I added some crew hatches and various knicknacks to the upper saucer.  I think I’m going to finish up the top of the ship before I move on to the underside.

Captain Picard and Commander Riker – Star Trek The Next Generation

I finished the nacelles. I was looking at my rather extensive collection of TNG-era starship references and I was noticing that some of the ships, particularly Voyager and the Equinox, have a lot of “decal” details. Just little stickers here and there that add a lot to the model. They give the impression of hatches and panels and whatnot where there’s really nothing modeled. So, I decided to add some of that stuff to my nacelles (though mine are modeled) because my ship is from somewhere around the same time frame as Voyager and the Equinox. I also added a few of those little knickknacks to the nacelle pylons, so they’re also now complete. And I’ll be doing more of that type of stuff on the rest of the ship, as I get to it.

And perhaps the important update is that I remembered to texture the impulse engine vent-thingy. I forget those damn things on so many of my models and then I think I’m done until I remember (usually when I’m rendering) and then I have to go back and do it. Well, I won’t have that problem this time.

I didn’t feel like working on modeling yesterday, plus I had a bunch of stuff to do anyway. (preparing for the Holidays) However, I did start on some textures. Even though the ship is nowhere near being complete, I was tired of looking at a “naked” model. As I usually do with canon Trek, I went for a subtle, slightly “dirty” panel pattern (though it will be much more vivid in the right light) though I also added a little color variation. The bottom of the engineering hull (if you really want to call it that) needs a new texture, the panel pattern follows the contours of the upper saucer, which doesn’t work for that piece.

I don’t know if I’ll do more modeling, more texturing, both or none today, it depends on what I’m in the mood to do.

UPDATE:  More textures.  I think I’ve textured all of the parts I’ve built, so I guess it’s time to build some more.

I was tired of looking at naked nacelle pylons, so I detailed them today.  Next is probably more work on the nacelles.  I might finish those before I move back to the rest of the ship.

I added the RCS thrusters, though I’m not sure I’m all that happy with them, so they’ll probably be mostly rebuilt. (unless I either start liking them or can’t think of another way to do them that I like better) I also rebuilt the nacelles. They’re a lot smoother than the previous ones and I also changed the shape of the bussards. And I cooked up some textures for those and the blue glowy bits so that they’re not so boring. (yes, I realize there are shadows on the bussard and blue parts of the nacelles where there shouldn’t be, I’ll take care of that shortly)

I would work on the ship some more but I think now it’s time to watch Inglourious Basterds on DVD again.

I added a buttload of windows to the ship. In fact, these might be the last windows I’m going to add to the ship. I might do a few on the underside of the saucer, I might not. I hate doing windows. I hate setting them up, I hate cutting them and I hate the inevitable error checking and cleanup that comes afterward. It’s very time consuming. On the other hand, I also like to put a lot of windows on my Starfleet ships, so I guess I do it to myself.

I also added a couple of docking ports on the sides of the saucer. That should do it for docking ports on this ship. It has 3, which is more than enough for a 250 meter starship that’s not capable of saucer separation.

Next I’ll probably add the RCS thrusters to the saucer and then move onto something else (I haven’t really decided what that will be yet.) I might rebuild part of the underside of the saucer after the thrusters, it needs to be done.

I woke up today and I was actually in a modeling mood for the first time in a while. I think part of the problem I’d been having was that I was trying before to think of a new project to start. However, today I went through my unfinished projects and found this one.

I didn’t spend a lot of time working on it today but I did add some windows to the upper saucer and I also added the main sensor array, just in front of the bridge. I also spent some time altering colors on parts of the ship. Even though these colors are temporary, they do represent what the color of the final model will be similar to, so I want them to look decent. Plus, the old colors were hurting my eyes.

75% Klingon. 100% Trouble.

