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| Thank You Burlington |
The Christa McAuliffe Space Center is $10,000 closer to its new facility with six new ships and a permanent planetarium thanks to Burlington's donation on Wednesday. It came as they celebrate the opening of a new store in American Fork on the 22nd and with the help of AdoptAClassroom.org.
That becomes $20,000 due to the matching donation from St. John Properties, Inc. We are so grateful for all of the donations we have received so far. If you want to make a donation that goes twice as far you can visit: spacecenter.alpineschools.org/donate
Thankfully ABC4 Utah - Good4Utah helped spread the news of the announcement since most of you weren't able to be there.https://www.abc4.com/…/space-center-seeking-fund…/1846818241
The Christa McAuliffe Space Center is Asking "What Do We Name the Two New Ships?"
For the most part, I chose the names of space landers or probes when I named the simulators at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center. You can see in the photo above where three of the center's current four ships got their names. The Odyssey was named before naming the simulators after probes became a thing.
We had the Voyager. The Odyssey came next. Dave Wall called the Odyssey "Seeker" and I called it "ISES" when it was first built. Realizing two names were not going to work (Seeker for space missions and ISES for microscopic voyages: Inner Space Exploration Ship) I decided on Odyssey as the final name. I liked the name because of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In addition to the new Magellan, Galileo, Odyssey, and Phoenix, the CMSC will get two more ships. They must be named. Now it's your turn to have a say. What do you think? James Porter has created a survey to get your thoughts on the matter.
https://goo.gl/forms/WWLId9c5TVuDcyyo2 Jump on and tell them what names you like the most.
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| The CMSC's Very Own Audrey Henriksen Painted this Masterpiece for the Magellan Mission |
The Troubadour's CMSC Eyes on the Ground
And now, the teaser for Divided we Fall (please read aloud in your deepest narrative voice)
From the writer of Paradise Lost, Prelude to War, and Against the Tide comes 'Divided We Fall', the USS Magellan's story for the 2019 summer season. It's after the Borg War. The Federation is in shambles. A recent development in technology has led to a divide of the once mighty Federation. On the brink of war, the Centralist Union of Planets and the Trans-Planetary Economic Alliance are still trying to rebuild from the devastating Borg War. While most of the Centralist fleet is blockading the border between the Alliance and the Pakled Emirates, the Magellan is being dispatched to a nearby solar system directly in the path of a devastating Neutronic Storm to provide relief and assistance in coordination with the Red Cross. What is the true motivation for having the Magellan that close to a potential war zone? Only you can find out. Join us for one of the most daring, eventful, and exciting stories in the Magellan's recent history. A definite first in regards to Space Center missions with a style and layout bound to please crews of all ages. This exciting mission explores moral dilemmas and contains aspects of US History along with never before seen Pakled characters. There are even echoes of music history from 19th century France. Oh la la....seulement le meilleur. Will history repeat itself and plunge us into a Civil War, or will the crew of the Magellan find a way to diffuse a volatile situation? Sign up for summer camp now.
Secondary blurb just for The Troubadour's readers. We've had a blast incorporating a lot of cool things into our summer story this year based off of my time in North Carolina; this includes a bit of US History. We've also expanded on the moral dilemma from Mr. Williamson's classic mission Intolerance.
Here is another reason why YOU need to come to camp this summer. This mission will the original Magellan's last summer mission. The new Central Elementary School and Space Center will open in the spring of 2020 and the old Magellan, along with it's sister simulators, will be no more.
So come and join us for "Divided We Fall," as a summer camp or private mission.
Special thanks to Audrey H. our Head Supervisor for creating this amazing poster for our story, we're so glad to have her skills as a supervisor and an artist!
Connor Larsen
Magellan Set Director
In the "Just for Fun" Department...
Audrey
The Space Academy Announces its February Volunteer of the Month
Congratulations Stephen Roper
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| Stephen from a couple years back |
It is with great pride and honor that Renaissance Space Academy introduces its volunteer of the month. This month we're giving this prestigious award to Steve Roper, volunteer extraordinaire, and part-time wizard.
Steve has been an excellent example of volunteerism, and work ethic - especially here in the last month. Every time he arrives to help, he's got a smile on his face, a can-do attitude in his pocket, and never says, "no" to any task laid before him. And that's where Steve goes above and beyond - it doesn't matter how hard a task is, or if he knows exactly what to do or not. He simply says "I got it," and he goes to work.
He's also extremely coachable and accepts any corrections or concerns with grace and poise. When Steve first started to volunteer with us, his energy would sometimes brim over and get in the way of his talent. That happens sometimes, I seem to recall a young volunteer in the early 2000s who had a similar issue, and not to name names or anything, but his initials were Bracken Funk. The excitement that volunteers have is something awesome, and we'd always rather have to dial-down in excitement than try to dial-up. Steve and I had a conversation about this, and Steve has put his energies into acting, problem-solving, and helping wrangle new volunteers. In short, he's taken that energy and found a place for it in perfecting his craft in new and ingenuitive ways - helping all of us get better at what we do.
