wayfarer

I just reread this entire thread and cried my eyes out. It took me right back to the events as they transpired. I can't begin to

say how much this communnity has helped me deal with the trials I have faced, and I continue to face. Every three months my

sister's and I go to Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto for routine updates/checkups and (hopefully) any information regarding the disease

we face, (Familial ALS)

I wanted to post up for those that still actively read these forums about a tiny bit of information we came across at our last

sunnybrook appointment.

ALS itself, is quite rare, and the inherited version is rearer still. But the inherited version gives doctors something to track,

and so our doctors have been telling us that there WILL be something for us, it's only a matter of time. Incredible amounts

of reseach has been going on in the general area of genetics. When my sister's and I were leaving sunnybrook a couple weeks

ago, everything seemed the usual, nothing new, we were going to meet for lunch. My younger sister and I commute together from

Barrie, a small city about an hour away from Toronto. The hospital is very busy when we go down, and it's not uncommon for

us to get seperated at times throughout the course of the appointment. After waiting for a little while in the car, my sister came out and

we started out to meet with my other sister for lunch. Pam, the sister I was travelling with, has done extensive volenteer work for the

ALS society, and sat on the board of directors until retiring late last year. While I was waiting in the car, she was chatting with one of the

neurologist's that she used to sit with on the board of directors with the ALS society.

When she got into the car, she calmly explained to me that the doctor had informed her of a doctor in the U.S that was successfully working

on a procedure called RNA interference or RNAi. Apparently the precedure has successfully

passed the mouse and monkey stages, and has now been given the green light for human testing. RNAi is no stranger to us, we have read clippings

about it in muscular dystrophy newsletters for a few years, but when I heard that I turned to my sister and said, "well *&%^ that's fantastic news!"

Timothy Miller is the neurologist working on this. We have contacted him

and confirmed that he is indeed working on our exact genetic condition, and that he is hoping to get the human test phase(1) underway sometime this fall.

We can not take part in test phase one, as they are looking for people that have been freshly diagnosed, and also U.S citezens. Phase(2) will occur when/if

phase(1) is successful and will include my sister's and myself in some way shape or form. I can not express to anyone how much of a "light at the end of the tunnel"

this is for me. I have just moved into a condominium bymyself, and the kind of thoughts running through my head have been dark indeed. Not suicidal, just dispair

at how things were/are seemingly unfolding. I will try to post up information here as I get it, but as the first phase of the study will not get underway until the fall at the earliest,

information will be at a premium for a little while at least.

/bump

Who is doing the invites for the GC steam community? I play L4D periocdically and would like

to join the group.

I could use an invite for this please.

1st google I did revealed a top secret pirates-only flag store. Have fun

pirate flags

New password today? Can't login.

My post was a little mean spirited, I'm sorry SJ. I was in a very foul mood last night, that's no excuse though. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your loved ones.

<3

 

my grandparents have been kicking for the past 96 and 94 years, married for over 70, and have led a really rich life. my grandfather skied in the us senior olympics in the 70+, 80+, and 90+ age brackets. my grandmother has traveled all over the world, everywhere in the states, and has had some great experiences. they've had failing health over the past year, and in the past week, my grandma has stopped taking fluids and eating; hospice is giving her a matter of days. my grandfather, who is obviously having a hard time with this, is also starting to aggressively slip. they're both in hospice care, and that's an incredible relief for anyone that's been around it.

 

my uncle came physically came back from vietnam, but never psychologically or emotionally. he's been living with them since he came back. he's incredible, but i know he's having a difficult time with this. he's the type of guy that went back for multiple tours, risked his life to save his buddies in vietnam, and would jump in front of a truck to save a stranger. he's also pretty alone, and about to be without the two people (his parents) that he's cared for most of his adult life.

 

any prayers, thoughts, or whatever you do to help him (and my mom) find the strength and peace during this process would be tremendously appreciated.

 

thanks,

-matt

Seriously? ........?

I'll take the heat for this, they are well into they're 90's and have seen quite a bit of the world and, (hopefully) have a direction of where they're going.

Stand by them....with great pride!! Well deserverd I'm sure no arguments there. Your uncle, on the the other hand, is a different story.

Fighting for your freedom, regardless of weather what he did impacted you directly, will need your support more than your aware of.

Being alone is terrible under the best of circumstantces! And someone that has fought to perserve your right of choice deserves better than that!

Did he directly protect your right of choice? Maybe not, but what he did, ensured a 2nd or 3rd barrier for oppressors to get to that point! Under our

lifestyle that might not seem like much, but then again our generation was gifted with freewill!! Thank your uncle!

Happy B-day!!

Here is a puzzle connected to the game, sanctuary of secrets

The puzzle itself is quite difficult, but is solveable. I will post a link that gives the answers but be advised it is a complete spoiler.

**SPOILER**

Yes, I'm still locked in WoW, though I'm waiting for a new content patch so I have been playing alot of other games

recently, most notably my 2nd tour of duty through Fallout 3 which included the Pitt. The add on was ok, though it was

a little short though. How about you Mo? What have you been up to?

(microsoft realizing 2-3 years after the fact of what a money maker it is I guess)

 

Xbox Live, launched November 2002

 

Steam, launched September 2003

I guess I stand corrected.