Blood will tell. Klingon blood, that is! Maybe. This past weekend actor Brian Bonsall, who originated the seminal ST: TNG role of Alexander Rozhenko, son of the son of Mogh, allegedly got into a bar brawl in Colorado (on Earth) and was taken into custody. Perhaps after too much blood wine. Perhaps after some ski bum besmirched his honor.

Colorado Daily reports that the 28-year-old is facing third-degree assault charges for hitting his friend in the face with a bar stool. He’s probably grateful he left his bat’leth home. His dad should be proud, although as the ultimate Klingon Oreo, Worf would probably chastise his estranged cheese-cutter of a son.

The police report revealed: “Bonsall said that he takes a lot of drugs and sometimes those drugs make him forget things.” Like the lessons of Kahless!

The once-cloyingly-cute actor has encountered the authorities before. He was arrested for drunk driving in 2004, for assaulting his girlfriend in 2007, and for inducing diabetic comas on ST: TNG viewers every time he appeared in makeup as a cuddly Klingon brat-child.

Klingons, you may remember, were the bastards who killed Captain Kirk’s son.

Bonsall was also the Oliver for Family Ties and may have been distressed over the recent news that his mama was gay.

So many people in Ipswich may have got  an invite to attend Flexible New Deal at TNG.

TNG which stands for Training Network Group or more to the point Trainee Network Group. Maybe the company should be called NGT (Network Group in Training) as even though they are part of a bigger company (Avanta) and have landed huge Government contracts to deliver Flexible New Deal – they are the most incompetent useless unprofessional dim wits ever!

Before you see this as a rant against the Flexible New Deal provider, read on and see how poor their methods of communication are.

We can hear an TNG employee stating:

How come only those who came by train had arrived?

How to find us

First small point to make is how unprofessional such directions are on the basis that they are printed on site with thin paper and not professionally produced. They have secured a large contract so there is nothing to suggest why they wouldn’t get it printed professionally in the same way businesses print letterheads, leaflets, compliment slips and business cards. After all the Flexible New Deal guidance booklet from TNG was printed professionally to a good standard. You might be shocked to realise that professionally printed documents in bulk can be cheaper than buying ink cartridges and toner while doing it yourself. This also includes the delivery of the item.

I can’t help but think I could have done a better job on it myself. Certain print has been lost due to minimum margins their printer couldn’t handle i.e. its not edge to edge printing. TNG is also hooked on hideous arrows – there are 11 faded arrows going across the top of the direction sheet – a pattern of 4 different colours occurs although due to it being of an odd number one colour is missed off the end of having its fair share. What do the 11 arrows mean? Are there 11 stages? Flexible New Deal is for 12 months so can’t be due to duration. There is also a silly blue dividing line. At the top has a telephone number and a place for a fax number (e.g. “Fax:” – without a number in it i.e. why include it?).

The document is poorly spaced out – at the bottom right hand corner is a poor parody of the Nike trademark tick and TNG’s logo alongside Jobcentre Plus. At the far bottom left is their web address www.flexiblenewdeal.info which they appear to be very proud about – even though .info domains cost 50p hence their popularity with spammers and scammers. Going on the website gets worse with even more arrows and hardly any information about Flexible New Deal so kinda misleading especially when this site alone has far more information. At the bottom of the website reads “Website design by Avanta Marketing Department” – they clearly know nothing about marketing or about web design neither. As a general rule of thumb when you exceed £80,000 annual turnover you need a professionally designed website – it is a must! Avanta clearly exceeds that by a fair amount! Back to the document…

Below is an OCR representation of the TNG “How to find us” directions document.  Please Note:

How to find us: Ipswich

How to find us
Ipswich
TNG; Wolsey House, 16-18 Princes Street Ipswich IP1 1QT
Tel: 01473 222218 Fax:

By Train
Trains run to Ipswich from Stowmarket, Saxmundham and Felixstowe covering a local area.Come out of lpswich train station, cross over the traffic lights ahead, walk over the bridge directly opposite the station on Princes Street,continue up Princes Street. straight ahead at the roundabout, continue up Princes Street and you will find TNG offices is on the left.

