Completed Project - Star Trek: Into Darkness Promotion

It's been a long time since I've been able to put any time into this blog, but there has been a good reason. You see, I belong to a Star Trek club (the U.S.S. Kelly) and was assigned the task of coordinating our club's efforts to promote the new Star Trek movie at a local movie theater. Here is my report.


I guess I should start at the beginning.

We have known for a long time that a new Star Trek movie was coming, based on the 2009 reboot of the popular franchise, and we needed someone to spearhead our efforts... so I volunteered.

The first task was, of course, finding a theater that would want to work with an enthusiastic team of Star Trek fans. Fortunately, we had an existing working relationship with Megaplex Theaters - specifically the Jordan Commons location. (Click the link for a video containing our 2009 promotional event.) I contacted the Events Director (Julene) around March to begin planning.

Not only did Julene remember the U.S.S. Kelly, she had some great ideas. The first thing we talked about was setting up at both the IMAX end of the theater and the brand new Rialto end (shown below). We also spoke about getting a poster made advertising that the club was coming.

Consessions space at the Rialto end of Jordan Commons

Rialto section of Jordan Commons... panoramic view

With the recommendations from Julene and the memories of what we did for the previous movie rattling around my brain, I started planning. I had some grand ideas, from doing another Styrofoam Holodeck arch to collecting for charity to making sure we had a presence at both the IMAX and Rialto ends of the theater. But of course, nothing ever goes as originally planned...

Firstly,  the captain of a sister club, the brand-new U.S.S. Essex, suggested that as many of the clubs of Starfleet Command's Seventh Fleet as possible work together to show a more united front, which I thought was a brilliant idea. Especially as two or three clubs had already started working individually with local Megaplex theaters. This meant coordinating just a few things at the Fleet level... such as promotional "Coming Soon" posters and trivia questions.

Secondly, as cool as collecting for a charity would be, we decided that since people were heading to the theater for entertainment, it wouldn't necessarily be a good idea to be collecting money for other purposes. Finally, our Styrofoam provider let us know that the company was so busy we weren't going to be able to do anything like the Holodeck we had last time (good for them... but bad for us).

Fortunately, Captain Thalmann of the USS Kelly had a two great ideas for a display: a painted backdrop and a green screen. We already had the green screen, so we only had to come up with the backdrop. Fortunately, we have great people to work on that.

One of our great members purchased the material, another sewed it together, and some new recruits and I painted it. Here's proof:

Now we needed to construct a frame. My first thought was using PVC pipe, as that had worked well for us in the past. I already had several pieces ... make that lots and lots of pieces ... left over from other projects, so I thought it would be easy. 

Unfortunately the finished size of the backdrop turned out to be approximately 13 feet wide by 14 feet tall, and my supply of PVC wasn't quite up to the task. Good thing we had a backup plan! (More on that later.)

Meanwhile I had contacted Julene at the Megaplex about our fleet-wide promotion idea, and she thought it was a good idea. She contacted the other Megaplex theaters to see who, if anyone, would be interested in having a Star Trek club come promote the movie in their theater. Two were interested, but by the time I was able to coordinate anything with the club leaders, only one was able to be on their own (the U.S.S. Essex), and the other ended up coordinating at Jordan Commons with us (the SS White Buffalo). That actually worked well, as the captain of the White Buffalo told me he had never done anything like a movie promotion before, and wanted some direction and I needed all the help I could get.

One of our members is a graphic designer by trade. She took the idea of a "Coming Soon" poster and truly ran with it, and created some beautiful posters: two informational (one for the Kelly and one for the Seventh Fleet), and another as the "Coming Soon" poster. The informational ones were able to be rotated into Jordan Commons' rotating announcement screen (thanks to Julene), and looked gorgeous!

Now all that was left was to do the setup and be there for the actual event.

