At a Glance
Name: Melanie (aka Mel)
Location: Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Age: 37
Occupation: Human Resources
Hobbies: Reading and latch-hooking
Joined UFOP: August 2012
Writer ID: A238908T10
About Me
Generic Information
Here's where I guess I get to tell you all more about me. In case you were curious or something. I was born and raised in the Metro DC area. My dad brought me up with Star Trek so I have been watching since I can remember. I also enjoy writing. My first college degree was in Liberal Arts; I studied Poetry and Music before switching over to Business. I have a MBA in HR and currently I work in Human Resources for a Behavioral Healthcare company. I have been vegetarian for over 10 years and was vegan for 3, which resulted in much joking from my friends on the Apollo.
Those who know me, whether in RL or in OOC chats, know that I have a strange (to put it nicely) sense of humor, which is a genetic trait apparently because everyone on the one side of my family has the very same sense of humor.
My History with Gaming
I have been big on gaming since I was a kid. Growing up, my friends and I created the equivalent of what I now know is known as LARPing. We each had our own characters and we would make up quests that we would play out. From there I got into video games. I am a Nintendo-girl myself, so I played a lot of Zelda, DK, Mario, etc. and I never really moved on from there. I still play the old school games instead of the newer ones. I dabbled with computer games, but I typically would play on my friends computers and not my own (system requirement issues, ftl). I also enjoy Table Top games.
Back in the 90s, one of my Trekker friends told me about this thing called a "PBeM" for Star Trek. Soon after I was an addict. I was on three different ships at one point (fun fact: one of the characters was named T'Mar and had striking similarities to my SB118 character of the same name, although she was not Betazoid). I was a Captain on one of the ships, however the ships soon reached the common fate for many of those ships: one by one the members started leaving and soon there was not enough to keep the ships going. In the early 2000s, one of the ships (the USS Cavalry- formerly part of the BravoFleet) attempted a comeback and it gave me a taste for the simming world once more, but about a year later it had reached the same fate again. Despite my desire to play with that group that had become like family, I knew a third attempt would never happen. Around that point I was in high school anyways and switched over to gaming and shenanigans with my friends. The PBeM world quickly faded away as I began growing up and thinking about my future.
Fast forward to the summer of 2012. I was working at two different internships, both of which had a lot of down time, due to being unpaid work. While I was working, I realized that my typing was much slower than the days where I was posting on three ships for fun (I averaged well over 100wpm back then). It started as an idea to help me increase typing speed, but I quickly realized I missed the action and even more, the friends that came with PBeMs. A quick google search brought me to UFOP and without taking any time to talk myself out of it, I signed up. There would be no going back from there...
My Characters
Current Playing Characters
- LtJG. Eleanor Park - USS Constitution
PNPCs
- PNPC Ens. Sarai Porter
- FORMER PC Cmdr. T'Mar - USS Constitution (currently inactive)
- FORMER PC Cmdr. Sarah Mason - USS Constitution (currently inactive)
- FORMER PC LtCmdr. Cassiopeia Shanta - USS Constitution (currently inactive)
Former Characters
- MSNPC Aida Midasti- Town Healer on Planet Eridea
- MSNPC Commander Koval- Rogue Klingon extraordinaire
- MSNPC Lt.Cmdr. Sarah Mason (started as a MSNPC, then eventually became a PC and now PNPC)
- PNPC Lt. (JG) Loleh Rejock
- PNPC Lt. Katelynn Meyer
- PNPC Christina "Mama" Mason
OOC Record
OOC Contributions
- Podcast Team Contributing member/Co-host; 9/28/2012 to 10/9/2016, Co-Facilitator; 12/1/2014- 3/2015. Facilitator; 3/2015- 8/2015. Co-Facilitator; 8/2015-9/2015.
- UFOP History Team Contributing member, Co-facilitator, observer; 4/4/2013 to 2021ish (on and off)
- USS Gemini Newsletter Team Initial Facilitator and contributing member; 11/2014- 12/2014 when the project was ended
- USS Apollo Mentor; 7/30/2013 to 2/2014
- USS Gemini Mentor & Facilitator; 2/2014- 7/2015
- USS Gemini Chat Facilitator; 2/2014- 3/2015
- Top Sims Contest Judge USS Apollo representative; 9/1/2013 to 2/2014
- Publicity Team Committee member/occasional contributing member; 7/28/2014- 11/25/2015
- Training Operations Team Trainer/Member; 10/9/2013- 12/19/2016
- My Character: Jaina Webb
- Newsies Team Interviewee
- Lower Decks interview: Found Here
OOC Promotion and LOA dates
- Ship: USS Apollo 238908.21
- Main Character: T'Mar 238908.21
- Ensign: 238908.21
- LtJG: 238909.30
- Lieutenant: 239004.14
- LtCmdr: 239008.16
- Ship: USS Gemini 239102.01
- First Officer: 239102.01 - 239203.06
- LOA: 239204.29 - 239206.15
- Ship: USS Constitution-B 239207.11
- First Officer: 239208.14 - 239404.12
- Commander: 239307.09
- Main Character: Sarah Mason 239311.16
- Main Character: T'Mar 239404.17
- LOA: 239405.08 - 239408.23
- LOA: 239409.20 - 239411.26
- Main Character: Sarah Mason 239411.26
- LOA: 239501.11 - 239505.10
- LOA: 239608.13 - 239610.18
- LOA: 239702.19 - 239704.24
- LOA: 239804.29 - 239807.24
- Main Character: Cassiopeia Shanta 239807.24
- LOA: 239810.16 - 240008.21
- Main Character: Eleanor Park 240008.21
Player Achievements
This section is a work in progress.
Awards
This section is a work in progress.