#starfleet life

[sloan-suggestion]

All of life's little problems can be solved with hard work and perseverance astrometrics and stellar cartography.

[sloan-suggestion]

No, Lt Haragan, you may not name that planet Myanus, I don't care if it's the name of an obscure Betazoid Goddess.

[sloan-suggestion]

Blueshift, anyone?

[sloan-suggestion]

Remind the Cartography Department that there is also no "North" in space.

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There are some days that I forget if I'm at Preschool, Highschool or the Academy. And then I realize I'm at work :/

[sloan-suggestion]

Personal Log: Stardate 53299.35

Work on the logs of the recently recovered USS Aphrodite continues; lost in the depths of the Beta Quadrant, in the heart of unexplored space, the crew spent several years gathering new astrometric data and making numerous incredible discoveries. This would be an exciting assignment, under the usual circumstances, however my team are not taking it as seriously as I would have predicted, and their terrible "space puns" are painful to listen to. I'm trying to keep them focused and engaged on the task, but without much success. I fear my own distractions may only exacerbate the situation.

It's unfortunate timing for such an assignment; my dear friend, Michael Eddington, is back aboard the station for a short while, and it seems I will be unable to make the best of his time, before he returns to the DMZ. I hope he and Corat will have fun in my absence, but I must confess a little jealousy; I had hoped to spend time with them both, and had been looking forward to our usual hijinks.

I also miss Corat; we usually see one another at least once a day, and I'm not sure when I will be able to see him properly. I wish I could keep an eye on him, as usual, but I have faith that Michael will take care of him. I can only hope they don't miss me too much, and try to immerse myself in the logs of the Aphrodite...

[sloan-suggestion]

Do Starfleet workers own any clothes but uniforms?

This is just a guess, but you're likely not from the Federation if you're asking this question; that's quite alright, and I will answer your question, but first let me explain a little background.

The Federation doesn't have a policy of non-ownership, or restrictions on what a person can own to resolve it's resource shortages; one thing we excel at is the reclamation and recycling of resources. This means that we rely heavily on replicator systems to provide what we need, from food, clothes and hygiene products to industrial components, building materials and even emergency shelter (pre-fabricated, of course). The heavy use of these technologies has allowed us to all but abolish poverty within the Federation, and has also lead to the abandonment of a money-based economic system - we have access to public replicators to provide whatever may be required, and we are always programming new patterns to provide for more recently developed needs and wants. This has lead to others - within our boundaries and without - as viewing the Federation as a form of Utopian Society, at least in certain circles. And is, I think, the root of your question.

Now, other interplanetary coalitions do use replicators, but they tend to be able to create less perfect replicas, and may be used more extensively to get around the limitations of space travel than as a major fixture in planetary or civilian life. It's not to say they don't use them, but they are less heavily relied upon. Their Bussard Collectors tend also to be less efficient, and they overall recycle at a less efficient rate (limiting also the times certain materials can be recycled, and also which elements cannot be replicated under current technological constraints), meaning it is largely non-viable for them to rely as heavily as we do on these reclaimation systems. They do not, for example, replicate their clothes or uniforms.

Whereas, we have found it to be space-saving and convenient to recycle our uniforms, and replicate new ones as is required; this removes the wear and tear of daily life and keeps us well-presented. All manner of things happen to those uniforms in the line of duty, and I honestly hate to think about the cost of replacing all of those...

It's a courtesy in Starfleet replicators that their are standard-issue patterns, which are appropriate for many species and builds (and may be further modified to accommodate almost anyone); these are uniforms, track suits, pyjamas, shorts, tank tops, T-shirts, swimwear, thermal gear and even undergarments. And then, there are the civilian clothes, for out of work scenarios, which may be bolstered by use of personal database access, where any number if replicator patterns can be stored.

So yes, we certainly do own and wear clothes outside of our uniforms, and some may have handmade clothes, but most of us settle for that which is simple and functional (and easily stored as data) - replicated garments. Actually, I personally tend not to wear uniform when I am not on duty.

- Wendell Greer

[sloan-suggestion]

How’s your handwriting?

An excellent question, and one that I assume stems from the Starfleet obsession with digital data storage and continued use of PADDs and computers; you're wondering if we have much opportunity to practice our handwriting, or much use of it? I can see why you might think everything is written up via typing, however this is not true.

Firstly, the PADD does feature a touchscreen keyboard for the purposes of typing, as many tablet type computing systems do, and this does see a lot of use, however it can be rather time consuming to type any level of lengthy text, because it is slow and the keys can be quite small. It's actually rather inconvenient for species with broad fingers, or fingerless appendages, though, and so there are alternative methods to increase accessibility.

One of these methods is speech-to-text recognition; this method used dictation to record the intended information, and can also keep an audio record along side the written record. The advantage is that you can record information without breaking your train of thought, but the disadvantage is background noises can create difficulties in speech recognition and sometimes mumbling or heavy accented speech can also cause issues. You need to remember to speak clearly, and be in a quiet space where you're not likely to be disturbed; it's not great for recording logs or notes in the replimat.

And finally, there is the age old method of writing; although pen and paper method has long gone out of style, in favor of the more renewable and space saving digital format (although there certainly are some civilians who are quirky enough to still use replicated paper and ink), there is the hand written method, using the stylus, which happens to be my preferred method. It happens to be faster, and more convenient than other methods, and the text recognition feature is pretty good. Of course, it does rely on decent enough hand writing that it can auto-detect language. I usually don't have any problems here, because although my writing gets very scratchy when I'm rushed, it usually remains fairly legible; that said, the PADD does occasionally get a bit annoyed with my signature, which has been rejected on a few occasions. Today, I am pleased to report, is not one of those days.

Regards,