March Celebrity sightings

Get those sharpies ready.  There are a lot of notable actors, athletes and Hollywood types coming to the area:

3-6-13 For the hoop fans, on 3-6-12 you will be able to get autographs of Husker Hall of Famers Dave Hoppen, Erick Strickland and Eric Piatkowski in a special autograph session from 7 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. at the Devaney Center in Lincoln as part of the last regular-season home finale against Minnesota. The signing will be on the main concourse.

3-9-13 and 3-10-13, The Omaha Film Festival brings in a slew of people for the film festivals conference.  Jim Kouf – “Rush Hour,” “National Treasure,” Show runner on GRIMM, David Greenwalt – executive producer/writer/director for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” co-creator of “Angel” with Joss Whedon. Show runner on GRIMM , Tim Dowling – “Role Models” (Paul Rudd, Seann William Scot), “This Means War” (Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy), “Just Go With It” (Jennifer Anniston, Adam Sandler), Mike Hill – Academy Award winning editor. Has edited many of Ron Howard’s films including “A Beautiful Mind,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Apollo 13,” “Rush” , William Katt – actor, “Carrie,” “The Greatest American Hero,” “Sparks”, Jessalyn Gilsig – actress, “Heroes,” “Glee,” “Somewhere Slow” , Yolonda Ross – actress/director, HBO's "Treme," HBO's “Stranger Inside,” “The Antwone Fisher Story,” “Breaking Night” 

On 3-9-13 William Katt will be making an appearance at Krypton Comics with Christopher Folino from 10am to 2pm promoting the graphic novel "Sparks"

Also on 3-9-13, Rex Burkhead will be making his first public appearance at Fan House Sports from 1 - 3pm. For your own items is $30, 8x10 photos $30 16x20 photos $80 mini helmets and footballs are $60 and full size helmets are $150 all include getting autograph. Also pictures with Rex are $35 and the picture will be autographed as well.

Than on 3-16-13, Fan House Sports presents Alonzo Whaley, Will COmpton, Eric Martin and PJ Smith from 1 - 2:30 for a free signing event.  

Bug Out Bag

With the return of the Walking Dead tomorrow, it got me thinking it was time to recheck my bug out bag.  I put this bag together some time ago as a just in case we had to run from the house in case of an emergency type thing. Mines a short stay bag.  Its only meant to handle 48 hours for 2 people.

Whats in my bag?  Here's a detailed list:
1 zip up backpack
2 -12 hour Emergency Light sticks
1 rain Pancho
2 Emergency heat blankets
whistle
2 - 36 hours of food bars
2 - 36 hour supply of water
1 pack of tissues
Tube of antibiotic cream
Fold up 16 tool kit
draw string garbage bag
wind up flash light
4 burn pad gauze
10 small gauze pads
4 - 4 inch guaze
10 yards of water proof tape
2 - 80 count assorted band aids
5 yards of non stick tape
1 pair of examine gloves
1 box of flexible band aids
tweezers
1 cold pack
1 eye pad
1 pack of burn gel
1 pack of anti itch cream
2 rolls of toilet paper
1 manual can / bottle opener
1 first aide guide
1 plastic water proof storage case
1 pair of scissors
1 deck of cards

Ice Ice Baby!... Its Polar Plunge time!

Seems I forgot to mention my first fund raiser of the year. Im taking to the icy waters again this year for the Nebraska Special Olympics. Be sure to check out and donate to My Polar Plunge page!  I am half way to my goal of $500.  Please consider a donation no matter how small.  Every Little bit helps.

Saturday, 2-16-13, Comes see me and other Star Wars Characters take the plunge into the icy waters of Cunningham Lake, located at 8660 lake Cunningham Road in Omaha! Individual Plunges will start at 11 am and we will be taking photos from 9:30 to 10:30.  Hope to see you there!

Here are some photos from last years plunge.

Flashback Friday: 7-22-2010, Day 41 of building R2-TD

So OSFest is upon us and TD has never looked better. I've been working on him all week getting him ready for this event. Thanks to Brad for lending a hand and a few tools too. I couldnt of done it with out him. Well, maybe I could of but the end result wouldnt of been the same. Anyways, take a look at R2. Dome logics were painted black to blend with the rest of the body, Leg details and more leg details and my attempt at making a skirt. I think it turned out pretty good. Front vents are in and painted. I have some touch up work to do there before CV but it will work for this weekend. Just need to work on some foot shells and than I can start on his back.

