Not physically, of course. Their teeth scare me. But their sense of humor is just great and I enjoy fast paced work like this:
And if you like that, head over to fullyramblomatic.com for more of the same.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
The New addition to the family...
And here it is. Our new booth at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire. Obtaining it was an adventure fraught with stress and worry but in the end we got a good deal and a good booth.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Flooding???
We finished the three week marathon that was Great Lakes, Pennsic and GenCon. It was brutal at times but we made it and I am glad we did all three events. So what was my reward when I arrived home? A mysterious water leak in my house.
There is a trench or pipe that runs under the floors of the house. It's basically an air duct for the air conditioner on the roof. When I fired up the AC today to cool down the muggy house I heard a strange gurgling. It seemed to come from everywhere but we quickly narrowed it down to the pipe in the floor. It was completely filled with water. I tried sucking the water out with my shop vac but after thirty trips outside to dump the water I was making no headway. I went to the hardware store and rented a sump pump, but it was the kind you sit in a large flooded area, it didn't fit in the pipe. Back to the hardware store. This time we got a pump used for draining pools. We hooked it up and an hour later we'd emptied more of the water, but not all of it. I stopped and waited a few hours and the pipe has partially refilled. Of course this process made a huge mess in the kitchen where we were working.
I have no freaking clue where the water is coming from. We spent gobs of money to prevent just this sort of thing. There is a fucking rubber sheet covering the ENTIRE roof. The best we can figure is that the huge amount of rainfall has caused water to build up and leak through some small gap in our defenses. And water will just keep moving until it finds a way out. Maybe the water is from the side yard, maybe the roof, maybe a drainage line from the garage is broken. I have no easy way to know or find out. This is the pain in the ass of non-standard home construction. We are constantly trying to figure out how the place was built, why they did things the way they did, and how they fucked it up.
With the rain (hopefully) over I'm hoping the water leak will stop. If it doesn't then there's some kind of water line leak, which would be so bad as to be unimaginable. So far I don't believe this to be the case as running water lines make noise and I don't hear anything yet. What a great treat to come home to.
There is a trench or pipe that runs under the floors of the house. It's basically an air duct for the air conditioner on the roof. When I fired up the AC today to cool down the muggy house I heard a strange gurgling. It seemed to come from everywhere but we quickly narrowed it down to the pipe in the floor. It was completely filled with water. I tried sucking the water out with my shop vac but after thirty trips outside to dump the water I was making no headway. I went to the hardware store and rented a sump pump, but it was the kind you sit in a large flooded area, it didn't fit in the pipe. Back to the hardware store. This time we got a pump used for draining pools. We hooked it up and an hour later we'd emptied more of the water, but not all of it. I stopped and waited a few hours and the pipe has partially refilled. Of course this process made a huge mess in the kitchen where we were working.
I have no freaking clue where the water is coming from. We spent gobs of money to prevent just this sort of thing. There is a fucking rubber sheet covering the ENTIRE roof. The best we can figure is that the huge amount of rainfall has caused water to build up and leak through some small gap in our defenses. And water will just keep moving until it finds a way out. Maybe the water is from the side yard, maybe the roof, maybe a drainage line from the garage is broken. I have no easy way to know or find out. This is the pain in the ass of non-standard home construction. We are constantly trying to figure out how the place was built, why they did things the way they did, and how they fucked it up.
With the rain (hopefully) over I'm hoping the water leak will stop. If it doesn't then there's some kind of water line leak, which would be so bad as to be unimaginable. So far I don't believe this to be the case as running water lines make noise and I don't hear anything yet. What a great treat to come home to.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Let the feast of a thousand geeks begin!
Day Two of GenCon. The biggest gaming con anywhere. How's it going? well, its not the feeding frenzy I was hoping for. But its still pretty good. I had dreams of screaming corset groupies grabbing fr any corset they could get their grubby hands on, clambering for any product we could throw at them. The money would pile up on the floor in heaps. After the show, I would make snow angels in it.
Alas, it has not gone quite that way. I'm still not complaining as sales are strong. The event site is MASSIVE. Lots to see. Many shiny objects to distract. I bought another swords, because, well...I have a problem and can't say no. I tried to cover myself by handing it to Rossana and saying I got it for her (it did fit her hand well) but she could see right through me.
