mj

I have to admit that I refrain from putting religious bumper stickers on my car for precisely the reason that I am not the most astute driver in the world, and have seen many a fellow traveler throw up their hands and say who knows what, while I tried to figure out what it was I did this time.

I certainly don't want to give Jesus a bad name. So no bumper stickers except for AAA!

I'll give you an example. While I was still a teenage driver, I mowed down the mailbox of my cousins' neighbor, while on my way home. (I was still a little upset because I had just been downtown driving the wrong way down a one-way street---finally figuring out that the people on the street were waving at me because I was going the wrong way. Fortunately it was not rush hour, nor was I in the main business district. I was in a residential area. I got turned around, and found my way back to my neck of the woods just in time for my cousin to see me mow down his neighbor's mailbox.) Being honest, I left my address and telephone number, and an apology, and offered to pay to replace the mailbox. I left the note taped to the front door, as no one was home.

Later that evening I heard my father talking and laughing on the telephone. It turned out the mailbox owner was a good friend of his, and he was tickled to death that his good friend's daughter had run over his mailbox. They ( my dad's friends) teased him about that for a long time. They just put the same mailbox right back up. To me, it now was dented and had a slight lean....but it still held mail, I suppose.

Well, some otherwise intelligent people can be made to look foolish and inept when in charge of complicated machinery ( such as a car). I have never caused anyone bodily injury...just frustration, and apparently even a few laughs.

I missed the bus driver question...I said the name was not given. Got the others though.

I watched a few of them, and enjoyed them for the most part. Alas, the poor redshirts!!!

I like the Bishop's Wife, both the original with Loretta Young,Cary Grant, and David Niven, and the modern remake with Whitney Houston.

I also like It's a Wonderful Life.

I would actually consider voting for Bush if he made the committment to go back to the moon, and beyond. We need something to inspire American young people to excellence in science, math, and engineering again.

 

i know something thats inspiring me to do good so i can get a good job: lots of money. lol.

I teach lots of engineering students who want the grades that would make them a top prospect for a future employer, but they are not interested in mastering a subject, and learning for the sake of their own intellectual growth. They cajole and manipulate and beg for grades, but try to put forth as little effort as possible to get the grade.

They are not inspired by wanting to be a part of anything bigger than a suburban middle class future.

When I was young in the 60's and the 70's I actually wanted to be an astronaut, and sought personal excellence. I wanted to know and understand the wonderful events involved with space travel. It became a habit, doing things well, and learning with the goal of mastery. I never became an astronaut, but I gained intellectual depth, and I am not starving.

I am hoping a return to space could rekindle the kind of interest that drives people to seek for a deeper understanding and personal excellence.

I'll be with my mother and two of my brothers for Christmas. We exchange gifts Christmans morning, but we rarely actually go to church on Cristmas Day or Christmas Eve.

I have to join that crowd that mentioned " O Holy Night " as a favorite. That is my favorite. A friend and I sang it relentlessly when we were freshmen college students.

A second favorite, which I cannot sing well, is the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. I think it is so appropriate to remember that Christ's resurrection is why we rejoice over His birth.

I also love Little Drummer Boy, Do You Hear What I Hear? ( or Do You See What I See?), Joy To The World, Silent Night, O Come O Come Emmanuel, and others. When we were all still in our parents home, we would gather around the piano to sing all the songs my youngest brother(the family musician) could play, which was just about all of them, on Chrstmas Eve, while my mother cooked in the kitchen.

Happier times........

I am not blue being single during the holidays...I and my family are still dealing with having lost my father February 2003. So as we just dealt with the first Thanksgiving without him, now we are having our first Christmas without him. He loved distributing gifts Christmas morning!

During Thanksgiving, my oldest brother sat in my father's chair, since he is now regarded as our family head.

Ususally I am not sad during the holidays because I am with my rather extensive family.

Devil in the Dark.

The "devil in the dark" turned out to be a blessedly devoted mother! Classic Star Trek!

There has to be some TOS fans out here but this seems to be the least talked about series lately. What are some of your insights on TOS? I think it was a groundbreaking show, way ahead of it's time!

I don't have cable or satellite, so I am seeing absolutely no reruns of old series, since UPN took VOY off the air. The only series I see is Enterprise. I do have some videotapes of episodes of TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY, but I currently cannot purchase the series DVD's that are available. :biggrin:

I miss Enterprise sometimes too. So I haven't had much to say lately.

I love TOS. It's number one for me. I watched it when the original series was on the air.

I am really enjoying the creativity of those working on the holiday banners, and I am glad VBG decided to use some of these before the contest is over. I will be away from a computer through the long Christmans vacation, and would have missed seeing them in use.

Good job!

I would actually consider voting for Bush if he made the committment to go back to the moon, and beyond. We need something to inspire American young people to excellence in science, math, and engineering again.

I have a low-tech desire.... I would like to have copies of Jake Sisko's books from The Visitor.

Then I would like to take a trip on any Enterprise to some of the major worlds of the Star Trek sagas: Vulcan, Andoria ( or Andor?), the Klingon homeworld, Bajor, Romulus, ... you get the drift

Then I 'd like to stay on the Bakku's planet for a while, and read Jake's books. There, if a segment were particularly compelling, I could make the moment linger.......

Picard, with Sisko a close second.

It's my opinion (and it is just my opinion) that a black woman could stand up in the center of a town and shout "I'm a black woman and I'm proud" and every one would go "Well done".  I on the other hand could shout "I'm a white man and I'm proud and I would probalby get arrested for sexism and raceism.

 

now I am all for equality don't get me wrong but its not equal.  for instance I was the victim of a racist attack. I was attacked because of the colour of my skin, and when I told the police the laughed at me as if that was not possable.

 

and the other thing that realy annoys me is in my country (England) it is fround upon for flying our national flag Its OK for us to fly the Union Flag, it's fine for the Welsh to fly there flag or the Scotts to fly theres but the english are not allowed to fly the Cross of st George.  Because it might be considerd inflamitory to the minoritys.  infact it seems to me that any show of national pride is wrong for an English man. The Scotts can be Scottish the Welsh, Welsh and the Irish, Irish.  But the English have to be Brittish.

In America, the "Say it loud! I'm black and I'm proud!" movement actually was an indication of a significant social change. Prior to that, polite people referred to blacks as " Negro" or "colored," and it was an insult to be called "black," as surely as using the so-called "n-word". My parents took a long time before they would allow themselves to be called black because it was so deeply ingrained in them that they were being insulted if called that, whereas their children did not like being called Negro or colored. It was thought that people who used the old terms were ashamed of their color or race.

I think here in the past, it was common for whites in the North to talk about themselves ethnically or religiously, such as Irish, Lithuanian, Italian, Jewish, but that groups that tended to talk about themselves as white were usually thought to be racists such as the Ku Klux Klan or some other groups. That is not as true anymore, and I think people do talk about themselves racially in the North.

However in the South people have always discussed race more. When I moved South my second oldest brother who had lived in the state for several years told me the biggest difference is that you will hear much more talk about race and reference to race than at home. So people do talk about themselves racially more than people in the north do, without being perceived as racist just because they referred to their race.

I do think there is some kind of "PC" undertone that sometimes casts " white males " in the role of the bad guy. That is unfair and certainly does not lead to furthering understanding between the races. I also said in another thread that I had seen a situation where a white male was treated unfairly, and this was a shared perception among many non-whites around him, but he did not do anything about it.

With regard to the English situation, I do not have a clue, except that although the time has past from when "the sun never sets on the British Empire," and England is the dominant country in Great Britain, the British are intimately involved with the whole world in a kind of role like America often finds itself in, because of old ties. Maybe people expect you to " have it all together" since you are English, and considered dominant. I don't know.

I never knew that the Union Jack was not the flag of England,and that England had its own flag.

TOS: City on the Edge of Forever (for the heart wrenching time paradox, and a tough decision made)

TNG: Darmok ( the struggle to communicate...the commitment and self-sacrifice that true explorers have)

DS9: The Visitor (the human element - relationships, familial love, remain a part of the Star Trek future)

VOY: The episode where Voyager was split into different time periods, and Chakotay (from the present) and Janeway (from the period when the trip first started) had to travel through the different zones to restore the ship. They eventually had to collaborate with crew members from different periods. It demonstrates the range of adventure of Star Trek in a single episode.

ENT: The Horizon (episode where Travis returns to his family) because it shows the old ways which were about to be abandoned ( the Horizon and its difficulty to recruit new crew) versus the Enterprise, Travis' superior technical knowledge and, and the fact that travel is so much faster and further --the future. It points to a reasonable explanation of how humans transitioned to the Star Trek universe from a more local, though extensive, space presence.

