Teh intarwebs hates me

Three in a row.. all good RP opportunities that I blew by losing my internet connection... at least I was able to patch the two on the station but being offline for a recruit med exam is kinda hard to forgive.

This sucks.

Personal status update...

As many of my colleagues in medical division were aware I've been without a RL job since the end of Jan. Happy to report that I now have a new position but I've just over a week to organize a temporary apartment 600 miles away and get moved to take this new one. This means that for a few days, whilst I may be visible inworld I will not have a great deal of time to work on division projects, being frequently AFK other than when attending to urgent issues in my SL business. I'm not taking a formal LOA and will still participate when I've time but please dont be offended if you IM me and I dont answer.

Dr Da5id Weatherwax

Brief recap of the 2009-05-30 Staff Meeting

Our 2009-05-30 Staff Meeting was very lightly attended. Doctors Kasshiki, Forwzy and myself discussed this and our diagnosis was a severe case of Spring Fever (an old malaise, known in to the ancient Greeks as Εαρινό Πυρετός and hence to the Romans as febris ver). Our prognosis is of a swift recovery :-)

Our next biweekly Staff Meeting will be on Saturday, 2009-06-13 at 4:30pm SLT at the McCoy - Troi Medical Center. With the biannual GFC Ball taking place a couple of weeks after that, we will reschedule the 2009-06-27 meeting to another date.

Hope to see all at the meeting on the 13th and also at one of the Balls.

- Dr. Juran, CMO

Highlights from 05-16-2009 Bi-Weekly Staff Meeting

Here are the highlights from our bi-weekly staff meeting:

• Welcomed LT snapper Desade, Ens Nogad Ay, and Crewman 2nd Class Echos Lockjaw to the medical team. LT Desade and Ens Ay are involved in medical technology research and will be working periodically with Dr. Weatherwax.


• We will be replacing the current Medical Handbook with an updated one this week. The new handbook will incorporate the new departments and roles. An announcement will be sent out when it is posted. Web address is http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d87mg5z_16pk4c75gh.


• For a short time, uniforms from the new Star Trek movie are permissible in GFC to celebrate the film's release.


• Regarding appropriate uniforms, First Contact - Nemesis, are Medical's (and GFC's) on-duty standard. In addition, we are one of the first groups that recruits come in contact with and if on-duty Medical staff are wearing a range of uniforms covering 200 years, it can be confusing. The same is true of accessories such as gold chains, blingy rings; those shouldn't be worn when on-duty. First Contact - Nemesis uniform sets (now with skirts for the ladies) are available for free on the first floor.


• If you are interested in learning to pilot a shuttle, please contact Dr. Kiernan Braveheart about AAC training.


• Dr. Pax Forwzy is working on a plan to increase opportunities for role play (rp) in Medical and within GFC. Stay tuned for further details.

Our next meeting is Saturday, May 30, at 4:30pm.

Michiko Akina

LT(jg)/ACMO

Voicing Klingon

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article today in its Careers section about the man who invented Klingon and how the opportunity came his way. Enjoy!

Helping the Hearing Impaired And Voicing the Klingons
By DENNIS NISHI

Full name: Marc Okrand Age: 60
Hometown: Los Angeles
Current position: Director of live captioning, National Captioning Institute First job: Radio DJ Favorite job: This one
Education: B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Years in the industry: 30
How I got to here in 10 words or less: I kept an open mind.

After earning a Ph.D. in linguistics, Marc Okrand took a job at the National Captioning Institute, where he worked on the first closed-captioning system for hearing impaired television viewers. While coordinating closed captioning for the Oscars award show in 1982, Mr. Okrand met the producer for the movie "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." That led to a twist in his career: He was hired to create the Vulcan language and, later, the Klingon dialogue. Mr. Okrand has since expanded his work on Star Trek languages into several books, including The Klingon Dictionary.

