So tomorrow We will be walking the Abq Making Strides against Breast Cancer.  Naturally a good chunk of us will be doing it in costume.  I will be in the flight suit, since the organizers were excited to hear that they could get some rebel presence.  Several the gang will be in armor.  Should be interesting since I have never trooped 5 miles before.  But I’ve spent way more than 2 hours in the suit so as long as my cold doesn’t waylay me it should be fine.  And to my sponsor I promise there will be pictures at the event.

So apparently I actually managed to piss some off with yesterdays post.. ahh my first fan. so I guess some people do read this that I don’t know.
Let me clarify some things.

I did go to costume contest and for the most part really liked those contestants.  I thought the winners were original and well done.

What I was not impressed and referred to as half-assed is many of the people in the con. In fact if my fan had read the post my example was obviously not someone who was in the contest.  I’m used to seeing a wide range of costume from not just those in contest but those in the halls and such.  I am not sure if I mentioned it in the post.. but when I see a costume I look at things like.. hey did this person put some effort/thought into it?  second do they own this costume? and I’m not talking about renting it, I’m talking about working the costume, interacting with others, showing real pride in there work, which you see alot of in the the formal contest.. but I saw very little in the halls.
oh I may have deleted your posts but I thought you guys did have some of the better proton backs I seen, and you did own your costumes.

I spent last weekend in Denver CO at Starfest. It was my first trip to a local con in the area. I was able to hitch a ride up with the local 501st squad.

I thought it might be a nice change to go to a smaller con after surviving D*Con. I figured since I knew a group of people there I would not be completely bored. Picts of the event can be found here.
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So after many years I finally replaced my PDA.  I keep my cell phone, pda and mp3 separate by choice.  My cell phone is milspect rated, my mp3 player doesn’t care where you mp3s for it, and my PDA handles organization.  If someone ever makes a PDA/phone/mp3 player that combines all of those features has a reasonable size and does not cost oodles of money I might consider it.

I got the Palm TX, cause I still like how easy it is to backup and sync with Linux.  The new one has a screen size of old one, built in browser(which is way better than the old one) and built in wireless.  I will admit the browser and wifi were some of the main reasons for getting it. I hate running around fixing printers and not having an easy way to restart cups services.
A nice bonus featurs are it can change it self with just usb cable.  I was surprised by the fact that it still only has the same 4 dumb alarm sounds that came with my first palm(a handspring) all those many many years ago.

A friend comes by today and says…”I broke my bed”  after a few minutes of giggling I suggest some clamps and liquid nail.  Quick trip for clamps and the nail we get his bed hopefully back together.
After that the blaster upgrade parts showed up. One of the pieces was broke in shipping but patched up with some super glue.  In the process of removing the old barrel section to add the new front piece I cut the wires to one of the lights(which are mentioned in the guide to watch out for) but also easily fixed. (solder and electrical tape )

Then I was able to attached the first resin piece with some gorilla glue.

I’m really surprised, after all that glue stuff, my hands are not stuck to this keyboard.

Well the boots arrived and wow are they ever tacky.  If I ever get a leisure suit I have something for my feet. The blaster is now in my hands and I just ordered an upgrade kit for it that should make it really sharp and accurate.  So that project is on hold till the parts show up.  The neck seal got accidentally shipped to the wrong address so it should be hear next hopefully by end of this week or next.  I wonder if the guy who bought my old house opened it and tired to figure it out what it was.
The first round of electronics are now inbound, including the standard Radio Shack Amp/Speaker box.  I also picked up a small sound recording chip that I’m hoping I can use to make the classic radio click sound.

Right now it looks like I might be able to pick up the armor in a couple weeks when I’m up in denver for Starfest.

I should start taking pictures of all this stuff as it makes the transistion from random odds and ends to Imperial issue.