Ow. (Or Parades, Pain, Powerbooks, and Parties)
That seems to be the extent of my vocabulary today. Last night as well... See, I was silly enough to volunteer to march in a 3 mile parade yesterday in Stormtrooper armor. Our garrison built this incredibly elaborate float based on Jabba's Palace. We had a Jabba, a Max Rebo, a Bib Fortuna, a Rystall, a Slave Leia (who froze her #()$& off), a C-3P0, an Artoo, a Luke, an Oola, a Boba Fett, a Bousch, a Greedo, a Bossk, a Dengar, a Chewie (who I think had to drop out due to costume malfunctions, but I'm not sure...), and because of all this, a severe shortage of Stormtroopers. So I volunteered to wear the armor of a guy who wasn't wearing his and who I am about the same size as. It fit remarkably well. But I was freezing, so I'm really stiff. And the armor wasn't quite fitted right, so I am chaffed, bruised - there's a lovely one on my right calf, and I managed to pull the muscles above my knees - the ones that control the movement of the lower legs. Stairs, sitting, standing... driving... Excruciating.
So I'm canceling my appointments for today and staying home and trying not to move too much. Yes, I'm a wuss. A wuss with a low pain tolerance who bruises ridiculously easy. The good news is that my feet are in good shape! I had to put two insole inserts in and wear two pairs of socks to make the borrowed boots fit, so I had lots of cushioning there. See - silver lining. :) And I'll never give a TK crap again, either (not that I ever really did...) Those guys who wear that armor are dedicated, loyal, hard working, and deserve a pay raise. Canon fodder they may be, but they definitely take one for the team. I now understand why we have less and less Stormtroopers for each parade. And the more we ask them to carry crap (banners, Hancicles, etc.), the numbers are going to dwindle even lower.
If it isn't up already, there should be plenty of photos and video from the parade. I'll post links here as soon as I make it over to the NEG forums and check.
---
Oh, and Friday the Powerbook laptop crashed. If it really wanted me to work on my PC more often it could have asked. It really didn't need to crash its hard drive, or system board, to make a point. Really. Of course I'm feeling guilty about it because it died while I was using it, even though it wasn't my fault. Stupid Apple knows exactly how long their hardware is good for. That's why they only warranty for 4 years. After that, you're on borrowed time.
We bought a new hard drive on Saturday. Sajuka plans to disassemble the whole thing to replace the hard drive, which will probably be a two hour process. Then we'll stick the old drive in an external enclosure and hope we can manage to pull the data off it.
---
Halloween costumes aren't coming along so well. They're difficult and we haven't had as much time to work on them as we'd hoped. I did get his Luke vest done for the parade - not that anyone but our CO noticed it, but oh well... We got invited to a Halloween party this Saturday, and we might have to go to plan B. In that case, Sajuka's costume would be pretty easy, but I'm not so sure what to do for mine... Anyone know where a girl can get an inexpensive set of throwing knives and an ankle sheath for them? Or better yet, anyone know if that's even legal to carry? I can probably get some nylon to make my own sheath, and I suppose I could spray paint cardboard replicas or try Sculpey...
So I'm canceling my appointments for today and staying home and trying not to move too much. Yes, I'm a wuss. A wuss with a low pain tolerance who bruises ridiculously easy. The good news is that my feet are in good shape! I had to put two insole inserts in and wear two pairs of socks to make the borrowed boots fit, so I had lots of cushioning there. See - silver lining. :) And I'll never give a TK crap again, either (not that I ever really did...) Those guys who wear that armor are dedicated, loyal, hard working, and deserve a pay raise. Canon fodder they may be, but they definitely take one for the team. I now understand why we have less and less Stormtroopers for each parade. And the more we ask them to carry crap (banners, Hancicles, etc.), the numbers are going to dwindle even lower.
If it isn't up already, there should be plenty of photos and video from the parade. I'll post links here as soon as I make it over to the NEG forums and check.
---
Oh, and Friday the Powerbook laptop crashed. If it really wanted me to work on my PC more often it could have asked. It really didn't need to crash its hard drive, or system board, to make a point. Really. Of course I'm feeling guilty about it because it died while I was using it, even though it wasn't my fault. Stupid Apple knows exactly how long their hardware is good for. That's why they only warranty for 4 years. After that, you're on borrowed time.
We bought a new hard drive on Saturday. Sajuka plans to disassemble the whole thing to replace the hard drive, which will probably be a two hour process. Then we'll stick the old drive in an external enclosure and hope we can manage to pull the data off it.
---
Halloween costumes aren't coming along so well. They're difficult and we haven't had as much time to work on them as we'd hoped. I did get his Luke vest done for the parade - not that anyone but our CO noticed it, but oh well... We got invited to a Halloween party this Saturday, and we might have to go to plan B. In that case, Sajuka's costume would be pretty easy, but I'm not so sure what to do for mine... Anyone know where a girl can get an inexpensive set of throwing knives and an ankle sheath for them? Or better yet, anyone know if that's even legal to carry? I can probably get some nylon to make my own sheath, and I suppose I could spray paint cardboard replicas or try Sculpey...