I'm hoping at the weekend to get a big chunk of AquaGirl 2 written - as it's currently >5,000 words long and I've only covered half a day; and I'm intending this episode to last several days (more water-based training, starting her 'day job', evening computer fiddling, and her first mission), it might take a while longer to finish (although hopefully before a rather portly superhero piloting a rather improbable vehicle makes his seasonal appearance!)
Anyway, at the point I've written up to, Rena's about to do land-based testing in a gym at the navy base. If anyone's seen one (or used one), I'd appreciate answers to a couple of quickie questions:
a) I assume it'll have your standard set of gym equipment - weight machines, dumbbells, free weights, treadmills etc. - but roughly how big is the building / room? Classroom sized, sports hall sized - no need for exact measurements, just some kind of 'similar size to' reference point.
b) Are there likely to be any weighing scales in the vicinity, or shall I use the excuse of a variety of scales being stored in a cupboard for the use of the local WeightWatchers branch, who have meetings there every Tuesday evening? :)
Comments
Make it up!
I would think that you could pretty much make anything up, within reason. Very few of us would know the difference :) And I doubt the discrepancy would be SO egregious as to offend anyone.
A classroom-sized weight room would make sense for a small base, and a larger one would make sense for a larger base.
A decent set of health-club/doctor's office type weigh scales would make perfect sense to me.
P.S. looking forward to the next chapter!
Making it up...
It will pretty much be made up, but I decided to ask around to minimise the chances of me getting the details horribly wrong and people critiquing it - I'm still puzzled that a large number of comments on the first chapter were of the "ferries don't sink like that!" ilk. Never mind we've got superheroes, instant gender/race transformations, lifeboats being created out of thin air...
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Navy Base gym.
I've only been to 1. It was a combined Air Force / Navy base. The Navy gym had 4 full sized basketball courts and a bunch of smaller rooms off the side. These housed equipment for various sports, and training equipment including full sized rubber rafts, diving equipment and life jackets... Weight rooms consisted of just free weights (this was in the mid 70's before weight lifting systems) there were enlisted and officer showers which included bathrooms. sliding walls could be pulled out to seperate the gym into 4 courts. Weigh scales woule likely be found over at sickbay. There would be a 'ball room' with dozens of various sized balls. There were also few offices, one of which would be for the officer in charge which were down a long hall behind the change rooms so as to be quiet enough you could talk on the phone I guess.
Attached to the gym was a full sized olympic swimming pool divided up into free swim with a diving board and lanes. On the far side of the pool were air cranes where 'ditching' exercise equipment could be hoisted out over the pool or lowered into the pool.
in the 70s hot tubs and saunas weren't that popular and only long hairs had them.
Nobody.
military people aren't generally concerned with their weight... so although the scales may be around somewhere... you only get weighed during your anual physical. The rest of the year you measure weight gain/loss by your belt.
oh I forgot to mention size. the weight room(s) would be about 15m square. Weight training isn't taught per se. But its there if you wanna put up with the smells :-) (on your own time)
My recollections are kinda dated
My recollections are kinda dated, from the mid 1960's. At that time, at the OCS training facility, Newport, RI Navy Base, there was a "heated" (by atmosphere heaters) regulation swimming pool (It was winter when I was there), a basket ball court that could be divided into two courts (we never had time to use for that purpose), an outdoor obstacle course (cargo net simulation, wooden walls, staggered tires, parallel bars, chim-up bars, etc. typical stuff you might have seen in the movie Stripes, but frozen over)located near the Atlantic, or the bay along the Navy base, that froze over solid with ice from the windblown spume off the bay. It snowed during Christmas and remained frozen over until late April. We mainly used the basket ball court for Formation/Inspection, for the day and prior to liberty. However, halfway through, a new modern brick building was finished and we moved to it. Then formation and liberty inspection was in the hallways. It was similar in layout to a contemporary dorm room. The lower floors contained the kitchen/mess tables, and a reception/security desk. The "recreation facilities" and classrooms remained the same detached wooden buildings built in 1938. The walls were so porus due to warped green wood used in hasty pre-war construction that a draft was present even with windows down and sealed.
Currently, the base recreation facilities vary with where people are stationed, but do include fitness gyms, or so I am told by a young friend thinking of making a career out of the Navy. More fool he. Rooms usually are one person rooms, so a bit of privacy is allowed. If on a ship, your personal space is severely limited unless you are an officer.
CaroL
CaroL
Is it bad...
...that when I saw the blog title, I expected it to be about the PRKAG2 gene on Chromosome 7, and thought that you had maybe come across some obscure discovery that a variation or defect in it might have some effect on the development of embryos that would be either transgendered or intersexed?
*sigh*
//geek
-Liz, who hasn't heard of any such research; this was just a coincidental... coincidence. >.<
Successor to the LToC
-Liz
Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"
Fitness Room
I'd check out fitness equipment listings and see what you want.
http://www.fitnessplus.com/servlet/StoreFront
I'd think that something like a climbing wall would be handy in the superhero business, regular weight equipment, which is usually set up in "circuits" so that there are minimal adjustments between individual sets. A rowing machine might be nice, treadmill, stair climber, anything with something of a "real world" counterpart. Swimming pool? Weapons range? Salle d'Arms?
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style