Post-Halloween Disappointment

Halloween has come and gone. Normally I'm not a fan of dressing up, I preferred to look at other people's costumes. But this year I decided to try to be different and goes as the Slenderman simply because I had the bodytype and it was fairly easy to do.

The only thing I was missing for a mask or head covering to complete it. So I ordered something online at the beginning of the month with the predicted date of arrival with roughly a week until it would arrived. Prefect timing.

And so I waited.

And waited.

It's after Halloween and it still hasn't arrived.

So I'm certainly disappointed. I mean, I paid extra for it to come in before Halloween. I also booked the day off of work so I could run around on Campus. Instead, I just ended up sleeping in and loafing off. It's not bad, but I'd rather run around as a mythical entity that abducts people on the one day that it's socially acceptable. I can sleep in any other day.

I'm tempted to blame Sandy for the delays in the mail but I have no idea when it'll arrive. I got an email a while ago saying it was shipped out, and would arrive within 8 days at the latest. That means it should have arrived last Friday. And if it arrived late on the weekend or something, I should have got it on Monday.

It's Wednesday now.

And waiting.

I guess I'll just dress up next year then. Assuming I don't think of a better costume. In the meantime, I've done some thinking and realized that simply wearing a suit and a head-covering mask doesn't make you a good Slenderman. You look more like a mannequin than anything.

So in preparation of next Halloween, let's take a look at what makes the Slenderman so unsettling to so many people, and how we can translate that into a better costume.

I think I can sum it up in the various pictures and images that are used with the Slenderman.

Take a look at the picture below:

First, he's disproportionate and tall, he doesn't look normal. People hate things that look almost human but are slightly off. It's the uncanny valley effect, basically, things that clearly don't look human (e.g. a cartoon) look fine and obviously humans look ok. But it's that inbetween stage of the two that really cause us to feel uncomfortable.

Imagine how the Slenderman would move, completely ungainly and hobbling. He looks like he could almost pass as a person but it's these little differences that throw us off and that's the goal here seeing as he is some kind of urban legend monster.

To accomplish this we we're going to need two things stilts and some form of trash grabbers. If you cover the stilts up well, bam, you have an extra few feet of height. Attach the grabbers to your forearms, bam, extra arm length. Some of the best Slenderman costumes I've seen recommend using dry-waller stilts just because they're easier to walk around with. So I can look for those.

Not creepy at all.

Being abnormally tall won't be hard with the stilts. I'm over 6 feet which is a decent height but it's not rare or uncommon to see other people that tall. To make this costume go from mannequin to Slenderman, we need to make ourselves unrealistically tall. We're talking, 7/8/9 feet tall. The bigger some weird looking thing is, the more scary it is. We see this kind of behavior in animals all the time, puffing themselves up to look bigger in hopes of intimidating something else.

I'm hoping that if I'm running around like this next Halloween I won't trip and fall or anything. Remember, I live in Canada, and by Halloween, we usually have snow and ice all over the place. I remember trying to build a costume around jackets and snowpants.

Maybe I'll just be the Slenderman indoors...

I am Alive

Sometimes I don't know how I manage to survive. During exam weeks I've been known to eat one meal a day and sleep 5 hours (at most) a night. It's by no means a healthy lifestyle, and I do not recommend it to anyone who wants to live past the age of 40. But it's just this habit I've fallen into and I'm too stupid engrained in it to stop.

That being said, I can return back to normal now that all my midterms have been completed.

Hahahaha, not really.

What was really bad was that I didn't start seriously studying for my Cognitive psychology midterm until 2 days beforehand. That's never a good thing to do. It adds additional stress and the chances of you remembering anything are greatly reduced.

And yet somehow I felt that that exam was the easiest midterm I've written so far. I could have very well been delusional, maybe just cocky. Sleep deprivation does strange things to a person's mind. And not eating. Ok, being unhealthy in general does bad things to your brain.

And while we're on the topic of health, something is wrong with my lung or lungs. I don't know what, but it refuses to fully recover. I'm still feeling spasms of pain, random bouts of breathlessness. I mean, it's certainly less frequent than it was 2 weeks ago but it should be back to normal by now.

I really do hope it's just due to me not taking care of myself for the last little while. And I'm only admitting this on the blog because I know Theresa has exams herself and can't take the time to read any of my posts. Otherwise she'd drag me to the nearest emergency room. By the time you read this Dear everything will be all better.