Remember how I said that nothing ever goes completely to plan? My work schedule is one of those things. I had originally planned to have Wednesday - Saturday off to promote the movie, but with work schedules, I ended up having to work the Wednesday. Since I got off at 7:00 pm and the first movie (in IMAX 3D) started at 8:00 pm, I knew I'd need help. Fortunately, Captain Thalmann was available.

He set up our green screen in the IMAX end of the theater, where we knew the hard-core Trekkies would prefer to go, and used another green screen frame for the Rialto end. We had several costumes available (mostly mine, but some from a local theater connection) and some standees of Kirk and Spock available for green screen pictures. I even created a rack for the costume out of some PVC pipe.

Remember how I said nothing ever goes as planned?

Well, when working with the theater on Friday morning, Julene informed me that she had a large group that would need the entire Rialto lobby on Saturday, as well as a smaller group that needed part of the space we were using on Friday afternoon. Since we had to move anyway, I decided we should only move once. Julene then allowed us to move into the main hall, which is where most of the theater patrons would be coming in. There was even a built-in desk there that we were able to coopt. Thanks to employees of the Megaplex at Jordan Commons, we were able to move the backdrop in about five minutes... tables and all.

Working with the theater, we were able to do trivia questions (provided by members of the Kelly and shared with the Fleet) in the individual theaters as well as provide a fun atmosphere. Most of the theater-goers enjoyed our presence, though to be honest there was one complaint. Plus I'm sure we ran the projectionists ragged trying to turn off sound in order for us to do our trivia.

Either way, being the coordinator for this whole project I was the first U.S.S. Kelly member on site to arrive and the last one to leave. I had a great team who worked hard to make the event a success, and I want to thank each of them as well as the events team and theater staff at Jordan Commons. Without you, this would never have worked.

Tissue and Blood Donations

It's spring! For me that means birthdays, sunshine, fresh air, and perhaps a little yard work (yeah, right)... but it also holds the anniversary of a sad event in my life: the unexpected death of my spouse.

The death of a loved one brings with it all sorts of emotional trauma, not to mention things like suddenly being the only breadwinner and trying to cancel or change credit card and bank information, but there is also something that is often overlooked... tissue donation.

When I was growing up I'd heard about things like heart transplants (or liver, or lung, or whatever), but had never given a thought as to where those organs come from. Of course, they come from recently deceased people. They'd have to be recently deceased... a living organ won't last long outside a body, even with support.

When my husband passed on, I was suddenly faced with a critical decision: whether or not to allow the donation of his tissue. While I was still in shock from his passing, not to mention the grief I was feeling, I also thought about the dozens of lives he could help improve by allowing his tissue to be donated.

Have you ever given blood? If so, you know those screening questions they ask you about your medications and any possible risky behavior? Well if you are authorizing a tissue donation, you get to answer those same questions and many more. THAT was one of the hardest sets of questions I ever had to answer, in part because the tissue donation people have to ask you the questions as soon as possible after the person passes away. For myself, I have to thank the people at Yes, Utah! for their kindness when asking me these tough questions as well as their support afterwards.

There are so many people in need of a new heart, or a liver transplant, or what have you that may die before they receive a compatible match. This is why I think that being an organ donor is so important... but we don't have to die before donating certain body parts and fluids.

Since we have two of them, kidneys are one organ that we can donate while we are still alive. I personally know of one person that has done so, and it made the recipient's life much better for a long while. The other thing we can donate while we are alive is blood and/or plasma.

I know you've probably seen the Red Cross and ARUP mobile vans around town. These labs provide a needed service by providing blood all across the country for use in emergency services and in hospitals. Could you imagine a massive accident without the blood collected by these vans? It would make the disaster much worse.

It is true that some medical conditions make it impossible for people to donate blood (which is why we have those pesky questions), but for those of us that can... we should, especially those of us who are in need the most. Since my blood type is really needed by these wonderful "vampires", I try to donate at least two or three times a year. I don't care for needles, but this is one reason that I'll tolerate it.

