Halloween

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I think Halloween is cool, it gives people a chance to act wild (or at least dress wild), and I've made my best to enjoy it every year since I've moved to the Bay Area. The interesting thing is that as I am writing this, in November 99, France has just started celebrating Halloween, but I'm sure it's nowhere close to what's happening in the US

Here are my halloweens here, through the years:



Halloween 1997

My First Halloween in the Bay Area....
I was working at Network Appliance back then, and it's always fun to see people dress up in small or medium companies (big companies, like SGI where I was the following year, are usually boring and fewer people dress up). I didn't take too many pictures back then, but the Duracell Lady definitely was the winner.

That same evening, I went to San Jose to find a party. After spending some time in the Street around Gyro's 3D World of terror, I went to the now defunct San Jose Live, and there were some cool costumes there.

Halloween 1998

1998 was even better, on Friday the 30th, I went to my friend Amy's Party (click to see pictures) and on the 31st I went to the Edge in Palo Alto. That was a kick ass party, I took a lot of pictures there (well, a lot for when I was still using an old fashionned camera with film)
Here are a few chosen pictures:

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At Amy's party, I met Poison Ivy. She did try to seduce me, but I resisted kissing her, for obvious reasons
(obvious if you've seen Batman and Robin that is).

The following night, at the Edge, there was a good crowd.
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some resurrected famous people showed up Well, Kennedy wasn't there that night, and I figured he wouldn't mind

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Later, I was minding my own business, and so was she. That was without taking her friend into account.
She just had to tell her about the gorgeous hunk she had just seen

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So, what happened?

What, you don't believe me? You want to know the real story? Ok, here is what really happened

Halloween 1999

Well, even more things happened this year, and I had nothing less than 3 costumes: Surgeon, Pseudo-Ninja in Yukata, and clown (ok, I didn't need much of a costume for the last one :-)

One week before Halloween, I first went to the Exotic Erotic Ball. I took really interesting pictures there

Next came Friday 29th, the last day of work at VA Linux Systems before Halloween. As you would expect it from a startup, there was a good costume turnaround.
A couple of pictures are shown below and you can see the other ones here

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That evening, Amy was nice enough to throw another party, so I went there like last year.
People who have balls shave their head in lieu of a costume :-).
The other pictures are here

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The following day was only October 30th but being Saturday, I figured that most of the parties would be on Saturday night, and not Sunday night when people have to get up the following morning.
I first went to some lame club where the party was supposed to be happening according to Wild 94.9, and I soon left, went at random, and ended up at Planet X, which has definitely a much better place (it was obvious just by the kind of people who were waiting in line):

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You can find all the other pictures of that evening (including the costume contest) here

And look who I found in the street on my way back home:

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Halloween 1999, highlights

Do you like playing doctor? I do:
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But don't start thinking that being a doctor is just play, there is also work involved:
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Then, because I tend to think "Fuck those stupid speed limits on the freeway",
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I tend to get in trouble with the cops. It's a good thing I'm usually able to
sweetalk my way out a ticket... :-)


Halloween 2000

While the Exotic Erotic Ball can be a bit sleezy, it's still a fun and interesting place to go to, so I went there again this year.

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Next came Saturday 28th. Since Halloween wasn't happening during the weekend that year, I figured the weekend wouldn't have the best parties, but Saturday should still be a decent night to get out. Of course, the fun part, is finding out where :-)
After trying the Wild 94.9 club, which didn't look all that inspiring, my friends and I first went to the Usual (1st Street in San Jose), but it was lacking in costumes, so we ended up going across the street to the 80s club, which while it didn't exactly have my kind of music I typically listen to, the costumes were nice.
The pictures a are here, and a couple are shown below

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On Monday night, the night before Halloween, I went to Gyro's 3D world of terror (unfortunately, it wasn't present in San Jose in 1999). This time it was in the Great America park, and it was quite nice.
It was unfortunately not allowed to take pictures inside (they almost do a full body and cavity search), but they had an outside show that I was able to take pictures of.

