The Prop Blog

Happy Thanksgiving y'all.

2009-11-26T05:38:05Z

I had hoped to wait until I'd finished a few more projects, but ebay decided to have a special today whereby it allowed you to post 5 auctions with no insertion fees. So I've posted a few items here:

http://shop.ebay.com/aa_chan/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

(It was tough to do, what with me being down at my parent's house and all of my images and html editing software at home on my computer, so I'll try to polish up the auctions once I get back. If you have any questions about the items I'm offering, please let me know at dietzt@cloudnet.com.) Hope everybody has a happy holiday!

WANT.

2009-11-21T11:51:30Z

This is what I want for Christmas this year. Even though her head is big. Like, Nancy Reagan big. (Seriously, that woman always scared me when she came on the news.) I was thinking I could auction off the doll accessories I'm currently making or hold a raffle of some sort to be able to afford her. (Or I could just keep my money and use it to fix the million or so things wrong with my life OR buy a vacuum chamber for my resin casting which would probably do me a lot better in the long run.) But Christmas is a time for dreaming of impractical presents and I can think of none less practical than this so ... *shrug.*

I'm working extra hard because I want to get my regular projects done while making some doll stuff to sell on ebay. (This, while everyone still has their Christmas present spending money.) Sleep and I really haven't seen much of each other recently....

I received a notice from www.lulu.com saying Vol. 1 of my Prop and Armor compendium series had gone ker-flooey for some reason. (It was those dam data vampires from Dimension Q again, no doubt.) I reuploaded the book file and you should be able to order the softcover book again, if you wanted to do such a thing and weren't able to before. My webpages should all be working now, although I'll notice a broken image here and there that appears upon refreshing. (Don't know what that's about, but at least all of the links should work. I hope.)

How to Turn Your BJD into a Hipster Douche.

2009-11-16T12:15:03Z

1. Make him a miniature cabbie hat.
2. Make him tinted John Lennon glasses.

I managed to find the desolate corner of Crafts Direct where the colored plastic film sheets were being sold. I used said films to tint the mini-spectacles that I made today. (I also found out a way to apply a layer of shiny gold monokote to the outside of the lenses to give the illusion of gold wire rims.)

Along with my BJD's winter outfits (that I'm working on) I'm also making some extra things to sell on ebay at some indeterminate point in the future. (I've also had someone commission a hat and some other clothing items for their Weylin so...yay! I've got an excuse to work on doll stuff now!)

Glasses!

2009-11-14T12:17:37Z

I found some plastic doll spectacles while out fabric shopping today. These things are normally too huge for SD sized ball joint dolls but I discovered that you can easily grind the lenses down if you have a dremel tool with a sanding attachment. You can also make nosepads for the glasses using hotglue (this adds a touch of realism to the glasses and helps them stay on the bridge of your doll's nose:)

I think they turned out really well, considering. I'm thinking of getting more doll spectacles, resizing them and selling them at some point in the future. (Poor Rufus will have to endure looking like a nerd from now on. Sigh...)

It looks as though my site is working again. I still need to go through it all and fix any broken images that need fixing and I'll try to get that done in the near future. I'm still working on the pepakura armor tutorial (it's taking me forever to sand and spray those roundy parts of the helmet) and I want to post more prop pics here as well.

Oh, and I used to think that the craigslist.org Rants and Raves section was the damp, stinky-bum infested, urine-soaked back alley of the internet, but I'm starting to think that Youtube comment sections for political/history themed videos may in fact be worse. You want to see a festering, racist cesspit of stupid? Go to any video that mentions the dropping of the atomic bomb or the Holocaust. Even if most of the commenters are just trolling, why would you waste your time doing such a thing? Plant a tree, donate to a charity--do something USEFUL with your time. Stop wasting it on Youtube and polluting the world with your idiocy!

That is all.

