In a message dated 7/13/2004 6:59:04 PM Central Daylight Time,
bruno@soulmasque.com writes:

> I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s never
> been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than to
> just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would be
> nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things at CC;
> masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels. I
> think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would be the
> best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.

This method works well with hotels that ask “So what happens at your
function?”
Henry

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Jul 12, 2004, at 7:55 PM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> Andy’s comments about possible age discrimination are a bit
> disconcerting,
> though…. What about the people who run the cons? They can’t be
> pups.

Maybe I’m just spacy, but I don’t remember saying anything about age
discrimination in western anime fandom. In western anime fandom,
“otaku” is a desirable classification.

Japanese culture looks down on any sort of “fannish” behavior in
adults, so adult fans and particularly adult con-runners who aren’t in
the publishing or entertainment industry (and thus have suitable
business interests) have to be pretty quiet about it. It’s not
something you even mention to your mundane coworkers or neighbors.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen
http://www.bovil.com/
“It’s not pink; it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.” –Manfred Pfirsich
Marie Rommel

Oh, argh, you’re right. Orguss came out at about the same period and had
something of the same art direction as Mospeda (looked like they would fit
in the same universe).

–Karen

At 05:04 PM 7/12/2004 -0700, you wrote:

>On Jul 10, 2004, at 11:31 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
> > From the 80’s
> > Robotech (combining the three shows Macross, Southern Cross, and
> > Orguss–I
> > never saw the Orguss phase)
>
>Super Dimesion Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross
>and Genesis Climber Mospaeda, actually. Badly edited and rewritten to
>create Robotech.
>
>Got the restored edition of SDF Macross a year or two ago, and it was
>really cool. Makes a lot more sense. Just got Mospaeda on disc, haven’t
>started watching it yet.
>
>–
>andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
>San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
>(Kevin’s)
>…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Some interesting food for thought…

Cheers,

Betsy

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: [ICG-D] handy hints
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 17:57:34 -0000
From: Susan Eisenhour <cfsje@ux1.cts.eiu.edu>
Reply-To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com
To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com

I was trying to figure the best way to save some of the helpful
things people have passed on in this list, and had a great idea.
Some CC committee ought to have one of the members troll through the
past messages and pull out useful, tricky, interesting, etc. things
mentioned here and compile a hand out as part of a registration
packet…or maybe as a fund-raiser before the con? Or maybe both?
Sort of a Hints from Heloise for the costumer.
I’d find it really useful, esp if it was indexed. So the next time I
need to paint plastic and vaguely remember a mention, I could go
look up “paint, plastic” and find the reference to Fusion.
Of course, these ought to be credited with the first person who
mentioned them. Maybe the date, too.
This is what happens when (retired) library techs do costumes.
Susan Eisenhour

Yahoo! Groups Links

—
—
Betsy R. Delaney
Web Mistress at large

************************************************************************
http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
************************************************************************

I am in the process of compiling an updated mailing list of potential
designers to target with a mass mailing for the CC-23 Future Fashion Design
Contest. I’m thinking of doing a mass mailing in early August, which will
give designers 60 days before deadline to send us designs.

The base list of about 100 names came from Fran Evans in California, and is
several years old (but still newer than my last list, which dates back to
CC-9). I’ve been able to update / confirm about half the addresses on it so
far, and have added the designer lists from CC-21 and CC-22. I’m now up to
148 names, 93 of them updated / confirmed.

If anyone has designer address data from other CC’s, please contact me, as
I am also in the process of trying to contact designers from all CC’s re
getting rights to use their design artwork on Costume-Con.org next to the
finished designs from the Fashion Show. Many of the designers from the
early Costume-Cons have moved / married / etc. and are proving difficult to
locate.

We should think about having an online place to “park” this designer list
from year to year so we don’t keep having to reinvent the wheel for each
Costume-Con. Could be in a non-public area of Costume-Con.org, could be on
the server associated with this group, ???

–Karen

On Jul 14, 2004, at 12:18 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> We should think about having an online place to “park” this designer
> list
> from year to year so we don’t keep having to reinvent the wheel for
> each
> Costume-Con. Could be in a non-public area of Costume-Con.org, could
> be on
> the server associated with this group, ???

There is a ‘database’ area in our yahoogroup; perhaps seting up a FFF
contact list there is a good solution.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runacc/database

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen
http://www.bovil.com/
“It’s not pink; it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.” –Manfred Pfirsich
Marie Rommel

Sounds like a valuable resource, but it would have to be accessible to a small group only, I think – FFF editors or whatever. There are some people who don’t like their info given out (for good reasons), such as Alison Kondo. It would be a shame to have some good FFF designers pull out because they were concerned about this. Runacc is a pretty limited group and might be acceptable to them.

Tina

—– Original Message —–
From: Ricky & Karen Dick<mailto:castleb@pulsenet.com>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 3:18 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] FFF Mailing List

<snip>
We should think about having an online place to “park” this designer list
from year to year so we don’t keep having to reinvent the wheel for each
Costume-Con. Could be in a non-public area of Costume-Con.org, could be on
the server associated with this group, ???

–Karen

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see the
list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.

Michael

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] FFF Mailing List

> On Jul 14, 2004, at 12:18 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
> > We should think about having an online place to “park” this designer
> > list
> > from year to year so we don’t keep having to reinvent the wheel for
> > each
> > Costume-Con. Could be in a non-public area of Costume-Con.org, could
> > be on
> > the server associated with this group, ???
>
> There is a ‘database’ area in our yahoogroup; perhaps seting up a FFF
> contact list there is a good solution.
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runacc/database

I don’t remember if it was here or on the D-list, but there was a discussion about changing the title of the SF/F Masquerade to appear more appealing to Cosplayers.

I have seen the following titles used at Anime conventions: Cosplay Contest, Cosplay Costume Contest, Costume Contest, Cosplay Skit Contest, Masquerade, and probably others.

I do not think that the title SF/F Masquerade would preclude them from entering. However, what about using Historical Masquerade and Grand Masquerade, as anything not historical?

