Personal Log: CSO LtJG X'ok PaRel

Personal Log: CSO LtJG X'ok PaRel

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Once In A Lifetime

• Boy, what a long, strange trip this is! I am barely computer literate, and I sure hope this works. I've been puttering around with this blasted glass-paged typewriter until I've gotten here. Maybe you will be reading this soon. Maybe you are now.

  It would seem that I might just be the oldest person in Frontier Fleet. I can remember watching Star Trek when it was in prime time on NBC, right after Hollywood Squares. That's how far back I go! Trek was even instrumental in me and my wife getting together. We lived in different towns, and she could get Next Generation, so we'd get together at her place and watch it. By the time the cable company in my town carried that channel, we were married. I'm talking small towns!

  I wanted with this first post to expose the evolution of X'ok PaRel. He began, as a middle-aged Vulcan/Klingon, as an idea I had for a DS9 episode. In my head, of course. The concept was that he was captain of a privately owned and operated starship, an old surplus Constellation class ship. Like Kirk's Enterprise. Except that is was kind of an unofficial research ship. Without being officially attached to Starfleet, they kind of had access to things, and allowed access in return. Kind of a "skunkworks." Anyway, some emergency happens that forces this ship to reveal some of its capabilities in order to save the station. And X'ok was the big, loud, slightly crazy leader of the extremely diverse and creative crew.

  When I found FF, I decided to use Mr. PaRel for my character.

  Well, I think I'll see if this will actually post. Wish me luck.

  
• Boring Minutiae

  Just some random thoughts and observations on being a member of Frontier Fleet.

  First, there would seem to be certain things that one must be to be here.
  A trek fan.
  A writer, or at least someone who's interested in writing.
  Creative, in general. There seem to be a lot of musicians, or at least people who are interested in quite a wide variety of music.

  It also seems that most FF folk are into just about everything Sci-Fi. In this, I lag behind the rest. I've checked out Stargate, Babylon 5, and many others, and they don't do much for me. I'm into Trek, Star Wars, Farscape, and have read quite a bit that most of you would probably consider old stuff. Frank Herbert, Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings, and so on. I also like a lot of stuff that isn't even remotely Sci-Fi. I just like quality, in pretty much any form.

  One reason I like FF is that I am somewhat a student of the craft of writing. I write poetry, music, fiction of various types, and used to be a journalist. I've never made any real money doing any of them, but I enjoy them just the same. If anything, doing these things for free gives me the freedom to follow my muse with no inhibitions. Just let my freak flag flap in the breeze, and make it to my day job on time.

  Here comes the minutiae part. I have noticed some stylistic differences in the posts that I'm curious about. I should point out that I learned typing back in the days of automatic-printout mechanical word processors. Or, manual typewriters, to you history buffs. I learned a system called Touch-Typing, back when we put a sheet of paper in a machine, touched a button, and a letter appeared that could not be erased without considerable labor.

  Anyway, there were certain things we were taught to do that have become habit for me. Like, for instance, the practice of always leaving two spaces after a period or other sentence-ending punctuation. Thusly. Not one, like this. Sorry. I notice things like that. Also, we of this school put spaces between the dots . . . when leaving a pause...in the middle of a sentence.

  Now, please understand, this is not meant as criticism, but merely observation. One shared out of curiosity. I understand that most of you out there are Europeans, and a generation younger than myself. I am wondering if it is common to learn a system of typing nowadays, or if you all just learned by what my old teachers used to call the search-and-destroy method. When you sit down at the keyboard, do you put the fingers of your left hand on asdf, and of your right on jkl;?

  If I might be so bold, I think that doing things like leaving those extra spaces makes a post easier to read. It's easier to find the breaks between sentences, and where things in quotes begin and end. "Like if your character were saying something, then thinking something, then talking again." When I respond to posts, I edit what I get in this manner to make it easier to follow. But, again, that's my opinion only.

  One other observation I would like to make is that it has been my privilege to read some truly excellent writing. I'm not going to name names here, not at this time anyway, but I think you know who you are. I would also be curious to know who among the FF crowd writes for a living.

