Remember that silly project for Punk Rock Bowling? I liked the basic effect, but not the implementation.
The chasing LED strips were too fragile to last long, and the lighting effects were limited.

I set out to build a replacement set of light panels that were fully programmable.


( See more (with background music!) )

I almost forgot... I did manage to get the holiday issue of Yipe! published before midnight on New Year's eve.

It's a light and fluffy issue featuring holiday tees (courtesy of Chris Garcia), holiday sweaters (courtesy of me) and the return of our Letters page.

http://www.yipezine.com

Onward into the postapocalyptic future!

I haven't done much in the way of videogaming for years (truth: I remember the Magnavox Odyssey, and Pong, and played lots of Atari 2600 games at my godparents' house), nor costumed from them.

I do, however, write for a costuming magazine (YIPE! if you've somehow missed that fact over the last 3 years) and am working on a feature about video game costumes and/or costuming at videogame events.

Anyone out there in LJ-land have something (photos, anecdotes, tales of excitement and wonder -- or woe and misery) to share? Deadlines are looming [cue ominous 8-bit music]

28 days and counting to this year's Worldcon Masquerade!

That's right, it's only four short weeks away!

If you are considering entering, I strongly recommend you take a few minutes and fill out the entry form at http://www.renovationsf.org/masquerade .
It only takes a few minutes and will give bovil and I a better idea in advance of what to prepare our crew for.

You can return at any time before Wednesday, August 17, to add or update your entry information. At that point, you'll need to come see us on-site at the masquerade desk in the lobby of the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.

If you are not considering entering, but will be attending, we can always use more volunteers in the green room (being ably run by Byron Connell), back/on-stage crew (impeccably organized by Chris O'Halloran) or as ushers in the house (being managed for us by Bill Keaton). Drop a note to masquerade@renovationsf.org and let us know how you would like to help.

Counting down the days now...

Kevin Roche
co-director, Renovation Masquerade

It's seventeen days past the ides of March, so *of course* Yipe! has a new treat for you.

As a service to our readers, we happily present Volume 33, Issue 3 of "RAG", the *first* costume fanzine.

We hope you'll enjoy this little venture into a different side of costuming.

All issues may be downloaded for free from http://www.yipezine.com

We're already hard at work on our next 4 issues, but as always, WE WANT YOUR STUFF! drop a line to editors (at) yipezine.com if you'd like to share.*

---

*We may wait to publish it in an issue with a matching theme, but we will use it!

I've been working on refinements to the Tiki Dalek.

Several are designed to make him pack as more flat pieces (and thus be more shippable).

However, one of the critical lacks at Gallifrey when he was out conga-ing in the hallways was his inability to speak to the folks around him.

That has been fixed!



The voice modulator is not a perfect Dalek voice; I have plans for a better one. This is built using a hobby kit based on the WIN8072 IC, but had the advantage of coming with a pre-etched circuit board and all the necessary components for quick assembly.

TDK will debut with his new voice at Nova Albion this weekend (shhh)

Now that the show is over, I've unlocked the posts of the build diary for Secret Project TDK.

You can see them from start to finish (well, from finish to start; I don't know of a way to reverse the fact they'll display most recent first) using this link:

http://kproche.livejournal.com/tag/project%20tdk

Now I have to go back to finishing the article I'm writing for Yipe! about it.

I took TDK apart into his 3 main sections to finish up assorted details:

( Photos under here )

All that's left now is the soundtrack!

I trimmed down the upper part of the neck assembly tonight, and did a test assembly with leis as the neck rings. The struts still need to be finished, but I have time for that tomorrow night.
( photos under the cut )