Author Archive

New Addition to the Challenger and the 7th Fleet

Written by Laura Victor on September 26, 2007. Posted in Challenger News

Connor was born on September 10, at 12:45PM, 7lbs. 4oz., brown hair and (maybe) gray eyes like Kyle, 19.5" long. He is doing very well, a very content baby.

On behalf of all members…congratulations Jen!

New Web Site!!!

Written by Laura Victor on September 26, 2007. Posted in Challenger News

The site is now using a content management system called Joomla!, which allows us great flexibility in the services we offer to our members.  This is the same system that Starfleet uses for its Web site, SFI.org.  While a lot of the content remains the same, it is now much easier to handle and administrate.  It is also much easier for non-technical folks to add to the "meat" of the site, which is mainly our calendar and news.  Some of our features include:

  • A fully editable calendar module with events catagorized by color, based on the type of event.  Also, all members can add events to the calendar with no need to go into the back end of the system, and with no knowledge of HTML or any other code.  It's easy and simple to do!
  • RSVP to upcoming events & receive important event updates.
  • Easier to browse photo galleries, with the ability to view slideshows.
  • A better organized navigation system, making it easy to find what you're looking for.
  • A member login on the front page, which allows you to see members-only content, such as our handbook, roster and fictional history (coming soon).
  • A members-only Documents Center to organize important member and recruitment materials for you.
  • RSS feed of our latest news.
  • Automatic posting of news from the SFI.org Web site.
  • Vanity "@usschallenger.org" e-mail addresses, which foward to your regular e-mail address.  This is automatically give to all c-staff members (c-staff, visit the Senior Staff page to see yours) and available upon request for general members.
  • A help desk for users, allowing members to send a message to the c-staff when they need assistance with an issue.
  • A template chooser, so you can choose the look and feel that you like best for the Web site.
  • Polls, so we can take your pulse on different issues anonymously.

More features, such as reservation/RSVPs for future events, will be added in the coming months, so keep checking back for news and information.

Until next time,
Laura & the Web Team

St. Barbara’s Greek Festival Away Team

Written by Laura Victor on September 25, 2007. Posted in Challenger News

We have plenty of pics of this event that will be submitted for our new website. The food was great and we stayed for some of the singing and dancing and cadet Victoria Rose played a knock down the can game and did better then the CO.

I also wanted to add some belated birthday wishes and some future birthday greetings. It seems we have a lot of folks on the ship that mark their birthday calendars during the month of September so…
Happy birthday to Julia and Jeffrey Victor, Victoria Rose, Pat Comune and early anniversary wishes to Jeff and Laura Victor whose anniversary is coming up soon.
This Saturday is the 14th annual Apple Festival in Lacey Township. I will be covering it for work and while it had not been planned as a club event, anyone wishing to join me for it on Saturday morning…let me know. I'm not sure what time I'll be going but it runs from 9 am to 3 pm.

And on to another subject, Ken Dohn and I enjoyed watching the first three episodes of Torchwood, a spinoff of Doctor Who that showed remarkable good writing, characterization and is clearly a more adult sci fi series with a good amount of intelligence behind it. For those without BBC America, Ken is taping the show and we may plan a marathon screening in the future. For those with BBC America, check it out. I believe it is on Sunday nights.

Heroes is on tonight followed by Journeyman and Wednesday marks the debut of the re-imagined Bionic Woman. All three shows are on NBC. I'm not sure if Smallville and The Supernatural return this week or not on Thursday.