I attended my first MARCon (Multiple Alternative Realities Convention) in Columbus, OH on May 28, 2011. The theme for this year’s MARCon was “steampunk”, which happened to be the style and inspiration of my latest costume, called The Experiment. I think of it as Frankenstein’s monster with a steampunk twist. I entered the Masquerade contest and was awarded the “Truly F#%*ing Creepy Judges’ Choice Award”. I like that.

I turned my garage into a haunted house again this year. It consisted of a projection screen at the entrance showing various Halloween scenes, a pair of TVs showing “white noise” clips, and a table covered with real animal skulls and fake body parts. The final scare was a motion triggered metal grinder that made a loud noise and shot sparks. I wore my new giant jester costume called Freakshow.

These are photos from my vacation to Drummond Island, Michigan. We stayed in a cottage that can be rented for a week at a time. My favorite day was when we went kayaking on First Lake. The water is a dark brown from the tannic acid, and it reminded me of the swamp in Lord of the Rings where Frodo fell in with all of the dead bodies. I expected to see a corpse float up to the surface the whole time. We saw several beaver damns and two bald eagles flew right above our heads.

My wife and I started kayaking in the summer of 2010. Nothing better than a new hobby to feed my need for more creative projects!

June 5-7, 2010 ~ I wore my Freakshow costume and my wife came along to take pictures. I’m impressed each year by the creativity and quality of everyone’s costumes… and their ability to party hard all night long.