LA, CA Welcome to the LAFF! Come in and Introduce Yourself!

Well, I guess I should stop lurking and introduce myself. I'm Tom and some of you know me, some do not. I used to be in the SDSWS/SDFF a few years ago, but now I live in West LA. I work with Liz and Scott and have been lurking here for a bit. I'm a TK in the 501st. What else... Is that last ticket for John Williams still up on the block? I may be interested in it...

 

Hey Tom now SH. We abbreviate the screen name around here. Ask in the John Williams thread if there is another ticket.

We haven't seen you in a while at work. I hear you are working the later shift.

 

Hey Tom, this is Matt, JediRacer. I've met you a few times. I'm the short Asian Rebel Fleet Trooper. Welcome.

 

Welcome TK Mando!

 

Yep, I come in at 2pm now. And am out as early as 11pm or as late as 5:15 in the morning! But hey, double pay isn't all that bad...

 

Welcome TK.

I come from a force sensitive family and I'm glad to be a part of the LAFF.

 

JB called me TK MANDO because that is my screen name on the 501st Legion boards and my license plate...

 

Hey everyone,

I made a few posts on this forum months back, but I wanted to say hi to everyone and introduce myself. I'm new to the Los Angeles area, I moved down here in the middle of March from Portland, Oregon, where I had lived my entire life. I also had a brief stint with L.A. from late summer 2001 (before 9/11 just barely) through early 2002, I was attending Loyola Marymount University. For various reasons, I didn't care for it there, had more reasons to be back at home, so I moved back to Oregon. I loved L.A., but I had no car, was stuck in the middle of a neighborhood, and felt really isolated. I came to Los Angeles this time for film school, at the Los Angeles Film School, but in the 8th week I left the school with my friend and business partner David to start a small production company. We felt the film school was a very poor place to learn, for way too much money, and we wanted the cash back to buy equipment and educate ourselves, get out there, etc. Nonetheless the LAFS brought me down here, and I love it here!

I live downtown in a condo building called Elleven, two blocks from Staples, I really love the downtown area, or at least the South Park area, and it's an exciting time around here with L.A. Live going in and ESPN's broadcast headquarters moving here, the Nokia theater going in, etc. Being in Los Angeles this time around has been a lot of fun for me and I enjoy the weather, the opportunities, and contrary to what a lot of people think, most people I've met in Los Angeles are fun, nice, interesting people. I'm not sure why so many people have such bad attitudes about L.A., but I've always considered myself more of an L.A. guy because I couldn't tolerate the weather and boredom up in Portland. It's exciting down here!

I'll just give a brief introduction of myself as a fan. I am 24, I've been a die-hard Star Wars fan since I was 14, when the Special Editions came to theaters, that's what really made me a hardcore fan. I grew up watching The Holy Trilogy dozens of times, but I didn't really start reading about everything Star Wars until the Special Editions came to theaters. I then started collecting prop replicas and lithographs. I've built quite a collection over the years, with every full scale item Master Replicas has produced, and I have a lot of lithographs and some original art work (Sarah Wilkinson's Celebration III print, for instance, I have the original to that one). I saw The Phantom Menace 50 times in theaters, Attack of the Clones 54 times, and Revenge of the Sith 24 times (too powerful of a movie, couldn't see it so many times or I'd be depressed! lol). I'm not into the costuming or role playing, or toy collecting, but I like to think that I appreciate all aspects of the fandom because that is, to me, what makes Star Wars such a wonderful hobby -- there are many ways to appreciate the saga and celebrate it. For me, I have done so by becoming sort of a self-proclaimed Star Wars historian. I wrote Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace years ago (AnticipationBook.com), and it was published two years ago in 2005. In 2006, I co-authored (as first author) an essay on Star Wars and religion for a book titled, Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise: Fans, Merchandise, & Critics. This year, next week in fact, my sequel to Anticipation arrives. It is called Revenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith and will be sold at a local Barnes & Noble here in Los Angeles, so that'll be exciting.

I love writing and I love Star Wars, so it seemed natural for me to want to contribute my knowledge to the fan community and hopefully capture these snapshots in time so that years from now people can look back and remember all that happened around the prequels' releases. Star Wars led me to my passion for writing, actually, and it has also led me to film. I owe the saga a lot, and I look forward to talking with you guys here about everything Star Wars!