If you are healthy enough to donate blood and you still have some concerns, think about this:

• Blood is only donated one pint at a time and is replenished.
• You are not allowed to donate blood again until at least six weeks after the donation is complete.
• The medical people in charge of blood donation vans/locations help you to feel comfortable with your donation.
• Blood is very much needed, and is a donation that can be made several times a year.
• You may be the next person in need of a pint of blood yourself.

Saving Daylight??

It's that time of year again where we agree to live in a time warp and set our clocks ahead an hour. Now I really do love the spring and the summer, but I also really, really HATE having to change my clocks forward (and backward in the fall). Maybe I'm a wimp, but it takes my body a while to get used to the change and every  year I start to wonder what the point of it all is.

The original concept proposed by Benjamin Franklin was to allow ranchers and farmers more daylight to tend to their animals and crops. Other, more recent arguments state that both energy use and crime go down in the daylight. The information I read on these issues are all based on outdated studies and I, for one, would like to see a more recent study on the issue. Here's my point...

Other articles I read stated that crime actually increases around 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., when people are either at work or have gone out for the evening. My logic on the electricity issue is that with today's world of Internet connectivity, smart phones, tablets, and everywhere on the go we use electricity more than ever before, so are probably not really actually "saving" much of anything.

Here's some other interesting facts:

According to this article by the CBC (a Canadian news organization) on Daylight Saving Time, switching our clocks by an hour can lead to an increase in health risks, such as heart attacks, in the first few weeks of the time change. The Swedish study they quoted states "The most plausible explanation for our findings is the adverse effect of sleep deprivation on cardiovascular health,".

As for traffic safety, another issue brought up by proponents of Daylight Saving Time, the Canadian article quotes a study from researchers in Pittsburgh who found that the change back to Standard Time showed an increase in vehicle/pedestrian accidents (though the change to Daylight Time had fewer than normal).

Finally, the article states that those who suffer from sleep disorders have a very difficult time adjusting to the new time change. I don't think I have a sleep disorder other than just not being a morning person, but this is one thing I have in common with people who do.

Therefore I say let's eliminate the time change altogether. In this modern age, there are no longer enough benefits to outweigh both the health risks (physical and mental) and inconvenience of adjusting to a change of clock.

P. S.
In my research, I discovered an online petition to the U. S. Federal government to eliminate Daylight Saving time. If you are interested, you can find it here. If the Federal government doesn't eliminate Daylight Saving time, I hope that the bill introduced in Utah will at least mean that my state will opt out.

The Joy of Toddlers

I've said before that there is nothing more joyous than the sound of a giggling toddler (or baby) ... and nothing more sad than their tears. I love those precious weekend days when I wake up to my almost-two-year-old niece giggling at something she and her mother are playing. I also dread bed time on those days she gets too tired to sleep.

If, like me, you've never had children you are missing out on the joy they can bring to your household. Of course, they are also a lot of work ... I don't know how my sister does it. But my niece knows she is loved by her family, and she returns that love unconditionally.

Relaxing on a Saturday morning

Today, I was in my office trying to come up with something to write for this blog when I heard her out in the hall looking for me. When I came out, she took my hand and promptly marched me downstairs to play blocks with her. We spent several minutes playing with blocks, a toy laptop, balls, and whatever else she could think of before coming back upstairs - at which point she lay down on the couch with her pillow and blanket & had me read a book to her. As soon as she was done reading she pushed me off the couch.

There was also the time I was relaxing in front of the TV doing some crochet on an afghan (which I'll blog about later) when she wanted to count the balls of yarn or "help" me by taking the skein I was winding into the other room.

The point is that little children are precious and I, for one, am very grateful for the experience I've had with my niece. Someone that sweet and innocent needs to be cared for and loved with all your heart.

Twisted Lyrics - "Wanna Have Kirk"

Since my last post was so heavy, I've decided to be a little lighter with this one (but seriously ... you should check out at least the last two sections of my Medicare blog). Today's subject? Twisted Lyrics.

Who hasn't changed the words of a song now and then? And where would people of my generation be without "Weird Al" Yankovic? Without humor, life would be ... boring.