Michael

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

That’s a good idea. It would go along with the newbie handouts that we’ve used from time to time.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: Betsy Delaney<mailto:bdelaney@hawkeswood.com>
To: Run a Costume-Con Mailing List<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 2:15 PM
Subject: [runacc] [Fwd: [ICG-D] handy hints]

Some interesting food for thought…

Cheers,

Betsy

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: [ICG-D] handy hints
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 17:57:34 -0000
From: Susan Eisenhour <cfsje@ux1.cts.eiu.edu<mailto:cfsje@ux1.cts.eiu.edu>>
Reply-To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com<mailto:ICG-D@yahoogroups.com>
To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com<mailto:ICG-D@yahoogroups.com>

I was trying to figure the best way to save some of the helpful
things people have passed on in this list, and had a great idea.
Some CC committee ought to have one of the members troll through the
past messages and pull out useful, tricky, interesting, etc. things
mentioned here and compile a hand out as part of a registration
packet…or maybe as a fund-raiser before the con? Or maybe both?
Sort of a Hints from Heloise for the costumer.
I’d find it really useful, esp if it was indexed. So the next time I
need to paint plastic and vaguely remember a mention, I could go
look up “paint, plastic” and find the reference to Fusion.
Of course, these ought to be credited with the first person who
mentioned them. Maybe the date, too.
This is what happens when (retired) library techs do costumes.
Susan Eisenhour

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:54 PM, Bruno wrote:

> I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see
> the
> list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
> manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.

Yahoogroups DBs export rather nicely, and the output can be sucked into
whatever software you choose for printing labels and form letters.

andy

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

On Jul 14, 2004, at 5:04 PM, Bruno wrote:

> I do not think that the title SF/F Masquerade would preclude them from
> entering. However, what about using Historical Masquerade and Grand
> Masquerade, as anything not historical?

On the ICG-D list, and I made a few points there…

We go with a genre-based breakdown, and I think that makes sense. There
are vastly different judging standards in historical competition and in
F&SF competition (even with regards to F&SF recreations).

Anime, manga and video games aren’t genres, they’re media. Recreations
based on the vast majority of anime and manga could fit into either the
F&SF or the Historical masquerade. Even most anime and manga with
modern settings have fantastic elements of some sort.

The only real glaring exception is sports dramas, and I have to say I
haven’t seen much evidence of people competing costumes from those.
People do cosplay those characters in the hall, but in cosplay circles
they’re even arguing about the validity of competing something that is
basically off-the-rack modern clothes.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

So based on a bunch of comments, I’ve added a “cosplay” flyer to the
stack
http://www.cc26.info/Posters/CC26.Fliers.pdf
Page 2 (yeah, the big 3.6mb flyer pack)

Note it’s not much different from the “anime” flyer but my sources say
this may be more attractive to the anime con crowd.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
“It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
–Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel

2nd most important safety device on my bike: the one beneath my right
hand
Most important safety device on my bike: the one inside my helmet

We’ve got a new bid committee member who will be at CCI handing out our
hall costume ribbons and talking up CC in general to folks at the con.
I’m going to make sure that Dany has a stack of the “mark your
calendar” fliers along with targeted fliers for the audience.

andy

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen
http://www.irlm.org/ – mailto:webmaster@irlm.org
“Anybody who takes this seriously deserves to”
— Donna Barr

Foamy the Squirrel
http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/rulesforthemasses.html

It’s coarse, it’s rude, and eminently appropriate for most convention
situations.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
“It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
–Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel

2nd most important safety device on my bike: the one beneath my right
hand
Most important safety device on my bike: the one inside my helmet

Andy —

Once again, you’re talking way over the heads of lots of us. What the h__k is a sports drama?!

Byron (the Ignorant)

—– Original Message —–
From: Andrew T Trembley<mailto:attrembl@bovil.com>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 8:50 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Masquerade names

On Jul 14, 2004, at 5:04 PM, Bruno wrote:
> I do not think that the title SF/F Masquerade would preclude them from
> entering. However, what about using Historical Masquerade and Grand
> Masquerade, as anything not historical?

On the ICG-D list, and I made a few points there…

We go with a genre-based breakdown, and I think that makes sense. There
are vastly different judging standards in historical competition and in
F&SF competition (even with regards to F&SF recreations).

Anime, manga and video games aren’t genres, they’re media. Recreations
based on the vast majority of anime and manga could fit into either the
F&SF or the Historical masquerade. Even most anime and manga with
modern settings have fantastic elements of some sort.

The only real glaring exception is sports dramas, and I have to say I
haven’t seen much evidence of people competing costumes from those.
People do cosplay those characters in the hall, but in cosplay circles
they’re even arguing about the validity of competing something that is
basically off-the-rack modern clothes.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/<http://www.bovil.com/>
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Byron, there are anime shows and manga comics about…oh…things like
baseball.

Hence “sports drama.”

I don’t get it, but there has to be a market, or it wouldn’t be made.

–Karen

At 10:52 PM 7/14/2004 -0400, you wrote:

>Andy —
>
>Once again, you’re talking way over the heads of lots of us. What the
>h__k is a sports drama?!
>
>Byron (the Ignorant)

Byron Connell wrote:

> Andy —
>
> Once again, you’re talking way over the heads of lots of us. What the h__k is a sports drama?!

Would you believe a series about the members of a sports team?

“Slam-Dunk,” a very popular basketball manga, is a good example. Soccer,
baseball or nearly any other team sport can be a setting for manga and
anime. Doesn’t have to be a team sport, though. Tennis anyone?

Most often they’re about high school teams, or intermural leagues. The
formula is usually:
1. bunch of losers band together to form a successful team
2. outsider unwillingly joins team and becomes hero
3. losing team’s coach is dying yada yada yada
(these can, of course, also be adapted for individual sports, see tennis
ref above)

It’s about the only manga/anime genre that I know of that is almost
always played totally straight without any sort of fantastic elements.

So anyway, the point is that it’s a genre where normal off-the-rack
clothing (particularly normal sports uniforms) is the costume-du-jour.
It is a genre that doesn’t fit easily within either the F&SF or
Historical masquerade.

There are other manga and anime series that feature straight modern
settings, but most are in genres (relationship comedies, sex/romance
farces) that can feature fantastic elements.

For example, “Kimagure Orange Road,” a modern relationship comedy, is
played relatively straight, except the main character and his sisters
have psychokinetic powers they have to keep secret (this doesn’t feature
in every episode). “Maison Ikokku,” another relationship comedy about a
“ronin” (high school grad who hasn’t yet passed his college entrance
exams) is played totally straight, with no psychic or magical powers
anywhere.

Cosplayers often discuss the merits of competing such costumes; they
are, after all, in most cases readily available modern clothing. It’s
akin to the discussion of historical costumes that you may have worn
yourself in period.

andy

In a message dated 7/14/2004 10:10:51 PM Central Daylight Time,
bpconnell@verizon.net writes:

> hat the h__k is a sports drama?!

