Bank of America has partnered with iTunes and (RED) to bring U2 fans a free download of U2′s “Invisible.” For each download, Bank of America will donate $1 to (RED) to help fight AIDS.While Apple didn’t run a Super Bowl ad for the Mac’s 30th anniversary this year, the iTunes announcement was accompanied by an ad promoting the new (RED) promotion, embedded below.
via Download U2′s ‘Invisible’ from iTunes for free and Bank of America will donate $1 to (RED) | 9to5Mac.
I learned to type by myself around the age of 8. I never really measured my speed because it was not something I knew was measurable (WPM). In 7th grade, Typing was actually a class and we used manual typewriters. I thoroughly enjoyed this class but not because it was at a “private” school I was forced to go to away from all my early grade school friends. At the private school all the kids were mostly spoiled, snooty, stuck up …well you get the picture. I did not fit in, so when I kicked all their asses at typing (65-85 WPM) and was finished several minutes before and with less errors than the “others”, I gloated big time.
After being Diagnosed in 2008 with Multiple Sclerosis, I learned as much as I could about the illness. Externally I was no different. Internally, I had some lesions on my brain, lost vision in my Right eye (Optic Neuritis) for 2 weeks along with excruciating pain behind the eyeball until the steroids kicked in and ran their course. Eventually my vision returned. 6 months later (shortly after starting Copaxone) I developed Foot Drop and I started loosing grip and dexterity in my right hand, fingers, arm, etc. Typing with 2 hands quickly became a thing of the past. No longer would I be proficient in my IT career. My right hand got worse and worse by the week. I could just “feel” it not working and I wanted to cut it off with a machete.
Its amazing how the mind and body adapts as I had to learn how to do everything left handed. Well now or soon enough www.frogpad.com will release version 2 of its 1 handed Typing keyboard sure to rival other contraptions I have used. I have opted for the limited edition [early prototype] model and then the regular release due out in April.
I’m really looking forward to this new technology as they have made some nice yet to be seen, but promised advancements. Check out their site and their Facebook page for more details!
Infusion #45 today and only 1 stick. The bonus to this was I was able to con them into using a larger needle to draw blood for the labs and the JCV test!
I get so upset and frustrated many times not being able to do stuff I was able to. On many occasion I forget I have MS or say fuck it I can do this, I need to feel worthy, useful, like I’m doing my share in the household. Even if it’s the little shit. Thinking…I’ll just take more time, focus, concentrate – it will be no problem.
WHAM!! I fall on my ass and fail again.
I was settling in for the evening and just wrote out checks for some bills I could not pay on-line that needed to be mailed the next day. My wife said she did not have time to stop earlier to get the mail. I decided to venture out at 9:45pm and retrieve the mail and ready my money for the government to piss away in the next big scandal. I grabbed my cane and went thru the garage which was not that cold and I would only be 2 minutes more out and back from the mailbox. As soon as I left the garage, my 2nd hobble stride into the blacktop driveway I was “flat” on my hands and knees. I smacked so hard I swear the neighbors heard it. My entire body jolted from the impact except for the Innovative Neurotronics #WalkAide I landed on and cracked and damaged. I’ll never understand why these new cuffs do not hold the device on the inside of the leg like my old one did.
It took me a minute or two to come to my senses. Then the pain hit, then the disgust and depression of crushing my “can’t live without device” – The WalkAide. I took it off my leg so I could start the long arduous process of maybe being able to get up from the slippery black ice. Rolled on to 1 butt-cheek and realized I was stuck and had no grip at the same time. Almost 25 minutes had passed by and I was getting colder and a frosty left cheek. Desperately I scooched towards the tanbark and noticed the location of the other pieces I heard when I fell. The battery and battery cover went flying but were still within arms reach. I quickly used my 1 good hand to grab those and stuff them in my pocket. There was a glimmer of hope as I felt my cell phone in there and was able to call my wife to bring a folding chair to help pull me up.
Just fucking pathetic is how I was feeling then and now, albeit Black Ice or was it MS? and my determination to keep going, not quitting, keep trying, keep moving, getting up again after another hard fought battle with gravity and this chronic illness.
Many of you with MS know this topic all too well. Even if you plan, your plan can fail and it can be embarrassing to say the least. I often think – What do the women of MS do? Guys can carry wide mouth Gatorade bottles with them in the car for instance. A truck driver gave me that tip. But who really has the time and control to whip that out and then whip it out. Especially when you are 90 minutes in to a snowstorm rush-hour traffic jam that requires +100% of your attention to avert death that is being tested by the spastic bladder that is about to burst. As if mass transit busses sliding backwards down a hill at you was not nerve racking enough.
Another MS blog I follow had a recent post (http://richardmcohen.com/peeing-down-under/) on bathroom placement and alerting handicapable to the location [as in are there stairs because some of us MSers would never fucking make it]. Sounds like potential for a good app but could it make money? My i-Inject App is still selling www.i-inject.com a couple copies a month but nothing like when it was released in 2009.
My life is affected and planned around my bathroom schedule, sad to say but its the truth. Thanks MS. Even with drugs, there is an occasional mishap. Its not the end of the world.
A new gadget with lightning fast USB 3 speeds and double sided scanning AND feature rich software thats easy to use! Even comes with Adobe Acrobat XI. Scan to mobile device and so much more.
I may win the ongoing battle of the piles this new year with a little effort and this slam dunk of a tool.
Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac
Feeling crappy…but not for long…
