Incomplete Sentence

I haven't posted about the costume lately simply because I haven't had time too. In their stead I will post a picture of me.

Haters gonna hate.

Lack of Upper Management

If I had not made this clear before. As of until now me and Aaren had been working on the costumes at his apartment. Although he was planning on moving out, he still had the place till July 8th which had an empty room and a porch where we can work freely and not be too concerned about the mess.

"Why does it smell like dead cat in here?"

Two days ago (6th) we came to work/start moving things out when we found a disturbed home. Windows and cabinets open, lights on and more importantly Aaron's rifle and shield were damaged, yet the door was locked and secure. At the time I had two conclusions; either maintenance had come in for a inspection and had shown greedy hands, or Aaron's ex-roommate had done it. Aaron himself came to the same and hinted at a third, that I had done it. I hate to think I had done anything to deserve his questioning eye, but he eventually settled on it must have been Sam since he had come back to the apartment while we were away previously. That, and maintenance had no reason to be in the apartment.

We work, I take home some tools and my skill saw, and call it a day. Come the next day (7th) we come home to a roomier apartment. Two bikes that Aaron had were missing along with my tool box, drill, drill bits, and digital camera. Essentially anything that had value was gone. It was at that point we called the police, it was 6:40. The most peculiar thing though was something new was in the apartment. A ladder with BRE sprayed on the side. Aaron lives in a complex recently renamed the Alessio. A property managed by BRE properties. Maintenance WAS in the apartment.

We immediately went to the facility security, which composed of two guys canvassing a property holding about 1000 people. From there we learned little, and what we did learn, only proved to be more aggravating. After being bounced around several people, and trying several dead end phone numbers, we finally reached someone who could contact maintenance, the security manager. When asked though, they both said they had not been in the apartment. We asked if we could be allowed to look in the maintenance room, to which we got a "No", we asked if we could look at the security tapes we got "Ive been here all day and I'm about to go home". All we had was "We will settle it tomarrow".

7:00pm

At that point all we could do was wait for the police and make a list of what was missing, which turned out to be worth about $2000.

7:30

We called the police again to make sure they are coming.

...

8:30

we call again....

9:30

we call again....

10:30

Finally an officer arrives and we start filling paperwork and he leaves followed by us. Only then do the answers finally start coming through. The officer who most likely got the numbers from the staff that remained, reached the maintenance workers who were on duty that night and got them to admit they were there and also had our stuff in a "storage locker". But being so late, the matter could only be solved the next morning.

Although I was not there to enjoy the full extent of the interaction of Aaron-Management-Maintenance, I do know things happened. Firstly, it was revealed that management had told maintenance to go in to the apartment because they believed it to be now then vacant. Because to them when Sam moved out, he represented the group as a whole, and that is a fact that stands even though Aaron and Joy(Aaron's girlfriend) made sure it was clear that they both were still living there. Secondly the theft of their stuff, our stuff, we completely our fault. Thats when the things happened.

This is the first thing i get when I search "things happened".

By things I mean ballistic shit, and by happened I mean happened. Aaron was in a new platitude of pissed off and I cant blame him. The people at the facility simply wanted him to reach higher and higher. But despite being on the verge of nearly getting arrested we got back our stuff, most of it. They left some stuff behind and Aaron has the pleasure of trying to pry it from them again.

So it was mostly managements fault, not maintenance. But several contradictions arose when conversing with maintenance.

- Initially he denied being in the apartment, only confessing after the police had started asking the questions.

- Initially he claimed the items were in a storage locker (that no one else knew about) but later that locker turned out to be the maintenance room. So why didn't he say maintenance room?

-Even after admitting to being in the room and taking the stuff he was steadfast about not being there the previous day. Yet in conversation he revealed that he saw my scroll saw in the apartment, which was there only the day before.

