Captain k'alaa's Story (aka Lelia West-Sinclair)
Well, our story begins online. I began to work at Dallas Public Library in 1996, when the Internet was still very new to many people. Since I was familiar with computers through other jobs and my brother, I got the task of assisting library patrons with getting online, accessing programs on the library PC's, and other things (on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and during the day on Saturday and Sunday).
Many times on the weekends (and sometimes during the week), use of the computers was very slow, so I had time to explore the 'net myself. My main interest has been Star Trek for as long as I can remember, so I just typed the title into the browser, and up came startrek.com. I saw a list of options, and selected "Chat". There were three chat rooms, and since I had just seen one of my favorite Klingon episodes, I chose "The Great Hall".
Many people were there, and seemed to know each other. I was welcomed by one of the hosts, and chatted with a few people. Of course, because I was at work, I didn't have a lot of time to stay online. But the time I spent there was interesting and the people were friendly. I returned to this chat room again and again.
One day, we had several people who liked playing pranks on others in the room. I decided to play a prank myself, so calling myself "Stella" (from the Star Trek episode, I, Mudd, I began to tease one of the chatters who called himself "HarryMudd". I recited the chiding harrassment that Stella was famous for, and "HarryMudd" thought it was funny. I made friends with a few people there, including "HarryMudd" and came back again and again to talk to them.
In mid-1998 I had no access to a computer, and my life was very busy at the time in any case, so for almost a year I didn't go into the Star Trek chat rooms. When I went back, there seemed to be quite a brew-haha going on, and the people who frequented these chat rooms had split into factions. What had been a pleasant time online became less pleasant as time went on. Finally, Paramount Digital Entertainment closed down their chat rooms. It was said the reason they closed down was because hackers were affecting the server. There were other stories about this also, but most people believed the hacker story. I found out later that many chatters split off into different chat rooms, one of which was scifi.com. I was told by a former chatter at PDE and friend about the scifi.com chat rooms, so I decided to take a look.
Just like startrek.com, it was a friendly, interesting place to go. Everyone seemed eager to be there, and happy to be together again. I talked to my friend "HarryMudd", who by this time had become "CaptMudd", and many people called him "Muddy". (I was kalaa, and had always been kalaa).
This friendly place also became riddled with factions, and the fun went out of chat. I found myself talking to CaptMudd a lot. Since I had recently had a tragic loss in my family, and was going through the stress of a separation and divorce, the chat room was a place I could lay my head on Muddy's shoulder and tell him how I felt. He was very nice and sympathetic, and as time wore on, we talked more and more. Finally, I asked him for his phone number, and called him (I lived in California, he lived in England).
Our calls became more and more frequent, and lasted longer and longer. I sent him two pictures of myself and he sent me pictures of himself. We began to make plans for me to come over for a visit to see him.
When I met him, I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. We had so much in common, and he filled a void in my heart that had never been filled before. I stayed in England from March to September, 2001. In 2002, I stayed in California, finishing up the divorce. In October, 2002, I returned to England, but was only allowed to stay for two days because I didn't have the proper VISA. Muddy's mother was shocked and appalled at this, and contacted the local newspapers, telling them our story. When I obtained the proper VISA and returned, a newspaper reporter and photographer came to visit us, and we had our pictures and story in the paper not once, but three times. We also had a mention in Down's Mail, and an article in Woman magazine.
We married November 23rd, 2002, in a Star Trek/Doctor Who themed wedding. We had over eighty guests, and a lovely hot buffet.
We work together on several projects, run quite a few message boards, and we collect Star Trek books, posters, action figures, recordings video tapes, audio tapes, CD's, DVD's and pictures (both on and offline).
Admiral Mudd's Story (aka Peter Sinclair)
I was born with a form of spinal muscular atrophy, and my parents were told I wouldn't live to see five. This year, I'll be 36. We never thought I would meet anyone, let alone get married. For me, our story began in 1996 when I first got online. Being a huge Star Trek fan, I created a webring for science fiction-related sites, but it was slow to get started. I was looking at startrek.com, and I went into their chat rooms. I spent a lot of time in Starfleet Lounge, but occasionally would go into The Great Hall. From time to time I would see a name among the list of people chatting, and for some reason that name kept sticking in my mind. There was something about that person I felt I needed to know about. So, I began to talk to this "kalaa", who I found extremely nice, easy to talk to, and not condescending.
