Nope, no MFF for this ox this year. What reservations there were have been cancelled. Oddly, I will have the extended weekend (Friday-Monday) off but it doesn't help enough as I just can't go on my own. I suppose it's meant as a consolation and I don't mind the time off, but it feels a bit like rubbing it in.

At least I have heard things might be picking up and not just for the holiday rush. It looks like I might make Penguicon again next year, though RCFM might be a bit dubious.

Current Mood: disappointed

It looks like I will not be going to Midwest FurFest at all this year. Orders are down, the economic situation is... dubious.. and ACME, like everyone else, is cutting back quite a bit.

I'm not out of a job, just that this year that part of it doesn't look like it will be happening, short of a miracle. I'll miss MFF. Maybe next year things will finally pick up some. I hope they do.

Current Mood: disappointed

It's not a big, huge pile, but it is there and almost complete. All but three or four items for RCFM are ready to go. There are not as many items as for Penguicon (whew!) and not many big ones, either. A few items are quite small, too.

Current Mood: awake

I know many folks are oddly leery of deliveries from ACME, but most of the time it's not only no big deal but welcome and even amusing. Most of the time. I have delivered a few unwelcome items, from rigged seltzer bottles and spring-loaded pies to explosive items.

Right now I am wondering if I'll be handling something. I don't know what. See, when a door is locked, cackling laughter emanates from the room, and the only intelligible words are "Ain't I a stinker?" something is most certainly up. I just wish I knew what it is.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

I hope to have most, if not all, deliveries done at Penguicon. Then I can relax and enjoy myself without worrying about things much.

This week will seem both fast and slow, I expect. Fast as in "Is everything ready? Sure about that?" and slow as in "Is it time to go yet?"

I have a few discretionary deliveries this time (I get to pick the recipient[s]... a bit of ACME advertising/promotion, really) and a few informal items. I know where most of those will go, just not sure of when.

Current Mood: excited

I know it's not elves, or at least not just elves. But it seems like a fair stack of stuff appeared pretty much overnight. All items for Penguicon. I know some items aren't ready yet, as I checked everything against the list that goes with it all.

While it might not all take up as much room as last year's Penguicon run did, I am pretty sure there more are individual parcels. Looks like I'll be rather busy. I hope I'll have some time for myself.

Current Mood: impressed

Somehow I had been scheduled to be delivering at Penguicon, starting sometime Friday morning, and still be working my usual route that same Friday morning. I only just caught that problem this, well, yesterday now, morning.

The problem has been dealt with, but it took long enough for things to get back to me. I was wondering if I might end up missing at least part of Penguicon this year. That would not be good. Especially as there is supposedly one rather special delivery, that cannot be delayed, scheduled around midday on Friday.

I'm up late. It's a combination of nervousness over things all day and relief. I don't have all the details on a couple deliveries and that isn't helping me get any sleep either. Still, I feel much better than I did a few hours ago.

Current Mood: relieved

Just because I told about some ribbons ordered for Penguicon doesn't mean that I would be there. Well, I will be there. I've been given a preliminary delivery list. It's still rather sketchy and "subject to change" which means, more than a month out, that it will change. But that's not a problem. It's just nice to know I'll be going back to Penguicon again.

Current Mood: cheerful

I'm not asking about them this time around, as it's all been decided already. Hopefully this time the plain ACME ribbons will be printed correctly. I won't be trying as hard to give them away as fewer were ordered. Yep, one place ACME is cutting back is those ribbons.

I'll have four ribbons to give away:

ACME - These go to pretty much anyone who wants one, while they last.

ACME CUSTOMER - These go to folks who get (or have ever gotten) an ACME delivery. (These are the same as last year as it's still same stock.)

ACME SUPPLIER - These will go to folks who have sent or supplied delivery items to me directly. There are very few of these as this is a surprisingly small group.

And there is one other ribbon that will be almost as rare as the "supplier" ribbons that I have some of my own discretion about. I'm keeping that one something of a mystery for now. I'd like to say it was just for the suspense, but I'm also a bit nervous about these. I wasn't given a choice in the text on these, or the others, really. But the others are about ACME. These are a bit more personal and I wonder why ACME is supplying me with them.

Current Mood: a bit puzzled

This fellow, who goes by the name kinkyturtle, draws cartoon diaries of the conventions and such he attends. He was at MFF this past November and evidently saw 2's show and thus my little delivery to the gryphon. Have a look at MFF Cartoon Diary, page 4-10. Though my horns aren't quite that stubby, I think it's pretty good likeness overall.

