>From: Steve Kramer

>Thank you, never better! We've been spending a LOT of time traveling and
>diving, (the fall/winter semester has LOTS of 4-5 day vacations, and
>we've taken advantage of them to dive often,) and are about to leave (in
>another 4 hours) for the airport for another 15 days of the same.
>Winter, to me, just means more air flights to warmer climes, and we've
>been getting in a lot of great diving all over SE Asia and the western
>Pacific. We've learned about many great new dive locations, hotels,
>guest houses, good boats, met some good people, and have been having a
>ball under water!


Will that be a working vacation for you and the Mrs.?


>I never left. I just realized that I was wasting too much time arguing
>with fools. These were not people that I would waste time talking with
>in real life, so why was I doing it in Usenet? Rec.scuba has developed
>into a chat room during the last year or so, and gotten away from the
>newgroup format. It's become a private club, and I have no interest in
>clubs, nor interest in chatting. My time is better used in other
>pursuits.


Right. Could've fooled me.

There are 2025 unique messages by
Steve Kramer


Number of Messages/ Forum
837 rec.scuba
724 rec.food.cooking
200 alt.support.stop-smoking
66 rec.scuba.locations
63 rec.photo.equipment.35mm
62 rec.scuba.equipment
42 rec.knives
5 alt.guitar.tab
5 rec.music.folk
4 alt.photography
4 rec.food.equipment
3 nl.sport.duiken
2 de.rec.sport.tauchen
1 rec.photo.technique.misc
1 rec.photo.technique.nature
1 rec.photo.marketplace.35mm
1 aus.sport.scuba
1 houston.eats
1 alt.journalism.photo
1 alt.support.impotence
1 rec.photo.digital

That's twenty more newsgroups than I read.

>When we weren't out of the country diving, I just spent time lurking,
>looking for dive-related topics in this newsgroup. There were virtually
>none, and the few that did occur had been discussed to death many times
>before. I had no interest in joining the other ridiculous conversations
>that fills this group these days. Listening to people brag about how
>many times they have been arrested does not impress me, nor does how
>much alcohol can be consumed in a given period of time.

I love it. First post in a month, and it's a tribute to me!

ob*ses*sion (noun)

First appeared 1680

1 : a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or
feeling; broadly : compelling motivation

2 : something that causes an obsession

-- ob*ses*sion*al (adjective)

-- ob*ses*sion*al*ly (adverb)



>Our dive friends come from real>life, and we meet with them all over the world
many times a year.>Traveling 3000 miles to watch someone drink too much tequila
and puke is>NOT my idea of fun. Diving is. LOTS of diving in different parts of
the>world, with lots of different people, not just a select few from
a>newsgroup.

Jeez, I guess none of you guys are from real life..?. And everyone was
invited, even -you-. Next time, we'll all pitch in and get you a plane ticket.
Of course, it won't be to where *we* are, but it's the thought that counts.


>Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy New Year, and to those who don't
>celebrate any of the above, Best wishes for this Dec/Jan season. Dive
>safely, but dive often.


Have a nice trip. Give the wife a break. Isn't it ironic that most people
look forward to vacation as a chance to get -off- their feet for awhile.


Yore Pal Popeye