Q. Before joining the National Captioning Institute, what did you do?
A. I taught linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara before taking a post doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., in 1978. I researched a couple of California Indian languages that haven't been spoken in a long time. The last native speaker had died long ago so relearning it was mostly based on documents.

Q. How did you figure out how to properly pronounce the words?
A. A guy from the Smithsonian had actually spoken with the last remaining speaker of the language. He was a trained phonetician so he took very good notes. There were some Edison cylinders (used to create early recordings) of some songs in a related language.

Q. What did you do after your fellowship?
A. I applied for a few academic jobs but none of them panned out. Shortly afterward, I met somebody at a party who worked at what was then the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He worked with the deaf and suggested I work with closed captioning. Back then, it was a new technology.

Q. What made you decide to pursue the job?
A. It was language related and broadcasting, which is what I was doing before. It seemed like a fit. A few interviews later, they hired me as supervisor of captioning at the National Captioning Institute. This was back in 1979.

Q. What did you do then and how has it changed?
A. I was in charge of a number of television programs and movies. Once we got the videotape, I'd oversee transcribing the audio and changing the grammar and vocabulary. Eventually, I was in charge of captioning for live broadcasts. We used to use court reporter steno machines. We (now) use speech recognition and (work live).

Q. How did you go from captioning to the Klingon language?
A. We did the Oscars for the first time in 1982. Much of it is scripted and can be done beforehand, but we had to jump in with the court reporters right after the presenters said, "and the winner is…" In Los Angeles, I visited a friend who worked at Paramount. Her boss was the producer of the second Star Trek movie. They were planning on hiring a linguist from UCLA to create some lines of Vulcan for Leonard Nimoy and Kirstie Alley. There was a mix up and I ended up getting the job.

Q. So you created the Vulcan language?
A. They had already shot the scene in English. Someone later decided it was better if they spoke Vulcan. I had to create gobbledygook that matched their lips so it could be dubbed in.

Q. And that led you to create the more complex Klingon language?
A. I got to work from scratch for the third film, which included creating grammar and vocabulary (for the Klingon language). I did base some sounds off the lines spoken in the first film. But I came up with some basic rules and stuck to them.

Q. Did you draw from real languages?
A. You can't help being influenced by what you know, which (for me) was a bit of Spanish, French and American Indian. I also knew Southeast Asian languages. I'd be writing something and suddenly realize that it sounded like Navajo. I'd stop and make sure the next thing sounded as different as it could possibly be. I expanded the language for the fifth and sixth film and wrote a book called The Klingon Dictionary in 1992.

Q. How do you feel about creating a new language?
A. I think it's great. I hear it's taught in some linguistics classes and I've seen chapters incorporated into linguistics textbooks. Of course, I have to give credit to James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty. He invented the first six lines from the first film.

Write to Dennis Nishi at cjeditor@dowjones.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D4

New uniform set is available

A new 2373-2390 "First Contact" style uniform kit is out in the Medical Center, and this set (finally) has a couple of skirt options. Grab a copy if you are interested!

Favorite Links of the GFC Medical Staff

You may use this post to list any Star Trek or medical related site that you would like to share with the Medical staff. Site name and address are needed, and if you'd like, add a comment or description about it. They will be transferred to the category favorite links, found just below contributors on the right-hand side of the blog.

Staff Meeting this Saturday, May 16, at 4:30pm SLT

Reminder that our bi-weekly staff meeting will be held this Saturday, May 16, at 4:30pm SLT, at the McCoy-Troi Medical Center.

Hope to see you there!

Star Trek Movie Party A Big Success!!

GFC Medical hosted a "Star Trek Movie Fan Party" last Friday night, May 8, at the newly designed and decorated 501 Club (A big THANK YOU to BJ Cheetah!) to celebrate the US premiere of the new Star Trek movie. Dr. Juran made posters that were distributed and she also advertised the party on SL events. Serp Auer was our DJ for the night and brought his Starship tip jar that shot photon torpedos at the tipper each time money was added! A free uniform was available to any guest, and both GFC member and non-members came in uniforms from different ST eras.

