Today I made Captain, and shortly thereafter was awarded the helm of a new ship – the U.S.S. Miskatonic.
She’s a long range science vessel, of the Intrepid class. Well, mostly Intrepid class – the main hull is of the new Discovery class, but the rest of the ship is pure Intrepid.

Some of my colleagues have remarked upon my continuing to accept commissions on science vessels, since I do have a more tactical background and might feel more at home on the bridge of a faster, more powerful ship. While that may be true, to some extent, I prefer the feel of the science ships. They may not be as flashy, but they’ve got it where it counts.

And, really – isn’t exploration and the accumulation of knowledge the founding tenants of both Starfleet and the Federation of Planets? Aren’t we all supposed to be striving to make ourselves better, rather than blowing up everyone else in the sky?

Lately, I’ve been doing all too much of that – spending what seems like ages in Romulan space, sending the shattered fragments of the Romulant Star Empire – and the fledgling Reeman whatever they are – to their untimely deaths. Many of my crew see this as a necessary precaution, having grown up in a time of war. But I remember before – before the war, even before the Romulan Empire fell.

I shouldn’t remember that – I’m not much older than most of my crew. But here I am, sitting in The Big Chair, decades away from my home time. Not through anything Temporal Affairs would be interested in – I went the long way, via cryo-sleep. Damn the Borg, damn them for robbing me of my friend and family, of taking me from Copernicus Station that fateful day…

For turning me into something other than human, but less than normal.

But, no – today is a good day. A day of celebration – The Miskatonic is mine to command.
This should be a grand old voyage, indeed.

There’s not much more to say, other than: Good game, y’all. Discussion over, everyone go back to your lives.

While there, we’ll be doing many things: Meeting her family, visiting her school, seeing the sights, meeting her family, going to Bali and meeting her family. She’s got a large family, and I have to admit I’m a bit nervous about that portion of the trip. I’m pretty sure it’ll go fine, and I’m really looking forward to everything, but meeting new people is always a bit scary for me. This time, though, it’s not just meeting new people: it’s meeting new people, with the pressure to make a good impression. [face_scared]

Travel gear will actually be a bit lite, at least for me. I won’t be bringing a laptop or a cell phone: only my camera, PSP and iPod Touch, and a book. We’re both bringing gift-laptops for her folks, and decided it would be much easier to get through security if we were only carrying one laptop each, instead of trying to manage two – not to mention the additional weight. Plus, we’ll be doing so much stuff that there won’t be much time left for laptop fun.

As for the cell phone: AT&T rapes your wallet if you go overseas, even if you have their international plan! I called this weekend to double check their plans, since I saw it was only an additional $35 to add international data and roaming. What they didn’t mention in the product description, and what the customer service guy was reluctant to add, is that it still costs $2.15 a minute to place a phone call, and txt messages are 50 cents each. The data limits you to 20MB of use, which isn’t too bad… But with the voice and txting priced out of range, it made no sense to even bother bringing them. So, no Twitter updates, unless I can find an open hotspot while we’re there.

When I get back – and get over the jetlag – I hope to have at least a couple dozen good pictures to post, and (hopefully) a video or two for the YouTubes! Wish me luck!

5:22:29 PM: I’m going to annoy everyone on my Twitter thing by liveblogging the iPhone update. Yay technology!

5:22:43 PM: Installing now btw…

5:25:41 PM: Verifying. Hrm, blog seems to not actually be getting these updates.

5:29:05 PM: Okay, the blog is working. My phone? Not so much yet.

5:30:56 PM: Oh, what’s this? A warning that an app I have contains stuff not suitable for those under 17? Crazy…

5:32:15 PM: What’s this? Done already? Huh… Wonder why so many other people had to re-sync everything, but I didn’t.

5:33:47 PM: “whats this? what’s this?” Who am I, King of frakin’ Halloween?

5:36:46 PM: Checking out some settings. There’s an App Store entry in Settings now.

5:38:43 PM: Trying the Find My iPhone thing now…

5:40:22 PM: Getting some strange feedback on the blog. I think I’m also going to setup a new twitter account just for liveblogging.

5:43:33 PM: Found it to within a several blog area… refining it to within twenty feet. Not bad.