Fine motor skills have always been a challenge for me. When I was 6 or 7, the doctor suggested a craft hobby with small parts that I could practice my dexterity on, and maybe give me practice in focused attention.
So my mom enrolled me in the Revell Young Model Builders Club. Enrolled us, really, since she had to decide which kits to accept and which kits to not. Yes, it was a “kit of the month” club. Hard to imagine in these days of “Bacon of the Month” clubs, isn’t it?
Hard on the heels of the previous post, I’ve made what I think will be the final changes to the EZFudge Final Frontier package. First, I’ve added a cover-sheet/table of contents, so you’ll know what this hodge-podge of pages is all about. Second, I’ve reorganized the hodge-podge of pages so that the reading material is all at the front, and the reference and form material is all at the back. Last but far from least, I threw in a one-page quick-start guide to the character creation rules.
This game now has just about everything I can think of that it needs. 40 pages, 1.7 MB of PDF goodness, still found on the Game Time page. Please enjoy, and let me know how it does for you.
After a lot of reflecting, some of it unexpected, I’ve come to certain understandings about me and Star Trek games.
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Oh, it’s even worse than I thought.
Nerada escapes from the Klingon Prison Planet: “2300 last night”
Lightning Storm delivers Spock Prime to the Neutral Zone “2200 [today]”
Vulcan experiences seismic damage “shortly after [2200 today]
So Vulcan is right next to the Neutral Zone… ow my head.
So, I’ve been wrestling with the timeline in Star Trek (2009). I now realize it’s hopeless, because the production company gave up any grasp of the size of interstellar space in the name of crisp storytelling.
Examples? Oh, bother. If I must. Spoilers hence:
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It’s been another busy and stressful week here, so I’m very sad that I failed to notice that in the middle of it actor Gene Barry passed away. A handsome and talented man, Barry had many successes on stage and screen, and an uncanny number of hit television series. Of course, as a sci-fi fan, it’s his lead role in 1953′s The War of the Worlds that I’ll remember best. Push the button, Frank … Dr. Forrester has left the building.
I have settled on “my primary” canon for classic Star Trek:
– The Original Series, Remastered Edition
– The Animated Series
– The Making of Star Trek by Whitfield and Roddenberry
– The Star Trek Concordance by Trimble
– Inside Star Trek by Solow and Justman
(“My” secondary canon are the films from 1979 to 1991, skipping 1989.)
(“My” tertiary canon are the relevant portions of actors and producers’ memoirs.)
Am I cutting myself off from 40 years of material, some of which is very worthwhile and enriching? Oh, yes, quite. But I’m also cutting myself off from the necessity of trying to view all of Star Trek as a cohesive whole and as a reasonable, viable science fiction setting — which it probably never was .
Does this mean I dislike the laters series’ and other films? No, by no means. They all have their strengths and flaws, just as The Original Series has. But on the whole I prefer the strengths and flaws of The Original Series to any other.
Some readers are probably gasping in horror that I omitted the Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual from my canon. After deep reflection, I find I believe that this book is responsible for the compulsive need to “concretize” the facts and figures of the Star Trek Universe — not a good thing and not consistent with the values of a television show. Oh, some need for consistency is required, but not to the level of detail the Technical Manual provides. I find that level of detail suppresses the spirit of adventure that really is at the heart of Star Trek, the exploration of the universe and of the values and role of humanity in a universe like ours.
Which is all just another way of encouraging the people playtesting EZFudge Final Frontier to let me know what they’re up to and if I can ever expect any comments back from them.
I was up last night at 1:00 AM ET (which isn’t so bad when you’re actually in PT) watching and listening to the space shuttle tanking operations. So I was there (live) when the first report of hydrogen leak issues reappeared, and as they tried assorted work-arounds which I was certain wouldn’t work. I went to bed about a half-hour later.
Remember March 2009: Discovery had the same leak issues. They replaced seals and refitted the connectors, and the problem didn’t return. But they never identified a cause for the problem. That was never found.
Well, now they have a month to thoroughly dig into the problem. I’m confident the root cause will finally be understood and resolved.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard news agencies reporting that this delay to July is required because of “solar flares” or “increased solar activity.” That’s pure crap. For the interested, here’s what’s going on.
It’s easy to think about an orbit as being in the sun half the time, in the shadow of the Earth half the time. But, as usual, reality isn’t that simple. There are many factors: the tilt of your orbit with respect to the Earth, the tilt of the Earth with respect to the sun … even the launch time plays into it. These factors boil down to the beta angle — it’s the angle between your orbit and the incoming sunlight. The higher the beta angle, the more time you’re spending in sunlight on every orbit.
If you’re in low-Earth orbit and in the sun much more than you’re not, then you’re going to start accumulating heat. You just won’t be able to shed it quickly enough in the little time you’re in Earth’s shadow. And of course, if you’re headed for the moon, you’re in the sun ALL the time.
Most spacecraft in this situation operate in a “passive thermal roll” — they slowly spin around their flight axis, so that all parts have the opportunity to dissipate heat in the spacecraft’s shadow. (This is often called “rotisserie mode” for obvious reasons.)
The International Space Station has huge cooling fins (they’re the shiny gold-colored things extending off the structures) to help it shed excess heat. But if a shuttle orbiter is docked, it can’t do a thermal control roll, it’s not connected to the station’s cooling system (too much plumbing work involved), and it will start storing up heat. You’d think in the cold of space that heat would be your friend, but too much heat in places you don’t want it can damage delicate components.
So when the ISS beta angle exceeds 60 degrees … which happens a few times a year … shuttle orbiters cannot be docked there. This situation occurs in early July and will last a couple weeks.
Meanwhile, back at Pad 37, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSS probe have the range all to themselves for the rest of the week. They’ll need it, with high likelihood of afternoon thunderstorms right around the desired launch times.
I picked up a copy of The Making of Star Trek by Whitfield and Roddenberry. This makes the fourth copy of the book that I’ve owned in my thirty-very-odd years as a fan. (It’s the 1991 reprint, nothing to get excited about. The cover is very retro, which I like.) I’ve enjoyed reminding myself of all the interesting behind-the-scenes stories in the book. I’ve also enjoyed reacquainting myself with the Star Trek Universe as it existed in 1968 during the production of the show. This, after all, was the first book to really spark the fandom (with Bjo Trimble’s Concordance next, and the Franz Joseph Technical Manual and blueprints following). (more…)