Der Feuervogel aufersteht.

Finished sorting all the things from Shatterdome ATL 2 (jaeger boogaloo) and repacking things for Ben's brother's wedding, for which we will be traveling longer than it takes to get to Europe yet not leaving the country.

The wedding is on Orcas Island, which is a 2-hour ferry from somewhere in the Seattle area, and the ferry station is a 2-3 hour drive from the airport. Then we have to get from the ferry to the resort. I seriously do not understand how anyone can live on a remote-ass place like that. I feel isolated in my semi-suburban town on the edge of a moderate metropolitan area.

So we're leaving here at 8:25 am and getting to Seattle at 1:25 pm local, then our ferry leaves at 7:20 or something. At least we'll have time to pick up some food for lunch-dinner when we get there. We only need to be at the ferry port 90 minutes beforehand.

What I have left to do today is clean the cats' water fountain and paint my nails. Then I need to pack my toiletries and other carry-on things in the morning.

Also, I registered for class at UNC this fall, where I'm taking Russian 101. Whee! I can get 2 semesters in before I start at UGA (if I'm accepted). ... I need to work on my application materials, but I'll do that after I get back from the wedding.

So, Ben and I are planning to do drive suits for the Kaidonovskys for DragonCon.

DragonCon is in 42 days. Neither of us has ever built armor before. We've looked at a few tutorials online and talked to a local guy (who is sweet but kinda flaky) who has a lot of experience with it. He's supposed to help us out, but god knows.

Here's what we need to do (in approximate timeline order):

- acquire (more?) blue masking tape and possibly more duct tape.
- draft all (remaining) pattern pieces (8-10 hours, July 19-20)
- figure out what we're going to use for the suits they wear under the armor (underarmour or other sport leggings/tops? look for Russian surplus at Sid's?) (by July 26)
- order Ben's wig and restyle mine; style Ben's wig when it arrives (find card with which wig to order written on it; it's on my desk)
- get hardware (1/8" jacks, bolts, etc) from Radio Shack and/or Home Depot (July 26-27)
- get a dremel and a good box fan, oh and probably a workbench would be useful
- get contact cement & paint & Bondo
- cut, glue, mold, & paint foam (August 1-23, at least 60 hours; this will probably involve some weeknight work.)

I was in Artist Alley sometime in the early afternoon when one of the artists said, "Hey, Rob Kazinsky just tweeted that he's in Atlanta. We should tweet at him." I said, "Sure, go ahead," thinking pretty much that he a) wouldn't see the tweets and/or b) wouldn't come.

I didn't think about it much, except when I ran into other staff who said, "did you hear he's in Atlanta?" I had things to do (I had to sort things; I'm good at that), and didn't think about it again.

I was finishing pre-judging the costume contest when I heard the sound of fangirl squee in the hall. Ben said, "I think Rob Kazinsky just showed up." I turned to my fellow judges and said, "Let's ask Rob if he wants to judge the costume contest."

Some part of my brain said, "Oh shit they're going to mob the poor bastard." Another part of my brain said, "My entire security and ops staff work Dragon Con. They've got this." I get into the hallway, and, indeed, they had this.

We escorted Rob back into the room where we'd judged the costumes to come up with categories. He signed the award certificates *and* the posters we gave out as prizes. He did a little Q&A, then we made a group photo.

We used our staff privilege to get private photos.

Also, we sold over 20 badges at the door. Go us.

It's coming soon. Like 21 days soon.

We have a tentative schedule. We have badge art. We have -$1000 because our expenses are more than our income.

And I think it'd be fun to do this again.

I want to cosplay Sasha Kaidonovsky at DragonCon. (If you've seen my tumblr lately...)

DragonCon starts in 18 days.

I need to find a wig and a reference photo of her pants. I can find one of her top half (black shirt, coat), but not the full body. I saw the movie again last night, and I noticed her wearing tan pants that were fairly fitted, but it was like 2 seconds. (I think I took my tan jeans to the thrift shop last year; they didn't fit right anyway.)

I can tuck the pants into my Docs, but I need to find pants to use. I've been meaning to order one of these for a while (PCN allergy, on meds), and I could use that as a costume dog tag as long as no one looks too closely.

I was thinking of running down to Carrboro to hit up Sid's, but it's too hot to contemplate trying on coats in an un-air-conditioned tiny space jammed with stuff. (If you've never been to Sid's, imagine a 20x50' room where 80% of it is taken up with clothing racks and the rest is display cases of random and MREs.)

I found the coat I wore in college, and it's just about perfect. Except for the part where it's a winter coat, and I'm going to Atlanta in August. (It'll be nice in the panel rooms...) But I can take it apart, remove the insulation parts, and make the arms more fitted (which will involve adjusting the armscye, and oh god). And add some fake fur to the collar.

But I have this German military surplus jacket I got in high school that fits better, but the collar is wrong and I'd need to do surgery on it (remove the name tag and the little flags, for one). And it has fewer pockets.

Also I need to acquire a wig and learn how to style it. This one will work, and I've ordered from them before. I'm just concerned that Giant Emo Bang will be impossible to wrangle back. This one could also be good, but the bangs are too short.

Also there's some sort of design on the back of their jackets that is in absolutely no reference images anywhere :( According to the actress, it's made entirely of gold safety pins.