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Dude, I'd totally just blow it.

My spring break isn't until the 21st, and I get to spend some 30 glorious hours driving.

Pookie and I (and 2 others) are driving up to visit her ma in Washington, and then I have to drive to LA and back after dropping her in SC to cart the rest of the crew back to school.

Yay, Oregon and their fucking slow parking attendants and lack of self-serve gas.

(Also, yo, peoples. Haven't been around much lately.)

I hate to sound skeptical, and this doesn't really affect me per say, but Fanime really is approaching fast, and what are any new maids going to do about uniforms? If we wait much longer, will there be enough time for any new maids to order their uniforms and make sure they fit correctly (as we had some issues with that last year)?

So nothing's changed.

The commentary isn't really necessary.

I hate to sound skeptical, and this doesn't really affect me per say, but Fanime really is approaching fast, and what are any new maids going to do about uniforms? If we wait much longer, will there be enough time for any new maids to order their uniforms and make sure they fit correctly (as we had some issues with that last year)?

Sucrose and I will be going as Jan and Luke Valentine. Figure out a time and date and we'll be sure to wear them on the appropriate day.

I don't think he means not to hold two reservations if you're housing 8 people, he means people who double-book either out of indecisiveness or whatever, like they have only 2 people, but they have a reservation for both Marriott and Hilton, or for a regular double-double room and a suite. Then right before the "You have to pay $150 for the deposit for cancelling on such short notice" date, they release the one they don't need.

Or at least that's how I interpreted it. I don't see why there would be any problem with holding multiple reservations if you actually need all those rooms for your group. (I myself have in the past held 4 dbl-dbl reservations, because I was responsible for housing some 15 people.)

You'll probably get a better response if you give people some idea what you're in the market for at the very least (school uniforms, military, psycho gravityless freakery, etc.). Also, you may want to post your inquiry on a more cosplay-centric site, such as cosplay.com. They have a Spam board specifically for people selling things/requesting things/commissions in both directions. If it's an involved costume, you really should get cracking on it now or you'll be up a creek since a lot of commissioners require months, so at the very least you'll end up paying a rush fee.

I've heard that they technically work, but the silver filament ends up flaking off and you end up with just a light gray wig in the end, no metallic shine, which may still work for your purposes. It occurs to me, if you wanted it to actually have the silver shine to it, you could try sharpie-ing it and then sealing it with hairspray, but you'd have to be careful about it so you don't end up with stiff hair. (Assuming it has any length to it. If it's a short/specifically styled wig, having a wig that could stand up to a hurricane without a stray strand my be right up your alley.)

The good thing is that even if you end up doing it and disliking it, sharpie dying comes off if you give the wig an alcohol bath.

I think somebody wasn't doing their job right, like they didn't lock the cage right. Mabye thats how it got out  ???

It was a grotto. Not only that, but it was surrounded by a 15ft. wide moat, and a 20ft. tall wall around it.

Well, not to allude to tigers jumping 20ft up from water, but in regards to the moat at least, tigers actually are strong and frequent swimmers so that wouldn't have been much of an obstacle.

haha i wonder how many people we can fit in a room

The maximum should be at least 6 people in the room. I know that's my maximum. I wouldn't go over 6 people though because fire safety hazard. It just depends how much comfort you want in the room or how cheaper the room you want.

Actually, the real answer is four, six is far too many.  The formula for the maximum number of bodies in a hotel room would be the following, multiple by the number of beds by two.  Therefore, two beds will get you four bodies.  You can't get a rollway in a double/double rooms (safety reasons), hence you can't get six bodies (legally) in a room.

The maid staff this year will be on the outlook for people who are stuffing bodies in rooms. 

Privacy signs mean little or nothing to the maid staff, because they need to clean the rooms, whether you like it or not.

They also have to clean up after you leave and the mess from six or ten bodies in a room, after three or four days takes longer to do than if it's done on a daily basis.

Craige...

In regards to the statement about maids being on alert, I don't condone stuffing a billion people into a disgusting hotel room for 4 days by any means, but to what degree will the maids being on the lookout?

I ask simply because in the past, and potentially this year, while not overpacking the rooms, I have had roommates who are simply uncomfortable sharing a bed (in the case of double/double rooms) with another person, so they would bring a sleeping bag or an inflatable mattress and set it up in a spare corner to sleep on. Also, as myself and several of my rommates are avid cosplayers with different costumes each day, we... well, we have a lot of baggage. Garment bags for each outfit and several suitcases for sleepwear and makeup and emergency items and all that. Would the presence of such a setup and abundance of luggage get the front desk called and have an angry representative knocking on our door taking luggage inventory and a head count, or would action be taken only in the instance of OBVIOUS overstuffing, i.e. walking in on 12 people sleeping on the floor and 20 suitcases and a bathroom that boggles the mind?

Glad to help!

The cosplay.com Wigs and Hair forum is full of useful information, tips, tricks, and techniques, as is the forum on Katie Bair's site, pettingzoowigs.com, if you want to learn more.

BunofGovt, I think you mean toupee clips. I've heard about their magical powers before, but never used them myself. They're especially good if your wig has a big skintop, which you can't hairpin through.

