That's Data With A Short A
When I was in the US Marine Corps, living off base was a luxury that one usually only was allowed to do once one became a non-commissioned officer. Having achieved the rank of Sergent, I promptly rented a room in the home of another Sergent. It was a good arrangement, we seldom saw each other, both of us being busy with our own endeavors.
Being single and still young, I felt a little lonely at times and thought it would be great idea to have a dog around for company. Of course, the dog would need to be one rescued from the sure grips of impending death, one caged and waiting its turn for the eventual end. I went to the pound. There, I found a frolicky miniature collie puppy that caught my eye. The breed is a beautiful breed and the pup was a beautiful pup.
This pound was serious about adoptions. They wanted the matching to be a good fit. They had a courtyard where the prospective owner and prospective pet could take some time to get to know each other. This young pup and I danced awhile in the play area. Tail wagging led to petting and play. It was certainly an instant friendship. I paid the appropriate fees and we sauntered out to the car, spirits high. It was truly a great day for both of us.
At this time I also had my first predilection with the computer. I had purchased a brand-spanking new TI-99/4A and often spent hours programming it to do creative things for me. If you are too young to remember these computers, they were one of the first PC's out on the market. They were made by Texas Instrument and were paging 16 bit memory long before it became popular to page memory. It was a fantastic machine for the times. Other were using 8080's and 8088's which were a far cry from what this machine was capable of. I am not sure why it did not take the market as readily as it should have but TI dropped their computer line shortly thereafter and it was years before a 16 bit machine came back to the American consumer and even more years before people began to recognize the evils of DOS and it's poor memory management.
The first chore (after potty, food and water of course) on returning home was to give the puppy a name. I thought hard for a good long while. This was indeed a tremendous honor for me. I had never before been in the position where I was the one who gave the name to a friend like this. I mentally toiled through long lists of possibilities, eliminating this name and that for various reasons. When I reached the end of the list I still had nothing. Nothing!
I eventually did come up with a name for the youngling. It was the odd result of my bent for computers and my memories of childhood superhero characters like Mighty Mouse that finally produced the perfect name for my new companion, DATA. Now this was before the new Star Trek so I did not take the name from television ( frankly I am not a fond follower of the "boob tube" and willingly disparage it quite frequently ). It was the perfect name for a perfect pet of a computer programming afficionado.
As we were fishing one day on a small pier, at a quiet inlet just off a bay on the Pacific Ocean, my fellow Sergent asked me why in the world did I name the dog DATA? Being a bit quicker in wit than I embarrassedly am today, I quickly responded to the query with a simple but concise answer, "Because data dog!"
Until Then
Being single and still young, I felt a little lonely at times and thought it would be great idea to have a dog around for company. Of course, the dog would need to be one rescued from the sure grips of impending death, one caged and waiting its turn for the eventual end. I went to the pound. There, I found a frolicky miniature collie puppy that caught my eye. The breed is a beautiful breed and the pup was a beautiful pup.
This pound was serious about adoptions. They wanted the matching to be a good fit. They had a courtyard where the prospective owner and prospective pet could take some time to get to know each other. This young pup and I danced awhile in the play area. Tail wagging led to petting and play. It was certainly an instant friendship. I paid the appropriate fees and we sauntered out to the car, spirits high. It was truly a great day for both of us.
At this time I also had my first predilection with the computer. I had purchased a brand-spanking new TI-99/4A and often spent hours programming it to do creative things for me. If you are too young to remember these computers, they were one of the first PC's out on the market. They were made by Texas Instrument and were paging 16 bit memory long before it became popular to page memory. It was a fantastic machine for the times. Other were using 8080's and 8088's which were a far cry from what this machine was capable of. I am not sure why it did not take the market as readily as it should have but TI dropped their computer line shortly thereafter and it was years before a 16 bit machine came back to the American consumer and even more years before people began to recognize the evils of DOS and it's poor memory management.
The first chore (after potty, food and water of course) on returning home was to give the puppy a name. I thought hard for a good long while. This was indeed a tremendous honor for me. I had never before been in the position where I was the one who gave the name to a friend like this. I mentally toiled through long lists of possibilities, eliminating this name and that for various reasons. When I reached the end of the list I still had nothing. Nothing!
I eventually did come up with a name for the youngling. It was the odd result of my bent for computers and my memories of childhood superhero characters like Mighty Mouse that finally produced the perfect name for my new companion, DATA. Now this was before the new Star Trek so I did not take the name from television ( frankly I am not a fond follower of the "boob tube" and willingly disparage it quite frequently ). It was the perfect name for a perfect pet of a computer programming afficionado.
As we were fishing one day on a small pier, at a quiet inlet just off a bay on the Pacific Ocean, my fellow Sergent asked me why in the world did I name the dog DATA? Being a bit quicker in wit than I embarrassedly am today, I quickly responded to the query with a simple but concise answer, "Because data dog!"
Until Then
posted by Rodney Crater | Monday, May 31, 2004
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