Losing My Religion...R.E.M.?

..Losing my mind more like!!!!

I posted a completely ignored bit of wisdom on FB a few months ago ..a story about my good Lumana friend, Chad,who noted that Ghana is very hard on electronics..and I agreed but noted that it was also hard on PEOPLE (ME ESPECIALLY...I'M NOW DOWN TO WHAT I PROBABLY WEIGHED IN FORM 4 (OOPS FORM IV) AT THE ROYAL HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH), on clothes, on books, on shoes, on bags/packs..everything i brought here..and yes...... Electronics.

OK, so i'm a Pece Corps wimp..and back in the old days of snail-mail and jungle-drums and runners with messages in cleft sticks here, life was a lot harder, but i am completely dependent on my laptop computer. It is my blood, my breath, my heart, my mind, my soul, my way, my escape. and oh btw..i can't imagine doing what i'm doing here and in the way i'm doing it without my laptop...hmm, yea, that one, the expensive replacement for that one torn from my grasp in Northern Ghana just six months ago.

And so.imagine the horror, the anxiety, the pain in my stomach..when two weeks ago..going into the Library, hooking everything up....AND THE LITTLE GREEN (I'M POWERING YOU!!!!) LED DID NOT COME ON WHEN I CONNECTED THINGS UP!!!!

..it's a problem, it's a not-to-be-fixed here problem..it's like being in love (..with all things Apple..it's a MacBook)..how could you do this to me (Beatles-She's Leaving Home) - it's a wake up in the middle of the night panic problem
It sucks..big-time. I know it isn't personal but jeez..why me, why now?

Well, really, Apple ..of course, it can be replaced or fixed,,,but can i get through the next 24 hours without internet access???
The stock market..why do i care..oh...habit!
Sports..yea well,,i do need to know what time the game is..and how are the Braves doing..and JESSICA ENNIS???

so you scratch around and put stuff together and get some kind of connectivity and remember all your other addictions/compulsions..three-a-day work-outs, the Eagle trials (WOT????), graded work-outs for 5 months before London in '85...etc, etc..including perhaps BEA 494 cutover or LH Cargo Acceptance (really obscure!!!).


It is amazing to have lived a life through so much technological change in the world of computers..and been so close to it...Ed Mack, BOH, SJM, Jim Lindley..Microsofties and electronic newspapers...our 5 minutes with Steve J before he blew our ideas at Next out of the water..he was right, too!
(..and then the greed..i share the blame?)

..and now I'm in very rural Africa..preparing to start (on Monday) 'teaching' Ghanaian children about computers.

...pas mal

..may you live in interesting times (..or make 'em that way!)

baci e abbracci