A Trekkie? You?

Right now, I'm sitting in my living room and in front of me is documented proof of bucket list item #5 completed. Oh Calgary Expo Comic Con, how I love thee. I'll blog about the Comic Con experience in another post shortly, but I wanted to share here about my history about being a long time Trekker as a lot of folks have commented: dude, seriously?

Almost 25 years ago, I sat in front of my family's little 8" screen TV and tuned in to see the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was 10 years old at the time and already a budding geek with interests in science, space, video gaming, and comics. I knew of the original Star Trek series, but (shocker warning) Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock never really appealed to me. Through my eyes, they were outdated and any episode that I watched seemed boring, corny, or both. However I decided that I'd give this Next Generation a try. Besides, the guy from Reading Rainbow had a role in it and I never missed an episode of that show.

So I tuned in and watched this group of nine people try to save their asses, their ship, and humanity itself (as it was on trial  in this episode) from this omnipotent evil guy called "Q". The Reading Rainbow dude was blind (but he drove the ship!), the Chief Security Officer was a chick, there was this "needs more time in the sun" robot... er, android whom I found annoying, single parent families were the norm, and the Captain was this old British, wait French?, bald dude. After the pilot episode, I turned off the TV, marched up to my mom who was in the kitchen, and declared with all regale formality that I was officially a Star Trek fan.

My mom's answer, "That's nice dear."

Over the next 7 years, I never missed an episode and still have all the original VCR recordings from seasons 2 to 7 (season 1 remained elusive as our household didn't own a VCR at the time). Because I replayed each episode over and over, I can still recite the dialogue word per word of almost every episode (much to my friends' weird looks). Beyond TNG (and soon DS9 and later Voyager) I started immersing myself in all things Trek - learning about each character's background, the Gene Roddenberry's story, the process of filming the episodes, learning to love the original series (Whoa! They made movies too?!), and worrying about the characters who seemed like family to me. I clearly remember screaming loudly at that tiny TV as tears streamed down my face in disbelief when they killed off Tasha Yar (that Chief of Security chick), "You CAN'T kill her! YOU JUST CAN'T!!!" Yesiree, I was an official Trekker.

Why did TNG resonate so passionately with me? I felt that of all the TV shows during my upbringing, TNG not only appealed to geek in me with sci-fi, but understood me and here's the top 3 reasons:

1. Being handicapped doesn't limit your position in society. The blind dude didn't remain the helm pilot during the entire series. No, LaForge was promoted to keep the ship from "being blown to kingdom come" as ship's Chief Engineer. If a blind guy can be accepted as a colleague and become senior staff member of Starfleet's flagship, hey a deaf chick could do anything too (like a Ph.D. in microbiology).

2. The Crusher family storyline hit home with me as I deeply identified with the dialogue between the solo parent and child. Sure, the circumstances were different, but the fact that that social status wasn't an issue gave me hope that I did have a chance in life. As a kid growing up, I was branded "at-risk child" in my school system just because I didn't have a dad. If it wasn't enough to be bullied for being the deaf kid in a regular school system, I was also "that deaf chick from a broken home who you shouldn't be friends with because she's a bad influence". In the 24th century, being raised solely raised by your mom was regarded normal and even commended. Plus you got Captain Picard as your father figure role model. How cool is that?

3. Women can be strong leaders. This aspect of TNG has been mentioned over and over. At the time that the series was airing on the networks, the women's movement was still a huge issue. Except for Kate Mulgrew's Mrs. Columbo (where Mulgrew went on to become Capt. Janeway of the Star Trek Voyager series) and Kate Jackson's role in Scarecrow and Mrs. King, I didn't have many strong female role models to watch on TV. But with TNG, I saw Yar, Dr. Crusher, and Troi every week tackling various issues. I especially admired Crusher - not only being a single mom, but also a scientist. Often when I'm in the lab and suddenly realize that I haven't had lunch or supper, I can hear Dr. Crusher saying, "Sometimes I get so busy with research, I forget to eat!" (Lower Decks, Season 7)

Two years later after TNG premiered, I convinced my mom to drive me 3 hours to another city to attend my first Star Trek/comic con. She dropped me off at the door to the hotel lobby and I found myself with 500 people that loved Star Trek not as much as I did, but way, way, WAY more. Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) was the main (and only) guest star at that con 23 years ago. She graciously answered throngs of questions, sang for us, and signed my very first autograph picture! Although I was surrounded by strangers, I felt at ease and comfortable with them. They understood me and I understood them. After that experience, I made a point to visit any convention nearby and bucket list item #5 was written: to meet and thank the entire TNG cast in person. Thanks Calgary Expo for "making it so".

I spy with my DSLR eye...

