X-Message-Number: 18410 Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 02:04:49 -0800 From: James Bryan Swayze <> Subject: The bad "goodole days" and thanks Tim Freeman and Mike Donahue References: <> Hi all, Well I meant for this to be done in time for Friday morning's arrival of Cryonet but didn't finish in time. Oh well. > > > Message #18398 > From: > Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 11:24:01 EST > Subject: 1901 trivia, some of it perhaps relevant to progress > > Hello to all, > I don't often forward posts, but this post about life a mere 100 years ago > may give us some hope. > > <snip> > > Subject: 100 Year Trivia > <snip> > > > > > The average life expectancy in the United States was 47. Bad > > > > > Only 14% of the homes in the United States had a bathtub. > > > > Only 8% of the homes had a telephone. A three minute call from Denver to > > > > New York City cost eleven dollars. Also bad. > <snipping more bad and could be seen as good alike for brevity> > > Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee > > cost fifteen cents a pound. Could be seen as good and reinforce lamenting the "good ole days when". > <more snippage for brevity> > > The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was thirty. The remote desert > > community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their > > families. Also could be considered not so bad. > <snipping again> > > Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at > > corner drugstores. Could go either way. > And, of course, our own Robert Ettinger had not written "The Prospect of > Immortality." Absolutely terrible! ;) Thanks to Rudi for sharing this. My point in highlighting these things above is that all too often people overwhelmed by the pace of progress lament the "good ole days when". I remember an episode of this from a long time ago while I was riding a ride service for the disabled and the elderly on my way to college for the day. The driver and an elderly woman were doing this very thing. They were saying they could remember when gasoline cost only... and a loaf of bread cost only... and so on and so forth. The lady was also reminiscing about when her father worked the coal mines and the prices back then so finally I spoke up and asked her how much income he made. Well she proudly said some figure like a hundred dollars a month. She still had her mind in the past and proud of her father's income then compared to other people's THEN. So I said to her, "So he earned about $100 a month and a loaf of bread was only how much? Then I asked, "How much does a coal miner earn today, do you know?". She estimated probably a few thousand a month. So I said, "Ok, so back then he earned a hundred a month and a loaf of bread was mere pennies and a gallon of gas was mere pennies whereas today they earn thousands a month and a loaf of bread and a gallon of gas are over a dollar. Well it seems to me things have pretty much kept pace if not even gotten better.". So then I asked her if people in her father's time died of pneumonultramicroscopicsiliconicosisis (black lung disease)? She said many did. I said, "I wonder if as many die today as did then?". In short it really irks me when people lament the "good (bad) ole days". I'm quick to remind them of raw sewage running down the middle of the street in some past times and even around the turn of the century dried horse feces drawn into the air by dresses dragging the ground wafting into lungs often laden with tuberculosis in bodies a hair's breadth away at any moment from contracting cholera and polio and a host of other diseases and living life spans in the forties. My point in bringing this up is we need a really really bad list of bad things people suffered in the past without the benefit of technology and modern medical and societal practices. We should make a poster of this list and credit ourselves, "Put together by friends of technology -- sign up for cryonics and see the technical wonders of the future". Ideas? James > > > Message #18399 > From: > Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 15:30:07 EST > Subject: Re: James Swayze fund... > > thanks to Tim for posting the update on James. I want to thank Tim also for plugging for me. I would have sooner and meant to but hit the pillow last evening and didn't awake until this evening. I was out all day Wednesday because my brother took me to see "Black Hawk Down" and "Vanilla Sky", loved them both. I guess getting up in my chair and being up around 8 hours is harder on me than it used to be. I don't do it often. In fact I wonder something one of you might answer for me. When I get back in bed after being up in my wheelchair I get the chills for a couple hours. I figure this is from the blood that has cooled after having pooled in my legs, from poor circulation and the legs being the lowest point for gravity to pull the blood to without the offsetting aid of muscles to squeeze the blood northward, recirculating again with the rest of my body. Am I risking blood clot and the dangers that incurs? I also get so sleepy with the chills but only now have put the two together. I tend to try and power on regardless usually. > > > I've mailed $100 to the fund today c/o Mike Perry. Thank you very much Mike. I've said before it means to me the literal saving of my life but I've not said much about the fact it will be the giving back a life I lost when after being revived whole again I'll be able to dance again and make love normally again and run and work and well, follow whatever interests me that I can't do now. > Seems pretty important to > me that someone like James has a chance. I would like to try and do more in > the future for James and others. But here's a concrete chance to help someone > right now. I'm not much in position to help others, but I can spare a bit > every month. I'm still about $3200 away from my own cryopreservation > (assuming its unexpected- some equity in the house) > > Sounds like James needs help right now though. <ugh, hard to know what to snip of this one just to get it posted> Well like I said I try to power on regardless but maybe I'm deluding myself and others see what I refuse to. As Tim pointed out I do have a lot of things going on that aren't so desirable health wise. I hadn't ever before thought in my try and stay positive way of dealing with it all state of mind that they might combine and sneak up on me. I'll be careful but I will stay positive. I'm gonna to live forever donchya know? ;) > Have you seen James' artwork at his website? It's beautiful. > Check it out, if you like it, d/l it and print it and hang it on your wall, > and send a donation to the fund- I bet James might think that was okay. Thanks doubly Mike for the plug for my artwork. I hope to do a lot more yet. I intend to begin painting again February after my skin cancer surgery and my the Botox A injections my neurologist who monitors my pain and spasticity is going to give me to quiet the spasms in my fingers that has prevented me holding a brush or pencil without spasm throwing a big swath every few seconds while I try to hold it steady. Though my fingers are paralyzed I can normally stuff things in-between them and use my shoulder muscles to draw, write or paint. However, if my fingers cramp involuntarily it puts a big wrinkle in any effort for fine movement the shoulders were accomplishing. I'm looking forward to the quieting of the cramps in my hands that started this last October after my bladder surgery. James -- My website: http://www.davidpascal.com/swayze A collection of photos of me and some of my artwork: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4292752723&code=2039335&mode=invite A radio interview on Dr. J's ChangeSurfer Radio program with me and the father of cryonics Prof. Robert Ettinger, author of "The Prospect of Immortality": http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=3728 A favorite quote: From the point of ignition To the final drive The point of the journey is not to arrive --Prime Mover by RUSH from Hold Your Fire available here: http://cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=1804486765/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/artistid=RUSH/itemid=408870 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18410