Neil's Spiel

Update: 12-7-2004

Ryan generously offered to set up another blog dedicated to my Imperial Tighty Whities.  It's finally ready so check it out.  We're taking suggestions for picture locations over there so if you feel like submitting your ideas do it!

If true friendship can be measured by your buddy’s willingness to strap on Stormtrooper thigh pieces in the parking lot of Walmart at 10:30pm, then Ryan Farley measures up.

I got my armor earlier this week and its seeming simplicity is surprisingly complex.  I’ve worn it twice now to get the feel of it and made adjustments so things hang together correctly.  Last night I called Ryan up while I was in the suit and he brought me over to surprise his kids.  Everybody enjoyed the show but after a few minutes it just didn’t seem like enough.  So we got the brilliant idea that we’d go walk around Walmart and look at action figures and lingerie.  Now, looking at lingerie at Walmart is bad enough, but doing it in Stormtrooper armor pushes you right over the “normal” line and straight into “certified nerd” territory.  At least I didn’t put any on ;)

So with no further ado, here are the pics that Ryan snapped of me at Walmart.  The pics are great but they really don’t do justice to the whole experience.  For every person that was willing to stop and shake my hand there were about 20 who pretended not to notice a bone white Stormtrooper dork standing next to them.  According to Ryan these same folks turned around and snapped pics of me with their phones once they were behind me.  To be fair though, I’d probably ignore me too.

And finally, check out the Trooper Dance.