Kallah Ramson

"Do a little Dance, Make a little Love, Get Down tonight...Get Down Tonight" -or- "...in other news, the Mantis Burglar was arrested early this morning..."

For a series where the Federation has fallen, you want Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. Yes, that series wasn't based in the "Trek" universe but the idea was the same. The utopian society had fallen with only a few remnants fighting against chaos.

Star Trek Variety Hour! Honest. Actually, I've thought about this for awhile. Star Trek: Universes. Each script follows a different crew, ship, station, whatever. Most would probably be just one episode deals with the occasion story arc spanning 2 or 3 episodes. One week might be a TOS time period, then TNG, then Enterprise era Klingon, Post Voyager Borg, TOS Mirror Romulan resistance front, whatever. Advantages, you get to use a lot of existing Trek history and locations. Also, you change the cast so no one starts asking for some huge paycheck. Money you save that way you dump into some big name guest stars and pulling together old cast. Wanna see just ONE more Enterprise episode...okay. Wanna see what DS9 has been up to, got it. All those aspects and characters of Trek who will never see a movie... here's there chance. (I've always thought DS9 should have done what Alien Nation did and start doing TV mini-series ever so often). Heck, if you want to have a REALLY cheap week, run a contest for the best Fan Film and show it.

Has anyone seen my tiger?

Immortals from The Highlander movies and TV series. Can't die unless they're beheaded and if they are by another Immortal then there's a big lighting light show and the surviving Immortal gets all buffed from it and such.

I think Trekkie is the term first used by others to describe Star Trek fans. Then geeks got indignant as only geeks can and insisted that they be called Trekkers. Then everyone else went, yeah, whatever. So, Trekkie has been the more enduring label. As for Sith/Immortal; Sith have to be trained while Immortals are born randomly. Sith have to come from those who are "strong with the force" but slip past the Jedi Midi-chlorians screening (or go rogue afterwards without being noticed). Immortals, you've chopped your last neck and some Highland brat is clawing his way outta a grave and now ya gotta go kill another one.

It takes a special drill bit to do glass safely. You can use a masonry bit but it's tricky and not for novices to try, unless you have alot of extra glass to practice with. I'm good a cutting glass. I can cut off 1/16th of an inch if I have to. But drilling into glass I want no part in and haven't had to do anyways so I've not learned all the tricks to that. If you're wanting the look of the glass on the surface and no trim on it's edges then plexiglas is probably a better bet. You can drill into plexi with little to no problems, as far as I'm aware. With glass it's better to have it inset and trim around to hold it in place. You can also go to the hardware store and look at mirror clips or hardware for glass shower enclosures. There's a lot of surface mounted things where you don't have to drill holes. NOW, if you're going to have the glass or plexiglas not trimmed on the edge then you have to remember that you now have sharp edges out eagerly awaiting their chance to slice off a couple layers of skin of anyone who dares brush against your case. Here plexi can be better cause you can take sandpaper to the edge and get rid of the sharp edges. You can try the same with glass but it gets to be more of a pain than it's worth.

Seeing that I'm in the window business I think I can help here. Cutting Plexiglas 101. Easiest way, ask them to cut it to size when buying from Lowes or Home Depot. I worked for Lowes for a year and I did it all the time. And, at Lowes if anyone gives you any grief about cutting it just ask to talk to a manager. If you get the right shift manager they'll give you half the store for free if you act ticked off enough. But anyway. Cutting it yourself: You'll need a good solid straight edge, a sharp razor knife, and the Plexiglas. Set the plexi down flat. Lay straight edge where you want it cut. Run the razor knife along the straight edge repeatedly. CUT AWAY FROM YOURSELF, unless you really know what you're doing and if that's the case then YOU'RE CUTTING AWAY FROM YOURSELF ANYWAYS. At most cut from side to side. Cut a lot. Once there's a nice groove in it there are several ways to "pop" it. Basically you just want to apply quick pressure along the groove to snap it in two. Laying it on a flat table with the smaller portion hanging over works. Setting a narrow board under it along the groove works too. My personal preference is to grab it on either side of the groove and knee it really hard right along the cut. Be advised this will really start to hurt if you have a lot of cutting to do. The best advice it to go watch someone do it at Lowes or Home Depot on the machine they have. If you get the general idea of what they're doing and how it works then just go from there. If you don't understand then admit failure and don't try it yourself. No need applying for any Darwin Awards. Honestly, glass is easier and in same ways safer to cut than plexi. A glasscutter is not that expensive and is not going to cut you like a razor knife or such that you need to cut plexi. It takes a lot less effort to "pop" glass so you don't find yourself having to "pop" the plexi with a hammer or other large object after your knee has gone numb or other methods have failed. And, freshly cut plexi is just about as likely to cut you as glass...and it hurts just the same or more. So, reviewing the basics. Cut a deep groove. Pop it quick. Don't give it time to think about breaking anywhere but the nice deep channel you've provided for it. And last but not least, Don't blame me if you hurt yourself.