I would explain that 3/5 of the episodes are not time altering episodes, but that other aspects of these episodes were the reasons these were selected.

that way we will reach it without raising a pinkie

I type with one hand, and my pinky is always raised when I type. Will that be a problem? :o

 

It shouldn't be any trouble reaching that goal, especially if everyone starts a "Personal Log", and posts in it daily (like I used to!) I'll definitely do that again, and hopefully I'll actually have something to say. :)

I'm still not clear what the personal logs are for. I do not have one. Nor have I gone to any threads in that section. Aren't they private?

I do not trust dating services, period, let alone an on-line sevice. I would rather take my chances with people who know me "setting me up," although that has not happended for a long time.

I think if he could do it all over the man in the article would have let the phone go. Surely he was embarrassed by all the problems he caused.

My phone is primarily for emergencies, and has been my deliverance in more than one incidence on the interstate. But if it fell in the toilet I would get a new phone! I am not attached to it.

I am not likely to dress up. But I think I could do a fair impression of Uhura, if so inclined.

I think we could make it. If we don't make it , it will be because of people like me that go on and on and on and on in a single post, instead or writing shorter more succinct posts!

While I am not trying to be contrary, I can think of a situation where just having "unfortunate labels" could create a really uncomfortable situation. And that is when unpleasant people take it upon themselves to use such terminology to harass a single minority person, while pretending to have a conversation about the technology.

I'll try to illustrate. One of my professors (in graduate school--years ago) used the fact that the light had slightly dimmed in the corner of the room where I was sitting to make the comment that it was dark on this side of the room (it was one of those flickering fluorescent light bulbs). He made the comment looking right at me, because he knew the comment would go right past the rest of the students in the class, and that I would get his meaning, that I was unwelcome. He also knew it would be ludicrous to complain about what he had said. (Of course this one incident was consistent with a lot of his behavior.)

I reserve judgement on the complaint about the master/slave terminology, because it could be frivolous, or it could be that more is going on. The article reported that the worker just saw the terms. If that really is all that happened, then I think the complaint is a bit frivolous. But if there is some kind of subtle harassment going on, he or she may be trying to relieve themselves of the unpleasantness.

With regard to the whole PC plight, again, it depends on how things are handled as to whether or not something should be done or not about some reading or terminology. I remember in our high school, in junior honors English (1972-73) we were reading Huck Finn, I think. (If not it was Tom Sawyer.) Anyway we had read the portion where N_ _ _ _ r Jim had talked about how much money he was worth if sold. Well, there were three African Americans in the class. Our graduating class's #1, the girl ( Caucasian) who would graduate valedictorian that next year, commented on how surprised she was that he would make a comment about his value as property. Well, one of my black friends snapped to me (under her breath), as we both rolled our eyes, "Well just what did she think!? That he was too stupid to know his own reality?!" And she mumbled a few other things. But our teacher, who hears everything whispered or mumbled, said something to smooth out #1's remark, and diffuse the situation. She understood that #1 did not intend to make a disparaging remark, and did not let us take it as such. In addition she was able to help #1 broaden her perspective. Neither myself nor my friend, nor the third black in the class had any complaints. I can envision a less astute moderator not being able to handle such a discussion.

And then would come parents' complaints as their children came home talking about being insulted and "put down" in class.

The PC problem is the over-reaction to trying to remedy situations where language truly was being used to inflict pain or discomfort. I do not think it is as obvious a situation as most the comments here indicate.

I personally am not offended by the master/slave terminology in the context of computer components.

Changing subjects, Fahrenheit 451 is a great book. I think the world is headed toward the shallowness of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World."

That is an extraordinary statement. Can that be corroborated? I have never heard such a thing said about FDR!

When I was in graduate school I could not afford to go home for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. I spent many a Thanksgiving at the home of the man who would became my thesis advisor. He would fill up his house with people who were unable to get home, or whose countries did not celebrate the holiday. He was Japanese, but dinner was tradtional turkey, dressing, and so forth. It was always full of people from all over the world...I am sure twenty+ people, filling the dining room and living room, and also their bellies! It was as busy and as fun as a family gathering!

Gospel music...it is full of feeling, soulful. ( But not Christian Rock!)

I also like classical, some 70's and 80's pop, and what some people deride as "easy listening music."