Gorilla costume photos

Due to popular demand, I have published a couple of gorilla costume photos. Please note that this costume is locally made and actually meant for really big people or to have possible padding.

MCQP is back again in 2008

This evening will be the annual MCQP costume party. This time the theme is "Lights, camera, action" and the event will be in Harrington Street in Cape Town CBD. I am still trying to decide what to wear. The website address of the event is: www.mcqp.co.za

I feel terrible today

Some food that I ate last night made me vomit around 3AM. I really felt horrible, getting that food out improved the situation, but not all of it got out. The culprit was most likely that suspect sauce which is still causing gas today with a bad taste. Te whole 3AM story also caused me to lose about one hour of sleep because I could not sleep while feeling so horrible.

Gorilla costume finally arrived

The long awaited locally made gorilla costume has finally arrived today. I will try to take some photos later and post them due to the requests for those.

Getting gorilla suit postponed again

The meeting for today to get the locally made gorilla suit has been shifted yet again due to the hectic schedule of the manufacturer. This time it has been shifted to tomorrow morning. Hopefully this will be the last shift.

Might get locally made gorilla suit today

In theory, I should be getting the locally made gorilla suit today. I have been waiting for this suit for a long time, but there were delays in the delivery, not delays in the manufacturing.

Costume supplier problems

Lately my local costume suppliers/makers have been giving majior delays. The one person (who does have a full time job) has not been able to finish a simple costume that I have requested more than a month ago. It is nearly two months now.

The other supplier delayed a few times with meeting so that I can get the gorilla suit. The last meeting was supposed to have happened last Saturday (6 December 2008), but then her daughter got stung by a scorpion and the daughter got rushed to hospital.

Zentai suits seem to be the solution for costume problems

Based on the number of costume parts gone missing lately and damages based on washing have made me come to the following conclusion:

For a lot of my costumes, I would have to check if I can get a slightly different looking Zentai suit. On those suits, things like belts would be attached and also not really fall apart after washing a few times. They are also more likely to be less hot than many of the costumes which I currently have. With Zentai suits the sizes asl oseem to be more reliable as those are actually based on measurements and the material is slightly stretchable.

Using Zentai suits is obviously only a solution for some costumes and not all of them. The feedback that I had from people who rented my existing Zentai suits was very positive. Washing the suits is also easy and they dry quickly.

Dangerous Cape Town drivers

This last weekend I observed two incidents where drivers in Cape Town were driving dangerously.

One case was as follows:

In the 80km/h zone on the N1, I moved one lane to the right while keeping a good following distance to the car in front of me, but not big enough to fit another car including a good following distance. I was driving just under, but close to the speed limit.

The next moment a car was trying to squeeze into the gap in front of me, but coming so that our cars would collide. The car was also not using indicators. Shortly after this the car was rapidly changing lanes and driving much faster than other cars.

At the traffic light ahead with the left turn that same car was yet again pushing others to the side. They mostly moved to prevent accidents. A bit further ahead after the turn on Oswald Pirow street, I caught up with it at the traffic light.

Once the traffic light went green every car started moving except for that one, which took a while to start. When it finally started, it went speeding up the bridge ahead that goes over the railway tracks and past Cape Town station to the traffic light with Good Hope Centre on the left.

That traffic light has two lanes going right which end up in two lanes. The traffic light was red and that car was on the right lane and another one on the left, both wanted to turn right. When the traffic light turned green, that car started to change lanes in the turn on to the left lane and forcing the car on the left lane to brake to prevent a collision. After this it started speeding up and I lost track of it because I was still approaching the traffic light at a distance which was about to turn red again.

Small Red Alert 3 tips

Here are a few small Red Alert 3 tips that might be of use:

Allies:

1. To get a prospector somewhere faster, shrink it using a Cryocopter then it moves a lot faster. This can also be used to move the construction yard out of danger due to the greatly increased speed.

2. Set the rocket troops to laser guided, then put them into the defense turrets and the multi-gunner vehicles.

3. For the high areas, get your dolphins to jump for visibility so that your carriers can see and shoot.

4. Spies in defense turrets and multi-gunner vehicles become snipers.


Empire:

1. Mecha Tengu are good scouting units and base defense against ground troops and air.

2. Use Shinobi in buildings like snipers against group troops.

3. If you can, get those heavy ships up and running to clean out. Have defense for them ready.

4. The balloons can be targeted a bit while falling, but only individually. This can cause great damage.


Soviets:

1. The vehicles with the big slow rockets are very good at removing base defense and buildings. If well defended, they can eat through a base.

