Ticonderoga Transmiss ionsSeptember 2014

C a p t a i n ’ s L o g , S t a r d a t e 6 8 0 9 0 . 9

Welcome back to the Ticond-eroga Transmissions! The news-letter has been out of commission for quite a while now, and I ’m glad to see it back. This c an be a great resource for knowledge - in future editions, there will be an-swers for Advots, and suggestions for the Ac ademy A ssessments and Commanding O fficers ’ Exams.

It ’s also a great forum for showing off your talents and con-nec ting with your fellow crew members.

Don’t forget to l ist any sub -missions you’ve made on your duty repor t - at the ver y least, they are wor th ser vice points.

I f you need ideas, check out the newsletter sec tion on the website - there’s a huge l ist of potential submissions.

Remember, too, that they don’t have to be stric tly S tar Trek based. While S tar Trek is what brings us together, it ’s not our only reason to hang out. We all have other passions, and the

newsletter is a great way to re -flec t our diversity of interests.

O n another note, THANK YOU ALL for the fantastic job you did at Fleet D ay. I ’ve received dozens of compliments and kudos for you all.

We did a great job at changing things up for the summer get-together, and I loved the way it worked out.

O n a side note, attendance was close to 70 fleet members, when all was said and done.

We also received a compliment from C lear field city.

We finally got to star t playing the Tico RPG again, and the first session was a lot of fun. If you sti l l want to create a charac ter and join us, please get in touch with Ivan Podw ys, our chief of Tac tic al.

“...And get that fish out of my ready room.”~Captain Jellico

I f you happen to have any photos of this year ’s events, please get them to me ASAP - it ’s t ime to star t putting together our ship’s repor t for the Admiral ’s Banquet in Januar y.

S peaking of the banquet, it ’s coming up fast. Remember that the cost is $10.00 per person, and we will begin collec ting your menu selec tions and money in a couple of months. It ’s always a fun time.

Don’t forget, as well, coming up in Oc tober is our own Oktober-fest par ty. Bring your family rec-

ipe root beer, ginger ale, cream soda, or your favorite commercial brand. (No alcohol - we will be in a public park.)

I hope to see you all soon, and look for ward to seeing you all showing off your various talents in this showc ase.

~ S tark out.

X O ’ s C o r n e rGreeting s , crew. This quarter has been an excit ing one . It ’s been good to see new faces and the Ticondero g a is growing . The shirt proj ec ts are now com-plete . O ur next proj ec t i s the Transporter. I look forward to al l of your help to make this thing happen.

Keep the duty reports coming in . As for you Department C hiefs , look for a name for crewman of the month and bring that name to the next SOM

Announc ement sC lub t -shirts are ready. $10 each for s izes up to XL . $1 per s ize extra for s izes 2XL-5XL . Talk to Dave Stock to order.

Marcus Rosa la s ha s been la id up in the hospita l w ith pneumonia and a bac ter ia l in fec t ion in h i s leg . S end him prayers and good thoughts .

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Activities CalandarS eptember 13th 6pm - RP G Night : Icarus Effec t , Part 2 S eptember 20th 6pm - Game Night : Star Trek Decipher : The Card Game October 4 6pm - RP G Night : Episode 2 October 8 7pm USS Ticonderoga Monthly Meet ing October 11 2pm Oktoberfest Root Beer Party and BB Q October 25 6pm Game Night : R ai lways of the World November 1 6pm RP G Night : Episode 3 : Jemms and Rubble November 12 7pm USS Ticonderoga Monthy Meet ing November 15 Mov ie Night November 29 6pm Game Night : Star Wars Miniatures

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December 1 Newsletter Submiss ions Due December 6 6pm RP G Night : Jemms and Rubble, Part 2 December 10 7pm USS Ticonderoga Monthly Meet ing December 20 6pm Game Night : Space Hulk December 31 Mid-Winter BB Q January 14 7pm USS Ticonderoga Monthly Meet ing

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Fa n X 2 0 1 4

By John Hubenthal Fan X wa s he ld f rom Apri l 16 through 19, 2014. I part ic ipated on the lay- out of the Utah Lego Users Group (ULUG ). My contr i -but ions to the d i splay included a Stay-Puft marshmal low man, about 21 inches or so ta l l , a s torm trooper head mosaic, rock-paper-sc i s -sors- l iz ard-Spock , a 007 mosaic, a br idge of the Enterpri se D including 7 of the ca st , and a capta in’s t r ibute around an old style capta in’s chair. I a l so h id 20 “mini-k i ts”, f rom the Lego v ideo games , around the d i splay.

