Valentine’s Day – Tips, Advice and Some Fun Facts

Hey ladies and gentlemen, as you know Valentine’s Day is coming up soon (February 14th, as it is every year), if you forgot, then you owe me a big thanks as I have just potentially save your butt… just as someone saved mine last night!

Anyways before we proceed, has anyone ever thought about what Valentine’s Day is or how it was started? If you have ever thought about such a thing, here is a brief bit of history for your curious mind.

The first ever record of Valentine was in the early rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, where several priest and bishops named Valentine (popular Roman name maybe?) became martyrs for religious cause. It wasn’t until almost a thousand years later in the Middle Ages, a misinterpretation of Geoffry Chaucer’s poem “Parlement of Foules” set the date of Valentine’s on the 14th of February.

As time progress, the name Valentine became more associated with love, in 14th century France, a court of love was established on Valentine’s Day to deal specially with marriage and love affair laws. In the early 18th century, the practice of writing notes to love ones or potential love ones became very popular in the New world and England, which soon gave way to specially made cards just for Valentine’s Day. Finally in 1969, the Catholic Church officially recognized St Valentine’s Day.

Well, that’s that for the history of Valentine’s Day. I am sure most of you (mostly guys) are scratching your head trying to plan out a perfect date for that special someone. I’ve looked around online at sites for dating tips, but to honest, most of them are those generic “send flower to the table”, “get her jewelry” or “play romantic music and eat at your place with candles” type of deal. I can totally imagine some poor guy making this perfect romantic dinner for the woman he likes, and yet during the whole “romantic” dinner they sit silently and awkwardly… what a way to bomb the date and not get another one!

Now I am no dating expert, but the points that I feel will be the most important is your confidence and knowing your partner well. First you should be confident in yourself; if you can get a date with him or her on Valentine’s Day then you are already set! No need to stress out on how to impress your date, be yourself and be fun, stop pretending to be someone else because that will save you a lot of grief in the long run when you can’t pretend anymore.

Don’t be so serious, I am sure everyone wants to either have fun or relax and have a good time, not to be uptight all night. If something does goes wrong like losing your reservation at the restaurant or getting lost, go with it! You are out to have a good time why are you stressing out? I would rather take a fun dinner over Wendy’s than a strict silent and awkward dinner at some upscale restaurant.

For the single people out there, no worries. No one said you need to have a date on Valentine’s Day; it’s just another day in a long year! If you are having trouble finding a date, just remember be confident, stop trying to impress others- the people that needs to be impressed aren’t worth it for you. As long as you respect, love yourself and dress accordingly, people will dig you!

Last but not least, for the couples that are already quite familiar with each other, some Valentine’s costumes will spice things up a bit (in the bedroom yayuhh) only if you are into that kind of stuff. Costume SuperCenter has some of the largest selection of sexy costumes for him and her just for occasions like this, so check them out!

Have a fun and happy Valentine’s Day!

Mike

Twilight: Teenagers and Vampires!

To be honest, I have not heard much about this teenage obsession with vampires, and I have no clue what physical traits makes vampires so romantic. Must be them fangs, or the pale skins, or in the case of Twilight, the fact that they can climb trees really quickly with a girl on their back.

However, this past weekend I’ve had the opportunity to go check this much hyped up movie along with a friend, and I admit I quite enjoyed it. What I was really expecting was the typical “chick” flick like the Notebook or A Walk to Remember… with vampires. Maybe instead of romantic walks by the beach or enjoying beautiful scenery with the him and her, he bites her in the neck? :-p But it was more mature, more intense, and overall a very enjoyable movie. For those of you who have yet to seen it, the movie is about a high school girl named Bella Swan falling for a mysterious young man named Edward Cullen (what a cool name) who happens to possess some very unique traits. You can read the plot here on Twilight wiki, but I won’t spoil it for you.