Stuck in Internet Limbo

2009-11-10T10:13:20Z

I like to think I'm somewhat tech-savvy, but I have no idea what's going on with my websites now. I'm really really starting to wish I had just sucked it up and paid the hundred bucks to my old webserver provider, because moving to a new server (even one that only cost 1/3rd the price) just isn't proving to be worth the frustration and possible loss of business I've endured this past month. (I know you've all tried to help me with your advice, and I know that the problem might even resolve itself with a little time, but I'm just...really wishing that I hadn't changed things.) I'm guessing that the problem isn't with the new webspace itself, but rather, with the domain name transfer, which seems to have odd, random effects on those browsers that view my page. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to what you'll see when you click on my cosplay website at any given time. I noticed almost all of the images missing from my armormaking tutorial page--I checked and saw that not all of the images had made the transfer to the tutorial folder on my webspace. I've uploaded the images to the new webserver but it doesn't seem to have made a damn lick of difference. I don't know when or if my pages will ever start working again, but I'm not looking forward to having to remake my entire site if they don't..

I tried uploading some new costumes to my online gallery. Here they are:

Baiken from Guilty Gear

Rika from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni

Adult Princess Zelda from Ocarina of Time

The links and images should work since I uploaded them directly to the IP address. Oh, and the weather finally stopped being beastly long enough for me to take some scenic pictures of my ball joint dolls at Quarry park:

I made everything the dolls are wearing, including the sweaters:

I was originally going to try and make their sweaters myself from scratch but, after two days of frustration and several do-overs, I found myself staring at a crappily knitted, hole-filled piece of fabric that was about 3" x 1". This would not do. Fortunately, I discovered that you could make a pretty decent doll sweater by strategically cutting fabric from a full-size people sweater and serging the pieces together. (You need to use a sweater that's thin enough and has a small enough cable pattern so it doesn't look clunky on the doll.) I even had enough fabric left over to make a few extra sweaters and hats, so I'll probably be selling those on ebay pretty soon, once I catch up on my ongoing prop projects.

You can find more pictures from my doll photoshoot in this directory:

http://69.65.3.194/~dietzt01/dollpics/dollsweaterpics/

(Oh, and I'm still working on that handmade clay ball joint doll that I made all those molds for. I found out the neck depression wasn't deep enough to fit on the neck of other styles of dolls, and since I want people to be able to buy just the head if they want to, I have to fix that and then recast the whole head. Again. *Sigh.* I should have taken up a less exacting and mentally demanding hobby than jointed doll-making. Like Rocket Science.)

An Update

2009-11-09T19:55:50Z

It seems as though my domain name has been transferred finally, although a lot of my links and images just aren't working anymore. I'll have to sort this out and maybe do some recoding. I've been having connection issues as well for some reason but I'll try and stay current on everything.

Wool: Scourge of Mankind....

2009-11-05T06:48:38Z

Actually wool isn't that bad a fabric to work with. It's when you have to sew with it on your lap and it gets all scratchy and starts to overheat you that it gets annoying. And I'm already annoyed enough what with my website still not working properly. It's got until this time next week to shape up otherwise I'm going to have to throw another unintimidating internet tantrum (after which I'll probably grit my teeth and start recoding everything with grim, defeated resignation.) Sounds like a fun way to close out a week.

My Renaissance BJD Pavilion Auction ends tomorrow on the 5th. Here are some pictures of the tent:

Dolls not included of course. I also found some fancy hairclips while rummaging through some post-Halloween sales and found, after removing the clips, that they made pretty good doll wigs:

I may post these for sale on ebay in the near future. Gotta finish hand-sewing that wool coat that's been the bane of my existence for the past three days. Sigh. I'm also still working on that Pepakura armor tutorial (just trying to primer and sand the curved parts of the helmet) and I have some e-mail to answer. Please e-mail me at dietzt@cloudnet.com if you have any questions about the items I'm selling...

Aaaand I'm Down Again.....

2009-11-02T09:50:04Z

My website isn't working anymore. Again. I did get a confirmation e-mail from my new webhost saying that they registered my domain name so that's a hopeful sign anyway. Might take a few days before things start working again though. What I want to do is post a new tutorial I'm working on--I'm trying to make futuristic looking armor with Pepakura paper patterns, tagboard and styrene. (I'm hoping this will boost the demand for the styrene I'm selling.) I'm also trying to finish up some long-running projects that have been taking up space.