Even though there may have been more attendees , our booth wa s in a more remote locat ion, near the entrance across f rom the Delta Center, so we never saw the crowds around us that we experienced la st year. I saw most of the c lub members f rom the Ticond-eroga stop by the d i splay.

Wednesday wa s a se t -up day for us . I spent most of that t ime he lping to se t up ta -bles w ith the per imeter sk i rts , plex ig la ss bar-r iers , and c lamping and shimming the tables to get them a s leve l a s poss ible . I ’m a l so of ten recruited to he lp set the Tower of Orthanc in place, due to my he ight and i t s be ing 7 foot ta l l , above the he ight of the table. The “ Back to the Future” char i ty booth enl i sted our he lp to ra i se the backdrop of the courthouse v inyl banner, and offered pic tures w ith the car the next day, but I never took them up on the of-fer.

The vendor pa sses we had weren’t enough to get into the panel s offered , but some got in anyway, perhaps to events that weren’t a s popular or maybe some weren’t looking c lose ly for the w ri st bands . I would have l iked to see the Dorn-Sirt i s one. I ’ve read many Dragon L ance books , whose

authors were in attendance, and wa s reading “ The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson at the t ime, who wa s a l so doing a panel . I wa s a l so a l i t t le d i sappointed that the 501st weren’t doing the droid hunt at th i s event .

I s topped by the autograph tables at d i fferent t imes just so I could see the Next Generat ion ca st f rom a far, but I planned no budget for autographs or photos , and never worked up the ner ve to ta lk to any of them, or by the t ime I d id , they were a l l gone. A custodian at work descr ibed h i s br ie f encoun-ter w ith Patr ick Stewart . He’d a sked “ What ’s next for the capta in?” Response : “ Ret i red ”. That ’s a l l the t ime a l lotted for h im, I ’m sure g iven the crowd and paying customers wait -ing . I arr ived very early at our booth on the off chance ce lebr i t ies would stop by before the v. i .p. hour, but d id so in va in .

A highl ight for me wa s going to say “ h i ” to Roger Jackson, voice of Mo -Jo Jo Jo f rom the Powerpuff Girl s . He wa s grac ious , volun-tar i ly performed hi s voice for me, and looked me in the eye, a sked me my name, and shook my hand . I a sked whether the recording wa s done in an ensemble ( i t wa s) and i f they had trouble “ breaking” w ith laughter during the reading (no -but sometimes had to re - do l ines when you had a lot of l ines to say very fa st -th i s he repl ied in charac ter) . I thanked him for hours of laughter. I wa s on such a h igh f rom that interac t ion, I had trouble ca lm-ing dow n to s leep that n ight . By contra st , Tom K ane, voice of Professor Utonium, d idn’t leave a s g low ing an impress ion. His eyes were a lways looking pa st me to e i ther s ide. From him I learned there were negot iat ions about whether more Powerpuff epi sodes were in the works . I d idn’t know he a l so voiced Yoda in

the C lone wars , or Gandal f in the Lego v ideo game. He d idn’t volunteer any impress ions , or a sk by name or shake my hand . There seemed to be “ barkers” try ing to get k ids to go up and ta lk to them. I wonder i f they found i t worth the i r whi le to be there. I d id hear other posi -t ive reac t ions f rom some youth cosplayers to whom he responded in charac ter : “Girl s ! Where have you been?”

One morning of the event , I arr ived to d i scover a 40” by 40” mosaic a member made, in homage to Angel , for which he planned gett ing a photo w ith James Marsden (Spike) , wa s ly ing f lat , and looked l ike a scrambled s l ide puzzle, and on i t wa s a note : “ S orry-needed chairs . Brought you some back”. Hav -ing forgotten h i s ea se l , Trav i s used one of the fold ing chairs to “prop -up” the mosaic, which i s seated in a wooden f rame. They obv iously under- est imated i t s weight , lost control and dropped i t . I photographed i t a s found and set to puzzl ing out i t s reconstruct ion. Once a l l the loose pieces were in place, i t s t i l l had 60 uncovered studs (which at tear- dow n were found under tables , scattered) .

