News From the Center, And the Imaginarium

Hello Troops,
We are working our way through day 2 of this year's Leadership Camp.  Leadership Camp is for campers 15 to 17 years old.  There are 34 of them here this week.  This year's Leadership Camp is brought to you by the Center's older staff and volunteers, managed and directed by Megan Warner.  I'm on duty during Leadership Camp but stay out of the picture as much as possible.  This is the staff's responsibility.

Every year I ask the senior staff if they are interested in doing a Leadership Camp.  And for the past several years, they've stepped up to the challenge and sponsored the camp.  What happens if they don't?
There wouldn't be a Leadership Camp.  Again, this is something the staff and volunteers do for our older campers.  I'm busy enough keeping the normal camps running.

Megan is doing a fantastic job with this year's camp.  Granted, there is your usual madhouse behind the simulator walls as the staff and volunteers race back and forth setting up and taking down scenes etc.  But overall it goes remarkably well.  Congratulations to Megan and her awesome staff.

Chelsey Roberts in the Flight Director's Seat

The staff of the Phoenix simulator welcome Chelsey Roberts to their team as the newest Space Center Flight Director.  Chelsey has been training for several years to sit in the sacred Flight Director's chair.  Now her dream is a reality. 

This is James.  James is please to be one of Chelsey's first Second Chairs.  A Second Chair (or IIFX in the Voyager) is the right hand of the Flight Director.  You see James monitoring the crew through the closed circuit television monitors.  You also see a video preview monitor and a computer (behind his head) which monitors every computer station on the ship.

Congratulations Chelsey and welcome to the Space Center's Flight Director's Guild.

Side Note:
I'm listening to radio chatter between the simulators as the campers work through this mission.  It's not an easy flight.  Apparently two of the five ships were taken captive by the Dominion.  The crew's of the Galileo and Phoenix are currently being held in a Dominion prison camp.  They didn't get to eat lunch with the rest of the campers.  They were given sack lunches with NO cookie or string cheese.  You can't expect prisoners of war to be given cookies in their lunches, would you?

From the radio discussion, I'm assuming one or more of the other ships might be considering a rescue of their Starfleet comrades.  This daring rescue will not be easy.  The Dominion "Staff" are aware of their approach.  The camp is armed to the teeth.  There may be casualties  - there always are.

I suggest we brighten our day and leave the news from the Front for now.  Let's focus on few things from the Imaginarium.

     

Are these two Peacocks the same color?

Yes.

 

Your eyes deceive you because of the background field.  There is a good lesson to learn here.  Are we guilty of passing judgement on others based solely on the background of a person, or are we willing to ignore the surroundings and focus completely on who that person is and what have they accomplished?  Do we judge on appearance or character?   

I remember attending a little league football game some years ago.  Our Pleasant Grove team was winning against a heavily favored team from Alpine.  The Alpine coach called a time out.  His team gathered around.  I strained to hear what he had to say to his 'favored' boys.

"Come on boys, we can't let these potato eaters from Pleasant Grove beat us, Can we?"

I live in Pleasant Grove and love potatoes with a passion, so guilty as charged.

His statement wasn't a compliment.  I understood that.   I knew exactly what the coach was saying.  Those of us who live in PG do so because we can't afford to live anywhere else.  I guess from his statement, we can't afford to eat meat either.  We must live on a diet of pure starch and water.

Our boys were being judge not on who they were and what they had  accomplished.  Our boys were being judged solely on their surroundings.

The Alpine Team lost.  I was tempted to find the coach's home and leave a ten pound bag of potatoes on his porch but didn't.  I couldn't afford the gas....  :)

Kingdom Wars

The Dark Knight stretched forth his armored hand to steady the young white knight.  The boy stood perilously close to the edge of a tower, a fall from which he could not recover.  The white knight held fast to the rod. One hand quivered against the cold metal; the other, missing - thanks to the Dark Knight's sword.

"Lucas, stretch forth thy hand.  Let the Purveyor of Death pass this day!" the Dark Knight pleaded.

"Never!" the boy shouted.  He glanced to the dusty road far below.

  
       And More from the Imaginarium....

True, very true. Once in awhile, step out of the corral and 

see what happens.  Don't worry, your comfort zone will always be

waiting.  What do you have to loose?  

Now THIS is where the Magic Happens!

And in closing, I'm passing along this Irish virus.

You're obliged to manually erase your hard drive.

Failure to do so could result in an unlucky visit from our little green fellow here.

Have a Great Weekend.

Mr. W.