Here's the link to my current ebay auctions:
http://shop.ebay.com/aa_chan/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Hope everyone had a good Halloween. A friend gave me a huge bag of parade candy that he had been saving to pass out on Halloween. (Mmmm. 4 month old candy. I mean, YUCK, 4 month old candy. Except for those tiny tootsie roll toffies. Those are still good. Those are indestructable. In fact, I think they were all made in one big batch at the beginning of time and have been packaged and doled out to humanity slowly over the centuries. It wouldn't surprise me.)

I'M UP!!!

2009-10-31T10:57:31Z

That is, my website should be working now, as I've finally figured out how to change the nameservers with my current domain host. I thought at some point the process was going to involve my having to sacrifice a dozen black pullets to the Almighty Gods of Internet Bureaucracy, but thankfully all I had to do was skim some technobabble-loaded e-mails and punch a few keys. (I can't say that my websites are working absolutely perfectly yet, as I noticed a few links on my cosplay site not functioning as usual. I'll give it a few days for the whole domain situation to sort itself out before I start adding content again.)

Oh, and I've learned a sad but important lesson today. If you want to send something like this to Canada:

You probably want to send it via Registered Mail or some really uber-expensive, uber-trackable way because it WILL get stuck in customs for a month while panicky Canadian authorities try to figure out if you're a major arms dealer trying to flood their country with rusty machetes. (Have I mentioned that this Jason machete is plastic and has about as much chance of cutting your skin as a semi-melted marshmallow peep?) I suppose it does look rather menacing under an X-Ray but come on! How long does it take to determine that an object is plastic anyway? You'd think just lifting the package would be enough of a clue. Real metal knife = heavy. Plastic knife = light.

It just shows the danger of shipping realistic looking weapons across national borders. You would think that I would know this lesson by now, except that most of the weapons I typically make tend to look more like something produced by the Whammo! corporation than something you'd actually use to kill someone with. As such, Customs tends to ignore them.

I'm selling more stuff on ebay this week. (I broke down and listed my yaoi doujinshi and Zelda armor for sale and included some BJD stuff.) I also included a very expensive book on how to print comics, if you're the type of person who insists on doing it themselves and can make hide or hair of all the technojargon contained within. Here's my link to the auctions:

http://shop.ebay.com/aa_chan/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

And here's a slapdash yet instructive Youtube video showing what I've got for sale (yes, there's a video there despite what the blank black screen would have you believe):

Thank you Windows Movie Maker, for making this possible...

WHERE'D I GO???

2009-10-28T01:47:20Z

Well, my old webhost finally deleted my old webspace today. I had thought that, upon their doing so, my domain name would somehow magically transfer to my new webhost providers. After umpteen hours of waiting for it to do so, I began rooting through the confirmation/information e-mails my new webhost provided me with. It turns out the transferring process is a little more complicated than I thought it would be. And it will apparently take about 7 days for the transfer to take effect once I do jump through all of the necessary hoops.

Sigh.

So what do I do now? I've already uploaded all of my old pages and images to my new website. But none of my page links work and I can't even put a "HEY I MOVED!" message on my business website to let people know what happened. (A more appropriate message to post there would have been: "HEY! I'M A TECHNOLOGY-CHALLENGED DUNCE WHO THINKS THAT THE INTERNETS ARE A SERIES OF TUBES WITH ELVES INSIDE OF THEM WHO AUTOMATICALLY DO WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO WITHOUT YOU EVEN HAVING TO TELL THEM TO DO IT. I CAN COUNT TO POTATO! XDDDDDD!!!!!" )

Sigh.

So anyway, if you have any questions for me about anything, please let me know at dietzt@cloudnet.com. I hope to have everything up and running and functioning again as soon as possible.

Thanks!
Teresa (AA)

Change! You got chaaaaange!!?

