blueZhift Blog

Just 113 days until ACen, so I’m slowly thawing out my brain to get new cosplay projects started. I’m going to start with Shuichi in the school girl outfit. Why? Just because! And it should be relatively simple, so I want to actually have at least one new costume completed with time to spare. It always feels good to get something done!^_^ And I won’t feel so bad if my Ovan totally fails…T_T

IBM says that Lotus Notes for iPhone is not ready yet, but I’m rather surprised that the product is coming at all. Ok, not really too surprised. Many analysts have written that the iPhone is not going to be adopted by businesses for this that and the other reasons. But business people are not immune to hype and cool any more than anyone else. So if traditionally staid IBM is bringing Notes to the platform, then there must be some demand for it, or advantage for them to provide the product. Apple isn’t likely to make any major changes to the iPhone in order to cater to business, but I can only hope that iPhones seeping into the business realm will spark better phones that copy the popular iPhone features (particularly the interface) which would be a good thing for everyone.

After much frustration with the limitations inherent in Windows Movie Maker, I downloaded and subsequently bought MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 12. It wasn’t very expensive and allows one to do a lot more than WMM, but it is not itself without some limitations in the making of anime music videos. Specifically, I could not get it to export to the lossless Huffyuv codec at all.

Generally, one wants to export to an AVI using a lossless codec before recompressing the video in whatever formats one wants to distribute in. Why not just let MAGIX export to the distribution format directly? The general answer to this is control over quality using tools like VirtualDubMod and AVISynth scripts. But the specific problem I encountered was trying to make Divx compatible Xvid AVIs. I could output an Xvid AVI from the MAGIX AVI export that would play fine on my PC, but had totally crapped out sound playing on the Xbox 360. So I decided that the best option was to do what I’d been doing with WMM, creating an AVI with the lossless Huffyuv codec and then using VirtualDubMod to create the Xvid AVI for distribution.

I had hoped that I could create the Huffyuv AVI directly from MAGIX (in contrast to having to export to DV-AVI first in WMM) and then create the Xvid AVI in the usual fashion. But MAGIX and the Huffyuv codec don’t appear to like each other very much. I tried everything I could think of, but the output not only wouldn’t play, it would crash Windows Media Player and kill Windows Explorer too. I thought I was SOL until I heard about the Lagarith lossless codec on AnimeMusicVideos.org in one of the forums there.

It turns out that MAGIX and the Lagarith codec get along just fine, which allowed me to create an Xvid AVI that works on my PC and the Xbox 360. Now I can concentrate on creating the AMV that’s floating around in my head right now!^_^

ACen is still months away, but it seems that my brain is already concerned about getting costumes done. Often I’ll have a dream/nightmare shortly before a convention that either I’ve forgotten key pieces of a costume or that I spend so much time doing other things that I forget to cosplay. Well last night I had a dream in which I left key costume pieces at home and I recall very clearly telling someone in the dream that I often dream about forgetting costume pieces or forgetting to cosplay! Recursive dream is recursive!XD

Over the last year I’ve been playing an increasing number of videos on either the TiVo or the Xbox 360. I’ve really enjoyed having a lot more control over what I watch and how I watch it, but there still remains one huge omission on both of these platforms. Where the f*ck is my video playlist?!>.> Just how hard can it be to make it possible for me to create a list of videos to play in the same way I can make a list of songs to listen to?

At this point I can only guess that the big media companies don’t want the home viewer to, in effect, become their own program directors. I’d love to be able to plan out the whole evening’s programming mix of tv shows, music videos, and movies. But I guess the media companies fear that I’ll be skipping commercials and totally ignoring their latest reality show or doctor-lawyer drama. Well, I’m generally too lazy to bother with the former (besides, one still needs bathroom breaks), and I’ve been doing the latter for years.

YouTube already has video playlists and my iPod does too. But I can’t watch either of those on my TV with the equipment I have now. My best guess is that TiVo and Xbox won’t be seeing video playlist unless Apple TV, which has the features I want, becomes popular. With a lower price, and now a standalone device, Apple TV might just fit the bill. Thing is, I’m not in the mood to buy anything else right now. *grumble*

Well, it’s official, in my home at least, fear of Windows Vista has resulted in a Mac sale. For the first time in over 10 years, I have a Mac in the house! Our new family member is a black Mac Book with 2GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive.

