Annoying people with camcorders

Chicago Force had their First Annual Video Scavenger Hunt on October 19, 2002. The primary goal, as always, is to get together with like-minded people and have fun. The secondary goal is to place people in embarrassing situations so we can laugh at them later. Both goals met with spectacular success.

The tasks took the teams all over the city, and ranged from giving speeches in public places to interviewing strangers to trying to get members of law enforcement to participate in skits.

After the video taping, we met up at Bootlegger’s to wind down and watch the videos. The event was well attended, and I think it’s safe to say that everyone involved had a great time.

Taste the sweet goodness of Chicago Force

Chicago Force will be holding a public meeting on October 12, 2002. The meeting will be held at 12:00 PM (Noon) at Zephyr’s Ice Cream Restaurant, located at 1777 W Wilson Ave, Chicago, IL.

Items on the agenda include the Video Scavenger Hunt coming up in two weeks, the IMAX showing of Episode II, and our scheduled attendance at the upcoming conventions.

I apologize for the late notification. Many people have had schedule changes in the past two weeks, and we have been trying to work around them, but we felt it would be better to have a meeting now that some people might have to miss rather than spend weeks trying to schedule a meeting that might never happen.

To get details on any Chicago Force event, simply go to:

http://www.chicagoforce.org/events.asp

Thank you.

Matthew “Hazmatt” Callison

Chicago Force visits the East Troy Electric Train Museum

On October 6, 2002, members of Chicago Force traveled to East Troy, Wisconsin to visit the Electric Train Museum there. The Museum has two working trains, and a warehouse of other restored train cars, many of which came from Chicago.

Those in attendance where Mark “Jodo Kast” Franklin, Phil “Mos Eisleian Radio” Salomon, Thom “Thom Solo” Olsen, Ray “Rex Karrde” Bosques with daughters Leah and Leann, and Matthew “Hazmatt” Callison. We were met by 3 members of the Milwookiee Council from Milwaukee, Wisconson: BYOB Kenobi, Jedi Isadore and Dawn. The Milwookiee people were great sports. We had arranged to meet there at 11:30 AM, but ran a bit late as Jodo Kast guided us through the wilds of north-western Illinois. When we didn’t arrive by the time the 11:30 train was leaving, they boarded and made the trip. We got to East Troy just before they got back and met them as they disembarked. In true fan spirit, they purchased additional tickets and rode the train again, just to be with us. Our hats are off to you, Milwaukee, that was a very cool thing to do.

Now, on to the photos!

OK, the entire time we were sitting at the picnic table, these bees kept harassing us (leading up to the “insect-icide” shown above), and Mark had this little dance he did to fend of the deadly creature that was just hilarious. The problem was, by the time I could get the camera up and switch it to movie mode, he would be done flailing about. I finallly switched to movie and just sat there, camera pointed at Mark. As luck would have it, no more bees stopped by. So when he did this on the train, I just had to capture it, although it isn’t one tenth as funny as the others.