Zeffer wrote:I have a predilection for addiction I think. I can look at most things in life and turn them into a hobby, or mad obsession as my wife calls it. So when we bought a fish tank, weeks of research, chemistry sets to check the water, shelf of books etc. I do this with all things. Bake a cake? 150 cook books including the science behind it... BUT since I have this genetic make up, thank goodness I don't gamble, smoke or do drugs because they would become an addiction immediately!
Apparently, there's a gene for addiction, although the Human genome project wasn't looking specifically for the gene that makes people collect, build, hoard and obsess about scale model tanks. Nevertheless, it's lurking
in the gene pool, just waiting to surface... The Chinese (including spin-off Native Americans) and the Celts are noted examples of ethnic groups with addictive tendencies (smoking, drinking 'firewater', gambling and more) and, as a Celt I can attest to the lifelong difficulties I've had fighting off weird urges. I have five tanks- I only wanted one. I've an attic, shed, and several cupboards bulging with tools and accessories from previous 'hobbies'..many of which will probably never see the light of day again. I even have one room devoted to recording music, and to service that urge I have eight guitars, drums, keyboards, 32-track recording system and all the attendant miles of cables, connectors, stands, etc., needed...and, well, you get the picture. I too have also been through the fish tank and baking phases, with attendant obsessive research and related matter collecting.... As an addict, I decided to have a rule that states if anything has to be relegated to the Attic, it might as well go to the tip...but getting it there is practically impossible...objects seem to drag their metaphorical heels at the door, or make themselves heavy..like kids who don't want to get in the car.. I'm not quite a hoarder; but probably a borderline case. Then there's all the maintenance of things brought in from the material world: cleaning, oiling, repairing, dusting..and the ever increasing rows of batteries, of all sorts, on charge.. their like the attendant life support systems for these newly acquired objects of desire....the moss that this stone gathers.
In principle, I'd like one
brilliant tank to shower time and affection on, and obsess over than five, ten to twenty other distractions. It's like having kids; the more you have the more you agonise over dividing up your affection and attention giving..when, in reality, you have a secret favourite.
Anyway, model tanking
is a dangerous addiction...and potentially lethal. Just look at what happened to Valentina...partner of a Tank Addict, who caught the bug herself...and now goes by the name of 'Matilda', but here you can see the effects of the addiction in these before and after photos. Be warned
:
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
Alwyn