Unlike most love stories, the ending climax build up of this movie got me on the edge of my seat, it was that good- and that means a lot coming from a horror zombie movies and Scifi action movies fan such as myself. Some things I found strange or not so well done in the movie is that Robert Pattinson who portrayed Edward was a little awkward at times. In his restraint to bite someone for blood, his portrayal of restraint and pain looked a bit like someone had rummaged through his pants. Another minor point is that his idea of a good date is to take Bella on a tree climb while she is on his back… but then again I was told by a friend that she find it hot as well 😦

Overall this movie is very good! It seems the movie follows the novel quite well, but the novel is more in depth and detailed. The next movie based on the 2^nd novel is called New Moon and is rumored to be due some where in 2009, I think I will definitely check those out as well. Someone has asked me recently how the Twilight movie compares with Harry Potter. Well, those two can’t be compared as they are completely different! This is a very good movie in its own right, and gives off a completely different mature vibe than any other teenage movies out there. So if you haven’t seen it or your kids are bugging you to see it, I think you should oblige or do yourself a favor and watch it.

Last but not least, being the Costume SuperCenter blog after all, it is my duty to inform you all that unlike me, Costume SuperCenter is ahead of the curve when it comes to the vampire trends as well. From Vampire accessories such as fangs and blood, Costume SuperCenter has a huge variety of Teen and vampire costumes both in the traditional gothic sense or very modern and trendy like Twilight. So make us your store for all vampire costume needs! Also, if you have the time, be sure to check out the Twilight novel series, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, I’ve heard they are all very good!

Mike

PS: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

An Early Merry Christmas from Costume SuperCenter

An Early Merry Christmas from Costume SuperCenter

Whew! It felt like Halloween was just last week and now Christmas is almost here! Being one of the most popular Holidays in the world, Christmas is celebrated all over the globe! Make the most of this Christmas with the wide variety of Christmas costumes, accessories and the sweet holiday deals we offer on both.

Need to buy a lot of Christmas costumes and accessories in bulk? Check out what we are offering:

• 20% off all Christmas costume and accessories on orders between $100 and $249.99.
• 25% off all Christmas costumes and accessory on orders between $250 and $349.99.
• 30% off all Christmas costumes and accessories on orders $350 and higher.

Until today, even I did not know Costume SuperCenter offers such a huge variety of Christmas costumes (no joke). From the Santa suits for all occasions, to sexy Missy Clause, sexy Elves, rain deer mascots and Pilgrim costumes for the more religious celebrations.

Christmas is just around the corner so everyone better get started on their shopping and present lists right now! As a matter of fact, I will start this weekend. Just remember, if you need Christmas costumes or accessories, Costume SuperCenter has got what you need!

Mike

Halloween Constest Winners!

Hey everyone, its been a very long time. A very busy Halloween! However, we have winners for our previously announced Halloween Costumes Video Contests, congratulations to all of our winners and to our grand prize winner Chelsea!

You can also view all of out entries here.

Costume SuperCenter Halloween Video Contest Winners

Grand Prize Winner

Contestant 34254 Click to Watch Chelsea C

Category Winner: Funniest

Contestant 30866 Click to Watch Adam M

Category Winner: Cutest

Contestant 80341 Click to Watch Bonnie H

Category Winner: Scariest

Contestant 94568 Click to Watch Patrick C

Join Halloween Video Contest and win $5000!!!

 

Hey guys, I’ve been busy and have not been around in a short while.

As you all know, Halloween is rapidly approaching and boy oh boy do I got some news for you.

Right now Costume SuperCenter is hosting a very awesome Halloween Video Contest, enter and you can win $3500 USD in grand prize, or $500 USD in runner up prizes!

It is so simple, just sign up, choose between cutest, funniest, or scariest as your video’s category and you are already half way to wining half a grand! Record a video of you or your friend in some sort of Halloween costumes, do something funny, cute stupid or cool… or make a movie of it, paraodies of super heroes or whatever, host it on youtube and let everyone vote for you through our site!

The Halloween Video Contest ends on midnight of Oct 29th and the winner will be announced on the next day.

In case you didn’t know (well you should of 😉 ), Costume SuperCenter is one of the largest online retailer of costumes for Halloween and all sorts of holidays. We got Halloween costumes for kids, adults, teens, women and toddlers. Take a look at our site for some of the coolest and hottest Halloween costume on the market right now.

