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Month: December 2010
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Crossplay Tutorial
Several months ago, in a dazzling display of anonymous collaboration, a cheat sheet of male to female crossplay advice was compiled on the /cgl/ board of 4chan. I contributed the tip about using a feminine body wash!
It looks like the original host is no longer available, so I figured I’d put a copy here (click for full size). I’m not sure if all of the links are current as of your reading this, but the advice for MtF crossplay should be useful for anyone embarking upon this most challenging form of cosplay. Thanks again to everyone who contributed and organized this cheat sheet!
Update: With all of the interest in this subject, I was inspired to write a more comprehensive beginner’s guide. Oh My!: A thinking man’s guide to crossplay
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-16
- Yesterday was a blur! Lots of chores and I test fit my Stocking cosplay with the tuxedo blouse. Not 100% accurate but looks pretty good!^^ #
- Just finished Tsubasa vol 28. What a journey that's been! It's the longest #manga series I've read and it was well worth the journey. #
- Now that Tsubasa is done, I may pick up Kobato, after I finish the Chobits #manga that is. I loves me some CLAMP! #
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-15
- W00T! I can watch the kids finish games I have no hope or time to! LOL, am I 2old2game yet? #
- @SaraUnderwood LOL, Pandora has both kinds of music, country _and_ western! in reply to SaraUnderwood #
- Woo hoo! I just got Vampire Hunter D for my Nook! Way to go @digitalmanga! My first manga *ahem* purchase for my ebook reader. ^_^ #
- Hope to see more manga on the Nook soon! Get Vampire Hunter D here. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?EAN=2940011902109 #
- #AOTS killed Tiny Morgan! You bastards! #
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-14
- In between conventions? Check out Anime Aftershocks for Kindle. http://amzn.to/bSRQ3n #
- Anime Aftershocks is also available for the Nook ebook reader. http://bit.ly/a6Bkcx #
- @ps3nut Yeah, I think War Princess messed up the Sony script because she couldn't eat the crackers. So they had to break the rules. in reply to ps3nut #
- I write Sci-Fi too! Rolled Up Dimensionality is out on the Kindle. http://amzn.to/eJvF0X #
- Congrats to @cosplayamerica! Now OVER 9000 on facebook! AWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #cosplay #
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Man the Lifepods!
In what is becoming an annual tradition, yesterday the heat failed in my home. By morning the temperature had plummeted to 50 degrees F. This is the 3rd year this has happened and the first time in our new home. And each time we’ve ended up huddled in a few spots warmed by electric space heaters.
The space heaters were okay in the smaller place, but here they haven’t been as effective in the larger rooms. Luckily, my youngest son’s bedroom has an electric baseboard heater. What a godsend that was! The youngest were able to stay warm and later on I used the room as a lifepod of sorts while waiting at home for the furnace repair guy.
The problem turned out to be the draft blower motor on the furnace which an incredibly determined repairman was able to fix. Yay Burris and Sons! And with the temperature rising back into the normal range, I’ve been able to abandon my lifepod. But after this experience, I’m convinced that it would be a good idea to have some lifepod or survival rooms by design. That is, if you have gas heating, make sure you have a room or two with electric heating. If you heat with electricity, maybe a gas heated basement room would be a good investment. It just isn’t a good idea not to have some backups to important home systems.
With this in mind, I may start stocking some water and canned goods. I’m not a survival fanatic, but honestly, with state governments running huge deficits and slashing services, maybe it’s time to be a bit more prepared for service gaps. You just never know when it’ll be time to man the lifepods again.
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-13
- Hey look! There's NFL football on my tv! Whoa! Lions won! #
- @RLadao that's cold! It's cold. Bears hibernating… facepalm.jpg in reply to RLadao #
- @ButerflySamurai it's really icky when couples share an email address. Gross…uh yeah! #petpeeves in reply to ButerflySamurai #
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-12
- Ugh! I still hate these Bleach filler arcs! #anime #
- Sorry I still can't stand the VGAs which is just a bunch of ads for upcoming games. #
- Nothing like FMA and late night iPhone app designing! #anime #
- I checked for similar iPhone apps in the app store, and what I have planned is different. So I'm really stoked now! #
- Cowboy Bebop never gets old! #anime #adultswim #
- I really want to write done iPhone code today!(^_^) #
- Having fun with the iPhone app design process, want to see how some of this will look in Objective C now. #
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Last week I began to move my iPhone development projects into high gear. Having toyed with some half-baked notions about my first app, I finally abandoned stuff that either wouldn’t work or would simply take too much time to do, and do poorly at that.
So back on the right track, I’m having a pretty good time with it now. I’ve been watching the excellent development sessions on Apple’s iOS Developer portal and I bought a pretty good book as a reference and guide. But I think the thing that has really got me excited is the beginning of the design phase. Anyone who has watched Apple over the years already knows how highly they regard design in the development process. In the developer videos, they recommend that the majority of app development time should be in the design phase before even a single line of code is written.
I love design, so spending a lot of time there is no problem. I found some great iPhone design wireframes on the Interactive Logic blog which were perfect for printing on some waste paper I had on hand. All set with wireframes, pencils, and my trusty ancient clipboard, I began to sketch the design for my first app.
So far it’s coming along very well. After my initial sketches, I did a little research on the Apple App Store to see what competing apps look like and user reviews of them. I immediately picked up some more ideas from user suggestions which I added to my sketches. And I could also see that what I wanted to build will be different from what is already in that space.
