Okay, okay, okay! People have been clamoring for Halloween pictures, so here they are! Now, before you start, I must explain that I was not based on any franchise whatsoever. This was not a store-bought costume, it was a bunch of little things bought from a bunch of different places, brought together only through my own sense of imagination.

Also, keep in mind that these are *not* the only pictures of me. There are actually dozens of others. Unfortunately, all of these others were not taken by my camera, and thus I don..t have direct access to them. So, think of these as a sample. If I scrounge up any more, I..ll be sure to add them in the comments.

And, without further ado, this is what I looked like:



Hah! You thought I was going to be a mime again! Nay, after being a mime for the past three years in a row, I decided to switch things up. Hence, I went as...this. Now, I could have worn the gas mask by itself, but I didn't for two reasons. First, my hair would stick out from the straps in the back of the gas mask. This looked goofy, not menacing. Secondly, you could totally see my eyes. Part of the idea of this costume was the complete anonymity. Hence, nobody should be able to know who I am. In order to have a slick head and unseeable eyes, I bought one of those faceless masks. Because breathing in a gas mask is difficult enough, I cut a little mouth-hole in the faceless mask.

By the way, I have no idea in Hell was the "II" on the forehead stands for, but it is absolutely awesome. In any event, here are a couple side-views.




I was considering messing the thing up a bit, to give it a bit more of a weathered, embattled look, but decided against it, seeing as it would probably end up looking pretty lame and/or ruined. Now, for the rest of the costume!



This is me in costume, sans mask. I probably could have just gone as some random mercenary if I wanted to (and, if I added some kneepads and a beret, I could be Krauser, which would have been pretty cool in and of itself. Before you ask, no, that's not a real knife. It..s a cheap $2 rubber one. I tried to flip it, but it was actually more difficult than flipping a real knife, since it has poor balance. Still, it's the only one I could use the thing without getting arrested. But still, there's something you can't see in this picture...



Ah, The Boots. Yes, there just called "The Boots." These are frickin' serious boots. They..re so serious, in fact, that you need to get a close-up.



Can you still not see how serious these boots are? They're frickin' serious, I tell ya! I mean, if I kick you with these boots, you will die. They're leather, weigh several pounds apiece, have steel toes, and laces the length of a football field. Hell, they have zippers! They..re frickin' serious! I was very particular about what kind of boot would work with this outfit. In the end, I ended up getting "Goth" boots, luckily for a fraction of the price they usually cost, so that was nice. But yeah, these boots really "made" the costume, and they announced my presence wherever I went.



Full body shot, baby! I'm looking pretty stoic here.



...I honestly don't know if this looks noble or just silly. Since this is my photo-blog, however, I'll opt for the former. ;)

But wait, when am I going to put the two aspects of my costume together? What do I look like fully encased in my post-apocalyptic garb? Well, something like this:



Well, something like this. Notice that now I have a bat in addition to my knife. Originally, my plan was to have a sledgehammer as my primary weapon. However, sledges are fairly heavy and illegal in the res halls, so I has to settle for a baseball ball, which is quite a lethal weapon, yet is strangely legal. And that's a genuine Louisville Slugger there, so you know I mean business.



This was my most common pose in the outfit. Keep in mind I went to school like this. Yes, with the mask and bat and everything. Not many people dress up on Halloween day in Berkeley, but I do, for one reason: Halloween is a holi-*day*, not just a holi-couple-of-hours. If you're not willing to dress up all day, you're not really celebrating the holiday. Besides, I didn't care what anyone thought about me walking onto campus (the only possible exception being the police force). Yet, as is normal at UC Berkeley, people are to PC to say anything. I only got one statement from a random person, which was, "Awesome costume!" And that made it all worthwhile.



Like I said, there are a lot of pictures that I don't have that were taken with different cameras. However, there was a common theme you can keep in mind: in almost any picture where I was interacting with another person, I was generally positioned in a very aggressive pose.



See what I mean? Interesting note: the lady in pink (she was the tooth fairy) is Tera, one of the Resident Directors of Clark Kerr. So, technically, I'm holding a knife to the throat of my boss. The other girl in the picture is Josemine, one of my co-workers, dressed as a non-slutty schoolgirl, to which I applaud her, as anyone who has heard my "Slutless Halloween" argument can attest to.

