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Luke



Last Updated: 11/28/2007

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Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 32
Sign: Gemini

State: WASHINGTON
Country: US
Signup Date: 9/12/2006

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Wednesday, November 28, 2007 

Current mood:  happy
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

During the month of October, Fan Force held a charity raffle for Make-A-Wish Foundation in memory of Katie Johnson (daughter of 501st Legion founder Albin Johnson). Through raffling off a 12 in" figure of Backpacker Luke Fan Force was able to raise $239. A donation has been made to Make-A-Wish.


In September of 2006 the Everett, WA Chapter Representative "Darth Breezy" decided to send her own beloved Backpacker Luke on a tour traveling the United States and Canada to visit various Fan Force Chapters. He started and ended in Charlotte, NC where Jada, the Chapter Representative spearheaded the charity raffle. Luke had many adventures along the way such as attending "Pole Night" at Lowe's Motor Speedway, reliving his Hoth adventure in Edmonton, ALB where he spent Halloween, making a Christmas commercial with the Calgary Fan Force, went to Tombstone, AZ and was made Sheriff and was in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer, attended Celebration 4 and finally after some other stops Luke made his way back to Charlotte, NC. Along the way Luke acquired many trinkets to commemorate his travels including Fan Force chapter patches, Star Wars trading cards, signed photographs from Star Wars actors and many other goodies. Members of various chapters even made him a sleeping bag, a cloak, a scarf and hat, a poncho and a passport!


On November 1st the raffle was held and cathiecat of the Tucson Fan Force won the raffle. Backpacker Luke, along with all of his belongings now reside with her.


Thank you to everyone who helped make this a successful tour and raffle.


Related story: Fan Force Raffle for Charity

2:22 PM 
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Tuesday, October 02, 2007 

Current mood:  hopeful
Backpacker Luke Raffle to benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation in Katie Johnson's memory Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Backpacker Luke traveled around the USA and Canada from October 2006 to July 2007 visiting different fan forces and even attending Celebration 4. Luke is going to be raffled off and the proceeds will go to Make-a-Wish in memory of Katie Johnson. The donation will be made by FanForce.net.

Tickets are going to be sold as follows:

$5 - 7 tickets $10 - 15 tickets $15 - 25 tickets $20 - 30 tickets $25 - 40 tickets $50 - 100 tickets

Payments are going to be accepted through PayPal using the charlottefanforce@yahoo.com email. Each donor will receive an email confirmation with their numbers. The deadline for payments is November 1st.

Backpacker Luke acquired many trinkets and tokens to commemorate his travels.

Luke's Belongings

Handmade:
Sleeping Bag
Scarf and Hat
Poncho
Cloak
Passport

Autographed Pictures/Memorabilia

Ralph Brown - Ric Olie
Zachariah Jensen – Kit Fisto from Attack of the Clones
Gerold Home – Aqualish
Dave Barclay – Jabba (puppeteer)
Paul Blake – Greedo
Tem Morrison – Jango Fett
Ray Park – Darth Maul
Peter Mayhew – Chewbacca
Daniel Logan – Young Boba Fett

Official Pix Limited Edition Prints:

Various Aliens, Ackbar and other Calamari, Jabba and Friends, Chewbacca and Ewoks (signed by Peter Mayhew)

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure t-shirt with runner tag & sunscreen – size XL
Silver Sneakers Fitness t-shirt – size XL

USPS Star Wars Envelope with roll out card in it
R2D2 mini paper mailbox from Buffalo, NY

Celebration 4 items:

Hotel room key
Fathead Flyer
The Art of John Alvin
NWA Airline brochure
A Guide to Another Universe magazine
Insider's Guide to Celebration IV
Droid Hunt Badge
Spaceballs – The Animated Series card
Star Wars Galaxies card
Star Wars Skinit.com card
Mimobot Star Wars Flashdrives card
Star Wars 30th Anniversary Sideshow Gift card
Jedi Academy card
Brian's Toys Star Wars 30th Anniversary catalogue
Hasbro Star Wars Short Story Collection – Clone Wars
SW Pocket Model TCG Game (Sealed)

Trading Cards [some in sealed packages]:

