Halloween 2024 Costume Build: Porcupine

Halloween 2025 is just over a month away, so I'd better finish last year's post.

For Halloween 2024, I made a porcupine costume:

The Inspiration

I got the idea from a video (a TikTok laundered through Facebook Reels) for a relatively simple kids' porcupine costume, using just black straws and white tape hot-glued to fake fur and velcroed to a hoodie.

The concept looked pretty good, and I figured I could upscale and over-engineer a grown-up version.

The Plan 

After a few quick searches, I saw that others had done similar versions using zip ties, so I decided to go that route, using two sizes: your run-of-the-mill 11-inch ones, and then some 24-inch ones. 

Because zip ties are heavier than straws, I decided they needed to be set into a mounting plate. I'd been thinking cardboard (foam core wouldn't have any bend), but then I realized I had a leftover sheet of 10mm thick EVA foam (conveniently black, though it would be covered by faux fur I picked up from Michaels), as well as some some heavy-duty (not industrial strength) velcro tape.

Oh, and I didn't have a black zip hoodie, so I bought one. (Zip-front is easier to put on/take off than a pullover.)

After sketching out the general layout, I had a small plate for my head, a thin strip for my neck and upper back, and a wider plate for the middle of my back:

The sketch shows the order of the layers (I glued the hook side velcro directly to the EVA foam), as well as the rough placement of the 11" and 24" zip tie quills, which I canted at different angles and deliberately didn't line up perfectly.

The Build

I stretched out the build over four days, including waiting for supplies from Amazon. I took a chance and didn't do final assembly until the Saturday before Halloween (Halloween was actually the following Thursday), because I was confident that I'd anticipated most of the pitfalls, and oddly, I was mostly right.

1. Collect your zip ties and make stripes by cutting and wrapping white duct tape around them. I used the 11-inch zip ties for my head and the outer edges down the back, and 24-inch ties down the spine. I ended up using 35 24-inch and 70 11-inch ties in the costume.

   

   Bundles of zip tie quills, with foam backers and faux fur on a hoodie.

2. Cut the EVA foam backers to size.
    
   
3. Cut the fake fur to size (just slightly bigger than the foam base). (Tip: From the back side, use a sharp hobby knife to start a cut in the backing, Then grab both sides and tear. This minimizes the fake fur you need to cut; if you cut all the way through, you'll get bits of fake fur everywhere.)

   

4. Cut holes in the foam (small enough to fit the head of the zip ties, snugly). I used a hollow punch set, which I strongly recommend over using scissors or a knife.

   

   Hole-punched foam backer for the head piece.

   With my punches, the 20 Harbor Freight 24" zip ties only required one large hole, but the ones I got from Amazon had bigger heads, so they needed two holes. (The foam stretches, so you don't need to be perfect. You actually want the holes to be a little smaller so they snug down around the head.)

   

   Hole-punched foam backers for the upper- and middle-back pieces.

   Note the heads of the zip ties are rectangular, so angle the holes as needed to create the pattern you want. (I angled them out to get a wider spread.) Here you can see holes for the small (S) zip ties, and the single- and double-punched holes for the two different kinds of large (L) ones.

5. Dry fit the zip ties in the base to make sure they fit, then take them out.

   

   Dry fitting the head piece, seen from underneath.

   

   Top view of the head piece after dry fitting.

   

   Dry fitting the upper back piece.

6. Use the foam base as a template and mark the holes in the back of the fur with a paint marker.

   

   Marked fur and hole-punched foam backer for the head piece.

7. Use your hobby knife to carefully cut slits in the back of the fur. Test each slit to make sure the zip tie will fit through it. (You don't need to be super exact, it's pretty forgiving.)
    
   
8. Put the fur side down (with the marked back side facing up), then use spray adhesive or other glue to glue the base to the back of the fur. Make sure the holes line up with the marks.
    
   
9. Insert the tips of the zip ties through the holes in the foam base and the slits in the fur.

   

   Starting to assemble the head piece.

10. Push the zip tie heads into the holes in the foam, and when done, glue them in place. (I used hot glue.)

    

    

    Finished gluing the head piece. As you can see, I used 22 small zip ties for the head.

    

    Finished putting the quills on the head piece. Just need velcro now.

11. After the glue dries, cut strips of velcro tape (the scratchy hook side) to size and stick them to the back of the foam.
     
    
12. Cut matching strips of velcro tape (the fuzzy loop side) to the hoodie. Use extra loop tape to give yourself some mounting options.
    

    

13. Stick the quill plates where you want them on the hoodie. Be careful if you reposition them, since the velcro tape might pull away. (You can always glue or sew them down.)

    

    Fully assembled and laying on the rug.

After a test fit, I glued some extra strips of fake fur to the head piece to hide the edges, but that seems optional.

