The Dragon's Cave

I just got the hardware/software sales figures for the U.S. for April 2008. Keep in mind that GTA4 was only on the shelves for 5 days during April.

Hardware:
1. Wii - 714,200
2. Nintendo DS - 414,800
3. PSP - 192,000
4. Xbox 360 - 188,000
5. PlayStation 3 - 187,100
6. PlayStation 2 - 124,400

Software:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) - 1,850,000
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 1,120,000
3. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 1,000,000
4. Wii Play (Wii) - 360,000
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 326,000
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3) - 224,000
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 202,000
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 202,000
9. Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 152,000
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 141,000

To be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised. Nintendo is demolishing the competition, while the XBox 360 is essentially in a dead heat with the PS3. Here I thought that, once Blu-Ray won the Hi-Def war, the PS3 would start selling better. However, it looks like that hasn't panned out; the Wii is still out-selling the PS3 at nearly 4-to-1.

In other news, I'm getting really excited to attend Califur tomorrow. My two oldest boys are going to come with me for part of the time (kids under 10 get in free).

Both boys asked me to make dragon tails for them, so I used the leftover material from my tail to make smaller tails for them. I finished the main work this morning; all I need to do now is stitch some denim material to them for belt loops, and they'll be finished.

My son Jeffrey is having a grand ol' time with his new GameCube, and he loves the game Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is the first time he has played an epic-sized adventure game, one with mental challenges nearly every step of the way. He is doing fairly well overcoming those challenges, and he's also having a lot of fun with some side-aspects of the game.

Last night, when I came home from work, Jeffrey was laughing and laughing, and said, "Hey Daddy! Look at THIS!" He proceeded to jump into a pen full of chickens, and began swinging his sword wildly at them. For about 30 seconds, the chickens ran away from him in panic, but then they all stopped. They turned toward him, and began to attack him en masse. CHICKEN ATTACK!

My son ran his Link character all over the village trying to escape an entire flock of chickens that came fluttering and chasing after him, pecking him to death, while Jeffrey laughed the whole way through. Finally, Link lay dead.

I commented, "Jeffrey... that's embarrassing. You were killed... by a chicken!" At that, Jeffrey dropped his controller, fell onto his back, and laughed even harder.

Was a great moment.

My son Jeffrey just turned 9 years old. 9!! I have a son who is really growing up--that means I'm getting old & grey & decrepit... :P

Jeffrey had a fun birthday. We wanted to make a cake, but he said he wanted donuts instead. SO, Kimberly took two chocolate donuts, cut one of them up, and pieced them together to make a big number 9. We put candles in the donuts and lit them up just like a birthday cake.

His favorite present was a gift from his uncle Brent. Last year, Brent bought a refurbished GameCube and three Zelda titles (Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess). He has since finished them all, and he wanted one of his nephews to get into the excitement and brain-grinding fun that the Zelda games are. So, he gave me the GameCube along with the three zelda titles. I went ahead & bought Mario Kart Double Dash and an additional controller, then gave it all to Jeffrey for his birthday.

Since then, all three of my boys have been up super early (6:00 AM!) each morning, getting dressed, combing their hair, eating breakfast, and packing their lunches for school, all so they can get some time to play before school started. They all love to play Mario Kart, and even little 3-year-old Nathan has more or less figured out how to drive his car around the track without simply going in circles.

Jeffrey has also really gotten into Zelda: Ocarina of Time; he loves it! In the days since his birthday, he has already gone through the Deku Tree, gotten himself into Hyrule Castle, and met the princess. Last night as I was driving home from work, he called me on my cell phone, asking me how to do such-and-such and where is such-and-such in the game.

Our company has finally announced our latest title for the Wii: Order Up! To see the announcement, click here. It's a family-oriented cooking/restaurant management game with a great cartoony style, and it has been called a mix between Cooking Mama and Diner Dash. I'm not one of the devs on this project (I'm working on a currently unannounced Wii title), but from what I've been able to test-play, this game is a lot of fun! See what happens when you get three orders at once, and you've got to manage how to cook pancakes, hamburgers, and mac & cheese all at the same time so that they all arrive hot and fresh for the customers.

