At 7:51 am -0500 on 11/19/97, Anonymous wrote:
Several people have commented about Bob Hettinga's verbosity, Thompsonesque writing style, and apparent limitless supply of bubbly energy.
Er, thanks. I think. Makes me sound like an ibogaine-crazed Barbie doll with an AK... :-).
Sometime ago during a discussion of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) Bob told his story on the list. He explained that he had had ADD, but was now on amphetamines to counteract this, and was feeling much better. It was quite brave of him to discuss this openly.
Sure. Glad to talk about it. Well, yes, Ritalin is an amphetamine, isn't it? I was thinking about going on actual dexadrine in time release form, but, what I figured out is that while amphetamines made me rediculously productive, they also made me a real grouch. I've heard that tricyclics like Prozac help with that, but, eventually, I decided that knowing I had ADD was probably the most important thing to gain from the whole experience. I haven't been on medication for ADD for at least a year, maybe 2? hard to remember. (I can hear the howls in the peanut gallery now :-)) Frankly, I don't have the attention span to keep up with all the ADD stuff, and the novelty's worn off, now. ;-). I've also developed coping strategies for dealing with it pretty well, I think.
I suspect what we are seeing is that the amphetamines are more than counteracting his putative ADD problems, to the extent that he has more energy than normal to write long winded Thompsonesque rants, the content of which could be more clearly expressed in a treatise 1/10th the size.
Sorry to dissapoint, then. :-). Actually, I think that I'm just catching up for all the writing I *haven't* done in the past 8 months or so, with FC97/98, e$lab, e$pam, DCSB, etc. I've been very busy, and I didn't really notice that until I sat down and deliberately started to write stuff again. As far as amateur psychopharmacology or psychiatry is concerned, you should remember that ADD is more about not controlling one's attention than it is about having a deficit thereof. People with ADD can focus for for extremely long periods of time on something to the exclusion of nothing else. It's called, oddly enough, hyperfocus. :-). Now, I may be accused of that in this particular case, but I think it's actually the result of *not* writing anything for a while which is the cause, and not because I'm playing in my medicine cabinet. Sorry to dissapoint. If anything, it's maybe the opposite of attention at this point. I've had to work very hard at saving all the fun calumny I've gotten here lately, in order to respond to it when I can give it the proper time. And attention. :-).
Impatience is a useful trait, because it causes one to reconsider the efficiency of approaches. Most of us simply don't have the patience to even read the voluminous posts of Bob's to locate the actual content amidst the colorful metaphors (rocket launchers, snot covered gun barrels, etc).
Hey, that's what the delete key's for, right? I write, like everyone else who writes, because I like it. Most of the time when I write, other people like it. Sometimes, people don't. Life is hard.
No offense to Bob, but I think his effectiveness would improve if he let off the amphetamines a touch.
Try another one. Though I do appreciate your apparent concern for my mental well being. ;-). Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>