I also made some extra quills, just to have and hand out.

That's about it. It's pretty easy to wear, and you can tie the hoodie strings under your chin to keep the hood up. 

View from directly behind.

Three-quarter (I think?) rear view.

Taping the quills took the longest time, but I watched most of Amazon's Patriot season 1 while doing it.

Materials:

• 10mm EVA foam sheet
• Fake fur
• Black zip ties (11" and 24")
• White tape (I used duct tape)
• Black zipper hoodie
• Velcro tape

Tools:

• Hollow punch set and hammer
• Hot glue gun
• Spray glue
• Hobby knife
• Scissors
• Light-colored paint marker
  

My Weekend, Without and With Pictures

Saturday:

Passed by the in-the-process-of-opening Simply Social Coffee Shop (they were setting up for a private event).

Went to the H Street Festival and left before it got too, too crowded. (Did not stop into The Pug, though.)

On the way back, stopped at East Falls Church Metro and walked to Clare and Don's Beach Shack End of Summer Party:

 

Sunday:

Went to the Foggy Bottom Book Crawl at the GW Campus Store, featuring authors (L-R) Kyla Sommers, Alexandra Petri, and Joe Davidson:

Did a brief drive-by on the Columbia Heights Day. 

Stopped by the just-opened JW Marriott Reston Station: 

 Saw many spotted lanternflies, squished some.

Also had a chocolate creme-filled donut at the new Tous le Jours. 

53 Items About 53

Once again, it is my birthday. 53, for those counting. And once again, I accumulated 53 bits of trivia, knowledge, and random occurrences involving the number 53, then used them to respond to the first 53 birthday greetings on my Facebook. (All in a batch, which I posted only after work, because of *gestures* all this. Also, Facebook strips out formatting and hyperlinks when you paste comments, which is annoying when you're doing something like this.) 

53 icon used under license CC BY-SA 4.0 by user T2ng

Methodology: As in previous years, I found 53 bits of data from Wikipedia and assorted Google searches, then used Google Sheets to randomize the list. So any associations with the poster are strictly coincidental (unlike when I first started to do this, maybe).

I do note, though, that just like last year's entry, this list ends with a bit of fluff about an astronomical object.