And for all the Halo and Iron Man fan, sorry I didn’t get a chance to update as often, if there are info you want to know about, just leave a comment and I will get back to you or write something new just for you, its that I’ve been very busy…. and a lot happened for Halo and Iron Man too, I wish you guys can know what I know 😉

Have fun and have a safe Halloween! And join our contest if you like fun things and money 🙂

Mike

The Halo Universe: the story, the Covenant and the game

I have always been a huge fan of Halo not only of the game- but the massive detailed back story too. The Halo universe is an interesting one that I have always try to learn as much as I can about (what a geek…), and in this post I shall try to summarize all of Halo (which is quite a lot of stuff) for the less hardcore folks out there without any major Spoilers.

The Halo universe can be found not only in the Halo games like Halo 1, Halo 2 and Halo 3, it also has its own comic which does a very good job of explaining all the plot holes left out by the original game. As of right now, there is a new game coming out on the Xbox 360 called Halo Wars which is a real time strategy game focus on the initial battles between the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Marines and the first waves of the Covenant invaders. Rumor has it, the next Halo game coming out from Bungie is going to be a squad based shooter that does not involve Master Chief.

The Halo story begins in the future of our world where Mankind has just discovered a method to extremely high speed space travels. With this technology, humans begin to colonize other worlds in rapid succession and as a result of this; many of the poorer colonies became unstable and tried to secede. With the defeat of the rebellious colonies, the United Nations Space Command was formed as a central and united human government so that such rebellion may never happen again.

Also as a safety measure, the UNSC started a top secret super soldier program nick name the SPARTAN to combat future rebellions before they get out of hand- and this is where Master Chief originated. The Spartan soldier candidates were all young children taken away at a small age and selected due to their naturally superior abilities- however; even such gifts did not enable many of them to survive the rigorous and painful augmentations being done to their bodies in preparation of becoming a Spartan. Master Chief and 30 some others however, successfully passed the training program and became the elite super soldiers of the UNSC.

Around the same time, one of the outer most human colony called Harvest suddenly ceased all communications with earth. Further investigation revealed that the colony was completely destroyed and glassed (the same method of creating glass by melting rocks or sand, except on a planetary scale done by massive laser beams) by an unknown alien race called the Covenant- and thus begun the long and bloody Human Covenant War. Later on it was revealed that the Human were actually decedents of the “Gods” that the Covenant worships- the Covenant higher ups decided that to prevent the religion and their authority from fall apart, they will wipe out the Humans before the Covenant general population can find out about truth of the Human existence.

As all wars go where one opponent is physically strong and have better weapons (Covenant), versus the weaker and inferior opponent (humans), the kill death ratio is pretty heavily stacked against the UNSC. With a ratio of four human deaths for every Covenant kill, it wasn’t long before the UNSC space fleet were pretty much wiped out and most of the colonies (almost 800 of them) taken over or destroyed by the Covenant. On ground battles, super soldiers such as Master Chief have been able to turn the tide of the battle, but they are only a tiny measure in slowing the Covenant onslaught.

Finally one day, the inevitable arrives where the Covenant amasses an invasion force and starts on the invasion of earth. All looks bleak on Earth until a fortunate and unfortunate turn of events helped save man kind from complete annihilation. (There were a search on this, it seems someone was looking for how Covenant found Earth: Well, the UNSC forces did a complete wipe of all navigation data upon capture or defeat so there is no way to recover the information from UNSC ships. Also when under retreat, UNSC forces are not allow to jump directly towards Earth so the Covenant can’t follow. However, after a defeat of the Covenant fleet with the help of Master Chief, Master Chief ‘s fellow soldiers jumped directly to Earth thinking that all near by Covenant were wiped out but they were not and the jump vectors to Earth were thus discovered by the enemy.)

What happened cannot be completely told without ruining the plot for some people. However, the large Halo installations orbiting in the galaxy are built by the “Gods” of the Covenant, or the race which Human originated from- some believe that they are the key to immortality (figures), and some believe it to be a weapon terrible ability against a fearsome enemy. In a sense they are both and they go hand in hand… in the quest for this immortality; the fearsome enemy was unleashed upon both Humans and Covenants.

All in total, countless billions of both Human and Covenant lives were lost in this conflict and the galaxy has been changed forever. However, the Halo saga does not end there, what lies in wait we have yet to find out.

