7:04:20 PM vadmblackthorne: Heya folks
7:07:21 PM lcdrtkirr: Hello
7:08:18 PM majdougmcknight: Well, timing-wise, that ALMOST
worked.
7:08:24 PM vadmblackthorne: What almost worked?
7:09:11 PM majdougmcknight: I remembered it was an Atlantis
night only after I'd gotten myself all psyched to go see Transformers. So I just found a 7:00 showing, and
gambled I could make it back in time.
7:09:33 PM vadmblackthorne: Close enough. :)
7:09:51 PM majdougmcknight: Yeah, pretty sure I've been later.
7:09:55 PM majdougmcknight: Also, hey.
7:10:10 PM vadmblackthorne: Hey, the gang's all (mostly) here.
7:10:10 PM drunkngunbunny: Hey.
7:11:22 PM vadmblackthorne: Okay, let's get going.
7:11:34 PM cmdrshelev: ::tweeeeeeeeet::
7:11:42 PM lcdrtkirr: ::AA::
7:11:50 PM lcdrtkirr: ((I saw a 6:30 showing))
7:12:15 PM vadmblackthorne: Firstly, I'm pleased to award Log of the Month for June to Percy
Busard for "And if nothing else works..." !!
7:12:36 PM majdougmcknight: Congrats, and all that!
7:12:45 PM lcdrtkirr: Grats!
7:13:14 PM vadmblackthorne: I'll get it on the website as soon as I can. Good writing!
7:13:43 PM drunkngunbunny: YAY!
7:13:53 PM drunkngunbunny: Also, thanks :-P
7:14:10 PM vadmblackthorne: Okay then, onto the sim.
7:15:31 PM cmdrshelev: CLOAKING DEVICE SHENANIGANS (?)
7:16:05 PM vadmblackthorne: Tonight we're already into Machen Bren space, cloaked, en route to
one of their seats of power.
7:17:05 PM vadmblackthorne: Things are going well, for now...
7:17:07 PM vadmblackthorne: Questions?
7:17:12 PM majdougmcknight: Nay.
7:17:50 PM drunkngunbunny: Nein, mein fuhr- Er, no.
7:17:59 PM vadmblackthorne: Okay then.
7:18:01 PM vadmblackthorne: BEGIN SIM
7:18:02 PM vadmblackthorne: BEGIN SIM
7:18:04 PM vadmblackthorne: BEGIN SIM
7:18:39 PM vadmblackthorne: ::in the ready room with McKnight:: I'm a what?
7:18:58 PM lcdrtkirr: ::on the Bridge, at her station::
7:19:30 PM drunkngunbunny: ::In Engineering, wondering why kicking stuff somehow works so
often.::
7:20:04 PM cmdrshelev: ::In the brig with the prisoner, drinking
more information out of him::
7:21:10 PM cmdrshelev: THEN SHE SAID.... "I HAD A LIZARD
ONCE..." BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH (hic)
7:21:32 PM majdougmcknight: ::Having taken his seat:: Give me a moment, because I got the
feeling Shelev was really proud of his wording....okay, right. You're a blood-thirsty, snake tongued
scoundrel, who wishes to rape and pillage the Machen Bren Star
7:21:34 PM majdougmcknight: Kingdom.
7:21:56 PM vadmblackthorne: My ex-wife has called me worse.
7:22:06 PM cmdrshelev: ::Insert more incoherent
"interrogations" here.::
7:23:02 PM majdougmcknight: Right, well...seems to me, the bitch
of it is that the guy's got a point.
7:24:01 PM vadmblackthorne: ::looks at Doug incredulously::
7:24:21 PM vadmblackthorne: He does not!
7:24:40 PM majdougmcknight: ::Sighs:: Not with regard to you personally, sir. The knock on you was Shelev taking
creative liberties. I mean the stuff
about the Federation as a whole.
7:25:03 PM vadmblackthorne: Now Doug, we have our faults, sure, but that's a bit much.