“Professional Wrestling”?
Henry

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Took a few days to get permission to forward this

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Karisu-sama <chris@imagecraft.com>
> Date: July 8, 2004 3:51:19 AM PDT
> To: Andrew Trembley <attrembl@bovil.com>, kevin@twistedimage.com
> Cc: Richard Man <richard@imagecraft.com>
> Subject: Costume Con, Anime Expo, and so forth….
>
> Heyo, guys! Pieces of news and sundry… Forgive me if I’m writing
> very incoherently – I am very tired and totally brain-fried….
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 1) I am becoming more and more enthusiastic about working with y’all
> for the hopeful Costume Con 2008. To this end I have been dropping
> info about it all over the place in the Anime cosplay community, in
> order to draw as many of the people as I know in cosplay to Costume
> Con (and I know a LOT of people in that community.) As a ‘crossover
> costumer” myself, I really would like to see a harmony of the various
> costuming communities, not entirely separate worlds that never meet…
>
> In addition, as a Cosplay.Com staffer, I get to hang out with with the
> “big names”, and I have been heavily promoting Costume Con to the best
> of my ability among the top-level cosplayers that I know, such as Yaya
> Han, Justin, Rosiel, Tristin Citrine, Lily and Haruka, Hoshikage, and
> so forth. These are Master-class people. Several of them wish to
> branch out into original design costuming (or already do so). Their
> work is incredible. Yaya (who is a very nice person) has been asked
> “not to participate” in several Masquerades because she is “unfair
> competition”. I told her she really ought to take her work to Costume
> Con. She didn’t even know it was in Atlanta this past year – her home
> town!
>
> I personally feel that people like this ought to be brought to Costume
> Con and get in with the ICG. Justin, for example, told me that he’s
> hardly even heard about the ICG, and has no idea how to join. I think
> we ought to really try to embrace this incredibly talented and
> seriously-costuming young generation. New blood, new blood! 😀
>
> One issue that will have to be addressed with them is registration
> fees – these Anime-con-raised kids are used to paying $50 tops –
> anything more is exorbitant to them, and will take a lot of
> explanation justifying why there is a higher cost (and it would help
> if they know about the early fees before they go up!) I have explained
> that Worldcons, for example, really DO give you the”bang” for the
> incredible buck, but they are young, and not so used to cons “by fans
> for fans”….
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 2) Some of this determination of mine is further prompted by the utter
> debacle known as the Anime Expo 2004 Masquerade Workmanship “Judging”,
> at which my children ATTEMPTED to debut their first-ever self-made
> costume set. (I say ATTEMPTED, because we ended up withdrawing due to
> the extreme offensiveness of the way we were treated.) Gods, do we
> NEED better judged and better run cons at Anime Masquerades. I for one
> would like to promote a LOT more big-name cosplayer pressure on Con
> staff for ICG-style Masqs. For this, or course, we need to get more
> cosplayers in the ICG…
>
> If you have any time to read about the AX’04 Masq., the whole sordid
> mess is detailed in this Cosplay.Com thread:
> http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702
>
> If you don’t have much time, at least perhaps try page 1, and here are
> a couple of the pages where I am in the discussion, if you care to
> scroll to my posts:
> http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702&page=3&pp=15
> http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702&page=5&pp=15
>
> In any case, the entire situation was absolutely disgusting,
> especially after how incredibly well things were done last year,
>
> My KIDS, 13 and 9, who busted their butts over their workmanship (and
> the youngest spent time in the emergency room for sewing through her
> finger with the machine) have been absolutely insulted and demeaned.
> (Plucky them, they are improving on their entry and taking it to
> Worldcon instead.) I am incensed.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 3) I’ve been costuming for 31 years. How the heck can I get some
> experience judging? It would give me more clout among these people
> almost half my age, many of whom already have quite a bit of judging
> experience. I’d be happy to do an apprenticeship or something…. I
> just have never done judging before.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Anyway, thanks for putting up with my rambling. Gotta go crash now.
> See you soon somewhere, hopefully. (Worldcon?) *hugs*
>
>
> — Karisu-sama (Chris)
> ———————————-
> Moero!!
>
>

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen
http://www.bovil.com/
“It’s not pink; it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.” –Manfred Pfirsich
Marie Rommel

I read the whole AnimeX Workmanship Judging brouhaha, and I was totally
appalled. This February I convinced the masquerade directors of
Katsucon to let me be the workmanship judge. I spent the first part of
the day wandering the con in rather mundane clothing (o.k. I was wearing
one of my bat belt buckles and a bat embroidered shirt) and got no
negative vibes at all. I spent the rest of the day except for a 1 hour
dinner break doing workmanship judging. (Approximately 70 costumes.) I
was still judging right through the cosplay. Everybody who wanted
workmanship judging got it, up close and personal, and I even sent a
couple of entrants out to bring me reference materials for their
costumes and then made the comparisons. While the other judges were
hassling, I got to present the workmanship awards, explaining to the
audience why I made the awards I did and invited them to take a closer
look if they had the opportunity.

I must have done something right, because I got three letters thanking
me for my judging. (2 from competitors and one from an audience member
who had not competed) I also got a complementary paragraph from Kevin
Lillard in the April Animerica, and I’m told, some complementary press
in a couple of the anime web groups. I hope to be asked back next year,
and if I am I’ll bring some more organization to the workmanship judging.

Almost any of us on this list and probably the ICGD list can judge
workmanship. You don’t have to be familiar with the character to see if
seams are straight and the hems finished, and if the contestant brings
documentation you can judge accuracy in recreation. (BTW there was one
young lady there who can give Dany a run for her money on
documentation.) I was promoting Balticon, but if I am asked back next
year I’ll push the CC’s because Kastsucon drew people from all over the
country. If we really want to make inroads in this community I’d like
to suggest that each year’s CC might consider giving a free membership
to “best novice” (or whatever the con calls the equivalent.) at several
of the larger Anime Cons. This not only gives us the chance to promote
Costume Con, but also sends a loud and clear message that we want them.

Andy, please tell Karisu-sama for me that I would love to have had the
opportunity to judge her daughters’ costumes and give them the respect
that they deserved.