2009-10-27T10:43:51Z

If you owe me money for anything, please send it to me asap as I need it after all the money I've recently spent on postage. I usually don't have a big problem collecting what I'm owed from people, but it seems that all of my current and potential clients have been hit with simultaneous, inconvenient financial disasters that prevent them from paying me what they owe for items I've made, (or which prevent them from sending me first payments for things that they've decided to order.) Said disasters also prevent me from getting angry with them because, hey, it wasn't their fault the government exercised eminent domain on their wealth and property and left them and their extended family standing on the side of the road dressed in barrels with suspenders on them. It happens, and I'm sympathetic; bad economy and all that. It must be better in other places around the world because I notice I'm getting more overseas business than ever before. Even Canada seems to be rolling in dough compared to us. (Thank you, American politicians and bankers, for screwing our economy over and for making a sandwich board with the words "I am Your 401k" painted on it the scariest Halloween costume of the season.)

I've been thinking of ebaying a few more things in the near future:

This is some styrene and foam Zelda : Twilight Princess armor that I originally made for a costume (which I wound up having to make a different set of armor for using a different method.) So basically this is an orphaned set of armor with no dress (How sad.)

I was planning on posting it to ebay for 35 bucks or so, but I didn't want it to interfere with my other Zelda auction running at the time--the Twilight Princess costume. (Which I've recently had to move to the Cosplay.com Marketplace after spending roughly half my weight in gold in ebay fees trying to unsuccessfully sell it.)

Another thing I'm thinking of selling is my doujinshi collection, including this:

It's "Chaotic Heaven," an extremely rare Yaoi Slayers doujinshi that goes for about 65-85 dollars on ebay. Since I don't want to give ebay a large cut of that money, I was hoping I could sell it to someone directly for 50 dollars. (I have other doujinshi too which will probably make it to ebay eventually. I also have decorative swords, gun replicas and a few other things that I'll post during a decent hour so people don't have to wait up until 5am to place their final, last few minute bids.)

I know this blog is rapidly turning into a forum where I desperately hawk the bright detritus of an older, more hopeful time in my life when I had a lot more money to buy this kind of cra--I mean, quality merchandise. I really wish I could post more prop construction-related stuff on this blog (like my experiments with pepakura patterns and vinyl embossing.) I also want to do more video tutorials (and that means setting up my webcam and hoping it doesn't make my operating system go kaboom again.)

I'm going through Cymbalta withdrawal which has me all emo and brainzappingly stabby right now. At least the sun decided to show its face for a couple of hours so I could go for a walk at Quarry Park. (I notice fall is noticeably less flashy there than it was a year ago although I might still be able to take some nice doll photos there if it ever dries out enough.)

Thanks, Will for the MagicJack! At least now I can call my family without having to enter 8000 different phonecard numbers into a phone and without sitting huddled next to the garbage can where the one working LAN phonejack is. Enjoy YoumaCon and let me know what it's like to bask in the warm fuzzy glow of geeky celebrity....

WHEELCHAIR KUNG FUUUUU!!!

2009-10-23T08:52:59Z

I think that says it all:

Bruce Campbell would be soooo awesome as the Wheelchair Guy in the live action version of this.

I think I've figured out how to upload pages to my new webspace. Whether my old links will continue working or not remains to be seen.

I'm BAAACK!

2009-10-22T10:47:43Z

What? You didn't know I was gone? Well, I had to go down to The Cities for a couple of days to pick up some project supplies, tour the local thrift stores, and pay a visit to the AX Man Surplus Store. (Imagine a place where all of the world's extra vacuum tubes, pill containers, rain gauges, electronics, gears, wagon wheels, test tubes, tools, oversized pencils, and those chintzy little plastic toys that you find in vending machines-- gather and congregate together. This is roughly what the Ax Man warehouse is like. Add some humorous signs, a layer of creative grime and a couple of hippie cashiers, and you have a more accurate picture.) I think it's a great place. Many's the time when I've thought to myself, "Hm. I want a calculator the size of my head. Where can I find one?" or "I want to build a demonic Teddy Ruxpin doll with a crying baby's head and red LED eyes for Halloween. Where can I buy the components for this?" Welp, if you want it and it's weird, the AX Man probably has it. (And no, I don't really plan on making a demonic Teddy Ruxpin. The regular version is bonechilling enough as it is. The clown from Poltergeist has NOTHING on that calm-eyed little bastard. Shudder...)

