Friday, 3/4

I have to deal with technical issues.

Between power outages and internet outages and sanity outages, the past day and a half have been one of those days (and a half). I have to get to work early to deal with the overflow, so if you don't mind I'm going to leave you with something I came across while going through these blogs from March of 2020, right before the world came screeching to a half.

Back with something new (and hopefully, with my sanity still intact) Monday!

(jim@wmqt.com)

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I wonder which show really did have a greater effect on me?

After yesterday's blog about staying at least six feet apart from someone by replacing handshakes with the Vulcan hand salute I had a couple of people jokingly ask just what kind of kid I was. Well, as the whole world knows I was a dorky nerd growing up, which means that (among other things) I really haven't changed much since I was young.

So I have that going for me.

Obviously, since I spent part of my childhood practicing the Vulcan hand salute, I was highly influenced by “Star Trek”. I actually think that's a good thing. It made me believe that there's hope for the future, that (one day) humanity will get along, and that all people (human or otherwise) are equal. . It gave me a healthy trust in science. And it also affected the way I look at things. As it turns out, I'm much more logical than emotional. Some people might fly off the handle when something stupid happens to them. I just kind of look at whatever it is quizzically and wonder to myself why the stupid thing happened.

That's how “Star Trek” had an effect on me.

However, there's another show that had just as strong of an effect, if not more. Aside from growing up on “Star Trek” I also grew up on “MASH”, which has allowed to, among other things, make a living at being sarcastic. It also instilled in me a wary eye at authority, a healthy distrust of war and the violence that comes with it, and a surprisingly dark sense of humor that can rear its head at the most inopportune time.

“Star Trek” was logical, “MASH” was emotional.

I wonder which one really did have the biggest effect on me? If you were to ask me at different times on different days I'd have to give you different answers. Heck, I might give you different answers if you were only to ask me once. First of all, I'd wonder why the question was being asked, and then I'd give some kind of smart-alecked answer to it. I guess I'm the best (or, depending upon how you look at it, the worst) of each. Just like I'm a mix of my mother and my father, two very different people, I also seem to be a mix of “Star Trek” and “MASH”, two very different TV shows.

As to which had the greater effect, I'll leave that up to you.