David Trek, the weekend.

Personal log, 210906.28--Having completed our mission assignments for Uranus, we have moved on to Pluto. We are currently orbitting the dwarf planet and doing scans. Tomorrow morning, Gene will take a shuttle (probably the Asimov) and do some closer scans, as well as scout out some sites for away missions. I plan to have all the senior officers lead away missions to the surface, reserving the first mission for myself tomorrow afternoon. I also plan to have the top four officers (myself being one of them) do away missions to Pluto's moon, Charon....

The weekend went pretty well. Harry, Liz, and I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Saturday morning. They had to go to work afterwards, so we picked up some Fazoli's to go before they dropped me off at my place. Saturday afternoon and evening, I did a lot of laundry. Today, I did my usual Sunday stuff and acquired a present for Harry and Liz's anniversary this week. I have also been watching some episodes of "Smallville" that I taped from last season.

David Trek, Transformers.

Personal log, 210906.26--Things have gone well at Uranus. Most of the senior officers (except our Chief Medical Officer and our helmsman) have lead teams to various moons. Three days ago, I visited Umbriel. It reminded me of Earth's Moon--lots of craters and a barren landscape. Yesterday, Lt. Commander Arnold visited Miranda, and Lt. Commander Sawyer visited Puck. We also had some shuttles fly along the rings and conduct scans. In a few days, we are scheduled to head to our final destination in the Sol System: Pluto.

I am pretty psyched about the new Transformers movie. I watched my DVD of the first live-action movie in preparation for the film. I hope to see it this weekend with Harry and Liz.

Father's Day weekend, David Trek.

I had a pretty good time this Father's Day weekend. Clark was in town for his 20th anniversary class reunion. We went out with Gwen and Norman on Thursday night. On Saturday, Clark and I went to see Terminator: Salvation. It was definitely better than Rise of the Machines and almost as good as Judgment Day. On Sunday, Clark, Diana, Norman, Gwen, and I went to Cosmo and Wanda's for a late lunch. After we got back, Clark and I hiked to the local Burger King and had dinner. And now, "David Trek":

Personal log. 210906.22--Last night, we arrived at Uranus. As with Jupiter, we are doing some orbital scans first, then we plan to do some away missions to several moons. I also plan to have shuttle missions do some surveys of the rings.

David Trek: the Moons of Jupiter.

Personal log, 210906.17--The away missions to the moons of Jupiter have gone well. I paid a visit to Ganymede yesterday afternoon. Gene and Collins have visited Europa and Io with their teams. Gene also did a close orbit scan of Jupiter's rings today in the shuttle Asimov. Later this evening, Div (our teleporter chief) is leading a team to Callisto. Tomorrow, we plan to send teams led by other senior officers to three more moons.

The weekend, David Trek.

I put in a few hours at Larry's on Saturday, then ran some errands. I did laundry and some reading.

Yesterday, I kept pretty busy. First, I did the usual Sunday stuff. Then, I did some reading. Later, I played my PS2 game,"Spider-Man: Friend or Foe." I got together with Harry and Liz. We had dinner at Fazoli's, then I helped them move some things around at their place. Harry showed me the progress he's made with "Overlord," then we played "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance."

And now, "David Trek":

Personal log, 210906.15--We arrived at Jupiter last night. We have been doing some scans from orbit. We are planning to do some away missions to the larger moons over the next few days.

Two spiders.

Well, I haven't been as busy with Larry this week as I had been last month. I have been watching my fourth tape of "Heroes" episodes. I have also been reading The 4-Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferris.

Today was kind of interesting: I saw two spiders crawling across my bedroom floor. The first spider was tiny (maybe 1/3 of an inch long), so I gave it to Peter V. The second spider (appearing about over an hour after the first one) was much bigger: a wolf spider, over an inch long. I scooped him up in a clear plastic scoop (I use it to catch bugs in my bathroom) and let him loose outside.

The weekend, David Trek.

On Saturday afternoon, I got together with Harry and Liz. We ran some errands, then hung out at their house. I watched Harry play "Spider-Man: Web of Shadows," then played it myself. I did okay, but I probably won't get myself a copy of the game. Later, Harry and I ate out before he took me back to my place.

Sunday, I did the usual stuff and laundry (since I didn't get to it on Saturday evening). And now, "David Trek":

Personal log, 210906.08--Last night, we left Venus and arrived at the Asteriod Belt. This will be the only scheduled non-planetary destination on the mission. We are using our matter-energy conversion beam to fill up our replication systems. Next week, we are planning to visit another planet we have not been to before....

David Trek.

Personal log, 210906.05--Things are rather dull at Venus. Fortunately, the science and engineering officers have found ways to keep busy. The probes were completed on Wednesday, and we tested them yesterday and today. We managed to get some great readings close to the surface, and the probes made it back to the ship without incident. Our big fear was that the atmospheric conditions would damage the probes, so we attached "dead-man" switches to them. If a probe was damaged in a way that it couldn't return to the ship under its own power, then it would signal the teleportation room for immediate retrieval. The probes proved tougher than we expected, scanning the inner atmosphere of Venus and returning to the ship with virtually no damage.

David Trek, today.

Well, I decided to start my "David Trek" adventures again. This time, I thought it would be interesting to write about planet missions instead of just writing about visiting various stars:

Personal log, 210906.02--We arrived at Venus the other night and did some orbital scans. Today, Collins, Gene, and myself went on three separate shuttle missions to do close orbital scans. All our scans had the same results--the atmosphere of Venus is too turbulent for incursion by shuttle. Not only that, but the surface is too hot for any away missions. I am pondering having Arnold design some disposable probes so we can get a better look at the planet without risking any personnel.

Today, Larry let me have the day off. I have kept myself busy: I did some sweeping in the kitchen and living room area. I hiked over to the local Menards (a home improvement store) and bought a surge protector to plug my laptop into. I read some books and played "Spider-Man: Friend or Foe" on my PS2. I also did some online job-hunting. I saw an interesting ad about working at home, so I responded to it. It would be nice to do something job-wise that didn't require me to dress up or commute.