My husband, rest his soul, loved to "twist" lyrics... usually to a sci-fi theme. One of my fondest memories of his lyrics is his version of Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper (and lest we forget, Girls Just Want To Have Lunch by Weird Al). Not only did he change the lyrics, but he put a video to it. (You can see it on YouTube here. And yeah, that's me he roped into singing.)

So without further adieu, here are the lyrics to Girls Just Wanna Have Kirk. Twisted lyrics by G. Bogler, music and original lyrics by Cyndi Lauper.

Some girls like to buy new clothes, and others like bat'leths and fighting old foes
But for them all there's only one thing that works
Oh, girls they wanna have Kirk.
Oh, girls just wanna have Kirk.

He knows how to keep a woman satisfied
Whenever they see him; their eyes open wide
It doesn't matter if he's wearing a shirt
Oh, girls they wanna have Kirk
Oh, girls just wanna have...

That's all they really want, just Kirk
It's not Bones, or Scotty, or Spock, or some jerk
Oh, girls they wanna have Kirk.
Oh, girls just wanna have Kirk.
[background singers:]
Girls, they want; wanna have Kirk
Girls wanna have..... 

The com beeps in the middle of the night.
A blonde wakes up like she has just taken a fright
Then Jim says, "Hey, girl,  go put on your skirt."
"There's a job for Captain Kirk"
"That's me, Yeah, I'm James T..." 

That's all they really want, just Kirk
It's not Bones, or Scotty, or Spock, or some jerk
Oh, girls they wanna have Kirk.
Oh, girls just wanna have Kirk.
[background singers:]
Girls, they want; wanna have Kirk
Girls wanna have.....
[everybody] 

They just wanna, they just wanna
Girls wanna, they just wanna
Girls just wanna have Kirk.

I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of "twisted" entertainment. May you Live Long and Prosper...

Things I've Learned About Medicare

I've worked at lots of different call centers over the years, and I learn something new at every one. Right now, I work for a company that takes calls for an insurance company's Medicare eligible members. Until I started working at my current day job I had no idea what was involved with Medicare, and I'd like to share some of the things I've learned about Medicare in the process. Everything I'll share with you is available either at Medicare.gov, through the free booklet Medicare And You, or through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website.

If you're like me, you haven't thought about Medicare and probably won't until you ready for retirement. The problem with this is that there are some things we ought to know about Medicare ahead of time.  So here's a few tidbits I've learned over the past few months I've been working for this company.

An Experiment with Texture in Knitting

Once again, I find myself with lots of available time at my call center job while waiting for a client to call in. A couple of months ago, I promised myself that I would learn a couple of new knitting or crochet patterns this year. I'm definitely working on it, so I figured it's time to share the two latest patterns I've learned for knitting.

As I've stated before, I'm not all that adventurous when it comes to knitting... yet. I know the basics of knit and purl (a reverse knit, for those of you who were curious), and I know a couple of basic patterns ... a scarf and a pair of slippers, for example. However, I've never ventured far into patterns, and frankly textures like cable knit and patterns like sweaters or baby booties scare me. I just don't feel I have the skill to do them justice... yet. That said, I have been experimenting with texture. Both of these have ended up as scarves, because that's one of the easiest things to do when learning a new pattern texture.

This first pattern I took straight off of the Internet. It's a basic basket weave pattern that I made with either size 7 US or size 9 US needles, I don't remember which. (My size 7 needles broke after 20+ years, and I might have done this on either pair.)

Anyway, here's the photo of the pattern I got from the Internet:

Basket weave pattern example

For this pattern, make sure you cast on in groups of eight stitches until you reach the desired length.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: *Knit 4, Purl 4*, repeat between the * to end of row
Rows 3 - 6: Same as row 2
Row 7: Knit
Row 8: *Purl 4, Knit 4*, repeat between the * to end of row
Rows 9 - 12: Same as row 8
Repeat these twelve rows until the length of the scarf is the desired length.
Knit a row, and then cast off.

