As of about an hour ago, my costume for saturday's party has been completed. I've put an unnecessarily large amount of time into constructing this, but I've enjoyed it and I think it has turned out quite well. Its taken so long mostly because a lot of the pieces had to be fabricated/modified/repainted/etc in order to suit my purposes. Putting it on involves about 22 pieces and takes 15 - 20 minutes. Also, it's kinda hot so i may not be wearing the entire costume for the whole evening - but it'll be easier to take pictures of the others without some of the pieces on anyway. Still, it's pretty awesome. :-)

I'm excited & looking forward to saturday. :-D

~PS

Ok, so this isn't really steampunk, but I like the titles so much i'm gonna label it that anyway.

Here's the second nerf gun i've mod'ed and repainted. Like its predecessor, it's functionally only about 95%. In this case, the cylinder doesn't always index correctly when the trigger is pulled, making it somewhat unreliable. It *does*, however, seem to be getting better the more i play with it. I suspect i got a little too much paint on some of the more sensitive moving parts.

It *looks* pretty awesome though, and it will compliment the rest of my costume nicely. Now all i need is some sort of holster.

I added some more pics of this one to the Steamnerf Gallery.

~PS

My first Steamnerf project has been completed. The gun is a little short of perfect on the functional scale, but it looks awesome and i'm quite happy with it. The trigger sticks a little (which i'm kind of hoping will solve itself in time) and the light site's timing is a little off as it doesn't illuminate until *after* the shot has been fired (not terribly helpful - but the thing itself is kinda lame imo). They're generally fixable problems, but i'm not sure how much i care at this moment.

For a first attempt, i'm quite happy with how it has turned out & I've made a Steamnerf album on the gallery page with a few more pics of the finished product. I'm hoping my next nerf mod project - Vash's gun - which is currently underway - turns out at least as good as this one has.

~PS

So we randomly had a 'net friend in town for a couple of days at the end of last week. Midnight Son stopped through as part of his massive, cross-country biker trip and we all had a great time hanging out with him again. He's a great guy - hopefully he'll be able to make it to the 2009 SE GitP Meetup Extravaganza.

As was alluded to in the comments of the last entry, a good chunk of friday was spent modding nerf guns. The Hippie brought his over along with some power tools, and with that and what we had at the Igloo, we made some standard mods to the guns and also primed & painted them to give 'em a kind of steampunk feel. They are looking *great*. Yesterday I got some clear-coat to seal mine once i've decided i'm done with it (and once i get a day with less than 70% humidity).

Had some good gaming earlier this week and looking forward to some more tonight. Speaking of which, I've got mayhem that needs planning.

Later,

~PS

For the first time in recent memory, i got to buy toys this evening, and it made me giggle. I'm pretty sure in some ways i haven't passed the age of 10.

These were bought for a specific reason/purpose, but i've still been far too amused with them. My intention is disassemble and repaint them in a couple of specific ways (and maybe add a couple other aesthetic touches to them - probably more on that later) for use as costume props and the like, but i'm having a lot of fun just playing with them.

I also have to say that it seems to me that Nerf guns seem to have come a long way since i was a kid in terms of the look, feel and operation, but and also in terms of the punch they have. These toys are pretty cool.

~PS

Seeing as we're getting into the last nice days of the year (before it gets cold, that is), we decided it was time to stop procrastinating and make time for some projects: namely, finishing staining the wardrobe we bought earlier this summer, and stripping/painting the front door frame (so i can then seal it to keep water from getting into the basement) - so that's what we did for most of saturday. The wardrobe now just needs a topcoat, and the door is ready for sealing. We were quite productive, I'd say. Hopefully we'll have a couple of free evenings this week to finish these projects.

Also speaking of nice weather, we need to have a big Kubb-for-all before it gets too nasty & cold outside. I'm figuring we've only got a couple of weeks...

