The adventures of the intrepid captains at Chez Casual Does have not been many and varied this week. Aside from creating a few character presets with the intention of using them on subsequent Bridge Officers, I was refraining from logging in pending the arrival of my Joined Trill bonus race retail key. My better half, out of respect for our unofficial leveling pact, went on without his Constitution-class starship and made as far as Lt. 4 before stopping to wait for me. We have had a lot of unexpected real-life intrusions into our available gaming time, so to be honest, the waiting has not been that difficult, though my better half has lamented to me that he often wishes he could log on at various times throughout the day.
Finally it was Tuesday! I eagerly refreshed my e-mail and then attempted to apply my retail key to my account from work while reading about the adventures of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses unable to enter their retail keys and claim their bonus items. I had a few such occasions myself, and had I not been on a work computer I would have shared the varying 404, page not found, and closed subscription and key already in use screenshots. But that is a silly story anyway, and nobody wants to hear it.
As of tonight, I have played one evening since launch, and have reached Lt. 3 on my Engineering captain; my better half has yet to unlock Klingons. Our rate of progression is appalling next to those who have already dinged Admiral (though I would like to think we are having more fun than those chomping through whatever means of highest xp gain for renown and profit!). And we are having fun; even on patrol and story missions we have encountered more than three times, we are still stopping and smelling the roses, admiring character models and scenery, pointing out our new weapon drops to one another and high-fiving when we vaporize something. I am looking forward to the weekend, when we might have more uninterrupted time to play and life can stop dropping unexpected events in our laps for a short while.
Maybe I’ll even have Klingons unlocked by next week… I dare to dream big.
Casual Is As Casual Does 
I’d say I was alarmed at the frantic pace at which some people are leveling in STO, but I’m not. There’s always a group of crazies who burn through content at lightning speed.
As an aside, I watched “Heart of Glory” last night and almost made a Klingon. I’m putting it off, though — don’t want to spread myself too thin.