Marty

Andrew T Trembley wrote:

>Took a few days to get permission to forward this
>
>Begin forwarded message:
>
>
>>From: Karisu-sama <chris@imagecraft.com>
>>Date: July 8, 2004 3:51:19 AM PDT
>>To: Andrew Trembley <attrembl@bovil.com>, kevin@twistedimage.com
>>Cc: Richard Man <richard@imagecraft.com>
>>Subject: Costume Con, Anime Expo, and so forth….
>>
>>Heyo, guys! Pieces of news and sundry… Forgive me if I’m writing
>>very incoherently – I am very tired and totally brain-fried….
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>1) I am becoming more and more enthusiastic about working with y’all
>>for the hopeful Costume Con 2008. To this end I have been dropping
>>info about it all over the place in the Anime cosplay community, in
>>order to draw as many of the people as I know in cosplay to Costume
>>Con (and I know a LOT of people in that community.) As a ‘crossover
>>costumer” myself, I really would like to see a harmony of the various
>>costuming communities, not entirely separate worlds that never meet…
>>
>>In addition, as a Cosplay.Com staffer, I get to hang out with with the
>>”big names”, and I have been heavily promoting Costume Con to the best
>>of my ability among the top-level cosplayers that I know, such as Yaya
>>Han, Justin, Rosiel, Tristin Citrine, Lily and Haruka, Hoshikage, and
>>so forth. These are Master-class people. Several of them wish to
>>branch out into original design costuming (or already do so). Their
>>work is incredible. Yaya (who is a very nice person) has been asked
>>”not to participate” in several Masquerades because she is “unfair
>>competition”. I told her she really ought to take her work to Costume
>>Con. She didn’t even know it was in Atlanta this past year – her home
>>town!
>>
>>I personally feel that people like this ought to be brought to Costume
>>Con and get in with the ICG. Justin, for example, told me that he’s
>>hardly even heard about the ICG, and has no idea how to join. I think
>>we ought to really try to embrace this incredibly talented and
>>seriously-costuming young generation. New blood, new blood! 😀
>>
>>One issue that will have to be addressed with them is registration
>>fees – these Anime-con-raised kids are used to paying $50 tops –
>>anything more is exorbitant to them, and will take a lot of
>>explanation justifying why there is a higher cost (and it would help
>>if they know about the early fees before they go up!) I have explained
>>that Worldcons, for example, really DO give you the”bang” for the
>>incredible buck, but they are young, and not so used to cons “by fans
>>for fans”….
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>2) Some of this determination of mine is further prompted by the utter
>>debacle known as the Anime Expo 2004 Masquerade Workmanship “Judging”,
>>at which my children ATTEMPTED to debut their first-ever self-made
>>costume set. (I say ATTEMPTED, because we ended up withdrawing due to
>>the extreme offensiveness of the way we were treated.) Gods, do we
>>NEED better judged and better run cons at Anime Masquerades. I for one
>>would like to promote a LOT more big-name cosplayer pressure on Con
>>staff for ICG-style Masqs. For this, or course, we need to get more
>>cosplayers in the ICG…
>>
>>If you have any time to read about the AX’04 Masq., the whole sordid
>>mess is detailed in this Cosplay.Com thread:
>>http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702
>>
>>If you don’t have much time, at least perhaps try page 1, and here are
>>a couple of the pages where I am in the discussion, if you care to
>>scroll to my posts:
>>http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702&page=3&pp=15
>>http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702&page=5&pp=15
>>
>>In any case, the entire situation was absolutely disgusting,
>>especially after how incredibly well things were done last year,
>>
>>My KIDS, 13 and 9, who busted their butts over their workmanship (and
>>the youngest spent time in the emergency room for sewing through her
>>finger with the machine) have been absolutely insulted and demeaned.
>>(Plucky them, they are improving on their entry and taking it to
>>Worldcon instead.) I am incensed.
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>3) I’ve been costuming for 31 years. How the heck can I get some
>>experience judging? It would give me more clout among these people
>>almost half my age, many of whom already have quite a bit of judging
>>experience. I’d be happy to do an apprenticeship or something…. I
>>just have never done judging before.
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>Anyway, thanks for putting up with my rambling. Gotta go crash now.
>>See you soon somewhere, hopefully. (Worldcon?) *hugs*
>>
>>
>>– Karisu-sama (Chris)
>>———————————-
>> Moero!!
>>
>>
>>
>>

On Jul 15, 2004, at 2:50 PM, martingear wrote:

> Andy, please tell Karisu-sama for me that I would love to have had the
> opportunity to judge her daughters’ costumes and give them the respect
> that they deserved.

Well, since we just confirmed with Richard Hill that we’re judging at
N4 we’ll be able to do so ourselves. They’re going, and the kids are
competing.

Note: haven’t seen the costumes, don’t know jack about them.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

The current file is in MS Word. It’s not in db form, but it’s more than we
had before.

I don’t know Excel. Last db I worked with was dBase III+. (Don’t laugh.)

–Karen

At 05:25 PM 7/14/2004 -0700, you wrote:

>On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:54 PM, Bruno wrote:
> > I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see
> > the
> > list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
> > manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.
>
>Yahoogroups DBs export rather nicely, and the output can be sucked into
>whatever software you choose for printing labels and form letters.
>
>andy
>
>–
>andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
>San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
>(Kevin’s)
>…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Excel or Access are fairly cooperative and do have merge capability which is
very nice for labels & form letters.
All you need is someone to do some quick data entry for starters and then
the thing will just grow on it’s own. 148 records wouldn’t take that long;
I’m not exactly offering but database management is what I get paid for so
it would be relatively painless. And would benefit CC25’s FFF eventually as
well.

Nora

—– Original Message —–
From: “Ricky & Karen Dick” <castleb@pulsenet.com>
> The current file is in MS Word. It’s not in db form, but it’s more than we
> had before.
> I don’t know Excel. Last db I worked with was dBase III+. (Don’t laugh.)
> –Karen

We bring a photo album with us.

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: <henryosier@cs.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers

> In a message dated 7/13/2004 6:59:04 PM Central Daylight Time,
> bruno@soulmasque.com writes:
> > I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s
never
> > been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than
to
> > just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> > masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would
be
> > nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things at
CC;
> > masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels.
I
> > think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would be
the
> > best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.
> This method works well with hotels that ask “So what happens at your
> function?”
> Henry
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

I think, with Marty’s comments and my havng made some contacts with both
Nandesukan and Anime X (I’m not sure if I’ve heard from Anime Iowa yet —
have to check my mail), offering to do workmanship judging is a great idea
for us to follow up. Also, handing out a free membership as a prize.

VERY promising contact with the Cosplay.com folks!

Bruce

Way to go, Mike. As I think I mentioned, those are the two we want to hit.
Good suggestion: a promo video. I’d bet Carl (and I) could put together
some sort of 5-10 minute piece that includes a anime character or two.

Andy: Do you think there’d be any interest in doing something like this?
the logistics would have to be worked out with the respective concoms.