  One favor I would like to ask anyone who is interested. Feel free to contact me with construcive criticism. I appreciate it, and usually act on it, and am most interested in the story coming together well. I have been known to do this with a few of you, and again, you know who you are. In a nutshell, if I suck, I want to stop. Help me. After all, as we say in my band, the song is the boss.

  Well, that's enough of this, uh, stuff for now. Back to life. Of course, re-read and edit before posting.

  
• Boring Minutiae 2

  For anybody who'd like help fine-tuning your posts, my wife found this at the Amherst College website.

  ---------------

  General Editing Tips
  This list was originally compiled by George L. Trigg et. al. The Writing Center got this copy from ILS 3, who took it from Optics News Vol. 8: No. 1, which had reprinted it from Phys. Rev. Lett. 42:748 (1979).

  1. Make sure each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.

  2. Just between you and I, the case of pronouns is important.

  3. Watch out for irregular verbs which have crope into English.

  4. Verbs has to agree in number with their subjects.

  5. Don't use no double negatives.

  6. Being bad grammar, a writer should not use dangling modifiers.

  7. Join clauses good like a conjunction should.

  8. A writer must not shift your point of view.

  9. About sentence fragments.

  10. Don't use run-on sentences you got to punctuate them.

  11. In letters essays and reports use commas to separate items in a series.

  12. Don't use commas, that are not necessary.

  13. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.

  14. Its important to use apostrophes right in everybodys writing.

  15. Don't abbrev.

  16. Check to see if you any words out.

  17. In the case of a report, check to see that jargonwise, it's A-OK.

  18. As far as incomplete constructions, they are wrong.

  19. About repetition, the repetition of a word might be real effective repetition—take, for instance the repetition of Abraham Lincoln.

  20. In my opinion, I think that an author when he is writing should definitely not get into the habit of making use of too many unnecessary words that he does not really need in order to put his message across.

  21. Use parallel construction not only to be concise but also clarify.

  22. It behooves us all to avoid archaic expressions.

  23. Mixed metaphors are a pain in the neck and ought to be weeded out.

  24. Consult the dictionery to avoid mispelings.

  25. To ignorantly split an infinitive is a practice to religiously avoid.

  26. Remember to hyphenate two or more word modifiers that precede the words they modify.

  27. Last but not least, lay off cliches.

  And one more favorite of mine that Trigg left off his list:

  28. Eschew obfuscation!!

  
• More trivial introspection

  Do you want to know why I like Frontier Fleet?

  Whaddaya mean, no? Aw, c'mon, indulge me here! If you don't, I'll write a love scene between X'ok and your character.

  There, I knew you wanted to know. I like it because this gets me back to writing fiction. I hadn't done that in a long time. In spite of the fact that I've never really done it for money, I consider myself a writer. But, I also consider myself a performer.

  Y'see, I'm a musician. Guitar. Have been for over hmmmbzzz years. And, I like a lot of different kinds of music. I'm not particularly fond of hip-hop and all its offshoots. And, I never got into disco. And, I can only take so much opera. Just about everything else, I'm down with. I don't even care if it has guitar in it.

  The thing is, as many different kinds of music as I like, and play, I derive the most satisfaction out of playing music that I wrote myself. Not to say that I'm some musical genius or something, but nothing says "me" like I do.

  Writing fiction, on the other hand, takes me out of myself and allows me to be somebody else. It's kind of like being an actor, but I get to write my own lines.

  I am fascinated with the mechanics of performance. I actually like practicing on the guitar, for instance. When I have time, and am able to concentrate, I love dissecting a piece of music, or just a scale or chord, and seeing what can be done with it. I love watching a TV show like "From The Actor's Studio" on Bravo, and hearing accomplished actors talking about how they do what they do. Acting is much more than just pretending to be a character, just like playing music is much more than getting the notes right.

  The problem with being an actor (I studied theater for a while in my younger days) is that somebody else writes your part, and somebody else gets to choose which part you will play. IF you hang in there, and are very good, and impress the right people, you get better and better parts to play. If not, you spend your life being in ketchup commercials or screaming "No, don't!" on a soap opera.