2. Keep Natasha in a building where enemy troops move past. She also does wonders to vehicles and buildings. Make sure she is veteran up before going near the enemy base.

3. Build lots of air defense.

New gorilla suit finally

For years I wanted to get a gorilla suit, now I am finally getting a local made suit this coming Friday (28 November 2008). Another costume will be in production after that. Eye masks also need to be made due to the sudden influx of requests and someone lost one of my eye masks of a Mr. Incredible costume.

Common reasons why Red Alert 3 crashes

The new Red Alert 3 game crashed several times at either startup or when trying to exit. At the time my PC was still set to a resolution of 1280 x 960. A friend of mine with my much older graphics card had too much additional effects enabled because he wants games to look nice, but sacrifices frame rate and ultimately gameplay.

According to my reading on the forum of the Command and Conquer website, most crashes seem to be graphics related as well a high resolution. To test this, I set my resolution down to 1024x768 and for several weeks now I had no more crashing, which used to be several times normally. My friend set his settings a bit down to what the game recommends and suddenly it is working again without crashing.

Gaming Sunday afternoon with Company of Heroes

This last Sunday afternoon, I met with two friends to play some LAN games. In this case we finally wanted to get Company of Heroes - Opposing Fronts up and running. The last attempt several weeks ago was a failure.

Since we started quite late in the afternoon, we only managed to get in two games and then it was already past midnight. On normal difficulty the computer already gave us a hard time. I was virtually a beginner on this, but I was not doing too badly and had some fairly good stats at the end. My friends sometimes play the game on insane difficulty.

In the second game at least six vehicle overran my base and nearly forced me out of the game. Not having all builds together helps and having engineers spread out helps as well. One friend came to help me out with his rangers while the other one was trying to eliminate one of the three enemy bases. It took a while, but we turned the mess around and gained ground. I managed to get anti-tank cannons up and running which later on actually gained veterancy.

In single player I would not play this game, but multiplayer is another matter. It is nowhere near as bad as Dawn of War.

Costume laundry after a Halloween weekend

During the Halloween weekend I rented out about thirty costumes. The Sunday when the first costumes started coming back, I had three loads of washing machine done. Last night I finally did the second last load. One or two days during the week I had no chance to do laundry, due to a dog between me and the washing machine that loves to bite me and has done so a few times already.

The Halloween Friday was a lot of fun. I was invited to a party and had a French Maid costume on. To the costume I added some extra gloves, a mask from Greyland and an extra wig. The mask allowed me to eat smaller bits of food like sweets and chips. Some people took a long time to realise that I was wearing a mask. Fortunately with the Greyland masks there is no real sweatign involved because they are made out of foam latex. In the end I got a prize for best costume and people were apparently still talking about that one days later.

Domestic Animal Rescue Group (DARG) Promenade Parade

Domestic Animal Rescue Group (DARG) is holding a peaceful parade in Seapoint (Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa) this coming Saturday, 25 October 2008. The gathering will start at 10:30AM at Three Anchor Bay opposite Seapoint Place and at 11:00, everyone gathered will walk to the Pavillion to hand over a Memorandum to a representative of the Mayor of the City of Cape Town. This is about some new proposed By-laws affecting animal rights. Several costumed characters will walk along.

DARG Website: http://www.darg.org.za/

Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42869030751

Downloading the Animal By-Law: http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/ByLaws/Pages/Draft_by-laws.aspx

Washing Zentai suits

Last week the dilemma came up about washing Zentai suits in regards to hand or machine wash and the issue of if they are going to lose some of the colour which then dyes something else.

The good news is that machine wash is possible and no colour loss. The machine wash was fairly obvious, but I had no way of knowing in regards to the dyed colours.

The dilemma of getting new costumes for other people

The recent change in the Rand (ZAR) / Dollar (USD) exchange rate has made getting licensed costumes a really expensive thing. The shipping in particular is also expensive. The problem is that the licensed costumes are usually much better looking than the locally made ones and to some extend cheaper. I was planning to get some more costumes, but so far haven't gotten around to it.

Locating a nightclub

Last Saturday evening I wanted to attend a superhero party at a local nightclub, but I had no luck finding it. There was a mention of Lower Main road and Albert road in Saltriver, but I walked past there yesterday due to train cancellations on my way between Observatory and Saltriver train station.

New instructions are now that the place is actually a bit closer to the traffic circle towards Woodstock. I drove through that road twice last Saturday night and did not see it. The lack of numbers on buildings does not help.