Not a lot of pictures yet, but tomorrow is the day of the costume contest. I have my camera at the ready. There is a pc gaming section demoing Crysis, which looks very cool. No other cool clothing vendors that I've seen so far.
Last night the wifi went out in the motel. A call to the front desk informed us that it was a problem with AT&T. Apparently they were having trouble keeping up with 60,000 geeks trying to such down gigabytes of porn on free wifi connections. Go figure.
The city of Indianapolis is creeping me out. It's clean, well laid out, has friendly and courteous drivers and good signage. What the hell is wrong with these people?
Gotta sleep now. The big day is tomorrow.
Alas, it has not gone quite that way. I'm still not complaining as sales are strong. The event site is MASSIVE. Lots to see. Many shiny objects to distract. I bought another swords, because, well...I have a problem and can't say no. I tried to cover myself by handing it to Rossana and saying I got it for her (it did fit her hand well) but she could see right through me.
Not a lot of pictures yet, but tomorrow is the day of the costume contest. I have my camera at the ready. There is a pc gaming section demoing Crysis, which looks very cool. No other cool clothing vendors that I've seen so far.
Last night the wifi went out in the motel. A call to the front desk informed us that it was a problem with AT&T. Apparently they were having trouble keeping up with 60,000 geeks trying to such down gigabytes of porn on free wifi connections. Go figure.
The city of Indianapolis is creeping me out. It's clean, well laid out, has friendly and courteous drivers and good signage. What the hell is wrong with these people?
Gotta sleep now. The big day is tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Pant...wheeze...puff...pufff
Back home from Pennsic and the last two weekends of the great Lakes Fair. So much, soooo much. No time!
The short form:
I'll post details when time allows. Stay cool out there.
The short form:
- Pennsic: A never ending flume ride through an oven.
- Great lakes: I was nearly decapitated by a porta john.
- Pennsic: Great Party
- Great Lakes: We bought a booth!
- Home: I get a mysterious scar on my forehead (really)
I'll post details when time allows. Stay cool out there.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Greatest prank ever
I appreciate a clever prank and this one gets top marks for creativity in my book.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
The good news!
My Dad saw the doctor today and got the go ahead to start weaning himself off the neck brace! It appears that he's healing nicely and will likely be in good enough shape to take a planned trip to Germany this September. He sounded great on the phone, lots of energy and even talked about getting a replacement truck for his business.
Cool Beans.
Cool Beans.
Death Kittah
I have only three words for you: Grim Reaper Cat
This story is so strange it even weirds ME out a little.
This story is so strange it even weirds ME out a little.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Not bad...
Sometimes cruising YouTube yields interesting results. Here is a gentleman who seems to have built how own Bag End (complete with a *twitch* round door)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
In hindsite...
I have read on the internets that Daniel Radcliffe (He who is Harry Potter) will turn 18 this month and when he does, he will obtain control of $40 million dollars.
Wow. I was, you know, going to get him a card...or something but uh...
Anyway. I can only hope that Mr. Radcliff will have wise and helpful hands to guide him away from the kinds of temptations $40 MILLION can buy. I am tempted to look back at my life and wonder what I might have done with $40 million when I was 18 and am forced to conclude that I would have no freakin clue. I would likely have saved some of it, but there would be some pretty large purchases that I would be regretting about now.
Like the full sized millenium falcon in my back yard, or the Hoth Base (complete with Imperial walkers) I built in Norway. Or perhaps the strip club with a Star Trek theme. The possibilities are endless.
What would you regret having bought or done with if you'd been given $40 million on your 18th birthday? And if you say "I would have invested it all in a broad range of well managed blah blah blah: you're LYING.
Wow. I was, you know, going to get him a card...or something but uh...
Anyway. I can only hope that Mr. Radcliff will have wise and helpful hands to guide him away from the kinds of temptations $40 MILLION can buy. I am tempted to look back at my life and wonder what I might have done with $40 million when I was 18 and am forced to conclude that I would have no freakin clue. I would likely have saved some of it, but there would be some pretty large purchases that I would be regretting about now.
Like the full sized millenium falcon in my back yard, or the Hoth Base (complete with Imperial walkers) I built in Norway. Or perhaps the strip club with a Star Trek theme. The possibilities are endless.
