I want to thank one of the Space Center's greatest fans for the email below containing a piece of original poetry.
Thank you Isabella for taking the time to write and send this, and thank you for your kind comments about the blog. I'm glad you enjoy it.
Mr. W.
Hello Again Mr. Williamson,
I have been keeping my spirits up and I love the Troubadour. You
keep an amazing blog. This email will have to be brief as well. My
bedroom is freezing and the small heater fan isn't doing anything to cut
through the chill, so I plan to go sit by the fire
with my family for a while. I'm glad that you still remember Izzy and
I, and I can't wait until I can do another mission when the space center
reopens. Now, for a fanciful bit of semi-original poetry before I bid
you farewell.
Oh, space camp. How shall I compare thee to a summers day.It is neither brighter, nor more brilliant than the minds who have molded you.With your panels that glitter and engines that fire,We board the ships to the whoosh of transports.We have worlds to save and dreams to create,Warp engines, ACTIVATE!
Isabella
Connor P. sent an update with a few pictures regarding his ideal Space Center.
Mr. Williamson,
Here is the redesign I said I would do for the "ideal" design I sent last week. Not a lot has changed, but I just tried to make it simpler and slightly smaller to fit within the budget better. The main changes are (1) that I combined all the rooms for staff needs into one and (2) that I combined the assembly hall, sleeping quarters, cafeteria, and planetarium into one room. I also tried to make things closer to being to scale, but they are still not perfect.
I
seemed to get better feedback on my ideas when I sent mockups along, so I
did the same thing here. These two pictures follow with the lighting
ideas I have previously suggested (sorry if that is getting old), but
this time they show what that might look like in the Transporter Room
from my design. I decided that it wasn't very smart to send my design
and assume everyone could imagine the same things I could, so that is
the main reason I did these. I am working on a few more mockups of what
some of the simulators in the plan could look like as well.
Also,
I did forget to mention last week that this design draws heavily from
the current layout at Central Elementary. I did that on purpose, because
over the years the Space Center has adapted to that layout, and
therefore, that layout meets many of our needs. That is not to say we
couldn't adapt again to a new layout, but I thought if I simply reworked
some of the issues we had with that layout, it would be simple and
would work very well.
Thanks for being willing to listen to everyone's feedback, including mine!
Transporter Room Normal
Transporter Room Red Alert
Thanks Connor for the thoughtful email and beautiful illustrations. I couldn't think of a cooler looking hallway and lighting system!
The Imaginarium
I'll take the extra crispy.
Remember, your magical ring, found in a few specially marked buckets
Pick up a bucket today.
Eiffel Tower Lamp
A unique staircase in a bookshop.
Magical.
A unique twist on life.
Imagination: A
Maybe not such a good idea??
Imagination: A
A unique mailbox.
A change in perspective.
Ricola Throat Drop Advertisement.
Creativity: A
Everything is better with bacon.
Today, your kitchen. Tomorrow, the World!
This person wonders why he wakes up hungry every morning.
A special something for all our volunteers and staff struggling through their
end of semester college tests.
Imagination: A
I'm trying to figure out what this company does.
Found in the back window of a minivan
A unique way of looking for the perfect soul mate.
I'd be afraid to use this facility.
The back side to my next business card.
The "UP" living room table.
Creativity: A
I've started thinking about the Farpoint Academy posts. They led a friend and I to start writing a series of short stories set there to keep us occupied over the winter break. Naturally, we have spent a lot of time discussing how this system would work. We came up with a few things that I particularly like. Sadly, none of these ideas are very practical, as they are either extremely expensive or scientifically impossible. Or maybe both.
ReplyDeleteThe first was on the phasers. I thought, well, if money wasn't a problem, as I am imagining in this dream scenario, why take away realism by having the staff call the shots? Laser tag could work, but let's face it, it's rather impractical, and a bit absurd. So I thought, what if they shot some kind of liquid that could make a crew member's legs go numb, effectively making them fall down when they are shot? I admit, this idea is absurd, and could never actually happen, but I enjoy the thought of a simulator using not.
Another ridiculous idea is on how to decide what devision crew members are put in. So we came up with this: what if crew members at the beginning of the year are put into some sort of scenario in a simulator and are forced to react to various challenges. How they deal with these problems could indicate what devision they would be best suited for.
Thanks for listening to my completely impractical ideas.
I really like the CAD design of the Transporter room Connor made.
ReplyDeleteThere's one suggestion I'd make, though: more ships with wheelchair access. The only ship at Central with wheelchair access was the Odyssey-and that had only two accessible stations. If, say, the larger ships used ramps, and had doors (that could be designed to look like airlocks) instead of Transporters, wheelchair bound campers wouldn't be as limited in their options.
I thought of an alternative to the proposed hallway sections. If there was something like the gym mats, but more stable, then it would be easy to fold them into shapes for walls and cover.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Conner's design. But how are we going to make the transporter room change according to the mission and ship? If we could combine the first Plan with 9 simulators and Conner's with the transporter room. That would be cool. Of course I will submitting my own ideas soon.
ReplyDeleteFOR BACON!
ReplyDelete