  When you write fiction, you get to act out the scene in your mind. You get to be that person. You get to do things that you wouldn't dream of doing yourself. Plus, you get to play characters you can't even possibly act in real life. In writing fiction, if I decide I want to be a 19-year-old five-foot-four flamboyantly gay psychopathic murderer, it's as close as my keyboard.

  In a nutshell, I'm having fun with X'ok and the people he hangs out with. I'm concentrating on him for now. I may create other characters later, but I want to see what I can do with him first. I'm in the middle of composing his Rite Of Ascension, with a Vulcan twist. And, of course, no piece of creative writing is complete without feedback, so feel free to tell me it's complete tripe. Hell, I didn't quit my day job to do this. Go ahead, slash it up.

  And, of course, I am also interested in your thoughts on what you do. What sort of things are you seeking to accomplish here? Are you using FF as an escape from your regular routine, or are you honing your craft? As I've said before, I've seen plenty of really good writing here. Some of it is pretty raw, but there are no end of the stories, and without a story, you have nothing to say. How much of yourself is there in your character? How much of the self you wish you could be? What does your character do that you wish you dared to? Are you interested in the characters you interact with, and the people who write them, or are the rest of us here to help you express yourself?

  
• Robbery

  My house was robbed a couple of weeks ago. It's been an interesting experience, to say the least. The good things about it are: My family was not messed with. Also, nothing essential or important was taken. The bummer? They went into my music room and almost cleaned me out. Five guitars and two amplifiers.

  It's been three weeks now, and the odds of getting my gear back in pristine condition lessen every day. The police have a pretty good idea of who the culprit is, and he/she/it/them is a suspect in a string of burglaries in the area. They need enough evidence to get a warrant, but they think they're gonna get them. My goal for that is that this person/people will learn a valuable lesson; don't steal. I'm not that revenge-oriented. I don't need to see their bleeding carcasses to find satisfaction.

  My wife, Lynn, has been my rock through all this, of course. She knows how much playing music means to me, and how attached I get to my guitars. Granted, it's not like one of my children was on a plane that went down in the Himalayas, but it has been a little bumpy. We're to the point of accepting that it's time to report it to the insurance company and begin contemplating replacements.

  My band, Project 93, performed last Saturday night. Oh, yeah, another thing I've found out is how many generous friends I have. I borrowed two guitars, a PA head and a guitar amp for the gig. The whole band was in pity-party-for-Rick mode, then we went on stage and tore the roof off the place. We finished up with a 10-minute jam on All Along The Watchtower, and I went Hendrix on 'em. There were reports of orgasms, but it was the Halloween party, so they might have been fake.

  The great thing through all this is that I have been granted the grace not to get angry. We live in a very small New Hampshire town, where everybody leaves their doors unlocked and trusts each other. This little crime wave has made some people paranoid. We have grudgingly acknowledged the need to lock up at night and gotten on with our lives. We have also acknowledged the great blessings we have, and for that much the experience has been largely positive.

  So, I'll probably get some of what the stuff was worth from the insurance company, and go guitar shopping, which is always fun. To be honest, my biggest worry is for the person who did the stealing. This cannot be a happy person. They must spend a lot of their time looking over their shoulder. I couldn't live like that. They will be caught, if not for this then for something. They will pay the price. And, their deep-rooted problem will probably go unchecked. I'm praying for them to find some resolution and some peace.

  I'm a musician and a writer, and I'm in the happy business. To know that there's someone out there that unhappy makes me . . . C'mon, people, fill in the blank. No, not "aluminum." Aw, I knew you'd get it.

  Actually, it does piss me off that I spent about $4000, and will be lucky to see half that. There. I said it. Whew. In the end, I will have another bunch of gear, and will continue to do what I do. No harm, no foul.

  Which leads me to the question of the day; Have any of you out there in FF Blogland ever been robbed? What was/is your reaction to it? I've had the Genesis song, "Robbery, Assault, and Battery" running in my head a lot. I find it kind of laughable, but that's a bad habit of mine anyway. C'mon, what was your reaction to getting ripped off?

