May The Fourth Be With You

On This Day In History
1990: Electric chair malfunctions in Florida, leading states to change execution methods

Quote Of The Day
"Flames blazed from his head, arcing bright orange with trails of dark smoke. A gigantic, buzzing sound filled the chamber, so deep I felt it inside the bones of my spine."
(Ellen McGarrahan)

Up at 04:00, I knew I wouldn't go back to sleep so I thought, "I'll get up, go to the beach and catch the sunrise with my lightsaber for some cool May 4th blips.

I was going to photograph my R2-D2 as a link to the story I want to share but, on the way back from the beach I saw these pink roses and thought they would make a nice link to the story. You don't know the power of the pink side!

I saw story this on a Japanese TV show last night. A little girl named Katie Johnson, whose father Albin Johnson is the founder of the 501st Legion, was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of seven. Like her father, she was also a big Star Wars fan. When she learned that she was going to die, her father asked her what would be her greatest wish; she answered that she would like to have an R2 unit to watch over her just like Padme did while she was asleep in Attack Of The Clones. So her father found an R2 builders' club and asked for help. It usually takes over a year to build an R2 unit, and Katie didn't have that long to live, so one of the group's founding members, Andy Schwartz, gave his own R2 a makeover by spraying parts of it pink and then shipped it down to Katie's home.

Click on the link to read more about the adventures of R2-KT: The Pink Droid With A Heart Of Gold. R2-KT is now Star Wars canon; the droid has appeared in a Lego Star Wars computer game, a feature length Clone Wars episode, and even appeared in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. R2-KT and the 501st have raised thousands of dollars for charity and paid many visits to hospitals to bring joy to children battling cancer and other illnesses. There are some very cool R2-KT collectibles available, all contributing to the cause of raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation; I'm going to try and track some of these down.

May the fourth be with you.

NBC story about Katie Johnson and R2-KT

The Force Theme - violin version by Jeffrey He