Does anyone ever have things happen where you feel unusually like you are in a MacGyveresque situation, well, sans the armed assailants? I want to hear everyone else's stories, and I'll start with what made me think of this. I got a call at 1AM from my best friend's distressed girlfriend who was stuck in a cold rainy parking lot in a shady neighborhood an hour away and her belt had come off of her van. So, being the good friend I am, I grabbed my tools and went up to help her. To top things off, I was wearing my MA-1 flight jacket- well, until it came time to reach into the tight spots where that was impossible, which was basically the entirety of the time I was working

Anyway, by the end of the whole thing I was a hero to her and the friend she had with her, and I had the thought "Yeah, this is something MacGyver would have done." Nothing epic, I know, but nonetheless, I thought it would be cool to hear from everyone else on here as no one seems to talk about it very much.

At work I kinda feel like our troubleshooter. We have several departments. I'm in the cycle/outdoors department. Getting slowly tired of it though (if I was into cycles, I'd probably wouldn't go to work with the bus and I never went out camping). Anyway since I was trainee there, I was supposed to help around everywhere I could. Now two years after my training started until this day, that hasn't really changed.

Does that make me feel like Mac? Not exactly but there are colleagues and one in particular who has been depending on me ever since. She makes the presentations in the store and it's a quite a big store. We have two major halls and like five other seperate departments in the building. And across the parking lot we have another building also with two major halls. Now we're only doing the main building. But working on one hall already takes two days. So considering the size of the store, I'd rather say it's normal she depends on me. Because she works on oher own. And I always told her that she can come to me for whatever reason. Did had to refuse her last week three times though, due to a department move. Than she said she would start booking on me.
She did say though, that me helping her out makes a big difference and saves her a lot of time. Undressing the mannequins, placing those clothes back in the rack already takes up nearly three hours. She puts the new outfits together, I dress up the mannequins and she finishes it.

And to be honest, I prefer to help her out and than to stay in my own department. It keeps the sense of varičty in my job, it gives me at least the feeling I'm working and she appreciates it and she at least says so. In my department they all assume I'll do it anyway. Feedback? Nope. What kinda bothers me that the men in the store are taking everything easy. While I'm working, I see them doing nothing or either working slow. When I look at the women, I see them working the way it should be. They don't dilly-dally like the men.

It's like completely the opposite of what I see and experience in the youth house. Also there I can feel like Mac. The work that we do there is a bit like in The Challengers Club. Minor jobs involving the maintenance of the building, things that need to be fixed etc. We have our technicians though. But I do what I can with our team.

Sorry for the long story. It might make you think I feel like Mac all the time, but it's just the fact so many people are relying on me, is what makes me feel like Mac. And they know they can trust me and my sense of responsibility.

I can think of quite a few times, but one really sticks out in my mind. Our fridge's ice-maker had sprung a very tiny leak. It had soaked a good portion of the floor and I knew I had to turn it off or risk damaging more of the floors. I quickly looked around for what was at hand and saw a few twist-ties that had recently come out of some packaging. I grabbed one and pinched the hose and wrapped the tie around it to staunch the flow of water. Then I went under the house to disconnect the line but found it hooked up in such a way that I couldn't just turn it off at the main pipe. I slapped another tie near the connector, called the plumber who was able to safely disconnect the line and remove it completely. Sort of had to do first aid on the plumbing until professional help could get there. Now I try to keep a few of those twist-ties on hand for other such emergencies.

Kev

I have them all the time. One of the wonderful things about having the same personality/outlook/manerisims/etc of RDA/MacGyver/O'Neill is that I have moments every other day that seem to mirror big and small moments for the shows. There are certain people who I call my Zoe or Penny or Jack due to their personallity.



I can recall certain friends trying to get me involved with their scheme to get something for free or useing my ability to fix things to get into or around something. My one neighbor back in high school comes running up to me to help him break into his house without leaving a sign since he left his key inside and didn't want his mother to be mad. I did it and he said "You ARE MacGyver!" The same thing happens when I have to outsmart someone to get something or get something past them(at a check point/concert security,etc). I'm pleasently surprised to hear them say that.

