****FanForce Portugal Travels the World****

Dear Friends.

It's been fun being in Turkey. Thank you for your hospitality.
We'll keep track of your progress and will support you whenever we can.
Visit us at Fan Force Portugal in this thread to know where we are in the future.

We are now moving to Charlotte, NC, USA.

Feel free to move with us and join our chat.

We are now conquering USA!!!!

 

It's been great to know all you guys, and a pleasure to have you here - we were almost getting used to your presence, hehe.

Surely, we will be paying you a visit, and become your ally on your conquest to Charlotte, USA!

 

It was very nice to met you Portugal friends! Come back any time you want.

... and may the force be with you ...

 

Thanks!

RAISE THE ANCHOR!!! MAN THAT CANNON!!!

Off we go...

 

May the force be with us all.

Until next time

 

HEY!

We're here... drop the anchor!!!!

I NAME THIS LAND... LUSITANIAN... Province...
(carves flag on the sand...)

lol

Hey Charlotte! We're here!
Last stop was Turkey... before that... well, home... lol...

 

Welcome to Charlotte! The Queen City. Have some BBQ and Sweet Tea and let's go watch a race at Lowe's Motor Speedway!

edit:

Just so you all know we have a lot of members off at DragonCon this weekend.

 

Hello SW fans of Charlotte!!How are you doing?

 

Wonderful!

Here is a nighttime picture of Charlotte:

[image=http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n290/CharlotteFanForce/CFFBanner.jpg]

and a daytime:

[image=http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n290/CharlotteFanForce/1339475920_l.jpg]

I need to find some more pictures of places of interest. I know I have them because I gave them to ewok_jedi when he was doing our banner.

Charlotte is the 3rd largest banking city in the US. We are also have a rapid growth.

If you are interested in pictures of some of the things the CFF has done, visit our Photobucket page.

 

Hey... this province is already conquered!!!!

Lol

Dragon Con? Details!!!!

 

Hello guys! I'm _lordmaul (as you can see by my nickname duh...) lol

So... Where exactly in the US is Charlotte? Tell us a more about your city! Is it a Star Wars Fan dream-place? Does it have Star Wars shops (places that only sell Star Wars products, if that exists )??

I'm from Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal! It's a great city and, although Star Wars is not a big deal here in Portugal, we were proud to receive "Star Wars: The Exhibition" (that is now in London)! Read more about it here and pay attention to the 2nd paragraph! lol

I noticed, here in this fanforce forums, that you mention a book meeting. I think that's a great idea! Maybe we'll create something similar here in Portugal, the only problem is that those who read Star Wars books here in Portugal are very few... But I consider myself a great EU fan and reader! I'm now reading SW NJO Force Herectic III. Could you tell us more about that book meeting? How often do you meet to discuss SW books?

Thank you! And may the Force be with you!

 

Charlotte is located in the middle of North Carolina but close to South Carolina. It is the largest city in North Carolina [according to Wikipedia].

We do have a store here called Rebel Base. They do sell lots of Star Wars things but they also have other stuff in the shop.

I don't know if we would be a Star Wars fan's dream place. I think that Steve Sansweet's Rancho ObiWan has the corner on that market, lol.

As for our book meetings, we meet once a month and discuss one book each month. We started in November of 2006 and read the "ROTS trilogy" books as we called them - Labyrinth of Evil, ROTS and Dark Lord. We then read Darth Bane and went into a series of reading the Han Solo Trilogy and then the novelizations of the classic trilogy.

Our book club is our bread and butter so to speak but we also have game nights and we are starting to play Star Wars miniatures.

 

Just saying hello to the Portugal "flying carpet" thread And hello to Charlotte!

Wow, Jada, those are some great ideas for FF activities, very impressive. One thing I know when I was with the NYC FF, US based chapters rock, they have such brilliant ideas and do some great stuff. UK has a lot to learn from you guys! Great chapter!

 

Thanks Tim

I try to be organized. As I've said in the past, organized, yes! But expect typos

 

hello portugal welcome to charlotte

 

As Jada said, we do have Rebel Base, which is a local comic book and collectables store. They have both old and new comic books, toys and other collectables. They got a ton of Star Wars toys both new and vintage and they also sell Star Wars Minatures. This is the store Jada and I frequent because it is the closest and also because Troy, the owner, and the other guys that work there are a great bunch of people. We also have our friend Ray's Comic Monstore. It's another great store with all kinds of comics and collectables. Ray is also putting on his first comic convention, the Comic & Toy MonsterCon. Guest of honor is Peter Mayhew! We don't get to Ray's store as often as we would like to because it is about an hour or so drive for us to get there.

We have a number of comic/sci-fi/fantasy/gaming conventions throughout the year including, StellarCon, HeroCon, ConCarolinas and the big one... DragonCon. Which also happens to be this weekend.

I know that Formula 1 racing is big in Europe but out here it's NASCAR. The Charlotte area is where stock car racing was born. We have one of the best tracks in the country right in our backyard at the Lowes Motor Speedway. We also have the NFL's Carolina Panthers, the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers and Minor League Baseball's AAA Charlotte Knights. So there are lot's of sports to be had around here.

