TK-1800 is Rome Ohnui, a heavy-metal loving, guitar and bass playing, hockey watching, sci-fi geek born and raised in Boston, MA and residing in the Detroit area of Michigan. And that's me: the
Star Wars Nerd Rock-n-Roll Technogeek Hockey Freak.
Star Wars Nerd
Although the Star Wars movies weren't the first movies of my earliest recollections, they are the ones that have had the most impact.
"The Empire Strikes Back" was my version of a sci-fi thriller, much like "Aliens" was when I was older. It was dark, it was tragic, and
it got to me. But as Luke and Leia stood at the viewport of the medical frigate, silently vowing to rescue Han Solo, the end theme kicked
on and filled me with hope that they would triumph in the end.
And that's how I got hooked on "Star Wars" (and music, but that's a different story for the next section).
Feeding my love of sci-fi, I joined the 501st Legion in April of 2004. A fan of combat
aircraft since I was a child, my first Star Wars costume therefore was that of the TIE fighter pilot. But soon the "rock star" bug bit me
and the ever-classic Stormtrooper costume joined my collection.
In 2005, I was elected the squad leader of Michigan Squad, a subdivision of the 501st. The year filled quickly with events and appearances
as the new movie, "Revenge of the Sith", opened worldwide and put Star Wars back on the front pages again. We participated in more events
by the first half of 2005 than we had in all of 2004.
In 2006, I moved up to the Legion level and took the position of Captain of the Guard -- a fancy way of saying "rules enforcer and dispute
arbitrator." It became my job to make sure that disputes were settled fairly and that new regional units formed in the Legion throughout
the world had all the support they needed to take part in our collective hobby.
TK-1800's Tours of Duty >>>
Rock-n-Roll
I'm a hobbyist musician. I first picked up the guitar in 1988 out of sheer boredom. Although I never got to fulfill any rock-star fantasies
in the music world, I did achieve a miniscule amount of notoriety playing in an acoustic-folk-rock band at my local Renaissance Faire after
numerous incomplete metal bands playing out of living rooms, basements, and garages.
(which was unfortunate as well as ironic, since a condition of my joining that band was that we not become a Renaissance Faire band....)
For two years, though, I played bass and even recorded an album. But the melodrama of being in a band with different goals and ideals among
the members wore on me quickly enough and I left that band, never to join another again. I satisfied myself by working on solo projects
for the sake of doing something musically that didn't have to cater to anyone else's tastes or whims but my own.
That is, until early 2006 when one of my fellow 501st members relentlessly hounded me into picking up my bass and joining him and his
guitar player for some casual jamming. So, with the best bass guitar that nobody has ever heard of -- the Conklin -- I headed to the guitar
player's house and we started cranking out classic rock covers.
Technogeek
I am a professional computer technician, one of the least glamorous jobs in the information technology field. At least, that's what the
classified ads and college course catalogs would have one believe. I am the mechanic who fixes the computers. There are many more
people with similar skillsets, but a significantly lower number of available jobs for a decent amount of pay in this field, so I am very
lucky to have this job.
I have been dabbling in Web-based database design over the last year or so. Advancing these skills has been slow-going, since my day-job
just requires my hands to be fixing computers and troubleshooting software problems rather than designing databases and applications.
But involvement in the 501st at least allows me some measure of practice while working on the Web sites for various Star Wars costume
groups.
I'm proficient on both the Windows and Mac sides. An Apple Certified tech, but my heart lies on the MS side. Sorry. It just works, and
Macs aren't nearly as immune to problems as popularly believed. In the end, they're all computers, they break, and they provide me income
because they do.
Hockey Freak
The one sport that catches my obsession is
hockey. I follow it. I crave it. I obsess over its stats. I grew despondent as the lock-out raged on.
My hockey appreciation began when I was young, as a child in Boston and watching the old ghosts of Boston Gardens. The appreciation didn't
become an obsession until early 1996 as the Red Wings furor began to grow in Detroit. The obsession took root as statistics jumped out
from every source, and even as the Red Wings won multiple Stanley Cup championships, I began to follow teams throughout the league and
even in the minors.
For a long time, I managed to keep a streak alive -- that of attending at least one Red Wings game per season. The popularity of the Red
Wings in Detroit makes it nearly impossible to attend more than one game because of cost and availability.
I've also managed to catch the three different types of professional hockey -- preseason, regular season, and playoffs. The one playoff
game I attended was magical. It was in the 2003-04 season, first round, first game. The Red Wings were hosting the Nashville Predators (a
series the Red Wings would win only to lose to Calgary in the next round), and upon arriving, I saw that each seat in Joe Louis Arena
had a white towel draped over its back - a hockey souvenir. The energy in the crowd was palpable, and every tense goal the Wings
scored was met with a thunderous cacophony. I imagine that sort of enthusiasm can only be exceeded by the final game of the championship
round.
