Osfest 2009

I had one of the greatest times of my life this past weekend. About a dozen droids, including a T3 from Kansas City, MO were present. Patches looked great, and PD is coming along nicely (see pics on http://www.r2-cm.com/). Not one, but TWO K.I.T.T. cars were there, fully functional and talking to each other. Brad Edmonds (http://r2k2000.blogspot.com/), builder of the K.I.T.T. from seasons 1 and 2 from the original series, let me sit in his car. I could feel the power (well, almost).


Both panels on Sunday were fantastic. The first was just lining up our droids on the stage and talking about our droids, answering questions, letting the audience pick our brains, etc. Later in the day, on LC's request, I gave a 45 min presentation on R2-KT. It was in the boardroom and seemed to be quite crowded. I was pretty satisfied with the power point presentation, but would like to tweek it for future talks.


Usually I don't go to any panels except the ones I'm involved with. This year was not the case. Since it was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing (has it been that long?) I decided to go to as many panels on the topic of space exploration as I could. Two of them was presented by a lovely woman named Bridgette who is heavily involved with the Cassini project. That's the probe studying Saturn and it's moons. Yep, they found another moon, one that looked like a lemon with a lengthwise seam. That picture woke me up!!! So, I got myself lots of Saturn moon trading cards and bookmarks, and learned lots about Saturn, my favorite planet. What girl wouldn't want a ring like that?! A third panel was on heavy model rocketry by the local model rocket builders. Long time ago, in high school, I too was in a local model rocket club. I sure miss it. Of course, I didn't launch anything like a 1/3 scale Delta rocket like these guys. These rockets were massive!!

I missed out on the Star Wars plot lines panel, mainly because I was too busy getting ready for the costume contest. Ahhh, the costume contest! Disco Padme! We even found the Disco Star Wars music to go with it! And I danced on stage! Moose later said he would never look at me in the same light again.... I sometimes crack myself up.


One of the best part of this trip was the two friends I was traveling with. Drew taught me and his wife, Krys, how to drive the RV. A lot different driving a 35 foot beast. At one point Krys decided to "talk" to the beast, and came up with a name for it, one that it liked apparently. It's now Lady Blaze (it's also a female RV apparently, and likes to blaze a trail). I like it, too. We arrived behind the hotel late Thursday evening, got Lady Blaze all set up, and went to bed early. The next morning Drew and I had all of AL's tools and parts on the table under the awning trying to put his wheels on. Friday afternoon the R2 Central group found us outside the RV door working in what has to be the most unique traveling astromech lab. I love my RV!!

For a wrap-up party we all went to Brad's house for a pool party and BBQ. I went with Moose to help unload the droids at his house, while Drew drove the RV to Brad's. After some good food, pool antics, and just great fun, Lady Blaze got back on the road home, stopping at a rest stop somewhere to get some rest before reaching home Monday evening. All three of us were wiped out, a sign of a really great con.


Unfortunately, the pivot on the mirror of my camera sensor is broken and will cost a great deal to repair, not to mention the time to get the part. As a result I didn't have my camera. You can see pics at http://www.r2-cm.com/ and http://r2k2000.blogspot.com/. I believe there are a few at http://www.r2-nu.com/ as well. Our group photog, Denny, should have a lot up soon if not already. I'll edit this post as soon as I remember his website. In the meantime, here is one I stole from one of the mentioned sites. We now have three lady builders in the R2 Central with a fourth really wanting to start soon. Now I just got to find the time to drive out to Omaha again for one of their build days, maybe one of Brad's electronic workshop.




Jen (Moose's girlfriend), me and AL, and Serena (Brad's wife)

AL's next event: October 24th and 25th, Star Wars Fan Days, Plano, TX. Gotta meet Don Bies.
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Edit: OK, I found Denny's blog with a few pics: http://falcon-one-photo.blogspot.com/. It's now in AL's Friends list.

Center Vents

Disclaimer: Camera needs professional cleaning, so NO teasing about hair/dust/etc on my photos.

I've been lagging in the blogging world as I continue to make my big move. Everything's in the house, just need lots of time to unpack. Meanwhile, I worked on my center vents. I took 80 grit sand paper to get the watermark dullness out of the Waterset vents. Then I used a medium course sand paper with my dremel to sand it down even further. A little polish paste with fine 180 grit on my dremel made them shiny! The louves had to be sanded down a bit to make them fit in the surround (more discussion on this on the astromech.net boards since I'm not the only one with a fitting problem). After getting everything fitted together, I used aluminum foil tape (found in the duct tape section) to tape everything together. You have to really look hard to see the tape, and I don't think anyone will look that closely, except other R2 builders, and they probably don't care....

Left, not sanded. Right, sanded. BIG difference.

Side view of how they go on the droid. You can really see the difference.

Bottom vent fitted and taped together. Not bad using foil tape...

Next week I'll be in Omaha for Osfest. I'm trying to make the big push to get AL walking/rolling. This weekend I'll definitely put in the R/C and hopefully I can get the Big Lots wheels to fit into the motor mounts. Wish me luck!

