Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? At an Anime Convention, Oddly Enough

Even though most of the people who occasionally gander at my sketch blog have already seen it, here are (finally) some photos of my costume!  I cosplayed as Carmen Sandiego (accompanied by the most gorgeous Wanda/Wenda ever, my friend, Amy :P) at Anime Central (ACen) 2011.  Sure, neither character is actually anime related but...whatcha gonna do?

(I suggest clicking on the photos for a larger image!)

Wanda/Wenda & Carmen Sandiego

(Note: All this time, everyone I grew up with and I thought her name was Wanda, but it's Wenda?  What other crushing lies have I been fed as truth?!)  

Close-up

Amy and me with a random Waldo that we ran into 

I purchased the hat and used wore boots I already owned, but I added the yellow felt band to the fedora and made the red trench coat myself.  I used McCalls Pattern #M5525 but made some minor modifications in regards to the front pocket flaps.  The pattern called for them to face in the opposite direction, but I kept them this way because it made the flaps functional as opposed to strictly decorative.  Plus the pattern markings were off just enough that it would have been awkward to stick with the original layout...  I like it better this way anyway, really I do!

The trench coat is made with red sweatshirt fleece and is fully lined with cotton fabric (super cheap stuff, but it has a cute cherry pattern).  I chose to use red sweatshirt fleece because I wanted to make a comfy and warm coat that I could wear as part of my regular wardrobe when it gets cooler.  I underestimated, however, just how warm (and heavy) the coat would really be.  There were so many more layers than I had anticipated and in the end I was only able to stay in the costume for about an hour or so...  Really, it wasn't unbearably hot, but I was feeling ill.  And the added heat doesn't mix with nausea well :/

I had black leather gloves to wear as well, but I forgot them in the car.  D'oh!  It's such a shame because I think the gloves really would have polished off the costume quite nicely.  *Sigh* Maybe someday I'll put it all together and take photos of the completed costume.  But those photos won't be as nice as these...because I'm not the one who took them :)

All the photos I posted were taken by this awesome guy, so go check him out ;P

And here's a link to the photos he took at ACen 2011!

My ACen 2011 Badge Design Contest Entry

The folks who run Anime Central (the anime convention in Chicago--okay, technically Rosemont) had a contest a while back to design the badge for the 2011 convention.  Besides size restrictions, the only other requirement was that it feature at least one of the three established con "mascots," sisters Jaye and Elle Aoi (an anime nod to Chicago's Blues Brothers), and their fox/human hybrid friend, Kit. Here's the design I submitted.

The original design also had Kit in his fox form hanging off the tail of the paper crane, but I had to leave him out because I ran out of time.  Seriously, I was working on this thing up until deadline (hence why the background looks half-arsed, haha).

In the end, my design wasn't the winning submission, but that's okay.  I probably could have uploaded this to the sketch blog way before, but I figured it would be best to wait until after the convention had come and gone, just in case :)

Good Stuff

I don't like leaving my blog saturated with so much negativity (that is, the whole fraudulent ATM withdrawal ordeal from a couple of weeks back) so I thought I'd update with some good stuff.  This doesn't include new drawings or projects unfortunately, but I have something to share with you all later this week.  Just a fun little side project that I did for a friend :)

And then in about a week I'll have some photos of the coat and the costume that I've been working on.  Every minute that I'm not spending at work I'll be planted in front of my sewing machine in preparation for ACen (Anime Central) next weekend.  ACen is always a ton of uber nerdy fun--It's the one event I spend an entire year looking forward to.  More than my birthday, more than Christmas (then again, I haven't really liked the holidays since I was a kid).  And then next Sunday night (the same day as the last day of ACen) we'll be having our 2nd foosball tournament at work!  It'll be a packed weekend :)

The week after that will be pretty hectic as well because I have a lot of artwork that needs to be finished by the end of the month...  But after this last grouping, the rest of the work that needs to be done on the project will go pretty quickly in comparison.  It's been an on-going project for over a year because I haven't been able to consistently devote a lot of time to it.  Even if I wasn't spending every minute of my free time to the project I still felt that year's worth of stress, so I'm really looking forward to when it's wrapped up and I have a lot more freedom on my hands.  June cannot come soon enough :)

Switching gears a little bit, I'm happy to report that last night was the first night in at least a month that I got a decent night's sleep!  Yay!

Last night was also just a lot of fun in general.  My friend Kim's boyfriend had a birthday shindig at Dave & Busters.  A night of games, wonderful people and a very sweet surprise (Thank you! ;) ) Who could ask for more?

Well, I'll need to stop here for now because it's time to get ready for work.  Closing shifts on Saturday nights aren't exactly my favorite, but at least I'm spending my night with some of the best co-workers ever :)

When I'm Wrong, I'm Wrong

My friend, Libby, sent me a link to this article this morning.  I think she's right, especially considering two customers told me that the same thing happened to them.  Which means, I'm wrong.  And when you're wrong, you're wrong.  Soooo...

