[SunRescue] That maddening cycle...

[Chris Petersen]

'Allo, My name is Chris, and I also am a puterholic.  I have been enslaved
to my addiction for 6 long years now, after turning towards it from a
darker, Microsoft influeced period of my life...

> 
> On Tue, Dec 19, 2000 at 12:03:31AM -0800, Christopher Byrne wrote:
> > 1. Admit you are powerless over your addiction
> > Oh yeah, I am totally powerless over this one. My isp was down for three
> > days, so I started using my cell phone to get online at a cost of $0.39 a
> > minute, a total of $400.00 in three days.
> 
> I've learned to keep a dialup modem handy (via laptop) and a normal
> ISP dialup account available.  When we have minor DSL outages, I
> have learned to just go watch TV, read a book, etc.  However, my
> significant other threatens to rip off a testicle unless I "FIX IT NOW!"
> or get her online somehow.  We depend too much on this 24/7/365 access
> I guess. 8-)  (I've had at-least-ISDN 24/7 access for about 4 years now,
> with 1.5megabit ADSL for the past 1.5..)

Powerless, so powerless...Brothers & sisters, I am so enslaved that I held
off purchase of a cellular telephone (purely for business purposes, I assure
you) until I could acquire an AT&T/Mitsubishi T250 phone with CDPD wireless
access, including Web and POP access.  And the even the $.05/kbyte tethered
CDPD mode has tempted me on many an occasion.

As for my wife, well, after loudly complaining for 6 months about the new
Cisco 805 router that now handles my 56k dialup, she now laments that a
3-second traffic timeout doesn't often give her enough time to read her
pages and wished I would increase it...

Actually, I think the fact that a Cisco router controls my modem is clear
sign of powerlessness...

> 
> > 2. Believe that a power greater than yourself can help
> > That one I'm not so sure about. I don't really believe in a higher power as
> > such, I'm more of a primal forces kind of guy
> 
> Someone has to be MAKING this equipment.

Who here in this list has not experienced loss of the blest magic smoke?  If
that's not evidence of a higher power, I don't know what is :)

> 
> > 3. make a decision to turn your life over to that greater power
> > That one I'm definiltey not going for. I'm a total control freak
> 
> In this case, "greater power" would be the person yelling "HONEY WHAT
> IS IN THAT BOX?  Oh god, not more equipment!" 8-0
> 

Lessee, greater power, umm, well...Not the bank account, as lack of funds
rarely stands in the way...Physical space in the house is getting close,
thoug, combined with the wife's most fair constraints on said space.

Then again, I have been talking about building that workshop out back this
spring :)

> > 4. Make a searching and fearless inventory
> > I recently calculated my total expenditures in computer hardware this year
> > for my taxes, and it exceeds the national average income for a two child
> > family. Software is pretty hefty as well.
> 
> I havent *spent* that much.. but if I counted what the original list price
> of everything I own is . . (looking at the VAX 6000 in the garage...)

Every time I do the list price inventory I scare myself, then consider
increasing the homeowner's insurance.  My insurance agent wanted a list of
all the serial numbers, until he realized that I would be updating it weekly
:)

> 
> > 5. admit to yourself, to the higher power, and to one other person the exact
> > nature of our wrongs
> > Like I said, more than the income of the average two child family
> 
> I dont have to admit whats wrong about my collection, Amy tells me its
> too large, all the time. 8-)

Gee, another one of those things your Amy & my Amy agree on :)

> 
> > 6. We are entirely ready to have the power remove these defects of character
> > Ummm, I'm not so sure about that one either, I kind of like being computer
> > addicted
> 
> I only hate it when I cant walk around the living room due to too much
> hardware.  And picking up screws and such in the vacuum sucks (no pun
> intended).
> 

When the garage is so full that I have to scrape the snow & ice of my car
daily, then I freely admit that I'm ready to have the power to remove my
defects :)  That's coming around again this week 8-(

> > 8. Make a list of all persons you have harmed and become willing to make
> > amends
> > My wife definitley. I was supposed to buy her a new car a few months ago, I
> > bought us both new computers instead
> 
> Yeah.  A ThinkPad 770E sure can help make up for any bad things we've done
> as the male side of the equation. 8-)

Laptops are such gap-bridging relationship menders, aren't they?  And they
sure beat buying flowers :)

> 
> > 9. Make direct ameds to those people when possible
> > Well I'm working on that one. I'm buying her that new car in a few weeks
> 
> She's getting an upgrade to 256Mb RAM in 2 days.
> 
> You're not the only one, dude. 8-)

Well, my Ultra 30 budget instead is going towards a trip to Florida next
week, so that's a start.  And the money I've made selling things this last
few weeks is going towards canceling computer debt, buying her christmas
presents, and a new car in January, now that my '88 Honda Prelude passed the
most remotely justifiable point on the diminishing returns curve...

> 
> I dont mean to sound as if what Amy does is a bad thing - she just simply
> tries to keep my collection manageable. 8-)
> 

Bill, you sound like you get that same lecture I do, everytime you mention
your Amy's name on the list - "You made me sound like such a horrible
person...That wasn't fair...etc...".  In truth, I'm *very* lucky to have
found such an understanding and caring wife.  How many women will put up
with 1/2 of the house dedicated to my addiction?  :)

She's my manageability gauge as well, and she does a good job of it to boot. 
And the fring benefits aren't bad either :)  Hey, now that she's a
publications coordinator for a university press, I've got an excuse to get a
G4...

Chris

-- 
Chris Petersen
Systems Engineer, Industry Services, Unigraphics Solutions Inc.
Co-founder, auctions.workstations.org
Email: havoc at apk.net