1. Super Bowl LIII (53) was February 3, 2019. The Patriots beat the Rams 13-3.
2. The AMG E 53 HYBRID Sedan is a 4-door, plug-in hybrid with an MSRP of $88,000.
3. Title 53 of the US Code is reserved for future use.
4. 53 is a studio album by French jazz pianist Jacky Terrasson, available from the Blue Note label.
5. 53 by the Sea is a restaurant in Honolulu, Hawaii. Its dress code is business casual.
6. A round, white pill with the imprint F 53 is prescription antidepressant Escitalopram Oxalate 5 mg.
7. This is skibidi toilet 53; I don't claim to understand it, but it doesn't seem any weirder than any meme videos of the 90s or 2000s. I just need to figure out the watching order.
8. Route 53 is an Amazon Domain Name Service (DNS) web service.
9. The Lycoming T53 is a turboshaft engine used on helicopters and (as a turboprop) fixed-wing aircraft since the 1950s.
10. The Zoeller M53 is a 3/10 HP sump pump with a 25-foot cord.
11. F53 is the FAA location identifier (LID) for the Franklin County Airport in northeast Texas.
12. Darien EMS-Post 53 is a volunteer ambulance service that serves Darien, Connecticut and is composed of high school students.
13. T53 is a category in wheelchair athletics where competitors have full use of their arms but limited or no trunk function.
14. Fifty-three is the 16th prime number.
15. The Q-53 is a US Army ground-based radar system made by Lockheed Martin.
16. Area 53 is an indoor adventure park (paintball, ropes course, etc) with two New York City locations.
17. 53 in Morse Code is ..... ...--
18. R53 is the model number for the Mini Hatch.
19. The X-53 was a research program that was a full-scale proof for active aeroelastic wing control surfaces.
20. In hexadecimal, 53 is 35, that is, the same characters used in the decimal representation, but reversed.
21. COUP 53 is a documentary about the 1953 Iranian Coup
22. P53 is a gene responsible for a protein important in suppressing certain cancers in humans.
23. 53 is the telephone country code for Cuba.
24. 53 is the atomic number for iodine.
25. Pope John 1 was the 53rd Catholic pope, from 523–526.
26. 53 in binary is 110101.
27. Messier 53 (also known as M53 or NGC 5024) is a globular cluster in the Coma Berenices constellation. It is considered a metal-poor cluster.
28. DHCPv4 option 53 is the DHCP message type option that declares whether a particular message is a discovery, request, or another message type.
29. R53 was the pennant number for the British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Undaunted, sunk for target practice in 1978.
30. ASCII code 53 is the number 5.
31. 53 is a sexy prime (a prime number 6 away from another prime) with both 47 and 59
32. The M53 is a Yugoslav copy of the German MG42 machine gun.
33. "Fifty Three" is the third track on the album Arch Stanton by instrumental stoner rock band Karma to Burn.
34. FiftyThree, Inc. was an American technology company that made products for Apple, including the Paper iPad app and Pencil digital stylus.
35. The Type 53 is a licensed, carbine-style Chinese version of the Mosin-Nagant rifle
36. X53 is a low alloy carburizing steel melted as VIM + VAR.
37. Division 53 is the American Psychological Association's Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
38. The F-53 is a Ford motorhome chassis.
39. The Chevrolet Corvette was first produced in 1953.
40. The 53rd District Court in Livingston County, Michigan accepts in-person appearances on Felony, Misdemeanor, and Civil Infraction warrant matters Monday through Friday, between 9:00–9:30 am.
41. 53 in roman numerals is LIII.
42. F-53 is an SAP Transaction Code for manual payments.
43. The 53rd US Congress was in session March 4, 1893, to March 4, 1895, during the first two years of Grover Cleveland's second presidency, with Democrats controlling both the House and Senate.
44. The M53 motorway is 18.9 miles (30.4 km) long on the Wirral Peninsula in England. It is also referred to as the Mid Wirral Motorway.
45. "How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days" is a recent article from The Atlantic [paywall]
46. Iditarod 53 started March 3, 2025 in Fairbanks, Alaska (instead of Willow) due to lack of snow, and tied for the smallest number of mushers (33).
47. R53 Suspension is a division of British engineering company R53; they make suspensions for rally cars.
48. Liberty Public School District 53 is in Liberty, Missouri and has 11 elementary schools, four middle schools, two high schools, an alternative secondary school, and an early childhood center.
49. The F.53 was the export version of the English Electric Lightning, a British fighter interceptor aircraft in service from the 1960s–80s.
50. 53.com is the domain for the Fifth Third Bank, which operates in 11 US states. The name comes from the 1908 merger of Cincinnati's Fifth National Bank and Third National Bank.
51. Article 53 of the UN Charter is about the use of regional arrangements or agencies in Security Council enforcement actions.
52. 53 is a Chinese restaurant in NYC located at 53 W. 53rd street (between 5th & 6th Ave)
53. 53 Kalypso is a large and very dark main belt asteroid that was discovered by German astronomer Robert Luther on April 4, 1858. 

Lastly, Wednesday birthdays are kind of lame.

Reston, according to The Onion

Last week's edition of satire site The Onion featured an article with a Reston, VA dateline, "Report: Every Place On Earth Has Wrong Amount Of Water," ostensibly about a report from the U.S. Geological Survey, which is headquartered in Reston.

That got me wondering: How often has The Onion featured Reston?

Searching "Reston" in The Onion archives brings up 17 results:

Of those, 7 more have Reston, VA datelines, featuring a real-life organization based in Reston or a fictional person, place, or event here:

• "New Study Finds Rocket-Powered Roller Skates Still Fastest Way To Commute To Job As Eccentric Inventor," April 18, 2024: About a study in the Journal Of Transportation Engineering, a publication of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
• "Realistic New Wildlife Campaign Just Asks Americans To Take A Good Last Look," September 4, 2020: About the National Wildlife Federation.
• "New Study Finds Unplanned Pregnancies Continuing To Decline In Bruce Springsteen Lyrics," September 2, 2016: Name checks the National Association for Music Education,, which used to be in Reston but now is in Herndon.
•  "Juror Way Too Far Into Trial To Ask What 'Contusions' Are Now," October 6, 2014: This one is kind of a random city name misfire, since Reston has no court.
• "BREAKING: Cousin Mark Coming After All," November 22, 2012: About a planned Thanksgiving in Reston.
• "Defiant Customers Refuse To Return Recalled Crib," December 11, 2002: Features a Reston parent.
• "Christian Theme Park Features World's Largest Spanking Machine," June 18, 1996: About The Matthew, Mark, Luke and Fun Playland theme park and its "new Spankinator 7000, the world’s largest spanking machine."
  

5 featured the name "Reston" as the name of a person or street:

• "Succession Of Terrible Events Fails To Befall 33-Year-Old Riding Longboard To Digital Media Job," March 12, 2012: New York City-based digital media developer Jake Reston is the person described in the headline.
• "Nation Figured Everything Would Run On Some Kind Of Cubes Of Blue Energy By Now," November 15, 2015: Has a quote from David Reston of Batavia, NY
• "Disgusted Supreme Court Can't Believe It Has To Rule Having Sex With American Flag Protected Under First Amendment," June 13, 2011: Features a quote from Portland, Oregon resident David Reston as he puts an American flag somewhere where it really, really shouldn't go.
• "City Planner Gets Halfway Through Designing City Before Realizing He’s Just Doing Philadelphia Again," March 24, 2014: Features Des Moines, Iowa urban planner William Reston.
• "As Chief Of Police, I Believe Even 500 Murders Is Too Many," November 25, 2010: Doxxes someone who lives at "324 Reston St."
  

