Surprise I am still alive. I am working on a makeup project for Marscon. Every year we do a "Making the..." project where we do a recreation, full costume and makeup. We have done Elizabeth I, A Geisha, A stargate Wraith Queen, and the Duras Sisters. This year we are doing a male makeup and costume. The Dark Lord hisself, Voldemort.

This is an interesting makeup since they cheat in the movie. Ralph Fiennes isn't wearing a lot of prosthetics, they digitally removed his nose. I of course can't do that. So we have to build up the rest of the features to flatten the nose.

I cast my Voldemort and just spent about an hour and a half roughing up the mask in clay. It looks pretty good right now, but I have to let it set for a day before I call it good. Also I have to do skin texture before I cast it. I should get some feedback from magicmarmot on this.

yea, that's the stuff. This is the 4th year it's been in production and while I have the least amount of input this year I have ever had, it is still amazing and getting better each year. It's being done this year at the Landmark Center in St. Paul and the Greenhouse Theater in Chicago. I really hope the fan community will get to it and enjoy it. It's always new, this production (St. Paul) has 4 new scenes, and is a fuller production, as the performing space lends itself to more advanced staging. Cost is always an issue, as it's more expensive than a movie. But there is a "Pay with your can" night as well. Geek cred aside, and you get an amazing amount of points for this, you will love it, even if you aren't a Star Trek Geek.

Http://www.cbtheatre.org
twitter - #KlingonXmas

Well thanks to my buddy Wyngarde, I am seeing the Swedish series of movies, first "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" then last night "The Girl who played with Fire" I have to tell you, I am really enjoying European movies. This series about Lisbeth Salander, a young woman who has amazing abilities and issues, is simultaneously great studies in character and involving stories.
It is interesting to see movies that don't follow American game plans, that are dangerous, both to the protagonists and the audience. The first movie is more complex than the second one, that's not necessarily good or bad, it has 3 story lines. "...Fire" is more direct, and Lisbeth is much more center stage than in the first. It is also VERY action packed and gory. One aspect that is quite un-American is that, while American movies may intimate that so and so is a lesbian or bisexual, Lisbeth is clearly that, DEMONSTRABLY that. She is one of the best realized characters I have seen in film, as is her semi-love interest Blomkvist (BTW Daniel Craig is completely miscast in the proposed American remake)

The first movie had a fairly upbeat ending, "Fire?" not so much. But I am so involved with these people I can't wait for the third movie, "The girl who kicked the hornet's nest". It may be that this 20 something semi-goth girl reminds me of people I know and care about, but I can't recommend this highly enough (noting that this is unrated but would get an NC 17 rating)

finish the wraith prosthetics, cast Jo's hand and sculpt, finish chin and upper lip

make the gauntlets for Hal

memorize lines

touch up TOS costume

assemble all the costumes, make sure there isn't anything that needs fixing

see if I can get a couple bucks for general purposes.

Probably more I am not thinking of right now

I started a WordPress blog last week, with a familiar name, I have a couple pictures of the progress I have made on Skeletor, and today posted a D-Day post. Here's
a bunch of links:
http://billhedrick.wordpress.com/

Then my Makeup sites too:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/billhedrick
http://www.illusionstudio.info

One of the biggest problems with dealing with depression is the solitary nature. I feel like I want to talk to people about it, but the people that I feel like talking to are still depressed, or are much younger than me. I love young folks - proportionately, there are more and more of them every day it seems - but even the wisest 24 year old doesn't have the life experience to council a 58 year old, nor should they want to. Also the "together" people I know... can they relate to what I am going through? "No one understands me!" Maybe I am just whinging... But something I have learned is that "snap out of it" doesn't help people that are deep into it.

2 things seem to help, the realization of Gracious Beauty, that God and His beautiful world is a sign to me that hope is not lost, and the second is a product of that, the smile of a child; simply asking to and giving love, the kids pull me out of myself and let me see that life the universe and everything is out side my nose and that I can have it, if I just let go of myself.

Thanks for listening this helps too.

I am getting good response over the pictures I posted of my Skeletor mask . I will have some more shots of it as I get it done.
This is turning out well and an artist complimented me on a couple subtle aspects of the sculpt. Now if I could get some work on my etsy shop or look ins on my website I would be happier. I enjoy what I do, and want to do more challenging jobs. I have a personal project for DragonCon this year that I have talked about to friends, but I am not ready to tell the world about it yet.

Tonights episode has a lot to do with the Alternate Universe (no spoiler in that)
I am personally hoping that Broyles is Gay but is married to Olivia. An ALternate
universe villian should always ave a beard...

Ba dum dum

I giggled when I saw this in Vampoires of Venice
http://i41.tinypic.com/2w3vltz.jpg

In the shower this morning I was thinking about VNC.... yup I'm an IT guy,
VNC or Virtual Network Connection is an important tool in the service I do for remote
computers, frankly I prefer to talk to a guy over the phone, take remote control over his computer and get feedback from him rather than sit down to work on his machine and have him run off when I have more questions, he isnt there. So VNC which we install on all our
users computers allows us to log in and take control of their computers and install or fix problems, yay!

ahhh, not so yay. The other day I logged in to a fellows machine when he wasn;t expecting me, he couldn't tell and I got off his machine as soon as I saw he was looking at some soft pr0n.
An evil guy could do a lot with this tool. I want you fired? I could log in when you aren't there, write a nasty email from you to your boss.... stuff that I will NEVER do.

Also Dell and some other pc companies have a version of this software installed in one of their suport levels, If you call them, they can do what I do, Take control of your PC remotely and do the tech support needed. Now I don't know for sure, but the tech for the following is easy. Microsoft could be monitoring every Windows PC that is currently online and making a reocrd of every activity you are doing while you are onine. They could also be doing this and turning over their records to the government for scrutiny.

Are they? dunno. Is this a new thing? Well consider all your private correspondence is routed through a uniformed government agency for inspection and delivery, no it ain't.

Just a little paranoia to go with your cornflakes this morning folks!