7:25:55 PM lcdrtkirr: EnsLogan> ::turns from Sci2, thrusting
a PADD in front of T'Kirr:: Cloak
diagnostic updates.
7:26:13 PM lcdrtkirr: Thank you. ::takes the PADD::
7:26:47 PM majdougmcknight: Look, I'm not saying our rep hasn't
been a just a wee bit distorted.
But you insisted I come along, so I figure I may as well make my points
when I can. Would I be wrong in
assuming you plan to convince these various System Lords
7:27:48 PM drunkngunbunny: ::She looked at the display. Cloaking device seemed to be working
alright, which was good. And more importantly, the fuel source wasn't running
low any time soon.:: Excellent...
7:28:33 PM majdougmcknight: that what the Machen Bren have told
them about us were lies? Because
nothing our guest said is TECHNICALLY a lie, except for the part about our
malicious intent. And your
CHARACTER is going to be a pain in the ass to prove.
7:30:02 PM majdougmcknight: We talk our way into the good graces
of other governments, then assimilate them into our glorious hegemony, adding
their strength to ours and extinguishing their individual distinctiveness. We do ALL of that, and the last one is
a
7:30:21 PM majdougmcknight: sad but ultimately inevitable
result.
7:30:41 PM vadmblackthorne: Bullshit.
7:31:07 PM majdougmcknight: Respectfully? Prove it.
7:31:39 PM vadmblackthorne: Tell me the Vulcans aren't individually distinct. The Tellarites,
the Caitians. All have their cultures intact.
7:34:08 PM majdougmcknight: Sir, of course no one is going to
stand up and agree that they're drones.
And alright, it's a bit of an overstatement. To prove a point, if you'll let me run with this a minute.
7:34:19 PM vadmblackthorne: ::Shrugs:: Go ahead.
7:34:39 PM vadmblackthorne: (WB)
7:34:51 PM majdougmcknight: (Yes, WB.)
7:34:58 PM drunkngunbunny: (Thanks to both)
7:36:27 PM majdougmcknight: Do Vulcans have their obvious
personality quirk that sets them apart from most other Federation races? Sure. But that's not a culture. It's a charicature.
Do they have their own particular unique customs, LOCALLY
7:37:27 PM majdougmcknight: (Wow, she's not going to be
pleased.)
7:37:58 PM majdougmcknight: (She got a new laptop. If that's what she's using, she says
it's been having some problems.)
7:38:17 PM vadmblackthorne: (Uh-oh)
7:38:23 PM majdougmcknight: practiced? Yes. But the
Vulcans, the Andorians, the...hell, just pick one out of a hat, and let me tell
you what they've all got in common.
They're all Federation members.
What does that actually mean?
7:39:42 PM majdougmcknight: It means they've all consented to
the adoption of English as the Federation standard language. They all travel from wherever to meet
on Earth, to make policy under a system where you can't even tell me Earth
doesn't have more
7:39:54 PM drunkngunbunny: (...*stab stab stab stab the freaking computer!*)
7:40:59 PM vadmblackthorne: (WB again)
7:41:00 PM majdougmcknight: political clout than most. And they're all helping to facilitate
the spread of a culture that if not totally, is ESSENTIALLY human in
nature. So sure, Vulcans obviously
aren't humans. They've got that
logic stuff going. When she
7:41:17 PM drunkngunbunny: (TY. Hopefully it'll be for longer this time)
7:42:59 PM majdougmcknight: gets off duty, T'Kirr might just
light up a meditation candle, while I'm gonna go drink whiskey and play the
banjo. Whatever. But the point you're missing is that the
Federation isn't really that old.
And if there's a galactic
7:43:34 PM cmdrshelev: ((hick))
7:43:37 PM vadmblackthorne: ::listening, sipping at a cup of coffee::
7:44:34 PM majdougmcknight: melting pot, it's going to take time
for ANYONE to disappear into it.
But if I'm not sold on the idea that there's no danger of that, then
there's no way in hell you're going to convince Lord Hykon or whoever of it
before he gets
7:44:47 PM majdougmcknight: tired of mincing words and just
shoots your ass.