The last 4 mention people or places from Reston:

• "White House Sends Obama To 3-Day Management Seminar At Washington Marriott," March 26, 2014: Has President Obama speaking to (and having a beer with) Tom Hanley, co-owner of Hanley Comprehensive Payroll Services from Reston, "third-largest payroll processor in the region."
• "Biden Scores 800 Feet Of Copper Wire," January 24, 2013: Where then-Vice-President Biden finds scrap copper to sell inside the walls of a vacated residence in Reston, VA.
• "Finest Opera Singer Of Her Generation Unknown By Her Generation," January 31, 2001: The first quote is from "Amy Sharper, 23, a self-described 'total music freak' from Reston, VA."
• "Corporate-Welfare Recipients: Are They Eating Steak And Driving Cadillacs?" February 17, 1999: Features a quote from "Reston, VA, delivery driver Ted Schacht, 41."
  

The Xbox 360 still works, eventually

Getting back to the raison d'être of this blog, I tried firing up my Xbox 360. (The older Pixel I was using for mobile gaming isn't reliably registering screen touches any more; some of it is probably just wear and tear, though I did get it caught in my tailgate and left out in the rain when I was back in New Jersey—the first dumb thing.) 

Anyway, the Xbox 360 turned on okay (once I figured out the power plug was loose), but the screen was blank; it wasn't showing any signal to the HDMI 2 input. I went down a rabbit hole diagnosing HDMI problems with Xboxes, when I finally realized that the reason why it wasn't showing up on HDMI 2 was because it was actually plugged into component video.

52 Bits of Trivia for Age 52

As is my wont, here are the 52 pieces of trivia that I used to respond to Facebook birthday well wishers (granted, mostly from wikipedia and first pages of Google search results, but still). Also, this year, I compiled the list, then randomized the posting order of things in Google sheets, so I did not/was not able to send subtle messages to posters with my chosen response:

1. Fort52 sells watercolor-painted playing cards and other paper goods. They're in Fort Worth.
2. "52 hertz is equivalent to the musical note G#1, which is the 12th lowest key on a conventional 88-key piano keyboard; or, the 4th finger position on the lowest string (E1) of a double bass."
3. The B-52s are also an iconic US band.
4. 52 is a series of 4 albums totalling 52 songs writing by American country singer Kristian Bush.
5. The Bell XP-52 was a WWII fighter aircraft design project with a twin boom tail and pusher propellers.
6. US Route 52 goes from South Carolina to North Dakota, about 2,072 miles.
7. The Q52 is a superyacht tender built by Dutch company Qnautic.
8. 52 in Morse code is ….. ..--- (I actually knew this without having to look it up)
9. Social 52 is a restaurant and bar in Richmond, Virginia.
10. The atomic number of Tellurium is 52.
11. 52 is a DC Comics limited series, published weekly in 2006 for a year.
12. F52 is the ICD-10_CM code for "Sexual dysfunction not due to a substance or known physiological condition"
13. The p52 protein dimerizes with RelB to translocate into the nucleus, where it regulates gene transcription.
14. 52 factorial (52*51*50…*1) is about 8.0658e67. That link has a lot of trivia about that.
15. 52 in binary is 110100.
16. Seasons 52 is a US restaurant and wine bar chain.
17. Pub 52 is the US Postal Service's publication on Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail (I actually know a little about this one.)
18. 52 is not a prime number. The factors of 52 are 1, 2, 4, 13, 26, and 52.
19. Title 52 of the US Code codifies voting and election laws.
20. A B-52 cocktail is "a layered shot composed of coffee liqueur (Kahlúa), Irish cream (Baileys Irish Cream), and Grand Marnier (in later versions replaced with triple sec or Cointreau)"
21. 52 is the international direct dial code for Mexico.
22. B52 is another name for The Sicilian Defence chess opening?
23. Pliny the Elder wrote his account of the Roman Empire's German wars in AD [CE] 52.
24. D52 is a school district in Washington, Illinois.
25. 52 American hostages were held in the Iran hostage crisis.
26. A modern piano has 52 white keys.
27. The New 52 was DC Comics' lineup revamp in 2011.
28. The 52nd day of the year is February 21.
29. Article 52 of the Geneva Conventions covers the general protection of civilian objects.
30. J52 was the hull number of the HMS Guysborough, a British Royal Navy minesweeper loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy and sunk by a U-boat in 1945.
31. 1952 was a leap year that started on Tuesday.
32. The Lenovo ThinkPad P52 was a laptop.
33. Messier 52 or M52, also known as NGC 7654 or the Scorpion Cluster, is an open cluster of stars in the highly northern constellation of Cassiopeia.
34. Food52 is a food website.
35. There are 52 cards in a standard deck of playing cards.
36. 52 is the car number of retired NASCAR driver Jimmy Means.
37. Clay Matthews wore 52 for the Green Bay Packers.
38. The Siemens and Halske T52 is a WWII German cipher machine and teleprinter, codenamed Sturgeon by the British.
39. 52 is a song by British band The Royston Club (it's not bad)
40. The movie 52 Pick-Up starred Roy Scheider and Ann Margaret.
41. 52 is an untouchable number (a math term for "a positive integer that cannot be expressed as the sum of all the proper divisors of any positive integer.")
42. NFPA 52 is the National Fire Protection Association's Vehicular Natural Gas Fuel Systems Code
43. The Liga Privada T52 is a cigar by tobacco company Drew Estate and made in Nicaragua.
44. A beehive hairdo is also (apparently) nicknamed a B-52.
45. WMATA's Route 52 Metrobus runs between L'Enfant Plaza Station and 14th and Colorado.
46. 52 Blue is a whale that calls at the "unusual">frequency of 52 hertz, and has been called the "world's loneliest whale."
47. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an iconic US bomber.
48. There are, of course, 52 weeks in a year.
49. A pill with imprint LILLY J52 is a white, round pill, Diethylstilbestrol 1 MG.
50. Part 52 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations deals with Solicitation Provisions and Contract Clauses.52 was some sort of video series about a group trying to make 52 short films in 2013.
51. 52 was some sort of video series about a group trying to make 52 short films in 2013.
52. NGC 52 (PGC 978) is an edge-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered on September 18, 1784, by William Herschel. He described it as "very faint, small, extended."

