Welcome makers, all. I've been trying to think about what to blog about, and so in the meantime, while I am still thinking, I wanted to give a recap of Halloween weekend up at Purdue. To my knowledge most of the students managed to survive Halloween weekend, but the same really can't be said about the Purdue football team. I mean 93 points in two weeks? I know that there have been injuries and all, but we are a Big Ten School. We should at least be able to compete.

In better light, the basketball season kicks off tomorrow night as the Boilers take on Indianapolis at Mackey Arena. You always know its basketball season when it starts getting so cold that your basketballs in your garage become deflated, and your backboard turns into a rock hard slate, that gives no love for the bank (if it wasn't this way already). Basketball season is always a time of excitement, because it is something that defines the people of Indiana. It has a certain ability to make nothing else seem important for a brief period of time. It can fill a gym, break hearts, or be the cause of long road trips. It can turn some people into insomniacs or unite any group of people it comes in contact with. My high school coach always used to say that basketball was so special because with only five players on the court at one time, it is the sport where the individual represents the greatest amount of the team: 20%. He forgot doubles tennis, but it was still a meaningful quote. So this winter season, go out and catch a game if you haven't ever been to one. For those of us who grew up with the rock in our hands, stay loyal. It's a wild ride, but it's so worth it in the end.

To the batmobile.

I said earlier that I wanted to recap on Halloween Weekend, and some of you may be scratching your heads, because in my last blog I mentioned that the fact that people would continue to talk about halloween after it was over was going to be extremely annoying. However, I am not really talking about Halloween in general, just the best/worst costumes that I saw. You know someone has to do it. If you wore any of these costumes, I am sorry, and I am not trying to offend anyone. I am just going off of what everybody thinks.

So we will start with the best costumes, and very quickly move into the worst, because let's face it, a lot of people just didn't even try.

THE BEST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES OF 2010

1. The magic genie lamp from Aladdin.

After careful consideration, I decided that this costume took home the crown. It met all of the requirements of a great costume. It looked good, it was creative, it was relatively cheap, and most of all, it was semi-clean yet effective at the same time. I give mad props to the man who thought of this, and if I had enough money, I might have even created a shirt to award you for your awesome accomplishment. But, that didn't happen, so you will have to settle for a shoutout.

2. The Napolean Dynamite Crew

This is a group of my friends that go to IU, and I have to give out the second place ribbon to them. Not only did they come up with a very original idea, but the costumes are near perfection. Once again, all the requirements or greatness were met in these costumes. Even though the magic genie lamp from aladdin takes the top spot, you guys were a very close number two, and bravo for the laughs. From left is Kip (Mark Lottes), Napolean (Alex Bryant), and Deb (Jessica Daniel).

3. Steve Urkel

So I was at McDonalds on friday night around 2 in the morning, and guess who walks in? Steve Urkel. Literally. Well not really, but his costume was so perfect that it could have been. He had the suspenders, and the large glasses with the hairdo and all. Kind of on a side note, the word hairdo always makes me think of the word up-do, which then leads me to want to watch Can I Have Your Number. 'Xcuse me can I talk you for a minute Steve Urkel. I stood in Mcdonalds with my miniature McFlurry and fries, I knew what I had to do. I had to get Urkel’s autograph. I then decided against it, and walked back home in despair and self-pity. It is a decision that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

4. Fake Cop

So as my friends and I were walking to Mcdonalds on friday night, we passed by this fantastic foursome of drunkeness. They were yelling, flipping off cars, laughing obnoxiously. Basically, they had it all going on. Anyways, we passed without much of a problem. A few loose handshakes were exchanged. If you have ever tried to shake hands with a drunk person, you know how awkward this can be. We had continued walking for a bit, when I looked back over my shoulder and saw this cop approaching the foursome. My group stopped for a second to watch the ordeal. From where we were, the cop looked legit. He had the handcuffs, the hat, the crisp uniform, and even a holster with what looked like a weapon. Long story short, the cop was actually fake, but since he fooled me, it deserves a spot on the top five list.