7:45:03 PM majdougmcknight: (I'm so, so sorry. I don't know where that came from.)
7:45:11 PM vadmblackthorne: (You liar, you liked it.)
7:45:53 PM majdougmcknight: (I think I got confused, and thought
I was in a DSG1 sim.)
7:46:37 PM cmdrshelev: (( :psyduck: ))
7:46:41 PM cmdrshelev: (( :words: ))
7:46:45 PM vadmblackthorne: Doug, I'm not interested in the long term potential assimilation of
cultures. I'm interested in stopping this war before too many good people from
both sides die. It's so bloody pointless! At least in the Borg conflicts and
the Dominion War we knew what the hell we were fighting for.
7:47:26 PM vadmblackthorne: Now there's these Machen Bren who came out of bloody nowhere, like
the Borg, but they may listen to reason unlike the Borg.
7:49:03 PM vadmblackthorne: I don't care about assimilating them or not, I just want them to
leave us the hell alone.
7:50:58 PM majdougmcknight: Okay, fine. All I'm saying is that when you DO make
your case, don't get bogged down trying to outright refute every claim they've
heard. That could go on forever, and
ultimately, it's still just a matter of which spin they're
7:52:13 PM majdougmcknight: naturally more inclined to
believe. Pick your arguments. Cultural assimilation is something you
could call an aspect of what we do...find examples where it just doesn't apply
at all. Cases where we've made our
pitch, they told us
7:52:32 PM majdougmcknight: to fuck off, and we've left it at
that.
7:52:48 PM majdougmcknight: ::Frowns and scratches the back of
his head:: Preferably examples
that don't feature godlike aliens.
7:53:02 PM vadmblackthorne: There's always the Klingons.
7:53:48 PM cmdrshelev: ((Actually setting up the klingons to
take the fall is a hilarious idea))
7:54:26 PM majdougmcknight: (I like it.)
7:54:36 PM drunkngunbunny: (Aww, poor Klingons)
7:54:38 PM majdougmcknight: ("Everything you've heard is
their fault...somehow.")
7:54:46 PM vadmblackthorne: (I'm trying to use them as an example of people who've told us to
fuck off.)
7:55:33 PM majdougmcknight: I'm not the diplomat, but my first
instinct says "Bad idea".
7:56:09 PM vadmblackthorne: They're rather similar, from what I gather.
7:57:25 PM majdougmcknight: Sure, but not in what I'd call
encouraging ways. If anything,
they'd be an example of how just fighting us constantly is a splendid way to
avoid getting swallowed up.
7:57:41 PM majdougmcknight: ::Thinks for a moment.:: Try this on for size. The Halkans.
8:00:08 PM vadmblackthorne: Complete pacifists, if I recall.
8:01:59 PM majdougmcknight: Right. A history of total peace. Something they were so fanatically devoted to that they
wouldn't even talk to us to negotiate a trade agreement, because they were so
concerned about the POSSIBILITY that it might be used for
8:02:57 PM majdougmcknight: warfare. Essentially every other diplomatic overture has turned up
the same result. They look at our
history, see the violence there, and tell us "Thank you, we're flattered,
but no, associating with you like that could
8:03:22 PM majdougmcknight: threaten this nifty peaceful trend
we've got going since...forever."
8:04:01 PM majdougmcknight: See, the kicker here is that they
have absolutely NO capacity to resist us if we just decided to annex them
anyway, unlike the Klingons or the Machen Bren, but instead, we've respected
their decision...and left them alone.
8:04:30 PM vadmblackthorne: Great point, I see what you're getting at.
8:05:09 PM majdougmcknight: (Er..."It" being their
dilithium.)
8:07:10 PM vadmblackthorne: And if all else fails, warp 9.99, right? ::smirks::
8:07:46 PM majdougmcknight: ::Grins:: We outran them once, carrying a whole lot more dead weight.
8:09:09 PM vadmblackthorne: Better than the other option. I'm not going to gain credibility
shooting up the place, and we're only one ship. A fast one, luckily.