Current Mood: pleased

My journal page on the ACME Delivery site had only a link to the journal before.

Today, with no small amount of technical assistance, that changed. The journal page now has the journal embedded right on it like it really should. The style will suffice, though I think it's possible to do a bit better. It was just the better looking of the two fairly uncluttered styles I found.

I uncovered a couple snags while doing all this. The IJ embedding information isn't there or isn't being generated right, but I got around that by looking at the LJ embedding information. Which, for python, seems to also be rather lacking and the code I wound up using doesn't look quite like LJ's example. Worse, the 'styleid' in the example, 101, doesn't seem to exist on IJ.

I've been looking for the right forum or community to ask if there is any guide to the active styleid numbers. I found a bunch that show different calendar views and different friends list views, and a few that show the journal itself. I know I can make a custom style, but if there is already one I'd like it doesn't make sense to repeat the work. If what I am really after doesn't exist, then it makes sense to do that work. And others might appreciate having that style option if there's a place to tell folks about it.

What am I after? Something a bit plainer than what I have for the journal if viewed on IJ itself. On IJ, it makes sense to have the sidebar with all the links. On the embed, those links don't need to be there. A few can be at the top like on the embed right now (that's style 29, by the way). It would be nice to have the icons accompanying every entry, too. Right now, I know how to get the icons or how to get away from the sidebar links, but not at the same time.

Current Mood: nerdy

Is the ACME Delivery web site missing anything? I'm starting to get the feeling I might be overlooking something obvious.

Current Mood: curious

The ACME Delivery photo gallery for RCFM 2008 ("Deep Six") is in place now. It has been for a few days, really. I do wonder what happened to that rope. Hopefully it was untied and put to better or at least non-use.

Current Mood: awake

Whew. I know it's been over a month, but I finally have the MFF 2008 gallery up on the ACME Delivery site. I did what I could with some of the photos. That flash is intense and when close things are whitish it can wash stuff out. Hopefully my processing of the pictures helped enough. I'm glad that the photos of the delivery to 2 the Ranting Gryphon (while he was on stage! That was his idea, by the way.) turned out so well. This time there are pictures of every delivery I made at the convention. I think that's a first. And there are some pictures of me off the clock as I offer candy around.

I've also added a few items to the Product Page as well updated the pages about what conventions ACME has done (well, I have done) deliveries at and what conventions I might be going to. It's never a sure thing, but I really hope to make it back to Penguicon and RCFM again. And yes, I know, I still need to work on the gallery for the last RCFM.

Current Mood: productive

Wow, it's as if I forgot about the journal. Well, I haven't. It just seemed like it. I kept on figuring I'd make an entry about this or that and then not getting around to actually doing so.

One of things being done, besides dealing with the holidays, while I was neglecting this journal was taking care of the 2009 ACME calendar. And sheesh, what a thing that wound up being. The posing for December (the photo for which did not properly processed until way late... and don't blame the photographer) wasn't too bad. At least not compared to the endless meetings about what to do for 2009 since there just weren't enough readily available images built up through the year.

I figured a few nice scenic photos would be nice, but that idea went nowhere. So did a bunch of others. No, 2009 will look like 2008 should have. Yep, the 2009 calendar uses the new images. Look for yourself if you must. And then, as if that wasn't screwy enough, I got to go and revert all the progress on 2008 to the original images! Yes, really.

Hopefully that sort of nonsense won't be happening again. The 2010 calendar images will be taken during 2009, at least. And I'm stuck in them yet again. Sometime in the next few days the December picture, and maybe the January picture, will be taken. I say "picture" but it won't be one each. It'll be a bunch that all look almost alike and somehow one will be the Right One. I do get to keep my clothes on this time around, at least.

Hey, if anyone reading as ideas for what do for various months and they aren't outright repeats of the 2008 and 2009 images, I'm... well, I suppose I am curious. And a bit worried what folks might come up with.

Current Mood: relieved?

In case I didn't mention it, it's been confirmed that I will be delivering at Midwest FurFest again this year. So far it looks like I have thirteen deliveries to make, but it might be a couple less or a couple more. I know there will be at least ten parcels for certain. I've seen the stack.

I also will have the Cow Tales candy again, but just that. I won't have the crazy amount of odd candies I did last year.

Hopefully I can get the deliveries done fairly quickly and only have one or two candy runs. That way I can have some time for myself and enjoy the convention.

Current Mood: cheerful

And I'm almost as scary as zombies?! That's according to this poll.

What, me scary? Aww, come on. I suppose I could be if I really tried, but I don't. Not often anyway. I have no reason to be intimidating.