We also have a number of nice vacation spots to visit including, Grandfather Mountain, Chimney Rock and Blowing Rock. All are in the Western Carolina Mountains, within a 2 hour drive from Charlotte. Heading East you have the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse , Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina.

 

***Here is a continuation of my post above. I think because I got so many dang markup codes it's giving me a hard time posting to the thread...***

The first shot of the U.S. Civil War was fired from Fort Sumter, which is in Charleston. They also have a great aquarium in Charleston as well. Everything heading East is within a 5 hour drive or less.

So, I think I've shown you around enough. I can't really think of anything else that would

 

well... i got to this thread too late to add anything about charlotte that hasn't been already covered. so just saying what's up and glad you guys stopped in.

 

I think my husband stopped in mid-sentence. That'll teach him to stay up til 4:30am posting.

He forgot two things . . . Fuel Pizza and Quaker Steak and Lube

 

Ah, pleasant.

I love the US! I am a Nascar fan myself... Well I used to play the game (driving simulator from Electronic Arts) a lot, especially after watching that piece of (fine filming) called "Days of Thunder".
I love Baseball too, Yankees fan here... Sorry...

You guys have a shop JUST FOR STAR WARS STUFF? (dead)...

Also, Tim, welcome to the carpet, do clean your feet before using it!

I'm planning to go to San Diego Comic Con 2009, if Celebration Europe II doesn't mess the math... But my trips to the US have always been: Canceled. I ALMOST attended some meetings in Chicago and ALMOST attended another in Texas, so... this one will be my personal "strike back"...

 

Woohoo! Let's gang up on TK-2970

I hate that. Get ready, don't go. Get ready, don't go. Good for you for making your own personal plans.

 

So what's like to be part of the US fandom?

In Europe it's quite "pro-forma". We play the video games, chat a bit, but meetings are a painful process.
I guess that's were we needed a boost.

 

I've been fortunate to be part of 3 different Fan Forces here in the US and friends with several other chapters. There is also a core group that you can count on to be at just about everything and then there are the fringe people who show up for certain things and then you have the "blue mooners" who show up once in a blue moon.

Our group in Charlotte is small but growing. I think that there are lots of opportunities here to meet fans. It is just a matter of finding them.

 

Wow! What a city!

Here in Portugal we're only at the beginning with this Star Wars Clubs stuff. The FanForcePortugal lives since 1999, but it was just the forums and some lunches with all the fans. Only since last year did we begin taking all this more seriously.
But, as you probably know, it's very difficult. And it's very different from the USA, where it all began. While in the US it's cool to be a Star Wars Fan, here in Portugal we're still seen as somekind of freaks... But, as you also know, we're using the Force to help us, so there is no problem

So, tell us: what are the Charlotte SW fans reading? I'm now finishing Star Wars New Jedi Order: Force Herectic III: Reunion. It's a great book. And I'm reading that much faster because all I want is to finish reading the NJO to read the Dark Nest trilogy and start the Legacy Of The Force series!!

I've also read the 'ROTS Trilogy'. I liked LOE, I loved ROTS, and I was disappointed with Dark Lord.
Labyrinth Of Evil was great because it was in the final waiting days for Episode III, I loved the Grievous characterization and that quest for finding Darth Sidious.

The Revenge Of The Sith novelization was amazing! Matthew Stover did a great job with that book!! It was as if we were also joining the Dark Side. Wonderful the chapter when Palpy offers Anakin anything he wants. And those words that Mace Windu spoke about the Light and Dark Side created one of the best quotes related to the Force. Also astonishing were the last thoughts of Darth Tyrannus and, in the final part, Yoda realizing that while the Sith had evolved, the Jedi Order had remained the same for a thousand years, understanding that to defeat the Sith a new Jedi Order was essential!

The only problem was the 3rd book of the trilogy. Dark Lord: The Rise Of Darth Vader promised a lot of Darth Vader and all we had were some Jedi Knights that escaped Order 66 (with some help of a Commando squad, which was great )

Share your thoughts May the Force be with you!

 

Don't worry, some folks still think of us as freaks. Freaks and Geeks

Here is the list of books we have read:

Star Wars: A New Hope by George Lucas
Han Solo: Rebel Dawn by A.C. Crispin
Han Solo: The Hutt Gambit by A.C. Crispin
Han Solo: The Paradise Snare by A.C. Crispin
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Micheal Reaves
Darth Bane: Pathway to Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Lucerno
Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover
Labyrinth of Evil discussion

We are on Empire Strikes Back now. I've read probably 80% of the SW books out there [except for the children's books although I have read some of them]. I read through all the NJO books and Dark Nest. I ended up going back and re-reading some of the NJO. I found that some books that I hadn't liked I ended up liking better the second time.

The Legacy of the Force series is awesome. I just finished Inferno. Wow! I won't spoil it for you.