5. Bomb Squad

The bomb squad will wrap up this years top five best halloween costumes. The beauty of the costume was in the design. The costume appeared to be pretty much hand made, and they were puffy. It's like they stuffed pillows into their sweatshirts. By this description, it doesn't sound very cool, but the best part was that across their chests, they had bomb squad in these white letters. With an all black costume, the bomb squad writing was the hit of the black light party. Also, there were four of them. I am always a sucker for costumes that require multiple people. It is always so much better than the one man stand.

THE WORST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES OF 2010

1. Yourself

This costume seemed to be in high demand, especially amongst the guy population. This may be because it is so much harder for a guy to find a decent costume than it is for a girl. When a guy dresses up as himself, they give off the impression, "I am not creative enough to come up with a costume, or I am too self-concious to allow myself to be in a position where people can laugh at me." Lame! You have to at least give an effort. So because of this, anyone who did not dress up, and still went out, officially sported the worst costume this halloween.

2. Referee

Let's face it after a while, almost every costume gets really old. However, one costume that got really old forever ago was the referee/blind referee combination. On Halloween, creativity is awarded and similarities are treated like always a bit awkward. For example, on Friday, I saw three Waldo's from Where's Waldo. How am I, the common citizen, supposed to know which one is actually Waldo, and which two are the fakers pretending to be Waldo to throw me off of his trail? It's tiring business. So when I saw at least 6 referees in one night, I realized how over worn the costume was and so that is why it takes the ranks as the number two worst costume for 2010 Halloween.

3. The Animal (Any)

Again, it is always good to try and stay away from costumes that cause a general sense of confusion. On Saturday night, I was standing next to this girl that was dressed in what appeared to be a cheetah costume. She was one of the few girls that wasn't grinding all up on somebody, so the guys swarmed to her like white on rice. The best line of the night by far though was said by one brave lad who approached cheetah lady. He prepared himself, got the confidence, and went up to this girl and said: "Nice Cheetah costume. Do you want to dance?"

To which the cheetah lady responded, "Um, I'm a leopard." And boom goes the dynamite. His entire night was over just because cheetah lady decided to sport a highly confusing animal costume. I saw an array of other animals as well. There were cows, and dalmations, and other cats, a dog, and a fish just to name a few. The animal farm came out as the number three worst costume. And that's that.

4. Robbie Hummel's hurt ACL

Okay so this was a complete way to cop out and not really dress up, therefore it had to have a spot on the top 5 worst costumes of 2010. Maybe people thought they were going to be witty and funny and save money. What you really did though was make everyone cringe a little bit more inside, and remind us about how you like to laugh at broken hopes and dreams. Way to go.

5. Jersey Shore Cast

Ah the infamous Jersey Shore Cast. There were three problems with these costumes. The first is that nobody actually likes the show outside of watching it. Everyone watches it because their friends watch it, but it's definitely not something that you try to replicate in everyday life. Two, for guys, unless you are as buff as Paulie D or Ronnie or whoever, then you most likely went with the fake abs and muscles costume from some local Halloween Store, which just reads total doucher all over it. And finally, what girl really wants to be snooki? I mean she's short, fat, and is just overall nasty! Blah, it gives me the wiggles just thinking about it.

Because I only took the top 5 of each, I could not include all of the costumes that I thought were either very good or really bad. However, I have included a list of notable mentions for the best costumes of 2010 from the weekend. They are:

Hulk, A Lego, Bed Intruder, Scuba Steve, Indiana Jones, a Sim, Maverick from Top Gun.

If you feel that your costume was extremely awesome and was not put on here, please leave me a comment letting me know, or drop it on my facebook page:

(http://www.facebook.com/bobbalockinosmagockin) and after careful examination from my panel of judges, I will decide whether or not to update the current rankings!

Oh and a special congratulations to the Napoleon Dynamite Crew. You officially are my first picture that has been upload onto my blog page. Great work guys.

Thanks for reading the thoughts of This Guy Over Here. Have a frabjous week!

Closing tip for the week: For those of you who don't know, the Purdue Busing system actually offers a very neat opportunity to know when buses are going to arrive at your bus stop. Each bus stop has its own individual 'code', and if you text BUS and then the 'code' to 25252, it will tell you when the bus is going to next arrive at your stop. It is super helpful, especially on cold mornings!

Closing thought for the week: " I bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween" ~ Anonymous

Throwing up the NW333 and ghost riding with the Easy Rider,

Signing off,

JD