I often times get asked to do things for the cherities I belong to that I feel uncomfortable with, such as dress up in a dino outfit to entertain kids, because they know I'm a soft touch. I moan and grown( like MacGyver) but I do it anyway.

I LOVE when I hear someone ask if anyone has a knife or gets fed up trying to fix something because then I can offer my help. I get the chills when even the most alpha male steps out of my way to see what I'm going to do. I can hear the music in my head as everyone goes silent as I look around for what's around me and I use it to solve the problem. Despite what most people say you CAN pick a lock with a SAK.

Many days I laugh when I come home, turn on the TV and flop on the couch with a sigh because I think of the times MacGyver would do that or the times I come home and have an unexpected guest(friend) who needs something. It's one of the reasons I enjoy the little, quiet moments between all the action on the show is because it shows him just living his life doing normal things then getting a call or knock on the door like I do. I often times get into philosophical debates with others and quote a lot of what I've learned from the show (where there's life, there's hope, etc). Sometimes I frusterate people because I am firm in my dedications and can argue them well. I noticed that I argue and investigate facts in conversation that same way he does. So much so I remember asking or saying exactly what he was going to say before he would say it no matter how detailed. I have a natorious habit of being curious and adventerous when others wouldn't be. My wife can testify to that. I love to explore:) I have a certain fear of heights but I'll climb that mountain if need be.

I try to be multifaceted and have many skills yet not need to show them to everyone. I take pride in looking like a adverage man yet haveing all these mental and physical skills at my fingertips. I have learned to think of what's better for the greater good and not myself. I'm the most optimistic person I know. I'm sure there is much more and when I think of it I'll write it here. I was brought up with a very strong foundation through my family but RDA/MacGyver re-enforced all of that and gave me practical use for it all. He was never arrogant or preachy. He is a modest guy doing all he can for the world. It will inspire me for the rest of my life.
Thanks for reading my rant:)

That was fantastic Mac! As I read your post it was as if I'd written it (only better worded than mine would have turned out I'm sure). I think that is what makes Mac such a great show- when you emulate your hero with Mac, it's not like all the other shows on TV where you put on the Alpha Male facade, instead you are truly making the world a better place by being a genuinely good person. Like you, I also had a really wholesome upbringing, which I'm thankful for, and Mac really resonated with that and was sort of a natural role model for me to gravitate toward.

I too have one friend in particular who drags me to a flee market every week and also buys things on Craigslist to resell, my Jack Dalton if you will. He is a wheeler and dealer and is pretty good at making money out of thin air. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy to death, he''s my oldest and best friend, but boy does he rely heavily on my knowledge and free labor! Some of the things he buys involve a significant overinflation of faith in my skills- he has bought weed wackers that leaked gas, mowers that wouldn't start, and cars that didn't run- all with complete faith that I could fix them. Heck, I probably owe some skills I have learned to times he's gone out on a limb with a purchase and then asked me to help him out. One time he assumed because I can work on cars surely I could get a mower working- in fact, I had no idea about small engines haha. Fortunately I was able to troubleshoot it in a similar fashion to what I would have done with a car, ie check for spark and then fuel, and I got it going. I was afraid I'd have to do some small engine welding, "Trumbo's World" style, and use two half-dollars to weld a rod or something. However, it turned out to be something simple that I was able to fix for free by cleaning and lubricating a float. I met him in grade school and can't help but think of him as the Jack in my life. Heck, his dad even goes by Jack, and my dad used to go by Mac because our last name starts with "Mc". It's like I am Sam and he's Jack's illegitimate child... that turned out not to be his (Rock the Cradle) Then again, maybe I stretch it a little too far sometimes to try to correlate my life with Mac's. Just shows what a dedicated fan I am is all

Growing up I went to a small private school (think 1950's era building, 2nd-12th grade in one room, and 30 kids in high school), and I was always Mr Fix It for that run-down low-budget institution, they even gave me the "Mr. Fix It Award" that they came up with just to give to me when I graduated haha. I can't tell you how much of my miniscule income went to duct tape, most of which was "borrowed" by fellow students (I loved how that was always the word people used as if it didn't run out ). Sometimes it would come back a different color- cardboard color lol. I carried it in my back pocket from my first day there in 7th grade until I graduated. They even looked the other way on the fact that I carried a SAK to school! I started out conservatively with a minichamp and eventually had to buy a mechanic to really have the umph to handle larger jobs.

