enjoy tsuzusushi and her friends' Star Trek: TNG in the mean time.
( + )

Related to being busy, my company is looking for unpaid interns. Position is slightly technical - requires some basic understanding of HTML, but not much beyond that. Does require working in West LA, not telecommuting. If you think you might be interested, let me know, and I'll get you more info.

Also related to being busy, wintressrain is looking to coordinate some cosplay sewing parties before AX. First being this fri and/or sat (her post). Then possibly again around the 20th. Location would be in Corona. If you're interested, I guess post in her LJ, or let me know.

My desktop looks like this because I've been too lazy to change it, only stretched across too screens (also not feeling like taking a screen shot). My older desktop is more interesting.

wintressrain was bugging me about Fanime pictures. Waiting for stuff to recompile, I did this to hold her over.

(Shininess is playing around in post, not optical filters. I don't think this is a good picture. But I wanted to try out that Star Trek look, and this had suitable in-frame light sources. Not sure it makes any sense here. But might be cool for something sci-fi-ish, if anyone is interested in that sort of look.)

Neo Angelique shoot up in a week maybe.

While waiting, you should practice Spiderman para-para.

tweetychick630 completed a successful chimera.

Shana (Jessica) is now part moose.

SoCal Cosplay Spring Pictures

Picnic was fun. Arrived with wintressrain and dramaelf. Spent most of the time with them, tsuzusushi, krispy_kream, chiharu_octavia, legally_scarlet, hyper_sam, daoutlaw, and Jared/Erudito. And not nearly enough time with everyone else. And I think some people I managed to completely miss. (Sorry)

I wore my Last Exile mechanic uniform. Mostly since I felt everything else I had worn too much. And with that one I could get a tiny bit more sleep by skipping shaving. I'm amazed how many people recognized it. I think more than when I wore it to cons (~2003-2004).

Being a little burnt out from work, I wasn't feeling too inspired photography wise. So very few pictures. (Despite having three cameras) The cat is dramaelf's.

Trip back was a bit of an unwanted adventure. Plan to take the train kinda failed due to getting the train in the wrong direction. Thankfully wintressrain saved me by giving me a ride back. (Since there were no more trains North from where I got stuck.)

Next up - UCLA cosplay picnic tomorrow, and then something in San Jose all too soon.

( wtf... [warning: camera-nudity below the cut {oro...}] )

Vaguely related to pictures...Fanime!
(is too soon)

Who is looking for picture of what when? (I'd like to concentrate my picture taking to Friday as much as I can. Maybe Monday morning.)

(pics / write-up on SoCal Picnic in a few days.)

I bought a new camera today. I'll be visiting the Little Tokyo Cherry Blossom festival this Saturday to give it a spin. Hopefully encountering the rest of you who will be going there. I'm not sure when I'll be getting there, but probably not before noon. blueyeswhtdragn mentioned a pillow fight in Pershing square. May have to check that out too.
(Anyone visiting the Thai New Year event where x_angel_wings_x is performing on Sunday? *might* be up for that too if anyone else I know is going)


Unrelated, I'll be rooming w/ tsuzusushi at Fanime. But I still need to work out transportation to/from the con. Anyone driving up have some room in their vehicle?

Pictures from March Cosplay gatherings in SoCal
Note: I'd suggest slide show mode full screen, since that is set to now use larger images than you get just by clicking on the pictures.
( blah blah blah )

Abney Park is performing tomorrow (Thursday) night @ Knitting Factory @9pm. (or 8? I guess that's when the opening does their thing.) I just found out about this tonight. Anyone interested in going?

I heard about them from someone (one of you?) after they performed at The Edison sometime last year. They're a steampunk-themed band, which what I think is some cool music beyond the appealing gimmick-aspect. Example from YouTube.

Is anyone (cosplayers/photographers) planning on going to the park next Sunday (Mar 22)?
(If so, I'm pretty sure I won't go tomorrow, and will go next Sunday instead)

First, unrelated, anyone know any Shikabane Hime cosplayers? Just got into the series. Want to take pictures now. Basic summary: Cute zombie girls with guns in short skirts working with monks to fight other zombies. OP/ED themes by Angela, who did the awesome Stellvia music.