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:20 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers

> I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s
never
> been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than to
> just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would be
> nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things at
CC;
> masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels. I
> think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would be
the
> best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.
>
> The big Anime conventions in the Midwest that people from here travel to
are
> ACEN (Anime Central) and Anime Iowa. ACEN was in May and I think Anime
Iowa
> is in August.
>
> I also emailed Kevin Lillard who run A Fan’s View and probably has the
most
> extensive photo collection of cosplayers, and he has added CC23 to his
list
> of “Other Conventions of Interest”.
>
>
> —– Original Message —–
> > Lots of good info, there, Mike. On the surface, this doesn’t sound very
> > incouraging, but on the other hadn, it sounds like you made a few
inroads.
> > We’ve stated all along that we would only expect about 10% to show
> interest,
> > but that’s still a potential sizable number of people.
> >
> > From wht you’ve said, I think we could tailor panels to the interest of
> the
> > attendees. I’d bet a panel on traditional Japanese costume construction
> > might draw some people. I think one thing I’d probably wear there is
> one
> > or two of my hantens I wear regularly when the weather’s appropriate.
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Nora,

Don’t just include anime costumes in the video to show at anime cons. When
I showed the videos at the cosplay workshop, the first one I showed was from
Nan Desu Kan 2 years ago, it generated a lot of commentary, rarely
flattering. However, the next video I showed was my Masquerade montage,
with CC, WC, & Balticon clips. They were mostly silent through it, except
for the oooh’s and aaaah’s.

Cosplayers see anime costumes all the time, but they rarely, if ever, get to
see really amazing, original stuff.

Michael

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruce & Nora Mai” <casamai@sbcglobal.net>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:36 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers

> Way to go, Mike. As I think I mentioned, those are the two we want to
hit.
> Good suggestion: a promo video. I’d bet Carl (and I) could put together
> some sort of 5-10 minute piece that includes a anime character or two.
>
> Andy: Do you think there’d be any interest in doing something like this?
> the logistics would have to be worked out with the respective concoms.
>
> Bruce
>
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
> To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers
>
>
> > I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s
> never
> > been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than
to
> > just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> > masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would
be
> > nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things at
> CC;
> > masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels.
I
> > think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would be
> the
> > best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.
> >
> > The big Anime conventions in the Midwest that people from here travel to
> are
> > ACEN (Anime Central) and Anime Iowa. ACEN was in May and I think Anime
> Iowa
> > is in August.
> >
> > I also emailed Kevin Lillard who run A Fan’s View and probably has the
> most
> > extensive photo collection of cosplayers, and he has added CC23 to his
> list
> > of “Other Conventions of Interest”.
> >
> >
> > —– Original Message —–
> > > Lots of good info, there, Mike. On the surface, this doesn’t sound
very
> > > incouraging, but on the other hadn, it sounds like you made a few
> inroads.
> > > We’ve stated all along that we would only expect about 10% to show
> > interest,
> > > but that’s still a potential sizable number of people.
> > >
> > > From wht you’ve said, I think we could tailor panels to the interest
of
> > the
> > > attendees. I’d bet a panel on traditional Japanese costume
construction
> > > might draw some people. I think one thing I’d probably wear there
is
> > one
> > > or two of my hantens I wear regularly when the weather’s appropriate.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

Karen –
Depending on how it is laid out in Word, it can be trivial to suck it
into Excel. Excel is really a spread sheet and is much less
sophisticated than dBase III

^M^

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

>The current file is in MS Word. It’s not in db form, but it’s more than we
>had before.
>
>I don’t know Excel. Last db I worked with was dBase III+. (Don’t laugh.)
>
>–Karen
>
>At 05:25 PM 7/14/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>
>
>>On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:54 PM, Bruno wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see
>>>the
>>>list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
>>>manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.
>>>
>>>
>>Yahoogroups DBs export rather nicely, and the output can be sucked into
>>whatever software you choose for printing labels and form letters.
>>
>>andy
>>
>>–
>>andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
>>San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
>>(Kevin’s)
>>…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>>Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Marty, the next time we’re down (no rush), can you walk me through Excel
and PowerPoint?

I’m not current on some software, but I *know* I can pick it up quickly if
somebody just shows me vs. stumbling through it myself. That technique
worked great when a friend taught me PhotoShop.

Lisa Ashton said you were a good teacher on PowerPoint!

I used to be 6 months ahead of the curve on hardware and software, but now,
due to finances, I am *years* behind…painful…

–Karen

At 10:37 PM 7/15/2004 -0400, you wrote:

>Karen –
>Depending on how it is laid out in Word, it can be trivial to suck it
>into Excel. Excel is really a spread sheet and is much less
>sophisticated than dBase III
>
>^M^
>
>Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
>
> >The current file is in MS Word. It’s not in db form, but it’s more than we
> >had before.
> >
> >I don’t know Excel. Last db I worked with was dBase III+. (Don’t laugh.)
> >
> >–Karen
> >
> >At 05:25 PM 7/14/2004 -0700, you wrote:
> >
> >
> >>On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:54 PM, Bruno wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see
> >>>the
> >>>list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
> >>>manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>Yahoogroups DBs export rather nicely, and the output can be sucked into
> >>whatever software you choose for printing labels and form letters.
> >>
> >>andy
> >>
> >>–
> >>andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
> >>San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
> >>(Kevin’s)
> >>…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> >>Yahoo! Groups Links
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

If anybody here is doing the livejournal thing, please consider adding
the following to your “interests” list

icg
costume-con

I’m thinking of setting up a costume-con livejournal community, it might
be another way to promote online.

andy

Andrew Trembley wrote:

> I’m thinking of setting up a costume-con livejournal community, it might
> be another way to promote online.

Went ahead and did it…
http://www.livejournal.com/community/costume_con/

andy

Hey!

If Marty can’t do it, Dan and I can. I use Excel all the time (including
processing the labels for the newsletter – well over 800 names), and Dan
uses Powerpoint all the time in giving his briefings for work and the Guard.

I could probably show you all you need to know about how Excel works
(including mail merges to Word) in less than an hour….

Cheers,

Betsy

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> Marty, the next time we’re down (no rush), can you walk me through Excel
> and PowerPoint?
>
> I’m not current on some software, but I *know* I can pick it up quickly if
> somebody just shows me vs. stumbling through it myself. That technique
> worked great when a friend taught me PhotoShop.
>
> Lisa Ashton said you were a good teacher on PowerPoint!
>
> I used to be 6 months ahead of the curve on hardware and software, but now,
> due to finances, I am *years* behind…painful…
>
> –Karen

—
—
Betsy R. Delaney
Web Mistress at large

************************************************************************
http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
************************************************************************

That was Bruce. And I think he meant that it’d be nice to include a cosplay
costume or two amongst the rest.