I've got e-mails to answer and I'll try to get that done as soon as I can. I want to clean my apartment too before the seasonal winter lethargy sinks in rendering me a mere catnap away from deep hibernation.

I'm Moving!

2009-10-17T09:00:22Z

My files to a new server! I hope! Thanks to everyone who offered advice on this matter--. I've canceled my old webspace account and set up a new cheaper one at (um... I forgot already), although I still haven't been able to upload anything to the new account yet. (Either because it isn't up and running, or because I can't figure out how to configure my ftp client.) I did transfer all of the folders on my old ftp account onto my computer, so I'm fervently hoping that when all is said and done, everything will end up in the right places. My site may go down for a few days (and the pictures on this blog may go AWOL) while I sort everything out. In the meantime, I've got lots of new project pictures to post--now would probably be a good time to upload them to my Cosplay.com and Cosplaylab albums, which I've been neglecting for awhile...

Oh, and, switching gears, long ago, I tried setting up a pattern wiki where people could look up useful commercial patterns for certain character costumes. Unfortunately, after uploading an EFFload of content, the site went haywire and started deleting everything. At first I thought it was vandals destroying my work, but when I checked the site's own action logs, I realized that it was editing itSELF like some demented, cosplay-hating AI. Creepy... I still think a pattern wiki would be a good idea. Does anyone know of a good free wiki program that DOESN'T self-edit into oblivion? (I still have all of the information I received from people for the old wiki in this thread and I could just re-post it onto the new site:)

http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=116969

All those hundreds of pictures that I edited and uploaded onto the old site are gone, gone, GONE though. **Shakes fist impotently at the cold indifferent Spectre of Technology** Begone Data Eating Vampires from Dimension Q! BEGONE I say!

HELP!!!!!

2009-10-13T23:48:03Z

It's that time of year once again. Time to pay for my webhosting. While checking my stats, I came to a disturbing conclusion: I only use about 3 percent of my alloted space and a fraction of my bandwidth.

Since I'm shelling out 95 dollars a year for something I only use a small portion of, I'm starting to feel a bit....burdened by this. What I would like---what I will NEED-- to do is allow other people to use my webspace, in exchange for a donation towards its cost. (In other words, I would like to sublet my webspace. I could probably get you your own domain name as well if you don't want to be affiliated with Mine. Seriously. I gotta stop dragging my feet and do something about this NOW. )

Oh, and there's a good chance my pictures may go offline for awhile until I get the whole bill thing figured out. Please please PLEASE, if you're interested in getting some webspace, let me know as soon as possible.

(Oh, and what happened to all that money I earned on ebay? Well, about 1/5th of it went back to ebay. The rest paid my rent. I need to pay off my car insurance, my e-mail server bill and my webspace bill this month so I'm reeeeeeally hurting for cash right now. If you owe me any, please send it to me asap.)

Thanks!

And now, to keep this entry from becoming a boring wall of text that you'll pay no attention to, I now present (in keeping with my current sense of hopefully temporary hopelessness:) the Most Pointless Machine Ever Devised!

Oh and thank you Youtube for arbitrarily forcing us to accept your Channels system. My fingers certainly are getting a lot of useful exercise making lots of extra clicks and scrolling movements in the places where only one was needed before. I love it when things are made harder to do. Really keeps the brain juices flowing. Thanks.

Halloween? Looks More Like Christmas.

2009-10-13T11:12:48Z

Sorry, I couldn't get a picture of the good inch of snow we had on the ground before it melted. It stayed longest on my car hood and, as I was digging for my scraper-squeegee and cleaning it off, I finally had to come to terms with the fact that yes, it was indeed Ragnarok; the Götterdämmerung had finally dawned upon us, Fenrir had consumed the sun and all would be darkness and chaos for the forseeable future.

Here in Minnesota, we call that "Monday"...