It’s actually a present (sort of) that I bought for my wife’s birthday. Her old PC was becoming less and less able to cope which meant more time wasted fixing things. And she really wanted a laptop. Unfortunately, getting a new Windows based laptop, generally means getting Windows Vista probably on under-speced hardware. So with all of that “fun” on the one side, going to the Mac side looked pretty good. For the kind of things she does, the Mac with a copy of Microsoft Office, is a good fit. And now she can do multimedia stuff without the hassles we’ve always encountered on the PC.

The transition is going to take some time, but she seems pretty happy with it. Macs are what we both used in college. I still need to stay on the PC for professional reasons, but I definitely have my eye out for an excuse to get a Mac for myself! ^_^

Update: Mac sales are up 40% over last year. Perhaps Vista really is pushing some to the Mac side!

It looks like the funding crisis for the Chicago Transit Authority may be coming to an end, for now at least. But through it all, my oldest son, who uses the CTA to get to school, has remained a staunch, almost fanatic CTA enthusiast. It boggles the mind, but he has memorized the automated voice chatter which he can flawlessly imitate, made a CTA bus plushie, and even created a CTA computer game. The game, loosely modeled on Crazy Taxi, is a little rough in the graphics and design departments, but it’s just amazing what he’s done in a relatively small amount of time with limited resources. That’s my boy!^_^

Crazy CTA Game
(created with multimedia fusion 2 for windows)

To wrap it all up, I had an awesome time Saturday night at Ohayocon. While I discovered that there was indeed karaoke too late to sing myself, I did enjoy watching and cheering on other singers. After that I dumped my bag and headed off to the rave.

I don’t know whether I got there before or after room crowding forced the rave to stop and empty out before resuming. In any case I’m glad I missed that part of the drama. Upon entering the room, I was struck by how hot and humid it was. I’ve been to a number of dances by this time, but I’ve walked into a room that was hotter than that one. After looking around for a bit I settled into my usual favorite spot, somewhere in front near the speakers where I can see the DJs. I never bother looking for a dance partner these days. I just want to dance dance dance, and anyone who wants to join me later is welcome. ^_^

It turned out to be a really good place to dance. There was one point where Greg Ayres came down and danced very suggestively right up against the speaker. I kind of wish he would have come and danced with me. :3 Greg and the other DJs were awesome! While I didn’t like every track that came out, it was a nice mix and I really enjoyed watching them work. At the end of it all, I probably danced continuously in costume for about an hour only leaving when my legs started to cramp up. The next morning I would pay dearly for being in front of the speakers for so long. My right ear was ringing for two days!

I didn’t get bed until well after 3am. I had a lot of fun, but was a little saddened by the realization that it was all coming to an end tomorrow. One of the thrills of cosplay at a con is the chance to be someone else for a little while. Being a girl for a couple of days made me very happy.^_^

Sundays are usually somber and relatively uneventful. This one started with the hellish problem of getting my stuff down 11 flights of stairs to the car before checkout. Luckily, I only had to walk up once. I caught the bellman on the way down with my last two heavy cases. I love you Hyatt Regency Columbus!!! Once free of my bags, I was going to make one last pass through the dealers room and then attend the AMV awards. I try to cosplay every day of the cons I go to, so I’d put on my Roger Smith. I love Big O, and the Roger Smith cosplay is something I could drive home in too without getting into any awkward situations at a rest stop. I love the chance to be a girl for a while, but it really felt good to be a guy again too. There were still plenty of cosplayers around, so I was able to get a few more pictures before leaving after the closing ceremonies.

The drive back was filled with crazy people driving way too fast on wet highways. I was fortunate enough to make my one stop just before I would encounter a big delay due to an accident. As I passed the burnt out remains of one of the cars involved (didn’t see the other), I was saddened and chilled by the thought that someone probably died there. If I hadn’t stopped earlier, I may even have been involved. As it stood though, I’d only been involved in giving a few people in Burger King an eyeful of Roger Smith. My luck would come into play once again passing through Indianapolis where I noticed a police car pacing me soon enough to avoid getting a ticket.

With swag in hand for wife and kids, I was very happy to arrive home in one piece, but still a little sad that it was all over until next year. In the meantime, I’ve had enough fun to hold me over until Anime Central in May! Now I’ve got to get to work on those kid costumes!

Saturday is always the biggest day of the con for me. It’s the day that I’ll often have nightmares about a month before the convention begins. The nightmare usually involves running around the convention all day and forgetting to cosplay! That, of course, did not happen to me at Ohayocon. In fact, it was a two costume day.