  End transmission.

  
• Stealth post

  Well, I see that everybody's blogging right now, so I can slip mine in under the radar.

  There's been a lot happening lately. Also, my life seems to be a bit different from many in Frontier Fleet. I'm pushing 50 with a family and I have fond memories of my college days, but they were quite a while ago. Those of you in your late teens and early 20's can read this and think, "Dear God, this will never happen to me!"

  I recently got promoted, which I'm pretty tickled about. I work for the glorious, beloved United States Postal Service. I've had a weird couple of years in my job. I was a letter carrier for 13 years, and a budget cut eliminated my mail route. I got shuffled into a clerk position, which was pretty cool in itself, because it got me out of a real nightmare of an office into a very good one. Given the change in career tracks, I decided to start trying to move up into the ranks of Postmasters.

  Well, I made it! I got my official posting last November, and they've finally hired my replacement in my clerk job, so on April 1 I took over as Postmaster of Enfield Center, NH, 03749. It's a tiny office. I'm the only employee. And, it's exactly what I wanted!

  The USPS is a huge beaurocracy, of course. Lots of internal politics. In spite of that, it's a good place to work, and I actually like my job. It may not seem that exciting, but I like people. In my little out-of-the-way, barely-on-the-map out-of-the-loop corner of the universe I can do the job the way it should be done.

  Plus, I keep a guitar on a stand right in the middle of my workroom floor. If I feel like plunking away, hey, I'm the boss! If I feel like working through lunch, who's going to stop me?

  When I was in college (Uh-oh, here we go. Yeah, you had to walk ten miles to school, uphill both ways, through 17 feet of snow, right?) Ahem! When I was in college, I was a music major. I was going to be a rock star. It was inevitable. After all, I'm a genius.

  You've got to remember, this was the early 80's. I graduated high school in '73, took ten years or so to "find myself," which in my case meant the following:

  1) Do a lot of drugs.
  2) Have a lot of sex.
  3) Work up the nerve to actually do what I most wanted to do, no matter what anybody in my family thought of it.

  I'm a musician. I sing, and play guitar, and write. I eventually got to California, where there is nobody with my last name or accent. I enrolled in Sacramento City College and took classes that I wanted to take. Music Theory. History of Jazz. Creative Writing. History. Speech. Theatre. Made some friends, wrote some songs, found Jesus, and gigged everywhere that would let me get my axe out of its case.

  In the end, it all came to nothing as far as a musical career goes. By that time I was 30. I had two kids and an ex back East, so I came home. Tried to patch up the old relationship and failed. Fell in love with another woman, who's not nearly so jealous of my guitar, got married and had two more kids.

  It may sound like my life is over by that one paragraph, but it's really just getting going in good shape. Sometimes it's frustrating, and sometimes it's confusing, but I've learned a lot.

  One thing that I've learned is that, while I actually have a fair bit of talent, I'm a lousy salesman. I have absolutely no business acumen whatsoever, especially when the product I'm trying to sell is myself. I've tried working in sales, but it never pans out. I can do the spiel just like I mean it, but if the customer says he doesn't need what I'm selling, I always have to admit that he's probably right.

  So I do my music for fun. I'm in a band that plays semi-regularly, and even works on original material from time to time. I also play as a solo act. And, now I have Frontier Fleet to keep my edges sharp in regards to writing prose. I have developed a philosophy of marketing; Peter Pan's Lemonade Stand. I even wrote a song about it, but I'll let you wait until the CD comes out. Basically, Peter Pan is the boy who will never grow up. He takes that which he creates, sets up a little table in his front yard, and anybody who wants some can have some.

  I've got enough
  I can sell a little bit,
  And give a little bit away
  I'll grow up
  I promise
  Right after Judgement Day
  If you come by,
  I'll help you out
  Any way I can
  Look for the sign
  I'll be sitting right there
  At Peter Pan's Lemonade Stand.

  Enough for now. Back to your regularly scheduled blogs.

  r

  

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