People and Trees. Two Secret Societies at the DSC? The Imaginarium.

Your thought of the day

A Note From The Troubadour's Editorial Staff:
     Mr. Williamson's incessant crying that he alone shoulders the burden of this endeavor has finally fallen on a sympathetic ear. Today The Troubadour is pleased to present a guest post from a gentleman, scholar, and excellent judge of a good mission - in that order.  Mr. Bracken Funk, former Flight Director General from the CMSEC (a new title made up on the spot to stroke his ego to encourage future guest posts), and now ......... Something Important (capitalized because I think that's his official title) at the Discovery Space Center, has written the following post.  He only asks one thing from you kind readers; when finished please stand and salute in the direction of Pleasant Grove.  

Thank you.    

Hello Troops,

   We’re in the thick of the summer buzz at the Discovery Space Center, and life never slows down. Every week we have something new and exciting happening, and we do our best to honor what the idea of educational simulation and the imaginarium stand for. Don’t believe me? Here is a picture of the notorious four of Utah County:

      Don’t believe me? Well I’ll tell you a story about this picture, and then maybe you will. Let’s start with Logan. Look how innocent he looks... Well, he’s the leader of this secret combination. This picture was taken during a secret meeting of the NotoFour (as they like to be called). Logan is their leader. He’s the only one wearing the colors of their order, and was in the middle of dressing down the others for not being in their colors when I walked in. “Shh! Shh!” I heard as I ascended the stairs in one of StoneGate’s most secret rooms. As I got to the top of the stairs, Jorden flashed a smile, and Connor quickly grabbed his laptop and pretended to be “working” as he was technically on the clock. “Well, well, well, what have we here?”  I asked. I was pretty sure I knew what was happening, as I had received many reports about this organization, but I wanted to hear it from them. Nathan stared at me for a moment. Then responded, “This is a private meeting for the heads of the super overnighter, Bracken. There is nothing going on here.” He looked at his feet as he finished, trying to hide the fact that he was worried. “YES!” Logan cried out suspiciously loud and high pitched, and then coughed as he tried to recover normal tone, “we were just discussing ways to help our customers have the best time in the world! That’s what we do here!” I stood in the doorway for a moment, and stared at the four of them. Jorden’s face hadn’t changed since I walked in. “Fix your face, Jorden, it’s creepy,” I gave him ‘the look’. Jorden stayed still, staring at me, face in the same position, and somehow said, “I like looking like this.”  While I can’t confirm or deny this, it may have had something to do with a ritual the NotoFour were performing before I walked in. It is quite possible that I heard chanting coming from the room, I can’t seem to remember… Maybe they did something to me. Anyways, all reports of the NotoFour are to be sent to me immediately, we are looking for true evidence about this group. When we have it, we’ll make sure to shut them down.
But that’s not all that we have going on here:

I too have joined a secret society. I am part of the “Society of the Hood”. We rob from the rich to make ourselves rich. I am not our leader, but I was summoned by the Darkest Lord. The Darkest Lord stands to the top right of this picture. When you see the Darkest Lord, you may instantly feel fear, but we only call it that because it wears all black. We aren’t sure of the gender of our leader, we just do the thieving from the rich. It is a great career move for me, and I’m hoping for a more lucrative future. It’s hard trying to be diapers and milk for my daughter, so I figured this was the only way to supplement my income. Donations are also welcome. Just give me a call and I’d be more than happy to take your money.

Please remember that this is top secret, and that nobody is to know about my little “club”, it’s just between you and me.

  Lastly, this picture was taken today at 2200 hours. Nobody knows what it is. Colonial Command reports that it may be a fluctuation in the space time continuum. It was supposed to be a picture of a crew, but we aren’t sure what it is really. As our scientists analyze this phenomenon, we do ask that all available crews report to Prometheus Station on a stand-by basis in case this really is a threat to Earth. Atlantis arrived in orbit yesterday, and is taking careful readings of the Colonial Command Center, Pleasant Grove location. It may be up to you to save the universe, so suit up, and bring your best problem solving skills to the Discovery Space Center.

See all of you in the trenches.
Bracken Funk,  Something Important.  DSC    

Sunday's Imaginarium

Meet the USS Odyssey's New Medical Officer, Nurse Frank. Happy Aphelion Day! Harry Potter vs. Twilight. The Imaginarium.

Farpoint Voyager Cadet Creates New Odyssey Character, Nurse Frank

Hello Space Center Fans!
     Many of The Troubadour's readers served as volunteers at the Space Center with distinction.  You may be one of them.  If so, then you know the most difficult task assigned to a Voyager volunteer from a flight director is to create a character on the spot in the heat of a mission, find a costume to match your newfound character's personality and job, and then venture out into the ship and possible Space Center history with a character as memorable as Russell Smith's blind doctor from the early 1990's or as forgettable as the derelict one armed security officer created by a volunteer long forgotten.  
     I've been informed that a new volunteer character was recently unleashed on an unsuspecting Odyssey Ultimate Camp crew.  This character, a humpback nurse named Frank, was the brainchild of Isaac O.  Isaac knew he had a choice when his flight director informed him that he would be the Odyssey's doctor for one of the camp's rotation. He could either be a normal, run of the mill doctor in a white coat and equally boring personality - or he could create something new and different.  From Isaac's appearance below, you know the choice he made.      