Eventually, the startrek.com server shut down the chat rooms. It was a difficult change for many of us regulars, but one we eventually got used to. One of the moderators from the old chat rooms told me about scifi.com, and that some of our chatters were going there. So, I too went there to catch up with friends, and once again spotted that name, "kalaa". So I got chatting to her even more. As time went on, I felt myself growing very fond of her and looking forward to our long chats together. Eventually, she asked for my phone number, which I gave, and we had many wonderful phone chats, sometimes going way into the middle of the night.
When she came to the UK to visit for the first time, I was very nervous, and scared she wouldn't like me. However, the moment I saw her standing outside the train station, I fell in love and the feelings I seemed to feel in our chats online and on the phone became deep and real. On the journey home, she held my hand, and asked if she could kiss it. Blushing bright red, I managed to stutter "Sure".
One day during her first stay, we went to a big shopping mall, full of posh shops. She said she loved Starbucks, so we went there and sat in a corner with our drinks. She presented a ring and asked ME to marry her! It touched me so deeply, a few tears coursed down my cheeks, and hers too (which she tried to hide). I of course said yes, and we decided to set a date later in the year. This was the time closest to when she went back to the States, so we had to put off the date several times. When a date could finally be set, it just happened to be the 39th anniversary of Doctor Who (yes, I am a Who fan too).
We had a joint Star Trek/Doctor Who themed wedding, even down to having figures of Riker and Troi as the bride and groom on top of our cake.
The science fiction sites webring we run started being a Star Trek ring, and most of the members have Star Trek sites. The homepage is at: groups.msn.com/AMAFSR/
We also run a Newsletter associated with the webring, in which we have about 80 subscribers and four regular writers (besides ourselves). At the start of 2005, one of the message boards we post to (Star Trek Community) was suddenly shut down. I contacted the administrator of that board and asked if I could take over running it. He agreed, and at the end of January, I formerly took over running the board. We have nearly 300 members now, and the average is around 55 posts to this site every day. We have quite a few other Star Trek sites as well.
If you have any specific questions regarding what we have just told you, please feel free to email us at kinda@msn.com.
Well, our story begins online. I began to work at Dallas Public Library in 1996, when the Internet was still very new to many people. Since I was familiar with computers through other jobs and my brother, I got the task of assisting library patrons with getting online, accessing programs on the library PC's, and other things (on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and during the day on Saturday and Sunday).
Many times on the weekends (and sometimes during the week), use of the computers was very slow, so I had time to explore the 'net myself. My main interest has been Star Trek for as long as I can remember, so I just typed the title into the browser, and up came startrek.com. I saw a list of options, and selected "Chat". There were three chat rooms, and since I had just seen one of my favorite Klingon episodes, I chose "The Great Hall".
Many people were there, and seemed to know each other. I was welcomed by one of the hosts, and chatted with a few people. Of course, because I was at work, I didn't have a lot of time to stay online. But the time I spent there was interesting and the people were friendly. I returned to this chat room again and again.
One day, we had several people who liked playing pranks on others in the room. I decided to play a prank myself, so calling myself "Stella" (from the Star Trek episode, I, Mudd, I began to tease one of the chatters who called himself "HarryMudd". I recited the chiding harrassment that Stella was famous for, and "HarryMudd" thought it was funny. I made friends with a few people there, including "HarryMudd" and came back again and again to talk to them.
In mid-1998 I had no access to a computer, and my life was very busy at the time in any case, so for almost a year I didn't go into the Star Trek chat rooms. When I went back, there seemed to be quite a brew-haha going on, and the people who frequented these chat rooms had split into factions. What had been a pleasant time online became less pleasant as time went on. Finally, Paramount Digital Entertainment closed down their chat rooms. It was said the reason they closed down was because hackers were affecting the server. There were other stories about this also, but most people believed the hacker story. I found out later that many chatters split off into different chat rooms, one of which was scifi.com. I was told by a former chatter at PDE and friend about the scifi.com chat rooms, so I decided to take a look.
Just like startrek.com, it was a friendly, interesting place to go. Everyone seemed eager to be there, and happy to be together again. I talked to my friend "HarryMudd", who by this time had become "CaptMudd", and many people called him "Muddy". (I was kalaa, and had always been kalaa).
