A trivial pursuit

I’ve always enjoyed trivia. When I mentioned this to a friend some time after high school he said, “Ah, so you’re one of those people who likes to memorize random facts so you can looks smart?” As I got to know him, I realized that the question said a lot more about him than it did about me, and we drifted apart.

But yeah, I do like trivia. It’s fun to share weird facts with your friends. “Hey, did you know that the little blue dude in the flying chair in Akira is in a wheelchair because he had polio?”

When I was younger, I read about the "Internet" and the possibility of connecting to faraway computers, and posting things on BBSs, and just sharing things with people. I didn't know about college radio back then (figure this was early to mid-80s), but that's what I thought it would be, the "Hey, I think this is really neat, and you might not know about it, so I'll share it with you!"

Of course, the real internet is 90% porn and racism, but you can still find that attitude of sincere enthusiasm in some corners. It's part of the reason I value my friendship with my closest friends so much. It's not one-upsmanship disguised as enthusiasm or any of that "I was hating Star Wars before it was cool" bullshit. I don’t want to give the impression that I spend Halloween night in the most sincere pumpkin patch in the world, but I do appreciate honest, earnest enthusiasm as I get older.