By Car
Landmarks. The office is located inside the Chamber of Commerce building, which is also called the Suffolk enterprise Centre. This building is opposite the Steamboat pub over looking the River Gipping.

By Bus
There are regular bus links with towns and villages in the local area. Buses 63-65 from Leiston. Buses 75-77 from Felixtowe. Buses 87-88 from Stowmarket. All buses stop in and around the town but ends at the train station.Come out of lpswich train station, turn right onto Ranelagh Road, continue forward into Burrell Road, walk to the end of Burrell Road and turn right into Bridge Street. Continue forward into Vernon Street until you reach a roundabout, take the first left into Felaw Street and you will find TNG offices on the left within Felaw Maltings. If you come by car, parking is available.

From Jobcentre Office
With your back to Job Centre Plus, walk right along Silent Street, go straight ahead at the crossroads into Cutler Street, continue forward to Grey Friars road, turn left into Grey Friars Road, at the first roundabout turn right towards Bridge Street, go straight ahead over the second roundabout and continue over the Bridge into Vernon Street until you reach another round [about, take the first left into Felaw Street and you will find TNG offices on the left within Felaw Maltings. If you come by car, parking is available.

www.flexiblenewdeal.info

Criticism of Directions

By Train

These directions are not too bad. What I would note is this is rather misleading as past the roundabout the road curves right – this is not Princes Street! Princes Street continues towards the left (it is a left at the “T” Junction than a sharp right). Wolsey House is the place where YMCA Training used to be.

By Car

Landmarks? To the best of my Knowledge the River Gipping goes from Stowmarket up to Stoke Bridge in Ipswich – where from there becomes the River Orwell – the specific part is called New Cut.

By Bus

Ipswich Unemployed Action has contacted the bus operator First Group who has specified that neither bus routes 63-65, 75-77 and 87-88 stop at Ipswich Train Station.

We have provided an aerial mapped route map for these bus services (thanks to Carl Berry – point to point, stops are accurate the lines between them wont be):

63 (not from Leiston) – 64 – 65 (stops at Rendlesham – very far from Leiston) – 75 – 76 – 77 – 87 (Stowupland but goes to Stowmarket) – 88

The direction then assumes you got a train therefore must come out of the station. Towards the left of Princes Street bridge is Ranelagh Road and to the right is Burrell Road. Obviously they now send you to a different place to the Princes Street office.  It ends stating “If you come by car, parking is available.” well.. didn’t you realise the person was coming by bus when you wrote the directions? There isn’t parking available for their other premises as far as I am aware.

From Jobcentre Plus

This assumes that you are a) leaving jobcentre plus via Silent Street and not the other path and b) that you are suicidal. Again these directions are to the wrong place, poor typos, “Bridge”‘ should be in lowercase etc.  Again it ends stating “If you come by car, parking is available.” well.. didn’t you realise the person was assumingly walking (“with your back” and the fact that Silent Street is a one way road so you couldn’t go right by car) when you wrote the directions?

Sanctions

Jobseekers on Flexible New Deal can be sanctioned for following these directions when attending the wrong place means they failed to turn up.

Scanned Copy

A copy of the scanned document (including a map) can be found on Flexible New Deal Scandal.

Lets not criticise their letters (which again is not a proper letterhead) and full of mistakes.

I’m writing this on an aeroplane. We finally got out of Montreal, after two rounds of de-icing amid the city’s first insane snowstorm of the year. I also just discovered that I can use this WordPress app on my Blackberry, offline. This will seriously change travel blogging for me. Game changer for sure.

Murray is in the seat next to me, totally passed out, in a deep catch-up (and neck-breaking) slumber. He stayed up all night working on music. We’re en route to Los Angeles, for meetings, and to see Morrissey.