I think I figured out the problem, thank you very much Voodoo!! The download option was greyed out when I

went into the game. So I hit the "live" option, and realized this whole windows live thing is very much like steam

(microsoft realizing 2-3 years after the fact of what a money maker it is I guess), but I had to start it up in game.

so I did this and I'm able to get the Pitt content. Unfortunately, I guess you have to be running windows live in the

backround all the time, so now it does'nt seem to recognize any of my saved games, forceing me to start fresh.

Any ideas there?

Ok, I bit the bullet and purchased 1k points ($14.95) the xpac is 800 points so I grabbed it. Downloaded it, nothing. Tried to find it, but could not

find it anywhere except in the games for windows live area, where it shows that it is installed. Waitied in the wasteland for about 15 minutes, nothing comes up.

So I "unistalled" it from games for windows live, and I'm in the process of re-installing it. Anyone have any info?

You have to make a Live account to get the DLC? They can suck my bacon while I keep my money.

It's free for PC users...

I went into the widows live thing, and all I could find was xbox 360 version. and it was'nt free. Though why would 360 version be available

for D/L online

Is this out for PC yet? (I'm not a 360 traitor!) I tried looking for it online, but to no avail.

I sense a disturbance in the force!

Pffft, Barrie is south

I stand corrected, TB is just tad north of me

Just checked IGN; Street fighter 4 is a PC game. They are sold

out for consoles everywhere up here, (the penguins really like it )

A couple of months ago GC had a retro night in which, everyone was asked to come out for some good times. I dusted off my CD's

and spent about an hour D/L the game, steam and all the nessessary updates. I tried to manually punch in the GC server. No dice.

Tried to find it on the server list, no dice. I spent about an hour trying to locate the server with no luck at all. I posted about it in the

forum the next day, dunno if anything ever came of that or not. L4D has really caught my attention periodically, really fun game, but

I have to admit WoW is the "video that killed the radio star" Supposedly SF4 was coming out for the PC but I have not seen anything

at IGN, and I have not been to the local EB Games to check it out. I really enjoyed CSS in my day, but it is an aging game as posted

elsewhere in this thread multiple times. Hope that helps

Dude seriously, I is not commie.

Lies!

to put it in perspective for you and give you something to relate to, the current director at al jazeera english is tony burman, who was editor in chief for CBC from 2002-2007

Ok, please put this into "perspective" for me; Am I to believe that Al Jazeera English is non biased because a man with a 35 year career at CBC is working there?

Or am I to believe that CBC is unbiased because Tony Burman worked there?

Hi, Israel broke the cease fire. It was the original breaking story, but in a Jewish controlled media, don't be surprised if you have a hard time validating that story. I'd cite the story from Al Jazeera, but that's pointless in a crowd like this. If you seriously believe Israel is any less a terrorist organization than Hamas, you're choosing what to believe. Congratulations. Obama nearly lost my vote with statements he said about blindly supporting Israel, but since McCain was in the same position, it still boiled down to the lesser of two evils.

 

Have any of you thought about the timing Israel is exploiting? For the past ~40 years, we've been Israel's tougher bigger brother, which, to an extent, has put us in a peace keeping role. A transitional executive with a weakened defense is a great time to ignore previous US requests for a peaceful cease fire. How do you think this would be playing out differently if any President, left, right, or middle, was mid-term? Coincidence or not (guess where I stand), It's exploitative, and if you can't recognize that, well, you're pretty well convinced that God should our source of political reason. I can't rationalize with that. Apparently neither can 2,000 years of continuing Israeli-centric controversy. When was the last time the Israeli people were not directly involved in some sort of military conflict? The events of the Holocaust most certainly should NOT be overlooked, but neither should the rest of history.

I'm curious about where this is coming from. Where do you get this information? I do not get Al Jazeera on my cable but it is a well known fact they are biased towards muslims

is it not? I'm not trying to poke fun here, but your accusations of us constantly getting biased information on the conflicts in the middle east seems a little steep. In Canada

our news tends to be a little less, shall we say, "extravagant" But I have yet to see Hamas painted in any other image than terrorists. Am I saying we are getting all of the truth?

Absoloutely not! Am I saying that we are not being biased? Again, absoutely not! But if I am reading this post corectly, then I am to believe all of the news we are getting is being

controlled to be biased in a paticular direction on a topic that really does not affect us directly. Private news stations that are in compitition with each other. I know beyond any doubt

that there are things going on behind the scenes that "influence" matters in the middle east. But what your suggesting here is a common "movement" to give us the slanted side

of a story, and with our freedom of the press, I just can't understand that. Again, if I am missing a news source, please let me know, though if it is on the

internet, it's source could be from anywhere.

The Bible says that anyone who is against Israel is against God Himself.

 

The bible also said "Thou shalt not kill." Want to guess what Israel's missiles are doing?

In retaliation/defense of Hamas rocket attacks the moment the ceasefire was over.

I just bought the game, people better still be playing lol.

I did'nt find any GC playing, could'nt add anyone to my friends list for some reason.

Pugging is a little hit & miss, when you get a bad group it sucks. But I found it to be

about 50/50 & getting a good group in this game is alot of fun. Add me, I've been playing all

weekend (wayfarergc) I will be in WoW most of the day today I think though.