What would you regret having bought or done with if you'd been given $40 million on your 18th birthday? And if you say "I would have invested it all in a broad range of well managed blah blah blah: you're LYING.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
These are the times...
You may have heard me state at some point that I enjoy what I do. And most of the time that is true. I like what I do, I like to travel, I like Conventions and I like the people I meet at them.
Most of the time.
But the fact is, many of these events are run by volunteers or some other semi-organized entity. What I and my fellow merchants like to call Dumb Monkeys.
Dumb Monkeys are a threat to who I am and what I do. Why? Because they are DUMB. This is not to say that they are evil, they often have the best of intentions, but that doesn't help me when they fuck up a convention, and by extension, fuck over ME.
Let me explain. There are hundreds of cons, gatherings, tournaments and ren-faires held a year. We can't afford to attend them all. We can't risk spending a chunk of change to drive to Oregon only to find out that only 200 people are showing up and there are no guests and the hotel is a cesspool. So we screen every event we hear about. First, we visit the website. If the website sucks, we don't do the event. If it's an okay website that never gets updated? We don't do the event. Then we email them a question. Don't get a reply? We don't go. We talk to our fellow merchants and swap info. We search flickr for pictures of the event. Are there crowds in the picture? How does the site look? Is the vendor fee super low? That's a warning sign of a bad event. The process of finding good events is slow, tedious and very very time consuming.
I know it isn't easy setting up and running an event, but its a shitload easier than it used to be. But despite email and collaborative tools and years of experience and numerous resources some people still cock it up. There are a number of ways to kill and event. Poor planning, no advertising, spending too much or too little on guests, too narrow a focus, lack of staff, no financial backing etc etc.
And then there's the worst kind of fuck up. The management break up.
We did PyrateCon a while back and it was an okay event. It could be better but the guys running it had a lot of heart and put a lot of work into the event. Plus its PIRATES in NEW ORLEANS. I mean, they didn't have to twist my arm, I was keen to go again. Things seemed even better when we negotiated an exclusive deal to be the only vendor selling corsets at the event. I sent in my money and marked my calendar.
Then the shit hit the fan. Someone took over the PyrateCon Website. Accusations are made that the previous staff ran the event poorly. New Managament were now running things. Except they don't seem to know who I am. I hit google. Now there's another website claiming to be the REAL PyrateCOn, the others are thieves and frauds! Litigation is under way!
And just like that, this event is fucked. There is no way to fix it. Say one side does sue the other (not much chance because these people aren't running a for profit company or if they are they usually operate on very thin profit margins) most of their money will be eaten up by lawyers. Say they don't sue but fight it out online and in blogs and on myspace pages. Guess what, it hurts both events. Neither one flourishes. And again, I'm fucked.
I'm being told I have to contact the old management to resolve my "payment issues". Yes, I did make out the check to a specific person (i.e. Joe Blpw/PyrateCon) which in hindsight was a mistake. But these new guys are claiming they're pyratecon so I'm going to put their feet to the flame. I doubt the old management team has the money to refund to me (they're suing, remember?) The best I can hope for is a credit towards the new event and I'm not holding out too much hope of that.
Dumb Monkeys.
Most of the time.
But the fact is, many of these events are run by volunteers or some other semi-organized entity. What I and my fellow merchants like to call Dumb Monkeys.
Dumb Monkeys are a threat to who I am and what I do. Why? Because they are DUMB. This is not to say that they are evil, they often have the best of intentions, but that doesn't help me when they fuck up a convention, and by extension, fuck over ME.
Let me explain. There are hundreds of cons, gatherings, tournaments and ren-faires held a year. We can't afford to attend them all. We can't risk spending a chunk of change to drive to Oregon only to find out that only 200 people are showing up and there are no guests and the hotel is a cesspool. So we screen every event we hear about. First, we visit the website. If the website sucks, we don't do the event. If it's an okay website that never gets updated? We don't do the event. Then we email them a question. Don't get a reply? We don't go. We talk to our fellow merchants and swap info. We search flickr for pictures of the event. Are there crowds in the picture? How does the site look? Is the vendor fee super low? That's a warning sign of a bad event. The process of finding good events is slow, tedious and very very time consuming.