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Like last year, we had a a Halloween party at VA
A couple of pictures are shown below and you can see the other ones here

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That evening, I went to some other friends' Party (your had to wear a costume that started with the letter C, whatever the language).
The picts are here

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And the following weekend, one friend of mine, Brian, someone very serious about parties, put up an awesome private Halloween Party: Redemption. The setting was just awesome. As usual, the picts are here

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Halloween 2001

Exotic Erotic Ball

[picture] Like every year, one week before Halloween, I first went to the Exotic Erotic Ball. The actual show wasn't as good as the previous years, but the place was still fun.
All the pictures are here


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Saturday Night, San Jose

I went to San Jose the weekend before Halloween, but San Jose was a bit dead. I checked out Polly Esters's and the Usual, but they weren't that packed.
I ended up going to Club Wild, the place of choice according to Wild 94.4. Turns out that people did show up, but I was probably the only caucasian in the whole club. Not that I overly mind, but it was still kinda weird.
The picts are here here

Halloween day, at work

3rd Halloween at VA, I had my "Management Trainee" costume :-)
The rest of the Pix are here

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Halloween night, in San Jose

As usual, I went clubbing on Halloween night in order to see what costumes people could come up with. It wasn't the best halloween night ever, being on a weeknight and all, but there was still a decent turnout.
While PollyEster's seems to have been the place to go to the previous year, this time the Usual had the better party.
A couple of pictures are shown below and you can see the other ones here

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before going to the party, I had to do some CPR on a burnt victim

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Saturday Night after Halloween at Bill Gervasi's

Bill Gervasi, my step teacher, had a nice party at his place the saturday after Halloween. It was a fun evening, thanks for the party Bill.
The pictures are here

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Evilalien's Invasion party

The dedicated people at Evilalien (Brian and his crew) threw around a bitching party again. I think they completely outdid themselves this year, the decor was just absolutely awesome

A few pictures are shown below and you can see the other ones here

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An hollodeck room, awesome! What will they think of next?



Halloween 2002

Well, this year I caught 3 flus/colds in a row over more than two weeks around halloween, so I wasn't in a great shape to go partying all over, but I still tried to attend the essentials :-)

Halloween at Work

I was pretty impressed by the amount of Halloween spirit at Work. There were lots of interesting costumes, and a fun contest.
See all the pix here

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Party at Shawn and Deb's

Two of my Coworkers, Shawn and Deb, had a party that evening, it was fun.
Note to self though: The spock costume when you just joined a company and most people don't know your name yet wasn't a bright idea. People call me spock now :-)
Anyway, you can find all the pictures here

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Gyro's 3D Fear Factory

Going to the Gyro's haunted houses has kind of been a ritual for me, the money they make goes to a good cause. Unfortunately, it was a lot lesser than the previous years, especially compared to their awesome setup at Great America last year.
This year, they were in the Sunnyvale Mall and had two houses. I have 4 pictures here

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EvilAlien's TimeScape Party

While I felt like spending the evening in my bed to fight that stupid cold that I had been dragging, I just couldn't miss the legendary yearly EvilAlien Party, and as always, they had an amazing setup and decors.
You also want to check out the pictures of all the costumes that people brought

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Halloween 2003

Exotic Erotic Ball 2003

It's a shame that EEball has been becoming more expensive and commercial every year, as 2003 was a reasonable year.
Because I like silly games, I broke my previous record of 21 nurses/female doctors, for a new best of 23

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But eh, nurses wasn't all you could find there of course :)
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All the pictures are here


Halloween Day, Work

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I had a pretty nifty Halloween at work again. My coworkers got points for being creative
The picts are here here

Evening Parties: Casten / The B's

After work was time for a couple of parties, one at Casten's and one at The B's (where one of my coworkers, Deb, lives)

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Halloween 2004

Exotic Erotic Ball 2004

So I was saying last year that EEball has been becoming more expensive and commercial. Well, little did I know: it was $85 for door entrance, plus an outrageous $15 parking. 100 bucks!!! Not only that, but this didn't even deter the too many people who clearly didn't belong there. Shame, shame...
It was the 25th anniversary, so even though I had my reservations, I ended up going at the last minute, but I was slightly disappointed compared to previous years...
However, not to get bored, I broke my record of nurses/female doctors, for a new best of 27 (from 23). I think this is probably the last time I play though.