GFC personnel showed up in force and it was great to have so many friends and new GFC members attend. We had a number of non-GFC people visit and they seemed to enjoy themselves. Hopefully some of them will visit us again as potential recruits.

Here are a few more pictures in case you missed the event....

Medical Hosting Party to Celebrate New Star Trek Movie!

GFC Medical will host a party next Friday evening to celebrate the US premiere of the new Star Trek movie! We are fortunate that one of our own division members is also one of SL's best DJ's - Serp Auer - and he will be spinning the tunes.

Since we are hosts and expecting visitors from throughout SL, please wear your duty uniforms, dress whites, or the free uniform being provided courtesy of Dr. Juran. She is hoping to have a second uniform available for the Medical staff and if so, we will send it to you. Remember that this is also an event to potentially draw in new Star Trek fans to GFC, so be prepared to pass along information about GFC if someone asks or seems interested.

Be sure to mark next Friday on your calendars and let's have a TERRIFIC turnout and lots of dancing and fun!! "Thank You's" in advance for "ignoring" your time zones to help this event be a great success!

Highlights from 05-02-2009 Bi-Weekly Staff Meeting

Here are the highlights from our staff meeting held on May 2nd:

• The medical staff welcomed Kamida Lockjaw and AndromedaStJohn Aeon to their first bi-weekly staff meeting.

• Dr. Juran made a surprise announcement: Next Friday, May 8th, Medical will host a party and dance to celebrate the US premiere of the new Star Trek movie!!

SEE DETAILS ABOVE IN THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!

• Dr. Bourne was delayed in his MERSI projects due to an unexpected LOA. He has returned and is investigating possible MERSI rp opportunities. Ms. Aeon mentioned a shuttle for sale at Galaxy Station that could possibly be used by Medical for a variety of purposes. If it can be group-piloted, this would open more rp possibilities for Medical within the Fleet. Dr. Bourne and Ms. Aeon will investigate further and report back.



• Dr. Juran and Dr. Akina discussed our Medical Division blog, MTMC News, with the group and encouraged the staff to request posting permissions (via Dr. Akina) so they can contribute original articles, information or relevant links. Posts would not be expected on a regular basis unless the author would like to do so. They should be topic-driven and relevant to our Medical team. The “Suggestion Box” on the blog is reserved for opinions, suggestions, constructive criticism, and the like. Staff members were reminded that Drs. Juran and Akina are always happy to talk privately with any team member about problems, concerns, and so on.



• We have a new backup surgical suite that Engineering made for us, and we will be installing it in the large room on the First Floor in the Medical Center. This is another opportunity for increased rp experiences once it is up and "operational."



• Current medical courses were very briefly discussed. Dr. Mayako has developed a third course about medications. If anyone has suggestions or would like to develop a new medical course, please speak with Dr. Akina, who is also Dean of Health Sciences at the Academy.



• Dr. Braveheart announced that he will soon have a library exhibition, “My SL Life in Pictures,” and will let us know the date when he confirms with Ens. Sadriel Gibbs at the GFC Library. Anyone interested in holding an exhibit should contact Ens. Gibbs; he will be glad to work with you.

Our next meeting will be May 16th, at 4:30pm SLT.

Michiko Akina
LT(jg)/Asst. Chief of Medicine

Staff Meeting this Saturday, May 2, at 4:30pm SLT

Quick reminder that we have our bi-weekly staff meeting this Saturday, May 2, at 4:30pm SLT, at the McCoy-Troi Medical Center.

We will be announcing a surprise Medical Center event that will take place next week, so be sure to attend and hear the details!