In other news, that tooth with the huge pupils is the coolest tooth ever.



Now, one my other coworkers, Christine, dressed up as Lara Croft (ya know, the Tomb Raider). Now, everyone figured that there needed to be a picture of the two of us fighting. It's the battle betwixt good and evil, betwixt form fitting suits and baggy camo pants with suspenders. Now, I think I have the upper hand in this battle. Yes, she may have guns, but if you look closely, you'll see that those guns are fake. They couldn't shoot a real bullet if they spent 72 hours at the OK Corral. My bat, on the other hand, is quite real, and could deal quite the beats should the need arise. Heheheh.



I have no idea why my stance is like it is, but I think it's hi-larious for some reason. On a completely unrelated note, my camera..s flash is very, very bright. How can you tell? Well, the room we were in was DARK. Very, very dark. Seeing as I was wearing a gas-mask with a black mesh underneath, my vision was almost completely negated. I could see forms in the room, but I could not make out one person from another without hearing their voice. Still, I consider Halloween costumes an artwork, and one must suffer for their art (which I actually did with those boots [the frickin' serious ones]. I didn..t walk around in them correctly the first time I used them, and ended up with a hole in my heel. I was more careful in my subsequent wearings, and I ended up wearing a pad over the hole to protect it. My heel thanked me).



Another Lara Croft-Me picture. This time, we're "kicking" each other. Notice how absolutely pathetic my kick looks. That's because we weren't kicking at all; no, that would have produced a blurry shot. So instead, we just had to hold our legs up, so that it *looked* like we were kicking. Now, that would have been all fine and good if they just took the pictures immediately. But noooo, they had go slowly, as if only to torture us.

We each had a different method of dealing with this. Ms. Croft chose to put down her leg and then lift it back up to the same height. I on the other hand, didn't want to miss the shot, and so left my leg up as high as it could go. However, that height was rapidly decreasing with each passing second, thanks to my frickin' serious boots, which, as I mention earlier, weigh several pounds apiece. And once my leg was at its shameful 45-degree angle, *then* they took the picture. Hence, that's why she looks like she's kicking while I look like I'm doing a merry jig.

Now, one thing I neglected to mention is that, while I'm wearing my mask, my vocal stylings are limited to, essentially, audible breaths. Yes, it began when I was a mime, and continues into this costume .. I don..t speak. But how was anyone supposed to know what I was? The answer is simple, and it was everyone's favorite part of the costume:



Yes, that is blurry, but it's the best shot I could get. In any event, it reads:

I AM THE FUTURE.
Have a nice day.

And it was my business card. Whenever anyone would ask what I was, I'd give them one. They'd get a kick out of it and tell all their friends to ask me. It was what turned my costume from "creepy and marginally psychotic" to "awesome and very psychotic."

I have plenty remaining. I should use them as my *real* business cards. I'm sure they'd go great at interviews.



Here's a picture of me holding up my business card. Now, you can see the words very clearly, but the second line is drowned out .. consumed, if you will .. by the light. However, I found the effect to be very surrealistic and awesome. Hence, I cropped the picture and used it as my current desktop wallpaper.



This is what it looks like (though the real thing's big enough to fit a 1366x768 monitor). It's also my current MySpace profile picture (unless it's not anymore, in which case I'm lying) until I decide to change it back.

And that's all my camera got of me. As I said, I'll post more if I find any. I hope your Halloween's were all great, and I look forward to seeing any pictures of your costumes.

I have two upcoming photoblogs for you to look forward to:
1. My (Long-Overdue) Pictures of my Sophomore Living Accommodations
2. My Experience of Camping Out for the Nintendo Wii early on Launch Day (Which I'm doing mainly for the experience)

...Ah, what the heck, I have one more picture to share, from a completely different album, though it still has a Halloween feel to it. Question: What happens when you mix a fake rubber knife and marinara sauce?

Actually, let me rephrase that: What happens when I mix a fake rubber knife and marinara sauce?

Answer: This!



Goodnight, everybody!

Omnipotently,
Andrew