Are you "Addicted to the Zap"?

[DjfunkmasterG]

Addicted to the Zap - this is what i call my addiction to anything that needs electricity.

Here in the Northeast US we had a moderate snow storm that brought 8" of snow to my area and caused widespread power outages. Even Lou, who lives about 60 miles from me lost his power in the storm.

Now it is very common for me to lose power during any weather related event. Hell it drizzles and I lose power. My local power company is a joke, and every year they have their hand out for a rate hike and every year they have been getting rejected until they get their reliability issues in check, to which they claim they need the rate hike to do so, but yet posted a profit of $400,000,000 in 2009. Hypocritical I know...

So, after being without power for 48 hours I realized I am extremely addicted to the zap. for 48 hours I slept very little. I am a white noise person... I need that electrical hum you hardly ever notice.... until the power goes out. I like to have a fan on me, even in the winter, and of course I have my Internet, TV and PC addictions. Having a smart phone doesn't help, especially if the battery is dying.

So, how addicted to the zap are you? I think I have a fairly high addiction, like most of the public who doesn't realize it until it goes away. I tried to do small things around the house while it was daylight... clean windows, mop floors etc to keep my mind off it, but finally approaching the 28 hour mark I had nearly had enough and was ready to go check into a hotel just to hop on my laptop.

So how bad is your addiction to the zap

[bassman]

Used to be pretty addicted. Like you, I would fall asleep with the TV on every night but then the old lady put that to a stop. Now I couldn't go to sleep with it on if I tried. The rest is really no big deal. I can go without TV and Computers fairly easily. It's an inconvenience, but i'm not freaking out like a crack head that needs his fix.:p

I've found the best thing to do is grab a candle and a book. The time will pass before you know it.

[blind2d]

Cool topic!
I'd have to say... moderate. I can deal without it, but of course, like most in this nation of ours, I'm just so used to it... I could sleep without electronic sounds, I think... the thing I would miss most might be the microwave, since I do love my oatmeal... I think my addiction would be worse if I hadn't already been used to unreliable internet access... So yeah, I guess a M. O. R. addiction level for me...

[EvilNed]

Fuck yes, and proud of it. Electricity makes the world go around and makes our lives cozier, easier and more entertaining. I can last 3 days without electricity, but only 3 hours without the internet. After that I die.

[AcesandEights]

Cool topic!
I'd have to say... moderate. I can deal without it, but of course, like most in this nation of ours, I'm just so used to it....

This is pretty much where I'm at. We live lives that are attuned to this dependence on electricity (to one degree or another), but when I step away from it and have the tools to use, I'm okay...relatively speaking :shifty:

But when you're in your house, stuck there with no power and not having expected it...yeah, it's the worse.

[DjfunkmasterG]

My power company is just unreliable so I anticipate outages anytime a weather even occurs, but I have noticed as I get closer to 40 my patience is wearing really fucking thin with this shit.

Now, for lights I have candles, and some D-Battery LED camping lanterns that last up to 40 hours, so I was covered their, but I seriously realized I need to get off this needle (the Zap) because man talk about being restless for two days.

What makes it worse is the CHANTIX isn't fucking working either... so my whole life is crumbling before me... (j/k)

But as noted I observed my severe need for electricity and I have to work myself off that tit ASAP

[bassman]

If I remember correctly, you have an apartment? Being up North and snow being an issue, what do you do for heat when the power goes out?(assuming you don't have a fireplace):stunned:

I don't know what I would do without my fireplace....

[DjfunkmasterG]

If I remember correctly, you have an apartment? Being up North and snow being an issue, what do you do for heat when the power goes out?(assuming you don't have a fireplace):stunned:

I don't know what I would do without my fireplace....


I own a tonhouse... what i do for heat is go and sit in my car. =O) or like Yesterday I fired up the grill, made Hamburgers and hot dogs for myself and the neighbors, and then stood over the open fire for about 2 hours.

[bassman]

I own a tonhouse... what i do for heat is go and sit in my car. =O) or like Yesterday I fired up the grill, made Hamburgers and hot dogs for myself and the neighbors, and then stood over the open fire for about 2 hours.