Saturday evening, C harles Fle icher wa s mostly a lone at h i s table, so I thought I ’d just say “ h i ”. I told h im I ’d seen “ Who Framed Roger R abbit ” 14 t imes in the theater, and had seen i t tw ice in the same day, morning and evening. He took the book I wa s read-ing , and sa id “ I ’m not gonna stea l your book” a s I wa s re luc tant , te l l ing h im i t wa s a l ibrary book—I thought he might try to s ign i t and want money, l ike a Jamaican con-art i st . He opened i t randomly, a sked me to pick a color (red) , then points randomly on the page, scans the pages , then says “ There, I read your book”. He wanted to se l l a p ic ture, sa id he had to g ive me something for see ing the mov ie so many t imes , sa id “make me an offer—but don’t be r id icu lous! ” After tak ing a long moment to choose, th inking of “what i f ”, I saw I had $17 on me, $5 of which wa s intended a s a Hope Kids donat ion. I sa id a s much, and he u l t i -mate ly c la imed the fu l l $17 (normal ly $30) , and sa id “ Let the r ich people donate —the k ids

don’t see any of that money anyway”. His au-tograph wa s interest ing , draw ing a car icature us ing le tters of h i s name.

I d id see Brent Spiner buying f rom a vendor—these tw isty shaped lamps—and clos ing the purcha se w ith a f i s t bump. The Tribune photographed an angry Brent , w ith a capt ion threatening “ I ’ l l cut you ” (un-re lated s ight ing ) .

At the c lose, the Delor ian wa s be ing used to try (unsuccessfu l ly) to dr ive over a remaining port ion of the g iant ba l loon scu lp -ture. It wa s an exhaust ing event !

Building the Ticonderogain Legos

By John Hubenthal

L a st fa l l , a f ter the Comic Con event , I began to take more ser iously the idea of creat ing the starship Ticonderoga out of Lego a s I fe l t i t could be d i splayed at monthly c lub meet ings , a f i t t ing accompaniment to the f lag . A few years before, I successfu l ly created a g lobe, so I ’m fami l iar w ith techniques of making three - dimensional shapes , and I now had the motivat ion to fol low through on a new des ign .

The f i rst s tep in des ign wa s to f ind a good s i lhouette re ference draw ing, then dec ide upon the sca le to be used , and f ina l ly to sketch out the top, s ide, and f ront v iew us ing graph and br ick paper. I wanted i t to be big enough to capture the deta i l s of the shape and form, and I wa s inf luenced by ex i st ing models , but I chose a s l ightly b igger sca le that I fe l t would have a good table top presence. Hav ing acquired large 48 by 48 stud ba seplates prev iously, I sketched out the top v iew s i lhouette us ing t i les . The ship would be just four studs shy of two ba seplates . These ba seplates form pav ing units on the Utah Lego User ’s Group di splay, and probably had the most inf luence of the chosen sca le .

To make a s izeable model , I wanted to acquire the e lements a s economica l ly a s poss ible . As part of a c lub which part ic ipates in 5 annual publ ic d i splays , Lego a l lows us to order e le -ments d i rec t ly on the condit ion that we do not d i scuss pr ic ing and e lements w ith non-part ic i -pat ing members . We are l imited to order ing 85 e lements , chosen f rom a l i s t of ava i lable parts . We make a w ish l i s t and the c lub a s a whole, a s moderated by a chosen amba ssador, comes up w ith the year ’s ava i lable parts to order a s a c lub. There ended up be ing about 8 e lements which I e i ther chose or se lec ted f rom other submiss ions , mostly g rey, to order to he lp make th i s model . In the des ign pha se, I had to choose a l imited number of e lements I fe l t would st i l l l e t me shape the form. My experience in making the g lobe wa s va luable in th i s e ffort , a s I knew what I needed in over- lap, a s wel l a s know ing I needed one -stud-w ide e lements . The l i s t wa s f ina l ized around New Year ’s Day, at which t ime I worked on the prototype, making enough of ha l f of the saucer sec t ion to adequate ly predic t the number of parts I ’d need to order. The resu lt wa s brought to January ’s c lub meet ing to show everyone what I wa s working on.

I had thought that I would have had plenty of t ime to f in i sh the des ign wel l before the parts arr ived , but apparently l i fe happened whi le I wa s doing other th ings , and I had g iven the des ign bare ly a second thought in the meanwhi le . May 17 wa s the count ing day a f ter the order arr ived , and the model wa s completed two weeks later. 27 c lub members part ic ipated in the order, so we had to count out each person’s order f rom the bag of each part in the sh ipment . Most e lements must be ordered in groups of 50 , and I ordered parts in quant i t ies vary ing f rom 200 to 600 mostly. We were told the count should be accurate to +/-2%. I chose parts which I had ordered in h igh quant i t ies to count , and we spread out the overages or shortages . On Sunday, the 18th, I le i sure ly re - counted to ver i f y quant i t ies and organized e lements into stacks for convenience, or poured smal ler e lements into smal l bowls to be on hand for bui ld-ing . The f i rst part I s tarted working on wa s the platter, formed of four layers of plates , which would make the ba se of the saucer sec t ion, and us ing the template of t i les th i s went quickly.