It had its dark moments as well though, my first year of being there I landed myself in the prinipal's office for recreating "the Endangered"'s flashlight tranquilizer gun. No, that wasn't my dating strategy , I was just tinkering with a pen, rubber band, duct tape, and a straight pin and created a mini version that I would shoot into my bulletin board at my desk (the desks were all "offices," little cubicles where you worked with dividers isolating you from everyone else). It worked extraordinarily well- until a teacher spotted me haha, the first of many things I had confiscated until I developed a little better sense of what was school appropriate (having been homeschool before that, while affording me infinite amounts of time to watch MacGyver, greatly handicapped my familiarity with certain social norms). Then we had an ancient coke machine which my tiny, but long, 7th grade arm could reach up and remove cokes. It was a dilemma, tell the staff and give it back, making me look bad, or keep it, making me feel bad. I regret to say I made the wrong decision and learned the hard way that with great power comes great responsibility. With time they all got to know me well enough to understand I was in no way malicious, quite the opposite, just very creative. All through school people called me MacGyver, which to some degree was probably brought on by dressing up as MacGyver during school spirit week. Then, another kid dressed up as me, and pulled out two paperclips as he announced his costume, which extracted quite a bit of laughter from the student body. Throughout high school I was called on by the staff to pick locks, run wiring through attics, change light bulbs, wire electronics equipment, tutor other students, and at times I would play the messenger because I had the respect of my peers and if I advocated something it was sometimes met with less resistance. I was made student council president my senior year as well, which marked a great moment for me. Starting on a bad note with the school, by the end I was the most respected person there, and whether they knew it or not, I lived by a lot of Mac's philosophy of just trying my best to use whatever skills I could offer to help those around me, from fixing their stuff to just being a friend to the kid that everybody called a dork.

Word inevitably spread through the student body that I could pick locks and there were a dozen occasions or so that school parents who I previously had not met or hardly knew would call me to get them into their house or car. Usually they were kind enough to cover my gas plus enough to finance my next installment of duct tape and the latest SAK. It was a self-sustaining lifestyle

During my traveling experiences I have had a Mac moment more than once- in St. Louis on a mission trip, I found myself spending a summer going to inner city schools with a group, dressing up as McGruff the Crime Dog, and dancing to "Just say no to alcohol" among many other... "colorful" entries on the McGruff cassette tape. It was my 6th season, if you will LOL. Then I've posted before about slipping my SAK into Jamaica and my experiences there, I thought of that as my 1st season . I clearly lack enough international travel to feel very much like Mac in that department, I really would like to see more of the world. Then while traveling with one friend to pick up another friend of ours on the East coast, we saw a family stranded on the side of the road one hot summer day, where we picked up the father and took him to the nearest parts store to get a hose, helped him install it, and went on our way. The bitter irony was that we ourselves broke down on the way back, and received no such help. It was somewhat humorous, our friend absolutely abhorred the years he spent in Maryland as a result of his mother's job change, and he could not wait to get back home. I wish I were creative enough to make this stuff up, but we really got stranded within visual range of the "Welcome to Pennsylvania" sign, but were ourselves still stuck in his favorite place on earth, Maryland LOL. He joked about wanting to push the car, just on principle, but we discouraged the notion by clarifying that it was a lot more distance than he probably thought. So we got a tow to some remote area of Pennsylvania to get an alternator, and I pretended to be a hair more familiar with cars than I actually was, since I placed a little more faith in me being able to figure it out than in letting one of them. GM 3.4 alternators are as easy as it gets, fortunately, and we got out of a hotel and a garage bill all at once, the situation my two friends had been willing to accept had I not insisted otherwise.

