Why On Earth Did I Bother With UFO Forums?
I've always been interested in anything strange, mysterious or exciting, especially if it is in any way connected with space or spaceflight, which obviously could include UFOs, at least in the Extraterrestrial sense which that acronym has now been hijacked by.
It originally meant simply 'Unidentified Flying Object', of course, but now seems to be applied to anything and everything in the sky, no matter how mundane it really is, by people who don't recognise something they see, and can't be bothered to research. Any bright object in the sky, unless it's the Sun or Moon, is likely to be spotted by someone and reported as a UFO on one of the many UFO Forums, unless there is obvious aircraft engine noise. The International Space Station, visible as a bright white light moving from roughly West to roughly East at various times, is frequently reported, despite the fact that the times when it can be seen are published online.
I think my interest in space began when as a child I listened to the weekly radio serial 'Journey Into Space' with Jet Morgan, Doc, Mitch and Lemmy. That was certainly interesting for a young lad, and I never noticed until I heard the series again many years later that apart from the four main characters, everyone else was played by David Jacobs using rather dubious Irish, Australian and various other accents.
Around the same time I started following the adventures of Colonel Daniel McGregor Dare in the Eagle comic, and Dan Dare became, and still is, probably my greatest hero and role model, with the possible exception of Biggles. He always did the right thing, never fought dirty, and always found a way to overcome the dreaded Mekon. Not a bad role model for a lad, not that I can claim to be such a goody-two-shoes myself.
My first introduction to the more sinister idea of ET was in the BBC TV series 'Quatermass and the Pit', very scary I thought as a twelve year old. (I found out recently that the whole series is on YouTube - give it a look!)
After that we had Sputnik, Laika the first dog in space, Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn, the Moon Landings (yes they did, don't get me started on that one!), Skylab, Stonehenge, Von Daniken, The Spaceships of Ezekiel, Ley Lines, water divining and Close Encounters. Oh yes, and Barbarella of course! That's about it, I was interested in space.
More recently I spent some time on UFO Forums, some of which were interesting, but most seem to have descended to showing obviously faked photos, and even more obviously faked videos on YouTube. At one time, anyone offering a logical explanation for the so-called UFOs was tolerated, but that no longer seems to be the case, so that's the end of the line for me, regarding UFOs. It seems to me that most UFO believers would rather automatically believe the fiction, rather than at least look for the truth.