I've managed to do a lot of things with vinyl this past month, making smooth, future-y armor:

I'm using mostly styrene over a core/structure of craft foam, which I then coat with thin PVC. If I didn't have to pay for car insurance and webspace renewal this month, I could go over to JoAnn's and clear out their seasonal PVC fabrics (which are being heavily discounted about now.) I want to include a section on making vinyl armor in the next how-to book I'm working on (which is taking forever to get out. Heck, at this rate, I'll be the JD Salinger of self-published Geek Hobby DIY Guides in no time.)

I think I've answered all of the e-mail inquiries and advice that's I've received. If you've sent me something and have failed to get a reply, let me know so I can get one out to you.

Hiow To Tell That You Live in Minnesota

2009-10-10T06:23:01Z

Question 1 : Is it October 9th?

If the answer is correct, proceed to Question 2.

Question 2: Look outside the window. Is it doing this?

If the answer is yes, then you do indeed live in Minnesota. God have mercy on your soul.

I did manage to have a nice, if chilly, walk earlier today when the sun was shining. Quarry Park looks gorgeous, but I'm really really bummed about it being this frigid out. (Just one weekend of Indian Summer, weather gods. That's ALL I'm asking for...)

I should have at least 6 of my Halloween projects finished by Monday, should I manage to get nice enough weather to finish my painting. *Sigh.* I also have most of my ebay stuff sent out (although I don't know how to use ebay's shipping notification thingy so I'm being inundated with letters asking me if I've mailed anything out yet. I sent messages to these people via their regular e-mail--I would have thought THAT was enough to keep them informed, but apparently not.)

My sinuses were screaming this morning, so they probably knew the snow was coming long before I did. I'm not looking forward to bleaching and cleaning my humidifer since I haven't touched the thing in months (and forgot to clean it after the last time I used it. Ick.)

My resin dye arrived in the mail and I've been experimenting with it. I only wish it had come in a drip bottle so I could measure the dye out by the drop--trying to pour it into a tiny spoon or measuring cup is a bit bothersome and it's hard to keep from spilling it.

I'm going to dig around my kitchen and see if I can't find some soup. It's definitely a hot soup kind of night...

It's like the Munsters have moved in next door...

2009-10-04T21:45:07Z

...what with it being constantly gloomy and raining. Sure it puts me into the Halloween mood, but I sort of wanted to get some nice sunny autumn walking done in Quarry Park before Winter parked its heavy, big ol' white butt here. I can only wonder if I'll get the chance.

This might be the funniest thing I've even seen in my life:

My ebay auctions end tomorrow. I'm selling the last of my white spiked Kakashi/Hitsugaya wigs (and I'm fairly certain that it's the last one in existence since I think the company stopped making them.) So if you want one, now's the absolute last chance to get one. I believe I've gotten all of the world shipping snafus straightened out so hopefully I won't have any nasty surprises this time, cross muh fingers...

Hey, remember this thing?

2009-10-03T10:20:13Z

It's the ball-joint doll project that I've been working on for over a year now. A friend donated the cash I needed to buy some silicone and urethane and this is what I have to show for it so far. I have little experience and no vacuum chamber, so I figure this is about as good as I'll be able to do under the circumstances. (I had to remake the entire head and headcap molds twice and I'll probably have to redo the hands since the long nails I gave them refuse to cast correctly. God, I wish silicone wasn't so expensive so I could experiment with it more. Sigh. I started with half a gallon and now I'm almost out.) I've heard about services that will cast your doll for you, but you have to put a lot of money up front and I just don't have any. I'll keep plugging away at this project and hope it doesn't take another year to finish another part of the body. Sigh.....

Pluggity Pluggity....

2009-10-01T09:32:50Z

I made a movie about the latest round of ebay auctions ending Oct. 5:

I hate to be so commercial these days, but it has been a long time since I last cleaned my closets and put things up for sale, (so if I sell everything, you won't have to put up with this crap again for awhile.)