I'm taking my sons camping this weekend with our church group. I've been put in charge of making the desserts tomorrow night, so I'm going to put together a large-scale dutch oven peach cobbler fest. I've got access to 7 or 8 dutch ovens, and I'm probably going to spend most of the evening preparing and cooking cobbler for between 60-70 men and boys. Camp cooking is lots of fun! :)

Not too shabby.


My Personality

Neuroticism	29
Extraversion	34
Openness to Experience	37
Agreeableness	80
Conscientiousness	73

You do not experience strong, irresistible cravings and consequently do not find yourself tempted to overindulge, however high levels of stress can lead to you feeling panic or confusion, but usually you cope with day to day pressures. You tend to feel overwhelmed by, and therefore actively avoid, large crowds. You often need privacy and time for yourself. You prefer the security and stability brought by conformity to tradition. You see no need for pretense or manipulation when dealing with others and are therefore candid, frank and sincere. People find it relatively easy to relate to you, however you are mostly a compassionate person, however you prefer to make objective judgments when possible. You are well-organized and like to live according to routines and schedules. Often you will keep lists and make plans.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report. The best Ugg Boots.

I've been tagged by kathrishali to write 10 random interesting things about myself. Okay, here goes:

1. I've been a computer programmer since I was age 7, when my dad brought home that now-ancient Apple II computer with the black-and-green screen. He taught me how to set up, code, and run some simple programs in BASIC, and I was hooked from there on out.

2. Whenever I learn a new computer language, I never consider myself proficient in it until I use it to build some sort of a game. Thus, I have built games in BASIC, Logo, Visual Basic, Microsoft Access (using VBA), Java, and C++. Unfortunately, I have learned some other programming languages in my days where I discovered it was *impossible* to create any form of a game (i.e. COBOL, SAS, JCL). In my mind, if you can't program a game with it, it's not worth learning.

3. I've been a musician for most of my life. I sing, play the saxophone, direct congregational singing in church, have been a church choir director twice, and even served once as the music director for an entire stage production. I was in band, choir, marching band, and jazz band all through junior high, high school, and college.

4. I am very serious about the word 'love'. When I was a teen, I saw folks going around saying 'I Love You' to their girlfriend/boyfriend and then break up with them the next week. I promised myself I would never say it to a woman unless I truly understood it and meant it.

5. I was voted 'Babe Magnet with the Biggest Harem' by my fellow band members in high school, and 'Most Likely to Become a Minister' by my senior class.

6. I once broke a bone in my hand (boxer's fracture from accidentally running into the table), but didn't get it checked by the doctor until two days later. I took 2 high school final tests with a broken hand (I ended up doing one of them with my left hand because my right hand hurt so much).

7. I don't drink alcohol at all, but I am a root beer connoisseur.

8. I have loved stories about animals (anthro and normal) all my life. Some of my favorite stories when I was a child were Disney's Robin Hood, The Secret of Nimh, Watership Down, Where the Red Fern Grows (made me cry), most books by Jim Kjelgaard, and the entire Chronicles of Narnia Series.

9. I've been an amateur writer since I was a teen. I've written poetry and stories off an on for years. A poem I wrote about the last time I saw my grandmother before she died was submitted (without my knowledge) to the school poetry contest, where it won first prize. Just this past summer, my story 'Ruled by the Water' won 3rd prize in a short story contest.

10. I worked as an I.T. analyst for ExxonMobil for 3 years, my first job out of college. Though I was bored out of my mind and I switched careers after that, I did gain something very valuable from my experience. As part of employee development, the company sent me to a workshop where they analyzed what motivates me and helps me to feel passionate about what I'm doing. I discovered that I'm not motivated by money, power, fame, position, or anything like that. I am motivated by 1) the ability to make an impact, to make a difference, and 2) by the ability to impress others by what I do.

Last week I attended my Grandfather's funeral. Much like my Grandmother's funeral back in '91, it was a joyous family reunion. Certainly, there were some tears and sadness, but it was a very peaceful and mostly happy occasion. I was able to see some of my cousins, aunts, and uncles that I haven't seen in a long time--John, Rusty, Adam, Randall, Rebecca, Jodi, Sarah, Suzie, Todd, Heather, Theresa, Emily, (gosh I have a big family don't I...?), Kathy, Kelly, Joe, Ben, and many others.