Sometimes, when we bring in volunteers that haven't joined in with us before, it can be like herding cats. There's so much to see behind the curtain that they lose focus on what we need them to do. We've dubbed Steve our "Volunteer Wrangler" for our after-school flights because he does an INCREDIBLE job of teaching our new volunteers the order of operations, and what's expected of them without really being asked. I think the conversation was "Steve, see those volunteers?" and like a superhero, he disappeared and reappeared as the hero we needed - teaching and educating our newest volunteers with a smile on his face, and eagerness and resolve in his actions.
I am personally VERY grateful for Steve, and all of his efforts. This month he'll be getting the coveted Trophy with his name written on it in dry erase marker - hung in the control room for all to see. So if you see him in the hall, or if you see him on a mission - bow before him, for he is, at least for this month, king of the volunteers.
Bracken Funk
Fortuna and the Voyager - a Love Hate Relationship. This Weekend it was Pure, Organic, Gluten Free Hate...
It was that way with the first Voyager and it is the same with the new Voyager.
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| The staff scrambling to discovery why the Voyager's network just crashed during Alex Debirk's mission on Friday. He was flying his students from American Heritage. |
Back Story First
For many years Fortuna, the Goddess of Fortune, and I have had our disagreements. She would disappear from the CMSEC for months at a time then reappear with a vengeance.
One Friday afternoon several years ago Fortuna struck. We had just started the 4:00 P.M. Friday private missions when Central Elementary School's network crashed. I don't remember what I did about the private missions, but I do remember my panic regarding that evening's overnight camp. Forty-two campers were coming from all over northern Utah. We had to fly. Cancelling was not an option I was willing to consider.
An urgent call was sent to Todd Hadley from the district's IT office. He arrived and along with the available staff started troubleshooting. Hours passed. The overnight campers arrived. The school's doors opened at 6:45 P.M. The students were processed in the gym and took their places on the stage risers. Still no network. I gave a very long "Welcome to the Space Center" speech. I illustrated the importance of using the "Happy Bucket" for vomiting by citing more than the usual examples used on a normal overnight camp. And then in walked Todd. He was smiling. "Found your problem, " he said in a hushed voice so the campers couldn't year. "I traced it back to the computer lab. Someone had taken an ethernet cord and put both ends into the wall sockets creating a loop that crashed the network."
The camp was saved. I learned a lesson on how networks worked.
Fast forward several years to last Friday night at the Space Academy. It was just after 5:00 P.M. when Renaissance Academy's network crashed. The Voyager was scheduled to host a birthday party. There was a carpenter in the building modifying desks in the school's four teaching pods for networked printers. This involved pulling the new printers from where they were and installing them in their new places.
As panic set in and the school's IT man arrived to start troubleshooting I told the story of what had happened years ago to those huddled around the network closet. It was decided that what he was doing couldn't be the cause. Afterall, he was just modifying desks. Still, something in the way the crash occurred seemed so familiar. Perhaps it was the smell in the air - a sort of acidic lemon verbena that sent a chill up my spine. Fortuna was in residence and on the warpath.
In the end, late that evening, the issue was discovered. The workman reconnected one of the printer's network cords into the wrong portal. Isn't this why you should remember history, so you don't make the same mistakes twice?
I'm going into business as a Space Center Prophet of Doom and, with my nose as my calling card and my ACME diviner rod, I'll sense that acidic lemon verbena in the wind thus giving any of the area's space centers advance notice that they are next in her sights.
Victor
And Now the Rest of the Story written by Bracken Funk
I would like to tell a story - the story of how everything went horribly wrong, and the way that our staff rallied together to make it go right.
That's right. This has been the week from h*ck. The Voyager has been acting and responding to things like a child who has been given no sleep. We've had our tussles, her and I, and I can say with absolute positivity that she has a mind of her own. Everything that could have gone wrong this week has gone wrong, and Fortuna, our ethereal foe has sat on the throne of fate and lobbed anything she can find our way. Voyager, instead of defending against the repeated attacks, decided to give in, and that has perforated the sterling record with which she has performed over the past several months.
And this weekend - even worse. Fortuna tricked one of her followers into creating an internal network feedback loop. Yes. An infinite loop of trickery and deceit - making all of Renaissance Academy's computers think that Y2K had returned for them, to drag them into the abyss of darkness. The computers complied (not knowing any better), and the whole network shut down. This wasn't realized until we were in the middle of a flight with Alex DeBirk's students from his experiential learning class. Alex, realizing he had no recourse, decided to don an intruder mask, and entertained his students until their time was up.
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| Isaac on the hunt, tracking down the issue |
But here's the thing. This issue occurred - and everyone rallied to help with the issue. People flying out of the woodwork to help us get the issue resolved. Isaac Ostler sat in the control room, often screaming obscenities and demanding sacrifices of small animals to satiate Fortuna. When that failed, Isaac resulted to black magic (or programming, whatever the kids are calling it these days), and discovered that, much to his chagrin, the problem was system-wide and there was nothing he could do about it without access to all the top-secret equipment that is locked away, only accessible by our IT team at Renaissance.
