One Week to the School Year Season!

Hello Troops,
The countdown is running. The Space Education Center reopens its doors in seven days for the 2011/2012 school year. Every day I stop by the Center to answer emails and phone calls. The Magellan is still in disarray. The school's custodian will reopen the school on Friday so we can get the upgrades finished and the ships ready for opening. I'm confident our maintenance team will have everything in tip top shape.


Maximilian Fredick Ding is the Imaginarium's Keeper of the Gears and Cogs. Maximilian uses this slow time of the year (while the Space Center is closed) to clean and polish the gears, sprockets and cogs that keep the Imaginarium's machinery running.

"You've no idea how reliant this institution is on the work I do," Maximilian said during his interview for this article. "Without properly functioning thing a mabobs," Maximilian pointed to the walls of gears, cogs and sockets behind him, "everything would grind to a halt. Then where would we be? Yes, answer that one." Maximilian spoke with pride.

The interview went longer than expected. Maximilian paused between each sentence to exercise his pipe.

I pointed to a large gear. "What does this one do?"

"That one runs the timing mechanism in the Whatsa Macallit. A very delicate machine."

"What does it do?" I asked.

Maximilian took a puff from his pipe, thought for a moment and adjusted his red coat. "I'm not at liberty to discuss the workings of our machines. What you can and can't know is up to those that live and work on the top floors." He pointed to the elevator and then upwards. I thanked him for his time. "Yes sir," he answered with a tip of his hat. He left me with the lingering smell of pipe tobacco.

Reading is important to anyone who takes imagination seriously. Wonderland's shops do everything they can to support and encourage reading. They profit because reading increases knowledge, imagination, and the overall sense of wonder and that leads to profits.







The Kendalwoods hope to capture that extra business between 6:00 and 7:00 A.M.

What many people in the world think of Americans. It's funny because we know there is some truth to it.


This will help you if you ever need to find me in a grocery store. I'll be the one camped in this lane. Look for the guy with the electric shopping cart, 44 ounce Gut Buster, machine gun and American Flag. Please keep all open flames away from my oxygen tank.


There is the long way to get to Jupiter (NASA's way) and the short way (the power of imagination).

A warning as you get ready to take math this year.

A sad commentary on modern times.

I'll check in again tomorrow.

Mr. Williamson

Space Center News and a Reported Escape.

URGENT BULLETIN

Two well known Disney characters successfully escaped the Disney Compound in the early hours of the morning through a crudely built tunnel. The tunnel's entrance was found under one of Frontier Land's latrines. The photo above shows the two desperate escapees outside the compound's western wall, moving toward a main road.

"How they got through the electrical fence and mine field confuses me," said one Disney security officer.

Our sources at Disney tell us that Mr. and Mrs. Mouse repeatedly applied for exit visas to visit the second happiest place on Earth in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Each application was denied without explanation. Our sources also tell us that a raid at the Mouse home this morning turned up an illegal wireless computing device.

"Late at night they were visiting a site call 'The Troubadour'," our confidential source told us. "The Troubadour is an online propaganda tool maintained by the Space Education Center. The sight is on our banned list. We also found an illegal duplicating machine and hundreds of copies of articles taken from The Troubadour. They were going to distributed them through the compound."

A warrant for their arrest has been issued. Police are on the lookout at all bus and train stations and at all major airports throughout southern California.

"It has come as a shock to all of us," said one of the Mouse family's handlers (guards). "They were always so happy and friendly, and to think of them as traitors - unthinkable!"

A substantial reward is being offered for the successful capture and return of Mr. and Mrs. Mouse - alive if possible.

Hello Troops,
We've been given strict instructions not, I repeat NOT, to enter the school for any reason barring national defense and the urgent need for the school's nuclear fallout shelter. The orders come from Central School's Office of Physical Facilities and Refuse Management (The custodians). Central's floors are being waxed this week. The only people allowed in the building, except those doing the waxing, are those with the special power of levitation. We mortals who clump along on our own two feet are barred.

This happens once a year just before the school year starts. Yes, its a bit of an inconvenience but imagine the inconvenience the Space Center is on the school's custodians, with hundreds of people in the building all summer long in camps and private missions. Roger (our custodian) has been very patient with us. Besides, no school in the district can match the shine, gloss and shimmer of Central's floors. Our custodians do a great job.

Construction on the Magellan's new brig stopped last night at 10:3o P.M. Kyle, Jon and Nate reported in by telephone. We had a bad connection but I believe they said the job was nearly finished. And there was much rejoicing in the land.