I was reminded of some of the great things about my Grandfather, and I learned things about him that I never knew. I knew he had worked for Boeing for many years, but I didn't know that he was one of the production supervisors on the B-17, B-25, and B-52 bomber planes during World War 2! He was drafted into the army three times, but all three times the government retracted his draft because they decided he was more valuable producing bombers than being a foot soldier. After the war, he was the production manager for the Boeing 707--he knew every inch, every bolt, every wire on that plane.

An interesting tidbit about the funeral--here it was, first week of april, day before the funeral was nice and sunny. The morning of the funeral, it starts SNOWING. By the time the chapel service was done, there were 2 inches of snow on the ground. As pallbearers, the eight of us carried his casket through the snow (in our nice suits and shoes) to the gravesite. My father (who is currently the Bishop of that congregation) gave the graveside dedication, and my brother Chris played 'Amazing Grace' on his penny whistle.

It was very nice to be with family again, and though we'll all miss him, we know that my Grandfather is happy now, happier than he's been in a very long time.

For all of you who have kept up on my blog, you'll remember that I made a post several months ago about my paternal grandfather. We had expected him to pass away soon, and we were surprised that he recovered and continued to cling to life.

Well, last week, he had a fall while attempting to use the bathroom. He was examined multiple times and the nurse didn't find anything broken, but he was apparently in quite a bit of pain. That, coupled with the fact that he had very little ability to communicate, move about, nor do pretty much anything for himself, made him pretty miserable. I guess he finally decided that it was time to go.

Yesterday, my mother called me here at the office and told me that he passed away very peacefully in his bed, surrounded by his children and grandchildren. My mother held his hand as he took his final breaths.

While we knew that this was inevitable, and we're all happy that he is no longer suffering, it is still very sobering that it has actually happened. Max Carlton Wilson is a very good man, and he is now in a much better place. He is free from the effects of his stroke, from his weakened body, from his inability to speak more than a word or two at a time. Though we will miss him, I look forward to the day when I will see him again.

Good bye for now, Grandpa.

Wow I can't believe it! That was really fast. In my previous post, I ranted about Sony charging an extra fee to not install a bunch of junk on a laptop. Apparently there was such a media uproar that Sony decided to retract that fee and do it for free.

Sony has actually done something right for a change. True, they did it because of media pressure, but they still did it!

Click here for the announcement.

For all of you who have ever bought a pre-configured laptop, you know that most of them come with pre-installed crap software for games, software, and other junk that you don't want and don't need.

Lo and behold! Sony has finally seen the light and fixed the problem. For a simple additional fee of $50, they won't pre-install any crapware on your new laptop.

Click here for the story.

I can't *FREAKING* believe this! Where do they get the gall to charge customers an additional fee just to *not* install crap on a new laptop?!

Greetings and salutations from snowy Logan, Utah! Kimberly and I traded turns driving during most of Friday night, and we arrived here at Kimberly's parents' home at about 12:30 PM on Saturday. Why did it take so long? Well, at about 1:00 AM, I could tell that I was starting to fall asleep, so I pulled off into a gas station and zonked out for about an hour and a half before Kimberly woke up and started driving again. Moreover, we stopped for about a half-hour in Provo to see my parents before driving the last two hours up to Logan.

Yesterday (Sunday), Kimberly's youngest sister Karolyn gave her farewell talk in church--she has been called to serve as a missionary in Russia! She will enter the missionary training center on Wednesday, and after a 2-month training period she will head out to Russia for 16 months. We're all equally excited and freaked out for her.

It's been fun hanging out with Kimberly's family and extended family for the last couple of days. Today (monday), things should calm down quite a bit, and hopefully I'll get some time to write/draw/relax. (pshaw, fat chance.)