On a closing note, Comic Con was last weekend; I hope everyone had a great time! If you didn’t make it don’t worry, our Master Chief Costume is still available if you are looking for some Halo costumes this Halloween!

3 More Months Till Halloween

That’s right folks, Halloween will be here before you know. That wonderful holiday when boys and girls of all ages (me included) like to dress up as their favorite ghoul, goblin, or character and parade the streets in search of goodies – and the occasional good scare! Most of you already know what great activities to participate in during this day, like costume parties, trick or treating, bonfires, ghost tours, bobbing for apples, and carving jack-o-lanterns. But, do you know the origins of this dark day?

Halloween, which derives from All-hallow-even (The eve of All Hallows Day or All Saints Day), was first introduced to the US by Irish immigrants in the 1800’s. Originally known as Samhain, it signifies the end of the harvest season. This time is also known as the Celtic New Year. At midnight on Halloween, it is said that the veil between the living and the dead is lifting and spirits roam freely. Scary costumes were traditionally worn to ward off any evil spirits that may enter our realm during this time.

Trick or treating in the US began around 1911 and is also thought to have been brought over by Irish immigrants. It is a practice similar to “souling” during Samhaim or “wassailing” during the Christmas season. Boys and girls travel door to door, wearing costumes and begging for treats.

Personally, this is my favorite holiday of the year. Being an observer of the Samhain holiday, I find great enjoyment combining the festivities of both the old and the new. My friends and I turn my backyard into a haunted graveyard, complete with ‘living’ ghouls, scary music and fog machines. The neighborhood kids get a real kick out of it and quite honestly, so do most of the parents too. You’re never too old to be a kid J!

For those of you looking to do your own haunted graveyard, backyard, etc, may I make a few suggestions. For Mom and Dad, you may want to try the Ghostly Gal Couple Costume, which would be a great effect if you are strolling through your haunted graveyard. Or you may want to try the Elite Gothic Vampira Adult Couple Costume for greeting the little neighborhood monsters at the door. For your fun-loving teens, we have Big Mad Wolf Young Adult, Vivacious Vampire Teen, Rag Doll Girl Young Adult. Your little will scare everyone on the block wearing Stitch Witch Child, Mummy Child, Skeleton Zombie Child. Even the family pooch can get into the action in the Pet Costume. These and other great Halloween costumes are available online at Costume SuperCenter.

I look forward to helping you this season with your costuming needs.

Kelli McCloud

Senior Customer Service Rep

P.S. For all you horror movie buffs like me, can you name the movie from which the song playing came from? Name The Horror Movie

Halo Armor: Master Chief MJOLNIR armor

To prepare for the release of our super exclusive Halo 3 Master Chief costume for Comic Con international 2008 of which most of you will get (you better 😀 ), I have written a little something for all the curious minds out there that always wanted to know more about the armors in Halo, specially the one being worn by Master Chief.

The Name

The MJOLNIR armor is named after the legendary weapon of MJOLNIR, the hammer of Thor. It is no coincidence that a piece of defensive hardware is named after a weapon, the MJOLNIR armor is probably the most dangerous weapon in a Spartan soldier’s arsenal, enabling the Spartan soldiers to kill even the biggest Covenant (Hunters) with just their bare hands (inside the armor gauntlet of course).

The History

The development of the MJOLNIR armor is lead by Dr. Catherine Halsey, an UNSC Naval Intelligence scientist. The armor originated as a prototype exoskeleton giving the wearer increase strength and stamina (see EXOS posting). However, the downsides of the earlier prototypes are the fact that they use an external power source, whether plugged in or leeching energy through wireless system, once the user is out of range or the generator is destroyed, the suit will shut down trapping the user inside!

With more research and developments, the later models of the MJOLNIR armors became what we see in Halo today. Master Chief himself wears MJOLNIR armor, specifically model IV, V and VI. Although the later models are more advance and each function capabilities are increased, they remain largely the same. No matter the model of the armor, they are all design for Spartan elite soldiers only, as the suit requires highly advance reaction time and co-ordination to control, if not probably managed, the user will experience series injuries if not death (don’t worry our Master Chief Costume wont kill you 🙂 ).