So here is my algebra. Management tells maintenance to go into the room to clear it out because their weegee board tells them they can. Maintenance on the first day comes in to find an apartment with allot of neat toys which they think are fair game. they are careless with Aaron's gun but don't take anything because they were not prepared for the find. The second day they are prepared and take as much as they can. If there is any policy for found items they do not heed it and take as much as they can hold and bring it home with them. If anyone asks, they would deny, as they did, that they took anything and that the door must have been left unlocked or it was a false theft claim. And it was a good plan, they had reasonable doubt on their side, and there was no real proof that they were even there..... except for the ladder. The police officer probably played this card when asking and also revealed that someone was coming in for fingerprinting. At that point Mr. maintenance does remember the apartment and that the stuff is in a storage locker/his garage for safe keeping. The following morning he comes in early and moves everything to the maintenance room and then plays dumb.

be robbed, be harassed, be on the phone with the popo.

So that was my Wednesday night, how was yours?

Till Further Notice

I have removed the colorful cartoon depictions of Yogi Bear that I have made. Although they were made to be humorous while have no correlation to the story or style of the movie., there was a chance that the wrong people may take offence. Really the only relation between the movie and the sketches was that they both have yogi bear in them. But due to my current occupation, and based on the stereotype that every CEO is a Clone of Dick Cheney...

Impervious to fire, fueled by kitten's blood.

...it might be perceived as an infringement upon my nondisclosure agreement. Although its a long stretch and I have done my best to express that they has no relation to the movie, it was only me being stupid, one cannot underestimate humanities ability to overreact. So till further notice, I will withhold my demon spawn.

The Medic Costume: Revolutions

Work on the backpack has been slow because I have not given it any attention. Probably because I'm a little bored with it because its just a box. But I have most of the pieces cut. I just need to sand the main box and then add the rings around it. the most difficult part of the pack will be how the tank attaches.

Sintra, the plastic I use for the box, reacts to baking and boiling, during which it becomes soft. Once its cools it retains the shape it was left in. Thats what I plan on using for the tank ring but the slight slope of the tanks sides make it a little harder than just using a long enough piece of sintra. Due to the shape change the top portion of the band will be longer than the bottom, so I will have to counteract that by adding a slight ark to the cut out piece. Which will require a lot of trial and error.

The gun I have devoted more time too and it is slowly coming together. Its mostly sanding thats left before painting. This time I just flat out ignored PVC tubing. If I am to be true to the design, I need a lot of odd sized tubing and there are few to little options in PVC. With the original medic gun and backpack I made concessions to the design so I could use PVC for certain parts, which in the end I think made me unhappy with the outcome. I also think that PVC is hard to shape and cut properly if you do not have the perfect tool for it. So as of now the gun is 100% MDF which is working wonderfully. I also plan on putting LEDs inside for a little razzle dazzle.

To get all the rounded and canister shaped parts required for the gun I cut a bunch of rings to the right size and glued them together. The result is sturdy and responds extremely well to sanding if thought out properly. Example:

This is the muzzle of the gun. From the full gun image several steps above, you may notice it has two tongues coming out of the top and bottom. To shape it into a smooth rounded shape I would have to get rid of the rings so I can get sandpaper all around it, then add them on after. Simply cutting the tongues out with a curved bottom so I could directly glue them on would work. But there would be no guarantee they will sit right and I would most likely have to use putty to fill gaps.

The muzzle started off as 4 pieces. Two circles that make the front and back part of the muzzle, and two circles with tongues attached. Before anything else I glued the tongued parts together then cut the tongue sections off. I then glues the other circles on and then sanded it to a smooth surface. The tongues now fit perfectly on because I'm simply refitting the same cut surfaces back together, like a puzzle.

I'm considering using the same ringed MDF process for the backpack cannister. The problem with the current one is that its fragile and dents easily. It is made out of shaped foam and coated with wood putty. I made the foam core too close to spec so the wood putty is only a thin shell. If I made it out of a bunch of MDF rings I would get the strength, and if its hollow I could save on weight. But even that may be too heavy.

Yogi Bear

After Alvin finished around October of 2009, I was out of work, which was fine, I wanted some time to just "be". Five months later with my money coffers empty, I came back to Rhythm and Hues to help work on Yogi. It was, and is, very good to be back and see familiar faces. Making money is also good because, well, I like money, I... I like money a lot.