We open one week tomorrow with a day full of private missions. Talk about jumping right into the deep end. I'm hoping our staff and volunteers will be ready. I envision crowds of people waiting hungryly by the school's front door next Wednesday just waiting for them to open to let them in. It will be worse than the day after Thanksgiving in front of your local WalMart.

And now, a few items from The Imaginarium.







You never know what someone will imagine with a little help from the good folks here at the Imaginarium in Wonderland.



Parent's visiting this shop have suddenly become more mindful of where their children are and what they're doing.



Mildred Scopes spent the morning wandering through Wonderland's shops looking for something modern to wear for the opening of the Space Education Center's School Year Season. She believes it is time to change her age old look.

"I've noticed most of the staff and volunteers at the Space Center are rather young." She said before crossing the road to the Peter Pan Boutique where they guarantee to take years off your appearance through the careful application of appropriate clothing, make up and plaster (they charge by the year). "Except of course for the Director. I hear he is a real old dinosaur, a throw back to the Neanderthal. They say he walks around the place with his knuckles dragging along the floor."





Every street in Utah should have one of these signs to warn us about the "Slow" kids unable to reason correctly. Some of the kids in my neighborhood are as thick as mud. They ride their bikes, three wheelers, scooters and skateboards right down the center of the street. They dare the motorists to a duel. Let it be known that the Battlestar will not be diverted from its course by a gang of hooligans out to prove their misguided invincibility!



OK Troops. Time to stop. I've got to get up real early tomorrow morning, drive to a gas station just outside of Nephi and meet a certain couple who managed to hitch a ride from Southern California to Utah.

I'm trusting you with this information.

Mr. W.

A Magellan Update and our Brush with KAOS.

Chester Wallow works for KAOS (pronounced chaos) as an undercover agent. He was spotted at one of our summer camps making contact with CONTROL. The laws of physics teach us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The same is true for imagination. KAOS works to counter the Imaginarium's work world wide. Recently they've made some gains in the 13 - 17 year old age range but hope to make inroads into the 10 - 12 year old range.

"Destroy their dreams and aspirations and you've capture their spirit and soul," said one captured agent under interrogation by Maxwell Smart. Keep your eyes open troops. KAOS could be watching YOU!

Hello Troops,
Work on the Magellan moves ahead. The panels are in!


The walls in the transition hallway are exposed as Kyle, Jon and Nate install a sliding door seperating the tansition hallway into two sections, the Magellan hall from the Discovery Hall (where you turn next to the TV room and the new Brig). The sliding door will be control by a rope and pulley in the Magellan control room.

This is the first of many renovations underway at the Space Education Center. Cool isn't a good enough adjective to describe what's coming. It's time to book your next mission at the Center, or perhaps sign up for one of the open spots on the upcoming September Overnight Camps.

Sam Shell's imagination is on overload after visiting the Space Center. He wanted to come straight back after hearing about our Magellan improvements but couldn't - the Center is closed until August 17th. Sam decided to access the power and creativity of his own imagination. He succeeded, with a bit of help from the Imaginarium.

KAOS

Chester Wallow is on to him and received orders from CONTROL to put an end to his silliness. Chester and a few of his comrades paid Sam's simulator a visit late one night. When Sam returned the following day he found his airplane gone and this spray painted on the wall.

A roadside sign from KAOS. Every agent is well trained in this tactic.

Two CONTROL agents photographed outside of Pleasant Grove. CONTROL is part of KAOS' administration. Field officers report to them. They in turn report to their nearest Safehouse.

We spotted a CONTROLLER late one night near the Space Center. Several of us discreetly followed to find KAOS' Utah County safehouse.


The shadowy CONTROLLER led us to the home of the Twitcher sisters. We knocked on the door and asked for an audience. We were instructed to leave. Half way down the drive a woman's voice shouted for us to stop. The sisters appeared.

They denied knowing Chester Wallow. They claimed to have no knowledge of Sam Shell. Their faces twitched when we questioned them about KAOS. We knew from their expressions that our questioning was uncomfortable.

"We live a quiet life," one sister said. I didn't know which one. They both looked, spoke and dressed alike.

"You're imagination has gotten the best of you. Get it under control before something happens," the other hissed with a snake like voice while brushing away a persistent fly.

I showed them pictures of our Magellan improvements. They shook with rage.
"There's a chill in the air," one said to cover her emotional reaction. "Time for you to go." The sisters turned back toward the safehouse.


We turned back toward town.