"Flight of the Valkyrie," by Charles Coombs (Boys' Life, July 1962)

I was originally going to post this to an aviation forum as a story identification question, since I only remembered some details from when I read it as a kid. But I finally found it, so I thought I'd share. 

The July, 1962 edition of Boys' Life (the magazine for Boy Scouts) featured "Flight of the Valkyrie," a short story by Charles Coombs. The entire issue is available on Google Books, and it's a time capsule of the era (don't miss the ads). 

Mind you, I'm not that old; not sure how we got hold of it; maybe from a library sale or a leave-behind from the previous owner of our house.

The story is really short, only about three magazine pages total. Also, the opening illustration practically gives away the ending. (So I cropped out the first page image here.)

It's about a test flight of a prototype US bomber, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie, a very distinctive, six-engine delta-wing with canards.

In the story, three engines flame out over Kansas, and the pilot decides to try to land on an empty stretch of highway. The crew sticks with him (though he reminds them that they can eject using their escape capsules all the way down to zero altitude), and they land successfully on the highway.

However, the XB-70 needs two miles of runway, and despite brakes, flaps, and drag chute, the plane is about to hit a curve and crash.

Spoilers ahead for a 60+ year-old short story:

At the last moment, the pilot comes up with an unconventional idea that saves the plane: He lowers the plane's folding wing tips (designed to help manage the plane during supersonic flight), which dig into the dirt on both sides of the road, slowing the plane in time.

When asked by the flight engineer (who previously doubted him due to an earlier mistake) how he thought of doing that, the pilot answers, "Had to drag something to help slow us down. And I couldn't get my feet out the window."

The wing tips are damaged, but the plane and crew are saved. The end.

Real-World Epilogue

Now, while this incident is completely fictional, a few years later in June 1966, there would be an infamous and well-documented mid-air collision resulting in a fatal crash. 

Anyway, since there's not much in the way of search results for this short story, I just wanted to put it out there.

A Personal Progression of COVID Masks as Revealed by Car Archaeology

This weekend, I needed an extra N95 mask from my car and couldn't find one. So I decided to go through the COVID supplies in my car (trunk, glove box, center console) to assess and restock.

Top left, you see components for the first batch of improvised masks: bandanas with extra filter material to fold in (cut up from reusable polypropylene grocery bags and old t-shirts), along with a few of my customizations: PVC couplings to snug the bandana up under my chin, and plastic-coated metal tabs (the kind used to seal coffee bags) to duct tape in the right spot to make moldable nose bridges, along with some extra duct tape.

Below that were the cloth masks, homemade (by others) or store-bought (with a paper clip wire inserted for a nose bridge for those that lacked).

In the upper right, surgical masks.