( Photographer Tag-teaming )
( Picking pictures... )
( Leveling Up )
( Crop... )


Side note - decided to make Katsucon Gallery "live", though it probably still has at least 25% more images than it should.

Side, side note / workstuff: Internet Explorer sucks. Including IE8.

I wouldn't be surprised is the word wastes billions of dollars supporting that piece of junk. Lost resources that could have been better spent on innovation. So, those of you who use it, stop, and let us developers spend our time on more useful things. ( Alternatives... )

PS: I plan to be at the park today (Saturday) & *maybe* Sunday. Probably arriving noon-ish. If I go Sunday, I'll be cosplaying that day, not Saturday.

Tonight I saw the documentary "Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara" with dramaelf at Royal/T. I've seen some of his art before, but aside from that wasn't really familiar with him. Now I really want to see one of his exhibits. Though I'm not sure he's making his "little houses" now that his "A to Z" tour is done.

What he did at each location was to build a unique "little house". They are like sheds or tree houses or shanties in construction, and built within the building housing the exhibit. You can view drawings and sculptures by looking into the houses, or in some cases walking into them. It's a really fascinating way (to me) to present the work.

Links to galleries that include pictures of/in the little houses:
http://www.stephenfriedman.com/index.php?pid=11&aid=15
http://www.tomiokoyamagallery.com/artists/nara/popup/B.html
http://www.blumandpoe.com/yoshitomonara/newworks.htm?index=2
http://www.blumandpoe.com/yoshitomonara/flip.htm?index=2
http://www.blumandpoe.com/nara08/index.htm (not exactly a "house"... but similar concept. And apparently in LA up until a couple weeks ago... wish I knew about this earlier)


In other news, the past several evenings there must be some sewage backing up or something because it smells really disgusting outside. eww. There seems to be some sewer-related work going on on Santa Monica Blvd and also Westwood Blvd at night. Maybe that has something to do with it.

(Link to full set after I hear back from some people)

( Report / select pictures of epiic win under cut )


Next: Balboa Park Hanami (Mar 7+8?) - one day as cosplayer (probably Ikki Yoneda), one day as photographer only.

Rant below. Summary: what to you guys think are my strong / weak points?
( Blah blah blah... )

Also... related to pictures... for Katsucon, a couple of you have asked me about pictures. Do you have any details about what days you'll be wearing what? (actually, that applies to everyone, not just those looking for pictures.)
And who is going exactly? I think _shiya_wind, animalboything, catwithoutagun, firelilycosplay, geronkizan, greylikeness, inuashley813, owldepot, piratess__, lazyartistgirl, nikolain, slave_to_anime, teddybeartensai, yumikoryuu, shiroin168, picaaa, solartempest, sephtastic, marhiihaa, envirion
And maybe hikaruchan, infinitywulf, muzek, amecandy, or not?
As for me, I'll be wearing Cross of Saturday. I'll also be wearing Suigintou, Shigure, and maybe Tamaki, but I'm not sure when. Depending upon how the location is I may be looking for Suigintou pics.
If any of you want my cell # to meet up at the con, let me know.

And related to camera gear... optics as fashion.

And related to image processing, there is a preview version of Bibble 5 (raw processor - similar in nature to Aperture/Lightroom) out. It's pretty buggy and very incomplete. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it until the next preview release. I suspect I won't have real full Bibble 5 until at least the summer :(
(No, I'm not interested in Aperture/Lightroom keys. I'm anti-software piracy, and I need something that will work in GNU/Linux and/or FreeBSD.)

A bunch of pictures are on my site
( Some highlights under the cut )

(no, that's not a composite, it's a single shot)

Also...
Fanime: Anyone have room space available?
Katsucon: Any of you looking for photos? (particularly non SoCal people)
Random: Got to play in real snow yesterday. Yay. Kinda hurt my left knee on the last run. Boo.

Bunch of photos on flickr
( Some ramblings & highlights Inside... )
...and the last photo I took that day:

ALA pictures someday...

PS: I think I'll be visiting FD Tuesday or Wednesday ~lunch-ish->afternoon, if anyone is interested in meeting.

Real photos won't be up for awhile. ALA was fun, but I'm pretty sick right now :(
( Con Report )
( silliness )