Not inside, I hope. :p

I often get a laugh out of those images on bags of charcoal. The "no" symbol through little images of houses, vans, tents, etc. Who the hell thinks burning charcoal in an enclosed area is a good idea?:lol:

I'm sure there are people that've tried...

[DjfunkmasterG]

Not inside, I hope. :p

I often get a laugh out of those images on bags of charcoal. The "no" symbol through little images of houses, vans, tents, etc. Who the hell thinks burning charcoal in an enclosed area is a good idea?:lol:

I'm sure there are people that've tried...

Yeah like the Scooby Doo movie to insinuate that Shaggy and Scoob were burnin' a doobie and then the reveal shows they're cooking hamburgers

[JDFP]

Electricity I can go without with no problem (although a little bit of whining at having no internet/grooveshark/pandora). I went without a television for 3 years (2007 - 2009) and didn't miss it for a minute. I had sold my previous television when I moved to Atlanta and saw no point in spending money for another television as I never really used the one I had previously. I have a computer and I can access basically any show I want to watch -- what was the point?

I eventually broke down the end of '09 with my Christmas bonus from work and bought a 50" Samsung Plasma HDTV. I watch maybe a good 1-2 hours every week of television on it, but I have my computer hooked up to it and do my Netflix/etc. movie watching on it as well as my blu-ray player for HD stuff (of course, I have a total of 6 blu-ray's I've purchased since I got it back in Christmas of '09).

With no electricity I'd be perfectly content with my granny's quilt she made for me (it's extremely comfortable) and a good book. The only thing I'd really miss would be the 'net and heat when it gets cold (but I have blankets for that, no use in whining about it). I wouldn't really call myself a Luddite, but I just think alot of technology is redundent and not really necessary -- certainly no point in my wasting money on something like GPS (it's seldom I ever drive anywhere where I don't know where I am, and if I do, well, maps still work like they used to), internet on a cell phone (the whole thing seems silly to me, it's like having a microwave as part of your refrigerator -- while it might be neat I use my phone to talk to people and not to surf the internet), or e-book readers/Kindles (they still make books, and you can't replace the experience of reading a REAL book with pages and the scent and what not with an electrical device).

j.p.

[darth los]

Who the hell thinks burning charcoal in an enclosed area is a good idea?:lol:

Dude, the same people who need the instructions on the back of the shampoo bottle of course. :D

[krakenslayer]

I would call my additction moderate. I say this because I spend an inordinate amount of time on my PC or browsing the web on my phone. I don't have a TV anymore, though (the computer has basically taken the place of the TV in my household) and I love reading. If the power went down I'd be fine; it would actually help me finally finish Lord of the Rings and The Stand :)

[blind2d]

I've found the secret trick to reading books is... do it when you're in high school and aren't involved in a lot of extra-curricular stuff... worked for me!

[bassman]

I've found the secret trick to reading books is... do it when you're in high school and aren't involved in a lot of extra-curricular stuff... worked for me!

I don't know about you, but reading books was the LAST damn thing I wanted to do in High School. :lol:

[MikePizzoff]

Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty addicted. I check my various e-mails, Facebook, band pages, and these forums on a daily basis (sometimes multiple times a day). I also play a decent amount of video games.

However, whenever I am without either of these things, I noticed my social life greatly increases and I'm rarely ever home (because there's nothing to do). So a power outage would be a good thing right about now.

[blind2d]

I don't know about you, but reading books was the LAST damn thing I wanted to do in High School. :lol:
Hence the lack of extra-curriculars...
"A book is the shy person's greatest escape'. Andrew Lloyd Webber said that." - Murdoc
"He did not!" - 2D
"And how would YOU know?!" - Murdoc

[MinionZombie]

The power in our area is somewhat notorious for conking out - if you get heavy wind then you're bound to have a power outage.