As I prepared for this trip, I anticipated delays, missed connections, weather problems, mechanical failure and, bottom line, lots of waiting. I loaded my iPod Nano (courtesy of Apple Canada) with suitably brain numbing material, including the latest Hype Machine podcast, the movie “Step Brothers” and a few episodes of Wil Wheaton’s “Memories of the Futurecast.”

I know, you’re like: “Who the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is Wil Wheaton?” He’s Wesley Crusher, from TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’ll admit this here and now (if I haven’t already): I was a huge TNG fan. I actually went to a Star Trek convention in Toronto with my dad when I was like 16. We had to drive to some once glorious hotel out by the airport; the whole experience was a little overwhelming, with full-makeup klingons and every second person in a Starfleet Academy uniform of some sort. An engineer by trade, my dad is big into sci-fi. As a kid, if I wanted to watch TV on our single TV in the evenings, I would have to submit to his choices which I remember as: Dr. Who, Star Trek (original series), Star Trek: TNG, X-Files, and that new Twilight Zone show.

I haven’t seen an episode of TNG in a while and when I do, it breaks with my romantic recollections of the show: there’s something a little cheap about TNG (maybe that was just the 90’s aesthetic), and definitely cheesy. Dare I say, schmultzy. Wil Wheaton’s character was probably my least favourite. Even though we were (and still are) around the same age, and he was set up to be a tween sci-fi heart throb, I thought of him as, well, sort of the Jar Jar Binks (sorry, Wil) of the show.

In Memories of the Futurecast, Wil basically talks about this: he speaks endearingly about his character, his experiences as a teenaged geek-turned-actor, and the total dramz of the show. It’s very casual and candid; the way I would talk like to about TNG among friends….if I had any friends that took the show that seriously. Murray’s an original series guy, and I don’t have any friends who I talk to on this kind of precise, nerdy-fan level (and its probably better that way). Anyhow, now I have Wil in my online life: my new, nerdy, arm’s length, digital friend. Friend may be too strong a word: maybe just a follower. Or fan? This all sounds creepy and a little sad. Thus is my life.

At any rate, while I’m enjoying it, be warned: Memories of the Futurecast is very, very geeky and for hardcores only. Find it on Wil Wheaton’s blog.

Equal Opportunities?

Ipswich Unemployed Action would like to alert Flexible New Deal clients that an Ofsted report for ”TNG (Avanta) Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire New Deal” raised massive concerns about the central structure of TNG/Avanta being racist at its core.

During the Ofsted report inspection, the inspector noted some “inappropriate language and images” by both TNG staff and subcontractor staff – whereas Ofsted didn’t state whether these fell under racism, sexism, disability discrimination or a mixture of more than one, it raises extreme concerns especially when Equal Opportunities is written in the core of New Deal contracts.

DWP/Jobcentre Plus are aware of this concern at the time prior to the inspection and forced the holding company to establish an equality of opportunity representatives’ group (although this was for Avanta not TNG itself) and to immediately implement equality and diversity policies, procedures and staff training in TNG.

The report concluded that although had given plenty of time to do so prior to the Ofsted inspection most staff did not receive training on equality and diversity and the direct results of this are present when such staff couldn’t suppress such behaviour when being inspected by Ofsted, resulting in them being caught speaking offensive language and advocating the presentation of disgusting images to participants. Any attempts to include equality and diversity in TNG’s adult training public service environment have failed. The staff racism etc. was solely noted on this contract area although the failing’s in the company as a whole was raised i.e. if they dont have policies and procedures in place and staff aren’t trained – the situation will be a problem nationally.

Although these are major concerns (and on the tendering stage potential provides have to show awareness of Equal ops, harassment policies etc. these are also policies which form part of the New Deal contract hence why providers mention them on induction as they have to) TNG kept this prime contract. They also managed to secure Flexible New Deal.

Ofsted Report Snippets

18. Arrangements to implement and evaluate equality and diversity policies and procedures
within TNG and its subcontractors are inadequate. During the year before inspection, the
main holding company established an equality of opportunity representatives’ group. This
group has established its terms of reference and agreed an immediate action and
development plan to improve the organisation’s approach. However, due to staff changes,
this group has not met sufficiently regularly or recently to achieve its aims and objectives.