Michiko Akina

LT(jg)/ACMO

Highlights from 04-18-2009 Bi-Weekly Staff Meeting

Here are the highlights from our staff meeting held on April 18th:

• Dr. Weatherwax is working with CPO Sachertorte from Engineering to create new equipment and rezzable rooms. As always, prim counts are at a premium and even more so with scripted items, so Dr. Weatherwax and Dr. Juran will work with Engineering to set prim parameter guidelines and utilize sculpties when possible.
• Dr. Weatherwax reported that he is developing an "interactino standard" for the devices used in Medical. For instance, as of now, the tricorders do not give the same information on the patient as the biobed biosigns; or, you may inject a crewman with your hypospray but the results do not show up in the fleet weapons HUD. An interactino standard can make the different devices interact in a meaningful way to inworld rp's. This would open up many more rp options beginning with Medical, but eventually spreading throughout GFC. This will take a great deal of time (not to mention know-how and dedication), but Dr. Weatherwax does believe it is possible to "Make It So!"
• Dr. Bourne reported on progress from Engineering with the MERSI rp collapsing building set. He is also exploring opportunities to rp with other GFC divisions.

Next meeting: Saturday, May 2nd, at 4:30pm SLT, at the McCoy-Troi Medical Center. We look forward to seeing you there!!

Michiko Akina

LT(jg)/ACMO

SUGGESTION BOX

Here is the "official" SUGGESTION BOX for GFC Medical on our blog. This will be a place to express your opinions, ideas, constructive criticism, ask questions, etc., that may not have been covered in any of the posts or meetings.

GFC Medical Staff Meeting this Saturday, April 18th

Our bi-weekly staff meeting will be held this Saturday, April 18th, at 4:30pm SLT, at the McCoy-Troi Medical Center.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Michiko Akina

LT(jg)/ACMO

Medical Document Updates

Greeting all -

Just a quick post that our Medical Handbook ( http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d87mg5z_16pk4c75gh ) is in the process of being revised, to incorporate the updated structure in the division. The restructure information is currently available at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d87mg5z_2fjpq6ncr, but once the new version 4.0 of the Medical Handbook is completed, we will remove that.

Please keep up the great energy and contributions... you folks make GFC Medical the best team in the Fleet :-)

- Dr. Juran

Highlights from 04-04-2009 Bi-Weekly Staff Meeting

Here are highlights from our most recent staff meeting:

New department appointments announced by Dr. Journey Juran, CMO:

• Dr. Da5id Weatherwax was named Director of Medical Technology.
• Chief w0mbaT Braveheart was named Supervisor at GFC Medical, making him second lead after Dr. Akina (ACMO).

Congratulations to both!

Briefly discussed Dr. Pax Forwzy's MEAP (Medical Activities Enhancement Program) ideas. This would enhance social and Trek-themed activities within GFC and hopefully bring in new recruits.

The new tricorder is nearing final stages and soon to be released as an addition to our medkits. Thank you's to Dr. Juran and Dr. Weatherwax.

Next meeting: April 18, 2009, 4:30pm SLT

Michiko Akina

LTjg/ACMO

Back in the saddle....er, Fleet, again

We have many activities on-going and planned in Medical, as well as a new organizational structure. That means we need to jump-start our blog so the information, much like the Spice in Dune, will flow. Dr. Juran will be posting here frequently, and I will begin reporting highlights from our meetings again, as well as any other pertinent department information.

Any division leads within the department who want posting privileges, please let me know your gmail address, and we'll give you posting access. If you don't have a gmail address, you'll need to get one, as we use Google Blogger for our blog.

If you are in charge of any special projects and would like to post, we can also give you posting privileges.

Two reminders to everyone:

1. You may read or comment without being registered; if you are unable to do so, let me know and we can make any necessary technical changes.


2. All comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism are welcome, but let's remember to use the [paraphrased] Golden Rule - Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Lastly, on a personal note, I'd like to give a loud, heart-felt THANK YOU for the warmth and support that all of you have given me since my return. I can't begin to put into words how much it has meant.