And then, finally, N95 and KN95 masks.

Halloween Costume Build 2022: Banana Cop & Human Target

Since I broke the seal with my blog entry yesterday, I figured I might as well pare down the blog backlog (backblog?) and keep the streak going.

There are 63 days until Halloween; here are my costumes from 2022.

Costume #1: Banana Cop

First, I had a to put together a hasty interim costume for Friday night, because I'm no longer pulling all-nighters to finish costumes. I came up with Banana Cop.

  

There's not a lot to it; a banana costume under a sheriff's uniform top. Though I thought the holster with a real banana in it was a nice touch. (I had to buy the banana, and I even brought the holster into Safeway to make sure I got one that fit.)

Costume #2: Human Target

The second one for Saturday was an actual build. First up was two pieces of foam core board (with a precisely cut eye slit), hot glued together and reinforced by two Home Depot yardsticks:

 

Next, some straps. I didn't have any nylon webbing handy, so I made some straps by folding over some duct tape. The buckles and keepers I already had:

 

Covering the eye hole is just some black panty hose. I had some left over from early on in the pandemic, when there was a mask hack for improving the effectiveness of surgical masks (just cut a tube of panty hose and put it over the mask to help seal gaps). The forehead pad is so I could wear my glasses; it's just some thick polyurethane foam glued to the board:

 

Assembly is just more duct tape and hot glue. The setup is super light, so strength isn't an issue, though I had to experiment to find the right height for the straps (around the neck and waist):

The front could be any poster sized paper, though the point of this costume was to use a silhouette shooting target (with a hole cut to match the eye slit). 

The holes aren't actually bullet holes; I started with a clean target, put a piece of scrapwood with holes drilled through it behind it, and poked a Sharpie marker through to get holes the right size. The white foam core backing shows right through. Then, I just used some spray adhesive to glue it down:

Wearing the costume:

From the side; this is clearly meant to be seen from the front only:

 

You can also use it after Halloween if you want to rent yourself out as half a sandwich board advertisement.

The Mullet Is Back

I was deep down a Wikipedia rabbit hole when, whimmed, I popped over to the Mullet (haircut) article to see which photos were being used to show the hairstyle. This is because way back in 2008, the article's main illustration was me. (This lasted for a little while, then somewhere along the line [and after a mini-edit war], the photo was replaced. It happens.)

So, I was shocked (and not in the Casablanca, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" way) to see that my photo has made it back in, just below 1970s David Bowie and representing the 1990s:

A man with a mullet in 1992.

According to the edit history (as if there was any doubt that I would scrub through it to pin down exactly when it happened), a user (now banned for sock puppet accounts, and again, no it wasn't me) made the change on March 2, 2022. 

I also note that it replaced a photo of 1980s Lou Diamond Phillips from two revisions prior.

Immediately, I checked the Facepalm article, but alas, it was not to be.

Anyway, enjoy it while it lasts.

My First Banana Bread

I don't bake much (though I do roast a fair bit), but I had a few bananas on the edge so I decided to make banana bread.

The recipe I used (literally the first search result) only requires eight ingredients, and I had all of them except vanilla extract, which I remedied via a serendipitous Amazon sale.

I added chia seeds and unsweetened coconut powder (which I add to many things for the extra fiber). 

I'd recommend one other modification: Cut the butter down from the given 1/3 cup, which is waaaaay too much—you can't taste anything but butter.

The other thing I missed was the given cook time (50—60 minutes at 350) is for an 8"x4" loaf pan; it's a few minutes shorter for an 8.5"x4.5" pan, which is what I have. So the crust came out hard.

As to the photo: Yes, I have a PVC light box; yes, I put the banana bread in it; and yes, the photo still managed to come out horribly.

 

#51FactsAbout51: The Return of Birthday Factoids

Today's my 51st birthday. (Which doesn't seem right, but the math checks out.) A few years ago, I started responding to Facebook birthday well-wishers with trivia based on my new age, though I paused when the pandemic hit, when celebrating birthdays just seemed different.

51. Includes newer glasses.

 

Well, after a morning of french toast, hash browns, an age-appropriate level of fiber, and 80s music, here are the 51 items I posted about the number 51 (clearly, mostly taken from Wikipedia and the first few pages of Google search results):

 

 #51FactsAbout51

1. 51 is the product of 3 and 17 (both prime numbers)
2. 51 in binary is 110011
3. "Route 51" is a Wisconsin Public Radio show focusing on issues in the north-central Wisconsin area
   
4. 51 in Morse Code is ..... .-----
5. 51 in Roman numberals is LI
6. 51 is the title of a 2011 sci-fi horror movie
7. 51 is the atomic number of antimony
8. 51% is the minimum percentage (rounded up) needed for a majority
9. The USS Arleigh Burke is DDG-51, the lead ship of its class of guided-missile destroyers 
10. 51 is the country dialing code for Peru
11. 51% a men's clothing brand in Seoul, South Korea)
    
12. is the number of laps in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
13. 51 is the second solo mixtape by rapper Kool A.D., formerly of the rap group Das Racist. 
14. Station 51 is the fire station featured in the 1970s television series Emergency! 
15. The number of essays Alexander Hamilton wrote as part of The Federalist Papers defending the US constitution
16. The TV show The Price Is Right is currently in its 51st season
17. The Mustang World War II fighter aircraft is the P-51.
    