Topps - 65 – ROTJ A Family Made Whole
Topps 93 – AOTC Troubled Young Lovers
Top Trump Cards [about 5 in sealed package]
Celebration 4 "playing cards" [sealed in packaged, about 3 or 4 cards]
Star Wars 30th Anniversary Promo Card
SW Game Cards 2 – Luke and Yoda (A Jedi's Strength), 3 – Luke (I have a very bad feeling about this) and 4 – Luke (Size Matters Not)


Postcards from:
North Carolina
Arizona
California
Alberta, Canada
Spokana, WA
Rochester, NY
Pittsburgh, PA

Items from Tombstone, AZ

Jr. Marshall stickers
Death Certificate
Shot Card with flower pin
Personalized Sheriff's Badge with Luke's name
Poker Chip
Bullet casing

Various other belongings:

Bark from the General Sherman Tree
Star Wars Valentine's Day cards
Star Wars minis Stormtrooper
Galactic Heroes Darth Vader Keychain
Calgary Flames bracelet
Star Wars Holiday Special trading card
Spokane, WA Keychain
Plastic Yoda Ring
New York City keychain
Star Wars bracelet
Metropolitan Transit Authority Map and Metro card
Brooklyn Cyclones schedule
New York City Magnet
SpatCon III flyers
Body Worlds book marks
Mini bottle of Heinz ketchup
Mighty Taco coupons
Buffalo News Stanley Cup playoff insert (article)

Fan Force Items:

Mos Eisley Port Authority New York City badge
Inland Empire Pin and magnet
Two Suns Tucson Fan Force card and sticker
Charlotte Fan Force card and bookmark
Letters that accompanied Luke

Questions can be directed to charlottefanforce@yahoo.com

11:46 PM 
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Tuesday, May 08, 2007 

Current mood:  chipper
I've made my way to the "Steel City", otherwise known as Pittsburgh. I started off my visit here at the Pittsburgh Comicon and JEEPERS, there were  actually people who pretended to be a Tuscan Raider, Storm Trooper or Darth Vader himself. Who would want to aspire to that???

Anyway, Yoda and me are now residing at the dwelling of a habitant who calls himself Fluke Groundrunner. At first I thought he was making fun of me, but that has apparently been his name for quite some time now.

There is mass depression here because the "football" team known as the "Stilers" won't be playing until later on this year and people really aren't sure what to do with themselves. They have a "baseball" team called the "Pirates", but gosh darn, from what I have seen they are horrible. It makes me long to see a good pod race.

On May 19th we will be attending a party with the Pittsburgh Fan Force. It should be a real fun time and I will have some pictures to show with those folks. Then I will be off to Los Angeles.
3:18 PM 
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 

Current mood:  calm

Yoda and I are stopping briefly in Rochester, NY while waiting for our ride down to Pittsburgh Comic Con for the 3rd Annual NE FanForce Awards Ceremony. (hmm... probably should wear my formal cloak for that one...)

I did get to attend a Rebellion meeting while I was here and ride along on a Clone Trooper for this city's Heart Walk. Maybe someday I can come back and have a longer visit and meet more of the crew here, but I must keep traveling!

We will try to get some visual transmissions uploaded for you all to enjoy soon.

6:29 PM 
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Sunday, April 15, 2007 

Current mood:  accomplished

I want to take a moment to tell you about the SUSAN G KOMEN FOR THE CURE Breast Cancer Foundation. http://cms.komen.org/komen/index.htm

When I was in Tucson, Arizona recently I had the opportunity to attend a Komen Race For The Cure planning meeting.  It was a large room filled with many people talking and making plans for a 5K run that takes place every year across the Nation to support finding a Cure for Breast Cancer.  I have included a link above so that you can read more about what the Komen Foundation does.  I also signed on to participate in their race for this year, while I can't run in the race I can certainly help raise awareness for this important cause.  You can visit my Komen Race For The Cure Webpage here 

 http://sazraceforthecure.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=219337&u=219337-171524396&e=1032728147

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

May The Force Be With You


 

2:22 AM 
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Saturday, March 17, 2007 

Current mood:  calm
Tombstone, Arizona, USA, Earth
10 March 2007

Cathiecat, RebelMom, and Hal9k1 drove me out to "the town too tough to die."