This friendly place also became riddled with factions, and the fun went out of chat. I found myself talking to CaptMudd a lot. Since I had recently had a tragic loss in my family, and was going through the stress of a separation and divorce, the chat room was a place I could lay my head on Muddy's shoulder and tell him how I felt. He was very nice and sympathetic, and as time wore on, we talked more and more. Finally, I asked him for his phone number, and called him (I lived in California, he lived in England).
Our calls became more and more frequent, and lasted longer and longer. I sent him two pictures of myself and he sent me pictures of himself. We began to make plans for me to come over for a visit to see him.
When I met him, I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. We had so much in common, and he filled a void in my heart that had never been filled before. I stayed in England from March to September, 2001. In 2002, I stayed in California, finishing up the divorce. In October, 2002, I returned to England, but was only allowed to stay for two days because I didn't have the proper VISA. Muddy's mother was shocked and appalled at this, and contacted the local newspapers, telling them our story. When I obtained the proper VISA and returned, a newspaper reporter and photographer came to visit us, and we had our pictures and story in the paper not once, but three times. We also had a mention in Down's Mail, and an article in Woman magazine.
We married November 23rd, 2002, in a Star Trek/Doctor Who themed wedding. We had over eighty guests, and a lovely hot buffet.
We work together on several projects, run quite a few message boards, and we collect Star Trek books, posters, action figures, recordings video tapes, audio tapes, CD's, DVD's and pictures (both on and offline).
Admiral Mudd's Story (aka Peter Sinclair)
I was born with a form of spinal muscular atrophy, and my parents were told I wouldn't live to see five. This year, I'll be 36. We never thought I would meet anyone, let alone get married. For me, our story began in 1996 when I first got online. Being a huge Star Trek fan, I created a webring for science fiction-related sites, but it was slow to get started. I was looking at startrek.com, and I went into their chat rooms. I spent a lot of time in Starfleet Lounge, but occasionally would go into The Great Hall. From time to time I would see a name among the list of people chatting, and for some reason that name kept sticking in my mind. There was something about that person I felt I needed to know about. So, I began to talk to this "kalaa", who I found extremely nice, easy to talk to, and not condescending.
Eventually, the startrek.com server shut down the chat rooms. It was a difficult change for many of us regulars, but one we eventually got used to. One of the moderators from the old chat rooms told me about scifi.com, and that some of our chatters were going there. So, I too went there to catch up with friends, and once again spotted that name, "kalaa". So I got chatting to her even more. As time went on, I felt myself growing very fond of her and looking forward to our long chats together. Eventually, she asked for my phone number, which I gave, and we had many wonderful phone chats, sometimes going way into the middle of the night.
When she came to the UK to visit for the first time, I was very nervous, and scared she wouldn't like me. However, the moment I saw her standing outside the train station, I fell in love and the feelings I seemed to feel in our chats online and on the phone became deep and real. On the journey home, she held my hand, and asked if she could kiss it. Blushing bright red, I managed to stutter "Sure".
One day during her first stay, we went to a big shopping mall, full of posh shops. She said she loved Starbucks, so we went there and sat in a corner with our drinks. She presented a ring and asked ME to marry her! It touched me so deeply, a few tears coursed down my cheeks, and hers too (which she tried to hide). I of course said yes, and we decided to set a date later in the year. This was the time closest to when she went back to the States, so we had to put off the date several times. When a date could finally be set, it just happened to be the 39th anniversary of Doctor Who (yes, I am a Who fan too).
We had a joint Star Trek/Doctor Who themed wedding, even down to having figures of Riker and Troi as the bride and groom on top of our cake.
The science fiction sites webring we run started being a Star Trek ring, and most of the members have Star Trek sites. The homepage is at: groups.msn.com/AMAFSR/
We also run a Newsletter associated with the webring, in which we have about 80 subscribers and four regular writers (besides ourselves). At the start of 2005, one of the message boards we post to (Star Trek Community) was suddenly shut down. I contacted the administrator of that board and asked if I could take over running it. He agreed, and at the end of January, I formerly took over running the board. We have nearly 300 members now, and the average is around 55 posts to this site every day. We have quite a few other Star Trek sites as well.
If you have any specific questions regarding what we have just told you, please feel free to email us at kinda@msn.com.