I've missed seeing snow during the winter. After living in Houston, TX for 5 years, and now 3 years in Southern California, I've spent many winters with no snow at all. :( Yeah, you can say what you like about snow being cold, dirty, slushy, messy, etc., and I would probably agree with you, but I really love waking up in the morning and seeing the world blanketed in a beautiful white.

Well that's it, folks. It looks like Sony has won the High-Def war with their Blu-Ray technology. For those of you who don't know, Toshiba has officially dropped support for the HD format, and many of the biggest movie production houses (such as Warner Bros.) have announced that they will move exclusively to Blu-Ray.

View the Toshiba Announcement

So how do I feel about this? Frankly, I don't care much for high-definition movies. I dont' have a high-def T.V., and I don't plan to get one. I am content with my DVDs, and as long as I can buy my movies in DVD format, I will be content.

However--those of you who have been watching my blog for a while will know that I am fairly anti-Sony, as far as video games and game consoles go. For a bit of background: Sony launched its latest gaming console, the PS3, back in November of 2006. Ever since then, the PS3 has had a dismal sales record, consistently trailing behind the XBox 360 and Nintendo's Wii and DS handheld. As far as I've seen, the PS3 has pretty graphics and sound, but most of the games I've seen go that far and no further. The games look absolutely gorgeous but they're really not much fun to play. Add to that fact that the PS3 carries a $600 price tag (as opposed to XBox's $400 and Nintendo's $250), and it looked to me that the PS3 was going down the tubes.

HOWEVER!

Now that it appears that blu-ray technology has won out over HD, consumers are finally free to purchase a high-def player for their home, without worrying about whether it will soon be obsolete. Thus, folks have been going out and shopping for a blu-ray player and discovering, to their dismay, that most blu-ray players on the market cost $1000 or more. Oh despair!

"BUT WAIT!" Says Mr. average consumer. "What's this? This PS3 thing comes equipped with a blu-ray player? And it only costs $600? Hot dang, that's great! I'll take it!"

So, there has been a sudden spat of PS3 sales, finally boosting the game console's sales numbers. For the first time since its release, the PS3 out-sold the XBox 360 in January 2008 (it still trails sales of the Nintendo Wii).

It makes me cringe, because now I expect Sony to take the opportunity to announce that their game console is a huge success, and that gamers everywhere are flocking to buy it. The reality is, consumers are buying the PS3 because it just happens to be the cheapest Blu-Ray player out there, and the buyers don't care about the games. (*gasp* This thing plays games too?)

*SIGH*

Okay, done ranting.

Saturday morning I got up early so I could go meet a friend from PlanetFurry for breakfast. Kellan Meig'h (as he calls himself) is an old Scottish war horse, and he brought his daughter along. We went to Coco's and had a good hearty breakfast while we discussed a wide range of topics. Kellan is an author of sorts, and has written several stories of his own that can be found on The Raccoon's Bookshelf. It was great to meet him and his daughter, and I hope to see them again some day.



At 10:00 that morning, I was delighted to attend a live animal event! A company called 'Leopards, Unlimited' brought a number of wild felines into a meeting room for all to see and take pictures. While we watched, they told us about each animal, their habits, and special traits. They reminded us that, while these cats appear to be loving and cuddly like domestic cats, they are still wild animals and should not be approached by anyone but professional handlers.

My favorite was the cheetah! I had no idea that a cheetah purrs and meows like a domestic cat, but there it was, with a low meow and the loudest purring I've ever heard. As it turns out, this very cheetah was the motion capture model that was used for the computer-generated cheetahs shown in 'The Chronicles of Narnia.'


They also brought in a bobcat, lynx, african serval, and cougar.




Later that morning, I attended a class that talked about dragons, their biology, legends, behaviors, and their affect on modern fantasy.


I decided to go back through the dealer's den so I could convince myself to buy some stuff from Bill Holbrook or Dave Simpson, but my frugality won over once again. However, while I was there, I ran into none other than Max Blackrabbit himself! For those of you who don't know, Max Blackrabbit is the creator of one of the most iconic and well-known characters in the furry fandom: Zig Zag!