Canon characters make for good spice to a storyline but having one as regular crew could get tricky. It depends alot on how well the player can pull it off. Having been on station sims so much I'm surprised I've not seen more canon characters stroll through. I think I remember Picard showing up in a Holloway log and he was played realistically there. I've also seen a billion Vulcan ensigns who's bios state they were sponsored through the academy by Spock. That got a little much. Guess that's another question, is it a good idea or not to have familiar ties with canon characters? On a Romulan sim one person's character was the son of Commander Tomalak. That worked out better than I was expecting. And of course there's been many times it hasn't worked out very well and the player would eventually "re-roll" their character.

That's not what I said, at all. I in fact felt the log in question was what was closing participation. But if the GM approved it then it's a mute point. On the broader and main subject of this thread, I think cross sim interaction is good as long as the simmers are active in both sims. My opinion.

This comes back to what started this post, a Romulan Ambassador who's not on the current Aegis roster and who I've only seen there maybe once when I was playing the Gorn Ambassador (though I guess showed up more after I left) wrote a log explaining the absence of Romulans on the station. Thusly, it seemed that events from another sim were being introduced as canon for Aegis even though the player of the Romulan did not have to live with the consequences of these new "facts". So, if someone wants to take a Romulan role they either have to explain away this other log or totally ignore it. Either way, it's then hard to keep everyone on the same page about the facts and that's what canon is all about. And yes, there was nothing so life changing in the Ambassador's log that can't be easily dealt with. But, it is better to leave the matter blank and let it be decided by the GMs and those active in the sim. And personally, since I've hinted to the GMs that I'd be willing to take a Romulan role in addition to playing Kith this seemed a jab in my side about plans I was considering, or perhaps plans others were making. I can only speak about myself on that... I only play a telepath, haven't quite worked all the bugs out of it in RL.

I think it's good for depth of detail in a sim but bad for people who are unaware of those details. Random example say you came and joined Excal and decided your character came from T-Rogoran in the Gamma quad. Oops, sorry...we blew that planet up (or something to that effect). What do you do then? Another example say you like the Romulans but know nothing about the Rihannsu books. While the depth of detail given in the books is a great source to draw from how equally insane can it make you at first trying to figure what people are talking about. (I've simmed Rihannsu for nearly 13 years and I still HATE the language and have NO idea what the name for most of the ranks are, and want to flat out SHOOT some people who over use it, and...I digress.) So, there's no real answer to this except what's best for the involved players. If you're in multiple sims and want to tie them together then okay. If you're not on the active roster of a sim then it's best to keep what's going on in your other sims IN those sims.

Where's "middle"? I'm in Dallas but I don't know of any regular conventions around here. If we slide a little from Sci-fi to fantasy there's a HUGE RenFest near here going on for the next month. I have seen someone out there in a Star Trek uniform before. Poor guy, even the guy with the trash can lid armor was looking at him funny.

Don't buy the original TOS, just go to cbs.com and watch the episodes there. All of the Remastered episodes have not been released yet even on TV so it'll be a little bit before you could get all of them on downloads or such. Between the free availability of the "original" Original and the quality and faithfulness of the Remastered... I'd say if ya gotta have something buy the Remastered.

It's been years and years since I've been to that con. Too bad I've already taken my vacation for the year. It was fun the one time just walking into the little bar area and there's Neelix (Ethan Phillips) and Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) talking and having drinks with everyone else. The Hampton Inn near there was a good place to stay, atleast it was 10 to 12 years ago.

