Utini's Workshop: 2008

Monday, November 3, 2008

DragonCon 2008 - Video Bonus

I came across a few little clips I'd intended to post after Dragon, so here they are. I had another set of pics I'd intended to post, too, and maybe I'll get a link up for that soon since I'm not sure I want to do another DCon post.

Melissa at DragonCon

Random DragonCon Belly Dancers

Singing Tesla Coils at the Mad Scientist's Ball

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Bandwidth Limit Approached!

Hells ya!
Never got one before, but I got notice from photobucket that I'm approaching my monthly bandwidth limit. Y'all must be eatin' up some pics. Hit counter down there's been going crazy, too. This pleases Utini.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Flames of War Mini Tournament!

Maybe I'll write something about it later, but I took 2nd place with two 6-1s and a 2-5 loss. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon. Here are the two shitty pics I took with my camera (I took the wrong camera bag to the shop, and its batteries were dead) and a link to the forrum post where Caesar posted his:

Steel City Crucible write up

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Desirable Skills

I'm inventing a new hobby.

With all the ways the world could end at any given moment -- gas crisis, financial collapse, unending war, zombies, global warming, the list goes on and on -- something's gonna give at some point and we'll all be in the crapper. I'm not saying this is a certainty, or that I know how it will all fall apart. But I do know that sh|t is wierd enough at this point that if you don't get ready for it and it does hit the fan, y'all are gonna feel pretty friggin' stupid. And it won't really matter how it ends or what causes it, over is over.

So, given the inevitability of our suspiciously delayed doom, I'd say we've got some work to do. Everyone knows all the physical preparations required to survive the apocalypse (conventional wisdom seems to indicate that a shot gun and a back pack full of MREs should more than suffice, and who am I to argue?) but who's skill set is up to date? We all know the van will be better off with a little extra armor, but do you know how to weld? We'd all love a cache of AK-47s buried out in the woods, but do you know how to properly store them?

I sure don't.

When I got thinking along these lines, I realized there was a whole laundry list of skills I'd always meant to learn how to do, and never had. These aren't skills that are important for day-to-day living -- if they were, we'd all know how to do them. But if it ever comes up, I'm going to be glad I learned how to (for instance) evaporate salt water and trap the vapors for something to drink. Ya, we've all heard that one. You ever try it? Me, neither.

So, I think its high time to Level Up. Screw Warcraft, I'm going to level up ME. In real life, with actual skills. I don't need to be an expert, and neither do you. I don't mean to spend a year becoming a certified welder, but I'd like to be able to up armor the van, right? And these don't all need to be survivalist skills, either, just anything interesting but non-essential that I should have learned to do while growing up, but didn't. I'm going to make up a list of Interesting and Desirable Skills, and go out and learn them at at least some basic level. I will call this my new hobby, and I'm encouraging others to try it.

If nothing else, this could be fun at parties.

So, here's my list:

Desirable Skills:

Constelation/Star identification and recognition
Astral Navigation (navigation via star recognition)
Map and Compass navigation (ya, I can hike with a map, but...)
Juggling
lock picking
hotwire a car
collect drinkable water
knot tieing, Navy style
welding
electrical soldering
lip reading
trip wires and traps
clean small game animals
CPR/First Aid
make fire without matches
use my sling accurately
firearm cleaning and storage

So, that's my list. I haven't made much progess on it yet, but I just dreamed this up over the weekend. I DID learn how to tell North with a stick, though, so that's a start.

What's on your list?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

DragonCon2008 - Costumes: misc. pt.2

EDIT: Unless I misread my admin pages, I somehow forgot to actually post this back in the day, so here it is, out of "Draft," mode, and onto the blog. Where it may already have been, who knows.

OK, so this obviously ended up getting split into two posts.... and I'll start this one with the cutest little cat girl you ever did see.

And just to be sure you don't think its all sunshine and daises over here, this girl has seriously fucked up some very early memories of mine about what makes a woman sexy!

This is one of my favorite pics, from this or any other DragonCon:

I love the idea of an ape visiting from another planet and checking his camera, because the folks back home are never gonna believe this shit.

Crazy CyberPunk Wings
OK, I've never really spoken with them, but I see these guys all the time at cons. And she's always wearing some crazy ass wings. But this set of wings just kicked all kinda of ass. First off, they moved. The wings were articulated to fold up or spread out. Also, those aren't glairs or hot spots on the camera, there were lights at the end of each wing tip. Cool stuff, y'all.

I was looking at the wings. Honest.

G.I. Joe

You've got to love this: two moms in matching costumes with two sons in matching psudocostumes:

Even Cobra Commander needs a holiday.

Battlestar Galactica

I think she might look more like the character she's portraying -- I mean in the face more than the costume -- than any one I've seen at a con.

OK, is this a costume or is she just blond?

Star Trek
It ain't a con if it ain't got no Klingons.

I am Locutious of Cute.

Pirates!

Ninjas!

Zombies!!!

Hail to the king, baby!

Fairies
Always a popular choice (but a lot of these girls ended up in the "Ladies of..." category.)

See what I mean?

Pro-grade, not really a costume 'cause they are gettin' paid, Cruxshadows girls:

Much like the Cruxshadows girls, these were pretty much the only other professional booth babes I saw at the con. I don't really know if this counts as in costume or not.