Nerds, like me

Last month, Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Spock on Star Trek, died on February 27th died at the age of 83. He will be missed, but as the saying goes he lived long, and prospered. Usually, I am relatively un effected by what goes on in the life of Hollywood celebrities, but as a science fiction nerd, Nimoy's passing saddened me.

Macky Rae, my younger dog, took it hard as well.

Regular readers of this blog are aware that Macky Rae enjoys Science Fiction, and is a big fan of Star Trek.

He is also fond of Dog Movies, "1950s Era Black and White Giant Insect Films," and Zombie Flicks.

Nimoy was also dog lover.

He co-authored a book with

his "best friend" entitled

I Am Not Spock's Dog

Like many Trekkies, Macky Rae was effected by Leonard Nimoy's passing.

Being only five (and a dog) Macky sometimes doesn't distinguish from reality and things he sees on TV and/or in the movies. As such, he did not distinguish that there is a difference between Leonard Nimoy the actor and Mr. Spock the star trek character

But neither could many Trekkies.

Macky asked me why they didn't do the Fal-tor-pan (the re-fusion) and bring Mr. Nimoy bake to life like they did in Star Trek IV: The Search for Spock. I wasn't sure how to explain it to him, so I just told him that you can only do the re-infusion once.

He accepted that.

Spock, Star Trek, and Science fiction had (and still does have) a significant impact on our culture. Here's just one example:

When you go to the doctor, especially during a hospital visit, you may be surrounded by a collection of monitors with display screens which allow the doctors to quickly know your assorted vital signs and other bodily statistical information.

This had it's origins (to some degree) from Dr. McCoy's sick bay

A doctor in the 60s was watching Star Trek and after seeing the Sick Bay thought how nice it would be if, as a doctor, he could just look up at a screen and know his patients vital signs (instead of stopping to take a pulse, or any other time consuming procedure). And the more he thought about it, he began to wonder if it was possible to do something like that then.

He called a friend, who developed medical equipment, and asked "Could we do something like that?"

The technology was there in the 60s for such equipment, but nobody had thought to do it - except for Sci Fi nerds.

This is a common fault amongst doctors, and for that matter everyone else. We become so part of the routine, we fail to see how things can be changed and improved.

The doctor and his friend eventually arranged to visit the sick bay set of Star Trek, observing and taking notes and sketches, and the friend began developing various monitors for heads up displays.

If the Sci Fi nerd has any role in our culture, it is they who say "Hey, wouldn't it be neat if...?" Eventually, someone else says "Yes, it would" and before you know it, something new enters our lives that we didn't realize how much we needed.

Sometimes the nerds themselves come up with the new innovations!

Say what you want, but the most significant technological innovations of the 20th and 21st century were not from those people who were the jocks, or the prom queens, or any of the other so-called popular kids. It was the nerds.



I have been a Sci Fi nerd most of my life. I began reading Sci Fi almost as soon as I could read. And I was watching Star Trek before I even started grade school, and I am talking the original run of the original series.

From Space Dog goes to Mars I moved up to more significant stories and books as my reading ability improved, eventually reaching an adult reading level (by the 8th grade - most Sci Fi nerds have an above average reading ability) .

After graduating High School, I briefly attended Columbia Basin College before enlisting in the Air Force. Another Sci Fi nerd, who I new from gaming, also was attending C.B.C and we would meet up for lunch every day. We eventually spotted other nerds we new from gaming, and they joined us for lunch as well.

Eventually, one of the nerds had a great idea: Let's form a Sci Fi club, and the school will let us have a room for us to be nerds in. So we did the paperwork, got the approval, and put the announcement in the bulletin.

And something weird happened

On Thursday, 11 o'clock, we went to our assigned room, and found that there were other people coming as well. They had read the announcement, and wanted to join the Sci Fi as well.

Nerds, like us.

After returning from my time in the Air Force, I decided to return to C.B.C. and finish my degree. I was introduced to a nerd (through another nerd) who was part of the Sci Fi club - the same one that I and other nerds founded years before. I was invited to visit, and when I arrived at the meeting, I found the room full of Sci Fi people

Nerds, like me

I joined the club (again), eventually being made (breifly) the club president.

It was during this time that I, and the Sci Fi club nerds became involve with Rad Con. For those of you who are not from the Tri-Cities, WA area (or have just not heard of it) Rad Con is a Sci Fi convention - and by Sci Fi I mean science fiction, Tolkienesque fantasy, vampires, werewolves, etc.

Build it, and they will come. And they did. Hundreds.

Nerds, like me.

As a special guest, we invited former congressmen Mike McCormick to be a quest speaker. I won't go into detail, but McCormick was a science guy at Hanford before getting elected to the state legislation, and later to congress. McCormick was impressed with the number of people interested in science and science fiction that were attending the convention.

And I knew what he was thinking: Nerds, like me.

After graduating C.B.C. (twice) I continued on with my normal life - as normal as Sci Fi nerds can be anyhow. One of my friends who also graduated C.B.C. and was part of the Sci Fi club asked me if I wanted to join another Sci Fi type club: The Romulan Internaional Empire (a Star Trek based fan club). Well, I really didn't, but I didn't want to offend him by saying I have better things to do that topretend to be a Romulan once a week, (or however often we would hold meeting), so I said maybe and that I would think about it.

So some time later I got an odd call. And I do mean odd.

The first thing that was wrong was that they called at 9:30 in the morning. Normally, that is not bad. But by profession, I am a cook. Since people generally prefer to eat dinner at dinner time, as a cook I usually work evenings, which means I get off work at !0pm (or later) and don't get to bed until around one of 2 in the morning. This means 9:30 is early for me - the same as 5:30 for normal people.

The man, with a distinct southern accent, ask for me by name and identified himself as Admiral Brok Jomar, stating his "name" and "rank" as if it would mean something to me (it didn't). He said that Commander Hadrian could not be reached because he was on reserve duty and I was listed as the Sub Commander of the Starship Farseer. Eventually it dawned on me: this had something to do with my friend's Romulan club.

The more he talked, the more confused I became. He claimed he attempted to contact Commander Hadron, but he was informed that he was doing his two weeks reserve duty.

OK, now I am starting to see a bit of light. My friend was in the Army reserves, and was away at Ft Lewis for his two weeks. Could this be related...?

Brok said I was the vice president/ sub commander of the club. He needed some info, which I didn't know.

I had just found out that very moment that I was a Romulan.

When my friend got back from his two weeks reserve duty, I asked him about it. What he told me was that he knew I wanted to join so he filled out an application and sent it to the club headquarters. And it gets better: having started the club, he was the President/Commander and he designated me clun Vice President/Sub Commander.

I had ben drafted into the Romulan navy.

So periodically, I met up with the other club members.

Nerds, like me

When I was in the Air Force, I lived in a dormitory, much like those used by college students and prison inmates. There was a holder for a door tag in which you put your Name, Duty Section, and Work Phone. There was olso a section that said comments. I had seen another Airmen write scripture in his (John 3:16) so I decided to write something non-military related as well. What I wrote was

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

which was from the writing H.P.Lovecraft, a horror writer who is credited by Steven King as being a major influence on his writing.

One afternoon, there was a knock on my door, and when I opened it, there was another Airman standing in the hallway. He had seen my door tag comment (and knew the reference) and told me he had to stop and introduce himself as another fan of H.P.Lovecraft.

Even in the Air Force.

Nerds, like me.