LoAmi

I don't think any of you have, unless by coincidence. Anyway, until I write a new bio for a female character, I'm male.

Even dead people have stories.

Well, back on the original subject -- I ran into Star Trek simming back in the bad old days, when I had AOL with per-minute charges. Sometime around the early or mid 1990's, I almost joined an SFOL(or its predecessor?) Academy, but was prevented from doing so by parents worried about an Internet bill. Fast forward to last October, when I happened to be on startrek.com looking up the next episode of Enterprise (on a cable modem, 400 miles away from and emancipated from parents). I discovered a link to the "Star Trek Simulation Forum" and read the information on the website. At that point, I wasn't sure whether I really wanted to get involved in a commitment involving a lot of other people, but I decided to give it a try anyway. So, I logged on using the ST.com name "Anhonymeus" (a strange spelling of "Anonymous") and was assigned the AENG position on the academy. Unfortunately, nobody talked to me the whole time! And, being a total newbie, all of this stuff was happening around me and I had no idea where all of this was happening -- were there real sensor consoles I didn't know how to look at? Orders from GMs? (BTW if anyone else is in this situation, please don't make the same mistake as I did -- ASK someone!) So, I read up a little more on the STSF website, and it dawned on me that *it was all made up*. That's when I developed the Lo'Ami name - originally intended to be a first name, but too many people thought I was a girl. Five academies later, I graduated. After hedging a bit about the commitment thing, I joined the only ship that fit my real life schedule -- USS Arcadia. And here I am today, with well over 200 posts into this looney bin.

Happy Birthday!

... and I seem to be taking this from the perspective of what political precedent it could set, and how that might hinder effective government. It will be interesting to see what happens after this recall attempt, whatever the result of the vote. Oh, and, Travis, take an aspirin and call me in the morning. :D

Not exactly true in a party-based system. We could fail to elect the incumbent's chosen successor and/or political party. Your argument is one of the major arguments against term limits. (But, that's a whole other issue.) Let's differentiate between impeachment and recall. In order to initiate impeachment, and certainly for it to happen, I believe that you need *legal* grounds. For a recall, it's up to the public to determine when it's an appropriate course.

I think you misunderstood what I wrote -- I'm not questioning the *legality* of the recall -- it's clearly allowed by the state law. What I am questioning is its frivolous use. When recall was put into the state constitution, I doubt very much that its use was intended to be a regular occurence - that would prevent any government from functioning. Barriers to it becoming one (it isn't one yet!) involve *requiring* either (1) a large number of signatures to initiate a recall, showing widespread voter support for the process to be initiated (as differentiated from a vote once the recall has been initiated) (2) a compelling reason to initiate the recall. California law has neither of those. Beyond that, the only thing preventing it is a political/social stigma that makes it something done only as a last resort; California did have that, and it has been broken. Oh, and, I don't have the power to vote in California :D

Lt. Cmdr. Arphazad Lo'Ami had a nasty headache. It was the kind he hadn't had in many-a-lifetime. He looked around. The lights were dimmed, at the normal illumination levels for the night shift. He was sitting at the science station, on the bridge. He vaguely remembered doing a cartwheel to get there. That, and referring to the first officer as "pretty" in front of the whole bridge crew; and singing meaningless songs from 1960's earth, broadcast to the entire ship. And, if all that wasn't bad enough... he had hugged Garnoopy. The bridge crew, meanwhile, were all too busy to deal with his antics, as were security and medical. The best of medical advice from a swamped sickbay had involved letting him sleep it off. The science officer on duty, Ens. Balmer, was working at science station 2. He looked at his superior officer, noting that he was finally awake, and trying as hard as he could not to break into laughter. Lo'Ami knew what was in store for him: a medical checkup, a few apologies, and a return to duty in order to mend his now tarnished reputation.

I'll bet it will be used a lot more often now that the cat is out of the bag. It, like impeachment, was considered to have been something that is to be used only as a last resort, when the governor had done something illegal under state laws or the state constitution that effected his ability to perform the duties of the office. Now, it's become a normal political tool to use if you have enough money to buy signatures and want to run for governor in an off-year election.

Then it's back to Fox News, where you can sit down and turn off your brain *until* the commercials. (Not that I'd like to defend CNN or anything). PS Next time, somebody, remind me not to release real-world email addresses.

While Microsoft is generally lax on security issues, and it shows in their software, you can't really blame the *system* for this one. - There's been a patch for the exploit out for nearly a month before anyone took advantage of it (unless you were unlucky enough to be using the "unsupported" NT 4). - Most firewalls blocked the worm - including the dismally inadequate "Internet Connection Firewall" that comes with the system. Users should be more aware of the security issues on an Internet-enabled computer. If you keep your system up to date, set up your software not to be an automatic security hole (::cough:: Outlook), install firewall and antivirus software (did I mention keeping up to date?), and use common sense, most problems of this sort won't affect you. In my experience, WinXP tends to be more stable than the older versions, although it is equally (or possible more) insecure "out of the box."

Didn't the last one of those become president? :: goes out to rent "Bedtime for Bonzo" ::

Although I don't know who I would vote for in California - anyway, it doesn't matter much, I'm on the other side of the country [but with power!] - aren't we being just a little unfair to its soon-to-be-ex-governor? (1) The energy crisis was precipitated by a deregulation scheme gone awry. While Enron (and others) jacked up prices for the average consumer and limited supply, there was little anyone could do about the "free market" forces in action, without rolling it back ("reregulation!?! how awful!!!"). (2) Nearly every state in the union is having budgetary issues now. The nationwide economy is in pretty bad shape, and the Federal government is *cutting* aid to states while mandating them to provide more services. [As a side note, you just got a $2 off your federal tax bill (enjoy your big savings!).] California has a particularly divided legislature, and a recall process that's easier to activate than in any other state that has such a process. Just my 0.02... :: runs away from political fallout ::

TNG did have a fair share of guys in red die -- those helm and ops seats are especially dangerous, except, unfortunately, when Wesley sat there.

Eh hem... Ziggy, you play a Star Trek character in a role-playing game on the Internet. Wear your pocket protector with honor!

A little history here to set things straight. [sNIP!] See....even Fred remembers 'Holly'!! But.....Shhh, Holly's a secret. Nothing really to set straight. Mine was a rather straightforward comment that a [relatively new] STSF-er would have had no way of knowing about the goings-on of an old SFOL sim that hadn't transitioned yet. As for Holly... who's Holly? :: gets suspicious ::

Because in TNG, the guys in yellow die.

Never read the book ... which theories would those be?

Just a second -- you think Timothy Dalton was a better Bond than Roger Moore!? "License to Kill" was the only Bond movie I ever fell asleep on.

While I agree with your basic point, I have to argue with the idealization of TOS. Remember Kirk's half-naked-woman of the week?

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No, that's the speed of television. :-)

Never by a physicist! (Although there's a really good Twilight Zone episode about time travel caused by breaking the sound barrier).

You've got it!

Nah, after their 7th year as academy cadets, when the actors all look old enough to be department chiefs, or even commanding their own ships, they decide to marry off the whole class to each other and/or send them to far away places, with the exception of the most annoying character, who gets retained for "Starfleet Academy: The New Class."