Nora

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
> Nora,
>
> Don’t just include anime costumes in the video to show at anime cons.
When
> I showed the videos at the cosplay workshop, the first one I showed was
from
> Nan Desu Kan 2 years ago, it generated a lot of commentary, rarely
> flattering. However, the next video I showed was my Masquerade montage,
> with CC, WC, & Balticon clips. They were mostly silent through it, except
> for the oooh’s and aaaah’s.
>
> Cosplayers see anime costumes all the time, but they rarely, if ever, get
to
> see really amazing, original stuff.
>
>
> Michael
>
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: “Bruce & Nora Mai” <casamai@sbcglobal.net>
> To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:36 PM
> Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers
>
>
> > Way to go, Mike. As I think I mentioned, those are the two we want to
> hit.
> > Good suggestion: a promo video. I’d bet Carl (and I) could put together
> > some sort of 5-10 minute piece that includes a anime character or two.
> >
> > Andy: Do you think there’d be any interest in doing something like
this?
> > the logistics would have to be worked out with the respective concoms.
> >
> > Bruce
> >
> >
> > —– Original Message —–
> > From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
> > To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:20 PM
> > Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers
> >
> >
> > > I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s
> > never
> > > been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than
> to
> > > just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> > > masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would
> be
> > > nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things
at
> > CC;
> > > masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels.
> I
> > > think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would
be
> > the
> > > best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.
> > >
> > > The big Anime conventions in the Midwest that people from here travel
to
> > are
> > > ACEN (Anime Central) and Anime Iowa. ACEN was in May and I think
Anime
> > Iowa
> > > is in August.
> > >
> > > I also emailed Kevin Lillard who run A Fan’s View and probably has the
> > most
> > > extensive photo collection of cosplayers, and he has added CC23 to his
> > list
> > > of “Other Conventions of Interest”.
> > >
> > >
> > > —– Original Message —–
> > > > Lots of good info, there, Mike. On the surface, this doesn’t sound
> very
> > > > incouraging, but on the other hadn, it sounds like you made a few
> > inroads.
> > > > We’ve stated all along that we would only expect about 10% to show
> > > interest,
> > > > but that’s still a potential sizable number of people.
> > > >
> > > > From wht you’ve said, I think we could tailor panels to the interest
> of
> > > the
> > > > attendees. I’d bet a panel on traditional Japanese costume
> construction
> > > > might draw some people. I think one thing I’d probably wear there
> is
> > > one
> > > > or two of my hantens I wear regularly when the weather’s
appropriate.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Excuse my ignorance but what is a “live hournal”? I don’t do ‘chat rooms’,
‘blogs’ or ‘forums’ – is it like that?

Nora

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
> If anybody here is doing the livejournal thing, please consider adding
> the following to your “interests” list
>
> icg
> costume-con
>
> I’m thinking of setting up a costume-con livejournal community, it might
> be another way to promote online.
>

On Jul 16, 2004, at 3:23 PM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> Excuse my ignorance but what is a “live hournal”? I don’t do ‘chat
> rooms’,
> ‘blogs’ or ‘forums’ – is it like that?

Livejournal http://www.livejournal.com/ is one of the original blog
services (you didn’t need to run your own blog software to use it).

Basic functionality is free. If you want to customize your journal,
it’s $25/year for advanced services. I paid the money and did a bit of
work to make http://bovil.livejournal.com/ look like
http://www.bovil.com/

A nice (basic) function is the “friends” aggregator. If you have
journals you like to watch, list them as “friends” and your “friends”
page will display their posts.

Another nice (basic) function is the “interests” matcher. Enter a
series of comma-separated keywords (“icg, costume-con, costuming,
slcg”) and you can find people and communities (more about that in a
moment) that share keywords with you. I found a few local friends who I
didn’t know were on LJ by using the GBACG keyword.

Along with personal journals, LJ offers community journals. These are
kind of like web forums, but kind of not. There are two options when
dealing with communities: “watching” (essentially making the community
a “friend” of yours so community posts appear on your “friends” page)
and being a “member” (which puts your posts on the community “friends”
page and may grant you the right to post directly into the community).

I’ve been watching a few conventions use LJ to promote themselves and
disseminate information. BayCon, Yaoi-Con and Further Confusion (to
name just a few) have LiveJournal communities. There are a ton of
cosplay communities. Dany Slone (our Malfoy recreationista) created a
con_masquerade community that is slowly growing (particularly after bad
masquerades like AX2004).

It’s a marketing/distribution tool, it’s free, and we ought to be using
it.

—
Andy Trembley, Bull-in-Drag
The Bovine Illuminati (It’s the Cows, Inc.)
http://www.bovil.com/
Moo!

I believe Nora had volunteered as well….

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: “Betsy Delaney” <bdelaney@hawkeswood.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 6:31 AM
Subject: [runacc] Excel & Powerpoint

> Hey!
>
> If Marty can’t do it, Dan and I can. I use Excel all the time (including
> processing the labels for the newsletter – well over 800 names), and Dan
> uses Powerpoint all the time in giving his briefings for work and the
Guard.
>
> I could probably show you all you need to know about how Excel works
> (including mail merges to Word) in less than an hour….
>
> Cheers,
>
> Betsy
>
> Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
>
> > Marty, the next time we’re down (no rush), can you walk me through Excel
> > and PowerPoint?
> >
> > I’m not current on some software, but I *know* I can pick it up quickly
if
> > somebody just shows me vs. stumbling through it myself. That technique
> > worked great when a friend taught me PhotoShop.
> >
> > Lisa Ashton said you were a good teacher on PowerPoint!
> >
> > I used to be 6 months ahead of the curve on hardware and software, but
now,
> > due to finances, I am *years* behind…painful…
> >
> > –Karen
>
> —
> —
> Betsy R. Delaney
> Web Mistress at large
>
> ************************************************************************
> http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
> http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
> http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
> ************************************************************************
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

I guess I’m not seeing the value here. How many people are we talking to
potentioally reach? This just sounds like a different form of the bulletin
board. Besides, wer’e already on several lists that we really cant’ spend
the time on having to mantain another daily demand on our limted time.

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 8:07 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] livejournal?