That afternoon, I attended a seminar on "Introduction to the Gaming Industry", where a professional game reviewer game and spoke to a bunch of us about how to start a career in the Gaming Industry. Why did I go? I guess I was feeling a bit like a show-off, but I wanted to support the seminar and offer a few tips of my own. I passed out a few business cards, and met some aspiring designers and artists that asked quite a few questions.

Once that was done, it was time for the fursuit parade. There were more than 360 people there dressed in fursuits! I heard (though this wasn't confirmed) that we broke the Guiness World Record for the largest number of 'mascots' gathered in one place at a time. Here are a few pictures from the parade:




Later that evening, I attended a workshop on "Enhancing your communication skills." It was listed as part of the writing track, so I thought it would be about how to better communicate your ideas through writing. As it turns out, the workshop was mis-listed; it was about verbal communication and how to overcome personal and social communication barriers. Though it was not what we expected, Desert_Wolf and I stayed for the workshop.

It ended up much like one of the communication role-playing sessions we had back in my management communications classes back in college. I thought the psychologist who ran the workshop was very well-prepared, and she helped a lot of us to recognize our own personal communication barriers--I realized that when I confront someone, I often use the passive voice and say "People don't like it when you do such-and-such", instead of coming out directly and being clear with my feelings.

Later that evening was the WILDEST game of chess I have ever played! They laid a 30' x 30' chessboard outside on the parking lot, and a bunch of us played as the individual chess pieces. I was white bishop #2. Each piece received a manilla envelope that contained a number of poker chips for hit points (i.e. the amount of damage you could sustain before you were killed), and a number of 'special power' cards that could be used on your turn. I had powers like 'raise dead', 'heal other', 'destroy undead', etc.

The way the game worked was that a game master had a card for every piece in the game. During each round, he would shuffle the deck and then read off each piece one by one (thus giving every piece a turn each round). We moved the same as regular chess pieces. Combat was determined by rock-paper-scissors, resulting in lost poker chips (hit points) every time you lost. Thus, it was possible to be attacked and still come out the winner.

The players themselves totally got into their characters, with our king and queen stealing the show. The queen was dressed to kill, and she totally hammed up her part, often flirting with the other pieces. I played the pious clergyman, making comments such as, "My Lady! That is highly inappropriate behavior!" We finally lost the game when our king used a teleport spell and attacked the enemy king directly. Unfortunately, the enemy king had a power that boosted his combat luck, and our king was quickly defeated. Despite our loss, I had a marvellous time.

Our king and queen!

Deep into the game, the enemy black knight 'trash talks' our white pawns:


I walked back to the hotel that night quite happy, geeking out about the whole experience.

Continuing my FurCon 08 report:

I got up early on Friday morning, and was delighted to discover that the FairField Inn provided breakfast as part of the hotel room fee. Not just the wimpy little continental breakfast with a mini-muffin and fruit; this was a full breakfast bar with eggs, sausage, bacon, bagels, cereal, oatmeal, juice, milk, you name it. My roommates and I ate very well in the mornings.

When the con opened at 10:00 A.M., I attended an art class of all things. The class was on how to draw basic anatomy (body shapes, hands, heads, eyes, etc.). I brought along a brand new sketch book, the first sketch book I have ever bought for myself. The class was delightful; I learned a lot of great stuff about how to draw characters with correct proportions, and I gained some good tips on how to bring out character depth by varying the thickness of your lines.

After that, I went to the dealer's room. Now this was one of the main reasons I went to the con--I was really hoping to meet some of my favorite online comic artists. I wasn't disappointed! I got to meet:

*Susan Rankin (A Doemain of our Own)
*Jon 'The Gneech' Robey (The Suburban Jungle)
*Eric Schwartz (Sabrina Online)
*Bill Holbrook (Kevin and Kell)
*Dave Simpson (Ozy and Millie)

Susan Rankin and Jon Robey graciously allowed me to take their pictures.


I bought Sue's latest book, and she signed it for me! GLEE! I also bought a button from The Gneech that says 'Kiss the Geek', which I now proudly wear on my jacket.