     I asked Isaac to do a write up on his new character for The Troubadour, knowing this would most likely be a slow space centers' news week.  "Should I Troubadour it up?" he asked.  I wondered what he meant by using the blog's title as a verb. 

     "How do you Troubadour something up?" I asked. 

     "You know," Isaac explained, "Troubadour it up, just like you do all the time when you write stories about things that happen at the Space Center but make the story more interesting.  Do you want me to Troubadour Nurse Frank up?" 

      "Go for it."  

     Isaac agreed to the challenge and didn't let me down.  Below is his narrative on the appearance of Nurse Frank (with a bit of background on the poor man's life).  

Mr. Williamson

     Nurse Frank slowly waddled out of Starbase 63's main sickbay.  His request to be promoted to a traditional starfleet Dr. had just been denied once again.  Nurse Frank knew though that if he just had a chance to really show what he could do that he would instantly be promoted to Dr, if they didn't already promote him to head of Starfleet Medical.
     Nurse Frank walked down the hallways towards the boarding ramps so that he could board the USS Revier, where he would go back to the secondary sickbay on deck 7.  It was then that Nurse frank noticed a crew of new, bright looking cadets heading towards the boarding ramp of the USS Odyssey, and it was then he had his brilliant idea!  To prove himself, Nurse Frank would not be boarding the USS Revier, instead he would secretly board the USS Odyssey!
     Once Nurse Frank got to the entrance of the boarding ramp to the USS Odyssey, he noticed something wrong in his plan, his medical scrubs had the name "USS Revier Medical" printed on it!  He snuck into a closet and searched for some new scrubs.  He was happy with his new look:
     You may have noticed Nurse Frank's hump on his back, it's something he's had since birth. Nobody has really ever been able to figure out the cause of his hump. Maybe he descended from Igor, Dr. Frankenstein's lab assistant?
     After he changed into a new uniform, he left the closet and walked towards the Odyssey.  That's when Nurse Frank ran into another problem, a security officer was checking boarding passes at the entrance to the Odyssey. The Security officer gave him a strange look.     "Boarding passes sir," he said.     Nurse Frank froze. What was he going to do!?  He wasn't supposed to be on a ship a grand as the Odyssey!  But it was too late to turn back; he had to find a way though.  He pulled out his medical tricorder and hit the scanner's bio-signatures button.     "Sir?  I need your papers, you can put back your...." The security officer started but was interrupted when Nurse Frank suddenly yelled.     "Sick!!  You are sick!  I don't know what you are sick with, but this red light is flashing!"  Nurse Frank exclaimed.     The young security officer looked nervous. "But I, I just went in for my last checkup...."      Nurse Frank looked at him creepily with one eye and replied, "Have you ever heard of Rectonilious Flu?"
     Nurse Frank made up a list of scary symptoms like: your nose is suddenly itchy, your tongue is sitting uncomfortably in your mouth.  Soon the security guard was convinced he was sick and rushed off to the sickbay leaving the door unguarded.  Nurse Frank slipped in.
     Nurse Frank had limited knowledge of the layout of Seeker Class starships, so it took him a good hour before he found the bridge (even though there are only 2 decks).  When he walked on the bridge the freshly trained cadets looked blankly at this man with a hump and crazy hair that had just waddled in.
     "Hello!"  Nurse frank said in his unknown accent.  The captain looked at the Nurse and blankley said "Hello" back.
     This was it!  Nurse Frank had gotten inside the Odyssey. He opened his medical binder and started reading the section of preliminary physical procedures, this mission was going to change him!

Mr. Williamson, the real story is this.  Tabitha and I wanted to create this nurse who was kinda crazy and was like Igor.  I did it on two of the rotations and the kids liked it so much that I got lord of the votes :)

-Isaac O.

A Space Science Reminder for July 3.
Happy Aphelion Day!

From Space.com

      Despite those hot temperatures, the Earth will reach aphelion, the point in its orbit when the planet is farthest from the sun, at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT/0000 GMT) tonight. At that moment, the distance between the Earth and sun will be 94,506,462 miles (152,093,407 kilometers) as measured from center to center.

     During this annual milestone, the Earth is 3,104,641 miles (4,996,435 km) farther from the sun than it was on Jan. 3, when Earth was at perihelion, its closest point to the sun for 2014. 

The Imaginarium

Twilight vs. Harry Potter

My nephew is the blond vampire at 1:45