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Saturday was spent at the UW Surplus auction, Boeing Surplus, and the Weak Masquerade, our standard halloween party.
I've wanted to go as an abstract concept for a long time, such as a context-free grammar. I've never come up with a decent implementation idea, so the night before the party I compromised. I'd go as a tangible object that happens to be naturally abstract.
Look at me! I'm the International Kilogram!
What physical object could be more abstract than one which defines a unit of measurement? I toyed with the idea of going as the International Fish, but decided it was better to stick with a real reference object. I was happy to pay homage to the kilogram anyway. As the last unit defined in terms of a reference object, it deserves it.
I didn't start the costume until 2 hours before we left. The cylinder around my head represents the bell-jars that keep the International Kilogram in an inert gas atmosphere. I would have had two but the first one shattered as I learned that, while faster, bolts are a poor choice for holding plexiglass together under tension. The second one I epoxied, which worked, but not well enough. The bands across the back are gaff tape holding it together. Oh well. It sounds like we're going to another party next week, so this was just a practice run.
All in all, this was my second best costume idea ever.
(The best was in 1998 when I went as a bat. With a sonar module strapped to my forehead so I could echolocate. A microcontroller converted the sonar results into tones that I listened to on an earpiece.)
I've wanted to go as an abstract concept for a long time, such as a context-free grammar. I've never come up with a decent implementation idea, so the night before the party I compromised. I'd go as a tangible object that happens to be naturally abstract.
Look at me! I'm the International Kilogram!
What physical object could be more abstract than one which defines a unit of measurement? I toyed with the idea of going as the International Fish, but decided it was better to stick with a real reference object. I was happy to pay homage to the kilogram anyway. As the last unit defined in terms of a reference object, it deserves it.
I didn't start the costume until 2 hours before we left. The cylinder around my head represents the bell-jars that keep the International Kilogram in an inert gas atmosphere. I would have had two but the first one shattered as I learned that, while faster, bolts are a poor choice for holding plexiglass together under tension. The second one I epoxied, which worked, but not well enough. The bands across the back are gaff tape holding it together. Oh well. It sounds like we're going to another party next week, so this was just a practice run.
All in all, this was my second best costume idea ever.
(The best was in 1998 when I went as a bat. With a sonar module strapped to my forehead so I could echolocate. A microcontroller converted the sonar results into tones that I listened to on an earpiece.)
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