LoneStaRG 2006, September 2006
LoneStaRG is a yearly Regional Gathering of LoneStar Mensa, the local chapter of Mensa here in Austin, Texas. It took place on Labor Day weekend. On Saturday evening there was a masquerade, which is my favorite part of any convention.
Lana, the lamp shade lady
Lana, the lamp shade lady, without flash. This picture truthfully shows the lampshade ruffles as purple, not blue as they looked at the previous image. For some reason flash makes purple look blue, and not just on my camera — it looked that way on everybody’s cameras.
Minnie Mouse and her son
This couple were dressed as grapes in their various stages. The guy wore a box of Sunmaid raisins, the woman held a bunch of purple balloons (read: grapes) in her hand (can’t see them very well in this image), and a bottle of wine.
Two unidentified people in black
The Sunmaid guy and the Cre8ive Fool
The guy on the left was (I concluded from the program book) Hugh Brown, who gave a speech on original thought. One thing I took away from this lecture: to learn to look at things in new ways, think of more than one interpretation for the words “broad strips”. (To be fair, I’m taking it out of context. The context was a little less silly.)
The costumers gather on stage to be judged. The Minnie Mouse must have decided that a lampshade will nicely complement a Sunmaid raisin box.
One of the people brought her craft project to the costume dance. I used to worry I was antisocial when I broke out my laptop at parties and other gatherings, and worked on it while socializing. Seeing this, I felt so validated.
This guy, dressed for an early Halloween (this was Labor Day weekend) taught me to dance some very basic swing. He took a lightbulb out of his mouth for that, though. He mentioned something about being from Adams family, but I saw that movie too long ago and was sufficiently unimpressed to remember anything from it. I guess it has something to do with the rubber hand he is holding.
I think this person in a cowboy hat with musical notes on it was named Ann.
A costume with a crocodile head
The guy with the lightbulb inserts the lightbulb into the crocodile’s jaws
People who were not dressed in costumes, and the cross-stitching person
And now the actual dancing part of the costume dance — people are starting to dance.
People whose names I don’t know dance at the costume dance
A person in blue tie-dyed denim, with a necklace and a bracelet made of crayons — except the necklace is kind of evocative of ammunition? I wish I asked her what her costume was.
Cliff and the person in blue tie-dyed denim