Alright, it's not just me. It's me with an ACME parcel for you. One person even said that, " Orvan with a package for you is scarier than all of them combined and doubled!" with the "them" being ninjas, pirates, vampires, and zombies. Sheesh. You'd think every ACME item was insanely dangerous. Evidently some folks do think that. Which is curious as I've had folks look for their names on the delivery signature sheet and express disappointment at not finding them there. So not everyone is worried that might get something from ACME. Some are concerned that they won't.

Still... me, scary? Come on.

Current Mood: surprised

The new October and November ACME Calendar images are up and in place now. October has been for a few days, I just haven't said anything about it until now.

I wasn't that nervous in the October shot, but more frustrated. So many times of "let's do that again" and I have dark suspicions about a few shots taken after the line wore through. Goofy setup. It could have been made to just look like that, but no. In the name of realism it was just like it looked and there were a few ropes cut through. Seems rather wasteful to me.

The session for November went much better. At least I got to keep something on for all of that. And I got to pick the color, at least. A nice dark blue seemed good, to avoid any more nonsense like what happened during the shoot for July. I do look good in November, though I think at least some of that is good retouching work.

Only December to go, for this year. It will so nice to have that over and done. I really hope the pictures for next year will all be like those I posed for about a week ago. That is, fully clothed.

No deliveries today. Instead it a was a photo shoot day. A bunch of photos, some of which might wind up being used for the 2009 calendar. Some photos by a corn field, some at park, and even at and in a genuine get-in-and-close-the-door phone booth. I didn't change in there, Superman style. No reason to change clothes (I got keep them on for all the photos this time. I liked this shoot.), not enough room in there, and it wasn't that old a phone booth that it had opaque sides. Those aren't all of the places, but there are lots of photos. I have no idea which ones will be used, if any. I haven't even seen any of them yet.

Current Mood: good

ACME 2008 Calendar Index

I made good and sure that I had the beach ball ready for this picture, and that it was opaque. Not transparent, not translucent, opaque. And no, that's not a backdrop. At least the shoot was on a warm day with enough of a breeze to blow any bugs away. It still took far too long.

I'm a bit surprised I haven't had to pose for any 2009 images yet. Maybe they'll feature (pick on) someone else? Nah, I wouldn't be that lucky.

Current Mood: blah

You just knew that an ACME bottle cap had to appear eventually, right? Well, here it is.

Current Mood: okay

Being a Presidential election year here in the USA, there will be a couple big political conventions. I will not be at either one.

It's not a statement, it's just simple recognition that each one prefers to deal with elephants or donkeys, respectively. They both like eagles, too. Since I am none of those things, I'll be sticking to my non-convention work. I don't mind. I suspect the security types would be overly concerned about my horns. Also, political conventions are better on TV, as you can leave the set switched off.

Current Mood: calm

ACME 2008 Calendar Index

The new pictures for both July and August are in place now. July wasn't too bad, but I was wondering what all the waiting was about. That's the nice picture for the public to see. There was another one taken a moment or two later, after the wave hit. Water and white swimsuits don't mix, at least not that one. I wasn't given an actual finished product as that would have had to be pulled from inventory. Instead it was some early prototype, done before the problem with wet and white was caught. I suspect there are a few copies going around that I'd rather did not exist. Also, it's not easy to hold a "wink" for a long time.

August was more active work, but easier to do if that makes sense. Much less fiddling around for that picture. The "rope" has a steel rod core so going downhill isn't a race against the wagon it looks like would happen. And the back of the harness is more complicated that the front suggests. I'm not sure why the wink is there in this one, but the photographer and art director both wanted it.

I'm a bit concerned about the September picture. I overheard a mention of a transparent beach ball. And a lot of giggling. That can't be good.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

The new June calendar image is ready and in place. And now I have the afternoon off, which suits me just fine. Those crates were not props.

Current Mood: mellow

Finally got back from RCFM. I had a good time, and only had one last-minute delivery but that one was quite memorable. Alas I did spend some considerable time trying to find a couple recipients. I misheard one name and a parcel was therefore mislabeled. It got delivered to the correct person despite that, and according to the RCFM "Wheel of Blame" it was all his fault anyway. I do hope the delivered item compensated a bit for that dubious honor.

There was almost a second unscheduled delivery, but by the time I got the call about it, I was well on my way back. I can only wonder who wanted what delivered to whom. I wonder if anything much will be happening before MFF in November. That's the next scheduled convention, at least that I know about.

Current Mood: relaxed