> On Jul 16, 2004, at 3:23 PM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:
> > Excuse my ignorance but what is a “live hournal”? I don’t do ‘chat
> > rooms’,
> > ‘blogs’ or ‘forums’ – is it like that?
>
> Livejournal http://www.livejournal.com/ is one of the original blog
> services (you didn’t need to run your own blog software to use it).
>
> Basic functionality is free. If you want to customize your journal,
> it’s $25/year for advanced services. I paid the money and did a bit of
> work to make http://bovil.livejournal.com/ look like
> http://www.bovil.com/
>
> A nice (basic) function is the “friends” aggregator. If you have
> journals you like to watch, list them as “friends” and your “friends”
> page will display their posts.
>
> Another nice (basic) function is the “interests” matcher. Enter a
> series of comma-separated keywords (“icg, costume-con, costuming,
> slcg”) and you can find people and communities (more about that in a
> moment) that share keywords with you. I found a few local friends who I
> didn’t know were on LJ by using the GBACG keyword.
>
> Along with personal journals, LJ offers community journals. These are
> kind of like web forums, but kind of not. There are two options when
> dealing with communities: “watching” (essentially making the community
> a “friend” of yours so community posts appear on your “friends” page)
> and being a “member” (which puts your posts on the community “friends”
> page and may grant you the right to post directly into the community).
>
> I’ve been watching a few conventions use LJ to promote themselves and
> disseminate information. BayCon, Yaoi-Con and Further Confusion (to
> name just a few) have LiveJournal communities. There are a ton of
> cosplay communities. Dany Slone (our Malfoy recreationista) created a
> con_masquerade community that is slowly growing (particularly after bad
> masquerades like AX2004).
>
> It’s a marketing/distribution tool, it’s free, and we ought to be using
> it.
>
> —
> Andy Trembley, Bull-in-Drag
> The Bovine Illuminati (It’s the Cows, Inc.)
> http://www.bovil.com/
> Moo!
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Thanks, Bruce!

I just figured that we’re a little closer if Karen wants a face to face
instruction session.

I’ve been using spreadsheets in one form or another for the last 16
years or so, for all sorts of things, and as I said, I presently use
Excel to generate the mailing labels for the newsletter, so I have very
fresh experience on making it work with Word.

Dan has to use PP to produce all sorts of things for work and for the
Guard, so he’s equally savvy on that end.

That’s why I offered…

Cheers,

Betsy

Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> I believe Nora had volunteered as well….
>
> Bruce

—
—
Betsy R. Delaney
Web Mistress at large

************************************************************************
http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
************************************************************************

Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> I guess I’m not seeing the value here. How many people are we talking to
> potentioally reach? This just sounds like a different form of the bulletin
> board. Besides, wer’e already on several lists that we really cant’ spend
> the time on having to mantain another daily demand on our limted time.

Total people? Well, my membership number is 3826481 (and yes, they
started at 1, John O’Halloran’s number is in the 6000’s).

Just about any costume-related interest term is going to max out the
match counter at 500.

Some of the established con communities are between 100-200 members.
Established costume communites are also in that sort of range, though
some are larger.

As to the value? That’s for you to determine. I’ve found numerous
bay-area costume fans on LJ who aren’t on any of the mailing lists I’m
on. As a matter of fact, I found a Chicago costume fan who goes to
Archon regularly in the con_costuming community. Pretty valuable from my
perspective.

It all comes down to a simple fact. If you want to reach out to new
groups of potential members, you have to reach. You can’t stick with the
old methods unless you’re going to be satisfied with the old results.

The free-association model of LJ results in a different dynamic than
mailing lists or web fora (after 15 years of mailing lists, I actually
find it kind of refreshing), and draws different sorts of people.

Kevin keeps reminding me “We don’t have to do it all ourselves, we’ve
got a committee.” I don’t do web fora myself (I tried years ago, but I
could never pay attention to any forum for more than a week or so), but
I know we can’t ignore them. We recruited a moderator of the cosplay.com
fora to our bid/marketing committee to reach out to cosplayers through a
media that’s popular with them.

Troll through your committee; you may find people who participate in
these groups. Jeff Morris is on LiveJournal (I know, he’s on my
“friends” list).

andy

If nobody minds, I’m perfectly willing to help Karen and I’ve told her
so. BTW, I’ve been using Excel since it was called MultiPlan running on
a Commodore 64 (pre Microsoft) as well as Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro, and a
Swedish spread sheet that shall remain nameless. Similarly, I use Power
Point not only for business but also for fun (See Susan deG’s “Vampire
Jeopardy”, I did the Power Point programming.)

Marty

Thanks to everyone for your kind offers to help instruct me.

I will definitely need in-person exposure, so I think that kinda leaves out
the Mais (but THANK YOU for offering).

I guess it just depends where I am next and who I see first. 🙂

–Karen

Yeah, I struggle with the time thing, too on a daily basis.

Andy, how do you juggle all this stuff and have a life? I need about 48
hours in a day already, and my head is going to explode if I add one more
thing.

–Karen (who already follows several chat boards and moderates 3 groups on
a daily basis)

At 10:02 PM 7/19/2004 -0500, you wrote:

>I guess I’m not seeing the value here. How many people are we talking to
>potentioally reach? This just sounds like a different form of the bulletin
>board. Besides, wer’e already on several lists that we really cant’ spend
>the time on having to mantain another daily demand on our limted time.
>
>Bruce

On Jul 20, 2004, at 10:00 AM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> Andy, how do you juggle all this stuff and have a life? I need about 48
> hours in a day already, and my head is going to explode if I add one
> more
> thing.

Well…

First of all you assume I have a life. Until Kevin steps down as
Emperor, that’s not entirely true. Everything is already scheduled
through March next year, including “getting away from it all” time.

As for the computer stuff:

When work is going well it’s a firefighter-like job. I get paid to
spend time in front of a computer, and if I’m doing my job well nothing
is going wrong, so I’ve got a lot of flexibility.

Mailing lists are easy for me, but email is the main focus of my job.
I’ve built extensive filters to manage my email. All mail is sorted
into folders, and spam is dropped into a side folder for more automated
and manual checking.

Some lists I ignore unless I’m looking for something. I’m on 4
motorcycle mailing lists, but I trash three of them without even
reading most days. I also ignore a lot of the inane jabber. I just
junked the “astrology” and “lottery” threads on ICG-D; saves me a lot
of time.

I moderate a half-dozen email lists, but they’re well-behaved so it’s
mostly a “set it and forget it” kind of work. Once in a while I have to
add people to a closed list. Once in a while I have to approve an
announcement on a moderated announcements list. Rarely amounts to more
than about 5 minutes of my week.

—
Andy Trembley, Bull-in-Drag
The Bovine Illuminati (It’s the Cows, Inc.)
http://www.bovil.com/
Moo!

Here’s an excerpt the text from the convention write-up of Katsucon, where Marty did workmanship judging. http://www.fansview.com/2004/katsucon/kanotes.htm

————————————

But if anything left people with a good feeling from the convention weekend, it was the Saturday night costume contest. The event started way too late, but the show that followed was worth the wait. And the award presentation gave anime convention costumers an unique, independent validation of their hard work.

