Journal

@SchuminWeb

Archives

Categories

I won “best concept”!

4 minute read

November 2, 2008, 7:03 PM

So halloween went swimmingly. We dressed up at work, and had a costume contest. We had four different categories: best concept, best execution, “that took guts to wear”, and “most likely to traumatize a child”. I ended up winning best concept, with my 3000-Series Breda. Take a look:

My Breda 3000-Series costume

The orange shirt was deliberate – to be evocative of the carpeting and seats on those Bredas of days gone by (I haven’t seen a 3000 in original form since April). The wide green straps were a matter of convenience, as I already had the green felt, and just stapled it on. And then of course, branding it as a Red Line train just seemed to make sense, since half the office takes the Red Line to get to work. Then when we introduced our costumes, I did mine in character: *bzzzzzzz* “Doors opening!” “Red Line to Shady Grove! Attention, customers, this is a four-car train. Please spread out and use all open doors.” “Doors closing! *ding dong*” *fssh* *bzzzzzzz*

It’s like my mother has said – I’m a nerd.

Meanwhile, best execution was a tie between Erin as Hannah Montana, and Darcey as Blanche from The Golden Girls:

Erin as Hannah Montana  Darcey as Blanche Devereaux

As you can see, both of these people were spot on! Then Jon won “that took guts” with his 80s-cool look:

Jon with his 1980s-cool look

And then Jorge won “most likely to traumatize a child” with this:

Jorge's costume

All in all, we had a fun time! And here’s everyone in their halloween best:

Everyone from halloween 2008!

As you can see, we’re a fun-loving but hard-working bunch. Yay us!

Then after the halloween party, while most people went to Georgetown for the halloween festivities, I was ready to enturbulate, because Anonymous was having a flash raid outside the Founding Church of Scientology on halloween night. See, for halloween, I had three different costumes. I had the Breda, I had my FliteStar vest for when the Breda was impractical, and then I also brought my zentai. I normally don’t dress up for flash raids. I don’t even bother with the anonymity in Anonymous for flash raids, because it’s a proven fact that Scientology knows who I am. But with this being halloween, I was going in full zentai for this one. So before leaving work, I put on the zentai, and I was off.

Arriving at the org, we had a festive flash raid. I handed out flyers to passers-by, while Scientology was generally PO’d about what had happened to their window the night before. Take a look:

Broken window on the front door of the Founding Church of Scientology

You have to give the Founding Church of Scientology credit, though, for trying their best to discredit us. Unfortunately, however, their “best” is not as good as my worst. They sent out their attack dogs, who tried to pin the window damage on one of our Anons, and yelled to passers-by that we were a hate group. On the “hate group” concept, they’ve officially proven to me that they’re certifiable. We don’t hate Scientology or promote hate towards them – rather, we are protesting their practices (like these) and their tax-exempt status. Hell, we even take great pains to stay within the letter of the law, even having to clear out one time because we didn’t have the proper paperwork on site. Honestly, it’s really quite similar to when my anarchist buddies and I protest against the World Bank, since to me, the Church of Scientology has a lot in common with the big multinational corporations that prey on the downtrodden while worshipping the dollar. Both have a lot of skeletons in their closet, and don’t take kindly to having their dirty laundry aired by protest groups. However, unlike the corporations, which tend to just ignore us, Scientology screws with us right back, which only strengthens people’s resolve. Plus let us not forget that the head of the Founding Org read “protest” into my “FREE HUGS” event all by herself, because I came in what I wore to work, and was just standing there on the triangle with the sign, with no reference to Scientology or anything. Just hugs.

So needless to say, we had fun. After the flash raid, a few people went to see where the halloween parties were, and I split for the Metro. Being halloween, I stayed in costume almost the entire way home. I usually change out of my zentai right after the raid is over. Not this time, as I blended right in with all other types of costumed characters.

And with all that fun, I fell asleep pretty quickly after I got home.

Web site: Operation Clambake: Undressing the Church of Scientology since 1996

Song: "Thriller" by Michael Jackson

Quote: So basically, while many consider the Church of Scientology a cult, I won't even give them that much credit. I consider the Church of Scientology to be a particularly vile example of greedy corporations that worship the dollar above all else and that will crush anything that gets in their way. I don't particularly give a rat's patootie about the religious aspect of it. If you want to believe that an alien named Xenu threw souls into volcanoes and then blasted them with bombs, that's your business, and have fun with it.