Meme: Hero or Crush?
This is a meme that I've been thinking about for a while. The recent announcement of James Doohan's death kinda brought it to the forefront for me. I started thinking about this meme when recently I was asked about crushes, and I really didn't have a good answer. (I had some small crushes growing up, but not really in the sense that they were asking.)
Without further ado:
Tell about a hero or crush that you had that was, in some way, defining to who you are or were. Fictional characters are OK. Giving a little background to explain why is also good.
For me, I have to say that both Scotty (Star Trek) and Doc Brown (Back To The Future) were my heroes growing up. Nobody who knows me will likely be really surprised by this. I strongly identified with the "engineer who can solve anything" and the "good mad scientist" archetypes, which again shouldn't be surprising. Today, my public persona is closer to the "engineer", but in private life I am far closer to the "mad scientist". :)
I am the son of an electrical engineer and a teacher (from a family of teachers.) Needless to say, intelligence was expected in our household. Even so, I surprised my parents from time to time in that regard. So, the idea that I could take this brilliance and use it to save the day was one that I loved. Or, even better yet, to do something amazing and crazy and never done before where it works -- I finally invented something that works! (Apologies to Christopher Lloyd.)
One of the other needs that I have in my life is to teach and to also to learn. So, another reason that both characters strongly appealed to me was that they both believed in mentoring and passing on the craft that they had learned while pushing the boundaries of what they knew (often at the same time.)
So, Rest In Peace, James Doohan. I hope you knew how many engineers and programmers and geeks that you inspired.
Without further ado:
Tell about a hero or crush that you had that was, in some way, defining to who you are or were. Fictional characters are OK. Giving a little background to explain why is also good.
For me, I have to say that both Scotty (Star Trek) and Doc Brown (Back To The Future) were my heroes growing up. Nobody who knows me will likely be really surprised by this. I strongly identified with the "engineer who can solve anything" and the "good mad scientist" archetypes, which again shouldn't be surprising. Today, my public persona is closer to the "engineer", but in private life I am far closer to the "mad scientist". :)
I am the son of an electrical engineer and a teacher (from a family of teachers.) Needless to say, intelligence was expected in our household. Even so, I surprised my parents from time to time in that regard. So, the idea that I could take this brilliance and use it to save the day was one that I loved. Or, even better yet, to do something amazing and crazy and never done before where it works -- I finally invented something that works! (Apologies to Christopher Lloyd.)
One of the other needs that I have in my life is to teach and to also to learn. So, another reason that both characters strongly appealed to me was that they both believed in mentoring and passing on the craft that they had learned while pushing the boundaries of what they knew (often at the same time.)
So, Rest In Peace, James Doohan. I hope you knew how many engineers and programmers and geeks that you inspired.