User:Samy Merchi

History
Samy Merchi was born in Finland in the year 1977. He still resides in that northern country. He had always been aware of Star Trek through TOS reruns and TNG when he was a preteen and teen, and recorded some episodes on VHS, but if he called himself "obsessed" with anything at the time, it was superhero comic books rather than Star Trek. Star Trek was a nice enough show, but not something he was obsessed with at the time. In the mid-1990s he went to college while Deep Space 9 and Voyager were coming on the air, and he did not spend much time watching television at the time -- plus, Finnish television channels were quite sparse with those two series -- thus, he never connected with those two shows much. At the time of Enterprise, he did not even own a television set as he preferred to consume his entertainment on the computer.

In the mid-2000s, after the movies and Enterprise had concluded, he revisited Star Trek via DVD boxsets, and found a new appreciation for the franchise. At this point, he became so entrenched in the series that he could be called "obsessed". Going on a viewing spree, he watched through all seasons of TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY within the span of two years, concluding in spring 2008. ENT still eludes him, as does "Nemesis", which he refuses to watch because it would mean he would never again get to see a new adventure featuring Riker and Troi, and that concept terrifies him. He'd rather keep "Nemesis" in store so he'll always have the option of watching a new, fresh adventure with the TNG crew.

Dreams
He has an extremely strong faith in the future portrayed by Star Trek, and believes that we should do everything within our power to attain that future. This includes, but is not limited to, cosmopolitanism and promoting a unified world without borders, de-emphasizing military endeavors and emphasizing scientific ones, and a powerful focus on increased spaceflight activities at almost any cost. His dream is obtaining enough credits to build a scientific research vessel which can travel the world's oceans, doing research and offering assistance where it is needed, possibly in conjunction with various organizations.

When he ends up building a house someday, he intends to design the interior to appear as a Galaxy class vessel, and one of the rooms will be a life-size replica of the Enterprise-D bridge. This will have to be a solo pursuit, as he realizes that few women in the world would wish to live in such a home. Thus, he does not actively pursue any romantic relationships.

Studies
He has recently begun studies at the University of Turku, specializing in astrophysics. He sees this as a sort of a proto Starfleet Academy and goes to class wearing a sciences division uniform. Surprisingly, this has not yet resulted in any criticism or jeers from fellow classmates. He is expecting to receive them at some point, as he does realize this is rather obsessed activity. Nonetheless, he has found that the attire is helping provide strong motivation and psychological focus as it reinforces and reaffirms his dedication to his studies. He is also using rank pips as an additional motivation, awarding himself rank pips at regular intervals to help break the lengthy study programmes down to more manageable parts and get a sensation of achievement more frequently. The points at which he accepts a promotion are as follows.

He also studies various languages, speaking Finnish and English fluently, some French, German and Swedish, and possessing the rudimentary basics of Arabic and Japanese.

Star Trek preferences
His favorite show is TNG. While he appreciates all the groundwork TOS laid, and does find it a brilliant show, his heart is connected with the 24th century, with TNG the keystone of that setting. He's not so fond of DS9, because to him, "Star Trek" should feature a ship traveling through space and exploring -- DS9 is too stationary, which frustrates him. He likes VOY more than DS9 for that reason, which he understands is a rather rare perspective.