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- Marshall Freedland
-
- 7/20/93
-
-
- Here they sit: My friend's borrowed DCTV, his XapShot camera,
- the software, the manuals and I cannot get a clear, noise-free
- image, so I am using this pic which is about a year old. Use
- your imagination... add a pony-tail and you'll have an
- up-to-date image.
-
- Being a hurricane survivor is not easy. The front of this
- house, the east side, was obliterated; the roof was blown off
- and everything inside was destroyed. Fortunately, my room
- (with my Amiga) is in the back (west) side of the house and it
- survived unscathed. August 24th will mark a year since
- Hurricane Andrew hit and the house is STILL being repaired.
- Still virtually no furniture, no rugs, etc. I used to think
- that just because a disaster was no longer in the news or on TV
- that everything was back to normal in that region; now I know
- the truth. It takes a long time to recover and get back to
- normal. If it ever really does.
-
- My evolution to the A3000 which I have now started with the C=
- 64 some time around 1974. I was in Denver involved in Primal
- Therapy but about to move to Miami when I traded a Primal Box
- for the 64, a monitor, drive, and some programs. Eventually,
- I moved up to the C= 128. When someone came to our Miami
- Commodore users group and demo'ed the Amiga, I knew what my
- next step would be. I remember us passing this "new" plastic 3
- 1/2" disk around the room and everyone being in awe of it.
- "You mean, it's smaller but you get more things on it?" A few
- weeks later after selling my 128 system I bought a 500.
- Excitedly I brought it home, connected it, turned it on, and it
- didn't work. Nothing but that blinking capslock light! (Later
- I learned that the Agnus chip was not seated properly, but it
- was a very frustrating beginning for me.)
-
- Seeing the limitations of the 500 but fearing that I could not
- grasp how to manage a hard drive, I still decided to take the
- chance and get a 2000HD. At first I thought I'd bitten off
- more than I could chew, but eventually I began to understand
- and get it to do what I wanted. Later, I added the 2630
- accelerator, the flicker-fixer, and more memory. It was a good
- machine but then the 3000 came out and I decided that's the way
- to go. I still have the 3000 with two hard drives in it, three
- floppies (one external), a Syquest 44 meg external drive, and a
- NEC 3D multisync, and I'll stay with it for a while longer. It
- does everything that I need, so far.
-
- And, as for me: I am 49, I have a Master's degree in
- psychology. I am un-attached (no kids, either), and for the
- last 8 years I have been living in my brother's house here in
- Miami. I do some writing, did some photography (until my
- darkroom was destroyed by the hurricane), and I suppose I'd
- call myself a professional survivor at this point in my life.
-
- Living in Miami is sometimes difficult and I miss the country
- life I led while I lived in Vermont for about 17 years. I
- don't miss the cold weather, that's for sure, but I miss the
- openness and friendliness of country people. I miss being able
- to smile at a woman on the street and have her smile back;
- women are (justifiably) very defensive here in Miami. And of
- course, there is a strong emphasis on superficiality and
- ostentation here in Miami. Finding a woman who's
- down-to-earth, isn't fat, doesn't smoke, and isn't religious is
- very difficult! Impossible, so far!
-
- I think this Echo Disk is a great idea. It personalizes each
- of us who write and contribute to this echo. It makes us more
- than just a signature and a random tagline. But I wonder how
- many "lurkers" there are out there; people who just read these
- messages without jumping in and contributing? I know that I was
- one for a long time until I began to use Q-blue, the off-line
- reader/writer. I hope that more people get involved. The
- Echo's been a terrific resource, very gratifying, and a lot of
- fun for me. I look forward to more.
-
- Regards to all of you and I'll see you on the Echo!
-
- --/\/\arshall in /\/\ia/\/\i--
-