Apparently, I never actually posted any of the project to my blog. I shall remedy that presently!
WARNING: This is an image-heavy post! Images behind the cut.
Sep 192013
Aug 222011
Cannot run out of time. There is infinite time. You are finite. Zathras is finite. This…is wrong tool.
I have many, many projects that capture my interest. Writing is foremost among them, but so too are home improvement projects, costuming, digital art, web development, programming, learning to play the guitar, and so on. I often lament that I simply don’t have enough time to do all of that and my job and spend time with my wife and spend time with friends.
But that’s really a load of crap, isn’t it?
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Oct 152009
I’m excited about Halloween.
Cody and I have decided to pair as Dr. Horrible (her) and Captain Hammer (me). They’re simple costumes, so they don’t really fulfill that deep-seated need to construct something epic. However, they’re fun costumes that we can achieve with the time we have. Most of the attendees at the party we’re attending should recognize the outfits, which is a bonus.
So, that’s good news.
From a more long-term point of view, I did some reading up and I severely underestimated the utility of papier-mâché. I’ve been imagining a future filled with hot ABS plastic and noxious fiberglass-resin fumes because those seemed the only ways to get good, smooth, solid costume pieces. I’ve always thought of papier-mâché as crude and flimsy. In the form I used, it was. But that’s because I was only exploring part of it. Check out this guy.
It makes a lot of sense, if one pauses to think about it. At its most basic, papier-mâché is the same thing as fiberglass: fibers suspended in a glue. Paper is a lot stronger than one might give it credit for, too. Sure, we can rip paper by pulling nearby sections in opposite directions, but have you ever tried to tug on it from two opposite ends? It’ll give, but not without effort and usually local to the area where you’re pulling, not in the middle where the highest stress is. Paper’s strong stuff. Add glue to the mix and you’ve got a decent material—if you execute it correctly.
What’s more, the “strip” form is only one of the two ways to use papier-mâché. The other, using pulped paper, ends up as a clay-like material that can be molded and shaped however you want. Way more versatile. Layer something up with several layers of strips, work in detail with the clay form, and then waterseal it with lacquer of some kind and you’ve got a pretty formidable piece of hardware that’ll stand up to a good amount of weathering.
Get some fine-grained sandpaper to smooth it down, and you might, might have something on par with ABS plastic or fiberglass—as far as costuming goes, anyway—and at a fraction of the cost and risk (glass fibers can do terrible things to your lungs; where’s the risk in water, paper, and flour?).
Suffice it to say I plan to test out this hypothesis at the earliest opportunity. If it works, hoo boy. I shall become a costume making machine.
Jan 092009
It’s been a while, so it seemed high-time to talk about some of the things I’m working on.
Novel: Gold (tentative title)
This past November, I participated in and “won” NaNoWriMo by completing a 50,000 word manuscript. It’s the story of a young woman that wakes up in a strange, burning office with an unfamiliar voice in her head urging her to jump out of the window…to save her life. Once I completed it, I sent it to a number of people for a first review. I haven’t touched it since, taking the advice of Stephen King to let the first draft sit in a drawer for a while before returning to it. My parents have recently finished reading it and are going to be sending me their feedback this weekend. I’m still waiting to hear Cody and a few others’ thoughts as well. Once I have the combined feedback of everyone, I’ll set to work writing the second draft. My hope is to publish it sometime this summer.
Film: Wec: The Sequel
Wec 2 has been in stasis for a while, superceded by work, more immediate hobbies and diversions (Xbox games, Fallout 3, novel-writing, etc.). However, I do still plan to finish it. It’s hard to bring myself to work on it specifically because it’s a film that deals with an entirely different era of my life. I’m not that guy anymore, and so the movie’s personal relevance to me is greatly diminished. However, with Ron’s help, I still think the movie itself is salvagable and will actually be interesting. I recently showed Wec: The Movie to a co-worker of mine in preparation for a new project (see below), and I realized (again) how inane that first movie is. I want the second one, as silly as it is, to actually be enjoyable for more than the sheer lunacy value. I think it can be.
Film: Untitled Star Wars Fanfilm
I’ve played with the idea of doing a Star Wars fanfilm many times in the past. A few weeks ago, an image formed in my head that caused inspiration to strike: an X-wing, floating “hidden” behind an asteroid, and then maneuvering like a real spacefighter (a la BSG). This prompted the idea of creating a film based on a some X-wing pilots, in the vein of BSG. It would play with established SW conventions (i.e. X-wings would actually maneuver like space fighters) and make a more “hard” sci-fi version of Star Wars.
Co-worker and fellow SW fan Steve was intrigued by the idea when I told him about it and with a bit of convincing I’ve gotten him pretty enthused about the project. We recently asked Ron to help us with the writing, and the last week has had us working through the first draft of the treatment he wrote up for us. He’s now busily working on the second draft that Steve and I will use to write the first draft of the script. Once we’ve done that, it’ll go back to Ron for a dialog polish (George, why didn’t you do this?) and we’ll start material pre-production (set building, costumes, etc.). So far, the film will star Steve, Cody, and myself, along with a cameo by Steve’s wife and children.
Other Novels
I have several other novel ideas that have been banging around in my head, begging to be written.
- A mostly-hard science fiction novel dealing with the rammifications of space warfare after the advent of practical defense shields.
- A science fiction novel dealing with the setting that I’ve had in my head forever, first implemented in any practical form as the UEDF Illustrious Defender e-mail RPG.
- A sword-and-sorcery fantasy novel wherein a character joins a guild of assassins and uncovers a plot that led to her father’s murder.
There are more, but those three are the most fully-formed.
RPG: Vampire
At some point in the near future, I also plan to resume my Vampire game. I’m not totally sure when this will happen, though it is likely to take place on Saturday evenings. The timing is up in the air right now because many of the players are currently in unstable situations (as it pertains to regularly meeting on IRC, that is).
So, that’s about it from my neck of the woods. Going to be a busy year!