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--