ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 26, 1995 TAG: 9512260020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Reporter's Notebook
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALISON BLAKE
Just like those who live near Middleburg learn to ride horses, or the young women of Floyd learn to play basketball, so the fine folks of Blacksburg learn to surf the 'Net - and then some.
It's become part of the culture of the place.
But local manias can bring their pitfalls, as I was reminded last week. Just check out my friend, who agreed to tell her story only if she remained anonymous.
She is a product of the decade's creep toward an increasingly technological society.
"Ah!" I think, whenever I call and hear the phone blurting its busy, endless bleep. "I'll go on line and send her e-mail instead!"
It always gets through.
In 1983, my friend moved to Blacksburg. It wasn't long before she got sucked up in the town's budding technomania.
"Probably around 1985, I had a Kaypro," she said. "I know you probably haven't heard of it."
An early machine, shall we say.
In 1990, she moved uptown. "Packard-Bell. 25 Megahertz. $1,900 at Price Club - with laser printer," she said.
"It was pretty hot at the time and I was all excited, going from the Kaypro."
But time passed. For the past year or more, she has been paging through those New York phonebook-fat computer sales catalogs, dreaming of new gizmos.
The new computer cravings were fierce.
"I mulled. I contemplated. I didn't read the Tarot cards, but I would have if I'd thought it would have helped," she said.
In the end, she purchased her souped-up, supercharged, turbocharged speed machine. Delivery date: Two weeks ago.
It's a Dell with 133 megahertz, 16 megs of RAM, a 1.6 gigabyte hard drive, 28.8 fax modem and a four-speed CD-ROM.
And, of course, the prize: A 17-inch monitor.
"And boy," she said. "I was so thrilled. A friend of mine told me 'Man, you gotta get a 17-inch. It's like a big-screen TV.'"
Sure enough, it was all I could do to drag my "Myst"-addicted mate from the vivid screen just two Saturday nights ago, even though we were supposed to be Christmas shopping in an attempt to acquire more than the single gift then in hiding at our house.
The next day, I called my friend.
"Let's go out for some dinner," I said.
No could do. Her stomach hurt. Her head felt weird. Woozy, even.
"Do you have a virus?" I said. "Flu? Did you eat something strange?"
Nope.
As it turns out, her whiz-bang new monitor makes her carsick.
"Everytime I look at it now, I feel that awful sensation," she admits.
What's a computer nut to do?
What else?
"Dramamine."
Allison Blake is The Roanoke Times' higher-education writer.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB