Plastic Soldier

Hey, Vanilla WoW was good and no shame in that. Friends keep you around for awhile sometimes too. I grew up outdoors, it wasn't until I was 18 that things went to gaming. I am from a farm in Georgia. My idea of fun was driving the go-cart down to the swamp then wading through it while shooting cottonmouths with the sawed off 20 gauge and picking off leaches. I did often take my Star Wars toys outside to play even shooting the ones that I thought were poorly cast with my bb gun. *bows* I played EVE awhile. You sir are hard core assuming you are in null sec, low sec or wormholes, pirating, etc. I guess there are carebear miners or high sec roamers in game but no one ever admits it, lol. To each their own. I used to get a big cargo ship and load it up slap full of goods and run through low sec just to shave a bit of time off my route. The main reason I did it is that it was fun evading death day after day. I gave up the game after gate camping with some pirates awhile. It was fun but I really felt like it would take me years to catch up to the guys in the big corps. I found the game economy and politics facinating, just wish the game could support the massive battles in zero sec better.

Very good, I love the cornhole pic and comment. The Jawa squatting in the last group shot is a nice touch, very realistic being so low to the ground like that.

Perhaps this thread already exists but I could not find it. Any current or former MMO players out there? If so, what did you play, do you still play, were you and are you now hard core or casual? I have never been a drug addict but for several years MMO's were my addiction, MMORPG's to be precise. I discovered Ultima Online in 1997 and my world was never the same. I was in the Marines at the time and got a bunch of the guys who worked for or with me to join my guild. They did not have a choice, lol. We ran at first, a standard guild which became a pk guild then later an anti-pk guild. We liked the challenge and was good comraderie. There were things about it that I were very wild west like compared to todays mmo's. You used to be able to kill people and take all of their stuff, loot their corpse and hack their body into pieces and then mount their head on the mantle of your home. You could be a pirate, raiding other ships while they were macroing and using a mild exploit to board their ship or get close and empty their cargo hold. You could go invisible and hide besides someones home and then stealth in and steal all of their belongings. The world was as you made it, no theme parks in UO. There was also a side of the game with strong community, lifelong friendships and even monuments erected in game for those who passed in real life, RIP Goodman. Two years later I became a in-game counselor for UO and helped new players along in their gaming. I would like to think that I enriched their game experience and helped make their first mmo experience as magical as mine. You never forget your first mmo experience and nostalgia makes it hard to ever love another game as much as your first. Enough of my UO life, I later played EQ1 and 2, SWG, WOW, SWTOR and tried a ton of others briefly. I miss playing with my little brother during UO and EQ1. That was our means of keeping in touch when I was in the military. I am currently playing Guild Wars 2 on and off with my eye toward Darkfall 2.0: Unholy Wars. Now that I have a wife and kid along with more responsibility, my days of hardcore gaming have turned to casual and is now a gap filler between family, work, other hobbies and tv but I will always be scanning the horizon for the next big one.

Well, I decided to give Doctor Who another shot. I watched the Doctor when I was a kid, the big curly haired fellow with the bright, long, rainbow scarf, the fourth Doctor I think. I enjoyed it but for the life of me could not remember his story. I googled "jumping on point for Doctor Who" and found this article. http://www.tor.com/b...-two-easy-steps It was an excellent article for people wanting to like the show but find it too weird and confusing like I did. I have also found that I really have a preference for certain Doctors so if you didn't like one, try another. I didn't care for the 9th Doctor much and he almost turned me off to the show but I have to say, the 10th is much better, at least is my preference. I hear the 11th is pretty good as well. The linked article will start you with the 10th Doctor and explains what a Time Lord is, does, rules he follows, etc. I watched the two part arc they mentioned and the episode after it so far. I found the weeping angels episode really cool, creepy and I highly recommend that one. Anyway, I found all seasons on Netflix, which is included with the $7 download only monthly package if anyone wants to check it out.

I have been too busy lately to comment much on these but I am happy all of you posted. Many of us have different stories but we all come together as brothers and sisters and share a common passion, our love of Star Wars and helping others. What an honor for me to associate with people who do so much good and live life with such passion. I will revisit this topic soon.

Congrats!

Never seen a Cad Bane before. What a great turnout you guys had. Good looking bunch of TK's.

Great work guys, a very special visit indeed. You made the kids so happy, look at those smiles!

Looks like you guys had a really good time.

Nice blaster mods, I just picked up the same blaster from Lewis, awesome guy btw. I will try these mods while waiting for armor to ship. Thanks for posting that.