18. "Fifty-One" is a fourth season episode of Breaking Bad where Walter celebrates his 51st birthday
19. A 51% attack is when a party gains control of a majority of a network blockchain [this is a massive oversimplification, don't come at me cryptobros]
    
20. The 51st day of the year is February 20
21. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) was the longest-serving US Senator at 51 years, 5 months, and 26 days 
22. 51 degrees Fahrenheit is 10.56 degrees Celcius (and 283.706 Kelvin)
23. IRS Publication 51 is the Agricultural Employer's Tax Guide 
24. Title 51 of the United States Code (51 U.S.C.) is entitled "National and Commercial Space Programs"
    
25. Area 51 is a US government facility that's supposed to house secret military (and even alien) technology
26. 51 is the number of Doc Hudson in the animated movie Cars (which I've never seen)
27. Photo 51 is an X-ray image of key importance in elucidating the structure of DNA in the 1950s 
28. The 2023 Iditarod was the race's 51st running
29. Pier 51 in New York City's Hudson River Park features a playground 
30. Randy Johnson's number 51 was retired by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2015.
31. The Chicago Bears' Dick Butkus wore 51.
    
32. Emperor Cheng of Han was born in 51 BC 
33. The 51st US Congress ran from 1889-1891 and saw the passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act 
34. 51 is Ichiro Suzuki's number with the Seattle Mariners
    
35. The Wikipedia article for Ichiro Suzuki is available in 51 languages
    
36. Telemundo 51 is a Miami-area TV station
37. VFD Fire Station 51 is a volunteer fire station in Visalia, CA 
38. The Whirlpool Galaxy is known as Messier 51a and M51a
    
39. The M51 SLBM is a French submarine-launched ballistic missile 
40. The M51 is a Samsung Galaxy phone released in 2020 
41. The M51 is an M4 tank variant known as the Super Sherman 
42. The M51 field jacket is an iconic US olive drab military jacket from 1951 
43. Cachaca 51 is a Brazilian rum known for its mellow flavor and floral, fruity aromatic notes.
44. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Bus 51 route runs from Reservoir Station to Forest Hills Station 
45. Article 51 of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) specifies Supervisory Authority 
46. The 51 for 51 campaign is a DC statehood effort
47. Article 51 of the UN Charter is about the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence in attacks against member states.
48. Federalist 51 is an essay by James Madison about checks and balances and separation of powers.
    
49. NAICS code 51 covers information services 
50. Article 51 of the Geneva Convention is about protection of the civilian population 
51. Party 51 is a Canadian political party that wants Quebec to join the United States (wat?)
    

Halloween 2020 Costume: Herndon Station Metro Pylon

I've been wanting to make a DC Metro station name pylon costume for a while, and figured that this was my last Halloween to do one as a preview of the Phase 2 Silver Line stations before they open (supposedly Summer 2021). And theoretically, it's just a painted box with letters on it, so how hard could it be?

Inspiration

 

I was originally going to do the Reston Town Center Station, but decided to go with the shorter-named Herndon Station so the letters would fit better. I didn't want to do a fully enclosed, wearable costume (though you'd just need a big appliance box), and I decided to wear it as a headpiece, since I could reuse the helmet box mount I'd used in previous years.

That was a mistake. 

It probably wouldn't have been as big of a mistake as it turned out, except I decided to make it about 4 feet tall. Great for final proportions, terrible for weight distribution and balance.

The Build

For the main structure, I went with USPS Priority Mail Flat-Rate Medium boxes. (Foam core board probably would have been smoother and lighter, but the boxes were free and I already had a bunch of them.) Instead of just stacking the boxes and gluing them together, I glued the bottom flaps of each upper box to the top flaps of the lower box, effectively doubling the height of each one. (Mistake.)

 

I also hot-glued braces on the inside corners.

  

This, in turn, led to a hot-glue injury, a small second-degree burn on my finger that I made worse by peeling off the glue, and with it, the top layer of still-forming blister. (I ended up using a series of waterproof bandages to encourage scabless healing.)

