Trek @ MindSay

Greetings:  Welcome to my spot on Mindsay.  Live long and prosper.

 

TRCP Alliance:    http://3radcatsproductions.com

I had a small christmas bettle visit me at work last night. It was toddling around on the ground (as only the christmas bettle can) and I almost moped it up! I haven't seens a christmas bettle since last year and before that it had been many many years since I'd seen one. I like christmas bettles, considering they only come out at christmas and on teh odd occasion random times of the year where I'll see a small one running about. I haven't seen a large one in over 10 years though. It's a shame they arn't around in masses like they used to be. Once upon a time they used to flood the street lights by the hundreds at night and you'd always have them rolling around on the ground when they got stuck on their backs. Funny little things they were.

 

In other news I think last night I came up with some rather interesting ideas and news. For those of you who haven't heard, research has recently shown that PMS may not be restricted to a short time before the menstrual cycle but may infact be an all-month thing. Figures I suppose, makes sense too :P. Also apparantly women experience over 150 physical and emotional symptoms related to PMS and if that isn't enough, women who feel in control of their lives and not dictated by luck and fate are less affected by PMS. See Article Here.

 

As for my ideas that I came up with last night, especially with all my worrying that I've been doing about what will happen to me in a months time, I think I know what I'm going to do. As of the beginning of January and end of december at the latest, I am going to be alone in this house and I either have to get a full time job to pay for rent and bills (like the rest of humanity), find another housemate or (sooner or later) move out. So what I propose is this, I want to join teh Army Reserves, naturally my parents don't want me to and that's fair enough. People get shot in the army you know, especially with idiots in charge of whole countries. So in hind sight I devised a cunning, clever and utmost best solution I could. I'll go on outward bound. Again.

 

The outward bound course, summit to sea is meant to be one of the greatest treks a person can make and considering it spans over 26 days and you cross through three states in that time I can only imagine it's true. You travel with a whole group of like-minded aventure seekers starting from the heighest mountain in Australia and ending on the Victorian coast, Summit to Sea. It's the most challenging course Outward Bound offers.

 

It sounds a bit random but here's the beautiful thing (other then the land through which it takes place),  it starts on the 12th of January and finishes on the 6th of Feb. So instead of having to find a new housemate, move house or start full time work, I can stash my stuff at one of my mums or dads house and go on a month long tour of adventure. A challenging holiday away from electronics and the fast paced technological world. I've done an outward bound course before with my old school, it ran for 12 days. The last 12 day course my school ever did with Outward Bound. The new versions are a much softer 10 days with luxurious rafts to glide down rivers instead of fibre-glass canoes that are more like floating logs.

 

My plan is then, after I come home feeling exercied, fresh aired and hopefully with some sort of self-accomplishment and a probably slightly altered personality, join the army reserve and get into the driver and logistics areas so I can go on the 28 day driving course. I'm sure I've covered this in another entry so I won't continue.

 

Of course there's a catch, apart from not seeing friends family of familiar places for just under a month, the cost. The Outward Bound course will cost me just under $4000, but theoretically I'll gain life experiences and invaluable other skills and personal attributes, it's something I really need to decide this week and discuss with my parental units. There are only a few places left in the course and the things I'll gain out there...

 

... and now I think about the money... what's $4000 in the grand scheme of things? I see people my age with new cars costing $15000+  and when I compare that with spending $4000 for a 26 day adventure that will leave me with life memories... as opposed to a wallet-draining-coffin-resembling-licence-to-kill rust attracter... the monetary factor seems to slink quietly away like evil cartoon characters in defeat.

 

To Adventure.

 

-- Lory 

As a fan of Star Trek, I can't help but notice many of the recurring themes and plot devices used by the franchise throughout its history.  Here, I have compiled a short list of common quirks and cliches of the Star Trek Universe.

1. Ships, weapons, and warp drives make all kinds of racket despite being in a vacuum.
2. Obscure jazz and classical works have survived the last 400 years and have become popular, while rock 'n roll, rap, and reggae have not.
3. No one has composed any new musical pieces since the 20th century.  All humans listen to jazz and classical music exclusively
4. Randomly pushing buttons on an ancient alien console you know nothing about will always result in the strange ancient alien device doing what you want it to do
5. Time it takes to learn how to pilot a shuttlecraft: about 1 year.  Time it takes to learn how to pilot an alien shuttlecraft you know nothing about and are hijacking to save the captain: 15 seconds.
6. In order to be a truly legendary captain, you must fight a strange alien captain on an unknown desert planet for the amusement of powerful, omnipotent energy beings.  Extra credit if the alien captain is ten times stronger, yet much slower and stupider, than you are.
7. Reversing the polarity is always the solution....always
8. The deflector dish will never break down despite the amount of abuse it is put through by captains who constantly reverse its polarity and use it to close wormholes, rifts in the space-time-continuum, travel through time, or blow up stars
9. Although english has changed drastically in the last 400 years, 400 years from now it will not have changed one bit.
10. A member of a race that is neither male nor female will without fail sleep with Commander Riker
11. A Federation starship can cruise through a planet's atmosphere at high speeds despite having the aerodynamics of a bar stool.
12. There are no restroom facilities on star ships.  Pooping and showering no longer happens in the 24th century.
13. Despite having pissed off an innumerable amount of hostile alien species, no one has wiped Ferenginar off the face of the galaxy.
14. Traveling back in time requires falling into a borg time-rift or slingshotting around the sun at warp 10.  Getting back is such a trivially easy matter it bears absolutely no explanation in the plot.
15. Space ships make banking turns like world war II fighters despite the complete lack of gravity and air