I am selling some computer software and memory cards from my early computer days (so if you've got an old machine or digital camera and need stuff that's compatible with them, you might find it useful.) If you're into makin' stuff like I am, you might like this XACTO Hobby Knife Kit I'm selling. It has a bevel cutter, a saw and some other stuff which I'm not really sure what it is. (I prefer knives with disposable snap-off blades myself, so it's little use to me, but if you're into cutting matboards, wood carving or anything else craftsy, you might like it.)

I've answered most of my e-mail. I think. I'll go over it again when I get the time. In the meantime, enjoying my new desk, although I wish I had a bigger monitor and higher seat. I feel so small tapping away in front of this monolith of a desk. Sigh.

Almost Done With Ebay Stuff.....

2009-09-28T23:03:19Z

Which is good, because I think ebay is trying to subtly drive me mad what with it randomly deleting descriptions after I write them up and click the "Continue" button. By the way, I did relist most of the stuff that didn't sell last week. (Some of the costumes and wigs I posted for lower prices, so it's definitely worth your time to check them out.) I also listed a few new items, mostly stuff I found while digging through my file cabinet. (I had to move said file cabinet to make way for the new Uberdesk I got for my computer.) Before I go into that subject, I'll just post a link to my latest round of auctions:

http://shop.ebay.com/aa_chan/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

BUY SOMETHIN WILL YA!

Anyway, it was an eventful week for me. I had to help a friend move to a new apartment and said friend gave me his old computer desk, which was a little worn but very wide, unlike my old computer desk which seemed to have been made for some sort of Pygmy dormitory where everyone has tiny Tyrannosaurus Rex hands and types at their keyboards all hunched over. I've got a lot of non-ebay, Halloween-related costume work to catch up on, but I should have enough time to get it all done.

Today's Youtube-related Random Goodness: How to Deal with a Tiny-Wienered Tough Guy Who Likes to Beat Up on His Girlfriend In Public:

Ebay Follies Part 2

2009-09-23T09:01:33Z

I managed to send off most of the ebay stuff I sold. Thank God most of my overseas buyers were understanding enough to pay the proper price for shipping. I can't say the same about the Ebay sellers I ran into on the Ebay Discussion Boards, most of whom thought I was an idiot or pulling some kind of scam. I understand that the big-time Ebay wheeler-dealers have to put up with a lot of dishonest and stupid crap (hence their suspicion and condescension,) but still, I think my point was and is valid--that Ebay's Worldwide Shipping drop menu form is prone to being misunderstood by casual users who are not used to it. (I only thought I was telling people that Worldwide shipping was AVAILABLE, not that it would only cost them $3.12 no matter where on the planet they happened to LIVE.) It was a stupid mistake, yes, but one that any one of you could have made if you had a lot of stuff to sell and were occupied with determining prices, writing copy, etc...

Anyway, I've still got a lot of stuff posted on ebay that I want to sell. Good stuff, like wigs, costumes and doll miniatures. Not a lot of it has been bid on so far so please take a look (and tell everyone you know who might be interested about my items.)

Like this one:

It's a KILT, Man! All you need to do is add a puffy shirt and you can dress up as.....a guy in a kilt.... wearing a puffy shirt....Yeah....

Ebay's Shipping Calculator Sucks Gorilla Testicles

2009-09-22T05:45:00Z

My first round of auctions are over. I thought it odd that most of my bidders were from overseas until I started getting payments from them and noted that they were sending me ludicrously small amounts for shipping. I soon realized that ebay's International Shipping calculator (accessible from every auction page) was set to "First Class International Mail: $3.12" no matter WHAT the location of the buyer was. (No wait. A couple of the Canadian buyers got off with paying only $1.75-_-) Unfortunately, this world is filled with people who are dim enough to believe that you could ship a 4 pound package halfway around the world for the price of a McDonald's sandwich, and I've had at least one threaten to pull out of their auction if I insist on them paying the true price for shipping. I've shot a letter filled with impotent, passive-aggressive nerdy rage to ebay about this and I expect an answer within 24-48 hours, but I'm not too hopeful. I expect it to be along the lines of "Oh, you didn't know how to set up your auction properly. Somehow (in a way we haven't quite figured out yet) this is all YOUR fault. Tough shit. I hope you enjoy being bent over the rocks and financially sodomized by your new foreign penpals. And don't forget to send us OUR cut if you have any money left over!"