In my experience, some nightclubs have got some really flimsy or hardly existing lighting on the outside, while others are visible from far away. It makes sense to be visible from a distance at night when all the other shops around are closed and dark. Trying to emulate them does not help.

Thought of the day

At my work there is a sign on the office door to remind the last ones who leave to lock up. The sign says "Please close the door when leaving".

The new thought is a different wording "Please jam the door when leaving". Essentially this means that the lucky person who leaves first is outside the office, while the rest are stuck inside.

My Captain America costume got stolen

Yet another case of a Captain America costume being stolen while it was rented by someone. This time the costume was stolen after it was taken off at an event and stored in a bag for the rest of the evening. Previously it got stolen out of a car.

Slow Enemy Territory framerate and solution

This last weekend, I played Enemy Territory - Quake Wars with a friend of mine. First we played it at his place last week when I bought the game. There it ran fast. Then during the week I tried to play it at home, did the online update (500+ MB), and it ran slow. Initially I thougth it was the patch that gave problems. It was not the firewall (Panda), my ADSL internet connectino or Punkbuster which I had installed. Punkbuster did bring some portscan warnings on the firewall of my friend.

On Saturday, my friend and myself played the game at another friends place in a three player game and it ran fast. The next day (Sunday), I tried it at home and it was terribly slow. After trying to replicate all conditions present at the places of both of my friends, it came down to the fact that I have a second screen at home.

Solution: Unplug the second screen and reboot, or set up screen cloning, then Enemy Territory runs fast. The game seems to to think it has a really wide screen or something similar and even runs slow in 800x600 in low detail. I can actually run it on 1280x960 in high detail on my PC.

Hectic CNC3 battle on a LAN

Last night my friend David and myself had a LAN session using Hamachi of CNC3 Kane's Wrath. Both of us used standard Nod. The opponents also seemed to be some Nod variants. One opponent was hard, one was medium.

The computer opponents attacked early and expanded quickly. My own base was first in line and nearest to theirs. The first wave was a mix of Awakened and motorbikes with an engineer rush. After that things got much worse and both of us had just barely managed to keep them out with heavy losses on all sides. My resources were at a major low point and my refineries were destroyed. Most builds had to be destroyed to build one refinery. It was painful.

What really helped to keep them out were the cloaked Reckoners with the troops inside. The vehicle factory was repairing them when they got damaged.

Getting lots of costumes

The latest dilemma is which costumes to get and how many I can get. There is the regular dmeand for Western costumes which are needed, as well as Halloween and expanding my range, plus costumes I want to get again (Hulk and Ironman) and getting existing costumes improved. More Zentai suits are also being planned. Unfortunately this all costs money.

My first Zentai suit

Yesterday one of the two long awaited Zentai suits has finally arrived. I knew it will be a bit of a tight fit but it will not be too small. The suit looks more or less like Spider-Man, but not quite the same due to copyright.

It is really amazing how well the suit actually fits and it is nice and comfortable to wear because it is a nrea perfect fit. The mesh for the eyes causes a bit of eyesight problems which means that a lot of detail is gone, but it doesn't make me blind. Even the fingers are perfect length and can be used for typing unlike most other gloves.

Originally I bought the Zentai suit on Ebay from a company in China. The shipping was a bit expensive, but otherwise it might not arrive at all. Communication with the company by email was also quite good with delivery and quick service.

Train cable theft

This morning was a total disaster for the Cape Town railway line and the thousands of commuters stranded because somebody stole cables which affected several lines. Many trains had to line up to slowly move towards Cape Town on one lines that was functioning. I had to walk from the standing train to Esplanade station, then the one block to Woodstock just to see the same picture, then I walked a few blocks to Main raod and took a taxi to Mowbray.

Matieka 2008 Report: Maskenball (costume party)

The Maskenball (costume party) at the Matieka 2008 in Stellenbosch was a lot of fun this year. The event at the Van Der Stel Sportsklub was wild and sold out as always. The band playing was Bobby's Band, which has been there several times in the past. Fokus was there as always to take photos.

My friend David and myself wore costumes for the event. He was a demon and I was a nun. We both had latex masks on, mine was foam latex. To change my bodyshape a bit, I had some breast padding to look a bit more like a female. We both enjoyed wearing our costumes quite a lot.

Matieka this weekend

This coming weekend at the begining of August 2008, the annual German carnival is happening in Stellenbosch. I am planning to go to the main event (costume party) together with my tenants and a friend of mine.

