Wait, You Build Lightsabers?!

[TrypWyr]

Just had to share this story. Titled: "Truly Wonderful the Mind of a Child is...?"

I work as a tech for the local school district, mainly at our middle school and three of our elementary schools. Last week I was asked to speak, along with others from my department, at the middle school career day.

-_-

Okay, very well.

It was all going fine, talking about IT and what we do, when we got to the section on what we do in our personal time. My buddy told the kids that he plays guitar, then proceeded to drop the bomb that I like to build lightsabers. Well, that was the end of the tech discussion. From that point on, the only questions we got were:

Do they really work?
Have you ever made a rainbow lightsaber?
What is your favorite Star Wars movie?
Who is your favorite Star Wars character?
Do you ever sell them?
Can you build me one?

The best part? I wasn't going to make it public knowledge to them and all, but as to the question if I ever sold any? Yeah, I'm currently building one for their principal.

I'd love to hear some stories from others! How do people react when they find out about your hobby?

[madmaxx]

i got one for you...a workmate of mine has just had his 6 year old son discover the star wars universe..anyway he asked his dad if space was really like that and his dad told him that it is whatever you wants it to be...that alone is more than enough but then he asked his dad if he could have a "shiny light stick" like in the movies.his dad (my workmate) told his son that he works with a guy that makes these shiny light sticks.his son said to him "wow is he a jedi dad?" lol i couldn't wipe the smile from my face when my mate told me this.God bless little children...we now have a late afternoon visit planned for his son at the work carpark...i think he will be over the moon

[Sunrider]

Ha Ha. That's awesome. I love when kids see a detailed saber & their eyes pop out and they say "are you a jedi?"

Priceless.

[dgdve]

Ha Ha. That's awesome. I love when kids see a detailed saber & their eyes pop out and they say "are you a jedi?"

Priceless.

Yeh.. You just get down at eye level and say.. "Well... I built that, so I guess you'd say Yes, I am a jedi.. And maybe one day... You will be too" (hehehehe kids are priceless.. Quick.. Now you gotta get those PB&J fingerprints off.. O M G) lol

__
__ On a side note Hail to the father of the Sun!!!

[Lord Dottore Matto]

I don't think it is really fair that I answer this, lol. I am kinda at the point where people trip out when they find out that "I" am LDM. I get "how does it feel to be famous?" I have had that a few dozen times so far. I did have a funny one recently. One of my son's buddies came over. They were playing in a group, checking out the sabers and talking about this kid's aunt who is "sick". He made some vaguely medical comment about it and I corrected him. One of the other boys asked my how I would know and I said, "well dude I am a Doctor, so I should know". His response? "You are a Lightsaber builder, you can't be a Doctor!" I nearly fell over laughing. Kids,

[Jedi Mynock]

yeah my kids are finally at the age where i am about to build them sabers (they will be 5 in august).
this weekend i asked my son if we can watch star wars (yes, he wears the pants in our house lmao) because he usually says "no i dont like star wars" crushing words... crushing.
but this weekend he had a heart and said "okay".
this time i started with ESB, as i usually start with ANH and he gets bored and i think thats why he doesnt like "star wars". (admit it, ANH is not action packed compared to the other two. yes, TWO. lol)
he was more interested, and when everything went down in cloud city, he was beside himself! "HE CUT HIS HAND OFF!" (luke is his fav) and then "HE GOT FROZEN?! WHAT HAPPENS TO HIM?!"
"well son, i guess we have to watch the next movie and find out"
(LDM its around this time i popped in ROTJ and sent you a PM on the other site lol)

so i pop in ROTJ and my son is GLUED. i seriously dont think he even blinked. he was so glad when Han was free from the carbonite (he even knew it was Leia in the bounty hunter costume?! before she took off the helmet!)
anyway, he LOVES ROTJ, exlaiming "Dad thats my FAVORITE one! can we watch that every day?!" i had a good laugh and looked at his poor mother (calls them my nerd movies) "no son, not every day. but we can watch it again soon."
he spent the rest of his evening running around in the backyard calling his twin sister "Leia" and attacking an imaginary vader with a cheap telescoping hasbro saber. i brought out my joe jedi and MR Obi and said "wanna use these?" "no dad cuz if i drop it i dont want to mess it up"
such a good little dude. told him how thoughtful that was and gave him a hug.

then i told him "you want me to build you a saber for your birthday?" (he knows i build them but understands the expensive stuff is mine)
his eyes got huge and he said "YEAH! can it change colors?!" "yep!" i think i will just go with JST's and several LED Modules with proper resistors soldered between the JST and LED.

so it gets around that i build sabers at work, too. i'm in the navy and i work in communications (both radio and network) so you can imagine the fellow nerds i work with
i have been telling one guy in particular for almost a year now to find himself a broken vader MR FX so i can gut it and install a PC and single LED conversion. he is totally onboard, just needs to find himself one.
i also offered to build one for one of the civillian's kids. but he's big into baseball and said he would rather have a nice bat lol i was just gonna do a basic MHS with econo sound.
but yeah i get the questions
- do they really cut stuff?
- does the blade extend out?
- do they make sounds?
- how the heck do you build them?! out of what?!

good times. i cant wait for my kids friends to come over and find out. hopefully thier parents dont pass out when i tell them how much an average saber costs hahahaha!

[Lord Dottore Matto]

LOL, dude that is great! It is so cool how the little guys just are completely fascinated with them.