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

FCBD 2009

I think this sign says it all! It was a previlage to hang out with Cal and the rest of the 501st up at Time Warps Comics in Boulder, CO. Once again, AL was a HUGE success as he was the only astromech there. Cal did bring his mouse droid (we dubbed him Rover) to keep AL company. Even though it was pouring rain all day, we had so much fun, even doing a bit of socializing out of costume at the ice cream shop around the corner (just to celebrate a little).


Lots of comic books. AL and I snatched five.


Since Time Warp is kinda off street, some of the 501st went to the street to wave people to the shop. Lots of honking....


The store manager helped AL keep dry (for a few minutes anyway).


Standing guard....


After considerable time under the eaves to keep dry, taking numerous pictures with adoring fans, he finally got his free comic book, a Star Wars one of course!


He held onto that comic for dear life! He was so proud of it....


He shared it with his new friend, Rover.


"AL wants to know if you got your free comic book, honey."


"What do we do with this little thing?" "Ah, just shoot him" Poor Rover!


Everyone had a good time, even the manager.


I actually put on a helmet for the first time. Tight fit, but looks good. AL was still holding onto that darn comic book, even at the end of the day.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Chapter 3 part 11

Manny grabbed the green foam bag, Jellica straightened her dress, and the two of them disappeared quickly back up the alley in the opposite direction of the troopers. Glug may have been a slow thinker, but his eye could see and record everything. Dumb I am, but not blind! He saw the two lovers run out of sight with a bag full of green foam that Jaka had planted in the street. Glug klunked his way to Peety reporting that the green foam bag was gone. Peety was elated at the news. Good that should keep them away for a couple days, at least until Jaka gets back. Here, Glug, put this shelf back up.

The two spent the rest of the day and night nailing the shelf boards back up on the wall, arranging the tools on the shelves, and generally tidying up the place. Glug was particularly good at taking out the remainder of the garbage. Peety had a special talent of taking pictures of every little detail and refering to those pictures. Some odd thing in his processor allowed to him to photograph. Sometimes though he would put all his energy into taking the perfect picture he would fall on himself. Blurry pics would not do, so he would pick himself up again and start over, only to fall again, sometimes. Yet, when in a hurry blurry pics can sometimes reveal the whole picture. In this instance, Peety had a lot of blurry pics to work off of. Thus he was able to put the shop in the exact order it was before the troopers came.... sort of.

Satisfied with their work, Peety suggested that the two of them shut down for the evening. Glug didn't want to because it was actually morning. Peety argued that since they had been working all this time with no sleep it was technically evening. Glug argued that since the sun was up..... well, the arguments went on for awhile until Peety told Glug to shut up.

But it's my turn to argue.
Shut up Glug.
But I want to argue, this is fun.
For the last time keep absolutely silent Glug, I hear something.
Yeah, me arguing.

Then Glug heard it, too. He fell silent as a snowflake, whatever that was. A clanging banging noise, like someone hitting the sides of the buildings with a very large metal stick. Only it seemed to be in the distance. The two didn't know what to do, but their orders were not to let anyone see the stuff in the shop. Jaka was persistant that if something bad should happen the two must run and hide, leaving the shop in disarray. Thank the force Peety knew what disarray meant. So, after a long night of putting everything back in order, he started tossing everything about again. Glug klunked his way out the back door for the garbage he just threw out. His good eye, however, saw that the banging was a couple of AT-AT's making their way across the desert, searching for that droid, no doubt.

HAPPY EASTER!

A friend of mine sent me an email advisory titled "Beware of Theft Identity on Easter". I am posting that warning here:

The kitten is a spitting image of our beloved Tribble (RIP little friend).

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYBODY!

Jawa Jaka

Under the Category "Other"

AL is finally in his new room, even though it's not quite finished yet. He's now standing on nice foam padding, feeling oh so luxurious under his feet! Since I'm still concentrating all my effort on the house and not on poor AL, I'm filling up my blog with some very interesting tidbits. Like this one:

A pair of deer peers through a drive-in liquor store window Friday, March 27, 2009 in Medicine Bow, Wyo. (AP Photo/Laramie Boomerang, Alison Simpson)

Must be a good place! Anyone want to meet me there? LOL

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

I'M ON TV!!

This is totally unrelated to AL or SW or anything scifi. It started when JDon (my roomate) came home and said he had something important to tell me, after he changes. So, while waiting for him to change, I dashed downstairs to check the news weather only to see a short story on free burgers and fries at TrailDust restaurant. I ran back upstairs to tell him. He laughed and said that was the important thing he had to tell me!! We both decided to go.

We got there at 10:30am with another friend. The three of us sat around at the beginning of the line with not too many people behind us, maybe 20 all together. At 10:45am the line was at the end of the building. By the time the doors opened at 11:00am the line was all the way around the building! We were lucky to get in as there was a wait for seats at 11:15am. 600 burgers were served within the first half hour.

Greg Nieto of channel 2 news sat beside us interviewing an older gentleman. He and JDon struck up a good conversation after the interview while Greg and his cameraman ate thier burgers. A short time later a very pregnant reporter from channel 9 came up to me, asked my name, and said that in a minute she was going to interview me! Here's a link to the interview...

http://www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=fullpageplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=dc3d7ce19e95532068a3c43d2f47206ae2407790&maven_referralObject=1064842025



I'm also embedding it on the left hand side. Now you know what I look like, a MESS! No time to make myself beautiful! Gosh my voice is weird, to me anyway....

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka