Happy Halloween!

When you see it...

Ice, Ice Cake-y

First, let me begin with an apology for two weeks ago. I COMPLETELY forgot to post anything and by the time I realized it, it was better to just let it go and apologize the next time (this time). At the time I was beginning a new position at work and I got all wrapped up in learning all this new stuff - I literally had one day of training, and everything else so far has been jumping in head first.

Oh, by the way, my new job is what I'm writing about this week: I'm now a cake decorator.

Now before you get excited and think, "Way cool! You get to make whatever you want, right?", the answer to that is no, not exactly. I don't work in an independent bakery, I work in a bakery within a retail store. We have certain things we have to make or keep on standby to keep the case filled, but we are encouraged to practice and experiment if we happen to have a little time.

But then there's customer orders, and that's really what can make or break you. I'm sure a good majority of you have ordered a cake a one time or another, so you understand what I mean when I talk about the designs in a book. We have some things that are generic designs which can be tweaked and changed however the customer would like it to look, and we have licensed designs - these color schemes are 100% not interchangeable; we can deviate slightly on the placement of any kits (the little toys that come on these cakes) to account for any writing, but that's it.

And sometimes customers will have you write awesome things on their cakes, such as:

Luke, this cake is from your father.

Most of the time though they just want Happy Birthday [person they're buying the cake for] or Congratulations.

One thing I've learned quickly: whipped icing is great for icing a cake and getting it smooth, but it's horrible for details and writing. It's too soft and once it warms up enough it gets even softer and starts to run a little. On the other hand, buttercream can be a pain to get smooth, but it's stiff enough to create whatever you want to put on a cake (I'm still learning roses, but I'll get there - eventually).


Today (Friday, by the time you guys read this it'll be Saturday) I got to make a Sesame Street cake for a little girl turning one, and with one-year cakes they get a free smash cake - a smash cake, for those who may not know, is a separate small cake decorated to match the main cake just for the child to rip into all by themselves so everyone else can still enjoy a slobber-less cake.

I'm two weeks in, but so far this job has been really fun, and I work with some of the coolest and most helpful people. It's a lot different from making and decorating cakes at home, which I do on occasion, but until starting in the bakery I only ever really worked with fondant to get a smooth finish on a cake. I can definitely take the skills I'm picking up at work and apply them to my free time.

Pumpkin Spice cake cookies

Hello Geeks!

Its fall! So you know what that means! Pumpkin Spice time!

I decide to share a special recipe for Pumpkin Spice cake cookies. Don't worried it is an easy recipe!


Here is what you will need

• Spice cake mix 
• Can of Pumpkin 
• Mixing bowl
• Spoon for siring
• Ice Cream scoop/Table spoon
• Cookie  Sheey
• Nonstick Spray

 1. Preheat oven to 350

 2. Mix the can of pumpkin an spice mix together.

3. Once mixed, (you will still have some spice cake mix left over its okay) Scoop the mixture on to a greased cookie sheet

 4. Put in oven baked for 10-15 mins.

5.  Baked until the center isn't googy anymore.  remove an let cool on some paper towels.

 VOILA! You go  really yummy Pumpkin Spice Cake cookies.

Enjoy! Please tweet us if you decide to make these.

Stay  Shiny
~TTG

Tribbles in the Telescope

In early August, it was announced that actress Nichelle Nichols would be joining NASA's SOFIA crew, and earlier this week she did - and brought some friends along for the ride.

During the 10-hour overnight observation flight the crew were able to view Beta Umi, which aided in system calibrations, star forming regions W31, W49A, and W51, and they also got a nice visual treat through the windows.

 

Nichelle and the rest of the SOFIA crew also live-tweeted the event using the hashtag #askNASA747  to answer questions from curious fans and friends. Qapla'!

STLV part 2

Greetings all,

In part one of my Vegas coverage I explained what STLV is and why people come to it every year. This week I'd like to share a few stories from the convention. I have so many stories from this year so will only tell a few high lights.

This year was the 20th anniversary of Voyager and the biggest panel of the weekend was the Voyager cast panel. Every main cast member was there except for Jennifer Lien (Kes). The cast reflected on their time on the set during the 7 season run and shared a bunch of personal stories. They talked about what their favorite episodes were and every time someone would bring one up, Ethan Phillips would take credit for either writing or directing that episode including other series. Robert McNeil would tell him "Ethan you didn't direct (or write) that episode" and everyone would get a laugh. That was one of the funniest things about that panel as to how they kept encouraging Ethan Phillips to do that with someone telling him he didn't. Kate Mulgrew stood up and thanked every single cast member for being on the show and said it would not have been a success without them. The panel was only supposed to last for about an hour, but Creation let them go an additional 20 minutes or so. It was a once and a lifetime deal to see everyone together like that.

Then there was the TNG panel with Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spinner and Levar Burton. I didn't catch the entire panel due to a Photo Op, so came in to it about half way through. Sir Patrick Stewart had been on stage earlier in the day and was signing autographs while this panel was going on. They picked on him due to the high cost of the autograph saying you could get married by one of them, get an autograph and photo op cheaper than the cost of a Sir Patrick Stewart autograph. They proceeded to tell details on how this would work in the theatre as well lol.

Every night after the convention I'd go get a drink and hangout with everyone at the Masquerade bar. There were so many people down there at times you could barely walk through. On Friday night I ran into Elijah and Cookie Cupcakes from Priority One podcast. I was wearing a t-shirt that Elijah had given me the day before and was helping to advertise for them a bit, as that was part of the deal for getting the shirt. Elijah goes "I love this guy" as he had on the same shirt with a STO uniform top on top of it. Next thing I know, I was surrounded by a few of the STO developers as well as a former community manager Brandon Feltzcer and a bunch of fleet admirals. It was very cool to hear everyone talking about the game and what they thought of the big announcement earlier that day. Everyone talked for about an hour and a half or so before starting to turn in for what they had going the next day.