  

I then took apart a Home Depot yard waste brown bag and wrapped the box with it, then sprayed it with a few coats of Rustoleum Satin Dark Walnut paint:

 

Decoration

Next, for the lettering, I checked with WMATA's brand and style guide [PDF]; they mostly use Helvetica Neue; I printed the letters out: the big Ms on regular white printer paper, and the Herndon Station letters on sticker paper. 

Cutting out the big Ms was easy; however, I made it through the first two smaller letters (from of the first of four sets I'd need) when I realized that there was no way in hell I'd be delicately Exacto-knifing out all that.

 

I quickly realized that going to Office Depot and getting the white letters printed on a matching dark brown background would work almost as well. (There was a side attempt to print the white letters on transparencies, which I think is possible, but my first attempt went nowhere and I didn't pursue it.)

 

I cut out each word as a single unit and used spray adhesive to glue them down (as well as the big Ms, which I'd reprinted on cardstock). The Silver Line band was simply duct tape (of course). The first attempt looked like this: 

 

The next day, I realized that it didn't look right: the "Herndon Station" labels were too small overall; plus, most of the Stations were crooked, and the station names weren't aligned with the edge of the big M on the wide sides (on the actual pylons, all four sides are equal width; my helmet box mount's sides were longer than the front and back). 

I did a re-do, going back to Office Depot to reprint the Herndon Station letters on ledger-size (11x17) cardstock, making sure to align the words and tape them together before gluing them down. (Even with multiple attempts, color, and cardstock, the total printing cost was just over $5.) 

The Result

The final result, which you can see next to the real-life Herndon Station pylon (right off Herndon Parkway) looks pretty okay (seen here with a little forced perspective):

 

A better size comparison:

  

The other pylon is over by the station entrance. Also, don't talk to me or my son ever again:

  

Now, as I was trying to take a selfie while wearing my costume next to the real pylon, I realized what a mistake I'd made: Just like with my JLENS blimp costume from 2015, I'd underestimated how heavy and unwieldy wearing something like this—even something that's just cardboard, paper, and paint—would be. 

The expression on my face is a grimace as I'm trying to get the angle right while the costume torques my head and drags at my scalp while the chin strap digs into my neck:

Because of the overall height, you can't really wear it indoors. In non-COVID times, it'd be more of a problem, though right now, consider it an incentive to stay outside.

Lessons

The main issue is that it's just too uncomfortable to wear as a headpiece; I probably wore it for less than 10 minutes over the entire night. It'd work much better with a backpack mount (possibly a heat-gun-bent-pvc frame, bungied to a pack frame, or even just stuffed into a knapsack). I need to remember that if I'm ever tempted to do a head-mounted costume again (or at least, one that doesn't need to look like a halo neck brace). 

Other than that:

• While the satin spray paint was a pretty good color match (with a nice glossy sheen), the lines from the paper bag were pretty prominent (even after I tried to iron them flat), so use paper from a roll or big sheet without any creases.
• I considered spraying it with clear coat to improve durability, but decided it wasn't necessary for a single outing.
• Printing your lettering at a print shop is pretty cheap and you can do the layout and design at home, pay online, and pick it up at the store.
  
• If you want to get fancy, the big Ms on the real pylons are lighted.
  

Materials:

Cardboard (boxes or sheets)

Craft paper (preferably rolls)

Glue (hot glue for the structure, spray for the lettering)

Spray paint (Rustoleum Satin Dark Walnut or equivalent)

Duct tape (color-matched to the Metro lines you need)

Lettering printed on cardstock or heavier paper at your print shop of choice (especially if you don't have the skill or patience to paint or cut out all those letters)

Mounting system: I velcroed the headpiece to a head mount (just a box secured to a bicycle helmet), though use a backpack unless you can really get the weight down. And test it first!

This Is What I Look Like Now: 10 Years in Driver's Licenses

My birthday is tomorrow, and thanks to coronavirus, it's going to be damn uneventful. I doubt I'll even do birthday trivia responses on Facebook; maybe in a few months.

I will take the opportunity, though, to compare and contrast my new (redacted), REAL ID-compliant driver's license:


I went to the Sterling DMV on a Thursday morning a few weeks ago, just before the 8am opening, waiting an hour and a half before getting my shot. 15 minutes later, I walked out with a voided driver's license. I didn't realize they mail the new one to you, and I just started a new client gig in a federal building, so I had to carry my passport around until I finally got the new ID the following Wednesday.

Getting the license took 3 attempts -- the first was because the mobile DMV2Go was a no-show at the Reston Town Center (I was trying to be clever and avoid lines; instead, I ended up sideswiping a parking garage pillar going against morning traffic); the second was at a DMV Connect at the Herndon Library (got there waaaaaay too late), before I finally gave in and went to a normal brick and mortar location. At least I had all my papers.