LH sci-fi dork-fest... or the making of a space base

After viewing this video, a tour inside our current ISS, I've had to revise my plans for my happy little space-goers. A free-floating space station wouldn't have as much space or large windows with beautiful views of space like I'd envisioned. And it would not be very aesthetically pleasing at all. It would be cramped and cluttered and every bit of available space would be used.

But they can generate oxygen from their urine! That's hella cool! LOL!

So anyway, if I want to keep this story as realistic as I usually try to, then that means staying true to the kind of possibilities we might see in the next 70 years. So I've changed my original intentions a bit, and I'll now have their "home base" built on the moon rather than a free-floating station in orbit. So from this point forward, that's where they'll be. And I'll try to go back and edit the story to reflect that.

one day, long-dreaded...

May 2083 - Cabe Deppiesse (41), Andy Bradshaw (56), Joel Harris (41), Alon Hutchins (27), Jeremiah Day (26), Keri Riley-Kim (22), Tyler Jackson (19), Stephanie Day (23).

*note: box of tissues warning!*

They felt it coming, there were rumors, there was an atmosphere in the news reports of preparation. They're getting ready for the first contact. They've built up the bases to support a troop surge, so now they need the troops.

Protect the planet is their mission, their first and most important order. They need all the help they can get, and they'll take it from every available unit around the globe. As far apart as they might be in culture or distance, they are all in this one together. Some units went ahead of them, and later more followed. Then last week, one long-dreaded day, there were these pamphlets in the mail: Your Loved Ones on Active Duty.

Soon after, Lake County unit 212 was called to duty.

one day, at Fort Bluewater...

May 2083 (mini-update) - Tyler Jackson (19), Jeremiah Day (26), Joel Harris (41).

One day, at Fort Bluewater, Tyler finds a helicopter. He's never seen one this close, the large metal monstrosity poised there on top of the roof, as if ready to spring into the sky.

more whining about photobucket

Well, Photobucket finally went through my archives and compressed everything all the way back to the beginning.

(Oh, bah! I promise I'll stop bitching about Photobucket soon. Just indulge me this one last time.)

Keri thinks this looks disgusting, and I have to agree with her.

Poor pixelated Piper :(

Dallas and Lucy's super sweet moment all spoiled :(

Some of the only pictures I have of Summer's mommy, all blurry :(

I was hoping maybe they wouldn't compress EVERYTHING. Because if they hadn't, I was just planning to relink enough to get me under bandwidth again, and leaving the archives as they are. It would have saved me a lot of work. But they did compress everything...

So not only do the archived pictures look like crap, but I'm sure they'll continue to max out on bandwidth and go down before the 13th of the month until I can get more of the pictures moved over.

So the relinking process is taking forever, but considering the sentimental attachment to some of my archive pictures, I just can't bear to leave them like that. The relinking will continue and will be finished eventually. I'm currently back through about the middle of March 2009.

LOL, only a year's worth of pictures left to go!

prom 2083, revisited

With four different scenes, and travel time to community lots, that prom update took forever to shoot and produced a lot of fun outtakes. And I was also feeling very particular about the mood of my narrative, so I didn't want to throw a bunch of funny outtakes at the end.

And besides all that, it was plenty long enough on its own.

So to start things off, this is what Melissa thought of my first idea for her prom dress! She says, "My cleavage is showing, I feel so naked!"

the things that make you panic

May 2083 (prom) - Dallas Deppiesse (18) and Lucy Harris (16) // Elijah Roberts (17) and Melissa Fortney (15) // Vicky Garth (18) // Summer Phoenix (18) and Tyler Jackson (19).

*** Sorry, I just realized three of my four girls have long dark hair, so I hope that doesn't get too confusing - none of them are wearing the same style. The first section kind of banks on you already knowing who these characters are, so new readers might want to read the linked posts above first. Before you think you're going crazy, yes, the first half is written in a wandering second person POV - and I intend it that way ;)

Box of tissues warning, and maybe NSFW?...

Soundtrack, "Details in the Fabric," by Jason Mraz/James Morrison. ***

You're young. You're growing up by the very minute, but inside, you're not much different from one minute to the next. Not deep down, where it counts, where you still feel the same things you've always felt. You're still the same girl you've been all along.

LCU, life in present tense, part 3

LCU, spring semester, 2083 (part 3 of 3). Part 1, part 2, part 2.5.

*soundtrack (for all three parts), "Lifeboats," by Snow Patrol*

She was supposed to have an appointment with a recruiter, but instead it's General Deppiesse who walks into the room. He is confident, casual, and so eased in his stride she wonders if he actually knows she's sitting here. He finally says a simple, "Hello," without even looking her way. She figures he must be talking to her since there's no one else in the room.

This is her mother's doing, isn't it? When Keri wanted to study abroad, her mother wouldn't step in to help, but now that Keri wants to join the military, she's all over it. Keri is convinced her mother is dead-set against everything she ever wanted to do with her life. She's surprised her mother didn't somehow step in to call off her wedding. In fact, for all she knows, her mother probably tried.

LCU, life in present tense, part 2.5

LCU, spring semester, 2083 (part 2.5 of 3). Where we left off... part 1, part 2.

*soundtrack (for all three parts), "Lifeboats," by Snow Patrol*

April reports to Lucky's Card Bar for her first shift as a bartender. It's a Tuesday night, and there's a reason they train the new girl on Tuesday nights. They're long and slow, middle of the week and barely a trickle of customers through the front doors. Underneath the bar is a sort of "beverage recipe manual," thick as a novel, and April gets it out for nearly every drink she makes.

Except bottled beer. Bottled beer appears to be common sense.

ugh, bandwidth... (and further chatter)

Wow, well I guess 10 GB of bandwidth on photobucket doesn't go very far at all! Pictures in the archives are down already for this month, and won't be back up again until the 13th.

Let's all say it, folks, "Photobucket blows!"

Sorry if anyone was in the middle of reading something. I'm back home again now, and I'll try to work on something new for you to read this week - something small at least...

And maybe if my brain is too soggy to do much writing, I might work on relinking some of those archive pictures - I've gotten as far back as May so far, lol! Only 2500 more pictures to relink!

(OMG, Photobucket sucks for blowing so hard, lol!)