Upon seeing the town, I was immediately reminded of Obi-Wan's words as we were overlooking Mos Eisley. "You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

There were gunfights in the street. I was concerned for our safety, but my new friends assured me that it was just a show. I was still leery. Projectile weapons are dangerous. I picked up one of the spent casings and shivered at the thought of being hit by it. I slipped it into my pocket. I could probably get a few rounds off a story about it when I get back to the base.

We got some odd looks from some of the locals. There were some more reenactments performed throughout the day. They even roped some of us tourists in… literally. My TFF friends and I were "hung" by the local vigilante. I even received a "death certificate" as proof. I wonder if I upload this onto the holonet, if it will convince the Empire that I'm dead and drop the bounty on me?

We spent some time wandering the shops and sightseeing. All the clothing was an odd style. I'm told some of it is vintage style, others Western style. I tried on one of the "Cowboy" hats, but didn't like how it looked on me. Master Yoda didn't like it either. It obscured his view.

We met the Sheriff soon after. Apparently there is a lot of lawlessness in this town, because she was deputizing anybody would take the oath. As a future Jedi, I felt compelled to do my duty. My first duty was checking out the cruiser. While I was checking it for the repulsers, Master Yoda was talking to a quadruped creature (a "horse" according to the TFF). It was pulling some type of cart. The "horse" was complaining about its boring, plodding, route and I was about to suggest he break into a run when Master Yoda hit me with his gimer stick. I'm on vacation, I just want to liven it up a bit. Sometimes, I regret bringing him with me.

After some more shopping, which was testing my new-found Jedi patience, we finally stopped for lunch. It was a little pool hall and bar with a limited menu of greasy food (Han would love this place). While waiting for our nerf-burgers to cook, I listened to a startling variety of music, meet more of the locals and drank a sarsaparilla.

There was still a lot of activity in the streets when we came out of the bar. I haven't figured out why, but there were several men breaking apart a large boulder. It was some sort of contest, because they were giving awards to these men. Another one of those earthly things I've yet to figure out.

Finally got to meet Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. They were quite cheerful and friendly towards me. Unfortunately, they were sending hostile vibes towards Master Yoda. One of them actually wanted to decapitate him. Trying to defuse the situation, I calmly explained that both Yoda and I were defenders of peace and that if they were uncomfortable with my Master, we would gladly leave. They slapped me on the back (Master Yoda was sore after that) and then posed for a picture. All was well.

I was glad to get moving on. I hopped a trolley – seems my currency is not valid here- and went to the OK Corral, the location of a famous shootout. The Courthouse has a museum that explains all the history of the town. We didn't go inside. Once I saw the gallows, I didn't want to take the chance that some anti-Jedi sentiment would put both Master Yoda and myself in danger of a lynch mob.

The last thing I wanted to do before leaving town was to get a tattoo. I thought about getting an X-Wing. I tried the door, but it was locked. In the window was a sign that read "Closed". I think Master Yoda was more disappointed than me. He was muttering something about getting a tattoo that reads "Die Sith."

The last thing we saw was Boot Hill Cemetery. Once again, I was reminded of the violent history of this town. The markers often included the manner of death: legally hanged, accidentally hanged, shot, stabbed, suicide. There were a few amusing epitaphs as well. Hal9k1 took some pictures of them for me.

On the way out of town, we had a bit of excitement (ouch! Master Yoda just hit me again). A wild nerf was running loose on the highway. A couple of police officers were trying to herd him. I couldn't help but think of Han when I saw them. According to Leia, nerf herding is the perfect job for him.
5:31 AM 
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Friday, March 09, 2007 

Current mood:  hopeful

I am sure you have all been wondering where I have been.  Well.. after I arrived in Tucson, Arizona last Thursday, things got a bit weird immediately.  

