It occurs to me that I’ve been shamefully remiss in mentioning Halloween this year, particularly costumes.

Mine was not impressive. I just dug out and laundered my old iaido gear, found my practice sword, and went as a samurai. I was mildly worried that it wouldn’t fit, since it’s been a coupla years, but frankly, the gear is designed for middle-aged men sporting what we will tactfully call the budo belly, so if I couldn’t fit it and still have room in my pants to smuggle a mule, there would be some real health issues goin’ on. The downside to it is that my waist is extremely short at the best of times–not thick, per se, there’s a definite dip, but the clearance between ribs and hips, for whatever genetic reason, is pretty low. Put on a hakama and gi top, and you’re looking at about fifteen feet worth of ties and belts that all fasten around the waist, leaving me unable to shake the feeling that I look like the samurai equivalent of the nerd with the pants pulled up to their nipples. (Possibly the only outfit in creation that actually looks better on someone with a beer gut. The Japanese always were innovative.)

James, however, had the cool costume. He was going as a monk, had a brainstorm, turned to me, and said “I want to be one of your gearworld characters!”

I said “…wha?”

“You know! The monk ones with the checkerboard and the bells!”

“Oh…wow…okay…”

So thanks to the sewing talents of our buddy Leonor, who will take art for costuming, James now has a very cool gearworld monk outfit–brown robes, long belled hood with knee-length hanging bells in front, checked belt, and as the final touch, a stuffed goldfish handpuppet. Leonor did a fabulous job. Ironically, someone had just asked me for permission to do a gearworld hood outfit, and I hadn’t been very much help because I couldn’t really envision how it would go. Leonor on the other hand looked at two paintings, got out the scissors, and say “Alright let’s do this!” and turned out a really nice costume. So my hat is off, and now I gotta do a brown-robed gearworld character so that it fits the canon. *grin*

On the downside, since I’m pretty obscure, only one person knew what the heck James was. But maybe someday!

Now we just gotta find a fursuit maker who takes art in trade, and we can get James a white donkey head and hands to go inside the suit, and…