I led off with my Kaname Chidori cosplay which continues to improve. I took the blouse in a bit so that it fit better (no manning the harpoons here), and I finally got the front bow right! That bow had been my bane the last two times I’d worn the costume. So I made a real bow a day before the con, making it twice as wide and about 20% longer. The blue wig is still out of control, nevertheless, I got some nice compliments and a few picture requests. The most surprising came while I was standing near a wall in the hotel just outside of the convention center. I was frantically searching my bag for a receipt I needed when people started asking for pictures. I happily obliged and soon thereafter found what I was looking for.

I was saving my third costume, the Yuujirou Shihoudani goth-loli nurse cosplay, for the afternoon and evening. I like to bring out my best stuff on masquerade night. This is my best costume, but I didn’t feel up to entering the competition this time around. I wasn’t even sure I was going to be at the con until just a short time before I left home.

Ever since I missed the masquerade at Anime Central last year, due to it filling up and no overflow area, I’ve been kind of paranoid about missing this event. So I was very happy that Ohayocon had a huge space for it in the convention center. I rushed over after the awesome Voices for concert and was greeted by a long line, to get into the line for the event. I was a little worried at first, but the line soon started moving and soon I was in with a good seat. Ironically, I was sitting next to a former nurse who was taking pictures with a very professional looking camera and told me that she absolutely hated those old style nurse uniforms. She said she always needed bunches of bobby pins to keep the hat on. My hat was actually pinned to my wig, so I fully understood the feeling! She was pretty cool. I told her about Princess Princess, the anime and manga the costume is from and we had a few chuckles about how the small community she came from probably wouldn’t permit such a manga to sold in the local bookstores.

The masquerade was pretty good, with the exception of one bad monologue and perhaps too many Naruto skits, most of the skits were entertaining. I felt bad for the woman whose monologue fell flat. If it were me, I think I’d have left the stage a little bit earlier, but I guess you have to admire her guts for sticking it out until the end. The audience, however, was not in a charitable mood and roundly booed her off the stage. Fortunately this was followed by one of the best skits of the night, a break dancing face off between Naruto and Sora (from Kingdom Hearts). How this skit failed to win an award is beyond me!

Looks like I’ve created a wall of text again! So I’ll finish this up later. After my last horrendous experience with Windows Movie Maker, I bought a copy of Magix Movie Edit Pro 12 online. I used it to create the slideshow of cosplay photos below with much less heart ache! :3

I hit the road for Ohayocon with a lot of hope, in the dark of night, 2:30am to be exact, and in the end, I was not disappointed. Ohayocon was a lot of fun for me, the drive through the night, hungering for dawn, was well worth it. Though it was not without a few hiccups, but I’ve come to believe that you can never fully appreciate the flavor of fun without some bitter spices of disappointment, just a dash of course!

I had no problems getting to the hotel and convention center, and for me at least, the staff of the Hyatt Regency Columbus were excellent. So I got in and went through the pre-reg line without any trouble, the only real problem would turn out to be the lack of printed schedules initially and then changes and additions (ie karaoke) that I wasn’t ready for.. Under the circumstances though, the Ohayocon staff handled it very well, so I don’t really have a complaint there either.

One of my personal cosplay rules is that if I pack a costume, it MUST BE WORN! I packed four costumes, Kagome, Kaname, Yuujirou, and Roger Smith. I love doing the crossplays, but it always takes me soooo long to get out of the room the first time. Part of it is just not knowing what to expect, and the sneaking suspicion that it’s horribly perverted. But perverted or not, it’s just too much fun to pass up on once you’ve experienced it. So I finally got Kagome out the door and got a mix of nice legs compliments (from the ladies) and some WTF (guys). LOL! I love being part of the show! ^_^

The Greg Ayres Roast on Friday night was incredible! These people must be really, really, really good friends to be able to say things like that about each other! I almost busted a gut laughing! The guests of Ohayocon really made the con for me. They were really awesome and one of the best reasons to go to a con at all. I mean, I can buy stuff on the internet and watch DVDs at home anytime. But only at a con can I enjoy these incredibly creative people and their fans. I had hoped to dance a lot longer at the Friday night dance, but alas, six hours of driving was too much, and my feet gave out! I was pissed, but you can’t argue with foot cramps…grumble…grumble…

Can’t argue with hand cramps either, so I’ll pick this up a little later. Here is the last picture I took before driving back home on Sunday, one of the cutest Yachirus ever!

Ohayocon 2008 Pictures