That's Me, Dressed As A Slutty Blogger

The back-side in the costume is The Brat, almost dressed as Slutty Red Riding Hood. The was of course pre-hood as well as pre-lace-up.

My costume is actually supposed to be Hugh Hefner, although I brought it up as a joke. "I don't want to have to wear anything more complicated than pajamas," I told The Brat. "And Arthur Dent is played out. I think it's gotta be Hef."

It was really just a one-off, an attempt to dodge the question, but once she ordered the silk pajamas and silk robe, what was I supposed to say.

Next year perhaps I'll be James Bond so I can get a nice tux. Or maybe Adam Ant in his Dandy Highwayman or Prince Charming phase. That is, if I don't just go as Alfred Hitchcock, as seen here.

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They should have shopped at Girls's Costume Warehouse

The woman in the party store looked skeptically at the picture of the model wearing the witch costume. "Don't you think it's a little... revealing?" she asked. Her larger friend stifled a laugh. "Sure, but you can pull it off." I stifled a laugh as I passed, as well. "I could pull that off," I told them. "We're not at Fredericks', y'know. It's Halloween, ladies; you can't just be a witch, you have to be a slutty witch."

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I'ts taken me far too long to put this together. AW (not Adam Weishaupt) got his pics to me a day or so after the party, and I had the album on the web with his kind permission within a few days. I'm not sure if the quality is due to the camera (phone AW?), the lighting or the inebriation of the photographer, but I was just glad to have some shots.

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Topher got some really good shots early in the party, but discovered quickly that a drunken banana with Mickey Mouse hands should not be handling expensive photographic equipment. It took him a while to get them up in a Flickr set, but I can't complain because it took me longer to post this.

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I wish I had some Amazing Tales Of The Party, but I spent so much time mixing (and tasting) drinks that much of the party is a blur to me, and all the good stories were things that happened outside the kitchen. I'm also not aware of any other photos, so if you have any leave a comment or email me at owenj23 at gmail dot com. I'd love to post or link to them. Thanks to everyone for coming, it was a great time, and we hope to see you again on NYE whenever we next have a party.

For now I'll leave you with this picture that I found on an MSDN blog to which I've lost the link. This is my suggested costume for BMW next Halloween, if he doesn't want to be The Whiny Baby again.

HOW-TO: Make BlackBerry Internet Service Work With GMail (again)

[Ed. Note - A few people have pointed out that Google just released a Gmail client for mobiles, and BlackBerry is one of the supported devices. I just installed this morning, and yeah, it totally rocks. While it may actually be faster and easier to view and reply to messages via the app, it can't replace the satisfying chirp my BB gives when a message comes in. For that, the instructions below are still useful.] While I'm not sure what the official stance of RIM is, let alone other carriers, it became apparent through multiple rounds of calls with T-Mobile "Customer Care" that they are no longer required to Care when their Customer's Gmail stops being picked up by BlackBerry Internet Service. Phrases like "it might help if" and "it's about 50/50" and "we do not guarantee service" were mixed liberally with "it works on mine" and "I use it all the time." Armed with this knowledge, as well as a fierce determination honed by hours of hold music, hang-ups, and one threatened arrest, I found my own solution. The following procedure has been tested on my device, and on the device of one guy I found on BlackBerry Forums who was having the same problem. I'm planning on posting a link to this in a few places, so if you try it for yourself let me know the results. Step 1 Log in to My T-Mobile (or, well, your T-Mobile to be precise). Click the "Set Up BlackBerry Internet Email" and click it. From there you will be presented with a list of all your email addresses. You'll need to click that little trash-can icon next to each of them, or at least each that is not working. NOTE: You'll lose any filters you have set up, so you may want to make a note of them for later. Step 2 On your BlackBerry, go to Options->Advanced Options->Service Book. (I think the menu location is different for this on older models. Anyone know?) Delete the service books for all email accounts (you'll recognize them by your email address followed by [CMIME]). Yes, even the entries for the ones that are still working. On the Pearl, this is accomplished by highlighting the entry, pushing the menu button, and selecting delete. YMMV. Step 3 Meanwhile, Back On The Web: Log in to your Gmail account and click "Settings" in the upper right corner. Select the "Forwarding And POP" tab. In the "POP Download" section, select the radio button labeled "Disable POP" and then click Save Changes. There, you're done. You've now guaranteed that you will never receive Gmail on your BlackBerry. Oh wait... that's not where we were going, was it. *sigh* Step 4 Now we're on the comeback trail. Go back to your T-Mobile account (I hope you're using Firefox, or at least IE7's tabs) and click the "Service Books" link on the left. Click the little pink button to "Send Service Books" to your phone. This will ensure that any accounts you have no deleted get set up on the BlackBerry correctly, and seems to be an important step in this process. Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times says, "If you follow only one step this tutorial, Step 4 is the one to follow." Step 5 Back to Gmail again. I hope you're still in Settings->Forwarding and POP, as it is time to turn POP back on. Select the radio button that says "Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on" and click Save Changes. It seems to be important that you select this option, rather than "all mail", even if you really really want your old mail on your device. Trust me, it's gone. It's just gone. Answer it from the Gmail app and move on with your life. Step 6 And hopefully the last one. On the T-Mobile site, go back to Email Accounts. Click "Setup Account" and enter your Gmail address (including the '@gmail.com') and password (twice). A quick click on the Next button and you should be done. For all their talk of not supporting Gmail, they obviously know the IP for the POP server (which they claim does not exist). You should get an activation message on your BlackBerry within a few minutes. If you do not, delete and resend your service books once again - for instructions see Step 2 and Step 3 above. That bit seemed necessary for me, but not for the other user who tried it, so again let me know if you follow these steps what happens for you. So there it is. As I said, let me know if you try this, what the results are, and if I missed or mis-stated. If you're having similar problems but do not use T-Mobile, I suspect that similar steps may work for you, but you'll obviously have to figure out your provider's interface yourself. I have no idea yet how often this process might have to be repeated. I've tried everything I could think of to re-break my Gmail POP access and have not yet had any luck, so I still can't guess what caused the problem initially or when it might recur. Any further data on this would be appreciated.