As for pincurls, what you do is take a section of your hair, like a tiny ponytail, and then you just want to twist it and twist it and twist it until it starts to curl back on itself. Once it starts to do that, wind it in a little coil, like a cinnamon bun against your scalp. Then take two bobby pins (yes, bobby pins) and X them over/through the coil. You wanna do this all over your head, until all of your hair is in these little coils. Some people need to make a whole bunch (because their hair is so long that each individual coil gets bulky fast) but most people who don't have hair down to their butt can get away with just enough to get it all up off their neck.

Pincurling actually makes it easier for the wig and wig cap to grip, since all the points from the bobby pins are easier to snag on to. If your hair is pincurled, then you almost can just use the hairpins as staples, just shoving them into the little coils under the bobby pins, since then it can't slip back.

Yessss, my area. :3

You want to get a wig cap, any store that sells wigs will carry them, or you can make them yourself out of pantyhose. It's essentially a little nylon sock you pull over your head and stuff all of your hair into. When you do this, make sure that you're distributing your hair evenly all over your head under the wig cap, not just in one big ol' lump at the back of your head. (Some people who have REALLY long hair feel the need to pincurl or french braid their hair under the cap to get it all in there, but you shouldn't have any problem if it's only shoulder length.)

Now, since it's a long wig, you're gonna need to use hairpins to secure it, or the weight of the hair in the back will be pulling it back all day long, which sucks royally. If it were short, sometimes people can manage with just the natural grip of the elastic bands on the inside of a wig and the friction of the nylon cap, but anything longer than shoulder length is gonna need to be secured.

Some people have trouble with this, so let me clarify; you want HAIRpins, not BOBBYpins. Bobbypins are the ones that open like an alligator's mouth, with one smooth side and one wavy side. Hairpins are like a U shape, with both prongs wavy. And when you use hair pins, you don't just shove them in like staples, they work through opposing forces.

As for how to actually use hairpins... This is always a little hard to explain without a demonstration in person, but lemme try and word this right. Say you have the wig on, and you want to add a hairpin around the hairline (which is actually where you want to put several, so it won't slide back. Generally stick them all around the edges of the wig and you'll be good, and you can never have too many.). You want to start by sticking the hairpin through the wig just straight down towards your scalp (as in perpendicular to the ground). Once it's just through the wig and juuust through the wig cap, you want to tilt the bend of the pin back (sending the points forward, towards your hairline) and push it in farther, until you feel it touch your scalp, about halfway down the pin (by which point it should almost be flush with your wig). Then you want to push it the other way, so that the bend part is now the closest to your hairline, pushing the points (don't worry, they're tipped in rubber so it shouldn't hurt) back towards the crown of your head, dragging along your actual scalp. Then simply push the pin in all the way.

...did that make any sense? I hope so. If not, maybe someone else can illuminate you further or I'll bust out the crappy MS Paint diagrams! But anyway, you want to just shove a buncha hairpins all around your hairline, and you should honestly be able to do a cartwheel without your wig coming off. (I myself have bounced around a hotel room TRYING to get a wig to fall off, and couldn't manage it. <3 hairpins)

uh... yeah. That's a huge block of text there.

I'm not sure quite what you're looking for (it's damn HARD to find a reference picture of any of the Org.'s shoes!), but someone on Cosplay.com posted their old boots on Ebay for cheap since they're used.

Boots

They're size 8-9 in Mens, though, so if that doesn't fit you're probably stuck modding your own. Cosworx (cosplay.com's store) carries oodles of boots, though boots in general are kinda pricey.

I hear that the Marriot is generally more crowded than the Hilton, and there's correspondingly more.. action?  activities?  there with the people.  I've only stayed at the Hilton, and it was fine, though the elevators sometimes get congested with people.

Most of the videos are at the Marriot along with a few other activities. That's why it's the most crowded place.

Yeah, though I heard tell that they're trying to spread things out more evenly throughout the convention center and utilize the whole space better this year.

The Hilton says it's only available from May 23-25 for double bed rooms, but the system allows booking until the 26th...

I think it means that it's only available through the night of the 25th, thusly you would leave/check-out on the 26th.

I have nothing better to do in the morning. :3

I'm not sure as to the whole deletion issue, but I know that at the very least, since you're unpaid, you won't actually be registered (AKA have a badge printed) come con time, so I can't see why anything bad would come of you just leaving it there unpaid.

Why would you need to delete it? Far as I'm aware, if you don't pay by a price deadline, then the registration is still perfectly valid, your price just goes up. Your outstanding balance or whatever just increases, they use and keep the same information.

I don't believe that Masquerade registration has opened up yet. There are several things, like hotel reservations, that are still being worked out right now and will be posted to the public for sign-ups later on. Just check back later.

I don't quite understand why you jumped from "not up right now (some 7+ months prior)" to "at-con registration."

I got a stack of them in the mail the other day, but was a bit surprised to find that they seemed to have randomly decided who got one and who didn't. I was the leader of a 9-person group reg, and I got 5 programs in the mail, not including one actually adressed to me. o_O Any idea what's up?