For Teresa's birthday party last Friday, I turned our basement into the bridge of a Star-Trek-esque spaceship. I accomplished this by creating cool hexagonal shaped architecture with our recording studio soundboards, setting up our laptop computers at a desk with cool screen savers that mimicked Star Trek computers, shutting out the light of the windows with multiple layers of garbage bags, setting up a large flat panel, wide screen TV with my computer, which ran a realistic space simulation program, and by playing a continuous soundtrack I created of spaceship engine hums, futuristic computer noises and all manner of spacey sounds.
Teresa is by no means a Star Trek fan, but in trying to think of something fun and original to do for her (if you're unaware, we have a longstanding tradition of trying to outdo each other with "surprise" birthday parties twice a year), the thought of this was irresistible. I'd hosted a similar party in high school, though with much cruder resources. And frankly, creating amazing space simulations has always been a dream of mine. To get Teresa and myself psyched for the event, we checked out and watched the new movie Star Trek the night before. Unfortunately, neither of us liked it. Though we're just haters.
Of course, when I picked up Teresa, whom I'd sent off to her parents' house, she was under the impression that we had some date plans in Salt Lake City. Though she was no doubt suspicious, as her mom had slightly leaked some information. When she entered our basement, many friends and family members, dressed in Star Trek outfits, soluted her as captain and escorted her to the captain's chair. She didn't known any Star Trek jargon, and as her first mate, I wasn't very good at it either. But our crew improvised well enough to get us launched deep into space, when, not long after, there was a transmission from an enemy ship (friends in the basement bedroom who communicated with us through a multiple camera setup and a TV of their own). Enemies boarded our ship, violent struggles ensued, engines were deactivated, victims were hurled into the vacuum of space, the captain was kidnapped, rescue missions were sent, etc., and it was good fun ... though short-lived. It was short-lived because our basement, in the heat of July, with nothing to cool it but a single fan, was so unbearably hot, especially in the super-insulated spaceship, that no one could take much of it before having to go outside and cool down.
Tragically, we forgot to take a picture of the spaceship.
Teresa is by no means a Star Trek fan, but in trying to think of something fun and original to do for her (if you're unaware, we have a longstanding tradition of trying to outdo each other with "surprise" birthday parties twice a year), the thought of this was irresistible. I'd hosted a similar party in high school, though with much cruder resources. And frankly, creating amazing space simulations has always been a dream of mine. To get Teresa and myself psyched for the event, we checked out and watched the new movie Star Trek the night before. Unfortunately, neither of us liked it. Though we're just haters.
Of course, when I picked up Teresa, whom I'd sent off to her parents' house, she was under the impression that we had some date plans in Salt Lake City. Though she was no doubt suspicious, as her mom had slightly leaked some information. When she entered our basement, many friends and family members, dressed in Star Trek outfits, soluted her as captain and escorted her to the captain's chair. She didn't known any Star Trek jargon, and as her first mate, I wasn't very good at it either. But our crew improvised well enough to get us launched deep into space, when, not long after, there was a transmission from an enemy ship (friends in the basement bedroom who communicated with us through a multiple camera setup and a TV of their own). Enemies boarded our ship, violent struggles ensued, engines were deactivated, victims were hurled into the vacuum of space, the captain was kidnapped, rescue missions were sent, etc., and it was good fun ... though short-lived. It was short-lived because our basement, in the heat of July, with nothing to cool it but a single fan, was so unbearably hot, especially in the super-insulated spaceship, that no one could take much of it before having to go outside and cool down.
Tragically, we forgot to take a picture of the spaceship.
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