Generation WTF

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Jorge

Hell-o-ween

Wow. I guess that header might be a tad strong; though, on pondering further, perhaps it is just right.

This year’s Halloween was interesting. As usual, I completely misjudged how much candy we were going to need, making my mad scramble to the local retailer somewhat unnecessary (if you’re in the vicinity, drop by my desk and you can have a bucketful of candy).

I have no idea what the deal is, given how many kids are at the local school, but the numbers were just not there this year. Small groups of kids would come and go, but nowhere near the same amount as years previous. There was also a conspicuous lack of teenagers with crappy costumes this year. I guess that’s sort of a blessing; but to be honest, I could have used their pillowcases as a way to get rid of the metric ton of sugar that remains (that will eventually find its way onto my frame as gobs of fat).
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Filed under: Rants | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Halloweenie

Posted on November 2, 2008 by Jorge

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Being an outcast as a kid, Halloween has always been an awesome day to me. The chance to disguise myself as something else certainly had appeal, if only to keep people off my back for a day.

My problem was two-fold. On one hand, I didn’t really have a lot of money to spend on costumes. On the other, even if I did, I really enjoyed trying to make my own costumes.

Given that my monetary status was low, the resources I had access to were somewhat limited. Not to mention, I was a bit of a procrastinator. For example…



The Cop

I got the brilliant idea one year of being a cop. I had a fake badge that was pinned on a hat, and a gun. With these two things alone, I figured I would be the best cop ever…



The dorkiest cop ever.
Click to enlarge…


Looking back I wonder what the hell I was thinking. It was bad enough that I wore what was clearly an Adidas running top. Not only that, but wearing green sneakers and folded jeans was probably also not a good idea.

To top it all off, my sunglasses were so big they could have protected my face were I to go into welding.

A lot of my childhood costumes were like this. I just chalk it up to the fact that I didn’t think things through. Of course, this seemed to carry into adulthood.



The Crow

The Crow was one of my staple costumes after high school. I saw the movie and thought it was an awesome concept. Not to mention I had a long black wig and the makeup and clothing were relatively easy to do…



The original Crow (left) and my version (right).
Click to enlarge…


Obviously my version was nowhere near as cool as the movie version. I lacked the cool threads (a ripped t-shirt over another shirt really removes the imposing nature of the character), and the make up was not as good as it could have been.

Score another defeat thanks to waiting for the last minute.



Indiana Jones

Indy is one of my all-time favourite movie characters, mostly because he feels like he could be a real person. One would think that this would make it easier to put together a costume that would do him justice.

This is not always so…



The original Indy (left) and my versions (middle, right).
Click to enlarge…


Out of all of the costumes I had created up to that point, Indiana Jones was the best. The first year I dressed up as Indy, though, I couldn’t find a bullwhip. I even went to a bunch of sex shops to no avail.

So that year (the middle photo), I used a shock cord and tie-wraps to approximate the whip. It didn’t really work out.

Later on, I ended up securing a nice 10′ whip to hang on my belt, which really helped.

The real problem with the costume, though, was the fact that the palette was all wrong. The saving grace, of course, was that it was universally off.



Kakashi Hatake

Kakashi is another character that I think is awesome. If you don’t watch Naruto, you won’t know who he is.

It’s enough to say, though, that he’s probably one of my favourite characters of all time in any media.

The challenge with this costume was that the character is animated. Translating cartoons to real-world costumes is not always the easiest thing to do. Since my friend Shaun had invited me to a costume party, I gave it my best shot. Shaun is insanely good at making costumes, so I had to meet the standards he sets…



The original Kakashi (left, middle) and my version (right).
Click to enlarge…


I think I did a pretty good job.

This time I didn’t procrastinate. I designed the costume using some official pieces of clothing, and a lot of searching around Chinatown for parts that would be a close match. For the record, I didn’t actually get the contact lens for my left eye. I just photoshopped it in. But I spent most of the night with my head protector over my left eye anyway.

Kunai are illegal in Canada, so I made the blades out of bristol board using a design courtesy of this kid. The rest of the kunai were made using various parts from Home Depot.

Special shout-outs go to Chris, who went as Maito Gai, and Kelly who went as Chiyo.


The original Kakashi (left), Gai (middle) and Chuiyo (Right).
Click to enlarge…


Here are our versions…



Our Naruto characters. Gai, Chiyo and Kakashi.
Click to enlarge…


It was a great party. And it felt great to actually make a decent costume for a change.

Filed under: Anecdotes, Experiments, Friends, Special Events | Tagged: , , , , , , | 9 Comments »