[sdiy] Rare Moment of Claret.

[CHoaglin at aol.com]

Some parts snipped...comments inline

In a message dated 4/27/02 2:13:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
batzman at all-electric.com writes:


> 
> 
> Re: ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) (also see ADHD where "H" = Hyperactive)
>          It wouldn't surprise me if half the people on this list had some 
> degree of ADD/ADHD. From the sounds of everyone's work benches at least. 
> And the other half probably have it too but they just don't realize it.
> 
> I'm yet to see the photos but I'm assured that Terry Bowman wins first 
> prise in the "most untidy bench" competition. There'll be a banana winging 
> it's way to you shortly. Whilst most of us talk about not being able to 
> find anything on our benches, Terry talks about not being able to find his 
> bench. 
> 
> 

I'm also familiar with the not being able to find the bench bit. It was like 
that for quite some time, until I finall bit the bullet and started pitching 
and salvaging parts and tossing mercilessly. I probably deserve some credit 
for being able to accumulate all that junk in a a year or two rather than 10 
or 20. : ) 

But if we're talking accumulated junk then I'm probably still out in 

> front. We're talking sheds full. All the garden rakes and stuff don't live 
> in the garden shed. There's no room. They have become known as Plant 1, 2 & 
> 3 over the years. This one is plant 1 and the garden shed is plant 3. Plant 
> 2 was supposed to be the lite engineering shed but this is now done under 
> the carport. Of which has been fenced off and endowed with lighting and 
> power. I guess that should be referred to as plant 4. I'm reluctant to 
> venture into any of the latter to take pictures but if you really want to 
> see, I'll try.

I like that...naming them plant such and such...very fitting names. Something 
random like Area 42 (along the lines of area 51) would work well too for such 
things now that I think of it.

> 
> Last time I was there I took some photos and when I get time, I'll make a 
> web page dedicated to this place. I'm told that this place is unique in the 
> world. There are other salvage operators and surplus dealers but nothing 
> like Robbies.
> 

Note, this is part of how I'm able to accumulate so much so quickly..I AM a 
surplus dealer. Specializing in mostly data communications/networking/telecom 
though. It beats working a 9 to 5 anyday, even though it's twice as much 
work. Just bought another 20 odd racks of gear out of some place today.

> I don't know what it is but I cannot see a piece of old electronic junk or 
> related junk without seeing it's future potential. Other than as landfill. 
> Although I've seriously been curbing my natural instincts to hoard lately. 
> I don't know if that's an ADD thing exactly but it seems to go hand in hand 
> 

Yeah..and now that I've cleaned up and sorted most of my stuff those future 
potentials are coming to fruition right and left. I've been able to put 
together a workbench setup with all kinds of anti-ESD gear, a computer setup 
most self-respecting geeks would drool over and all kinds of A/V gear for 
basically nothing. my slanted face rack I keep all my rackmount MIDI gear in 
was found abandoned in a parking lot, and I keep being able to pull most of 
the parts I need for projects out of a dozen or so plastic totes of salvaged 
components and NOS parts found various places, saving who knows how much 
money.

> ADD is sweet and sour. I don't know about everyone else here but I've had a 
> terrible life trying to cope with it. 

I can vouch for that one. I'm only in my early 20's but so far it's altered 
the course of my life unbelievably and caused numerous kinds of hell. I could 
tell plenty of stories, but won't do it on list.

   But as some kind of compensation, I'm 
> endowed with a vast imagination. We ADD people rarely weigh up the costs 
> and consequences of our actions, but that also means that we're the people 
> who manage to do things that everyone else thinks can't be done. We don't 
> even ask why? And if we subsequently do find that something can't be done, 
> at least we know why and may inadvertently discover 10 other things that 
> no-one else realized. Because no-one else was prepared to go down a dead 
> end street just to see what was down there.
> 

That's so unbelievably true. I know plenty of other technical people who are 
friends of mine, and most of them don't ask nearly as many questions about 
what happens inside stuff, why this thing people say won't work actually 
won't, or whether it maybe willl with modification. I on the other hand just 
start tearing into gear, trying to figure out why it won't do what I want and 
how to force it to. It's rather amusing, I have friends with BS or MS degrees 
in EE who ask me for advice fixing various gear of theirs, even though I'm a 
college dropout who technically shouldn't even have a high school diploma 
except for a principal who "forgot" about missing credits so I wouldn't be 
driving them nuts for a 5th year straight with pranks and assorted 
misbehavior. I don't have the specialized experience (like in designing 
optical networking switch fabrics like a couple friends do) but I have a lot 
of general knowledge about a lot of different things and more practical hands 
on experience by far than a lot of these guys.

> For anyone who thinks they might be ADD or ADHD after reading this I can 
> highly recommend reading a book called "Driven To Distraction". The ISBN of 
> which I can't remember off hand but it is the definitive work. Covering 
> both childhood AD(H)D and adult AD(H)D. The title it self kinda sums up ADD 
> nicely. On one had we are driven people, on the other we are easily 
> distracted and tend to try to follow too many leads at once.
> 

A very fitting title. I'm 99.9% sure I own it, but of course I've never read 
it since I found some other project that was more interesting than reading 
beyond the first dozen pages and got distracted, naturally.

> And credit where credit is due. Were it not for Terry Bowman, I would still 
> be stumbling round in the dark about this stuff. And all the positive 
> things that have happened to me as a result would never have come about.
> 
> So. Be crazy. Do crazy things and astound everyone who comes in contact 
> with you. As they say in the Church of the SubGenius. A SubGenius doesn't 
> just make mistakes. We take our pants off and roll around in them.
> 

<drags dobbs-head T-shirt of out closet and waves proudly....bow to Bob!>

Things are easily put in perspective when one realizes that every human being 
is completely, raving fvcking nuts in their own special way.

__________________________________________________________
"..I make music from the scum that surrounds my life."
-Masami Akita, Merzbow
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