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But eh, nurses wasn't all you could find there of course :)

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All the pictures are here


Halloween @ Work

Another year, another work Halloween, and it feels like they are only getting better each time

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The picts are here

Party @ The B's

Deb was nice enough to invite me at her party again, and I had a good evening at the B's again.

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However, I had to bail a little bit early for Paul Van Dyk @ 1015 (see below)

Halloween, or Trance weekend?

Well, it just so happened that a lot of DJs were in town for that weekend, so it was an interesting techno halloween (it's on its own page)

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Later Halloween Blog Entries

Over time, I got other hobbies than halloween, but I still made an effort to at least attend my work halloween parties:
Table of Content for halloween:
Marc's Public Blog - Halloween



2009/10/30 Halloween at Google
π 2009-10-30 01:01 in Google, Halloween
This year was a pretty quiet Halloween. The Google celebration was pretty good, they even made a haunted house that wasn't bad at all :)

A funny part was the dog costume contest :)







Unfortunately, I got sick on the 31st (again!) and missed Amy's great party, as well as AvB at Ruby Skye 2 days later. Those were both huge bummers :(

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2010/10/29 Halloween at Google
π 2010-10-29 01:01 in Google, Halloween
Another year, another halloween.

My French Roast Coffee Bag Costume
My French Roast Coffee Bag Costume






The Angry Birds from Android
The Angry Birds from Android







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2011/10/28 Halloween at Google
π 2011-10-28 01:01 in Google, Halloween
Yet another year, another halloween. I didn't have much time for it this year, but I still went to check it out for a little bit.




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2013/10/25 Another Halloween at Google
π 2013-10-25 01:01 in Google, Halloween
Like every year, a few more pictures:







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2015/10/29 Googleween 2015
π 2015-10-29 01:01 in Google, Halloween
A few pictures...






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2016/10/26 Googleween 2016
π 2016-10-26 01:01 in Google, Halloween
Another year, another halloween. Nice pokemon go and other video game themed decors, and really fun to have baby piggies and hedgehogs to play with :) They also had other fun games:













the capture the flag game was a lot of fun
the capture the flag game was a lot of fun

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2018/10/27 Halloween at Regis'
π 2018-10-27 01:01 in Halloween
Regis had a nice costume party with a mystery to solve. Jennifer and I tried, but didn't do so well :)






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2018/10/31 Googleween 2018
π 2018-10-31 01:01 in Google, Halloween
I wasn't in the country last year, but was this year, so I took my light costume to work


sadly googleween for kids was a cluster from what I heard (too many people, impossible to even get to for some)
sadly googleween for kids was a cluster from what I heard (too many people, impossible to even get to for some)

Long line to get in, 30mn to wait to get through a security line:









Time for the costume contest. I played but didn't win :)























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2019/10/26 Another Halloween at Regis'
π 2019-10-26 01:01 in Halloween
Regis had another nice costume party with a new mystery to solve. This time Jennifer and I mostly solved it, outside of one detail:








Thanks for the evening, good food and fun costumes.

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2019/10/30 Googleween 2019
π 2019-10-30 01:01 in Google, Halloween
Like recent years, Googleween now includes a full metal detector and prohibition of any costume items that look like weapons, including lightsabers and plastic swords. That's a bit over reacting in my opinion, but oh well. My costume of course thoroughly failed the metal detector, but looked at the guy with "what are we doing here, I work here", and he said "you probably don't have IEDs" and he let me in.



Once in, the decors and attactions were well done. They also did a reasonable job of handling the crowd loads so that you didn't have to stay in line for too long:


curling
curling









They had a haunted house which wasn't very big, but was well done and had good actors:







Then was time for the costume contest:









I didn't compete as my light outfit didn't look like much in the sun, so we went back to see the animations and games:

you could actually make wine
you could actually make wine


great costume
great costume

sun was finally setting, giving my outfit a better chance to shine :)
sun was finally setting, giving my outfit a better chance to shine :)








As I put this page together, I realized that Jennifer and I didn't get a good picture together with my outfit in the dark, small oversight which we will hopefully fix next time.

By 19:00, the event was over and we were nicely escorted off the premisses :)

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