So far I have no idea yet what to wear, but I am considering something different. One of the ideas is to dress up as Elvis using my Elvis costume and a realistic mask. The mouth of the mask does not open too much. Another idea is a bunny like I have done before, or Supergirl which I also have done, or a variatn of that but with a nun costume which I got recently. What bothers me if I try to cross dress for the costume party is being bothered by many people and which toilet to use.

In the past I have tried Supergirl once at a birthday party. I did feel really awkward when I arrived, but that settled down later on. The variant with the nun I have tried at home and it is a lot less revealing which makes me also feel more comfortable because of the tighter fit and greater enclosure. With the nun costume I was planning to wear gloves which cover the arms because the dress is a bit short. The only part of me that would be visible would be my neck and my eyes. It would be a lot of fun to be with somebody who is dressed similarly.

Hopefully the photos of the event turn out well, then I can use them on my website to show the costumes. This is quite vital because a lot of people want to see how a costume looks like and packaging photos tend to be incorrect.This coming weekend at the begining of August 2008, the annual German carnival is happening in Stellenbosch. I am planning to go to the main event (costume party) together with my tenants and a friend of mine.

So far I have no idea yet what to wear, but I am considering something different. One of the ideas is to dress up as Elvis using my Elvis costume and a realistic mask. The mouth of the mask does not open too much. Another idea is a bunny like I have done before, or Supergirl which I also have done, or a variatn of that but with a nun costume which I got recently. What bothers me if I try to cross dress for the costume party is being bothered by many people and which toilet to use.

In the past I have tried Supergirl once at a birthday party. I did feel really awkward when I arrived, but that settled down later on. The variant with the nun I have tried at home and it is a lot less revealing which makes me also feel more comfortable because of the tighter fit.

Dinosaur costume requests

There have been so many Barney suit requests lately, that I have decided to have a dinosaur costume made. It is costing me a fortune, but I hope it will make several people happy. Due to legal reasons nobody is allowed to own a costume that looks like Barney so it will have to be something different.

Great costume party at Grant's place in Athlone

On Friday, 6 June 2008 I was invited to a triple birthday party in Athlone at Grant's place which was a costume party. The party was a huge amount of fun and got quite full later on. Most people made an effort with their costume. The DJ, lighting and smoke effects were great. Everyone complemented me about my costume and were in particular interested in my mask and breast padding. The costume that I wore was a Supergirl costume with a mask from Greyland Film and a wig. Somebody even asked me if I had a bodysuit to make myself look like a female. Another person commented, that what gave it away that I was a male were the eyes (due to the mask), the hands and the shoes. There were several good costumes and a lady dressed as an angel won the first prize, I won the second prize. Many people were touching my face to feel the mask and to check how I actually put it on. Many wanted to see who is under the mask.

Comments about the three new Greyland masks

Yesterday I got three new masks from Greyland, they were Elvis, Lady Marylin and the witch with the long nose.

The masks seem to be a bit thinner than the older ones that I do have. What annoys me with the Elvis mask is that the mouth hardly opens, but otherwise it fits quite well. It really looks great with my Elvis costume.

The witch mask has a skew mouth which is a bit annoying and the eyesight is a bit limited. The nose has big holes at least for breathing. The Lady Marylin mask is like the Kim mask (or similar) but with a different look and quite thin as mentioned.

Unfortunately my camera batteries failed me after setting up the camera on a tripod and before taking a photo.

A client of mine tried the witch mask on and mentioned that the mask looks too freaky and she would just scare herself.

Elvis, Marylin and Witch masks from Greyland Film

The long awaited masks from Greyland Film have arrived today. I cannot wait to try them on with existing costumes that I have got. A friend of mine was keen to wear the Marylin Monroe dress with the mask that arrived today. I want to try my Elvis costume with a matching mask. The witch mask is for a witch costume that I have got. It will make the wearer look really ugly. These foam latex masks allow the skin to breathe, so they can be worn for hours. I would love to see multiple people with these on.

Masks and Zentai suits

For my Elvis Presley and Marylin Monroe costumes, I am waiting for masks that should be arriving soon, hopefully during the coming week.

As soon as finance allows it, I want to organise some Zentai suits and maybe see if there is a local demand for those. I do have serious doubts, because everyone is so status orientated.

Free Comic Book Day 2008 report

The annual Free Comic Book Day event happening at the Readers Den comic book shop in Claremont was well visited like the previous year. The prize draws were held in the climbing wall area. There were a lot less people for the second prize draw than for the first one, but that was to be expected.

