Monday, September 04, 2006

Things That Make You Go.... Hmmmmmm

Ok... so... Arts, Beats and Eats.

For those of you who live in the Detroit Metropolitan area, "Arts, Beats and Eats" doesn't mean some curbside painter wacking people with a stick while eating a corndog. It actually means an honest to goodness 'good time in downtown Pontiac' (if that can actually be had) eating, drinking, buying and riding carnival rides. AB&E (as I will call it henceforth) was our outting for today with the kids (yes, you CAN take kids there).

It's an annual outting, actually. Every Labor Day weekend Linc and I take the kids to AB&E and spend an enormous amount of money eating, riding and buying glow-in-the-dark sticks for the kids. Every year the kids whine because they can't go on anymore rides, their tired, their hungry or they just want to see their parents pull their hair out among 10,000 people in a cramped three-block radius. Every year we either sweat, freeze or get rained on. Every year we go back because we think we know what we did wrong THIS year. *sigh* It's like a study on Pavlov's dog.

However, I must say that THIS year things went mighty well. The weather was cool and breezy and we had enough money to keep the kids satisfied without us going broke in the process. Ah, commercialism. Anyway, by 4pm the kids were beat and getting hungry. Linc stayed downtown to watch some concerts and I came home with the kids, cooked dinner and generally 'hung out' until bedtime.

Now... during that 'hanging out' period....

Did I ever tell you that I'm a closet Star Trek Junkie? *sigh* Probably not. I don't know too many 40-Mother-of-three-closet-star-trek-junkies out there. We're few and far between not to mention embarrassed that we actually know who Jonathan Archer is and can't wait until Paramount Pictures produces another flippin' ST movie (there are 10 you know).

At any rate, my husband (a 33 year old ST junkie) and I run a Star Trek play by email game (now, I KNOW you're thinking... "Did she HAVE to go here?") called Liberty Fleet. The game is fun primarily because I can write a character that is totally unlike myself and lose myself in fantasy land without ending up in an mental institution. The problem, is that in running the game you end up spending a great deal of time working on promoting, editing, and playing the game for FREE. Yes, I said FREE... I do not get paid for my editing of writing submissions (posts), my counseling sessions with young writers who have NO clue where to begin and those few and far between (you KNOW who you are) who can't spell worth a POOP when they write more than three words in a row. However, I enjoy reading the entries to our crazy storylines and sometimes wish that I could actually BE the captain that I write (might be a little hard though, considering I write a man).

HOWEVER, this new storyline, an 'alternate timeline' kind of deal (something from the future gets left in the past so it changes everyones future kinda thing) is bringing out the looneys! Pure evil, I'm telling you! I can't believe some of the stuff that I'm reading... it's bizarre. Torture, killing, maming, sex (rape, bisexuality) and don't forget just plain ole anger.

*SHEESH*

People, people, people. Let's think about this SHALL we? I mean, such angry folk are running around with laptops in hand. *shakes head* It amazes even I. Who knew that such folk walked the earth taking their kindergardeners to school each morning and fixing meatloaf for dinner. Now, to tell the truth that's a bit harsh... a lot of our writers are college age kids that love Star Trek (ST) and love to write stories. I doubt that most even know what meatloaf is, let alone know how to fix it for dinner.

All in all today was a success. Tomorrow is Labor Day which means an annual trip to my in-laws for dinner and visiting. This year it also means that our exchange student has football practice (someone should give that coach a piece of my mind) from 5pm to whenever. *sigh* I'm hoping that whoever thought a practice on Labor Day was necessary, will be locked up by the Labor Day police and the key thrown away.

... things that make you go, hmmmmmm.

1 comment:

Nelania said...

I know that you spend a great deal of your time editing,and counseling us young college students who by the way can make meatloaf (well, at least I Can) *winks*. But, what you may not know is how grateful we are that you put up with us and our less than stellar spelling, our everyday problems, etc. (you'll have to excuse my spelling on here, lol)

You've created something that has become another family to some of us. It allows us (like you said) to totally lose who we are and to enter this different universe.

So, I just wanted to say thanks, because I bet you don't get that very often. You have no idea how much I appreciate the time and effort you sacrifce to keep the game going.

You're the best *hugs*!

Oh, and as for the storyline, well, it was really McKenna who started it. But I can see why, McKenna really would become that with the timeline change. I Don't think anyone else really has that good of an excuse, although it has interested many people. I'm sure they're just letting out some frustration.