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Rogg the Dachlyd

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Rogg the Dachlyd last won the day on July 19 2012

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About Rogg the Dachlyd

  • Birthday 04/17/1980

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    south Florida, USA
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    art, artists, bicycling, computers, cryptozoology, death, gaming, gargoyles, half-life, nature, photography, role-playing, skeletons, star control 2, team fortress 2, theme parks, urban exploration

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    USS Discovery
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    Engineer

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  1. Officers are expected to adhere to a code of conduct and maintain certain professional standards at all times, even off-duty. Anything with an officer involved (even if the other half was civilian, energy-being, or what-have-you) falls under Starfleet's jurisdiction. Of course, the 'Fleet could not directly punish or regulate a civilian, but the officer would likely be held responsible for both their and the civilian's half of the ..union. Cain, if you are not a veteran or a service brat, you are excused from not knowing the following: Whether enlisting or being commissioned, you sign away your life. The price of exploring the cosmos and spreading freedom and self-determination is that the "enforcers" (Starfleet) suspend many of their own freedoms. (Of course, I needlessly point out that many of our commanding officers are not strict "by the book" types.)
  2. Also, this is a good time to plug the excellent Voyager episode "Someone to Watch Over Me". In it, Seven of Nine explores the nature of romantic intent with her usual clinical precision. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Love_Amid_the_Stars:_A_Romantic_Bestiary I thought that the Doctor went through so much trouble for a single, curious member of the crew was very touching. Clearly the educational course was tailored to the former Borg. (Also, note that in the episode lessons 4, 5, 7, 9, 12-21, and 24-35 are not depicted in the on-screen narrative. One is free to imagine what interesting wrinkles of romantic interaction the omitted lessons covered.)
  3. I am going out on a limb here, but I'm going to guess that most, if not all STDs, like headaches, don't exist anymore at this point in the future... I think you're underestimating the variety and versatile nature of diseases. Some viruses and bacteria can survive and adapt where more complex organisms would die off. (Remember that it took the Medical technology of the Federation until the middle of the twenty-fourth century to cure the common cold.) As always, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Inoculation against common diseases would be standard operating procedure, but the side-effects of attempting to prevent every encountered germ in the galaxy would probably leave the patient a weakened pincushion. So it would make sense to require Medical exams prior to any ...exceptional personal interaction two people planned to engage in. Some people never even realize they are carrying a disease until symptoms appear or a doctor performs a routine test. Also there is a chance that an individual's body would naturally react to another person's chemistry as though they were a hostile infection. (Such as simple contact dermatitis.) It is nice to believe that diseases no longer exist, but not realistic. A significant number of Starfleet missions are transporting medical supplies to colonies, and fighting plagues and epidemics. Just as international air travel has made the spread of disease more of a problem, interstellar travel and exploration would be significantly worse so far as spreading previously unknown germs. Not everyone routinely subjects themselves to the decontamination algorithms of Transporters. Also, the Transporter programming cannot be aware of every tiny germ possibly carried by (or infecting) every known species. There are always more unknowns than knowns. (A blanket "assume it is germ/contaminant" protocol would be impractical as well - for example, by strict definition Trill would be recognized as parasites, because many of the benefits they provide their host are unquantifiable.) Instead of viewing the testing as unnecessary and intrusive, instead think of it as essential and just Starfleet's paternal way of making sure that the new couple "plays safe" and has the best possible chance of a consequence-free coupling. "Proper prior planning prevents [...]-poor performance." From my military experience, Starfleet could probably do quite a lot to anyone interfering with the crew's mission for selfish reasons. The United States' Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) goes above and beyond most civilian laws. (Again, another example: Adultery, while generally a quaint religious concept in civilian life, is well-defined and illegal under the UCMJ. Possible penalties include loss of rank and privileges.) The military rarely assumes individuals have the best of intentions. The top brass has to look out for the greater good at every turn. Any possible consequences would likely be at the Captain's discretion until the vessel returned to base. (I would imagine unapproved procreation would put both officers on mandatory leave until they were granted a review (if they were lucky enough to be granted one). Even then, it is probably common for one or both parents to be discharged to care for the offspring unless more suitable permanent arrangements can be made. That's what I was thinking too...so if you updated it, we would almost have to lose all the medical testing and so on. Are genetic issues widespread enough to even worry about in the Trek future? Wouldn't the most that it would require is a look over of medical records to determine anything? Anyways, I think, if you wanted to tackle this, it might be interesting to have - but it might be easier to just start from a blank page and go from their rather than try to rework this particular list. Cool find though. It's very interesting to see how Trek has changed with the times around it, and perhaps, how we have changed because of Trek? So far as I am aware, a physical and psych eval are still standard procedure when an officer undergoes a life change. (Such a being assigned to a new vessel or leaving service.) Marriage would certainly qualify. As far as realism is concerned, medical testing would be a constant. The genetic issues are a bit creepy, but not unreasonable. Starfleet Medical probably has an entire department of eugenics (not just to prevent possible genetic defects, but also to prevent any theoretical "natural" super-breeding program; Terrans would definitely want to prevent a second Eugenics War at any cost, even if the screening seemed intrusive.) If the possibility of breeding requires genetic sequencing/investigation, this seems to imply that genetic records are not standard or mandatory (likely also to prevent any intentional "breeding programs" for the creation of super-humans /-hybrids). From what I have seen, Starbase 118 might fall under scrutiny from Starfleet's Dept of Eugenics very soon -- our fleet seems to have quite a few hybrids whom have inherited the best of both parents without many (if any) defects of either! The atmosphere of Star Trek (and certainly the 70s-spawned TOS) was very pro-love and breaking down boundaries of prejudice, but all of the freedom was within a military framework which protected and propagated it. The one glaring flaw of the (accusedly Terran-centric) Regulation 1902 is in its very name: "Marriage". Casual intercourse in Star Trek seems common (and only more common in chronologically later series). So why would there be marriage regulations when "hooking up" is so easy and prevalent? In the context of the regulation itself, it seems that "marriage" is a convenient term for a sexual contract. The intent of Reg 1902 seems to be consciously governing intercourse regarding procreation (whether specifically intentional or "letting nature take its course). I believe interpreting Starfleet Marriage Regulations as having any but vestigial religious significance is a mistake. Clearly chapter 1902 is intended to provide a reliable framework for conscientious social contracts (even to the point of recommending a 1-year "trial" before any extended commitment) regarding sexual and social coupling. Also, as with most laws, the regs cover Starfleet's butt. If a captain does not want certain individuals fraternizing, it is not them being a jerk or racist - the couple just need to fill out more forms and submit to routine tests. Take a cold shower until the results get back!
  4. Thanks for the congrats. I think the Admiral might be slightly mistaken however, the remainder listed (including my own) were just the other entries. I don't think there was an official runner-up. But it was fun. :)