Flashback Friday: 5-23-2010, Day 40 of building R2-TD

R2 and I are heading to Lincoln NE today for a fund raising event. Also, I have a cousin graduating today in Lincoln so my whole family will be around today. None of them have seen R2 in person yet and I wanted to make the best impression I could. That meant lots of little detail work even if its just temporary. One of the things that bothered me about my last event was all the "holes". I got what parts in and covered the rest up with spare pieces of styrene. Its not perfect but looks better than a gaping hole for the photos today. Dawn and I also worked on getting my front vents built from the A&A kit. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be but the end result did not fit into my vent surrounds. I'll have to do some fine sanding but for now, just taped the vents in without the surrounds. I also got my short shaft struts painted and in place. It took a second try to paint as the weather was windy and I got in a hurry. You think I would of learned my leason after my dome painting troubles. LOL! 

I also did some temp work on the dome. I got the Front Logic and Rear logic displays in. For now I just taped the LEDs in so I wouldnt have a hole. I got my duel LED blinkers installed. For now I velcro'd a 9 volt battery inside the dome to run them. For a Flasher housing, I used a toilet paper roll and just taped it all into place. Its not pretty but has worked really well. We'll see how it holds up after todays events. I hope to have some of these temp things out by next weeks SAC event.

Heres some photos of how things turned out.

Flashback Friday: 5-20-2010, Day 39 of building R2-TD

Since I took today off for a garage sale that got rained out, it gave me some time to work on R2 today. I began putting on some of the parts I've recently gotten. Today consisted of horseshoes, Boosters, hubs, a front vent, the data port and a side piece. I'm on the fence about the black horseshoes. I havent added borders to the skin yet and I was thinking about painting those black also so things would blend a little better. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way things are turning out.

Flashback Friday: 4-29-2010, Day 38 of building R2-TD

I had some decent weather the other day so I got to paint the skins. I painted the inter skin red to match the dome and left the outer skin white. The white matched up pretty good so I didn't paint it at all. Heres how it turned out. 



I tried to get what parts I have in but I need to modify some things first as they didnt fit.

Flashback Friday: 4-28-2010, Day 37 of building R2-TD

Brad, Steve and I finally got a moment to work with my A&A skins. It took a while to get everything ready to mount because those guys use every little piece of styrene for various parts. Each piece is taped down and came out very easy once the tape was removed. I already have some of the parts so I have extra pieces to use for reinforcement or a spare. 

We opted to staple the inter frame as its not likely to be removed. The outer frame is screwed on. We lined everything up with the top top of the frame but after doing it, I wish we should lined it up with the bottom. Anyways, heres some photos of R2 getting some skin! 

Here I remove all the tape and begin to pop out the pieces.

R2 before we begin

We test fitted to make sure everything fits.

Things are startingto look good.

We optedto staple the inter skins


I cut a back access door out of the back piece so I can access the batteries easier.

Things are looking good.

And R2 has skin... now to paint!

Flashback Friday: 4-10-2010, Day 36 of building R2-TD

This is a few weeks behind. I went to a convention and got the "geek gunk", "con crud" or nerd flu"... what ever you want to call it. It kicked my butt. Been over 2 weeks and still sick but I am finally starting to feel better and a follower of the blog pointed out I havent been here forever. So here I am. I'm back! R2 now walks and talks. My friend Steve helped me finish up the last bit of wiring after I attempted to get things going. Turns out there was a lose connection so we had to go though somethings to find it. Heres some pictures of the wire mess. LOL! 







As I mentioned earlier... Ive been very sick. Before that, I managed to get some events in with R2.

We Celebrated R2's Central Anniversary. We had a BBQ and got some sun in. It was good to hang out with all the builders and see whats alls going on. 




R2 attended his first event. The VEX Robotic Championships in Omaha. The kids there were smarter than I was and knew more about Robotics than I did so they asked a ton of questions. They also loved they could see "inside" R2 and really see what he was made of. Heres some photos from the event.







And R2 made his first Road Trip. We went to Kansas City to Planet Comicon to see Matthew Wood, Ashley Eckstein and Tom Kane. They are voice talent behind the Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon on Cartoon network. The trip was a good one but this is where I got sick.






Today R2 makes his second road trip to Willy Con in Wayne NE. He is the only droid going today so I'm sure he'll get some attention.