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| Alex trying a new fix to solve the issue |
Enter Tyler Gerber - IT Master, and Guru of All Things Wired. Tyler came in on his own time to help us identify the issue. As any IT Master knows, it's all about figuring out what it isn't until you find out what it is. Tyler spent hours dissecting the system at Renaissance and discovered Fortuna's plot around 9:45pm. He went and solved the issue. And all was well at Renaissance for a few fleeting hours.
But while Tyler was working away, a private group was scheduled to fly the Starship Voyager - but because the school's LAN was malfunctioning due to the loop created we had no way for our network to speak to itself, and there was no way to fly her. Calls were sent out to friends at other locations - hoping to find a place we might be able to cart our group while Tyler furiously worked on solving the connectivity issue. Jon Parker was willing, but unable, as CMSC was full up on a Friday night - as it should be. Lakeview wanted to assist - and Director Nathan King was summoned before our council of need; but because of the way their insurance is structured weren't able to have non-hired staff working in their facility, and on short notice couldn't drudge staff. All seemed to be falling apart rapidly.
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| Sidney Brown and team from the Reality's Edge saved the day and a young boy's birthday party |
Jennie Steeneck and Sydney Brown were finally reached, and there was availability to move the group to the Valiant to get a wonderful adventure in space directed by herself, and Spencer Baird. They did an amazing job and went above and beyond to make sure the birthday party group had a place to go, and a masterful mission to overcome.
Tyler contacted Bracken at 9:45, and everything seemed to be going well.
But Fortuna was not pleased with the rallying of Centers and collaboration of amazing staff members. Nay, she was infuriated, and hatched a plan to crush the spirits of our amazing team into dust. We had a 5 hour mission booked from 7-midnight, and after having to reschedule this group twice, needed things to go well. Of course Fortuna knew this - and hatched her most diabolical scheme in recorded history.
I announce for the Salt Lake Stallions, the new professional football team playing in the Association of American Football (AAF), and had a game up at Rice-Eccles Stadium today, so my day was slashed time-wise to get into Voyager and do a thorough check in the morning. Supervising Goddess Megan Warner agreed to take over the responsibility, and everything was up and running - working great. I was on my way back from Salt Lake, when the disaster struck.
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| Bracken did his best to entertain the crew while the search for a cure continued. |
Because this group had been so workable, we had to make this right. Panic set in as we realized the school's LAN was working fine, but because of the way our sound effects and Visual Effects screen are set up, we require access to a couple of Google's sites - and we found out very quickly, there was no internet in the school. Many calls were made to reliable sources. Spencer Baird who was not on staff for the 5 hour showed up rapidly to help troubleshoot. Isaac Ostler (who was on shift for Gold Cross trying to save people's lives) was contacted and spent 50 minutes on the phone with multiple people trying to find a workaround. Megan rallied our amazing volunteers Jack, Steve, Tabitha, Livy, and started to create a 10-person security training. Logan Pedersen directed traffic and stalled brilliantly with his ability to create on the spot (which is a trait I am super jealous of) - and also provided needed technical assistance as we limped along trying to figure out next steps.
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| Finding a network problem on the Voyager can be tricky. (Not the real network closet, just an illustration on how it seemed to be that night) |
Once again, however, Tyler Gerber, our IT Master and Guru of All Things Wired, showed up to resolve the issue while Spencer and Isaac were trying to find a workaround. Tyler figured out that Fortuna had somehow affected the way the school's DNS was set up. Tyler was able to push a fix out to the network, and grant access to the internet once again. Sounds and visuals were restored, and after 2 hours of stalling and trying to figure out what we could do, everything rested for a moment.
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| Megan and Bracken ready to solve the issue with phasers if necessary. While the IT guys solved the technical problem, these two cornered Fortuna in one of the school's air intakes. A lucky shot was all it took. She was last seen darting across the evening sky heading toward the Magellan. |
My point is this - regardless of location, affiliation, or pride, every location in Utah County stepped up to make Experiential Education for multiple groups a priority, and assisted in incredible and unnecessary ways. People like Spencer, and Jenny who put in their own time to make a difference for 1 party is what makes what we do unbelievably powerful. We have the most amazing staff in the world, and potentially the universe. Each and every one of us, every day, get to influence the future through our craft, and to be a part of this community, and watch everyone rally for just 1 party was something that healed my soul and touched me deeply.
More importantly, not one of the above-mentioned people gave up at any time. It was rough. I can't put into words the feeling of sorrow for the let-down we saw hitting the crew (who brought 2 people down from Idaho to join us) and how badly we wanted to fix it. But every volunteer, Staff Member, IT person, and troubleshooter persevered with something that would have been crippling at any other time. Every person kept a smile on their face, a can-do attitude, and made sure that our group had the best time we could give them.
Our little community - all of us involved in these Space Edventure - we get to work with the most AMAZING staff in the world. Don't ever take that for granted!
Imaginarium Theater
The Best Videoettes From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience
