First Think, THEN Ink.

"Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations... to boldy go where no man has gone before."

It's unbelievable that the world first heard that introduction for the very first time on September 8, 1966, exactly six decades ago.



The Cast of "Star Trek" (1966)

"Star Trek" happened at a time when people's television viewing habits were changing. The TV Western was still a popular form, but programs involving space and science fiction had been catching on, especailly as the entire nation was focused on the race to the moon between the USSR and the USA.

( Gene Roddenberry wanted to take advantage of both audiences... )

Billy Joel, in the title track from his seminal 1977 album "The Stranger" states:

"Well, we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Some are satin, some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of a stranger
But we'd love to try them on."

And I'm feeling that's especially true, now. I just had a birthday and yet it doesn't feel like that much time has passed. Things have happened to "me" but I've also changed. And that is the stranger part, in my experience.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks in terms of being different people at different times of my life. Or, really diffeent people to different people at any one time! There really is something to this "stranger" philosophy from nearly a half century ago that is as current as this week's Billboard Hot 100.

I'm a student. We all are, it's true, but I try to take this seriously. It's always important to stay alert, focus and listen. In the immortal words of New York Yankee Hall of Famer Yogi Berra: "You can observe a lot, just by watching."

I'm a writer. I have kinda thought of myself as a writer since fourth grade, when I got to read an essay in class and the reactions were wild. But writing is from observation, so it goes back to being a student.

I'm an actor. No, not really. Not anymore and maybe not at all. But I had some success doing a few parts here and there and that still relates to knowing and understanding how people behave. Still, the Yale School of Drama definitely didn't think of me as an actor!

I'm a DJ. As a listener to New York City Radio, I got to hear some of the greatest Disc Jockeys of all time, on some of the most famous radio stations in the world. And I wanted to give that a try. So, when I got to college I wound up in both the theater and at the campus radio station.

I'm a manager. My first "real world" job was working at Macy's Herald Square, managing the Christmas toy department. Baptism by fire, but it was a great observation in humanity, as people were the focus and their happiness was the goal. But being a manager meant being the servant to everyone, my employee staff, my corporate bosses and of course the customers, who were always right.

I'm a clown. Maybe this was always true, but it became offical when I ran away from the circus that was Macy's to join Clown College. I trained in all the skills needed to be a clown and factually, this all still relates to understanding humanity, basic desires and needs and how elements of all that can be made funny. But you can't do it unless you're paying attention.

I'm a teacher. Little did I know that when I left Macy's to go to Clown College, Clown College would get me right back to Macy's, first as a make up artist, applying the pancake and powder for the hundreds of clowns in the Thanksgiving Day Parade, then becoming in charge of the make up artists for that gig, then becoming an official for the parade itself. In a lot of ways, the Macy's Parade is the start of the Holidays, and it's always crucial that we get things right. It means the world to so many people and it is truly a special part of both the season and the city.

I'm a blogger. I had been writing in diaries for the better part of the 1990s but then I stumbled into Online Journaling. And stumbling was the most correct adjective. I definitely wasn't used to negative feedback from my own notebooks, so I realized I better start learning more about how to do this with a minimum of angst and dealing with others who started to read what I wrote! Again, the learning process is crucial in coming up with a method that makes things work.

I'm a reader. You can't write without reading. And you can't write well without understanding your audience. That's why Artificial Intelligence has a very long way to go before it can compete with human writers. Because, how can you program heart, empathy, expectation, excitement, anguish, even plain old responsiveness, into a program that's going to give you something that feels real, not some plagiarized slop from twenty-five classic authors, stitched together to make it seem like something new?

I might mention that I'm also something of an historian and a bit of an analyst when it comes to it. I do try to figure out why things are the way they are, and that is especially true for me! I did minor in psychology in college until I realized I was doing it to attempt to figure myself out!

Finally, I am a friend. Or, well, I hope to be, anyway. LJ Idol isn't a competition. Not REALLY, anyway. At heart, we are, first and foremost, a community, a collective, a writer's village, and we all bring something to the table. You are the best at telling your stories, and that's why you are here, and that's why you should be here. You are the one to share the things on your mind, the elements of life you've experienced that can be converted into a clever poem, a touching short story or an essay on life. And we need those different perspectives. That is what keeps us moving forward.

Time to get moving! I'm looking forward to learning from you. Don't be a stranger!

//

This essay was written for LJ Idol, using the prompt Introduction

ALSO: If you are interested in joining this collective of writers, it's not too late!

First, sign up: HERE then follow therealljidol blog and watch for the assignments (this one isn't mandatory, but it's a nice way to ease into the process of it all)!

I refereenced "The Social Network" while discussing the upcoming CBS series, "Cupertino" as the focus of that show is a Silicon Valley tech company.

We have seen that Meta is going to pay Eighteen Billion Dollars to states, for the "social media addiction" they helped to develop in children. We can discuss if a payout like this is going to change things (remember how Fox News had to pay out 787 Million dollars to Dominion Voting systems for the lies they told on air about that company's ballot machines, yet it really had no impact on how Fox continues to operate).

And, well, at the circus, the Ringleader used to say "Children of All Ages," but I digress.

( Aaron Sorkin wrote... )

Because of their Hundredth Anniversary, NBC has got a lot of plans for this year, not the least of which is a televised special, a three hour epic that is apparently going to take place, live, from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood (best known as the site for the annual Academy Awards telecast). Though the actual date on which the radio network began was December 11th 1926, (making the anniversary 100 days from today, as I write this), this live special will take place on Thursday December 10th at 8pm ET. No word on if they plan to go live, Coast-to-Coast with this show as of yet.

People are already clamoring to be a part of this, as NBC has a sweepstakes to win a flight to LA, hotel stay, a transportation voucher and a 500 gift card to cover food, plus, of course, tickets to the exrtravaganza. The demand was so great to enter, the thing crashed.

(In case you want to try it, the link for this sweepstakes is HERE)

( I mean, a free trip to LA in December? )

You might have heard that Madonna has bounced back on the charts as if it were 1984 all over again. Her "Confessions Part 2" has made an impact and "Bring Your Love," her duet with Sabrina Carpenter is featured on that album. Both the album and the Duet are up for MTV VMAs this year.

( But almost as if it's part of the package... )

Saturday March 14, 1998 was kind of an important day. Julianne Moore was hosting Saturday Night Live, with musical guests, Backstreet Boys.



( Robert Smigel, who just happened to have attended my high school... )

The entry on which this post is based is HERE

I am very used to having a low-key birthday. Like I've actually only had one legitimate birthday party in my life. It was when I turned 6 and during it, a fistfight between two neighbor kids happened. I didn't even really know those kids... but the party organizers were trying to get a group to attend the festivities.

This time of year, people are on vacation, or are gearing up for school, or something. It's a funky time to have a birthday because nobody is in the mood to do anything, so why would anyone care about a party? If anything, they might have been gearing up for a Labor Day barbecue, or one last trip to the beach, but that was it.

I had a sort of birthday celebration when I was working on a project with Diana, a partner who I met on LJ and who teamed up with me with the intention of creating a website. It's funny talking about her, here, because in that original entry, I talked about Tony, the partner I was working with when I had that bottle of Dom, back in the day, and how he screwed me over in a couple of ways, even stealing some of my stuff as a part of the process.

Diana threw me off of the project we created together just like Tony, and when she tried to accomplish the plan alone, she failed completely, just like Tony.

But the "sort of" birthday celebration during that time, nearly a year before the whole thing ended, was a collection of people in Orlando at a little eatery down there, not the least of whom was Jessica Steele-Sanders, who hadn't yet but would eventually get her second surname from Chris Sanders, the guy who created "Lilo & Stitch" and "How to Train Your Dragon" among others. I really wanted to know how Jessica, who was a Disney superfan back when she was journaling on LJ, got to meet him, how she won him over and also, how she avoided getting divorced, since it was announced that they were going to split, but somehow patched it all up. There's some kind of magic happening there that I would love to tap into, or at least get more information about.

I often take myself to a baseball game (and yes, I typically go alone), and I nearly went to the Yankees/Astros contest at Yankee Stadium, but bailed at the last moment. I baked cupcakes and went to Popeye's and got a spicy chicken sandwich with red beans and rice and mac and cheese. I watched the Yanks lose on TV, which was slightly better and considerably cheaper than having to travel to The Stadium, sit there and see it in person.

And well, I don't know. As a Virgo, my feeling is not to have any big deal made about such stuff. It seems weird to have it happen, especially since it hardly ever happens. But a couple of friends got in touch and messaged me. It's nice to have a LITTLE deal made.

And there comes a time when you WANT a low key birthday, because it's better that way. No need in celebrating another year added on, when you could potentially ignore it all and stay as young as you like!

It's time to make some magic of my own.

Are these actually "predictions" as much as they are "inevitabilities?"

( Honestly? I really hope I'm wrong about ALL of this. )

I sorta like writing answers to questions on Quora. And I do mean "sorta" like. The answers I'm most compelled to write are often the ones that get the least amount of interest. That's because Quora is another space where a lot of right wing, GOP, MAGA and conservative minds go to gather and I'm talking to a brick wall most of the time when I try to give reasonable and rational responses to some of these wild questions.

Of course, AI is also there answering questions (they seem to have a dedicated bot for everything related to "Star Trek," so I find that both scary and amusing). And AI even generates questions for you to answer, based on your own expertise, which I suppose is good?

My most popular answers are all the pop culture comments I made on such wide ranging topics like "Bridget Loves Bernie," "Mister Ed" Serena Altschul and the death of John Ritter. And a lot of those I hadn't even put a lot of effort into writing.

That reminds me of my WTF Episode of "Mister Ed" and I was going to do a whole series of reports about some of my favorite classic TV shows and their WTF eps. I'll have to think more about that.

Since my material doesn't always play over there, I thought I'd bring just a few of the questions I answered here, just so they can get ignored, again!

( Here Goes Nothing. )