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Battle of the Trek Geniuses

I have been a Trekkie, or a Trekker if you want to be politically correct, since adolescence. My teenage heartthrob was Mr. Data. Need I say more? My brother-in-law, Ryan, is perhaps an even more despicable fan. You know, the type whose basement is packed with impenetrable airtight/waterproof containers full of model ships, autographed plaques, and unopened communicator collectibles. So naturally when Star Trek Scene It? came out an epic battle between me and Ryan to determine Trek supremacy was imminent, as imminent as a warp core breach after an antimatter containment failure. That historic skirmish happened on stardate 65599.2 AKA last Saturday.

Ryan and I each prepped for our cosmic competition by watching a great deal of Trek. The Star Trek franchise is a galactic behemoth. Between all the various series there are over 600 episodes and 500 hours of television. Since we’re not Peggy Bundy, and don’t have unlimited vegging time, our “research” had to be selective. I have been slowly re-watching The Next Generation, my favorite Trek, since Jason bought me the box set a year ago and a few months back I started supplementally tackling a mix of Voyager, Enterprise, and The Original Series. Ryan decided to concentrate his efforts on The Next Generation and Enterprise before our big showdown. He completed viewing both in their entirety. Not that it did him any good. Wahaha!

Everyone wanted to try on Jason's Starfeet uniform. At least it wasn't a belly shirt on Benson like it is on Jason.

Finally, the chosen day came and our battle was afoot. The difficulty of the game’s questions varied considerably from super easy to nearly impossible. Although each of us had a couple teammates, teammates that proved more useful than those red-shirted security fellows, it was really Rachel vs. Ryan for the most part. With a little luck, and some super amazing memory recall skills, team Rachel warped ahead at first. Eventually Ryan got his dilithium crystals aligned properly and he sped up to nearly take the victory. But in the end he just couldn’t make her go any faster. He basically choked on his last couple questions. One involved some simple Enterprise trivia and the other an Original Series query about the Botany Bay. I guess some people just can’t handle the pressure of command. Fortunately, I was able to quickly identify the Botany Bay for the win before Ryan could regroup his forces.

Ryan was "stunned" by his defeat.

I know Ryan considers himself a venerable vault of Trekkie trivia so I’m sure this defeat will haunt him and fill him with the deepest shame for many years to come…or until we have a rematch. He made a good effort but you just can’t win them all, especially if your opponent is me or Q.

Rachel March 1, 2012 3 Comments

The Glitz and Glamour of Science

If there is a word that means “beyond famous” you can look that word up in the dictionary and see a picture of me.

I’ve been giving lectures, along with various other SCC board members, to chemistry students at universities around the state. The latest of these presentations was at BYU in honor of national chemistry week.

Somehow this lecture landed me and Ryan, my co-presenter, an invitation to appear on a live talk show called Insight with Jon Du Pre that is broadcasted on BYUTV. Yes, I did say “live” as in lots of opportunities for blurting out baffling responses that cannot be edited into coherency.

Jon Du Pre was a very friendly fellow. I guess talk show hosts do need to be easy to talk to.

Ryan and I agreed to be on this program without really knowing what to expect. Apparently we should have counted on some nerves, a little mayhem, and a whole lot of blush.

As soon as I arrived at the studio I was whisked into makeup. My look was glamorized, or depastified rather, with seemingly endless layers of foundation and eye shadow. It was a lot more than I would normally wear; it was probably a lot more than the average hooker would wear. And I wasn’t the only one that got obligatorily prettied up, Ryan was powdered and primped too.

Becoming pretty took a while. One of my friends told me I looked like a geisha with my makeover. I'm still not sure if that was meant as a compliment or an insult.

After our beautification we did have a little time to prep for the interview while waiting in a holding room but most of what was discussed during that wait didn’t make it into the program. So much for being ready. I’m sure you’d never guess watching our segment, which was brimming with witty technical repartee, that we were totally winging it. Never.

We discussed some cosmetic products in "the green room" while waiting for showtime.