At least four people made an effort to dress up for the event and got spot prizes. At least two people that dresses up last year did so again this year.

More costumed characters showed up for the event, including two volunteers that were not expected. As event staff and family of event staff, there were Spider-Man (child and adult), Captain America, Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Iron Man. A lot of photos were taken with these characters which ended up being a lot of fun. As usual I was one of these since I was sponsoring costumes for the event.

Weekend at Jakobus

This last long weekend was two days in Kuilsrivier with Jakobus and other friends. We mostly played Unreal Tournament 3 which was a lot of fun. The action was hectic in the deathmatch and the campaign mode was also good. Unfortunately campaigns are limited to four players.

After having yet again four people named "Player", I finally set up an online account just to have that different. The problem being that the player name displayed is the same as the account login, which is an annoyance.

Anime roadshow in Capte town

According to the local Otaku Magazine, there will be an anime road show in Cape Town at the UCT on 17 and 18 May 2008. This should be interesting and it is my first time that I am going to such an event.

Preparing for Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) 2008

The preparations for the annual Free Comic Book Day event at the Readers Den Comic Shop are coming along well.

This year there will again be local professionals from the comic scene as well as a sound system for announcements and the prize draws. The prize draw location will also be moved to enable better flow of people who want to move past the event.

If all things go well, there should be four costumed characters this year. As usual, I will be one of them.

Fundraiser in Westridge, Mitchels Plain

Last night was a most interesting fundraiser for a little girl that needed cochlear implants. The event was also a costume party. I came there dressed in a bunny suit which was chosen because it was easy to put on and I wanted to try a suit like that because I have never used those at a costume party. The bunny suit did get a bit warm, but it was bearable. I did meet several interesting people.

Magic Events in the Garden Route doesn't pay invoices or really late

During the Easter weekend, the Magic Events company in the Garden Route approached me about renting bunny suits. I was assured payment by bank transfer either the same evening or the next day. Bank details were sent via the person who collected and returned the suits and by invoice. An invoice was sent to multiple email addresses listed on their website and up to today (4 April 2008) there has been no response at all. This not paying issue and trying to ignore that is bad for business and people need to know that they will have to be careful with a company that most likely just wants money and refuses to pay and tries to hide that fact.

Easter Bunny season

The requests lately for Easter Bunny suits have increased quite a bit. I am now getting another set of suits, this time in pink and grey from a local manufacturer. These will be hand made, not mass manufactured. Yesterday I received the feet, hands and masks, just the suits themselves are missing.

Bunny suits

Requests for bunny suits are becoming more common. Yesterday I wore one of my new bunny suits and a friend of mine took photos. They still have to be posted on my costume renting website in the animal costume section. The suit is great, eyesight is wonderful, breathing is a bit of an issue. The costume should be quite fun to wear at shopping centres and Easter events.

Funeral service on Friday

This coming Friday will be the funeral service for my father who died on 28 February 2008. The service itself will begin at 13:00 at the Chapel of Doves at the corner of Voortrekker Road and Washington Road in Bellville.

In memory of Bernhard Ernst

This entry is for my father who died this morning after three years of suffering from kidney failure. Dialysis kept him alive much longer than anticipated, but it also caused damage.

Age: 58
Bith date: 5 October 1949
Deceased date: 28 February 2008, 01:15 AM

May his soul rest in peace.

Difficult purchasing decisions

Buying new costumes is becoming a problem lately. Currently I am having a quiet time and hence money is scarce. The fact that I am already waiting for two other orders where I will still have to pay 40% customs fees and I will have to pay the monthly credit card fees due to these orders.

Now the purchasing becomes more difficult since I am trying get Bunny suits for Easter and I am trying to get hold of various Zentai suits. All of this will cost me a lot, but I really need them all. Another popular request is a Barney costume which I am not allowed to have due to legal and copyright reasons.

Five realistic foam latex masks ordered from Greyland Film

Yesterday evening (this morning actually since it was after midnight), I finally ordered some of the masks from Greyland film which I wanted to order. The foam latex masks ordered were Marylin Monroe, Elvis Presley, a really ugly witch (for Halloween), Oliver Hardy and some or other professor.

Later on during this year a friend of mine and myself are planning to go to an annual costume party as Elvis Presley and Marylin Monroe. Hopefully she will keep the mask on for a long time. We haven't been together at the event since 2004. Last time she was in a Catwoman costume. For the Marylin Monroe dress that I am waiting for, I still have to get a wig to cover the bald head of the mask.

