First with the boiler plate -
Hello, my name is Jeff. I have been doomed to carry a name in common with a famous guitar player of the 60’s and 70’s. I am mostly a lurker on this BBS, having only posted a handful of times since I started visiting back in 1999. I am 30, soon to be 31 (in a week). I have been married for five years to an amazing woman that is now finishing medical school after having ditched her former, very successful, career as a TV journalist in Japan. We have a daughter, Sayo, who just turned six months old. We reside in Baltimore, MD.
I am currently employed in the defense industry in Project Management Support, which means that most of the time I am writing or editing technical documentation and meeting with various customers. In addition to those duties, I am a writer and editor for the company newspaper (I am always sprinkling sci-fi references in my articles). I was formerly employed as a public high school English teacher, which I left after five years of toiling against the miserable system that claims to put the welfare of children first (funny that I should end up in the defense industry). I am very bitter about this, considering that I always listed “teacher” as my second career choice. What was my first? Husband/father, which always made my teachers roll their eyes when I had to write those, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” essays from grade school.
I am an avid reader and devour just about any written material I can get my hands on. I collect rare and first edition books, religious and philosophy texts, pulp science fiction novels, and comic books. I love music of all varieties, although I would say my tastes reside more in the “classic” punk and experimental genres. I am also quite passionate about collecting and watching films, following the catalogs of various producers and directors.
I am originally from a small town outside Buffalo, NY called East Aurora. For those of you familiar with the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th century this was the location of the famous commune started by Elbert Hubbard called The Roycroft. It is also the birthplace of Fisher Price Toys (the town refers to itself as “Toy Town, USA”). I was raised in a small, extended family by my parents and grandparents (who lived in the carriage house on our property) in the same home my father was raised in. I have one older brother who in many ways is my diametric opposite, although I love him to death. My mother is an immigrant from Germany so we often engaged in traditions and ate food that many of the small town folks I grew up with thought were pretty bizarre.
Now my reason for being here (as on this BBS, not the question of the ages) -
I was a very sickly child growing up and spent a lot of time in bed, which was directly responsible for my love of literature, Sci-fi, and Trek in particular. One of my earliest memories is puking into an old pot that I carried around when I was sick while trying not to miss a minute of The Trouble with Tribbles, which I was viewing for the first time. I was hooked before I even had a chance to protest. While most of my cohorts at school talked about peewee hockey or football, I was trying to start a conversation about an episode of the Twilight Zone or how Captain Kirk dealt with Kor. You get the picture. It was like being the boy named Sue.
Unfortunately, this was to be the way of my childhood through teenage years – but that’s ok, I’m not bitter at all. Oh no, not at all, “Because I am smart enough, good looking enough, and darn it, people like me . . . “
I am first and foremost a fan of the original series (I put that in lower case because its real name is simply Star Trek). I also adore TAS. I am torn between DS9 and TNG as my second favorite, with Enterprise coming next. Voyager had engaging characters and wonderful actors and actresses to play those characters, in addition to a tried and true sci-fi concept (which was new for Star Trek), but was such a wasted opportunity because of poor writing and even worse treatment as just another product to be bought and sold like a cheap dime-store whore that I sometimes lament its existence; however, let me add this caveat – I love all Trek, blemishes and all.
Enterprise held a lot of promise in its concept and still holds a lot of promise as a series. Once again, though, I feel that the B’s really are missing the spirit of Star Trek and fail to understand its affect on the fans. When you have invested a lot of time into a show and have wrapped yourself in the universe in which these fictional people live and breath the carelessness of those that carry it on becomes even more galling than them insulting your intelligence by believing they can dupe you into thinking their program is something to expend precious time and calories on. Details matter, general continuity matters, the spirit of the program matters, but first and foremost the writing matters. UPN scored when Bakula signed on to play Archer. Here you have a seasoned actor that has a built in fan base signing on to do a show that has a built in fan base. How could you go wrong? Allow the same conjurers of flapdoodle that pissed on Voyager continue to do so on the newest series.
Now, do not mistake my harshness as dislike of the show. I am only hard on it because I care about it. The show has blossomed this junior year out and it would be a shame if the suits pulled it now. I do believe one route to take, and the least likely, to improve the program would be to boot those charlatans out of the organization and bring in fresh blood. But, then again, would we end up with someone even worse?
Ok, see? I have gotten off topic. This is why I do not post with any frequency. I have a tendency to ramble and be long winded. Sorry.
I found this strangely therapeutic. Many thanks for reading my blurb.
Hello, my name is Jeff. I have been doomed to carry a name in common with a famous guitar player of the 60’s and 70’s. I am mostly a lurker on this BBS, having only posted a handful of times since I started visiting back in 1999. I am 30, soon to be 31 (in a week). I have been married for five years to an amazing woman that is now finishing medical school after having ditched her former, very successful, career as a TV journalist in Japan. We have a daughter, Sayo, who just turned six months old. We reside in Baltimore, MD.
I am currently employed in the defense industry in Project Management Support, which means that most of the time I am writing or editing technical documentation and meeting with various customers. In addition to those duties, I am a writer and editor for the company newspaper (I am always sprinkling sci-fi references in my articles). I was formerly employed as a public high school English teacher, which I left after five years of toiling against the miserable system that claims to put the welfare of children first (funny that I should end up in the defense industry). I am very bitter about this, considering that I always listed “teacher” as my second career choice. What was my first? Husband/father, which always made my teachers roll their eyes when I had to write those, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” essays from grade school.
I am an avid reader and devour just about any written material I can get my hands on. I collect rare and first edition books, religious and philosophy texts, pulp science fiction novels, and comic books. I love music of all varieties, although I would say my tastes reside more in the “classic” punk and experimental genres. I am also quite passionate about collecting and watching films, following the catalogs of various producers and directors.
I am originally from a small town outside Buffalo, NY called East Aurora. For those of you familiar with the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th century this was the location of the famous commune started by Elbert Hubbard called The Roycroft. It is also the birthplace of Fisher Price Toys (the town refers to itself as “Toy Town, USA”). I was raised in a small, extended family by my parents and grandparents (who lived in the carriage house on our property) in the same home my father was raised in. I have one older brother who in many ways is my diametric opposite, although I love him to death. My mother is an immigrant from Germany so we often engaged in traditions and ate food that many of the small town folks I grew up with thought were pretty bizarre.
Now my reason for being here (as on this BBS, not the question of the ages) -
I was a very sickly child growing up and spent a lot of time in bed, which was directly responsible for my love of literature, Sci-fi, and Trek in particular. One of my earliest memories is puking into an old pot that I carried around when I was sick while trying not to miss a minute of The Trouble with Tribbles, which I was viewing for the first time. I was hooked before I even had a chance to protest. While most of my cohorts at school talked about peewee hockey or football, I was trying to start a conversation about an episode of the Twilight Zone or how Captain Kirk dealt with Kor. You get the picture. It was like being the boy named Sue.
Unfortunately, this was to be the way of my childhood through teenage years – but that’s ok, I’m not bitter at all. Oh no, not at all, “Because I am smart enough, good looking enough, and darn it, people like me . . . “
I am first and foremost a fan of the original series (I put that in lower case because its real name is simply Star Trek). I also adore TAS. I am torn between DS9 and TNG as my second favorite, with Enterprise coming next. Voyager had engaging characters and wonderful actors and actresses to play those characters, in addition to a tried and true sci-fi concept (which was new for Star Trek), but was such a wasted opportunity because of poor writing and even worse treatment as just another product to be bought and sold like a cheap dime-store whore that I sometimes lament its existence; however, let me add this caveat – I love all Trek, blemishes and all.
Enterprise held a lot of promise in its concept and still holds a lot of promise as a series. Once again, though, I feel that the B’s really are missing the spirit of Star Trek and fail to understand its affect on the fans. When you have invested a lot of time into a show and have wrapped yourself in the universe in which these fictional people live and breath the carelessness of those that carry it on becomes even more galling than them insulting your intelligence by believing they can dupe you into thinking their program is something to expend precious time and calories on. Details matter, general continuity matters, the spirit of the program matters, but first and foremost the writing matters. UPN scored when Bakula signed on to play Archer. Here you have a seasoned actor that has a built in fan base signing on to do a show that has a built in fan base. How could you go wrong? Allow the same conjurers of flapdoodle that pissed on Voyager continue to do so on the newest series.
Now, do not mistake my harshness as dislike of the show. I am only hard on it because I care about it. The show has blossomed this junior year out and it would be a shame if the suits pulled it now. I do believe one route to take, and the least likely, to improve the program would be to boot those charlatans out of the organization and bring in fresh blood. But, then again, would we end up with someone even worse?
Ok, see? I have gotten off topic. This is why I do not post with any frequency. I have a tendency to ramble and be long winded. Sorry.
I found this strangely therapeutic. Many thanks for reading my blurb.
) living in Newport Beach, California. (In orange county, south of Los Angeles) and was born and raised in Socal! 
