It makes me unaccountably sad that I never got to visit Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. Not once in ten years. And next week it’s closing, and after last week’s atrocious car expenses (plus more car expenses to come), it’s just not going to happen. Some fan I am.
So, this has been making the rounds on my LiveJournal friends list. I thought I’d actually do this one, ’cause the results may be surprising.
Here’s the requested obligatory citation:
From Step Into Social Class, an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. This work is copyrighted.
And my answers are tucked away below.
Bold the true statements.
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children’s books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
I suppose if I’m not really sure what lessons mean, these are noes. But if this means instruction outside the chosen school system … it’s definitely no.
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Not to be misleading … it’s neither positive nor negative. Just a face in the crowd.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Hotels? No. Motels or camping? Yes.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
My semi-dad drew and painted, among his other dissolute activities.
23. You and your family lived in a single family house
Often enough to be true
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child.
Only for 5 years in the 18 of the scope
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
I could have had, but I didn’t want to try to rewire the apartment.
27. Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in High School
I bought it myself from a friend who won it in a raffle.
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
I’m not sure IRAs even existed when I was in high school
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
Museums are good, cheap entertainment. Boring to kids, too, most of them.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
I was vaguely aware, but it didn’t rise to the level of importance this implies.
It’s VERY entertaining to plug in my children’s answers to this: the oldest is not yet 14, but she can already double the number of items I had. Both of her parents have finished college, and she has never NOT had her own room … and I don’t even want to talk about the number of books in our household.
1) Discontinue the Mars mission development/planning. Lunar base planning will be revised to follow the priority mission described below.
2) Carry on with development of the Ares I and Ares V launchers and the Orion orbital vehicle. I’m not really thrilled with the Ares design — I think we could do better with original developments rather than funky hybrids of 30- to 40-year-old tech. Keep the Orion capsule design as-is, usable for the lunar missions in future. Alternatively, develop a “light” Orion in parallel which won’t have to take the strain of a reentry from lunar transfer orbit.
3) Develop a mobile utility transfer/tug/service vehicle (Go MUTTS!). Two or three MUTTS will live at ISS, be refueled as needed from Ares V launches boosting fuels. MUTTS will transfer payloads from LEO to GSO, will be equipped with manipulators to perform remote service, and could be used as an auxiliary stage to take astronauts in Orion capsules to GSO for the trickier jobs.
(A high-tech MUTTS might not need liquid fuels, but instead use an ion drive from the Deep Space One probe. This form probably wouldn’t do as an Orion auxiliary stage.)
4) If you read the earlier post, you know that the priority mission is: solar power satellites. We’ll need several ground receiving stations, tied into the power grid — pick your own favorite out-of-the-way spots. And we’ll need a corresponding set of satellites, which can be assembled in GEO with multiple MUTTS trips. Powersat structures will be kilometers across… which is why this has to be priority one, ’cause it’s going to take much, much longer.
5) Science flights should just keep on doin’ what they’re doin’, except more of it. I’d want to triple or quadruple the available resources for probes, landers, and observatories.
1) MUCH smaller than I expected, somewhat smaller in volume than a basic cellphone. Judging by the pictures at the website earlier this year, this is a new redesign, the third (I believe) for the product.
2) New bonus feature: Spring-reel belt clip for the launch key. Nice, nice touch.
3) A couple points on the construction concern me, but I’ll know more about those after I actually use this to fly with.
On Wednesday morning (yes it was busy, thank you!), I dropped off the Honda Accord for repairs and made my way over to my favorite car rental agency for a loaner-that-I-pay-for. “I see you have a reservation for an economy car,” the counter agent said.
I nodded. “Yup!”
“I don’t suppose,” said the agent, sotto voce, “that I could interest you in a pickup?”
Gas prices being what they are, I guess, but they were out of economy cars. It works out to a free upgrade of the vehicle, with a slight downside that I’ll have to put more gasoline in it when I bring it back. But I’m just commuting to work for a few days, not road-tripping or anything.
“Sure,” I said, smiling. “I can help you out with that.”