Somebody please help me.

But from what I understand, the buzz from Joe internet is that this is a turd of an idea. The idea of Yogi being remade has struck a cord amongst many who watched the cartoon back in the day and think that a re-imagination of it will pollute the memory of the original, but then again what else is new. Remakes are being spit out at a fever pitch and will be for some time. But then there is the plus side to it that the old curmudgeons seem to neglect when they are screaming "Back in my day!".

Yogi bear is an old cartoon, as in 1950/60's old, and the one thing that seems to not be faltering in originality is children's Saturday cartoons. No matter how big many of the classics were, their heyday was decades before the current target audience was born. Give a child the option to watch Spongebob vs (insert hanna barbera beloved classic) they will undoubtedly watch Spongebob.

Who wouldn't?

I know I already lost a few of you with that last statement but let me get to my point. Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 won the kids choice award of 2010. Say what you will about the movie, but kids adore it, in the exact same way you odored (insert hanna barbera beloved classic) when you were their age. Alvin is not as old as yogi but already the cloud of obscurity was looming above it as the children that watched it age and turn grey (which includes me). These remakes ,which many scoff at, give the old beloved classics a foothold in the current generation. It creates a hungry audience for those old classics and it saves them from the shelves for just a little while longer. Although this was probably not the intention of the producers.

In the long run it gives the old classics a fighting chance to keep on being known as a beloved classic. As long as the film is not just a empty shell of the original, whose existence does nothing but cause harm to the past, present, and future, then I say go for it.

MOTHERFUCKERS!

But don't get me wrong. Its not like I desire an endless cascade of remakes. Movies like Fantastic Mr. Fox I think are genius, who's creativeness need to be encouraged and heavily reworded. I'm just saying give it a chance and watch it before formulating your opinion. Because you may never know when something good will come out of what you thought was a bad idea, and when from a good idea comes a really, really, rubber nipple bad idea.

Didn't gripe about that one being made did ya?

Yes, I just played the Batman & Robin card. In the end a movie is what it is. Be it an original idea, remake, or yet another super hero movie, all we can do is wait, watch, and hope the nipple work was done tastefully.

I'm also calling the the absolute last cartoon reboot will be.....Captain planet.... starring Ben Stiller

Admit it, you want to see it.

I expect royalties. BLUE STEEL! blue steel.

pathetic start

Ok, ok. I my plans to hit the ground running turned into a sprained ankle and road rash. I blame amazon for its lumbering efforts to get the tools I need to me. But once things start to take off I plan on documenting it in detail for internet self indulgence. In the meantime, Ive failed to mention that I have teamed up with a coworker, Aaron Deerfield, to make our costumes. He being a sniper. Also he happens to be doing a much better job of working on his stuff and getting it done.

http://arprops.blogspot.com/

Stop looking at my Moobs!

Funny thing happened today....

waaaaaaAAAAAAHHHH!??

Its not every day that the eye's of the internet bare down on you. I suppose I should be glad its not due to a pant-less video of me. So I am forced to pay attention to my blog again, update it, and see if anyone really cares. So I suppose I shall restart things with the topic at hand. Me, making an ass of myself (but in a cool way).

These photos were not thee end of the costume affair, nor the costumes final form. The jacket was a fake and the backpack was a failure because of its general weight and bulk. With comicon soon approaching. I have already dealt with the jacket.

My mom made it for me.

..... what?

That leaves making a new backpack all thats left on the agenda... Oh and this.

A little wiser after the medigun, I hope to do the Blutsauger. But this unfortunately is only a maybe at the moment with time always being at a premium. So... we...will...see.

So if your going to Comicon in LA and you see a dashing young fellow that happens to be sporting a medic costume, KKILLL HIM! HE IS A LIE! I'm the fugly one twenty feet away who appears to have stepped in dog shit on his way there. Say hello... if you dare.

http://kotaku.com/5555310/team-fortress-2-gets-real/gallery/

http://www.geekologie.com/2010/06/amazing_team_fortress_2_cospla.php

http://pixelatedgeek.com/2010/06/amazing-team-fortress-2-cosplay/