I was really tempted to buy stuff from Bill Holbrook and from Dave Simpson, but my overly-frugal nature took over and I didn't. Now I kinda wish I had. :(

At 1:00, I met up with Desert_Wolf and attended a class all about Foxes. We discussed their nature, habitat, characteristics, and the legends and myths surrounding them. I didn't know that foxes are much more like cats than canines!

A bunch of 'foxes' showed up at the class as well...


Before the next class, I wandered around the con hallways and lobby, taking pictures of some cool fursuiters. I found a bunch of bunnies chasing around a dog that was holding a carrot on a stick.


I also found a very well-done fursuit of one of my favorite furry characters, Zig Zag! Big props to kathrishali for her fursuit. She later went on to star in a couple of the Furry Night live performances.


The next workshop I attended was "Bad Dog Boot Camp: The Fundamental Story." This was a writing workshop, talking all about the basic building blocks of a good story. I was rather impressed at the idea of the old Greek 5-act play, and how those five acts can be readily applied to most good modern literature in some form or another. I realized that my own stories lack quite a bit of structure; I will look at ways to incorporate these ideas in the future. The workshop was taught by Alex Vance of Bad Dog Books.

Later that evening, I decided to duck in on a puppet show. The puppeteers were pretty amateur, but it was fun to see them anyway, and I enjoyed the songs and improv.


I got recruited to be part of the 'Furmily' Feud game show that went on that evening, hosted by none other than The Gneech himself! It was just like Family Feud, with the lights, music, answer board, and the big dreaded buzz sound when you gave an incorrect answer. The questions covered aspects of the furry fandom, such as "Name a food you shouldn't eat while wearing a fur suit", and "Name a popular furry video game character." I loved it! I went on to win $12.50 in prize money. :)


Finally, the last event of the evening was the dance. Though I went and enjoyed the music and watched some cool fursuiters, I didn't go out and dance. Maybe because the music wasn't right, but gosh, who would expect to hear a waltz with this crowd?



I was especially impressed with this one, who was dancing in full horse hooves!


After a long, fun, and exhausting day, Desert_Wolf and I walked back to our hotel in the rain. Oh, did I mention that it RAINED FOR NEARLY THE ENTIRE WEEKEND? It was windy, too. My poor umbrella didn't do much to cover the both of us, and my tail got a bit wet by the time we made it back to the hotel room.

Ok, I'm at home now, so I can post the con badges that SherylWhiteWolf made for me. I was very happy with them! Moreover, I only asked for one, but she made two for me.

WOA! What can I say about my first con? I am sad that it's already done and over with. I had such a fantastic time that I don't think I can post everything in one entry. So, I'll post a day at a time.

On thursday morning, I picked up my ride shares, Sheryl and Justin. Sheryl was VERY kind and drew not one, but two con badges for me! I don't have them scanned yet, but she did a great job on both of them. I'll scan them and post them in a later entry.

We tried to head up I-5, but we were stopped dead at grapevine pass: it was completely snowed out. So, we backtracked and took the 126 over to the 101, and headed up to San Jose that way. A much prettier drive along the beach, and we only lost about an hour of travel time.

We got to the con itself around 4:30 PM, and I checked into the FairField inn (which is about a block away from the con over at the Double Tree). I put on my tail and walked over to the con.

I quickly realized how valuable it is to pre-register for the con! I went through the registration line in about 5 minutes, while the line of folks who hadn't pre-registered had about a 2.5 hour waiting time. Woa.


I saw someone dressed in a GREAT Willy Wonka suit, so I snapped a pic of him as well. You can see the line of those who didn't pre-register stretched out behind him.



Once I was registered, I ran into Desert_Wolf, my hotel roommate. We spent most of the con together--he is a great guy to hang out with. He's the one on the right in the picture here:


That evening, I met plenty of fursuiters, but there was one in particular that I recognized from FurAffinity. It was a really good suit, so I got a picture of the two of us together:


That evening, I met up with my other two roommates, Airstrip and Rabbit. Unfortunately, Rabbit had a couple of friends that had roommates drop out, and he wanted to help them out so they didn't lose money on their rooms. I told him that I felt he should keep his previous commitments, but that the decision was his. Fortunately, I was able to do a quick post on the FurCon forums and got Jupiter to come and take up the last roommate slot the following night (so I was only out about $20).