There's my long introduction.

 

Welcome Bowen! We don't use full screen names so you will have to be shortened. B seems so short and Bowen is too long. I guess we can just use Bo. There aren't a lot of choices, sorry but you've tied our hands.

 

I wondered what happened to you Bowen. You posted right before CIV then disappeared.

 

DH, you crack me up!!!

Welcome back, Bo!

 

Welcome Bowen! You're viewings of the Prequels are impressive!
I work very close to where you live! I hope this area picks up when all those new condos/lofts open up.

 

I wouldn't mind using full usernames...ah well. Just call me ZAP instead of MZ, guys! It's already an acronym and it sounds better!

Welcome Bowen/Bo/Santa. I'm Mr. ZAP, and I would like to say that it's nice to meet you. I just joined here about a month ago, and I've been to one event, which I organized. It was lots of fun and I'm looking forward to both doing it again and meeting you. Stick around for awhile, have some fun, eat some pie. I assure you you'll love it here.

 

Hey,

haha, awesome guys, thanks for the welcome. Well my first name is Jonathan, a lot of people are lazy and call me JB, that's pretty easy if you want. My best friend's ex used to call me Bo-bo, she KNEW I hated that, grr. But her last name was easy to make fun of too, so I called her Fishie-Fishie (last name was Fischer), lol. I think she hated that even more.

Yeah, I disappeared because of film school, I was there for eight weeks and worked 80-100 hours a week, I barely could even go to the bathroom. I had to schedule times, like bathroom break between 3:31 and 3:33, if it exceeds that length of time then must stop and continue later at next break. haha, just kidding. But it was brutal nonetheless. A friend and business partner dropped out of the school with me, we weren't impressed by the quality of education, equipment, teachers, etc., at least not for the incredible cost.

This area here is definitely getting pretty exciting, I love being downtown and can't wait for even more to be in place. The Ralph's grocery store is kind of a big deal, that opens this month, not sure when exactly but it's on 9th and Flower. First downtown grocery store since the Ralph's closed in 1954, I guess, that's what I hear. I'm looking forward to Salon Eleven being completed, that's in my building, I have to walk to The Standard to get a haircut (like today, in about 40 minutes, lol), which isn't *that* bad but I'd prefer to just go downstairs! Next year Evo will be completed, that is the third phase of the South Group's condo projects, so that will add a bunch more tenants. I guess right across the street diaganol the "glass towers" condos are going in, not sure when exactly. It's an exciting time here, but it'll take another 2-3 years for things to really shape up.

I look forward to meeting you all!

 

Sorry, we already have a JB. You're Bo. Deal with it.

 

Sorry, JB is, well...TAKEN!!

Welcome again, and we'll see you soon!

Whoa: Jinx, ZAP! Heee...

 

WELCOME! I'm glad you like L.A. and yes like Zap says stick around because we're a lovable bunch and we have lots of fun at events. I am also impressed with your SW viewings and writing books about SW topics.
I will look out for your books, they sound like interesting topics.

 

Haha, well I go by JLB usually but that'd be too confusing huh?

My second Star Wars book should be out any day now, I guess next week, but it's been a long publication process. Kind of a pain, but hopefully worth it in the end. I mean it'll be cool to have the book in my hands after all this.

 

The books do sound interesting. I'll have to check them out when I actually have money.

Also, JLB sounds fine to me.

 

If enough people start requesting them at out local libraries...

 

The book is available now, but only through the publisher, so I'll wait until it's on Amazon.com before really posting anything about it, haha. But at least it's done at last! I get my author copies within two weeks. The Website is done, but not updated.

 

Hello There I am GF13 some of you know me from either LUN or the CSS, I finally signed up, see you all at JW Tonight.

 

Well it's about time man. I'm glad you are here and make sure those other guys sign up too. Those lines may be over, but Star Wars is Forever.

 

Hello Bowen and G4rce, or however you spell it. Welcome. Wow, we have a published author here, very exciting, and the group expands...

 

This is a huge Fan Force compared to the one in Portland, OR, where we struggled initially at least to get a core group together. Here there are just so many people...

I went to Redondo Beach yesterday for the first time ever, had never heard of it before frankly, I had heard of Manhattan, Hermosa, Venice, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, but never Redondo. Just proves there are so many areas around here, haha.