Blogger Photo Dump

 According to an email I just received, Google is shutting down their Album Archive on Monday, 6/19 (Actually 7/19, see below).  Apparently, that could result in every photo here on Propnomicon vanishing.  Forever.  I didn't realize photos uploaded here were actually stored there, but that seems to be the case.

Needless to say, the situation has me in a bit of a panic.  I've uploaded literally thousands of photos since the blog started, and the thought of losing it all isn't pleasant.  Hopefully, I'm misunderstanding the situation.  At this point, all I can suggest is archiving any content you want to keep by Monday.  I'm trying to save as much as I can using Google's tools, but it's a lot of stuff.

I'll refresh this post as soon as I hear more.

Update:  I've saved the photos and I'm currently archiving the entire site using Google Takeout.  Fingers crossed that when Monday rolls around all this is unnecessary. 

 Update 2:  Turns out, they're clearing the albums on 7/19.  In my defense, I normally get up at around 3 AM, so I can be a little fuzzy by 8 PM at night.

Letters, We Get Letters...

I don't think this is a joke, since it's from the same email address as someone that was looking to commission some Harry Potter props a few years ago.

Dear Sir,

Having returned as a penitent to the Catholic Church, I write both to denounce your website as full of evil, Harry Potter as full of devilry and the wickedness of magic and to implore you to do penance likewise in the Holy Church.

Incidentally, my <redacted name> relation was more distant, a lie of false intimacy and another sin.

<redacted name>, the worst of sinners.

As some of you are aware, I'm an ordained minister.  My enthusiastic embrace of fleshly delights in my younger days is long past, but rest assured I'm as much a sinner as anyone, .  That said, I believe having a Harry Potter wand is the least of the debits in my spiritual ledger.  

If I am informed otherwise, hopefully many, many years from now, I will do my utmost to update you.

Stolen Dynamite

One of the unfortunate side effects of giving resources away is discovering your work is being sold for profit.  Such is the case with this "Dynamite Prop" from Shadowcast Studios.  You could save a chunk of change by just printing out my Blast-O brand prop dynamite label and wrapping it around a dowel- just like Shadowcast Studios did.

Sadly, they're violating the Creative Commons Non-Commercial License I use for everything here at Propnomicon.  I want folks to use my stuff.  Just don't monetize it without asking permission. 

UPDATE:  Shadowcast has pulled the offending listing after a torrent of negative comments.  You guys are great.

Crass Commercialism

I've recently been getting a lot of emails asking for direct links to Etsy listings or Ebay auctions.

In general I don't like doing that because, lets be honest, it's just an advertisement.  And, you know, I sell advertising here.  At quite reasonable rates, I might add. 

That said, I do make occasional exceptions for artists that I like.  Someone who's been featured here a few times gets a bit of leeway, while an artist who's posted in-depth build logs or tutorials gets a whole lot of credit on my end.  In either case I have no qualms about linking to pages that show off their work and just happen to have a link from there to a sales site.  I want to promote artists that make cool stuff, but I don't want to become one of those sites that exists solely to hawk stuff.

On the other end of the spectrum there are a few artists, three at last count, that are forever banned from having any of their work appear here.  All three of them made legal threats, something I take very seriously.  All three were upset about things that "looked like" or was "similar" to their work.  In all three cases I provided multiple examples of the same thing pre-dating their efforts by years, if not centuries.  When that failed to soothe them I provided the address of my lawyer.  Amazingly, he's still waiting for those legal papers to arrive.

One last thing.  I'm an Amazon affiliate and occasionally recommend products.  That means I get a cut of your purchase price, at no cost to you, whenever you buy through a link I provide.  Sadly, at least from the standpoint of greed, most of the products I've linked to are less than $10, and less than $1 for the out-of-print books.  I really do need to start cultivating more expensive, and marketable, tastes.

Moving On

Now that I've had a little time to recover from last week's insane rush, it's time to start looking forward to what's next. Well, kind of. Over a year ago I first mentioned producing a period map for the "At the Mountains of Madness" project. Thanks to the influx of capital from the Miskatonic swag I finally have enough funds to cover the printing costs, so that will definitely be the next item I produce. Realistically, I know there isn't going to be enough demand for a 1920's era map of Antarctica to justify the printing costs on it's own, but I think offering it as part of a complete "At the Mountains of Madness" prop set is economically viable.

Beyond that, I'm not sure. I'm going to spend most of this week working on some Halloween projects for friends, but after that I think I might take a sojourn to Innsmouth.

A Little Housekeeping

I'll be fiddling around with the links over the weekend a bit. There are a few I've been meaning to add and some that, sadly, no longer belong. An example of the latter would be "Indy Mogul". It used to be filled with helpful prop and makeup tutorials, but over the last few months it turned into a feeble comedy and movie review site.

A Quick Thanks

My thanks to Trevor Brennan to adding Propnomicon to his blog roll. I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed that I also had my first link from 4chan today. Heh.

Healthwise, I think I'm over the worst of the flu. I still have some chest congestion, but my treatment plan of sleeping for 24 hours, with occasional breaks of wakefulness to swallow fluids and aspirin, seems to have done the trick.

Curious Goods

"Curious Goods" focuses on props from the "Harry Potter" books and films, but it also includes items from "The Golden Compass", "Eragon", and a host of other sources. The sheer amount of material the author has created, from a crystalline Philosopher's Stone to a baby dragon, is amazing in both it's quantity and quality. Tiffany offers a variety of free materials for your personal use and her advice, in particular the tutorials on aging paper and faux wax seals, is applicable to a multitude of CoC-style props.

Telegram for Mr. Smith, Paging Mr. Smith

I just added a link to an online application for creating Western Union telegrams from the 1920's. Just the thing if you're playing Call of Cthulhu and want to add a little something extra to your game.



(Yes, I know "medicine man" isn't the correct term in modern usage, but in the 1920's it was probably the height of enlightenment.)

Update: If you're looking for a blank telegram form you'll find one over here.