In more "fun" news, we've also be trying to put together some costumes for McKenna's birthday party on the 1st. This has been a lot of fun for me, as we've been trying to build costumes by getting individual pieces, as opposed to buying a pre-made thing. Trying to come up with ideas or ways to do things has been an interesting challenge. I think i've got mine* pretty much done. It looks pretty awesome for what it is, but i do wish i could afford the glasses i'd want to finish it off. Or the gun. Or a couple of other minor details, because i'm kind of obsessive that way. (also, myawwww!). Maybe if I ever wanted to wear it to a convention or something... ...of course then i'd need something for the hair as well... ...rambling thoughts. Anyway, I've found it's a lot harder when you're trying to emulate something specific, as opposed to just trying to have a fun costume. Still, i'm really happy with it.

Oh, and sheri totally beat us all at minigolf on friday night. By like 5 strokes. It was amazing.

~PS

Summer has faded into fall just a bit. The weather has been awesome the last week or so - highs in the 60's & 70's. A little rain, but for the most part, beautiful. I love this time of year.

Not too much has been going on here since we got back from vacation. Just kinda getting back into the normal subroutines - so this post is pretty much just that.

Last saturday was our church's 'Block Party' event. Basically, we had food and music and were trying to get to know some random people in the community. I had quite a bit of fun taking pictures of the band. I think it went pretty well despite being relocated when it started to rain.

A few of us went to the new(ish) german restaurant in downtown JC last night. It was quite tasty, though i wasn't nearly hungry enough for the amount of sandwich i got. I thought the building itself was pretty cool - it was a corner lot of a downtown building complex(? what do you call that?) that had a kind of loft (where we sat) and a west-facing window that caught a lot of the setting sun. Our waiter was really friendly and knew what he was doing. They even had live music - a german vocalist accompanied by an accordion. It all kind of sounded the same (to me, anyway), but it was at least interesting and different. It was a pretty cool place all around i think, though i have to say the hostesses' uniforms were trying a bit too hard... ...in at least a couple of different ways.

Today was the second day of the Apple Festival in Erwin. We went out to help with our church's fundraiser - in which they let people park in the lot for said festival for $5. I think it went pretty well and raised a fair amount of money for the youth group. We walked around the festival a bit after too. I took a few pictures of the mayhem. I got a bit really sunburned through all this too.

Speaking of church, i've been trying to put together the beginnings of a website for them. Again. They've been wanting to do this forever, but, well, our church just takes a longer time getting around to certain things than other people might... ...so i thought i'd put something together and we can all go from there (instead of waiting for people to get around to giving me info).

I did notice one kind of funny thing while we were out there today: A few teenage kids were walking down the street toward the festival, and they happened upon the spot where I had parked the jeep. They stopped, and I noticed one of the kids point at the D&D sticker in my back window. I'm not sure whether they were saying "hey, look at this loser" or "who in Erwin plays d&d?" or what, but it was kind of amusing to witness.

Speaking of gaming, our last session was about a week ago. It was a good one, though almost all combat. A few things happened (or didn't happen) that may have some unforeseen consequences next session or later. That game is approaching the 1-year mark, and it continues to be very enjoyable.

I've been trying to get some work done on my gaming project. I've made significant progress and it continues to get more and more interesting, but I still have a *long* way to go. I've contemplated setting a sort of deadline for myself to help motivate me... ...though i'm not sure if that would be good or bad for the creative process.

I've been listening to commentaries on dvds i have while i work (and/or do other stuff at my desk) a lot lately. I've found that amusing/random dialog is an enjoyable acoustic background - esp when i'm here by myself. In particular, i've been listening to the ones on the Red vs Blue dvds quite a bit, as i really enjoy the creativity that went into that project. I would totally try to do something machinimish if i could think of something truly original. It would probably suck, but i think the experience of learning to do some video editing/production would be cool. I haven't done any of that since high school, and the technology has completely morphed since then.

Sheri and I have been trying to think of some christmas presents for people. This is mostly Sheri's doing, as i probably wouldn't be thinking about this for another month & a half. We're coming up a little short on ideas, but we've got one or two. And at least some time.

So anyway, that's where my stream-of-consciousness ends.

~PS