Aye, And There's The Rub

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My brother called me from New Delhi, India yesterday using Skype, and he sounded better from half-way around the world than next door. Absolutely amazing. I'm sort of regret we didn't switch over to a video call to see how clear that might be. Some spam saying I had a Windows virus showed up on my desktop when we hung up. Damn, I'm glad I dumped Windows.

I've talked to a lady in Australia over Skype a few times a few years ago and it was not nearly as clear as this conversation from about the same distance away as India. I don't know why or care. If this is an indication of how communications with the rest of the world will improve in the future I don't know what that means. Six billion people each with their own iPad? Whaaaaa?

It's in the news this morning that Google is working on a technology that will translate one language to another in real time. As I understand it, if this technology comes to fruition then anybody speaking any of the major language groups will be able to communicate with anybody speaking another language, and will hear the other in their own language.

I've been suspicious of the carrying on involved with the Thomas group for the last year or so. I've always been felix in the group and never written under another name, but that doesn't seem to be true for some other members and particularly the moderators.

I use the term "moderators" today instead of "moderator" because apparently one of the moderators who supposedly left the group didn't leave at all, but began writing under a new identity. That's fine with me, but I dislike the subterfuge when it happens at that level. I don't have any say so about what transpires in this group, but I'm happy there's more than one moderator, which seems to make the group into a dictatorship of some sort, and puts all the responsibility on the lady taking the hit.

I had unsubscribed from the group a while back, but was asked to rejoin the group by a moderator who herself apparently left the group, but with the secrecy and underhandedness practiced inside this group it's very difficult to tell if she actually left the group or is still there under some other handle.

I held off taking the methotrexate my regular VA doctor prescribed for me when I was not enchanted with the super-expensive miracle drug. It simply did not work to alleviate the pain I experience with the rheumatoid arthritis. I have been in such pain that it's difficult to hold the toilet paper to wipe my butt.

Finally, when it got so bad I could barely climb up and down my stairs I reach for the methotrexate and took six pills of it which was the initial amount my first rheumatologist prescribed for me. It's helped a lot. It's another month before I have another appointment with the specialists up at the Durham VA. It doesn't do any good to attempt to communicate with them. The doctor doesn't answer my e-mails I sent to the address he provided me with, and the nurses lie to cover for the doctor. No blame, they get their government check whether they respond to me or not.

I may be dealing with another level of denial that I'll never recuperate from this disease. It threatens not to kill me, but to make living unbearable. If I live as long as my father I'll have eighteen years of degeneration before I croak, and be senile either. Great! Just great! All I can hope for is to get a horrible disease that will kill me. '-)

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