Leaderboard

Nominations for the 2020 Awards Ceremony open on Monday, May 18 at 12:15am Pacific Time and close on Wednesday, June 10 at 11:45pm Pacific Time. If this is your awards ceremony with us, welcome! This is a tradition that dates back to 1996, wherein we honor the people of the fleet who are simming really well, or contributing OOC. Back in the "old days," we would gather the entire fleet onto one email list (we were a lot smaller then...) and sim together an award presentation; now we do things a bit differently. Here's how it works today: Everyone in the fleet submits nominations for consideration. The group staff (ship COs, EC members, etc.) review the nominations. Each ship has their own awards presentation on their OOC email list for awards in the General Awards category. Award in this category can be given to one person on each ship. Then, we have a fleetwide presentation of awards here on the forums. Awards in the Duty Post, Special, Staff, and Length of Service categories are presented over the course of three days. One person in the fleet can receive each of the Duty Post, Special, and Staff categories. How to nominate: We rely on each and every member of the fleet to submit nominations so we can recognize the best members of our community who are putting in the time and effort to make this a fun place to be. So we need your help! If you don't nominate your peers and mentors for awards, they won't get recognized. We want to encourage everyone to be really free with their nominations – there's no penalty in putting in a nomination that doesn't ultimately get the award. But ships that have fewer nominations tend to end up having fewer award winners – so don't be shy! Multiple nominations from members of a ship for any given award can help send a signal to reviewers that a certain person is really deserving, but also one really great nomination can be the deciding factor for someone to win an award. Follow these simple instructions to get started: Check out the wiki Hall of Honor to see the list of awards and learn more: https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php?title=Award Consider who you want to nominate. Then do a quick check on the list of past award winners to make sure they haven't won the award before: https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Award_Recipients (You can sort the table by clicking on the column headers, or you can use your browser's "Find" feature to quickly find a character anywhere on the page – on PC, use CTRL+F, on Mac use ⌘+F.) If the person hasn't won the award before, head to the nomination form: https://www.starbase118.net/members/personnel/forms/award-nomination-panel/ Enter your information and select the award. Then write a nomination reason. For some awards, we'll ask you for a link to a sim if you have one readily available that helps justify your nomination. Don't stress out about finding a sim, but if you have one, it could help. If you feel really confident about your award nomination, chat with others on your ship who might also feel the same way and recommend they make a similar nomination! Writing a good nomination: Remember, your nominations are going up against other nominations from your ship (for General category awards), or from the entire fleet (Duty Post, Special, Staff category awards). So the better you make your case for why your nomination should win, the more likely it is that it will help your nominee end up getting the award. After the nomination period opens this year, going to post on the Community News some great sample nominations that helped their nominees win an award. I'll add a link to that post once it's up. But in the meantime, you can check out these from previous years: https://www.starbase118.net/2018/award-nomination-examples/ All that being said, don't go overboard! If the case for a nominee self-evident, or clearly shown by a sim, it's okay to write less in your explanation and allow the evidence to stand on its own. How to get a sim link: You can grab a link to a sim by going to your ship's Google Group archive (the link is in the footer of every sim). Awards Ceremony schedule: June 27, Saturday: Introduction, General Awards June 28, Sunday: Special and Length of Service Awards June 29, Monday: Staff Awards June 30, Tuesday: Duty Post Awards, finale/acknowledgments, complete ceremony posted. Questions? Head to the Discord chatroom, where we have the #awards2020 room where you can ask questions of other members. Or, ask your FO or CO for help – they're happy to answer questions and have been through multiple ceremonies!

I'm fairly certain Aria made an extra curricular out of avoiding all that stuff.

When it comes to Starfleet ship design, there are always new designs in the works. When it launched, the Galaxy-class was considered the safest, most advanced ship in Starfleet and assignment to one was an honor. Within ten years of its launch, the more powerful Sovereign-class was designed, built, and put into service to take its title as the most advanced class of ship in the fleet. The 2370s also saw new designs tested in the form of the dedicated warship Defiant-class, the Intrepid-class full of new technologies, and the Prometheus-class with an experimental multi-vector assault mode. However, this constant change of what design is the most advanced of the moment doesn’t detract from how dependable Starfleet ships designs can be. Some ships, like the Excelsior-class and Miranda-class, were still seeing regular use a century later. Starfleet ship classes are routinely refitted with new technologies to extend their useful lifespans. Even the Oberth-class remained in regular service for decades. This week, we’d like to know if there are any older models of ship that could be a valuable asset to Starfleet if they were just updated to modern standards with new technology. Do you think that a Constitution-class redesigned and rebuilt from new components could hold its own against modern explorer designs? Would you like to see the Miranda or the Excelsior revisited and retooled to see that they remain on the front lines of the final frontier into the 25th century? Or maybe you think that Starfleet should be trying new designs and new ideas rather than remaking old ships? Which older class of ship would you like to see redesigned and reintroduced into the fleet?