I wa s ner vous about running out of parts , and a l so I wa s uncerta in whether the large overhang would be unsupported and not t ip over. I know f rom experience that proj -ec ts such a s these are quite heavy. My f i rst response wa s to knit the plates and br icks together wel l enough for that internal can-t i levered e ffec t . I then thought about the shows to which I intended to br ing th i s , and whi le some have good parking , I don’t l ike to pay $12 a day for the Sal t Palace, so I end up walk ing a couple blocks , so I needed to bui ld in sec t ions that would f i t the conta iners I ’d use to carry i t . I chose c lear br icks a s support pi l lars and dec ided that would have to do. I s tarted on the “dr ive” sec t ion of the separated model , bui ld ing for ward f rom the a f t shutt le bay. I had bui l t prof i le sec t ions a s a guide to a ss i st w ith the des ign . I th ink th i s sec t ion wa s completed in just a couple of hours .

As I resumed the saucer sec t ion, I wa s aga in confronted w ith my incomplete plans ! I

a l so saw how I had not accounted for some of the deta i l s and features , so I worked on sca l ing the name plate on a t i le , and I happened to have some grey wedges to use. One of these wedg-es wa s not extra , but wa s stolen f rom a C lone War era micro star destroyer. I a l so looked at some other vers ions of Voyager some fans had made to see which deta i l s they considered im-portant to include on the f ront v iew. Lucki ly I could make these features w ith parts that were on hand .

The contours of what I consider to be the “ back of the neck” on the sh ip were another puzzle to solve. In genera l , the sh ip’s shape wa s conce ived by the s ide prof i le def in ing e levat ions which would each bear an ova l on the top v iew. Calcu lus addresses sol ids bui ld of s tacks of f lat shapes , ova l s in th i s example. There i s a t ransi t ion in the back that i s t r ick ier to capture. If I were able to make a c lay scu lpture and s l ice i t into horizonta l sec t ions , w ithout hav ing i t deform by the s l ic ing process , I could capture the cross sec t ion. I took a chance and transi -t ioned f rom concave to convex segments and the resu lt worked wel l enough. I took sec t ions of 5 studs at a t ime, and f rom the w idth and he ight def ined by the schematic, drew smooth tran-s i t ion cur ves , l abe l ing the layers not h idden by the proceeding one. I then bui l t th i s sec t ion a s a three d imensional gu ide template to use to fol low in making the f ina l model . I ’d learned f rom Marianne Asunama that she a lways bui l t a prototype and then made the f ina l model , so she ended up making two, but in her ca se i t wa s necessary because the f ina l wa s a lways g lued .

Once I labe led layers in the top v iew a lphabet ica l ly, i t became ea s ier to def ine transi -t ional leve l s , and the des ign wa s f in i shed a few days before the model wa s completed . I wa s ecstat ic when, the saucer sec t ion not yet be ing 100% complete, a s I se t i t in place, I d i scovered the support ing pi l lars were no longer necessary ! It wa s completed that evening. I a l so hap -pened to have the opportunity to d i splay i t at three separate events before the f i rst debut at a c lub meet ing . It a l so seemed to be an ice breaker for recruit ing ne ighbors who seemed to be very interested in Star Trek . We’ l l see i f they end up coming to a meet ing a f ter a l l !

By Patr ic ia Darby

Part A : First Comes MarriageA Story by Dave Stock

Even Bryan had found i t amazing when the quest ion suddenly popped out of h i s mouth.

“ Wil l you marry me?” He and Teresa had not been dat ing for that long. Hel l , they hadn’t even been *on* a date when the moment h i t h im.

There they had been crawl ing through a j e ff r ies tube, t ry ing to repair damage to the power re lay, when Bryan began th inking about how wel l they worked together, both on and off duty. Thank God Dave had ins i sted that they team up to solve problems!

Anyway, a s they made the i r way across , Bryan had ca sual ly ment ioned the poss ibi l i ty of them spending some shore leave together. Then wham! The words had come out and there had been no way to take them back .

Teresa had stopped , tw isted around to face h im. He had expected her to reac t in one of two ways : e i ther d i smiss the proposa l a s impetuous and cont inue on a s though i t had never been suggested , or f i l l h i s ears w ith a few choice words .

