Effects of alcohol on techwriting (was RE: Knowledge of subject m atter

[Mailing List <mlist -at- ca -dot- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

In my twenties, when I first encountered lots of people 
using lots of alcohol, while I still distrusted the stuff 
and minimized my consumption, I first noticed "the spiral".

The spiral is what happens to discourse among people who 
are drinking. They begin the night by spending a few 
minutes on each of several topics, and most people who 
participate make a fair amount of sense (i.e., not just 
to themselves). 

Imbibing continues, and at some point, the conversation 
sounds a bit familiar. The group has gotten back to one 
of the earlier topics. This time through, they are a 
bit more animated, and they get to the next topic a 
bit more quickly.

Imbibing continues and, in a somewhat shorter cycle, 
the conversation comes around again. Some topics get 
left out and others begin to be treated in really 
earnest fashion.

Imbibing continues and the cycle tightens. Extraneous 
bits are dropped and the earnestness now contains 
a sort of feverish exertion to pronounce very, 
very clearly.... and repetitively.

Imbibing continues, and earnestness takes on a certain 
beligerence, given that those other (remaining) drunken 
SOBs just don't seem to be getting it.

Imbibing continues, the cycle is really short now, with 
only one or two topics left -- between which the three 
remaining participants seem to cycle without notice -- 
and outsiders (who haven't left or fallen asleep) are 
unable to decipher much, but have many repeat chances to 
catch any exchanges that they miss.

In the last cycle of the spiral, the remaining two 
drunks are propping each other up (sort of), over 
the snoring carcass of the third, and are swapping one 
grunt back and forth between them, interspersed with 
much giggling and very wide maudlin gesturing.

Now, it seems to me that the time interval between 
sessions about the benefits of knowing your subject, 
has dropped from months to mere weeks on this list, 
and that some of the usual intervening topics have 
fallen by the wayside.
So my question is: who's in charge of the bar, and 
what does a guy have to do to get a drink around here?

/kevin

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP X5 - ALL NEW VERSION. Now with Word 2003 support, Content 
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! 

Now is the best time to buy - special end of month promos, including:
$100 mail-in rebate; Free online orientation on content management
functionality; Huge savings on support and future product releases;
PLUS Great discounts on RoboHelp training. OFFER EXPIRES March 31! 
Call 1-800-358-9370 or visit: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.