I know it isn't easy setting up and running an event, but its a shitload easier than it used to be. But despite email and collaborative tools and years of experience and numerous resources some people still cock it up. There are a number of ways to kill and event. Poor planning, no advertising, spending too much or too little on guests, too narrow a focus, lack of staff, no financial backing etc etc.
And then there's the worst kind of fuck up. The management break up.
We did PyrateCon a while back and it was an okay event. It could be better but the guys running it had a lot of heart and put a lot of work into the event. Plus its PIRATES in NEW ORLEANS. I mean, they didn't have to twist my arm, I was keen to go again. Things seemed even better when we negotiated an exclusive deal to be the only vendor selling corsets at the event. I sent in my money and marked my calendar.
Then the shit hit the fan. Someone took over the PyrateCon Website. Accusations are made that the previous staff ran the event poorly. New Managament were now running things. Except they don't seem to know who I am. I hit google. Now there's another website claiming to be the REAL PyrateCOn, the others are thieves and frauds! Litigation is under way!
And just like that, this event is fucked. There is no way to fix it. Say one side does sue the other (not much chance because these people aren't running a for profit company or if they are they usually operate on very thin profit margins) most of their money will be eaten up by lawyers. Say they don't sue but fight it out online and in blogs and on myspace pages. Guess what, it hurts both events. Neither one flourishes. And again, I'm fucked.
I'm being told I have to contact the old management to resolve my "payment issues". Yes, I did make out the check to a specific person (i.e. Joe Blpw/PyrateCon) which in hindsight was a mistake. But these new guys are claiming they're pyratecon so I'm going to put their feet to the flame. I doubt the old management team has the money to refund to me (they're suing, remember?) The best I can hope for is a credit towards the new event and I'm not holding out too much hope of that.
Dumb Monkeys.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Geeky
I was poking around youtube when I came across this. If you understand this bit, congratulations, you are a full blooded geek.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Aaaaaand we're off!
The first weekend of the official summer season went off pretty well. It wasn't easy, but we managed to run two shows at once. Origins in Columbus and Great Lakes Medieval Fair in Geneva. Although it was four days straight I was glad to be at Origins. It was indoors and that has advantages. Sunday was brutally hot in Geneva.
I am amazed at how smoothly things actually went considering when we showed up to Origins they had NO IDEA who we were. Apparently there was a cock up. I'm not going to point any fingers or assign blame. Lets just say that some guy, who may or may not have a blog did not get the vendor fee and application to the right people. This guy is obviously an idiot but please cut him some slack, he fills in like 20 of these a year and each one is for an event 6-10 months away.
Anyhoo, things didn't look good because, well, these guys hadn't been paid and didn't know to expect us (or say, assign us a booth space). This is when a great guy named Matt Ragsdale stepped up and saved our asses. He got us in, got us a space and didn't ask for a damn red cent. He trusted us when we said we'd sent in the money. He took us at our word. That's a rarity for an event like this. This ain't no local Sci-Fi con. This is an gaming industry event second only to Gen-Con.
I met Matt at Marcon a few years ago and I have to say that the guy is tops in my book. Needless to say, I'm doing next years paperwork NOW and sending it registered mail this time.
Oh, and we saw Transformers on Thursday and it ROCKED!
I am amazed at how smoothly things actually went considering when we showed up to Origins they had NO IDEA who we were. Apparently there was a cock up. I'm not going to point any fingers or assign blame. Lets just say that some guy, who may or may not have a blog did not get the vendor fee and application to the right people. This guy is obviously an idiot but please cut him some slack, he fills in like 20 of these a year and each one is for an event 6-10 months away.
Anyhoo, things didn't look good because, well, these guys hadn't been paid and didn't know to expect us (or say, assign us a booth space). This is when a great guy named Matt Ragsdale stepped up and saved our asses. He got us in, got us a space and didn't ask for a damn red cent. He trusted us when we said we'd sent in the money. He took us at our word. That's a rarity for an event like this. This ain't no local Sci-Fi con. This is an gaming industry event second only to Gen-Con.
I met Matt at Marcon a few years ago and I have to say that the guy is tops in my book. Needless to say, I'm doing next years paperwork NOW and sending it registered mail this time.
Oh, and we saw Transformers on Thursday and it ROCKED!
Monday, July 02, 2007
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