8:13:49 PM majdougmcknight: Well, you have my advice
anyway. Debate examples, not
philosophy. Like...the
Romulans. If you want to look for
big parallels, you can't beat the Neutral Zone.
8:14:31 PM vadmblackthorne: I'll take that under consideration.
8:14:47 PM vadmblackthorne: Did our guest have anything else to say?
8:18:37 PM majdougmcknight: Plenty. But you'd have to ask Shelev about the rest.
8:19:14 PM vadmblackthorne: I'll be sure to. Including the rest about me. ::chuckles::
8:19:48 PM drunkngunbunny: ::Watch, watch, watch, watch the wonderful cloaking device! She
moved on to running systems scans, making sure everything was working properly,
etc.::
8:20:14 PM vadmblackthorne: ::stands:: Might want to check on them, it's been a while.
8:23:52 PM majdougmcknight: ::Follows suit.:: Then I'll be getting back to security.
8:24:10 PM vadmblackthorne: Thanks, Major. ::Claps him on the shoulder and enters the bridge::
8:24:39 PM vadmblackthorne: I have the bridge. Report.
8:24:40 PM lcdrtkirr: ::looks up from her work::
8:24:59 PM vadmblackthorne: ::wonders if T'Kirr's loving life about now::
8:25:04 PM lcdrtkirr: Engineering reports cloaking device
running normally, sir.
8:25:19 PM vadmblackthorne: Time to our first destination?
8:25:57 PM lcdrtkirr: We should arrive in approximately four
point three hours
8:26:19 PM vadmblackthorne: Very well, carry on.
8:26:22 PM vadmblackthorne: PAUSE SIM
8:26:23 PM vadmblackthorne: PAUSE SIM
8:26:24 PM vadmblackthorne: PAUSE SIM
8:26:32 PM lcdrtkirr: ::pauses::
8:26:34 PM cmdrshelev: Voted most verbose sim of 2007
8:26:54 PM lcdrtkirr: That was log material right there. =P
8:27:06 PM cmdrshelev: thats what I told em two weeks ago
8:27:57 PM vadmblackthorne: Eh, conversations aren't that exciting to read in a log.
8:28:29 PM lcdrtkirr: We rarely log about anything else... =P
8:28:52 PM vadmblackthorne: Vomit doesn't count?
8:29:02 PM lcdrtkirr: Conv with a side of vomiy
8:29:04 PM lcdrtkirr: t
8:29:44 PM drunkngunbunny: I dunno, sounds fun to me.
8:29:47 PM drunkngunbunny: *shrugs*
8:29:53 PM lcdrtkirr: It wasn't. =/
8:30:07 PM lcdrtkirr: Err, for T'Kirr, I mean.
8:30:07 PM cmdrshelev: says the vomiteer
8:31:28 PM vadmblackthorne: Okay.
8:31:37 PM vadmblackthorne: Next week, I have family visiting, so no sim!
8:32:03 PM lcdrtkirr: Noted
8:32:20 PM drunkngunbunny: Shmokay.
8:33:19 PM vadmblackthorne: Next time, we either get someone's attention or get shot out of
space. Or both.
8:33:37 PM majdougmcknight: Sweet.
8:33:41 PM drunkngunbunny: Yay!
8:33:47 PM cmdrshelev: DEATH TO THE OPPOSITION
8:33:59 PM vadmblackthorne: Two weeks is a good time for a log. Don't let Shelev and McKnight
win July unopposed!
8:34:43 PM lcdrtkirr: Hehe
8:34:43 PM vadmblackthorne: By the way, great log you two. Few can call me that and get away
with it.
8:35:01 PM lcdrtkirr: *grin*
8:35:03 PM cmdrshelev: it's not like NOT getting away with it is
all that bad
8:35:48 PM vadmblackthorne: Also, the move to our google group will be coming soon, so watch for
the invite
8:36:28 PM majdougmcknight: Will do.
8:36:29 PM vadmblackthorne: That's all for this week, see you in two!
8:36:45 PM drunkngunbunny: Later.