Fires and Television

So, there are all these fires starting up in LA County, Riverside County, OC, and San Diego County (sorry if I missed any more counties!). Even though none of them are close enough to me, I am breathing in all the ash and smoke. Fun times. But seriously, I hope all my friends near the fires are okay. I know one friend in San Diego who is packed up just in case they tell her family to evacuate. Scary!

This reminds me of the fires that started in the Fall of 2003, when I first started college. It was raining/snowing ash and some people wore face masks or used handkerchiefs as face masks. I didn't because I didn't want to look uncool and nerdy... j/k. I remember going fire chasing too with some friends. We wanted to go toward the fires and drove up to the neighborhood where the fire was sort of nearby and took pictures and just watched. Don't laugh or think we were crazy... I know we weren't the only ones who did that.

So sometimes for my job, I have to travel places. Traveling is a part of investigations and collecting evidence. So during one of our drives, my boss and I would talk about things. I forgot what we were talking about, but he told me that I was very wise and mature beyond my years. He said that because I knew or referenced "old" things that he grew up with. Like, I think I was talking about how I love watching game shows. Ever since I was little, I've always watched game shows and I named a few that I watched and they were really old ones, like from the late 80s. And he looked at me surprisingly because most kids my age probably have never heard of them or would have never watched those shows when they were young. Oh and another time was when I knew what "Matlock" was... of course, I've heard of Matlock. I don't really watch it and I've only seen parts of episodes, but who hasn't heard of Matlock?!

Anyway, back to those game shows. My parents also love game shows so I guess ever since I was born and ever since I could remember, I'd watch TV with my parents (like as young as 2 or 3) and we'd watch game shows... like game shows that big people would watch... not kiddie game shows. Although when I older, by like 5 or so, I started watching Nickelodeon/PBS and watched the kid game shows. And I always wanted to be on those shows, like Guts, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego (I also played the computer game!)?, Where in Time is Carmen San Diego?, etc. I was a huge couch potato when I was a baby/kid. I must've been watching "Three's Company" with my parents ever since I was 3 or so because when I just turned 4, my mom became pregnant and I told my parents that if the baby was a girl, I wanted her to be named Janet... named after Janet from the show "Three's Company." Weird and crazy, huh? Thank God they didn't listen to me. I now realize that Janet would have been a weird name to give her. Not saying Janet is a weird name... just saying Janet is a weird name to give my sister.

I think TV is great. I always tell people that I know a lot of random crap and trivia because I grew up watching TV, and half of them were education shows. Sure, the other half weren't really educational... these include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Brady Bunch, or Lassie, but I learned a lot. Oh, and when I was being interviewed/tested when I was 5 years old to see if I was ready to go to kindergarten, my mom remembers me telling them that my favorite TV show was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Dude, Raphael was my favorite character, only because I liked the color red and he was the red one. Anyway, people who think TV is bad need to realize that it can be a good thing. My mom's family learned how to speak English by watching TV. Sure they took English classes (side note: I was named after an English teacher named Cheryl, who taught English to my mom and her sisters when they lived in Michigan), but they loved watching TV. My mom said everyone had favorite TV shows. My mom's favorites included The Brady Bunch, Little House on the Prarie, Dynasty, Three's Company, Happy Days, etc. She said my grandfather loved watching game shows (liking game shows must run in the family). My mom said TV helped her because the sponsors would ask my mom what happened during the TV shows and then correct her. My mom gave me an example where she said, "Her... her former husband... " and the sponsor corrected her by saying, "Ex-husband."

Isn't TV wonderful? To quote Homer Simpson, "Television! Teacher, mother, ... secret lover."