USS Cheyenne Operations Manual & YouTube Video Discovery

Since I published my book about the fictional starship U.S.S. Cheyenne back in 1995, I've always tried to keep a eye out for anything relating to that ship. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to all those 16 years in between!

Over those years, someone will usually seek me out requesting if they can purchase a copy of my book from my reserve stock. Well, first off - I don't have a reserve stock to sell. I just have my own personal copy that's been marked up with needed corrections and one unmarked copy if I ever do manage to come up with the money to do another print run.

But with Print on Demand publishing now available for the past several years, I am getting the itch to get my book back into publication again. Question now becomes if I should just print off an exact copy or add to it.

Add to that, when I originally did that book, not a lot was known about the special effects model that was built for the Wolf 359 battle scene with the Borg. After the book came out, there were major differences between it and what I interpret from viewing the video tape of the show I made - over and over again. Gawd - remember video tape! Now we have screen capture and can burn to DVD disc whatever we want! The major differences from my drawing and what really was built was the pylons off the much shorter dorsal/ventral necks were straighter. No graceful curves.

The book was done with my Apple LCIII computer using Canvas 3.5 drawing software and the book layout was Adobe PageMaker version 5 or 6 if I remember correctly. Over the years, I was more or less able to keep pace and upgrade my systems until Apple switched over to the Intel chip. Now I work off of a laptop using Windows Vista-and I am not able to recover the majority of my artwork off my floppy discs and transfer them over to a CD for archive storage.

Now we have 3d cgi software programs that people are making their own fan base movies (re: Star Trek: Phase II anybody?). Anyway, its Sunday morning and I did a Google search for USS Cheyenne and discovered this YouTube video someone created. It is of the saucer separation maneuver for this class of vessel.

And for those of you who looked me up over the years asking about getting your own copy of the USS Cheyenne Operations Manual. First off, a big THANK YOU! Second, I hope with Print on Demand technology, a new, revised Manual can be produced. No promises for this year. But hopefully before the 20th Anniversary of its original printing a way can be found to put it back into print again.

eRC B-25J Mitchell Bomber Model Airplane

This is a amazing kit. Receiver ready basically. All I have to do as glue the wings on and program

my radio. Well... there is more to do than just that of course.

I finally got it out of "lay-a-away" from my local hobby ship on December 31, 2010. While only $300 bucks, paying a little bit at a time and then when a emerengy comes up, having to put off a payment for a month or two. Well, buying the model took longer than I thought it would back when I first started paying money down on it back in May of 2010.

But anyho... Today was a fine day and since I now have a "workshop" over at my friend's place, I finally had time to look this model over and start to put it together.

I other previous experience with eRC came in the form of the Ready to Fly (RTF) Spitfire. But the B-25J that I am now working on is from a different company - but Hobby Lobby markets this product under its' eRC brand. Made out of EPO foam, its fuselage length is 41 inches. Wingspan is 53.25 inches giving a wing area of 356 square inches. Five channels are needed (Alieron, Elevator, Rudder, Retracts, Throttle). It even has working navigation lights.

Now, my model comes with the 20 Amp speed control. The newer kits come with the 30 Amp ESC. The bomber is done up as the "Apache Princess." The real B-25 did not have counter-rotating 3-blade props - but this kit is set up for that to make it more stabe for brand new multi-engine flyers. Power is provided by the 3-cell 2200 mAh LiPo battery. The kit even comes with its own charger.

To guide this model through the air, I now have a JR 10sxII transmitter (a older version of the 10X transmitter to be sure). Its going to be on 72Mhz for right now. Someday I hope I can afford the 2.4GHz module that can connect to this readio.

On the day that I am writing this post, I managed to shoe-horm all the wiring from each wing into the fuselage and glue the wings in place. My biggest complaint thus far on this model is HOW the wings mate to the fuselage.

It would have been nice if this model had also been designed to include a working bomb bay. Because then it would have been easier to get both wire sets from each wing and to organize them better than the small foam hatch on the bottom of the fuse ahead of the bomb bay.

In the process of this build, I am planning on getting a camera for FPV video taking some time in the future. So my thinking is to make the glass nose removable and putting the camera in there when ready.

And if this model can survive my first test flights of it, then I will have something to fly with at our local club's 2011 Warbird event later this year.

UPDATE (March 23, 2011): Its all put together now. Just need a few odds and ends like making the front bombardier nose removable to allow me to stick a small FPV camera up front if I ever get one of those key chain video cameras. Anyway, here is a picture of it up on its landing gear sitting on th dirt runway of the Lubbock Oddball RC Society (LORCS).

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Ref. Hobby Lobby website (http://www.hobby-lobby.com/b25_apache_princess.htm). pictures taken from same source.

The Bosnian Pyramids

Recently, Dr. Sam Osmanagich appeared on Coast to Coast AM radio program to talk about his discovery of what is being called the Bosnian Pyramids. He even went so far to write a book; The Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun.

This term has been applied to a collection of natural geological formations near the town of Visoko, which is northwest of Sarajevo.

Now, going by what was posted in Wikipedia, scientists still state that there are no pyramids there. Calling such claims as a "Cruel hoax on an unsuspecting public."