Here's my example:

Jill's Basket weave Scarf

The second pattern I've worked on is a diamond pattern. I've seen this pattern in all sorts of things - mainly sweaters - and I wanted to try it. Again, this is a simple alternating between knit and purl stitches. I figured I'd start it from scratch. Of course, now I've been told that there is an app for this. Figures, huh? Anyway, here's  an image from my brainstorming session:

Whiteboard Brainstorming Session

This is the one I'm working on now, and my coworkers can tell you how many times I've undone this scarf until I got it the way I wanted it. Part of the problem was that I'd either forget where I was in the pattern (and therefore mess it up) or I thought it was the wrong width, or it looked too squashed. Here's the pattern I ended up with for the scarf:

Cast on in multiples of 10 until you reach the desired length, and then add a stitch. Mine is 31 stitches wide, and I'm working on my size 9 US needles.

Row 1: Knit 5, Purl 1, *Knit 9, Purl 1*, Repeat between the * until you have just 5 stitches left, Knit 5
Row 2: Purl 5, Knit 1, *Purl 9, Knit 1*, Repeat between the * until you have just 5 stitches left, Purl 5
Row 3: Knit 4, Purl 3, *Knit 7, Purl 3*, Repeat between the * until you have just 4 stitches left, Knit 4
Row 4: Purl 4, Knit 3, *Purl 7, Knit 3*, Repeat between the * until you have just 4 stitches left, Purl 4
Row 5: Knit 3, Purl 5, *Knit 5, Purl 5*, Repeat between the * until you have just 3 stitches left, Knit 3
Row 6: Purl 3, Knit 5, *Purl 5, Knit 5*, Repeat between the * until you have just 3 stitches left, Purl 3
Row 7: Knit 2, Purl 7, *Knit 3, Purl 7*, Repeat between the * until you have just 2 stitches left, Knit 2
Row 8: Purl 2, Knit 7, *Purl 3, Knit 7*, Repeat between the * until you have just 2 stitches left, Purl 2
Row 9: Knit 1, Purl 9, *Knit 1, Purl 9*, Repeat between the * until you have just 1 stitch left, Knit 1
Row 10: Purl 1, Knit 9, *Purl 1, Knit 9*, Repeat between the * until you have just 1 stitch left, Purl 1

This is the build-up of the diamonds that start on Row 1 with a purl. As you can probably see, the even numbered rows are the reverse of the odd rows' patterns. This is because unless you add the second row, the pattern ends up looking squished. (OK, I stole this idea from a pattern book, but it works!)

Now it's time to do the reverse...

Row 11: Knit 2, Purl 7, *Knit 3, Purl 7*, Repeat between the * until you have just 2 stitches left, Knit 2
Row 12: Purl 2, Knit 7, *Purl 3, Knit 7*, Repeat between the * until you have just 2 stitches left, Purl 2
Row 13: Knit 3, Purl 5, *Knit 5, Purl 5*, Repeat between the * until you have just 3 stitches left, Knit 3
Row 14: Purl 3, Knit 5, *Purl 5, Knit 5*, Repeat between the * until you have just 3 stitches left, Purl 3
Row 15: Knit 4, Purl 3, *Knit 7, Purl 3*, Repeat between the * until you have just 4 stitches left, Knit 4
Row 16: Purl 4, Knit 3, *Purl 7, Knit 3*, Repeat between the * until you have just 4 stitches left, Purl 4
Row 17: Knit 5, Purl 1, *Knit 9, Purl 1*, Repeat between the * until you have just 5 stitches left, Knit 5
Row 18: Purl 5, Knit 1, *Purl 9, Knit 1*, Repeat between the * until you have just 5 stitches left, Purl 5

Now you just keep flipping back and forth. In other words, repeat the pattern between rows 3 and 18 until you reach the desired length, then cast off.

As I mentioned before, I'm still working on this scarf, but here's an image of what I have so far...

Well, that's it for this post folks! See you 'round the Internet.

