 This article first appeared in the Oct. 93 463 ADAM newsletter.  
If reprinted credit must be given.

 Big Blue Gets Stressed Out

 A few months ago my wife, Kathi, purchased a tee shirt with a 
cute definition of stress on the front.  I liked it so much I 
made it into a little sign.  In no time at all copies were posted 
throughout the mill.

 Recently I went to a meeting half way across work, three 
miles (Steel mills are big places).  Posted on the office wall 
was a copy of a copy of a copy of the little stress sign I had 
made.  When the meeting was over I asked him if he would like a 
better copy of the sign.  I told him I had made it and was going 
to make a bigger one.  One of the people at the meeting asked me 
what IBM software I had used to make the sign.  I told her it 
wasn't made with an IBM, but an ADAM.  Another person that was at 
the meeting almost went spastic.  "An ADAM computer could never 
do anything like that".  He went on about how he had purchased an 
ADAM for his son for Christmas 1983.  He continued to rattle on 
as to how the ADAM was in the shop for repairs more than his son 
had it to use.  He said they could never get it to work right and 
gave it away a few years later.

 I told him what I have hooked up to my ADAM and what it can now 
do.  The man outright called me a lair.  Getting somewhat peeved 
and a little hot under the collar I bet him he and his IBM 
couldn't make a better stress sign than the new one I was going 
to make with the ADAM.

 We made the bet and the challenge was on.  In fact three others 
with IBM type computers jumped in.

 The rules were set.  Beings it was Friday we'd all bring in our 
entries on Monday.  We'd let the non-competing office personnel 
do the voting, ten points for the best and six for the worst.  On 
Monday 21 people cast their votes.  Out of a posible 210 points 
my ADAM stress sign recived 188, the next best got 172.  All the 
IBM signs had a much nicer borders but the text was pretty much 
standard IBM fonts.  Only one IBM sign had graphics.  I'm sure 
there's IBM software that could have knocked my socks off, 
fortunately none of them had it.

 The word, stress, on my sign was made with overlaping clip size 
letters from CHROMANTICS and the rest was done with FONTASY 2A 
DelRay font set, both from EyeZod Graphics.  I then put a couple 
of PD clips at the bottom.  Kathi likes this layout so well I now 
have to put it on a tee shirt for her.

 So anyway, this is how ADAM put the big boys in "STRESS".

 There's nothing special about the sign, nothing is original, it 
was all done with EyeZod Graphics and a couple of PD clips.  If 
fact anyone with the ADAM software and hardware could do a much 
better job I'm sure.

 Now for a special one time offer.

If STRESS gets to you at times and you would like a copy of the 
sign that beat out IBM here's what I'll do.

Send me $2.00, (boy are you easy), and I'll mail you a copy of 
the stress sign.  I'll put your sign on colored neon paper, cover 
it with plastic and mail it in a large envelope so it need not be 
folded.  I should be able to do all this for about $1.00.

So what am I going to do with the other doller? (Retire of 
course.)  What I'll do is send it to the chairman of the ADAMCON 
VI committee.  It's not going to be to long and they'll need some 
money to get things rolling.

What a deal.  Get the STRESS sign and help the ADAM community for 
only a couple bucks.

 This once in a life time offer is good only untill ADAMCON VI is 
over.

 Jerry Vrancks
 2936 Evelyn St.
 Portage, IN 46368

An added note.

 When this challenge was made I hoped none of the participants 
had or knew how to use the IBM software that could beat me.  My 
gamble paid off.  A few days later one of the others produced a 
much better sign.  To bad, the challenge was over and I had won.
is challenge was made 