It's a given that I already have a hobby (*coughs* hockey), however I've been wanting to expand into the world of photography for ages. My first love of snapping pictures started well before I hit double digits. My mom had an artistic streak in which I inherited (tho my analytical side apparently won the career direction). Where she played piano/organ, painted, drew, and crafted, I found myself behind her old Kodak flashcube or Canonet 19 cameras. Of course she never let me use actual film back in those days, but I went about my summer days with an unloaded camera in hand snapping pictures that were forever developed in my mind.

Fast forward to my 8th birthday when I received my very first camera to call my own: the Kodak disc 4000. Yessiree, a disc film camera - the future of cameras! Just like 8-track cassettes, BetaMax VCRs, and New Coke! Needless to say I was unimpressed, but made the most of that camera and its flower-like negative discs that were cumbersome and clunky to store. The cost of photography lessons and owning a decent camera (plus film developing) was never in my budget, so I was stuck on relying on crappy birthday cameras (all of which came from my father, go figure). The next camera I received launched me into the digital world with a Canon Powershot S50. It spent more of its time eating batteries than taking pictures. I was able to "upgrade" to a Powershot SX100, which I enjoyed its extra features to play with. But unPhotoshoppable grainy stills and blurred action shots plagued me and I found myself yearning a "real" camera.

After much window shopping and rubbing pennies together to make nickels, I recently took the plunge into DSLR world. The first debate was which name brand to invest in. I was able to narrow things down between Nikon vs. Olympus. Nikon cameras are incredible but scare the hell out of me with their bulkiness and "oh-there's-another-button-for-that" features. Plus, I didn't want to be toting around a small child on walkabouts. Olympus cameras offered "back to basics" models, with their retro style and their Micro Four Thirds lenses which compacted the camera size. Though my photography friends chanted Nikon is god, I listened to my inner child summer days of wandering aimlessly in the fields and down the back alleys and bought an Olympus E-PL1 camera (with the promise that my 5th year anniversary of "real"camera ownership, I'll bow to the Nikon peer pressure).  Of course buying the camera was just the first step. Lens filters, cleaners, cases, shoulder straps soon followed, but I felt giddy taking my first set of pictures just as I did as a kid in those lost summer days.


I'm far far faaaar from being a professional with Ollie (yep, I named him), but I've been having a great time already. I'm committing that each week (mostly weekends), I'll wander somewhere and snap up my surroundings. I'll also be taking a few classes over this summer to learn the finer points of using available light and fun with apertures. I have a few photo projects already in mind that I've started on my flickr account.


Two projects already underway:


Sign Language
No, this isn't what you think it is regarding the world silence, but rather the world of advertising. I appreciate a good ad slogan/campaign. The creativity behind the ad is often amazing or quirky to get the message across. Other signs are just: why did you waste the ink? If it turns my head or makes me smile/smirk/cringe/groan, Ollie shall capture it.


Tombstones Talk
This taps into my morbid side a bit. Although graveyards are probably the last place for most people to wander around, I find them fascinating. So much history and art laid before you. Every tombstone tells a story. For example, in my wanderings in Banff, one tombstone had 4 names inscribed with all deaths occurring in the year 1918 only months apart. Since car crashes weren't *that* common back then, one could surmise the Spanish Flu was the culprit. 


I have some other projects in my head, but unsure whether they will take flight. For one I need to review the laws of photography in public. I know the general rules regarding individuals and private property, but the line becomes fuzzy for other areas. Time shall tell. Maybe my next blog entry will be from my lawyer.


Moooooosic. As one big on Canadian music bands, I don't think I've posted anything yet from Barenaked Ladies (le gasp!). This group was one of the pivotal groups of my highschool days. Today I found myself humming to Brian Wilson on the bench. I need to go to a concert of theirs again real soon. Enjoy peeps.

Me and my camera...

By now you know that my #1 hobby is being a hockey goalie. If you don't, you haven't been reading this blog much haven't you? I do love hockey, but it always amazes me that my personal/work life rarely overlaps with my hockey life. None of my close friends play hockey. In fact, come to think of it, I'm probably the only person in my close friends circle that actively plays a team sport. I could go off and analyze this til' I'm blue in the face but it's obviously not a dealbreaker. I just became more aware of this fact when my mom visited me a few months ago for my PhD convocation and attended two of my games. It's nice to have someone on the other side of the rink cheering you on. Maybe this should go on my "future-mate" list somewhere: item 9 = must like hockey.

Speaking of hobbies, there's another one of mine: photography. I really really want to take some courses to learn how to get cool pictures. Of course this will involve the investment of an awesome Leica or Cannon camera. So it's on my list. As mentioned above, my mom visited me a few months ago and we headed out to Jasper/Banff for a few days. I brought my camera along:








Yeah, nothing groundbreaking. I think I do have an eye for the interesting scene. It's just the matter of being able to have the skills to capture it. Something I shall work on.

Music wise today: Edwyn Collins peeps with his classic "A girl like you." I'm outta here!