 I thought I had stepped into a trap when I first arrived.. having already discovered a few Imperial K.A.T.S. at other Fan Force Stations around the System I was very wary of these three.. but it seems that Tiger, Shadow, and Shaak (whom I am told is actually named for a Jedi of the Republic my father served with as a Jedi Knight along with Obi Wan)are actually quite harmless and intelligent, to the point that on several occasions at night when I have been attempting to sleep Tiger has somehow managed to open my bedroom door and come into my room and on one particular night even chased Yoda onto the balcony right when he was getting ready to have me do some extra meditation sessions .. for that I must say I am a bit more grateful than perhaps I should be, after all this is a crucial time in my Jedi training and I am in need of all the meditation I can get.. but I have to confess.. it was my first night here in Tucson and my hosts were entertaining another friend who was leaving town the next morning, she was a "Poker" Player just starting a semi-professional career in what is called Texas Hold em. Quite similar to Sabaac in fact, Han would have enjoyed it for sure, in any event Cathiecat's Poker playing friend Iva did not wind up winning on this night.. so afterwards they decided to take her out to relax. We went to a local hang out. Mos Eisley had nothing on this place.. turns out in fact it has quite the reputation, it is the oldest cantina in the entire town of Tucson, Peggy, the 74 yr old lady, with the dark sunshades on,  that waited on us explained to me that the place had opened in 1934, the year after Prohibition was repealed ). This place had what one would call a lot of character and it also had what MasterJediDragonSir called, a billiard table, and MasterJediDragonSir taught me how to play what's called a game of pool on it. First we played a game of 8Ball, and then we played some very interesting looking men a different game of pool called cut throat, pool is played with a bunch of colored balls on a waist high green table and you knock them around with a white ball using a stick, the object is your trying to get the colored balls into these pockets on the corners and sides of the table.. I have a feeling Han would simply love this game.. Chewie would as well.. I am wondering if I can fashion one for us once I get back, perhaps with Wedge's help I could, I will have to see if there is some way to get Wedge a message about it and he can get started.. we'll do it as a surprise for Chewie and Han. It was very enjoyable and I am quite good at it.. In fact I would have to say that I am good enough to give a go to anyone in the Fan Force and go out again while I am here in town and play some more if anyone is up for the challenge. In any event it leads me to my next point, that Yoda felt was the need for my midnight meditation that Tiger saved me from. Playing pool made me thirsty and I asked for some water.. I guess water in the southwest is not what it is in other places..I am not quite sure what transpired after I drank the water.... I began to feel something a bit funny in my stomach.. and then a bit light headed.. then I began to feel the force move in ways that I never knew it could..I may never be able to explain it.. but after a few moments someone started screaming and the pool table started levitating and then all of the sudden Master Yoda began to beat on my head with that darn gimmer stick and then Cathiecat started hollering "ya'll.. oh my gawd... Ya'll.. somebody help him" and then MasterJediDragonSir reached for my arms, shook me gently, and said "Luke, get a hold of yourself".. Immediately of course I calmed down.. the table gently settled back to the floor and the amazing thing was pretty much immediately the whole bar went back to what it had been doing .. just like that... reminded me of the time Obi Wan cut off that guy's arm in Mos Eisley's Cantina.. So whoever it was said the Force isn't present on Earth.. they havn't been to Tucson, Arizona.. cause I levitated that pool table and after Cathiecat stopped her hollering no one even looked twice... Iva even said she just couldn't figure out why Yoda was using the gimmer stick on my head instead of Cathiecat's. Go figure....In any event.. MasterJediDragonSir thinks that I might have gotten food poisoning from the restaurant food earlier in the night, he said that sometimes happens at places when they don't keep the food the right temperature, that kind of thing never happens on Tatooine or Hoth.. that's for sure. All I know is that after that night it took a few days for the effects of the event to wear off, so you will understand why my first weekend in town I had to take it easy and no one really saw much of me around and I failed to get a chance to blog in my myspace or anything. I am making an extra long entry tonight to make up for that though. To put it mildly, I hope to never encounter anything again that does to me what that Habanero Chicken Tamale did, and I am fairly certan that Master Yoda would not take kindly to my ever ingesting it again either. So now you know the rest of that story.

Last night I met RebelMom and she offered to take a few of us to Tombstone tomorrow.  I will check back in some time on Tuesday of this week most likely. 

May the force be with you.

11:24 PM 
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007 
Luke's Blog update.....erm, I forget.

I reached a new destination today. Last I recall was being hit on the head and stuffed in a sack then all i recall is hearing mumbling voices saying things like "Would you like insurance" and "Do you need any stamps today?".

This was followed by a dark silence interupted by what sounded like a speeder except I felt as if it was touching the ground as it moved.

Suddenly the darkness vanished and I was blinded by a light, I remember seeing a rather ugly specimen of a species resembling my own, but I'm not sure that it is human. He said his name was AboutaSith and welcomed me to the Inland Empire. My worst fears had come true, I had fallen into the hands of the Empire. Good call on prediciting that I told Yoda!