Last year, my girlfriend came along to the costume party, but she refuses to wear any kind of costume or anything out of the ordinary. She is unfortunately very self conscious. My other friend from many more years ago is sometimes up for something like this.

Getting costumed characters for Free Comic Book Day 2008 (FCBD 2008)

The long hunt for volunteers to be in costumes for the annual Free Comic Book Day at the Readers Den is in full swing. There have been several applicants after three weeks of advertising, but already several signs of drop outs due to no actual responses to emails or SMS. Many are obviously keen, but if they will show up at the actual event on 3 May 2008 is another matter entirely. If they do not show up, then they will miss out on a fun event. The target market of the event is of course the general public, but mostly the comic fans and those that collect action figures. Part of the purpose of the event is to get people to read more and to be able to enjoy reading.

Waiting for many things

Hopefully today or tomorrow I will be getting the solar based lights to light up the walkway outside my home. This will help me in the evenings, friends of mine when visiting and the clients of my costume renting business at home. During another Eskom power cut, I can move the lights indoors at least to have some light. The lights are supposed to be able to give light for 15 hours.

The other thing I am waiting for is a package with new costumes that I have ordered. Amongst other things the bunny suits for Easter, a Marylin Monroe dress and the Evil Queen costume from Disney's Snow White.

I am also waiting for my bank account to show my application on PayPal, so that I can get access to all of those costumes that can be found on the EBay shops which require PayPal for payment.

Floating lights have arrived

The long awaited floating solar based lights have arrived. They will come in handy outside at my walkway. They also seem fairly large overall. This evening I will be able to see how bright they are. Hopefully this will help clients to find out where to go.

Possible new experiment with Zentai suits

Due to a recent chat, I was pointed to a company in Beijing that sells Zentai suits. I do realise that not everybody would want to put on suits like that, it should be noted that professional wrestlers use pants or the same material for various good reasons. I am interested in those that look mostly like superhero or comic book character costumes. They are not like the proper thing due to copyright reasons, but they are close enough. Some of my clients would probably not mind to put those on. For upcoming events I will need a few outfits.

Scouting for costumed characters for Free Comic Book Day 2008 (FCBD)

The annual hunt for people who want to work as costumed characters at the annual Free Comic Book Day event has begun. Hopefully this year it will not be another case of nobody showing up after several confirmations. This year I mentioned in the ad that only those that are serious about this should even bother to apply. The event will happen as usual at the Readers Den Comic Book Shop in Claremont in Stadium on Main. The shop opens at 9AM as usual.

Corporate event and adding new photos to website

The corporate event of my work was quite fun this morning, but it took up a lot of my time. This afternoon, I have finally added those spotted cat and some chinese shirt photos to my costume renting website. The photos of the spotted cat were really long overdue and the bunnies have to be redone. Now I just need to get someone to pose in various female costumes to add proper photos to my website, since the packaging photos are not always ideal, and I do not always have packaging photos.

Webcam masking

Earlier this evening, I was chatting with somebody about various masks. I have several due to the costumes that I rent out from home and the various events where I help out as various characters. Later on, he wanted to see several of my latex masks which I showed him via webcam. For an upcoming event that got shifted from February to July, I still have to organise an Elvis and a Marylin Monroe mask. The normal latex masks get too hot too quickly and usually have eyesight limitations. I am planning to get foam latex masks from Greyland Film. Those masks are usually quite comfortable even when they fit tight, and can be worn for hours. The entire masking session was quite a lot of fun actually.

Father visiting for a week

Today, I had to pick up my father who will be staying with me for one week. I have to keep him busy and also give him his regular medication due to his kidney failure. This will be a fun week since I got to get home for lunch. Normally I go to work by train but this next week I will have to go by car. The traffic jam will be fun.

Various costume ideas

Recently, I got hold of a supplier who can organise me various costumes and masks at discounted prices. This opened up a lot of opportunity for getting some things that I previously did want to get but could not really afford to buy. Now it is just a matter of waiting for the response to my email.

Major website changes and new costumes

The last couple of days have been a lot of work to rewrite the internal structures of my own costume renting website. This process is far from complete, but the end result will be a more efficient website and the option to add more features at a faster pace.

New Chinese dresses and shirts have arrived. They still have to be added to the website. This coming Saturday, I will be collecting another five new costumes, which include Elvis, Cleopatra, Anakin and Padme.