  5. Congratulations on your flashback! Pretty high up there for your first attempt.

  6. That is a much more interesting viewpoint than previously encountered, Species 5618. Your ideas will be adapted to serve as my own opinion. The way the Borg ignore that which they considered irrelevant always annoyed me. I suppose that is equally a commentary on modern society, where people are ignorant of their next door neighbors and whatever does not make it into the newsfeeds they scan on the internet, but people know what celebrities are doing and about whatever political factions are vocal about at the whim of the lobbyists. The Borg are also sort of a backwards approach to a concept as old as TOS - That of cultures advancing on their own to a higher state. In TOS, there were quite a few energy beings, societies who had advanced culturally and as individuals enough to transcend material bodies. Apparently quite a few different cultures achieved "perfection" this way, more likely than not each through their own means. The Borg are kind of an affront to that established cycle of development. Having evolved, if you will, as far as they could technologically, they then applied their existing knowledge and skills to harvest other cultures for their knowledge. But as Whale points out, much of the meaning of a culture and its technology is lost without the understanding which only comes from preserving identity. Essentially, with their "efficiency" or whatever, the Borg reduce high technology to garbage and other races and cultures to slaves. Still, I consider the Borg to be a kind of lame enemy. For the most part they were too powerful (which is bull — Kirk encountered way more powerful beings) to interact with meaningfully. This is why TNG's "I, Borg" is one of the only Borg-heavy plots I could get behind. "I, Borg" was compelling in that the Enterprise rescues a Borg drone whose death The Collective would have considered of negligible importance, and then (a la TOS) the crew and the alien both learn something about each other. In a symmetrical development of understanding, both Hugh and the Enterprise crew are forced to realize that the Borg are individuals. The Federation may see them as a unified force of interchangeable parts, but this is not the case. Since separation, Hugh has been able to regain some sense of identity; logically the same must be true for all (or at least a majority of) the Borg Collective. The races and drones making up the Borg are pitiful slaves to omnipresent technology, and never was this more apparent than in this story from TNG.
  7. Been busy mate. I'm simming but I haven't had much time to hang around on the site. How've you been?

  8. Where have you been, Saveron?

  9. Birthday time! Woo woo woo. I am going to party like a responsible thirty-one-year-old guy.

  10. From that description, they sound a bit like raccoons! Raccoons can get into almost anything. And they are unfortunately omnivorous; one kept on trying to eat my dad's chickens. (Unlike the fox, who was much more likeable and was mostly interested in the cat food.) Raccoons eat fruit before it's ripe enough to pick. I used to think they were cute and smart, until I found out they have a tendency to defecate in their water supply. Gross! No [...]atoos here, unless someone buys one. We have monk parakeets though. They spread like crazy in my neighborhood after Hurricane Andrew. They have a loud, obnoxious call - but probably not so loud as the [...]atoo. There are a lot of great things to see wherever you are! Of course, a lot of things are weather-permitting. I would like to see Australia some day. I have seen great photos of it from photographer websites. Australia always gets a mention whenever Animal Planet or some other channel mentions crocodiles or sharks. And there are platypi (or are they platypuses). Plus, Australia is close to Tasmania. So many interesting things all over the world
  11. I recall a few years back some of our most active membership were in Canada. Noble Canada, with its great cold, and even greater comedians who help entertain their neighbors down in the United States. Seriously, what is it that makes so many funny people up there? Do we have any members in Mexico? Maybe we could all get together at their house... Australia is nice, but a bit farther than Mexico.
  12. You can do it however you like- whatever style takes your fancy. Some people do them in "sim format", others do narrative style. Whatever you feel most comfortable with and whatever serves your story best. Thanks! I think I would prefer to write regular-style. (Although practicing "sim format" might not be too bad an idea.) Hopefully I can have my story up by tonight.
  13. I am going to post my entry regardless, but I do have a question if any of y'all know: Do these stories follow normal sim format? What with the ::colons:: and people's speech noted by their name in ALL CAPS? Or are these more like regular stories, with normal paragraphs?
  14. Hey! You only think Australia is so great because it is the only country which is also a continent. I must admit, Australia has possums. In N. America we have opossums. The majority of people here refer to them as possums. (Presumably 'posssums with an apostrophe, but I have my doubts that these people are aware Australia has a similarly-named and entirely different animal.) Opossum babies are kind of cute, but when they grow up they resemble slow, waddling, dim-witted rats.
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