Flashback Friday: 2-27-10, Day 31 of building R2-TD

Now I've used many glues before but today I used something and was absolutely amazed. I went to work on R2's dome today. I slipped on a patch of ice and the dome slipped out of my hand. When it was all said and done, there were 5 cracks. Brad had some tech bond handy so I thought I give it a shot. Worked like a charm. With the accelerator it made a perfect "weld" in seconds. With a little sanding and a coat of paint, you can't even tell anything was wrong. Check it out. 




Anyways, I went to work on R2's dome today with Brad. I sanded everything smooth from the mishap last week with the crackling and than we were ready to begin. We put several layers of primer on to make sure no 'foreign' substance was reacting to the paint. Things looked good so we moved to the white. After 3 light coats things were looking good. The forth, something happened and the paint began to crackle again. Not near as bad as last week but still a little there. We stopped for the night and made sure we had the dome in a warm place and will take another shot at it Sunday. 

Flashback Friday: 1-24-2009, Day 25 of building R2-TD

Today, Moose needed to borrow one of my saws to finish the work bench in his basement. Since I was there, I helped him finish the table and get it all together. Once we had it all done, we had to break it in and work on droids! The table is big enough we both were able to set out droids on it and work side by side and not be in each others way. We both finished adding our 3rd legs so both are standing. Than we both began wiring the legs. I also got a lesson in soldering. It was a very productive day!

The finished workbench


R2 standing on his own


A different angle showing the third leg installed


The wiring of the legs has begun


Moose gave me a lesson in soldering

Some investing opportunities

Do you know Diddley Sqot? Would you like to visit a film location of one of the greatest movies of all time? Just a couple of questions asked to me recently.

Diddley Sqot is "The creation of alien character Diddley Sqot using new hybrid animation/puppetry technique QZimation" and is being brought to you from Mike Quinn. Mike is well know for working with people like Jim Henson and George Lucas doing animation, puppets, acting, director and producer of many shows and movies you likely have seen. Take a look HERE at his impressive resume. Mike is working on a new technology called QZimation and is about to change the way we see characters such as Diddely. He is using an indiegogo page to raise funds this project and has just over a week to meet his goal. He's asked for our help with this unique opportunity and it comes weith some very unique perks. You can hear Mike talk about QZimation and the read more about the project HERE.

The second project brought to my attention is a book which is being fan made and needs backers. Its a book of the Star Wars Film Locations of the United States and is using Kickstarter for funding HERE. They have a little over 2 weeks left on this project and its one I would love to see come to light. This project also come with some perks if you interested. I have some friends who have traveled the world and see some of the film sites and I was very jealous of them. They got to stand in the same spots and pose for pictures. This might be the only way I will ever get to visit some locations of some of my favorite films. I hope they make it.

Are you ready for some football? IFL, UFL and some ex's?

ESPN Dallas Fort Worth is reporting here Terrell Owens is to play for the IFL's Allen Wranglers this spring. No word yet if TO will be making road trips to Omaha to face the Omaha Beef or to Grand Island to play the Nebraska Danger. People in the Omaha area saw first hand what some star power can do to a football team with the Omaha Nighthawks in its first year when it brought in Ahman Green, Jeff Garcia, Cato June, Robert Ferguson and many other NFL vets. Either way, sounds interesting and could be exciting to see what happens.

