o/~ I can feel a change in the wind right now, nothing's in my way... o/~
I've been taking a LOT of my spare time to work out details of setting up a new chapter of StarFleet International, because it's something I've not only done in the distant past (with my step-dad) but something I really believe works towards striving to make the future a better one for all life on this planet. Setting up a chapter takes a lot of effort, and a making it a reality takes a number of people willing to at least put in an hour of time every couple of weeks to a month... that's all. It's something fun to do with people who are creative, intelligent, and positive about the potential of changing the world for the better. It doesn't involve politics or religion... it doesn't have to... because it's sharing in the ultimate dream, the vision of seeing us come together for the betterment of our species and our planet's sake, and trying to make that dream a reality.
One of the more fun aspects of this endeavor has been to just come up with some of the more fun stuff involved. The names for the "ship" our chapter will be known as was something fun to discuss with the few already involved. We did a bit of research for this one, and since it's possible that there's another ship by one of these names out there in the wide world (this is an International association/fan-club, after all) we had to come up with three of them. We don't know if we'll get one of them or not, all three might already be taken, but I'm hoping not. I doubt the first or third of these names is used at all, even by some of the more highly educated members of SFI. But our choices have come down to: Aileron (Latin for Eagle In Flight), Aurora (Latin for Dawn or Sunrise) and Calysto (Minoan - Likely a variant of the Greek "Calypso" - meaning Beautiful One). And having our motto as "Riding the Winds Toward the Future" is just another aspect that makes the first two so appropriate. I'm still trying to figure out why the third one is tied to that motto, though.
We've also had to choose either an existing ship design, or come up with one of our own. While I would have loved to design our own, I don't know that we'll be able to do so, since you need to draw up something akin to blue-print schematics and offer the details of schematic data of the ship's structure; things they wish included are details like overall length, hull strength and composition, number of crew, particular classification of ship, et. al. I loved doing kit-bashing and ship construction details as a kid. My dad thought I'd be an architect or engineer when I grew up. My mathematical learning problems got in the way with that idea, though. So, we've settled for the lovely looking Nova-Class Star Ship, since it's well designed and not as big as the oversized SUV type of craft from TNG that the Galaxy-Class Enterprise D (and others from it's time-frame) was.
Our uniforms are another portion of chapter set-up that was fairly easy to remedy. The icon I'm using for this particular entry is wearing the uniform in question. And Purrzah shows the female version of the uniform in her lj entry from just a couple of days ago. But they're the type taken from the final episode of TNG's "All Good Things" future portion, like can be seen here, or a better image can be found here. They'll be a lot easier to do, since it's a simple, primary colored shirt with black piping along the shoulder line and chest area, which we can do (individually) by purchasing long sleeve tees in the appropriate colors and sizes, and adding cloth-ribbon as the piping ourselves. And the pins for that type of insignia are found pretty inexpensively, as well.
So, that's about all I've been doing aside from applying for (and getting turned down for) various jobs in the region. I'm hoping to be able to get something to pick up soon, but at least this gives me something to keep my mind off of the work issues, for the time that everyone else is working at the daily grindstone.
One of the more fun aspects of this endeavor has been to just come up with some of the more fun stuff involved. The names for the "ship" our chapter will be known as was something fun to discuss with the few already involved. We did a bit of research for this one, and since it's possible that there's another ship by one of these names out there in the wide world (this is an International association/fan-club, after all) we had to come up with three of them. We don't know if we'll get one of them or not, all three might already be taken, but I'm hoping not. I doubt the first or third of these names is used at all, even by some of the more highly educated members of SFI. But our choices have come down to: Aileron (Latin for Eagle In Flight), Aurora (Latin for Dawn or Sunrise) and Calysto (Minoan - Likely a variant of the Greek "Calypso" - meaning Beautiful One). And having our motto as "Riding the Winds Toward the Future" is just another aspect that makes the first two so appropriate. I'm still trying to figure out why the third one is tied to that motto, though.
We've also had to choose either an existing ship design, or come up with one of our own. While I would have loved to design our own, I don't know that we'll be able to do so, since you need to draw up something akin to blue-print schematics and offer the details of schematic data of the ship's structure; things they wish included are details like overall length, hull strength and composition, number of crew, particular classification of ship, et. al. I loved doing kit-bashing and ship construction details as a kid. My dad thought I'd be an architect or engineer when I grew up. My mathematical learning problems got in the way with that idea, though. So, we've settled for the lovely looking Nova-Class Star Ship, since it's well designed and not as big as the oversized SUV type of craft from TNG that the Galaxy-Class Enterprise D (and others from it's time-frame) was.
Our uniforms are another portion of chapter set-up that was fairly easy to remedy. The icon I'm using for this particular entry is wearing the uniform in question. And Purrzah shows the female version of the uniform in her lj entry from just a couple of days ago. But they're the type taken from the final episode of TNG's "All Good Things" future portion, like can be seen here, or a better image can be found here. They'll be a lot easier to do, since it's a simple, primary colored shirt with black piping along the shoulder line and chest area, which we can do (individually) by purchasing long sleeve tees in the appropriate colors and sizes, and adding cloth-ribbon as the piping ourselves. And the pins for that type of insignia are found pretty inexpensively, as well.
So, that's about all I've been doing aside from applying for (and getting turned down for) various jobs in the region. I'm hoping to be able to get something to pick up soon, but at least this gives me something to keep my mind off of the work issues, for the time that everyone else is working at the daily grindstone.