Dear Playstation Network,

I'm sorry I blamed your hacker for the money that was stolen from my bank account.  It turns out that it wasn't that bastard who hacked your security.  It was a different bastard entirely (I guess technically it could be the same guy, though it's unlikely--And really, why throw around even more accusations than I already have?).   Either way, techno-thieves suck, and I propose sending out an elite team of super ninjas to track them down.  And one rabid, starved panda for good measure.  I hope you'll accept my apology.  If not, I have a super sweet pop-up card that doubles as a bouquet of flowers.  Just let me know what address to send that to.

Love,
Me

P.S.  Can we please stay friends?

P.P.S.  Even though it wasn't your hacker, the security breach still put millions of users at risk so... I am rescinding my offer to send the pop-up card.   In fact, if later on I'm hit with an ugly case of identity theft, I'll probably point my finger in your direction again.  I do still want to be friends (you're kinda fun) but I'm even more paranoid than I already was about identity theft.  You understand...

Sad Pandas

Given what had happened yesterday, I was in a pretty frazzled state of mind and a foul mood throughout the course of the day.  Luckily, I think I had a strong enough grip on myself that I was still well-behaved at work, if unfocused and a bit "off."  As much as I love my co-workers, I was glad to go home in order to sulk freely.  Haha.  While I felt better by the end of the night, I decided to do some therapeutic doodling:

 I think the title says it all...

Honestly, it did help some, haha.  I feel loads better today, though don't get me wrong; if I were to cross paths with that hacker/cyber thief in a dark alley, he'd do better to turn around and run in the other direction.

And here's a little bonus drawing for you all.  I wound up doing a companion doodle to go with the sad pandas.

 

To the douchey bastard who stole my money:  May a rabid and desperately starved panda stalk and maul you E. Honda style.  

I Might Be a Victim of the Playstation Network Security Breach

I know this blog is for my art-related updates, but I think that this matter is important enough to warrant a temporary hijacking of my own blog.  Now then...

If you are a PS3 gamer and you have a Playstation Network account, you are no doubt aware of how the folks over at Sony are dealing with a bit of a security "snafu."  And that's putting it lightly.  In no way is what is happening over there as delightful or whimsical as my word choice may imply.

Here's a link to an article about the whole ordeal.  But in case you don't want to read through that, here's the situation in a nutshell:

In mid-April, hackers breached Playstation Network (PSN) security, leaving millions of accounts exposed and ripe for the picking.  Though Sony sent users an email and has been regularly issuing statements saying that they have no proof that information has indeed been taken, this means that potentially millions of account names, passwords, birthdays, addresses, security Q & As and credit card information have been acquired.

Potentially?  Um, no.  More like definitely.  And just how do I know this?

Because I woke up this morning to a phone call informing me that $500 had been taken from my bank account.

The call I got was from my card's theft prevention department.  They wanted to verify that all the transactions made were mine.  It's a call I've received before for a different card, but in that case, all of the charges were indeed mine and there was nothing sinister going on.  I just assumed that this call would be more of the same, and I chuckled to myself thinking "Ah, so my last purchase of 2 spools of thread from Joann fabrics looks suspicious, does it?"

Yeah, I stopped mentally chuckling and started mentally swearing when I heard the automated message recite "$500 ATM withdrawal attempted."  Then I fell to my knees, raised clenched fists to the ceiling and cursed Playstation.

"A pox!  A pox on both your houses!" (the hacker and house of Sony, that is).

Hearing that it was merely "attempted" gave me some renewed hope that maybe my account was okay after all.  Upon checking my bank account, however, I realized that "attempted" really meant "Yeah, they succeeded.  Oh, and they got away with it, too.  Sucks to be you."

California?  WTF?!


I took the appropriate steps of reported that charge as theft, then I canceled my card.  I changed the email password that my PSN account was linked to, and I would have changed my PSN password as well only the PSN has of course been down ever since this debacle.  I also called up Sony in order to report to them that my credit card information (AND MONEY) had been stolen. 

Finding a number to contact Sony was oddly taxing, but I did find it eventually (1-800-345-SONY, in case any other poor souls out there might need it).  Once I had been connected with someone, I told them what had happened and assured them that I was positive that this was a result of the PSN security breach.  The response I got was essentially a recitation of the original email that the PSN people sent late-April (and just as a semi-amusing side note, the guy kept losing his place while he was reading--like listening to a 4th grade book report, it was).  So all he really said was that although someone hacked through their security, there is no proof that credit card information was taken, but playstation users should remain ever vigilant.  That's it.


No proof?  Tell that to my bank account.  My sad and yet furious bank account.

Honestly, I don't exactly doubt them.  There might not be any definitive proof that the theft was a result of the PSN breach, but lack of proof doesn't mean a lack of a connection either.  Of course, there are any number of incredibly devious ways in which my information could have been illegally obtained--I don't doubt that.  But I try to be as careful as I possibly can (I definitely don't give out that information like candy), and the timing seems a bit suspect. 


If you have a PSN account, even if you've just checked your bank account and credit cards and all seems well, I would HIGHLY encourage you to change your cards, get new pins, etc.  It may be an inconvenience, but better safe than sorry.  And by sorry, I mean out $500 (or more). 


And if you're like me and you've suffered the same misfortune, don't forget to give Sony a call too.  They'll probably just give you the same spiel they gave me, but it's better that they know how many people have fallen victim as a result of the breach of their not-so-secure security.