Or I'll be dead. Either or.

Good timing. It's almost Halloween.

With exams out of the way I can actually start focusing a bit on my Slenderman costume for Halloween. I ordered some stuff but it still hasn't arrived yet so I'm a bit anxious.

Ok, end of blog post. I need some sleep before I pass out in my chair again. See everyone on Monday.

The Slenderman

Most urban legends and mythical creatures are products of older civilizations and eras. It's difficult to replicate the sort of mystery, wonder and sometimes fear that is associated with things like the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, Jack the Ripper and similar entities.

But if there is any modern urban legend that is thriving it would be the creature known as the Slenderman.

The Slenderman is depicted as a tall, skinny, and faceless entity in a suit and tie, often with disproportionate limbs and fingers. He or it, is usually seen in the edges of photographs with the photographs ranging anywhere from the 1900's to modern times. It is common for the Slenderman to be seen in areas where children frequent. And it is not uncommon for children sharing a photo with the Slenderman to be declared missing.

No one knows why the Slenderman stalks and abducts children. Or what happens to those who go missing. Upon seeing the Slenderman, some individuals claim to suffer from, but not limited to, nausea, blurred vision, and headaches. But reports will vary from individual to individual.

Can you spot the Slenderman?

So popular is the Slenderman that he has become the choice topic of numerous short stories, "documentaries", and even games, the most well known being Slender. You play as a young woman lost in the woods as you try and find pages of a notebook whilst being stalked by the Slenderman.

The game has gotten so much attention that an updated and improved version will likely be released on Steam in the near future. I intend on doing a review, but make due with the trailer for the meantime.

Now there's a reason why I'm suddenly discussing the Slenderman, and it's simple. It's been years since I've dressed up for Halloween and going as the Slenderman is easy. I'm tall, thin, and I don't mind standing around looking creepy. All I need to do is get my old suit adjusted for my weight loss over the years, and away we go.

Though, I'm going to have to get used to wearing contacts because no glasses allowed. And I'm also unsure of what to wear so my head is completely white. I'm tempted to just get a nylon something to shove over my face but I doubt that be effective, or comfortable.

Any suggestions would be great.

Brb, TF2 Halloween Event Time.

Ok, I think it's pretty obvious to most of my gamer followers that I play a lot of Team Fortress 2. While everyone is scrambling to play Battlefield 3 or pre-ordering Call of Duty 3 I'm sitting back with a game that came out 4 years ago and is still going strong.

I'm also a hat addict. Stop judging me.

In all seriousness I still love this game. The gamemodes and maps are still fun, the addition of the new items allow for more varied gameplay and styles, the characters have unique voices and personalities. Valve (the developer, nothing to do with plumbing) also supports the community and individual modders. Paying commissions to people who either design maps that become popular, or modders who create hats and weapons that catch their attention. I like developers who give back to the community.

And it's not a measly amount either. Valve gives away 25% of the money made from these community contributions which last year was over 2 million dollars. Seriously, there was a guy who made a hat and it was so popular in a 2 weeks he had made 40 grand just like that. Just for making a virtual hat for people to wear in game.

Pretty self-explanatory.

The game is currently Free-to-Play meaning it doesn't cost anything. You start with a basic account and the only requirement to upgrade to a "premium" account is to buy something from the store. There's no pressure to, you can play just as fine with the basic account and the only ways you are disadvantaged from a premium account is superficial.

If you have some FPS experience you can charge right in and start kicking butt. If you feel uncomfortable playing in a server right away you could always play through the handy tutorial as well. The reason why I'm kind of promoting the game right now is because the much anticipated Halloween Event just came out and I'm kind of giddy with excitement.

Last year we got to fight this pumpkin guy. This year we get a flying eye.

As usual, Valve has released a silly comic on their blog and it's the kind of stuff expected from the TF2 universe. I think it's a breath of fresh air, the cartoony look that doesn't take itself seriously compared to all the gritty, dark "realistic" games that dominate the market today.

I'd give you guys my Steam ID so you could add me to your friend's lists but mine is full at the moment. :( If you have time, I seriously suggest you try TF2 out. There's no risk at all, the game is being patched and updated on average every 2 weeks. The community is USUALLY very nice and friendly despite what I said about Russian kids a few posts back.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to spend some time with my girlfriend playing our favorite shooter. If you have any questions about TF2 I'd be more than happy to answer them.

This is her favorite hat in the game, I don't know what to say to her some days.