One of my favorite things about this convention is seeing friends that you only get to see once a year and getting caught up. I have a friend from the UK that tries to make it every year and we always swap Trek jokes. I got to meet two online friends in real life and met them for drinks one night. They live locally in Vegas and were volunteering at Robert Picardo's table helping him with an auction he was running. I also met up with the Trek radio staff that were covering the convention and volunteered to help them get pictures from the panels to Facebook Photo shoots. 

Before I beam out, I'd like to thank DalekChick and CaptShinypants for letting me be a special guest and hope to be back in the future with other blogs and / or coverage from other conventions.

Live Long and Prosper,

-Admrl Suval

Book Pile - Update 2.0

This has been a not-so-great week for me, guys. I've been home from work all week with a pulled muscle in the right side of my chest, and being that I work in retail in the stock room constantly lifting boxes, my body chose not to cooperate with my job, so I opted to take a few days off and rest and not do much of anything. However, by the time this posts I will be an hour away from getting off work for the day, so hopefully my first day back after an unwanted "staycation" won't be horribly painful.

In the meantime, I discovered it's been nearly a year since I last made an update on Book Mountain, and upon finishing one book and subsequently starting another, I figured it's a good time to do so.

I just finished with The Inferno by Dante Alighieri and began Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. Books before those:

Wicked, Son of a Witch,  A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz - Gregory Maguire
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (five novels and one story) - Douglas Adams
The Servants of Twilight, Darkfall, and Phantoms (three-in-one) - Dean Koontz

Still in the pile:

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
 The Time Machine/The Island of Dr. Moreau/The Invisible Man/The War of the Worlds/The First Men in the Moon/The Food of the Gods/In the Days of the Comet - H.G. Wells
Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne
Aesop's Fables
The Winter's Tale - William Shakespeare
Classic Fairy Tales - Hans Christian Anderson
Great Tales of Horror - H.P. Lovecraft
Complete Tales and Poems - Edgar Allen Poe
Joss Whedon: The Biography - Amy Pascale
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride - Cary Elwes


So I've slowed a bit in adding books to the pile, but that's how life goes when you have to be a responsible adult and pay bills and buy food instead of feeding your indulgences. However, my birthday and Christmas are coming up in a few months, so when asked for gift ideas I can always rattle off a few book titles - and while I do enjoy a crisp new book, there's absolutely nothing wrong with buying second-hand as long as no pages are missing and it's readable.

You folks keep your E-readers, I'll stick with my tangible books and novels.

Guest Blogger

Hello my Fellow Geeks! Today blog, Is a special guest blogger. My friend Admrl Suval  has written about Star Trek Las Vegas. Enjoy! 

STLV 2015

I recently attended the largest gathering of trekkies at a convention held in Las Vegas, NV the beginning of August. This con is always a lot of fun and is a four day long party that never stops while the convention runs. This blog will explain what STLV is and why people attend every year. I’ll share some stories and experiences from this year’s con in a future blog.

What is STLV?

Star Trek Last Vegas (STLV) is the largest Trek convention in the world spread across at least 4 days with over 100 guests. The guest list contains not only actors from the shows / movies, but makeup artists, writers, and sometimes those that worked in the background such as Dr. Trek himself Larry Nemecek. I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. Nemecek in the vendor's hall and speak with him for a few minutes. He was kind enough to sign a TNG companion I brought along for reference (in case of trivia nights.

There are not only official events that go on during the day (such as Panels, Official photo shoots, autographs, etc.) but many Facebook groups get together to do Photo Ops in various locations throughout the convention hall. Many groups setup events outside of convention hours. One such event was celebrating an anniversary for two con goers that got married during the 2014 convention.

Creation Entertainment (the company that runs STLV) sets up so many great places to get Photos taken such as the ones below:

The convention hall is laid out in 4 major parts, the main theater, secondary theater, Photo Ops room, and a huge Vendors hall.

·         The main and secondary theaters are where you will see many of the guests and panels that are being presented.

·         The Photo Ops room is where Photo Ops are taken with the guest and also where you will pick up those Photos once ready.

·         The Vendors hall is where all the vendors are located and there are a wide variety of booths ranging from actual vendors to guests that get a table for the weekend to meet fans and sign autographs for a nominal fee.

·         Photo Ops locations throughout the convention hall

Over 5000 regulars attend this convention every year and it keeps growing. There are as many as 20- 30,000 attendees throughout the weekend. Many regulars return each year not only to see the many panels but to catch up with each other. Some only see each other once a year at STLV. The STLV crowd is like one big family and is one of the safest places you can ever be. A good example is I left a bag at my spot in the main theater to go get a drink of water in the back of the massive room. I was gone for a little bit as I ran into a con friend I hadn't seen yet and we talked for a little bit (no panel or actor was on stage at this point). I was probably gone about 20 minutes or so. When I got back to my seat my bag had not been touched, and I thanked my seat mate for watching my bag. There are many stories like this. You may even run into some of the guest walking about in the hallways. Most are willing to stop and talk with you for a few minutes. It’s rare that a guest won’t speak to you or at least say Hello in passing by.

Why do people come from all around the world?

STLV is an experience in itself and every trekkie should go at least once. For me personally I go every year to see friends and those that have become family over the years. This year was my 13th trip and I plan to go as long as STLV is held. To further explain why people go to the convention (and honestly explain it better than I can) see this video

Michael Nguyen put that together during the 2014convention.

In my next blog, I’ll talk about my experiences this year and share a few stories from STLV. Until then Live Long and Prosper.

Thanks ,

Admrl Suval