Instead , she responded , “ Yes Bryan. I w i l l agree to that a ff i l i at ion .”

S omething about her response nagged at h im. A voice in the back of h i s mind told h im, he wa s rushing. Teresa wa s st i l l f igur ing out how she f i t into the human universe. Or wa s i t just Ishara Mi l ler admonishing h im every chance she had? “ Bryan, she wa s a Marquis for e ighteen years ! The doctor may have removed her mechanica l parts , but she can’t so ea s i ly shed the emotional l ink to the col lec t ive.”

Although he understood where h i s f r iend wa s coming f rom, the s imple truth wa s that Bryan wa s a l ready hooked . He wa s infatuated w ith Teresa former Marquis , and he d idn’t want to f ight h i s des i re for her. On a smal l s tarship w ith a crew of less than one hundred and f i f ty mov ing in one d irec t ion, h i s choices for a mate were rather s l im.

And he loved Teresa . Didn’t he?

*****

They or ig ina l ly had made plans to have the wedding ceremony in the mess ha l l a s Ishara and Weyl in had done for the i rs . However, The Ticonderoga happened on a welcoming beacon f rom a resort planet know n a s Haldik Prime only days before the wedding ceremony. The s ignal turned out to be much more than a beacon, conta in ing a large data stream of in formation on the plea sures Haldik Prime had to offer, and the couple quickly changed the i r minds about where they wanted to be marr ied .

“ I ’ve of ten thought about be ing marr ied ,” Bryan told h i s best f r iend a s Ishara he lped h im prepare for the ceremony. They were ins ide Ishara and Weyl in’s quarters , whi le Weyl in wa s w ith Teresa , offer ing the br ide a ss i stance. “ But I ’d never ac tua l ly g iven much thought to how I would get marr ied . Why am I so ner vous? I ’ve had weeks to prepare ! ”

“ Bryan, f rom my experience, i t doesn’t matter how l i t t le or long you have to prepare for a

have to prepare for a wedding,” Ishara repl ied . “ The event changes your l i fe forever and that ’s a pretty scary th ing .”

“ Thanks for making me fee l better,” Bryan sa id sarca st ica l ly a s he undid h i s t ie for the th ird t ime. “ Maybe we should have opted for wearing ca sual c lothes to the ceremony. It ’s suppose to be a plea sure planet , anyway.”

Ishara grabbed hi s f r iend by the shoulders and gently spun him around to a ss i st w ith the t ie .

“ When i t ’s a l l over w ith , you ’ l l be g lad you wore th i s monkey su it . Bes ides , th ink about Teresa walk ing dow n that a i s le or rather beach wearing a long white gow n. She’ l l smi le at you , per-haps shed a l i t t le tear.”

“ Teresa?”

“ Don’t underest imate the power of love, Bryan. As she’s walk ing toward you , c los ing the gap between your mutual dest in ies , you may become a bi t emotional yourse l f . But you ’ l l cher i sh the memory of that moment for the rest of your l ives . Not to mention the one of s tr ipping that gow n off her a f ter the ce lebrat ion.”

“ Ishara ! ”

“ Weyl in to Ishara ,” the Ensign’s w i fe came over h i s commbadge. “ Is the groom ready to beam dow n to Haldik Prime?”

“Of course, he i s ,” Ishara repl ied w ith a smirk . “Give us f ive minutes to make i t to the trans-porter room ahead of you . We don’t want the br ide and groom acc identa l ly meet ing in the cor-r idor and j inx ing the i r marr iage. The groom’s ner vous enough.”

“ S o’s the br ide.” When Teresa of Nine had f i rst come aboard Ticonderoga , Weyl in had openly demonstrated mistrust and hatred of the former Marquis , but s ince Teresa and Bryan had started dat ing , the chie f eng ineer had reeva luated her re lat ionship w ith her. Even so, Ishara had been surpri sed when hi s w i fe offered to ser ve a s Teresa’s matron of honor. “Al l r ight . I love you and I ’ l l see you dow n on the planet .”

More to come next t ime.

A Note From the Editor Our newsletter i s back! It ’s a b ig job, but i t ’s been a lot of fun get-t ing th i s put together. I ’d l ike to extend a b ig thank you to everyone who contr ibuted . Your work i s apprec iated . I hope everyone enjoyed th i s brand new, long overdue edit ion of the Ticonderoga Transmis-s ions ! Be sure to catch up w ith us next quatter, and plea se, send in your submiss ions !

Sarah Podwys