JimmieJoe / KC6YRU

So one of the cool things about Twitter is being able to follow “stars”.  I’m not much of a star-struck type, I don’t try to get autographs, or buy lots of material licensed by famous people.  It was cool to get George Takei, appearing at a Star Trek convention in Visalia years ago, to sign a copy of a science fiction novel he wrote, and I once walked past a television actor (Lance Kerwin of ‘James at 15’) on the sidewalk at Venice Beach.   Late one night Steven Segal came into the liquor/convenience store I was working in (and behaved like an asshole.  I think he was insulted that I didn’t recognize him.  I just thought a grown man giggling that he loudly passed gas was a bit juvenile).  I don’t really have a desire to meet actors, because I tend to think of them as the characters they portray, not as the real individuals they are.  I think that sets you up for a disappointment, because the real person is probably not much like the character you know.  The real person may be someone it would be great to get to know, but they could also be a self-absorbed jerk.  Even in today’s over exposed world, the real character of a person who “fakes” a character for a living, could be something much less than their public persona.

Twitter adds a new dimension to interaction with the famous, however.  I follow a few famous people, simply because they’re in something I liked, or are somehow related to something I’m interested in.  Simon Pegg, George Takei, Buzz Aldrin, Bill Maher,  All Mighty God, Brent Spiner, David Hewett, David Blue, and Brian Jacob Smith are a few of the “famous” I follow.  Some of them Tweet only professional stuff, intended to promote their careers or particular interests.  Some only randomly Tweet, and others run hot and cold.  I don’t expect to actually interact with them, they simply have too many people Tweeting at them to expect that they’ll see my Tweet in the flood of messages directed at them.  Every once in a while, however, quite unexpectedly,  you hit paydirt.

Not expecting him to actually see it, or respond, I sent off a Tweet to an actor in a favorite show of mine, Stargate Universe.  Brian Jacob Smith, who played Lt. Scott in the SyFy Channel series responded.

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