The next decision was not made nearly as rationally: Ford F-150, or Nissan Titan? I drove a little Nissan D-21 truck for years … but I grew up on, in, and around my grandmother’s F-100 … so that’s where I leaned. Swiped the card, grabbed the papers, went over to the pick-up area, and I discovered I’d rented a rolling Spacedock. Four-door crew cab that I need a ladder to get into, enough legroom to park my Honda in, plus the usual other bells and whistles that go with a contemporary truck with most of the options loaded in.
It dawned on me as I was driving to work at midday … I have a truck! I should do things with it! I have some stuff that needs to go to the landfill… maybe the girls would like to ride up to the lake, since they’ll have a better view… so much for the resolution to drive it as little as possible. I still don’t want to drive it much, ’cause it’s HYOOJ and I hate having to plan my driving maneuvers around parking a pocket battleship.
I did some research after I got home, and was gratified to discover my impulse wasn’t totally awful: the F-150 has better EPA mileage ratings than the Titan. If these were only a bit smaller, a bit stingier of fuel … this could be useful.
The Lady of the Manor was staring at a layoff at the end of September. It looks instead like she’ll be accepting a different position in the same state agency. The transfer is not without risks, but the pay at entry is the same as she was making after over two decades in the other track; there is modest potential for advancement (and we’re all about modest); and … I can’t even imagine typing this … it’s weekdays during normal business hours.
Let that soak in for a minute: for the first time in our fourteen-year relationship, The Lady and I will have the same hours and the same days off. The Lady (now in an administration position) will have state and Federal holidays off. We can take family trips on the weekends. We can attend Sunday services as a family (and not fall asleep). I can occasionally sneak away on a Saturday to play games or fly rockets without hiring a babysitter.
My life just gets more and more … normal. And it’s welcome, really, although there are still plenty of times I get wistful for my old, weird life.
On Wednesday morning I bought a much-overdue replacement face mask for my CPAP device. I think it had been nearly a year since I bought one, and I was amused/alarmed to see how much the headgear material had stretched.
On Friday morning, the Lady of the Manor observed that I was sleeping better with the new mask. Which I’d actually noticed myself.
So, the problem with the fitful sleep is over, and no risky drugs were ingested in the making of this discovery. Lesson learned: do what the respiratory technicians say: wash the face mask in gentle soap and warm water at least once a week, and replace the face mask every six months or so. (Which will be easy to remember, now: it’s on the same schedule as my regular dental check-up.)
Reflecting on the unsurprising news that NASA isn’t receiving the funds or support it needs to make an earlier manned launch date for the Orion-Ares I configuration, and speculating on how we went from first satellite to man on the moon in just over 11 years. We need now what they had then: an audacious goal, a tight but doable timeframe (and if Apollo 1 had actually worked first time out, we’d've beat the end of the decade even better than we did), support from the conservative side, which feared the Soviet threat, and support from the progressive side, which had a view to the broader benefit of a benign shove of the tech level.
I can think of one space project … just one … that might garner the same broad support, though for different reasons: a commitment to the elimination of fossil fuels (and maybe even nuclear fuels) in the power grid via deployment of a network of solar power satellites.
This should be a no-brainer. Solar power is plentiful and not going to run out for a few billion years. Oil and coal are DONE — we keep hauling it up and shipping it around ’cause it’s what we’ve done for more than a century, but a) they can’t last forever and b) the way we use it does harm to our environment, from acid rain to global warming. This would have support from the economic security types and from the tellers of inconvenient truths.
Easy and cheap solution? Heck, no. It means a huge investment in new energy infrastructure, in launch capacity, the satellites themselves, some sort of on-orbit repair capability … and that’s just the basics. Is it economical compared to current energy? No. Will it be? Once the initial investment is done, oh, yes. Complete elimination of oil? Alas, no. Oil will still be needed as a lubricant, and as a raw material, and maybe as the base for motor vehicle fuel (tho’ cheap plentiful clean electricity will be a solid incentive for the plug-in folks).
Have I done enough damage to the military-industrial complex yet? The auto industry was ruined before I got here, so I won’t take blame for that one. Ditto for oil shipping, though I daresay oil usage won’t go away overnight — one word: plastics. Guess what, kiddies. It’s time to be building a new world anyway. Start now, or start later (if we live that long). I believe it could work, and I’m not the only one.
