I can picture what a Flashaholics Anonymous support group might look like:
Man standing in a room surrounded by a circle of folding chairs all occupied by mostly middle aged men: "Hello, my name is William. I'm a flashaholic and I haven't purchased a flashlight for 12 days."
Audience: "Hello William"
William: "Yesterday my wife's divorce attorney served me with papers stating that the bank account jointly setup as a college fund for our children, and previously frozen by court order, has been transferred to a special holding account for....
Suddenly a car hit a nearby utility pole down the street causing the lights in the building to flutter for several seconds and finally go out all together. The buildings emergency lighting instantly came on, but it was sparsely placed throughout the building and barely adequate to see very far. In a nearby classroom a talent scout for Sports Illustrated was holding auditions for the upcoming swimsuit edition where some of the scantily clad young ladies began to panic in the near darkness. A few ladies worked their way down the hall and into the Flashaholics Anonymous meeting where most of the men were still seated in a state of helplessness. A few of the reforming flashaholics were frantically checking their pockets for anything that could produce a light, but alas, nobody could produce as much as a keychain LED. One of the ladies, still wearing only the string bikini from the audition and now shivering slightly and holding her shoulders, coyingly worked her way into the dimly lit room and asked "could someone with a light please oh please oh please help me find my clothes". Upon hearing this most of the men began to mumble to themselves and started checking their pockets, a few for the third time. Within a minute of this frenzied effort they began, one by one, to turn their attention to the office furniture in the room. File and desk drawers were pulled and dumped over onto the floor. As the contents from the drawers spilled out, a mad dash to the ground was made by several flashaholics who competed for a chance to comb through the spilled contents like children vying for the prizes from a piñata. Nobody was finding a single light and now primal screams could be heard in desperation for appeasement.
William, who by now was dripping with sweat and taking what little comfort he could by standing below the rooms only emergency light like a wayward moth to a flame, couldn't take it anymore and made a running leap to brake through the glass window and into the dark abyss. As he fell tumbling through what seemed like a black bottomless void, he started to hear his name being called. The voice got louder and louder until he could feel his left shoulder being violently shaken. William awoke with scream. Still catching his breath, William found himself lying beside his wife who said you must have had a nightmare. "Oh it was terrible, I lost the things I cherish the most" he said. "Well it's just a dream dear" said his wife in a reassuring voice. "Your so right honey, I won't give such a silly dream a second thought" he said. Satisfied with his answer, she turned on her side and pulled the string to turn off the bedside lamp.
Minutes pasted and William was still wide awake while his wife was sound asleep. Seizing the opportunity, William slips out of bed and fires up his computer in the next room. The default page comes up and it's the CPF forum. William breathed a sigh of relief that he was indeed in his world. He happily began to read the newest postings in the "general flashlights" section and then soon switched over to the "HID" threads. He knew he wanted to buy something new, and he knew it had to be big!