19. The analysis of data in relation to participation rates by gender, ethnic group and disability
has been undertaken only very recently. The analysis of progression rates to employment
has not yet started. A well designed electronic learning package for the development of
staff understanding of equality of opportunity and diversity has been introduced but it has
not yet been completed by many of the staff working on this prime contract. The use of
some inappropriate language and images by both TNG and subcontractor staff was noted
by inspectors.

Reinspection 2009 Snippets

TNG managed to get a reinspection (that is not a new inspection to normal timescales but a new inspection designed to replace the previous one) for the same contract. This is likely enforced by Jobcentre Plus/DWP to jumble figures, some months later, the Grade 4s disappeared (4 is Inadequate) and replaced with Grade 3 (Satisfactory).

Whats the point of an Ofsted report when middle management enforces an inspection to redone so performance looks better?

Below snippets of Equal Opportunity section in the new report is as follows:

Staff and participants have adequate training and induction on equality and diversity matters.

It is clear they have finally decided to pull their weight, I presume, on threat of contract termination.

Learning materials do not promote equality and diversity sufficiently.

Reinforcement of equality of opportunity and diversity with participants is insufficient.

Clearly they have printed some poorly designed leaflets – whats the point if not enforced?

Nerd alert.  We’ve all seen the “vs.” threads on message boards, and I believe there’s even whole sites dedicated to them… be it comic book characters, TV show casts, movie characters, or sci-fi icons.  A lot of geeks like to argue about completely hypothetical situations for fictional characters for no apparent reason other than because we can.

I noticed that I’m following both Brent Spiner and Anthony Daniels on twitter… and is struck me that they’re in the same category as a golden-hued “tin man” of sorts in their respective powerhouse franchises. 

This is a vs. that I’d love to see.  Has this been done?  Probably.  I didn’t Google it yet… I’m almost afraid to.  I don’t want the discussion to be biased from my point of view anyway.

Why not Data vs. C-3PO?  I started a hashtag just to see what would happen:  #datavsc3po.  It will be interesting to see if it takes off at all.  A few people are on to it.  On twitter?  Please throw in your 2¢!  Or, you can comment on this blog with your thoughts.  I’d love to see all out stories…  perhaps I may write up a scenario myself.

It was brought to my attention rather quickly that R2-D2 must accompany C-3PO… they are after all, a set.  Then, it was suggested that if C-3PO gets a sidekick, then Data must be able to utilize Geordi La Forge.  (Oddly enough, I’m also following Levar Burton on twitter, and it was brought to my attention that R2-D2 does indeed tweet – to make this “legit” though, does Kenny Baker tweet?)

I’ll digress here by saying that yes, I do realize that the actors are not the characters that they play, and that they have had other rolls in life… and I realize that they might be mildly annoyed by such discussions.

Oh well, this is what geeks do.  So, please join me and the people who have already started discussing this so far.

P.S. – Did an image search for “C-3PO Data” and this came up.  So, someone has paired them before, albeit in a completely different manner.

So, TNG had our monthly play party Saturday night. We had about 25 people there, which was great. The venue was huge, but luckily, we had some folks bring their equipment, so we had plenty of play stations.

In fact, at one point, we had 6 seperate scenes going on at once!

I got to play with two lovely ladies, A and B. A was great, giving me feedback about what I was doing right and wrong – she said beforehand that she loves to help people who are still learning. And I got to use my new toys on A – the rubber hose that I mentioned a few days ago, and some canes that I had made out of dowels the day of the party.

And then, near the end of the party, I took a break from DMing, and gave B a nice flogging, and even managed to surprise her a couple of times with some techniques that I have learned / devised…

Over all, it was a lot of fun, and I hope there are more events at this venue in the future.

Hi Guys!

Here’s the link to our TNG official blog!