The 700 foot tall hill known as Visocica hill is refer to by Dr. Sam Osmanagich as the "Pyramid of the Sun", and two nearby hills, identified from satellite and aerial photography, as the "Pyramid of the Moon" and the "Pyramid of the (Bosnian) Dragon." Plus another two, one of which is named the "Pyramid of the Earth", have been mentioned in Osmanagich's reports). Geologists point out that the "pyramid" forms that Osmanagich are pointing out are natural. In the U.S., such formations are referred to as 'flatirons.' There are hundreds of them in the US, and in Russia, China, etc.

Quoting the Wekipedia article: On 8 May 2006, members of the Geological team investigating Visočica on behalf of the Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation held a press conference in Tuzla to present the results of their research. The academics, from the Faculty of Mining and Geology at the University of Tuzla and led by Professor Dr. Vrabac, concluded that the hill is a natural geological formation, made of clastic sediments of layered composition and varying thickness, and that its shape is a consequence of endodynamical and exodynamical processes in the post-Miocene era.

According to Professor Vrabac, who specializes in paleogeology, there are dozens of similar morphological formations in the Sarajevo-Zenica mining basin alone. The Geological team report on Visocica, based on the data collected in six drill holes at 3 to 17 metre depths, is supported by the Research and Teaching Council of the Faculty of Mining and Geology, as well as the Association of Geologists of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. end quote.

What is the real meaning of this discovery of Dr. Osmanagich, is what it means for prehistory. These pyramids are much bigger and older than the Pyramids of Giza and may date back to about 32,000 BC which per dates every human made structure on the planet by about 27,000 years.

But, Dr. Sam Osmanagich has a lot of "baggage" to overcome. I am quoting a article from the smithsonian magazine (online) here: His views of world history—described in his books published in Bosnia—are unconventional. In The World of the Maya, which was reprinted in English in the United States, he writes that "Mayan hieroglyphics tell us that their ancestors came from the Pleiades....first arriving at Atlantis where they created an advanced civilization." He speculates that when a 26,000-year cycle of the Maya calendar is completed in 2012, humankind might be raised to a higher level by vibrations that will "overcome the age of darkness which has been oppressing us." In another work, Alternative History, he argues that Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders escaped to a secret underground base in Antarctica from which they did battle with Adm. Richard Byrd's 1946 Antarctic expedition.

"His books are filled with these kinds of stories," says journalist Vuk Bacanovic, one of Osmanagich's few identifiable critics in the Sarajevo press corps. "It's like a religion based on corrupted New Age ideology." end quote.

Anyway, the reader can check out the links below or Google the Bosnian Pyramids for many articles on this subject.

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Ref.

1. Wikipedia, Bosnian Pyramids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_pyramids).

2. Bosnian Pyramid website(http://www.bosnianpyramid.com/).

3. Attainable Mind blog(http://www.attainablemind.com/2010/02/bosnian-pyramids-biggest-and-oldest-on.html).

4. Smithsonian Magazine(http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Mystery-of-Bosnias-Ancient-Pyramids.html).

A Klingon Christmas Carol on Stage!

A Chicago stage production of Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol" with a Star Trek twist - spoken in Klingon! A poster states to the public "Scrooge has no honour, nor any courage."

Klingon ( or "thingan Hol" in that language) was developed back in 1984 by linguist Marc Okrand when Star Trek III: The Search for Spock."

The miserly alien warrior known as SQuja' (aka Scrooge) is visited by three holiday ghosts during the Klingon Feast of the Long Night.

The play itself was written by Christopher O. Kidder and Sasha Walloch.

For more details, go ahead and click on the link info below.

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Ref.

1. The Telegraph. "Klingon Christmas Carol brought to the stage" December 23, 2010. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8215826/Klingon-Christmas-Carol-brought-to-the-stage.html).

Starfleet Bridge Bunnies Drawing

A little something something that my friend Syd gave me over this past weekend (which happened to be my 51st birthday!). In both ink and in color. This is the link to his gallery on Deviant-art.com (http://stridersyd.deviantart.com/). So please take the time and visit his website.

There I am in the Captain's chair of my own starship. Surrounded by lovely ladies (aka Bridge Bunnies. A term taken from a different sci-fi universe known as Macross/Robotech). The expression "Its good to be Captain." comes to mind.

My friend Syd has made some great character drawings of me in the past. In fact, I used one of his Robotech drawings with me in the cockpit of a veritech fighter as the header for my other blog: Aerospace,Technology, Paranormal, and UFO News (http://aerospacedreams.blogspot.com/).

I also have a deviant-art website (http://darth-deviant.deviantart.com/) if you would like to take a look at some of my own meager artwork over there.

Additional Space Cruiser Yamato Clips!

Found some more Space Cruiser Yamato clips on YouTub. This one here has some extended scenes from the launching of the great ship to face off a attack from the aliens! The first use of the Wave Motion Cannon!

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Space Cruiser Yamato-Road Show video found!

Here is a very interesting YouTube clip I found dealing with the Space Cruiser Yamato live-action movie release (should have already taken place by now).

Anyway, if you have problems with the video on my blog, just view it on YouTube direct.