The Technology

The MJOLNIR acts as an extension of your body by directly plugging into your nervous system, letting the suit move along with your body at the mere thought of moving your muscles. There are no lags so all movement feels natural- even though a Spartan soldier in MJOLNIR armor weighs over a ton!

The armor plating of the MJOLNIR armor are designed specially for resisting beam and plasma weapons of the Covenant, capable of absorbing and dissipating energy blast for a short while before completely failing. However, the MJOLNIR armor is not completely invincible as a blast from one of the bigger Covenants like the hunter can melt through the MJOLNIR armor plating in one hit! The armor also has other technologies like advance weapons HUD (heads up display), rechargeable temporary energy shields, and medical bio-foams for self healing. The MJOLNIR armor is also air tight, and is capable of space use if it is not punctured or heavily damaged, making the Spartan soldier into one capable all around super soldier.

The Present

Much like Iron Man, many of such technology used in Master Chief’s armor are in developments today. Just like Iron Man armor, a prototype exo-skeleton is already being developed by the armor for the purposes of super soldiers on the battlefield. The HUD and computer devices that Master Chief uses in his helmet are also present in today’s more advance weapons.

Other features of the MJOLNIR armor like bio foams and the armor plating are also available in today’s world. Although not called bio foam, the army is currently testing a sort of vitamin foam that can be stored in a small packet that when applied over a wound, it will expand and harden over the wound stopping the bleeding and holding the wound together- much like how bio foam works. Much like Master Chief’s armor, the armor used on tanks today are made to absorb high intensity heat blasts- the same logic that makes lasers/plasma weapons so effective against armor. Of course those armor plating are heavy, but that’s why Master Chief weighs so much (and it’s not because he eats too much Burger King 😛 ).

If you stick around, I will also put up some background information on the Halo universe; everything from the games Halo 1, Halo 2, Halo 3 and everything else in between for you to read- I am sure many of you will find it very interesting.

Lastly, a shameless plug of self promotion (not really, considering this is our site 😉 ), our Halo Master Chief costume is going to be available on July 18^th, that’s in two days, and we will be the only place where you can get your officially licensed Halo 3 armor until September after Comic Con 2008!

HALO 3 @ Comic Con International 2008!

Before I tell you all about the special announcement on Costume SuperCenter’s HALO exclusive, here are some news on Iron Man.

It appears that all the regulars, the director Favreau, the actors, have all agreed and signed on to the new Iron Man 2 movie. Everything is all good to go, and now we can sit back and wait two years for the next Iron Man movie to come out 😀 If there are any Iron Man updates or new information, you can be sure I will let you know about it.

Now, for those of you who knows something about Comic Con, you know that is where all the new ideas, comics, and superheroes movies make their appearance before hitting the mainstream. Now Comic Con International 2008 is going to be at San Diego within a month’s time- which is very soon.

For this years Comic Con International, the people who made HALO wants all the HALO fans to exercises a show of force and let the world know who’s the best, and for that task, Costume SuperCenter will be the sole distributor of the Offical Licensed HALO Master Chief costume for the Comic Con International 2008!

The goal here is to completely swarm Comic Con all over with hundreds of us in our MJOLNIR Armor, it is going to be a blast 😀 Also, if you are wearing the officially licensed HALO 3 Master Chief Costume, stop by Rubies Costume’s booth # 5404-5407 during comic for the free gift give away!

If you haven’t heard of HALO before, you are missing out. Arguably one of the most popular first person shooters on the XBOX and XBOX 360, HALO combines an intriguing story line involving saving mankind and an action packed game play.

If you stay tune, I will be providing a lot of background story on HALO and their technologies that you wont know from just playing the game 😉 If you like what I did with Iron Man, be sure to come back in a few days!

Cool Iron Man Phone

Check out this cool Iron Man styled LG phone!

Its worth almost $2000 and the gold is 18k gold plated. Wow!

What would be really cool would be if the phone was built like Iron Man, I would buy this phone just to deflect tank shells and hit bad guys over the head to knock them out 😀

PS: Our awesome Iron Man costume is still on sale but its selling fast, so grab some while you can! And if you are a Halo fan… stay tuned as I have something very sweet to announce soon.