In the same way that the Westminster Dog Show has a single judge to choose the event’s best of show entrant, and that judge is selected long in advance for his expertise, Katsucon had a single, experienced workmanship judge. That person, Marty Gear, was not familiar with anime conventions, but he had long experience with costuming. Gear had been in charge of judging and organizing at many Balticons and the national Costume Con, and he was familiar with the level of costuming at the many World Science Fiction Conventions.

The workmanship award winners you see on this site all were Gear’s choices. He was exceptionally impressed with all of those winners, and his lengthy comments at the end of the Saturday night costume contest made it clear that the perceived performance gap between the best sci-fi convention costumes and anime convention costumes has been closed. Gear said that the honorable mention workmanship winners were good enough to win top honors at the other conventions he’s attended, and he encouraged all of the Saturday night awardees to head to this year’s Balticon and compete.

Gear praised the top robot costumes for their use of materials, saying the fiberglass work on one outfit had a better surface than his car. He enjoyed the mallet of a Skuld costumer for being made out of hard-to-work hardwood rather than softwood. He was impressed with the use of fabric on the best entries. One entry got a workmanship award for an arching pair of six-foot feathered wings: Gear said he made that award because he knew first-hand the difficulty of working with feathers. And – very important for those who want to win – he gave several awards to costumers who brought documentation to show how their outfits matched the original costume designs.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bruno –
Thanks for the pointer to the write-up and the pictures. The red robot
that I gave the Workmanship Judge’s Award to was a novice, and his
fibreglass finish was outstanding. Having owned an early Corvette I
have a certain amount of familiarity with how difficult a medium this is
to work with and I’ve seen award winning custom cars that were not as
well done.

“Tiki” Brown who got the Workmanship Special Award not only did her
costume which lit up, blinked and rotated, but also made two other
costumes for her group and part of a third. What impressed me most was
that all of her wiring was in harness and dressed inside parts of the
outfit that no one would ever see. In a totally different genre she
reminded me of the kind of work Adrian did. BTW, when her group came up
for workmanship judging they had someone with a power point presentation
that showed various views of the sources for each costume as I was
judging it.

Marty

Marty,

I looked at the Masquerade photos before looking at the award photos. When
I first saw the red armor (ronin warrior?), my first thought was “nice
armor”.

I just sent out an inquiry to the local to find out about the other group,
as it looks really neat, but I have no idea what it is from. Their
documentation sounds most impressive, and having a laptop available, it
sounds like a means to show the media documentation that printouts or color
copies, which can be expensive and not necessarily show the true colors.

I think that your work at the judging was more than well received at the
convention and probably the best advertising that we have for getting
cosplayers, at least from that area, to cross over to CC.

Michael

—– Original Message —–
From: “martingear” <MartinGear@comcast.net>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Write-up about Marty

> Bruno –
> Thanks for the pointer to the write-up and the pictures. The red robot
> that I gave the Workmanship Judge’s Award to was a novice, and his
> fibreglass finish was outstanding. Having owned an early Corvette I
> have a certain amount of familiarity with how difficult a medium this is
> to work with and I’ve seen award winning custom cars that were not as
> well done.
>
> “Tiki” Brown who got the Workmanship Special Award not only did her
> costume which lit up, blinked and rotated, but also made two other
> costumes for her group and part of a third. What impressed me most was
> that all of her wiring was in harness and dressed inside parts of the
> outfit that no one would ever see. In a totally different genre she
> reminded me of the kind of work Adrian did. BTW, when her group came up
> for workmanship judging they had someone with a power point presentation
> that showed various views of the sources for each costume as I was
> judging it.
>
> Marty

Hey, Marty!

I’m not trying to step on toes here – just making a friendly offer in
case Karen needs the info when you’re not available to teach. I never
questioned your ability, just provided info on my own.

IMHO, more options are generally better.

YMMV.

Cheers,

Betsy

martingear wrote:

> If nobody minds, I’m perfectly willing to help Karen and I’ve told her
> so. BTW, I’ve been using Excel since it was called MultiPlan running on
> a Commodore 64 (pre Microsoft) as well as Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro, and a
> Swedish spread sheet that shall remain nameless. Similarly, I use Power
> Point not only for business but also for fun (See Susan deG’s “Vampire
> Jeopardy”, I did the Power Point programming.)
>
> Marty

—
—
Betsy R. Delaney
Web Mistress at large

************************************************************************
http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
************************************************************************

OK, putting on Moderator’s hat…

Let’s take this discussion offlist, as it has little or nothing to do with
Costume-Con except that these are “common denominator” programs that a lot
of people use and I don’t (yet).

–Karen

Way to go, Marty!

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: Bruno<mailto:bruno@soulmasque.com>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 10:47 PM
Subject: [runacc] Write-up about Marty

Here’s an excerpt the text from the convention write-up of Katsucon, where Marty did workmanship judging. http://www.fansview.com/2004/katsucon/kanotes.htm<http://www.fansview.com/2004/katsucon/kanotes.htm>

————————————

But if anything left people with a good feeling from the convention weekend, it was the Saturday night costume contest. The event started way too late, but the show that followed was worth the wait. And the award presentation gave anime convention costumers an unique, independent validation of their hard work.

In the same way that the Westminster Dog Show has a single judge to choose the event’s best of show entrant, and that judge is selected long in advance for his expertise, Katsucon had a single, experienced workmanship judge. That person, Marty Gear, was not familiar with anime conventions, but he had long experience with costuming. Gear had been in charge of judging and organizing at many Balticons and the national Costume Con, and he was familiar with the level of costuming at the many World Science Fiction Conventions.

The workmanship award winners you see on this site all were Gear’s choices. He was exceptionally impressed with all of those winners, and his lengthy comments at the end of the Saturday night costume contest made it clear that the perceived performance gap between the best sci-fi convention costumes and anime convention costumes has been closed. Gear said that the honorable mention workmanship winners were good enough to win top honors at the other conventions he’s attended, and he encouraged all of the Saturday night awardees to head to this year’s Balticon and compete.

Gear praised the top robot costumes for their use of materials, saying the fiberglass work on one outfit had a better surface than his car. He enjoyed the mallet of a Skuld costumer for being made out of hard-to-work hardwood rather than softwood. He was impressed with the use of fabric on the best entries. One entry got a workmanship award for an arching pair of six-foot feathered wings: Gear said he made that award because he knew first-hand the difficulty of working with feathers. And – very important for those who want to win – he gave several awards to costumers who brought documentation to show how their outfits matched the original costume designs.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]