Cutting Back

Like many people in the current economy, I am what is known as "under-employed". I'm not unemployed, but I'm not making as much money as I used to with a day job that pays less per hour ... and no vacation time, sick time, holiday pay or medical benefits for six months. That means cutbacks. So where to start?

In my case, I decided to drop the satellite TV.

My contract with my satellite provider expired a couple of months ago, and when I looked at my finances (or lack thereof), I realized that I could no longer afford to pay over $200 a month for television services. Between broadcast television and my large DVD and BluRay collection, I decided we could weather it.

There are a whole lot of options out there for someone who doesn't want to pay a satellite television or cable television provider. First of all, there is the option of broadcast television. Ok, so I don't get to see the cable television shows when they are first broadcast ... which is going to be hard then the new seasons of Doctor Who and The Walking Dead begin.

If I wait for a while, new seasons of my favorite shows usually show up on Netflix and I get an e-mail when they arrive. The Netflix service is $7.99 per month for either streaming television or DVD by mail, and another $7.99 if I choose both options That's quite a savings from that satellite bill. Then there's Hulu.

Hulu.com allows you to watch full episodes of the current season of popular shows via the Web without a subscription fee. These episodes usually come out the day after the original broadcast... which is much more tolerable than waiting six months to a year for the full season to become available on Netflix. HuluPlus is a subscription service that allows this same service to be connected to smart phones, game consoles, and tablets. The price for this service is $7.99. There is also a one-week free trial. Even combined with both Netflix services, this will be cheaper than the cable bill. The only real downside is that I don't know how long current episodes remain on Hulu.

Plus there is always YouTube. Many game consoles and smart phones have YouTube apps. Somebody is usually posting clips of television shows or movies, not to count the large supply of music videos - professional or amateur, official or unofficial - that are on the service. You don't have to have a subscription to view a video, but you will want one if you ever intend to post anything. I've found many a Doctor Who "Children In Need" Christmas special on YouTube.

I was recently told about another video service. Vudu is a free app for smart phones, tablets, PCs and gaming consoles. This service allows you to rent or buy movies and have them streamed to any compatible device. If you have movies on DVD or BluRay in your collection that have an "Ultraviolet" code, you can also add those to your Vudu file. I figure this is worth a shot, so I decided to sign up. The confirmation e-mail said I got several free movies, but I haven't tried to get one yet... I'm thinking about Men In Black 3 and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter as two of those options.

So as you see, there are lots of options for your television viewing pleasure if you decide to drop the cable or satellite television services. The only thing I am really going to miss is the DVR.

The Problem With New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! This time of year everybody seems to want to do New Year's resolutions. I have a bit problem with those. The problem is that I never seem to follow through on them. If you are like me, you set New Year's resolutions because you want to improve your life a little bit in the coming year. How many of us actually follow through on these goals?

A friend of mine posted an article on Facebook from CRACKED.com titled 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person (thanks, Rex!). It spoke about how people don't really care what education you have or what kind of person you are, they really only care about what you can do for them.

The other day I listened to Dr. Matt Woolley, a licensed clinical psychologist practicing in Sale Lake City and an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Utah, speak about this same subject... how New Year's Resolutions are "lame". They are lame because unless you really care about the resolution (or goal), you are not going to follow through on it, that just sets us up for failure. (By the way, you can catch Dr. Matt's wisdom on The Shrink Show website and podcast, and he is also a frequent guest on 101.9 The End's morning show.)

The trick is to make your goals achievable, to write them down, to really believe in them, and most of all to FOLLOW THROUGH! It's the following through bit that I generally have problems with. That said, I'm still going to try.

This year I have decided not to set any New Year's resolutions, but to actually DO something.

So, in answer to the question "What are my New Year's Resolutions", I resolutely say "none". However, I do have the following goals for 2013:

• Keep an active blog with a minimum of one post per week (how am I doing so far?)
• Learn a couple of new patterns for knitting or crochet
• Learn Adobe Photoshop (I already have the program)
• and the big one, Get a better day job