I got mine in yesterday, they were packaged nicely, arrived in working order, and sound like vacuum cleaners (and move about as much air!).

They are awesome, and for the price can't be beat.

Since the transactions count as mined, you need 120 confirms for them to show up -- could that be why you're not seeing them?

I have a friend who has purchased land for his grandchildren, and planted black walnut trees on it. By the time they're looking to retire, all that lumber will be worth quite a bit.

One of the more novel ideas I've heard, anyway.

As far as the bars go, if you want them to be heirlooms, I'd have a message engraved in them or something. Maybe a handprint? Something to make them not just run-of-the-mill bullion.

I second the Lenovo Thinkpad. As long as you don't mind looking like you're stuck in the 80s, they're fantastic. Excellent keyboards and screens, matte finish, durable, and (at least on mine) good battery life. Be warned though, the Lenovo "Ideapads" which are cheaper are nowhere near as good. I have an x220i, and love it. You can actually add a small SSD to boot from, and still have the standard HDD for storage (the SSD replaces the 3g/4g card. And I'm not talking expresscard, its mSata).

It might be worth trying to find a business who is upgrading their workforce's laptops, picking up a used one, and throwing the Linux flavor of your choice on it. Business class laptops FTW.

What would be really nice would be to bundle p2pool with bitcoin, so as long as the client (or bitcoind) is running p2pool would run. Not to mention providing it with a gui interface in bitcoinQT would probably help adoption.

Are you looking at LTC/USD or LTC/BTC?

This stone arrived today, and is really a pretty stone. I hadn't had any experience with "star" gems, they're really cool.

Gem arrived today, exactly as described and packaged very well.

Phinnaeus Gage, your brother-in-law's leather work is stunning. I dabble in leather, but it's mostly making armor and such, nothing super decorative like that. I'll make sure to get in touch if I ever need something of that caliber.

As for the "Bitcoin Man" costume, it wouldn't be too hard (the jacket, pants, and cape at least). The difficulty would come from getting the logo all over...I could silk screen it, I suppose, or use Spoonflower.com (probably easier, cheaper, and better looking). The cape I'd do a single, big applique.

I don't know what you mean by the shoes -- generally Chucks come in fun colors, and aren't terribly uncomfortable.

I would have to do some research on the mask, and send you some sketches to make sure I've got the right idea.

Bolo would be pretty easy, I think.

My rough guesstimate for something like that would be $200/set. I can do more specific calculations if you're really interested. You'd be behind ZodiacDragon84 though, so it'd be a little while before I could get started.

Yeah -- I'll try to get some good pictures of the lightning armor I'm working on. I'll let you know if I get things done ahead of schedule.

Without doing a full, piece-by-piece estimation of materials and such, they'd probably be in the $400 range (each). There's a LOT of detail in those costumes, and doing things like all the stitching/applique on Cid's coat would take a really long time (not to mention they both have quite a bit of fabric).

As a note, I wouldn't be able to begin work until mid-February or so, when I'm finished with my current queue.

Oooh, I'm actually working on Lightning's armor from XIII-2 for someone right now (no pics yet, unfortunately). I don't really play FF games, but their characters are popular, and they do have nice, detailed costumes. Even if they aren't always physically possible. (And the Square Enix designers REALLY like belts and buckles.)

Just as a note, costumes (especially detailed, custom ones) are not cheap. Materials for a simple, 100% fabric one typically run about $40 or more (that's a basic renaissance shirt and pants, about as simple as it comes). The more detail is added, the more price goes up -- the embroidered cuffs in my album took about 15 hours each to make. Those cuffs are on the high-end of time-consuming, but typically it takes me 2-3 weeks to get a costume done, from planning to finished.

I do cosplay, but I also have done some dresses (primarily historical, simple ones). That's not to say I couldn't do something more detailed (I do fairly delicate embroidery) I just haven't had a reason to.

You can see some pictures of finished pieces I made here: https://plus.google.com/photos/108764818229271204381/albums/5652959011308484449.

Those look great.

Mind telling suppliers/price? I've been looking at building a couple panels for camping and such.

Same. Card arrived, packaged nicely, exactly as described.

It'd be more interesting if 1 coin was equal to x amount of human work. Do 1 hour of an activity, get a coin that is redeemable for the same amount of time in the future. Would be very hard to check though -- people make mistakes and such.

I'll take it. That cut caught my eye.

I probably wouldn't be much help there (unless you wanted a scale model of a city, for a Godzilla style shoot). I'd find a photographer (or snap some pictures yourself) and go to a vinyl banner making business and have them print it off. Would probably be around $150 for backdrop sized.

Thanks for asking though, anyone else have questions? I'll have to post pictures of my current project when I'm done -- it's a Vault jumpsuit from Fallout.

As in the big canvas/sheet type things? I haven't ever made one before, but I do work with textiles, paints, dyes and such so depending on what you were looking for, I might be able to do it.

Just throwing this out there -- I am an aspiring Costumer/Prop-Maker willing to work for BTC. I work in a variety of materials (leather, fabric, foam, some metal, etc.) and am willing to make just about anything (I've done costumes from video-games, anime, movies, as well as historical costumes ((my specialty))). 

I am slowly adding more to my Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/dvanderbleek) and to my blog (http://dvanderbleek.com).

If you are interested, would like a quote on something, or more pictures of my portfolio, please feel free to post or PM me.