The most recent one was a piss take too - they kept shedding the load, so first our computers went off, then there wasn't enough power for televisions, then the lights got dimmer and dimmer and dimmer until there was literally no point in it at all - why on earth they did that, I do not know ... probably so they didn't have to officially chalk it up as a long time without power - but if there's not enough power to even power one goddamn eco-freak lightbulb, then that's no sodding good is it?

The big time of notoriety though was when our whole area got hit by a power surge, and electrical shit that was on at the time got all kinds of fucked up - but because it was so close to Xmas, the power company got onto a local electrical salesman who made a fucking mint exchanging - for example - a pretty darn old generic name VCR for a top range Sony VCR, and that was just the standard stuff - there were loads of people who were inventing products that they had (but really didn't) to get "replacements" or were deliberately saying they had better PCs than they actually did to cash-in, and there was no time to check.

I think the electrical salesman ended up getting a good telling off afterwards, but with such a colossal fuck up by the power company, it was bound to happen.

On the actual topic though, it's always a major nuisance. Practically everything I do requires power, so I find myself crushingly bored when the power goes out ... I usually just wander from room-to-room like a lost soul, or a ghost, moaning woefully for the juice ... :lol: ... ... or I just end up complaining about it with the folks, or if there's enough light I do some reading. And now I can use my MP3 player (providing its juiced up of course), which I only got a few months ago, so I can at least get some tunes going.

But yeah, we're so dependant on power that it becomes a right old nuisance when it goes out - and if it's out for a long time, then it's a total pain, because then heating becomes a problem (during winter), as well as cooking, and utter, total, complete boredom. :p

One time we had a powercut that lasted something like 48-72 hours here, but I was away at uni at the time so it didn't affect me, but it affected my family, and they just sat around in a dark room with candles flickering all day long ... meanwhile I was at uni surfing the fibre optic 100mbp/s internet and listening to tunes in my cosy warm room.

So, for me, I usually get really bored - as well as annoyed - especially when the power company is playing silly buggers (the aforementioned load shedding business which couldn't power sod all).

[Tricky]

I'm not so sure about at home, I can quite happily sit & play guitar on a night with no TV on or anything! though I do spend a fair amount of time on my PC. The worst for me is since I got a smart phone, I'm all hooked up to my email accounts, facebook, all the news websites, as well as having megadrive, game gear, snes & PS1 emulators on there, I'm constantly playing with the bloody thing!

[krakenslayer]

Wow! What smartphone runs a PS1 emulator?

[MinionZombie]

Smartphones, eh?

Aye, always being on the bloody things is one of the reasons I don't have one ... ... that and the sheer cost of them. I spend enough time online, so there's no need for me to have a Smartphone ... plus this notion of "always being connected" creeps me out, it's not healthy even. :shifty:

*picks nose*

[bassman]

Why do they call them smart PHONES anymore, anyway? Considering the phone is the least used function on them, they should reconsider that...

[Tricky]

Wow! What smartphone runs a PS1 emulator?

HTC desire dude! I've got Resident evil 2 & final fantasy 7 on mine, the games take up huge chunks of memory card though so got to make sure you have plenty of space, they run pretty much perfectly barring the odd bit of lag, and you have to tinker about with the files to make them run on the phone, its just a matter of converting them with a program :cool:

Mine didnt cost me anything MZ, I was due an upgrade last summer and discovered that my old contract was ridiculously outdated and that for the same monthly price I was paying for my old sony ericsson with 100 texts & 30 minutes, I could have the HTC desire with unlimited texts, unlimited internet & 600 minutes. Best phone I've had, it comes with a built in google sat nav program which I have used dozens of times, really useful, and all sorts of other things like a Word type program, compass, google search engine, the usual camera (and theres some really good photography apps available) video camera, music player etc and some of the apps are really good, like the rotten tomatoes movies one, you open it & it figures out where you are through gps, lists all the cinemas within a 50 mile radius of where you are, and tells you all the showtimes & lets you watch all the trailers. That phone is my zap addiction, theres just so much you can do with it. I dont own a laptop so I find it pretty good for browsing the net when I cant be arsed booting up my PC, or if I'm away from home :)