Wow, I apologize to anyone still reading, that was probably a huge bore, but my point is that what you wrote MJ resonated with me bigtime, I'm glad I'm not the only one here who feels like Mac contributed substantially to enriching my life in an applicable way. As I look back over my life so far it's rewarding just to think of the power that certain skills and knowledge gives you, and knowing that you used them for good and not for bad, another theme I think is present in the series. Mac made it clear he could have been a thief, con artist, or a killer- but instead we discovered he had skills like pickpocketing, lockpicking, hotwiring, martial arts/weapons training, chemistry, etc. because we saw him using them for the good of others. And really, I think that's a universal philosophical truth- good deeds are their own reward. The prospect of wealth or respect didn't appeal to MacGyver nearly as much as the fulfillment found in dedicating his life to a grander purpose. I won't touch religion with a ten foot pole except to say most of them all agree on this stuff. There's a reason that philosophies and religions cultivated in isolation from one another still agree on those truths. For a person, family, country, or world to progress and thrive, it requires the harmony of self-sacrifice and self-awareness that Mac exemplified. In a world of takers, we still must be givers. In a world of conflict, we have to be those who choose to bring peace. In doing so, Mac found himself the target of those who wanted personal gain at the cost of others. He removed from power those who did not understand that coercive power was not really power at all. The power was with the truth, and that is why the truth always triumphed. He gave his time to those who seemed a lost cause, and yet often it was through those efforts that a greater good was achieved. The simple-minded often do not grasp the counterintuitive logic, the paradoxical nature, of life. But it is through understanding and applying it that the world becomes a better place, one person at a time.

I apologize for writing what seems to be more of an autobiography and philosophy paper all in one, but it is hard for me not to wander there as I reflect on my life and the impact that MacGyver has had. For something that some consider a cheesy 80's action series, I cannot help but recognize the depth of the message in MacGyver. There is a reason why it lasted so long, and why it had such universal appeal. MacGyver represented what we all want to be: a person who maximizes their potential, finds a place in life to make the world a better place, and experiences personal fulfillment in the process. I think there is a reason why the majority of the episodes ended with a freeze frame of MacGyver smiling- while the battle may have been grim, in the end, good triumphed, liberation was brought to the oppressed, and faith in humanity was renewed.

Thanks for the kind words:) Don't worry about a long post. If you can't rant here, where can you right? Reading your post I thought of another great thing I picked up from MacGyver. When your done doing something for someone being able to shrug off all the effort that when into it when others are thanking you. There is a natural danger of wanting to stick around and take all the credit you can and brag about what you just did. It always impressed me how MacGyver would humbly say "no problem" and walk away despite the chance to stick around and have others pat his back. There is such a thrill in being confident in what you've done and knowing helping was it's own reward. Besides keeping us humble it helps us seem confident in our skills, ya know?

yep, that's what this place is for.. releasing your inner MacGyver.

yep, that's what this place is for.. releasing your inner MacGyver.

LOL well said. And yeah MJ, I agree that humility is also a healthy trait to possess- I had such low self-esteem in high school that pride wasn't ever an issue haha. While the acne and early social rejection faded with time, the humility did not, even when I was totally better at any given thing than other people

Btw, were you in the service or do you just own a lot of BDU's/field jackets? haha

Well part of it is from all the years of going to SG conventions when they were in NJ/NY and I would dress as O'Neill but in the case of the camo jacket, I bought that as a winter coat from an Army/Navy store that was going out of business. I got a good deal on it and it matched one of the SG jackets so I thought "When else am I going to own camo for a practical reason?"

Oh, thought of another MacGyver type of moment. I notice I tend to take charge in stressful situations without trying to just like MacGyver does. He never stands up and says "Ok, I'm in charge now." He just focuses on what needs to be done and others fall in line behind him. I always liked how he did that and Cindy,my wife, pointed out that I do the same thing. I never noticed it but when she points it out I have to laugh because a lot of the people around tend to want to be the alpha and yet they come to me to see what to do next. I'm not talking about life and death moments either. I mean when there is a group of us and we need to make dicisions as to what to do next. I don't try to be alpha male because I think it's a waste of my time yet I've been lucky enough to not have them fight with me. It's really rather flatering. I attribute that to the people skills I learned from MacGyver. Always treat others like they are part of what you're doing and never let it go to your head.