And Now For Something Completely Different ...

For something completely different, I'm going to let my closet sci-fi fan come out and play ... growing up, I missed out on the phenomenon that was Star Trek, with the exception of reading the James Blish novelizations of original series episodes (bear in mind, this was way before the era of tape and DVD). But I managed to make do with syndicated episodes of Space: 1999, and later on, PBS repeats of Doctor Who and Red Dwarf, shows such as Incredible Journey (a short-lived series set in the Bermuda Triangle that disappeared just as quickly), and Battlestar Galactica, as well as the original Star Wars and later, Buck Rogers. Finally, leading up through '79, the Trek movies kept me occupied until the resurgance of sci-fi on TV in the late 80s and 90s, with various incarnations of Trek, X-Files, Babylon 5, Farscape, and Stargate, now leading up to shows such as Firefly and the recent reimaging of Battlestar, which has made me consider why I like sci-fi. I guess I've always been a dreamer. Growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut, and I always seemed to identify with being "out there". Being one of the few Asian-mixed ethnic kids in a rural Southeast Kansas community, one became painfully aware of being "different", and I found my solace at the local library. I also had an innate fascination with technology and history, having grown up reading books like "Tom Swift", and Richard Scarry's Busytown series, as well as David Maculay's architecture and construction books: "Cathedral", "Castle", and "Pyramid", and in both the past and the future, I could see and visit places far away to remind me that there was more to the world than just the place I called my home.