Back in November I confessed my decision to introduce Luke and Elizabeth to that nerdalicious pinnacle of geekdom, the Star Trek franchise. I’d added Season One of the original series to our Netflix queue, and we’ve gradually been working our way through them, averaging three or four episodes a week.
It had been more than 20 years since the last time I’d watched this first incarnation of the Trek universe, and I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying its cheesy campiness from the perspective of an old grup. Luke likes it too, although he has trouble keeping up with the plots and tends to ask questions all the way through, which necessitates heavy use of the Pause button as I attempt to explain stuff to him. Elizabeth doesn’t have any trouble following the storylines, but since most of them don’t make a whole lot of sense if you examine them too closely (seriously, there are usually OBVIOUS SOLUTIONS to these people’s problems that are WAY LESS COMPLICATED than the ones the writers come up with), she is rather less enamored of the whole business than we are. But we watch it together, and somewhere in between trying to explain to Luke how Kirk is able to talk a master supercomputer into self-destructing for the good of the population it’s been controlling, and snarking with Elizabeth about the EXTREME improbability of that ever actually happening, it’s become a happy addition to our nightly routine. Elizabeth has started slipping little Trekisms into her conversations and comics. And a week or so ago I poked my head into Luke’s room and told him that if he didn’t get up and get dressed we were going to miss the school bus, to which he replied, half-awake, “But I am extraordinarily sleepy.”
Sniffle. My son has a little Vulcan in him after all. TOTALLY worth all the wedgies he’s going to get in middle school for using words like “extraordinarily.”
So now we’re coming to the end of Season 1, and I just hopped over to Netflix to add Season 2. Only to discover that Netflix doesn’t HAVE Season 2. Or Season 3. Like a heroin pusher who offers the first couple of doses for free and then cuts off the supply until the cash appears, Netflix is forcing me to either give up my new addiction family activity or hand over a pile of money to Amazon, which I SO can’t afford to do right now. It’s MONSTROUS, I tell you.
Not that I couldn’t quit any time I wanted, mind you. There are PLENTY OF OTHER geeky shows out there with which to blight my children’s social prospects. Get Smart comes to mind; the kids would adore that.
Pfah. Who am I kidding? There is no substitute for the Holy Grail of geeky goodness.
Hmm…Circuit City is going out of business, I bet I could score some Trek on Clearance there.
And after all, it’s for the children.
An Invincible Summer 
Hi! Lord, I lost track of you and have spent hours searching for you. I have a website on facebook, flickr, and one other place, but darned if I know the exact address! I just joined here and for some reason, it is not allowing my blog to come through…perhaps I should add flickr! Your children are really growing up and I look forward to reading your blog. I did graduate with my MFA and am currently at work on a children’s book.
Kathy
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Okay, I wanted to add the website, now, on to read your blog.
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ROFL…the horrors we inflict on our children!
Thanks to my dad I can listen to any clip from I Love Lucy and tell you exactly what happened…every last detail.
Could be worse…
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Kathy — Hello! It’s good to see you here!
Mia — LOL! Luuuuuceeeeeey!
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LOL! Gotta love going to Circuit City – for the sake of the children! Although, I will admit it has been my favorite store *sniff sniff* and I hate that they are going out of business. I’ve been debating heading there for a camcorder since I want to get into videography as well as photography.
I’ve gotta ask though…is NetFlix worth it? I’ve never joined (rather be outside), but I hear that they have some terrific nature shows. As a whole, is it a terrific deal? (Even if they don’t have season 2?)
And – I’m glad to be here. I’d love to link you to my blog page, but I am afraid when it comes to computers, I can do uploading of photos, photoshop, add and install software – but doing links?
I’ve a feeling that I’ll learn quite a bit here – I’m a geek in the sense that I’d rather read than watch regular TV, would rather be outside with a camera whenever possible, and actually love spending time researching my subjects I shoot. (Like when I learned that a redhead duck has a cat-like meow during courting season!) Of course, I thought somebody dumped kittens off in the remote area I was in and went around calling ‘here kitty, kitty’ only to discover as I identified my ‘new duck’ that what I heard was them – no cats or kittens to be found.
I can spout facts of nature, recall wonderful lines in books, but cannot, no matter how hard I try, speak computer lingo. Nor can I create links and only within the last two years did I learn what a blog was… My geekiness is limited…But it’s great to be here – I’ve missed you friend…and, come to think of it, I miss the sun as well!
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I LOVE Netflix. I canceled my DirecTV service right after the separation, for budgetary reasons and because I haven’t really watched tv since The X-Files went off the air, but I never even considered letting go of Netflix. Gotta have it!
I’m about the opposite of a tech geek; I have a Mac because it handles all the complicated stuff for me and if I need to know any html I go to a tutorial site and pretty much cut and paste the bit of code they direct me to.
I don’t see any pics on your Flickr site. Will you be putting up some of your wildlife shots?
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They are there, many of them – I wonder if I put it up correctly? I have over a hundred photos there, but I’m under kathleen meader…I’ll click and see where it takes me. Oh, and thanks for the food advice – I’m checking it out. (An inability to break down gluten was only discovered a couple weeks ago, so this way of eating is new to me…)
Kathy
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I saw the same thing you did…not sure why. It is under kathleenmeaderwildlifenature if that helps…yet the other day, it worked perfectly!
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I think it is fixed…
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http://io9.com/5136738/create-your-own-original-star-trek-story
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Becca — that’s hilarious!
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