At the initial 'Welcome to FurCon' meet and greet, I met quite a few furs, such as RaveHusky and BushyCat, and I was again impressed by how friendly the furry community is. Later, Desert_Wolf and I went back to the hotel room and scanned the con program to decide what we wanted to do during our stay.

I'll post about Friday later.

It's finished! Just in time for the 'con tomorrow!

WHEW! I spent most of friday night working on this tail, and I've got quite a bit to show for it now. I started early friday evening after the kids were in bed.

First, I wanted the tail to have a 4" diameter at the thickest part, and a 2" diameter at the tip. Using the math I learned in school (yes, there ARE practical uses for school math!), I calculated that each side of the tail's material should be 6.2" at the wide end, and 3.1" at the narrow end.

Using four sheets of 8.5"x11" paper taped together, I drew out a pattern for each side of the tail's main body. Here's what it looked like after pinning and cutting:

Patterned and Cut

I went ahead and laid out all of the unfinished spines along the top side of the tail to get an idea of where I wanted each one to lie.

Spines laid out #1

I fed one side of the main body through the sewing machine twice--I laid the stitches about 1/2" apart, creating a channel that would end up along the underside of the tail. I wanted to run some galvanized wire through there later to give the tail some structure. After sewing up one side, I turned all of the spines right-side-out and laid them more or less where they were going to end up.

Spines laid out #2

Once that was done, I folded the main tail body over the spines and pinned everything like crazy to keep it all in place.

CRAZY PINS!

The next part is what took up the bulk of the night. I spent hours sewing, pinning/unpinning, and stitching by hand in order to stitch the top side of the tail together without sewing each spine shut. That meant that I had to sew in between each spine, then sew each side of each spine individually to the tail's body. I did make a couple of mistakes, and I had to pick the stitches out of spine #6 and re-do it, but this is how it ended up by the time I went to bed at 4:30 AM:

All attached

On saturday, my wife graciously got out her glue gun and glued a smooth little nub on the end of a length of 14-gague galvanized wire. I ran this wire through the channel on the underside of the tail. With that in place, I can now bend the wire and give the tail some shape and structure, instead of having it hang straight down.

Wire Pic

Next came the stuffing. I used up the whole bag of batting that you see in the pic below:

Stuffing it

It came out just about right for filling the entire tail! Now that it's all stuffed, it's looking very close to the finished product. Before the convention starts (this THURSDAY!), I need to close off the wide end and create a couple of denim belt loops so I can hang it on my belt.

I finished the last tail spines this morning, and I wanted to post a picture of my progress. I've attached the numbered patterns to each of them. All but the largest are still turned inside out; I've turned the first one right-side out to show what the final spine will look like. You can also see the green cloth that will be used for main body of the tail.

For those of you who may not know, I'm heading up to Further Confusion (FurCon) in San Jose next week. This will be my first furry convention, and I'm really excited about it. It will be a 5-day event, with tons of different things going on--art, comics, writing, mix & mingle, food, gaming, dances, parades, etc. From what I hear, this is the biggest furry convention in the U.S., and there will be plenty of opportunities to meet new friends there.

I've got a hotel room booked about 1/3 mile away from the convention center, so I'll get a chance to do some good walking back & forth without having to walk too far. Though I plan to drive up to the con, I don't plan to drive my car around locally for con events (waste of gas, nowhere to park, etc.). I've got three roommates whom I've never met except online, and I'm even going to pick up another con-goer in Anaheim so we can split the cost of gas on the way up/back.

Some people there at the con are going to bring fur suits (i.e. dress up like their favorite animal characters). In the spirit of the event, I've decided to make a dragon tail for myself that I can wear to the con.

It has been YEARS since I've sewn anything at all. Probably the last time I seriously sewed something was back in my junior year of high school when I made a black wizard's robe for myself so I could dress up as Raistlin Majere for Halloween.