You see why I have absolutely no trust in corporations these days?

I had to go through all of my still-active auctions and post a note begging out of the country bidders to write to me for an accurate shipping total. I guess I'm paranoid enough to NOT believe there could be people out there who fail to double-check something if it seems too good to be true (to be fair, there were a few buyers the last round who did, but such wisdom seems harder to come by these days.)

I blame MTV.

FIIIIINALLLYYYYY...

2009-09-18T08:48:27Z

I've got everything posted on ebay. Here's a sampling of my items and the sad, sad stories behind them:

Death Note DVD and Poster Package: Got this for winning Best in Show at AnimeDetour. I'm sure it's a good movie but as I could just Netflix it (and as I'm sure the box set has some intrinsic collector value to it,) I'd rather just sell it and use the money to buy material. (Because Lord knows, I don't have enough fabric lying around my house...)

Beautiful Short Red Wig: I originally bought this for my Queen Esther cosplay but when it arrived, I found the color was too hard to match hair extensions to. (I don't think I've ever seen a wig or extensions that are this exact color. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen this color anywhere in my whole life. It's the kind of color you'll only find in Schumacher-directed Batman movies. (That might frighten the wee out of you or intrigue you enough to buy the wig --in which case you'd better have some welder's goggles handy when you open the package.)

18mm Acrylic Doll Eyes-Bright Blue:Why can't I take a clear picture of these? Who's going to want to buy some blobby round things that they cannot see? (Please! Someone buy them so I don't have to spend another half an hour trying to focus my camera lens to the correct nano-millimeter needed to take a clear picture of them! )

A Mannequin Leg:I originally bought this hoping it would come in handy for my armormaking. Unfortunately, the leg is too skinny to make a proper leg form for most people (unless I wrap it in enough cotton batting to absorb the Atlantic Ocean.) It would make a good Halloween prop though. (Just dip it in some ketchup and pretend that you were out chainsawing hookers or something like that...)

Blue Hair Extensions: What is Kanekalon, anyway? I suppose it's to hair what French Resin is to BJDs or what Rich, Corinthian Leather is to...um...leather. It's something that's supposed to be really good, but when it comes right down to it, nobody really knows what it is or if it even exists outside of some marketing ploy. Anyway, this blue, kinky hair I've got is 100 percent Kanekalon. Therefore, you should buy it so you can feel superior to your pathetic, Kanekalon-deprived neighbors. (Watch them seethe and run away screaming with jealousy when they see you approach with THIS stuff tied to every available limb of your body and poking out of every orifice. Ha!)

Red Tartan Kilt: So I said to myself: SCREW trying to sell this plaid fabric that I bought for a costume but never used and have been trying to offload for the past year. I'm going to make a KILT! THAT'll bring in the bids!(Unfortunately, it's a Men's size small, and since most casual kilt wearers in this country are well into the morbidly obese body-mass index range, there's little hope that it will sell this round. If only I'd had more plaid, I could have made a bigger one. Sigh...)

InuYasha Costume: Yes, I wore this once and yes it comes with the wig. I've also posted the Sesshoumaru costume that I made for my friend (which HE only wore once.) Don't ask me to bring down the price on that costume--the kimono is 100 percent silk and it comes with a wig and sword. (I'll be losing money on it as it is...)

If you want to see all of the other items I've posted for sale, please click on the link below (and remember that some auctions start a couple of days later than others, so be sure to mark what times the items you want end.)

http://shop.ebay.com/aa_chan/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

Thanks for looking!

Ebay, Round One

2009-09-17T03:59:52Z

Just letting you know, I've posted a few things on ebay already.

http://shop.ebay.com/aa_chan/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

(I have a lot more stuff to post, including three costumes, which I'm busily preparing for sale. I'm adding some hand and machine embroidery to one of the costumes to gussy it up a bit, so that's what's taking so long. I hope to get everything posted by tomorrow, if all the stars are right and the gods of cosplay smile upon me...)