I just love how we all were picturing these giant tunneling ant creatures, and then out of no where here comes Teller with this:

The small computer screen snapped into focus, a familiar sight in the background. Her Zhavey’s office, and taking up the foreground, Ejherenna zh’Qynallahr, her Zhavey. Piravao sighed and sank back in her seat, antennae flicking away to focus on some other part of the small shuttle. “What do you want, Ejherenna?” Her tone was dismissive, uninterested and mildly irritated. “Is a Zhavey not allowed to call her child from time to time?” Ejherenna’s antennae flicked in a way which indicated her feelings had been hurt by Piravao’s dismissiveness. “Last time we spoke you tried to convince me that I needed to come home and form my bond with those three you picked for me.” Piravao’s antennae flicked forward, posturing aggressively toward her Zhavey. She knew the names of the three selected for her, she had spoken with them numerous times in letters and the occasional subspace call, yet her Zhavey need not know that. Ejherenna’s antennae flicked to a defensive posture “Yes, but it’s for--” “I don’t want to bond with them,” Piravao cut her off ”and I’m confident they don’t want to bond with me either.” That was something she had learned in their letters. Like her, they all came from old families, and like her, they had been told that they would bond with people they had never met. They were all nice people, and Piravao considered the three of them her friends, yet there was no love between any of them. She had experienced love, Ezitesh zh’Reiji, the zhen she had shared a wild winter with on the shores of Emarnl Lake. Her hand strayed up to her shoulder, stroking the fabric above the tattoo she shared with the zhen. Ejherenna noticed the movement, her antennae curled in disdain “You still hold feelings for that nomad? You would rather court that barbarian than those whose bloodline is as noble as yours?” Piravao’s antennae lashed about in anger at the comment. “There is nothing ignoble about clan Reiji, they honour the ancient ways of our people. You could learn a trick or two from them.” Ejherenna’s expression hardened, her antennae moving together and angling toward Piravao. Then she sat back, her antennae relaxing as she did so. “I...apologize, that was rude of me.” Piravao relaxed her antennae too “It was” “I’m trying to meet you halfway here my Shei, but you have to give me something to work with.” Ejherenna’s expression was one of sadness, her antennae drooping over her forehead. “I don’t want a repeat of the day you left.” “I regret my actions that day, but I do not regret the outcome.” Piravao’s eyes met her Zhavey’s, her antennae flicked forward as her Zhavey’s flicked up, they wobbled back and forth, measuring each other up. “You broke Jhozahosh’s nose, Zartholh, Ashryvoss and I were quite upset when you left.” Ejherenna’s antennae sank down again, her expression mournful. “Jhozahosh has survived worse, and I’m sure Charan and Thavan got over themselves soon enough” Piravao saw her Zhavey flinch slightly at her choice of words, calling her Shreva by her name, while referring to her Charan and Thavan as her parents. It was deliberate, yet also unconscious. Her Shreva and Zhavey had been absent for much of her childhood, and as such she had formed a much closer bond to her Charan and Thavan. “She wanted to come after you. Ashryvoss spent almost three hours talking her down. I had to call the families of your bondmates and explain why--” “They are not my bondmates!” Piravao yelled, her antennae flicking up aggressively “When will you get it into your head that I will not bond with them.” “I had to talk them down!” Ejherenna yelled back “They wanted to go after you too! Were it not for me you would have been dragged back to the keep kicking and screaming!” “Oh, well thanks for letting me live my own life Ejherenna!” Piravao’s antennae lashed back in anger, almost burying themselves in her hair. “Did it perhaps occur to you that I might want to form my own bondgroup? Perhaps with people I love rather than people who were chosen for me?” “That is not our way. There are traditions that must be followed.” Ejherenna’s tone was much calmer, however her antennae were angled forward, a sign that she was ready to fight her position. “Traditions which are hundreds of years old! Traditions, which predate our people discovering warp travel. Traditions, which in times gone by would have involved blood sacrifices of Shens and children to try and prevent the snowmelt from drowning towns!” Piravao’s face was flushed a dark blue, verging on purple. Her antennae had almost vanished into her hair at this point. “Don’t compare the Spring Water Festival to your Time of Knowing Ceremony.” Ejherenna’s antennae flicked as though she found this comparison amusing. “They are nothing alike.” “Not any more, the Spring Water Festival has evolved. We’ve grown wiser and realized that blood sacrifices change nothing. Yet we still cling to thousand year old traditions when it comes to bonding.” Her antennae relaxed slightly, her face returning to its more natural shade. “And why? Because we are ‘the old blood’. So what? There is no real advantage to that in this age. All we are doing is clinging weakly to the glory of our ancestors and telling the rest of Andoria that we are stuck in the past. The rest of Andoria woke up when we helped to found the Federation, they discarded outdated notions and advanced. They started bonding for love, not power. So why should I bond with people whom I do not know simply to increase your standing in parliament. Your career is yours, what I do has no bearing on that. If I wish to bond for love then I shall, and if you have a problem with than then you--” Piravao paused for a moment, her Zhavey’s antennae were focused on her, yet her eyes had drifted off to the left, and Piravao could hear the faint taps and beeps of a PADD “Are you working while I’m talking to you?” Ejherenna’s eyes snapped back to Piravao “Oh, um, no. I wasn’t working, just, ah, checking a message from the council.” Anger flashed through Piravao’s eyes. “Don’t lie to me Ejherenna! If you cannot honour me with your full attention then there is no point in us continuing this debate. Goodbye!” Piravao slammed her finger down on the console before her, ending the call in a flash of anger.

Being an Andorian, Thalas was doing all the music he could. Loving his clarinet!

Seja was into her martial arts - Jiu Jitsu

Artinus was doing as many sports as he could. Also, he started programming his strategic combat simulation holoprogram.

Loxley avoids sports as much as possible (he has a note from his mum) but I imagine he tried his hand at acting... and found out he was absolutely terrible. But he still would have felt obligated to muddle his way through a bunch of awful productions of Shakespeare before finally putting his acting career out of its misery.