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Ask Luke’s Mother-in-Law: Copping a Feel for Video Games, Raccoons, Immortality


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Luke’s mother-in-law is former LAPD, a licensed property appraiser and a self-described crazy cat lady. None of which has prepared her for TR readers. All questions and answers are real.

Hello. It is Thursday again. This is Easter week. The weather is warm and sunny here in the desert. I have been out doing yard work; I have a secret project going that Mrs. LYT will see this weekend when she visits (LYT has to stay in LA to cover WonderCon). Yes, that is one of my outside cats in the back ground. This is the second week of Coachella Music Festival and shortly we will be having the Joshua Tree Music Festival. The Easter Bunny will be stopping buy in a few days. I think we are coloring eggs on Saturday. Would you believe that the first Easter Egg Hunt that LYT did was here at my house a few years ago? [Not exactly; just first one as an adult – LYT] We have to do this early in the day so the chocolate does not melt in the heat. This is also Earth Day weekend here in the Desert, so there are big Earth Day doings in Yucca Valley at the community center. We also just had a casino open in 29 Palms – I have not been yet, but Mrs. LYT went on opening day and won a few dollars. This week I also got the pool open for the summer: water is not quite warm enough to swim yet, but it is clean and the water looks nice.

latigid
Question
In star trek if they ever encountered two worlds lets say close to each other in the same way earth and mars are and there is life on each of them but the mars like planet has our level of technology whereas the earth like one is bronze age and the advanced planet sends a probe to the earth one with no knowledge of there being any life and is just gathering information and sending back pictures

would starfleet or the enterprise interfere and stop the probe getting there as fear of the change it would cause for the bronze age level people or would they see that interfering with the probe be affecting the advanced probe sending people who do not have warp or much of any space technology with and that too would break the prime directive and so leave both of them alone

do you think of Sisko, Janeway, Picard, Kirk, Archer would break the prime directive here or just leave them alone

I don’t think that they (any of the captains) would stop the probe as it is just gathering information. We are sending probes to Mars and and further out in to space and they are just to gather information. Remember when we even sent Voyager out in to space, there was information about our planet on the probe. I loved the movie where they encountered “V’ger” which was early earth’s (compared to Trek Star Date) probe. Explorers are in all forms mechanical and human.

dnjscott
Hey MYT – what kind of gun do you have? Since you mentioned it.

Well, my favorite is a Ruger Stainless 357; my next is a Smith and Wesson 38 police special. The Ruger was a gift from my husband. The guys at the station loved it when I first started bringing it to work and kept teasing that one day it would go missing. To stop the teasing, my husband put on hot pink ramp sights. None of the guys wanted the gun after that. I love to go to the range and shoot.

SlyDante777
As a former LAPD/California police officer, do you have any opinions on/knowledge of the Police Quest games? They actually had that as edutainment on our computers in Junior High…or possibly L.A. Noire? Any potential thoughts on either?

For that matter, are there any specific parts from your job (or that of a police officer’s job in general) that would translate particularly well into a video game? It sounds a bit odd, but I’m just curious.

I have seen and played L.A. Noire. It is a good game and you have to think and find clues thru the game. I like the setting of 194’s LA. So fun to see the detectives in suits and hats. That used to be a big thing in LAPD, the fedora. Sometimes the game gets draggy with the dialogue, though.

Other good ones are True Crime: Streets of LA , the SWAT series and of course Grand Theft Auto . But the very best video game of all is the shoot/don’t shoot video training at the LAPD academy. This is part of their Hogans Alley training. It is life-size full video – great fun and the training staff can change the games on the turn of a dime.

Gallen_Dugall
QUESTION! How do I know when I’ve gone too far, as I often do, without actually going too far to have people glare at me, as they often do?

Well, this would depend on what you are doing. Are you standing in your front yard baying at the moon? Drag racing down your street and playing dodge the neighbors? Debating the differences between Star Trek and Star Wars? You can generally tell when the other side is starting to get annoyed with your train of thought, comments, etc., if you start to see the other person getting antsy or trying to get a word in edgewise – you could be coming up to the point where you are going to far. Back off a bit and let the other side say something.

skrag2112
Are there any movies you can recite almost line for line?

Yes. Jesus Christ Superstar. I know that one line for line.

William C Brown
Then I ask “Who wants to live forever?”

The kids in FAME. Well, I’m not sure if I want to live forever. I’m trying to figure out how I am going to make it in the next few years. I’m lucky to have a job , house and good family so I think everything will be okay for the time being.

Timely Tardis Lego: What’s a good way to get rid of Circles under your eyes? I’m starting to look like a raccoon at this point

More rest. But I am assuming that this is not necessarily an option. Get a good concealer and don’t just get one off the shelf at your local drug store. Go to a store like Sephora or a major department store with cosmetic counters and staff. Have them help you pick out the correct shade to match you skin tone. This way you try different shades, and then you purchase the correct one. I know the raccoon look is not necessarily a fashion statement.

Timely Tardis Lego: Every year, there’s a cat, or rather cats that yowl outside my window when I’m trying to sleep. I recently took to shooting Nerf darts in their general direction, but do you recommend any better way to deal with them?

I use a squirt bottle with water and vinegar. Cats don’t like getting wet or smelling like vinegar. Besides my indoor cats I have several outdoor ones – this works on both. We are at a point now that all they have to see is the bottle and the yowling stops.

Well that’s all for now. Hope you all have a wonderful Easter. Be good to each other this week. Take care – Huggs.

If you’d like to add your questions to the pile for Luke’s mother-in-law, leave them in comments below.