I might go without saying, given what went before, but I’ll say it anyway. My favorite series and cast is the original. NextGen I like well enough, but the other characters of the other shows never interested me. And even NextGen had gaps — it felt to me like there were perhaps only three characters sufficiently fleshed out to be fully engaging. The rest were nice but … thin. I’m not sure why this would be. Clarity, perhaps. Heaven knows the original series started out as stereotypes and didn’t really go too much farther … but maybe that just makes the characters easier to understand and attach to. NextGen characters didn’t necessarily start as stereotypes and required that much more work to get to a level where one could anticipate a given character’s reaction.
Anyway, that’s where I am. Favorite movies with this cast? In order, Wrath of Khan, The Motion Picture, The Search for Spock, the Undiscovered Country, The Voyage Home. I’m not going to even sully my blog by naming the other. Folks may wonder why I rate IV so low. Two words: time travel cliches. And I’m sure other folks wonder why I rate TMP so high. Again, two words: Enterprise; Goldsmith. (And there’s really only one other movie ever worth mentioning: First Contact.)
Favorite Enterprise? VERY difficult. Well, not very difficult — anything after Enterprise-A loses (or before Constitution-class). So it comes to Original or Refit. THAT’s difficult, especially after the classic’s Remastered make-over. I’m going with the Refit, but it’s a very near thing. Very near. I think it’s the movie sets that carry it for me … they feel more like a starship interior to me.
Favorite music: Goldsmith theme from ST I, V, etc. But you knew that from an earlier post. Horner (II, III) a close second.
Favorite non-classic character? That’s a toss-up between Q and Data. And I won’t pick (tho’ Brent Spiner gets the kudos for the more challenging performance).
I’m going to keep this brief. I don’t feel like blathering about it, but I do want to get it off my chest.
I went for over a decade insisting I had no favorites in Star Trek: no favorite characters, ’cause I really liked them all. Several episodes I liked best, some I disliked … but no single favorite.
In 1984, I discovered what my favorite was. I discovered this, like many people, by watching it get destroyed. My actual favorite “character” was the Starship Enterprise, and the ideals she represented.
In 1986, I found a favorite performer: Mark Lenard as Sarek. This had not much to do with my “brush with greatness” moment with him at the 20th Anniversary Convention in Anaheim, but more to do with his delivery in Star Trek IV, and later in NextGen.
If I have to pick a favorite character from the original regular cast now … well, there’s no question. I still cherish all the performances dearly … Kelley’s carefully underplayed but perfectly humanitarian McCoy, the cool competence of Doohan’s Scott… and all the rest. Nimoy and Shatner go without saying, of course. But I’m lead backwards in time, to when I first was being exposed to Star Trek. I was the new kid in school, lowest in the social pecking order, but gaining friends. So when we played Star Trek and created a bridge under the geodesic climbing dome on the playground, I was put in the right hand seat on the pilot’s console. I was Chekov, whatever a Chekov was — I hadn’t seen him on TV yet.
But over time, too many things add up and I have to accept Chekov as my Star Trek analog: love to fly, not necessarily to be in charge; I share a first name with the actor; I have a wife who loves that first name and for whom Chekov is the favorite; I have a streak of that dark humor for which Chekov is famous; I love learning and making myself more versatile, as Chekov showed in frequently filling in for Spock at the science station, and then moving into Security and Tactical; oh, and we’re both only children. It might even have subtly influenced my attempt to learn the Russian language in college.
And it only adds to the warmth to savor the other successes Walter Koenig has put on his resume, including the cheerfully chilling turn as Babylon-5′s recurring telepathic adversary Bester. Plus he’s written books, plays, continued performing… for all its ups and downs, it looks like a pretty good life to me. (Mine doesn’t look too bad, either, dissolute and chaotic as its been.)
So, here’s to the Starship Enterprise, actor Mark Lenard, and character Pavel Chekov. If utterly forced, they’ll be my picks for top favorites in the Star Trek universe.