Star Trek: The Next Generation : I used to BEAM myself…

I used to BEAM myself…

When I was younger I had a little black and white TV and put it on a "snowy" station. I had a picture taken with a Polaroid and cut myself out. Put it at an angle in front of the TV on snowy station...adjusted contrast and it appeared like I was beaming.

Hours of entertainment and a colossal waste of time...

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

You're weird.

Why are you here if you haven't seen the movie yet?

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I'm not sure why you would think that was weird. Sounds pretty inventive to me.

"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

Inventive for an 8 year old. talking about it now, it's right up there with you know who and his admitting to doing you know what to a tv screen.

Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I've been frequenting these boards for a couple of weeks so happily I've only caught the briefest reference to the infamous TV screen incident, which is as much as I care to know. However I do agree with you about it being inventive for a child, although I would give a little more leeway as to the age, but would probably be considered awkward for an older teenager. Unless of course the older teenager was developing special effects for a fan fiction film, in which case I think it would be understandable. Generally speaking as long as their actions aren't hurting anyone I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt in the weird department. After all, one person's weird is another person's normal.

"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

"Generally speaking as long as their actions aren't hurting anyone I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt in the weird department. After all, one person's weird is another person's normal."

Smarter words have never been spoken, Drunk.


RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time. RIP Matt Roberts. You were great.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

Yeah...I was about 8. Also made a little transporter room out of paper and cardboard. Used quarters to cut out the pads and glued with aluminum foil. Painted it...made the swirls...it was the original transporter room and made to scale the smaller TMP figures.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

A snowy screen always reminds me of Poltergeist. And life before cable tv.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

Definitely Poltergeist, Eye.

RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time. RIP Matt Roberts. You were great.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I think that sounds so cool.
I wonder if I could do that with a picture on my phone?????😀

BRING THEM TO HEAL!

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

Very inventive, Mem.

RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time. RIP Matt Roberts. You were great.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I'm sorry to appear rude to your childhood activities, Memayse, but I was actually quoting John Cleese's Roman Centurion from Monty Python's Life of Brian when he talks to the old man. I didn't mean any offence.

Yes, it IS imaginative play, and in fact I used to be just as inventive as most children, if not more so, and I too did things for play that would seem natural to me at the time. Heck, I remember running around a concrete playground at primary school making noises and pretending that I was an X-Wing flying over the surface of the Death Star, among other things.

Why are you here if you haven't seen the movie yet?

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I put a plastic bag on a Batman figure, maybe it was a GI Joe and threw it out my bedroom window so he could parachute safely to the ground.

RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time. RIP Matt Roberts. You were great.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

Amazon Prime should have a video of just static...

so that kids today know what tv, actual tv, once looked like...

it was part of the tv experience, and it's already almost lost forever...

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I have an old tube TV.
I can still get static on it. 😀

Yes, I feel sad for kids today.
But I wonder if every 'generation' says that?

BRING THEM TO HEAL!

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I can get static on my big flatscreen but there are no contrast knobs. Plus I learned how to make effects on the computer.

I used to have an old super 8 camera and made the effects using glitter...one frame at a time. I should have been studying instead of wasting time on such nonsense.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

FUN FACT: the static picked up by your ol' OTA tv with the rabbit ear antennas...

is partly billion year old radiation from the big bang!!!

It's an experience that soon will be lost forever...

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

That is such a nerd thing to say.
Speaking of nerds, where has BJ been?
BRING THEM TO HEAL!

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I've been wondering the same thing, Nak. Hope everything is alright.

RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time. RIP Matt Roberts. You were great.

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I think he lives in Florida. ISNT THERE some storm there now?
BRING THEM TO HEAL!

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

Yeah he is probably fleeing that hurricane that's about to hit the US or boarding up his house and putting sandbags around his property 🌀🌊🚧🏠🚧🚣

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

old place I had got wiped out by Katrina 11 years ago. House was barely a few 100 meters from the beach/coast tho, so what can you expect?


Current place is a bunker in the ground on a compound. Plenty of guns n ammo...


Hardly any chance of a flood here... good thing, since guns n grenades don't really do much against a flood.

Unlike Data's phaser from Ensigns of Command...

For now, I'll have to just be satisfied with...

guns, grenades... and gasoline. (petrol)

(can't make napalm without gasoline!!!)

Re: I used to BEAM myself…

I hope you guys are right.

RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time. RIP Matt Roberts. You were great.
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