I could have done more research before I began to draw, but I didn’t want to be influenced too much by what has come before. And having my own design before me gave me a good reference point. Now I’m ready to start a little code work. I bought a copy of Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours
to help me there. I pick up new programming languages very quickly and I heard pretty good things about the book. So far it looks like it will be very useful to me in learning Objective C and the Xcode development tools.
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-11
- Needed some distraction today so I turned 2 wigs into one wig. Blue and pink hair everywhere! LOL #cosplay #pantyandstocking #
- Can't believe they broke the rules to get rid of Big Fazeek on The Tester on PSN. BF was not nice but breaking the rules is not cool. #
- Waaaat! Was Big Fazeek a fake contestant to stir up drama on The Tester? http://bit.ly/fMirJf #
- Whoa! FFXIV leadership gets the sack. Game free to play indefinitely and PS3 version delayed! http://bit.ly/gVMKQO Officially EPIC FAIL #
- As Square Enix admits total defeat, I wonder if #FFXIV will ever recover. I'd really like to see a free to play model of some kind. #
- A free to play #FFXIV could lure back disaffected PC players and spur launch sales of the PS3 version. #
- @bansheekat For ACen I'll have Miho Tohya from Megatokyo, and Stocking from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. And one old fav perhaps. in reply to bansheekat #
- @bansheekat Thanks! What are your ACen cosplay plans? in reply to bansheekat #
- @ThePandoraBoxx LOL, me too! (^_^) in reply to ThePandoraBoxx #
- Just dance tested the thigh highs for my Stocking cosplay. Stayed up pretty well, but might get garters. #
- Line between crossplay and crossdressing is pretty thin. I stomped all over it tonight. XD #
- I guess I'm in lesbians with my wife when I crossplay! ^^ Derp #
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-10
- RT @blairherter: You guys have NO IDEA what @candacebailey5 is putting in her mouth for you… LOL XD #
- @candacebailey5 is a great pick to cohost #AOTS She'll bring renewed geekiness and energy to one of my favorite shows! Welcome aboard!^^ #
- I am on the new Digg! You should follow me at http://digg.com/bluezhift #
- It's been a while since I was regularly on Digg. I like the new look! I still hang out on Slashdot too. #
- Hmm, CNN Q&A is really hyping the hacking going on in support of Assange and #WikiLeaks Interesting, but cyberwar? Yaaaaawn #
- Seems like #c2e2 is just around the corner! I can't wait to see how it grows in year 2! #
- Today, I attempted with some success to immerse myself in iPhone stuff. To write good apps, I need to feel, be, and grok the iPhone! #
- Youngest son (9yo) says the best part of @iPhoneLife magazine is the creating apps part. Another future developer! ^_^ #
- #IfIHadSuperPowers I'd have the power to change my appearance at will. Great for cosplay and job interviews! LOL #
- I love being a girl…sometimes! Who's with me?!! LOL #cosplay #crossplay #
- Woo hoo! My first iPhone app is officially under construction. The Apple developer materials are great. I think this is going to be fun! #
- Checkin out #AOTS midnight repeat. Sara Underwood, yeah! Russian bungie sledding FTW! #
- Candace Bailey whipping Chris Gore, yeah, I'm savin that on the TiVo! #AOTS XD #
- If you have a problem, you must whip it. Whip it good! #devo #bdsm #executivefunctioning LOL #
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-09
- Luke Scott just gave me another reason not to pay attention to anything overpaid pro athletes might say! http://yhoo.it/gOrmfC #
- Another day of my life goes in the books and I'm still happy just to be here. #
- @ButerflySamurai That's the spirit! ^__^ in reply to ButerflySamurai #
- I've published 2 books in 2 months. Fun! Let's see if I can keep up this pace! http://bit.ly/e8OMqF #ebook #kindle #nook #
- I'm planning to put my physics PhD and informatics experiences to use in another set of SF shorts. First set here: http://amzn.to/gG32Gh #
- It'd be cool is someday people were cosplaying my characters! I'm going to make plenty of black ones like me! LOL XD #
- Yup! Black cyborgs, black aliens, oh black humans too! #scifi #
- @ButerflySamurai I know that feeling. Gotta channel and harness that anger! in reply to ButerflySamurai #
- Ok time for more Speed Grapher! #anime #
- Woo hoo! Found the shirt I needed for my Stocking cosplay project! Just have to convert collar to Peter Pan style. ^^ #
- Now to sleep perchance to dream, of writing code when comes the morn! #iphone #
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-08
- Depression…oh HI there.. #unemployment #
- tweeting from my xbox wonder if i should get back into WoW… #
- Writing is kind of addictive. I keep getting ideas for new stories which are distracting me from other work! #
- To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started! http://learncrest.com #ebook #
- And now for some late night gaming since I'm booted into Windows right now anyway! #
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Twitter Updates for 2010-12-07
- Still no internet love from @Comcast for me in Chicago… #internetoutage #
- @bluegal Thanks, but the DNS swap didn't work here. @Comcast in Chicago is really effd up! Direct IP access doesn't work either. in reply to bluegal #
- And remember kids! @Comcast won't refund for outage unless you call and bitch at them! I feel bitchy right now. #
- Tethering my iPhone is looking better and better. Lesser of 2 evil corporations…dunno yet… #comcastoutage #rage #
- Yay, net is back up for me! Stupid router config wrong… Thanks @Comcast #
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My 2nd ebook, Rolled Up Dimensionality: Short stories from a forgotten life
I wrote these back in college and have updated them all for this release. It was a lot of fun revisiting and retooling the ideas behind these stories. I hope everyone reading them will have at least as much fun as I did writing them!