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

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