Friday, May 14, 2010

What Happened??

It's almost a year since the last post and in that year several changes have taken all my time and drained the life force out of me.....My wife's 17 year old grandson came to live with us...won't go into details but it wasn't the best of times for a long while afterwards. I didn't do anything on the Robot or any of my other projects..it was just too depressing. Our vacation with some old friends was cancelled and I think it had to do with our additional member but that is just my assumption. It was a very depressing year and it really got me down in the deep, deep dark doldrums. I did nothing to the Robot during this time as far as upgrades I did, however, take him to work for Halloween in support of the United Way. They offered professional pictures of the kids with the Robot for a donation...raised $140.00. Thanksgiving and Christmas were both depressing this year as well. It just didn't seem like a happy time of year for me. In January the New Year started with rumblings that my job may be going away at the end of the year.....and it actually ended on April 15th. Because of that I didn't go to MegaCon this year...that was depressing. I host The RoboCon Convention here in Denver which is a pretty big event, lots of fun and big moral booster and it helped for a few days but being unemployed sure put a damper on it. To make matters even worse, I even had a minor problem....two artists bailed on delivering the artwork for the T-Shirts. We did have most of the guest stars come up to the Robot Room and visit with us and pose for pictures with the Robots. (Their pictures are posted on the right) Marina Sirtis who played Counselor Troy on Star Trek The Next Generation. Garrett Wang who played Ensign Harry Kim of Star Trek Voyager. Christopher Judge who played Teal'c on Stargate SG1 There was one special guest that came for RoboCon and that was Guy Vardaman who played Darian Wallace and was Brent Spiner's photo double on Star Trek The Next Generation, he also was in Voyager and was a CG artist on Star Trek series and movies. The character of "Guy Fleegman", a background extra on a Trek-like television series in the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest, was named after Guy. He had a lot of behind-the-scenes stories to tell.

This summer the Robot is getting a up-graded parts I have purchased in the last three years. First he gets a new animated Radar section, machined aluminum ear posts, and brain support components. He will also get a major upgrade to his electronics, Central Support Structure and new rubber arms. Along with these upgrades he will be getting his Radio Control system installed so I can control him.

Hopefully next year I will be employed and can resume building R2D2 and Robby. Now that I have time I'll be posting more on this site and the Batcave Site.

Here are some pictures from Halloween and RoboCon-2010.