The necessary preparations

I am keeping watch over my daughter as she stays up entirely too late with homework assignments, and trying not to think too much about the appointment with the surgeon I have tomorrow. Since I'm starting to dislike the fact that I'm only managing one post a month, and that being a rather drawn-out affair, I thought I might try shooting from the hip for a change.

I have achieved a milestone today. I have, for the time being at least, all 79 episodes of the the original Star Trek, as well as the first pilot, on my iPod. Not to mention each of the movies that I currently own on DVD as well. It's a dubious achievement — I mean, really, do you actually need the entire series? Can you possibly watch them all?

The easy answer is no. But there is a method to my madness. I am, by this time really excited about the new Trek movie, which as I write this, debuts in just a few days. In part, having the entire library of classic Trek makes it easy for me to "get back up to speed" on the original series. After so many years, there's a lot I've forgotten. Since I have a lot of time on my hands these days, it also gives me something to fall back on, entertainment-wise.

Also, as someone who used to be dependent on the whims of syndicated television for my weekly fix of Trek, there is something both decedent and powerful about having the entire series in my pocket at my beck and call. It's the iPod syndrome again, I'm afraid.

On a somewhat less pragmatic tack, it is also, in part, fanboy training. The days of work that went into loading the iPod was kind of a geek Mount Everest, and just the sort of senseless and time-consuming work I needed in order to feel like a "real" fan again. Because that's what real fans do — they spend time, money and effort on seemingly silly things, simply because it makes them feel like more of a fan.

Finally, and least logically, it is a good luck charm — a talisman of classic Trek to ward off the specter of what could be another Star Trek V — or worse. In any case, it was what I wanted to do.

And it seems to have taken my mind nicely off of the fact that tomorrow morning I am going to hear of the unknown and permanent things that a perfect stranger plans to do to my spine.

Here's hoping that both the back and the movie turn out well.