The trickiest part of being on live TV was pretending that you weren’t on live TV. Ignoring all the teleprompters, the cameras focused on you from every possible angle, and the multitude of timing apparatuses while trying to quickly give intelligible responses was a little daunting. We pulled it off pretty well though. I didn’t fall off my stool or start spouting incomprehensible Rachel blabber. The fool I made of myself was not complete so I’d say my expectations were exceeded.

The studio was a little cramped with cameras swinging all over the place but there was enough room for all of the guests, plus Jason, to huddle in a corner and watch the filming.

If you want to witness my attempt to sound scientific, but not too scientific, while encased in a nearly impervious makeup shell check out this link: http://byutv.org/watch/c449c4ee-47ae-4c82-b495-33ca37670906

Rachel November 4, 2011 No Comments

Parks and Saints

Jason and I just had a super crazy week. You know, one of those weeks where you don’t bother unpacking your suitcase from one trip because you will just be leaving again on another excursion a few days later and your house somehow becomes a shrine to clutter even though you’ve been home so scarcely that it doesn’t seem possible that you could’ve had any effect at all on your living space.

We stayed in cottage #7 this year. It was right on the green so Jason got a kick out of watching golfers throw tantrums when their shots went awry.

We spent the beginning of our week in Park City for the Society of Cosmetic Chemists’ annual scientific seminar and golf outing. This event followed its usual format: lectures and dinner the first afternoon and golfing the morning after. Jason typically tags along when I head up to this gathering. He doesn’t golf and he doesn’t get to eat with me and the other scientists at Ruth’s Chris so why is he so eager to go? I know that boy loves me but I think his enthusiasm for escorting me to this function has more to do with the lavish cottage suite at the Hotel Park City that he gets to lounge in while I am off with my fellow chemists than my entertaining personality. These cottage suites are spacious and swanky and go for well over a $1000 a night during Park City’s peak season. With a private patio sporting a gas fireplace and Jacuzzi, it’s easy to see why people are willing to shell out the dough for these accommodations. Luckily, we got a great deal through the SCC’s group rate so we got to enjoy the hotel’s splendor for relative pocket change.

Our suite had its own private patio equipped with a fireplace and Jacuzzi. We sat out there sipping sparkling lemonade from fancy glasses while the brilliant night sky captivated us.
My golf team had the misfortune of being stuck with me. I pity the fool!
Jason decided to go mountain biking at Park City Resort while I was out golfing. Without my voice of reason he got exceptionally lost and ended up on some pretty treacherous terrain. What's pictured here is not that treacherous terrain but a lovely meadow he came across somewhere in the middle of it all.

A few days later we were off to St. George to attempt to see The Little Mermaid again at Tuacahn with Jason’s parents. Those of you that regularly follow my blog may recall that we got rained out when we tried to watch this show in July. We had decided to make a special trip to St. George just to give seeing this production one more chance because we had heard so many impressive things about it. As fate would have it, however, another thunderstorm was right on cue to ruin our fun again. Geez Luis! I would have been majorly disgruntled if we had driven 4 hours solely for the purpose of seeing this show but once more hadn’t been able to finish it. Fortunately, although the weather was constantly on the brink of causing havoc during the performance, the lightening that endlessly illuminating the sky to our northwest never moved in on us. It wasn’t until we were walking back to our car after the show that the heavens let it all loose. Disaster narrowly averted! And the musical was great, with some pretty creative special effects, so it was worthy of our second try.

Scuttle, the bird-brained seagull, was dressed in a full flock of feathers. What a great costume!
Heidi Anderson, who played Ursula, did a fantastic job. She was just the right combination of wicked and witty.
King Triton was a tall fellow; lengthy Jason appeared shrimpy next to him.

Although our retreat to St. George was quick, and we spent more of it driving than anything else, all that car time did allow us to chat with Sue and Keith quite a bit. And since we not only got to watch all of The Little Mermaid but also grab breakfast at The Bear Paw I’d say that it was a trip well spent. (The Bear Paw serves terrific French toast stuffed with brulee cream; I’d highly recommend gorging yourself on it.)

What a busy week spent traveling all over tarnation! But hey, between the green slopes of Park City’s summits and the red cliffs of Tuacahn we got a whirlwind tour of some of the best scenery in Utah not to mention the delight of great company and the pleasure of cultural enlightenment.

Rachel August 31, 2011 No Comments
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