Ingrid, Lady in White, made a comment on another post about her "coming out of the nerd closet" about 10 years ago.I wondered how many of us shared a similar story. Thanks for sharing that Ingrid. I would say I have always been a nerd. geek, sci-fi/ comic connoisseur, however you want to label it. While being passionate about these things, I always was embarrassed to let people know, at least the people who were not into this stuff. I even got to the point where I felt pressured by society to "grow up" and leave comics and some of the ultra nerdy stuff behind. At least that how I perceived it in my mind. I just felt that is what people do so I didn't touch a comic book for 18 years or attend any conventions, etc. I went from hobby to hobby never quite finding one to replace my childhood passions. In the last decade or two I have tried about twenty hobbies. After I had a daughter I started thinking about how I wanted to raise her and what lessons I wanted her to learn. Did I want her to feel like she had to hide who she was like I did? No, definitely not. I decided to do something about it so I bought a four day pass to comic con, my first con, to finally live out a childhood dream. That was one of the best things I have ever done. When I arrived at comic con it was a real eye opener. It was staggering the amount of people there that were just like I was and proud of it. I had this moment of realization that I had found what i had been missing for a long time, found my people if you will. I met some of the 501st there and the rest is history. I will never look back and feel like I am finally home. I now can wear Star Wars t-shirts in public and am proud to do so. I own comics once again and have a great bunch of 501st members to hang out with and that share my love of Star Wars so life is good. Having a very supportive and patient wife helps much of course. Perhaps I am long winded and share too much but wondered if anyone else had a story like that.

I also grew up watching all of those shows but my father and mother never were interested, too bad.

I loved Buck Rogers when I was a kid. Erin Gray was always a favorite and she still does conventions, a pretty cool person to chat with is the impression I get. I like BSG too but my absolute favorite thing about the show is this ship. My favorite ship in all of sci-fi.

You can find the e-mail here. http://www.whitearmo...e-to-find-them/

My wife really suprised me. At first she laughed when I wanted to be a TK. I knew I had to get her to an event to understand what the 501st is all about. She went to one troop and said. "Maybe I will be one of the ladies in the suits so I can be a handler" .( She meant Imperial Officer). The next weekend she attended our next troop and said " Maybe I will be a Stormtrooper". I was blown away. She isn't a huge Star Wars fan nor cosplay. She likes the charity and looks like fun to her I think. Just not pushing the issue and with time she will turn to the Dark Side. MUHAHAHA. You just never know sometimes. Even a person that isn't a Star Wars fan has to admit that a TK looks pretty bad @$$.

Just try not to get frostbite or hypothermia, they usually put a damper on the day and after losing a toe those TK boots just don't feel right anymore.

Hah, perhaps it comes with a bottle of visine and rose colored glasses.

I enjoy Firefly, Resident Evil movies ( not acting or story but the world and character of Alice), pretty much any good sci-fi book or movie. I am a sucker for any good world building which is one thing I find appealing about sci-fi. so many world building opportunites to be had when dealing with a whole galaxy or universe. My second love next to Star Wars is Ridley Scott's/ Giger, Alien and Aliens by James Cameron and even Scott's work on Prometheus to a slightly lesser degree. Not as much into the rest of the films. I have a display of the Alien Queen and some other memorabilia for now but hope to one day aquire some screen used pieces. My collection is just in its infacy but will grow to staggering levels one day between Star Wars and Alien I think. I have been honing my sculpting skills so one day I can create some pieces of my own. The closest thing to a prop I have now is the giant art edition of Alien: The Illustrated Story signed by Walt Simonson, which drew all the panels and worked on set of the original film briefly. I met him at NYCC and got some time to sit down and talk with him a few minutes about his work on the movie and being on set. It was a treasured moment for me and I have always loved that movie. I was falling off the edge of my seat watching it for the first time. Alien scared the crap out of me when I was a kid, which I liked, that is when you know you are the most alive. I have a propensity towards strong female characters which is partly what intrigues me with Alien's Ridley, Resident Evil's Alice and Star Wars' Leia. There is probably some pyschological explantion for that but we don't need to go there.

You will need several modifications. -----------

Can't say I have ever seen a more eye grabbing volunteer for Salvation Army, well done.

I opened up the teeth and studied the screen used helms some more. I am starting to feel better about the non symetrical features of the bucket and my imperfections after getting some good looks at the real ones. They say ATA buckets aren't supposed to be totally symetrical so that is good to know. I am now tinkering with the ears and will post pics when I am fairly satisfied. With dremmeled ABS dust all over me and a few expletives later perhaps I will get these right.

That is good. You might take a hose of less chlorinated water and blast off the suit when you are done, especially the elastics to get some of that chlorine out but not sure how pool chemicals effect E-6000. Here is a link to the document that says dilute caustics and acids are ok. http://www.eclecticproducts.com/_tds/e6000_craft_tds.pdf I would consider more how the extreme cold would effect the E-6000 but sounds like at temps found in liquid water should be ok. Hopefully someone with actual experience can comment.

Just curious, will it be shallow enough that you can stand up in the water? Swimming in armor sounds like a daunting and dangerous task.

Go here and choose a trooper then look at the different levels. http://www.501st.com...tuming:FISD_CRL Level 1 is basic certification, Level 2 is EIB and Level 3 is Centurion although they are even more changes for Centurion now that are not on the CRL yet so make sure to find out those if you go Centurion. Decide which kind of trooper you want, research what armor people are using for that type of trooper and decide what you like best and want in your armor. Some people want affordable while some want the best money can buy while still others want something with bulletproof durability, etc. The choice is yours. Body type comes into play as well so make sure other people your size are using the armor you choose.

Great work on the newsletter and way to go Frank, your obsession knows no bounds! Just kidding, you do our Garrison proud,