The last Klingon/Vulcan I had any dealings with I had to shoot. Might I recommend a controlled rage. Delight in the fine details of combat moves and techniques. Use the Vulcan part to perfect every move, every navigation, every killing thrust. That should be enough to make most Vulcans a little uneasy. But keep the emotions bottled up and do your actions with little unneeded flair and done calmly and coldly. Engaging in combat logically rather than by any code of honor should be enough to turn the Klingons against you. And don't attack a superior officer. That will get you... shot.

The point in which the mother decided not to bother with a college fund.

"Here's your coffe....oh, never mind."

Well, I was hoping for more from this one but I guess I'd better call a winner and get things moving along. I give the win to MisterSmith for going with what was my main question. And any who was wondering, this was a pic from the 1980's movie Flash Gordon.

I think Gore counts as an emotionless stiff as VP, even if he did go all space hippy in his older age. And Channey has enough spare parts would he atleast count as a cyborg?

Kallah was sitting up in the biobed in sickbay. The steady beat of the monitors behind her was an assuring metronome of life. Typically her well developed Minaran nervous system made her aware of her every vital sign but the numbness she now felt was like a blindness. She was healing quickly but she was more than pleased with laying here under the blanket for a while longer. She had other things to worry about as it was. A computer terminal was pulled up next to the bed and a PADD lay in her lap. The main screen showed the scans of the pilot during the procedure. The PADD had her slowly growing notes on what different readings might be and some possible methods of extracting visual or auditory recordings from them. She also was trying to make sense of her own experiences. The images still burned in her minds. The brain scans seemed to echo what she had experiences but it still didn't make it much clearer. It was like a foreign word repeated over and over in your head to the point that you knew each possible spelling, every pronunciation, the word so clear it was like your own name... yet you still did not know what it ultimately meant. Yet Kallah kept looking and hoping for the one piece which would bring it all into focus. And somehow the symbols marked on all the pilot's chests fit into this grotesque symphony. They meant something important. This was quite disturbing to her since she doubted the message the killers were sending and the one the pilot wished to give her were the same. Or, could they be the same? It was all questions at the moment. She prayed that these scans would at least tell them what questions to ask. For her own sanity she needed to know she had done something to help her pilots, in life or death. And, to temper whatever the Captain's reaction to all this might or might not be. From what little she could sense of his character she felt he was one to boldly cross any boundary placed around him yet quick to chastise anyone else who did likewise. She would worry about that too at a later time. For now she slowly added any notes she could think of as the scans scrolled across the screen. She made sure one note was at the top of the list. "Identify the source of the markings: Shape of the writing device, pressure applied, DNA and other samples not of the pilots, and.... whose blood had been used on each pilot’s chest."

<<I have a pet peeve about logs posted the same day as a sim but I'll break my own rule since something just came to me. >> Was it the key to the mystery? Or, was it simply the pilot named Peter's understanding of what was happening to him? Peter was a history buff. Kallah had met him on a visit to the academy. At the time she was trying to recruit for the fighter wing being attached to Avalon. At the time he wanted nothing but to be a ship's historian and archaeologist. But she knew the spark of those old stories of adventure could lure this promising pilot into the cockpit. She had done just that and when he was available she quickly added him to the roster of the 310th. History now might hold the key. Assigning the message to all currently investigating the pilot's deaths the note went as follows. "Please review attached files and logs pertaining to the USS Farragut circa 2257 and USS Enterprise circa 2268 pertaining to the dikironium cloud creature. Compare the autopsies from their files with those of our pilots to match for similarities in the extraction of blood." "Additionally, I am aware we have encountered primitive Vorta and Jem'Hadar. I am unsure if any research exists in comparing Changling chemical makeup and other shapeshifters, specifically possible primitive subspecies of the Changlings and any relation to the dikironium cloud creature and it's abilities to change it's molecular structure. This may be a wise thing to look into considering our current mission." "Medical, please review the scans performed on pilot Peter Lipscomb. See if any brain readings noted the olfactory sense of a "sweetly sick" smell."

Just about to leave on vacation but luckily one of my favorite websites (www.badmovies.org) gave me a fair one to use. I'll try to keep an eye on this but I may not announce a winner till a week from now.

The natives dressed up in big heads and pale skin as to make the visiting Congressman feel like he'd never left Washington.