Go check it out when you are free!

http://plmcthenextgeneration.wordpress.com/

I think this about makes up for all the poorly dubbed foreign films, watered-down TBS movies, and downloaded videos with the voices and the lips out of sync:

The original link shamelessly stolen from Ernie.

What a good start to the day, the bus arrived at the TNG rented offices only to find that despite it being Utterly Bloody Freezing, none of the staff had arrived and the shutters were down. A staff member then appeared and let everyone in. I would like to point out that one of the people on TNG today was a heavily pregnant girl and standing out in freezing winds with no shelter was probably extremely bad for her.

My own day was mostly a tedious and silent experience- that is, I spoke to no one as I managed with some scraping to get my requisite amount of ticks on the sheet early and then say dying of boredom trying in vain to find new things to apply for, whilst the noise level in the room behind me grew to epic proportions. Equally awkward was the fact one girl, LazyText, started the same day I did but was subsequently kicked off the course, and was also kicked out of the shop where I work because of her utterly laziness, was back, gobby, loud and with a voice like a goose laying a square egg, she sat behind me flirting with the boys and making no effort whatsoever to behave cordially.

Listening to the tutor talking to the people on induction was a thorough was of damaging my pride:

“We will get you a job, if you put the effort in, but you’ve got to want a job. We have people who come in here with quals up to their ears, degrees and everything but if they don’t want to work then there’s not much we can do.”

I seethed. Since my last post no one from TNG has approached me regarding any progress made on finding me a suitable placement. If I do manage anything in the next couple of months, it will be down to my own efforts and have eff all to do with them.

As nothing happened really, apart from I died of boredom and felt carsick a lot, I’m going to highlight some of the people who were in TNG today.

The boys outnumber the girls, for no obvious reason.

Those who do appear to want to get down to work are ignored.

We had one lad who actually has been given a job, but his traineeship doesn’t start till January, so he still had to come on TNG in the meantime.

We had the aforementioned heavily pregnant girl, whose baby is due quite soon, but still has to attend despite the fact it’s nigh impossible to even get her a placement considering how soon the baby is due (Christmas baby I gather).

We had one lad who had been working hard since he left school at sixteen, but local industry being what it is at the moment, his place shut down and then he was out of work due to an injury. Owing to a mixup in paperwork, the dole still counted this as time spent unemployed and therefore made him go to TNG too.

So, another day of sitting on my bum getting progressively more world weary as I go. As a commenter has mentioned to me that they would ‘rather stick their hands in a grinder’ than go back to TNG I’m very much afraid I concur. I think, if this were to go on much longer, I would risk poverty and lack of NHS stamps.

Have you ever thought about what you will be doing at each stage of your life? Our youth did just that last week.

We gave the youth an A1 sheet of paper with columns for 16, 21, 30, 45, 60, 80 and ? years old. Armed with catalogues and magazines they cut out the things they wanted to have or to do at each age of their lives. Our lads had a PS3, Audi sports cars, aftershave, a bride, a teas-maid, incontinence pants and a Wispa Gold advert.

The advert got them thinking. Here’s what it said for the end of life after rearranging the words of the advert:

The sentiment of the advert, when rearranged, reflect the words of Psalm 103:15-16
As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

Life is short, but the gospel of Jesus Christ gives sinners the hope of eternal life:

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I may be 17 years late in appreciating this and, according to Wikipedia, it’s already rather renowned but I watched a poetry reading last night that was rather impressive.

That’s right, Lieutenant Commander Data’s poetic compositions in the Star Trek TNG episode Schisms were, as Geordi described them, ‘clever’. I found one in particular hilarious, especially given his audience’s reactions. Painstakingly transcribed at 3am (unnecessarily it seems – it’s fairly widespread online), I give you Ode to Spot:

Felis catus. Is your taxonomic nomenclature
An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature?
Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
A singular development of cat communications
That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents;
You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion,
It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.

Oh Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.