I was then introduced to the captain I wondered around for a bit to check out my new surroundings. I was walking along and felt something watching me, it was a giant orange hairy beast. I'm told it was a K-A-T, whatever that means, it seemed particularly interested in Yoda for some reason.

It turns out that the K.A.T was a security screener for the Empire, he seemed quite friendly, he made some stranges noises and wore a tag that said his name was Ryan. Though his screening method was perculiar, he sniffed me for about an hour, it was very strange indeed.

I tried escape the empires facilities 2 nights in a row and as of yet have been unsuccesful in my attempts. I have managed to claim some sort of badge and magnet, not sure if I will have some use for them yet.

Surveillance Pictures

UPDATE: Erm..whatever todays date is.

I finally escaped the clutches of that thing called AboutaSith. For the last few days I have been passed around several different people, most of whom i'm pretty sure haven't washed their hands in a long, long time.

I spent some time in a library, it was very outdated, everything was still in "book" format. No holocrons, datapads, I couldn't beleive the lack of technology. Something to do with funding for the goverment's schools.

Yoda decided to teach some Yoga to some people as they begged and begged to learn from a wise old master. Yoda still cant get over how ugly AboutaSith was, I mean Yoda said "Ugliest thing ever I saw" and he's over 800 years old, that's saying something.

I scored myself a hot date with a Rodeo chick, we went out on Valentines Day. I tried to ditch Yoda but he kept using the force to track me down.

My new host Jedifan77 has been great, she's no sith. She seems to know alot about the galaxy and spends hours debating with yoda on the purpose of midiclorions and how to spell it.

UPDATE: Final Days in the Inland Empire

I spent the last few days chilling out at Jedifan77's place, eating, watching this thing called TV and playing with the D-O-G-S and K-A-T-S.

At the weekend I met someone who claimed to be Darth Maul but I didn't believe them as the story says he was black/red and was chopped in half many years ago and this guy was neither red or black and in one piece! I also met someone called Boba Fett who wasn't very pleased to see a Jedi, I told him "Calm down, don't lose your head" and then he started crying saying, "Papa, Oh Papa", not sure what that was about so I left him to be.

Better get going now as I need to e-mail the Rodeo Queen before I hit my next stop.

Check out my updated pics in the link in my blog further up!


5:04 AM 
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Wednesday, February 07, 2007 

I thought I would finally catch up on my blog about my time spent with the Order of the Twin Suns in Tulare County.

We had a slow week but Mother P. was busy sewing a new Jedi costume for the Anime convention that we were going to go to over the weekend.  I didn't understand at first what Star Wars had to do with Anime but I soon learned that several of the TCFF members were going as a Star Wars presence to help with line control and some security.

I had a good time and enjoyed all the young people in their costumes.  I got to meet some Anime characters but also got to meet some other Star Wars fans.  There was three of four Stormtroppers, Princess Leia, an Imperial, a Padawan Anakin, and a couple of other Jedi.  Then of course our own group which included Old Ben, Anakin, and Barriss.  I also had the chance to meet Colleen, Obishawn's wife, and will probably see her again at the Science Meets Imagination next week along with several others that I met over the weekend.

After we returned home the Mother P. decided I needed my own Jedi cape so she made me one to take on my trip.  It is warm and covers Master Yoda as well but allows him to look out when I am wearing it.  So after a few days Mother P. sent me on my way but I had a good time and the Crazy Old Wizard said that I could come back to visit anytime.


http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukewithTile2.jpghttp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukewithSidious.jpg
 
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukeatAnime-withAl.jpg http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukeatAnime-Rocketship02.jpg
 


http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukeatAnime-Witch.jpg 

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukeatAnime-Leia.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukeatAnime-Imperial.jpg
 
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukeatAnime-Colleen.jpg




http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/MotherPalpatine/Lukes%20Visit/LukeatAnime-AnakinandYuna.jpg

7:37 AM 
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007 

Current mood:  accomplished

Hey, I've heard that some people can't see my pictures because they don't have a myspace account, so I asked my freinds if they would add them to a photobucket account for me.


Check it out as soon as my pictures are up!


my photobucket



7:40 PM 
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