Last saturday, I went and bought a yard of deep green material, a half-yard of bright yellow (for the tail spines), and a quarter-yard of denim (to make loops so I can attach it to a belt). I have no pattern to use, so I sat down and started doodling to come up with plans of what I wanted it to look like. I decided that I want it to be between 2.5 and 3 feet long, with 8 tail spines running along the top center of the tail. Originally, I thought to make all of the tail spines the same size, but Kimberly pointed out that they should probably become progressively smaller as the tail tapers out toward the end.

Once I came up with a design that I liked, the geek in me started calculating the exact size for each tail spine. I drew up a 3-inch by 3-inch pattern for the largest, then scanned it into Photoshop so I could mess around with the size and make the patters for the others. I realized, to my dismay, that what you see on the screen in Photoshop and what comes out on the printer aren't necessarily the same thing! I discovered that I had to set the resolution to 250 pixels per inch in order to make it print out the same size that I had originally drawn it.

Once I had printed out patterns for each of the 8 spines, I set to work cutting the material for the first one. I laid out the yellow material folded over so I could cut two versions from the same pattern. Once that was done, I ran it through Kimberly's sewing machine to stitch the two sides together (leaving the bottom open so I could stuff it with padding).

On my first attempt, it turned out that I didn't leave enough material around the edges to make a proper seam, so I ended up with large holes in between some of the stitches. On my second attempt, I realized too late that I had laid the two material pieces together right-side out, so after sewing it and turning it inside-out, the wrong side of the material was on the outside of the spine. SIGH. I took Kimberly's picker and carefully picked out every stitch so I could set the pieces correctly and re-sew it.

I remember now how much skill it takes to really do a good job at sewing.

Now that I've made my mistakes and gone somewhat up the learning curve, this morning turned out much better. I was able to get 6 out of the 8 spines completed, leaving the two smallest ones yet undone. I should be able to get those finished either tonight or tomorrow, and then I can start on the main body of the tail. I'll post updates as work progresses.

Well, the holidays are done, the kids are back in school, and everything should be getting back to normal. Right? Pshaw. The normal need not apply.

First off, this darned sinus infection is still with me. This is something I get nearly every year around this time--my sinuses get infected, and they drip-drip-drip into the base of my neck, and cause a constant tickle that makes me cough. I went in to the doctor on the Friday before Christmas, and he prescribed Amoxicillin (antibiotic to kill the infection) and Promethezyne (supposedly a heavy cough syrup to help kill the coughs). Neither one of them worked--after 11 days of taking them, the infection was still there, and the cough syrup did absolutely nothing to take away the cough.

Last year when I got this same thing, the same doctor prescribed Zythromicin, and it cleared up the infection in a week and a half. Cough gone. This year, despite the fact that he knew what had worked in the past, he prescribed something different, and it failed. When I called him last week to tell him about the situation, he still didn't go with what worked. Instead, he called in a prescription for a heavier cough syrup and for Claritin-D. He is convinced that the Amoxicillin worked and that I've just got some lingering congestion.

DUH, DOC! I've had this condition for more than 10 years now, I think I know what the problem is! I've tried repeatedly telling him this on multiple occasions, but he just doesn't listen.

(sigh)

I went ahead and purchased the new prescriptions, giving him the benefit of the doubt. I am now in the 5th day of taking the new prescription, and I am still coughing, still feel the tickle in the base of my neck, same as before. Admittedly, the heavier cough syrup is making a small dent in the coughs, though it makes me dizzy and a bit nauseated, and I don't feel comfortable driving. (Thank goodness my carpool is willing to do all of the driving this week while I take the new meds.)

I'm going to complete the prescription, then I'm going to call my doctor and tell him that he's fired. I'm sick of doctors that experiment on you, trying this & trying that instead of simply doing what has been proven to work in the past. I'm going to go find another doctor who will listen to me.

Grrr I'm sick of coughing!

*ahem*

On another note, I get to sing a solo in church this saturday for Stake Conference. I was supposed to sing this solo last September, but the visiting church authority changed the meeting schedule around and my solo got dropped. No problem; it was moved to the next Stake Conference. I get to sing 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing'--a very nice piece, I might add. Not difficult, really, but nicely arranged and containing a great message. Hopefully I'll be able to sing properly on Saturday without these dumb coughs getting in the way!