Speaking of the Nighthawks. Rumors swirled for the last few days that the United Football League had folded after it's 3rd year. Social Media and the UFL website have had little to no updates for months fueling the debate. Nighthawks head coach Joe Moglia had recently taken a head coaching job for a college team and no replacement has been named. Also, Virginia Destroyers Head coach Marty Schottenheimer and Sacramento Mountain Lions Head coach Dennis Green are in news in the hunt for NFL coaching jobs. Than to top it all off, Las Vegas Locos employee Patrick Dux(who has worked in the UFL from the very beginning at the California Redwoods before the Locos) tweeted from @PatrickDux on JANUARY 13 "Crazy day. The UFL shutdown today and J Fisher took a job with the Rams. The team that beat the @tennesseetitans in the super bowl." Than "#FF @adambergen @AndraeT81 @madbacker56 @BobbyRome @krisLgriffin53 @DezSherrod84 UFL shutdown today." Than "Spyder0033 Adrian Awasom
IT'S OFFICIAL ... !!! ... R.I.P. @UFL ... Special Shot Out to Michael Hughes For Single Handedly Killing Da Golden Goose ... #UFL"
Today, Dux reported on his twitter account the "#UFLISDEAD". A follower of his than asked if official word had come out and his response was "no & there never will be. All I know is everyone on payroll was terminated on Friday. I saw both emails from the league and trinet." Amongst other things Dux and many Locos's players have been stating how they have not been paid as of today for the last season. To top it off, Nation Hahn, director of Digital media for the UFL stated on twitter (@UFLNationHah) "I am, and will remain, part of the #UFL family, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds." right after a post about his new job... "Follow my new adventure with @newkind via @nationhahn" Hahn also said on the UFL Access forums "The UFL has not folded, it is still operating. Changes continue to happen behind the scenes. I hope that the UFL plays in 2012, it still has a chance." The Still has a chance part is what gets me the most. Doesn't look to promising.

The last thing I want to mention is something that has really been bothering me in the media latly. Mostly I see this on the Omaha World Herald reporting of Former Nebraska Cornhuskers. They report all former players as Ex's. EX Husker so and so did this. To me, an EX is someone who quit the team or left before finishing, Not someone who finished, graduated and was on good terms. A prime example, the Headline today EX-Huskers to Open Dunkin Donuts.... sounds negative to me. In fact, what did they played for Nebraska even have to do with the story. What about the Houston Texans? That was Browns last football gig. No mention of that. Oh well, Maybe I'll write Warren Buffet a letter now that he owns that rag of a newspaper and complain.

Happy New... Hair?

2012 is here and I have a new project... . so to speak. I'm growing my hair. Many of you who have known me for a while, know I usually have a shaved head.

Even back as far as 1992 in High school it was pretty short.

I only remember growing it once and that was in college. I got it so I could put it in a small pony tail on top on my head and that was it... Couldnt stand it. Time to shave it again. LOL!

Well, I'm on a mission this time. I have a reason to grow it. My friend Rob invited me to participate in a ST. Baldricks event this March. Rob has a son, Ian, who I meet a few times at few Star Wars troops. Ian has cancer and is pretty young. I'd say around 7. He is one of the coolest kids and I had a ton fun watching him have fun at the events.

It's an honor to do an event like this for kids like Ian.

Anywho, here is my new year hair so far. Check back to see the 'growth'.

Reset!

Well, it seems my reset didn't work. I was pretty bummed with the fact I lost the last blog and than lost the web address directing everyone to it. It was my own stupid fault but hey, the guy who bought the addy offered to sell it back to me.... how nice! Oh well, I let it happen. Maybe, in a way, I wanted to change more than I knew and thats why I let it go. I didn't have a fun summer like I had hoped. Don't get me wrong, 2011 wasn't a horrible year but it wasn't what I wanted it to be either. I'll call it a draw. I took some big hits from life but gained a ton more life experience. Rolled the D20 and won so to speak but not with out damage. LOL!

Anyways, I have a couple of quick updates and well get this thing rolling again! Read on and enjoy!

Time to Rebuild

Unfortunately, I lost all the content to the previous Journey of Geek so if your looking for something past July 2011... it's not here. The good news is I have all the pictures of R2-TD's build and all of the various events over the last few years so if your looking for something specific. Just ask. :)

With that said, I'm taking the blog in a new direction. It's still going to be filled with the geeky things I do but I'm going to expand it a bit. It's going to cover everything which makes me, well me. There will still be tons of sci-fi stuff, Robot builds, conventions and the normal geeky stuff with a tad bit more. The new expanded stuff will be my quest to find the perfect burger, my first real shot at gardening and the other general life things that come up like the future remodeling of our house. There may even be some random thoughts and rants along the way. Who knows. All I know is I'm back and ready to give this a second go!