Holy crap. We talk a lot around here

[Balta1701]

The only reason I'm behind is that I didn't want to find a white sox community until the "have a lead every game" streak in 05.

[dasox24]

The only reason I'm behind is that I didn't want to find a white sox community until the "have a lead every game" streak in 05.

Gotta say: 95,000 is damn impressive considering the late start you had. I don't know how you do it. I know you're working towards (might have completed) your PhD, but you deserve a doctorate in SoxTalk too. Maybe a screen name change to Dr. Balta1701 is in order...

[qwerty]

I used to post here and there at some point. I mean to the tune of 25-30 posts per day.

 

Then my father got ill, he has had 14 stent '' procedures'' to his right leg. In my book, if they cut you open, it is a surgery, though now it it's just a new cute term these days to keep people at ease. He still ended up getting his right leg amputated because of cellulitis. My father has been diabetic going on twenty years now, he has been taking insulin for over half of those years, as he hits upwards of 500 at times on his sugar count. He has also had 8 stent surgeries (oh yes, procedures) to the heart. Three eye surgeries. My dad has always had a problem with his right eye, as in basic training during his Vietnam war games he got shot point blank with a BLANK. Ergo, shrapnel was lodged within, and they had to remove it on the spot. Advance 40 plus years, just to find out it was not all removed. He also fell from a 40 foot pole, which was part of the daily routine in basic. This happened during the winter with a sheet of ice several inches thick. How did he land? Feet first. Naturally it is hard to believe, but I have had several confirm it via his scrapbooks from his time in Vietnam.

 

My father also broke his back while working on the dock. He was lifting something he lifted daily for years, weight wise that is, roughly 70 pounds, and it just shattered. So to this day he has a metal plate, screws, and bolts to keep himself upright. He was confined to a bed for nine months. This was almost 23 years ago, as he is currently 68 now.

 

Back to those stents on the heart, well he has had four heart attacks in the past nine months, and he had a quint bypass after the first two. After the first two they found out that he has pancreatic cancer, which very well is the most deadly of all cancers. This specific cancer eventually shuts down all of your internal organs one by one, it is simply nasty.

 

My father was having anxiety, which he would never admit to after the first two heart attacks, so they put him on Zoloft. He had been on it for several months, and he had a reaction to it that put him in a state of delirium. Ever see or hear of the film ''Harvey'' with James Stewart? He was living it. So they took him off it, and by they, I mean Hines VA. Months go by with him being off of it and they started sending it again (either comes through the mail or you can pick it up there when present) so he started taking it again without really taking much notice. For the past several years he has been on upwards of 18 medications, some as many as four times a day. So... when he sees a medication he takes it as noted, without thinking twice, because he never has known what half of them even are for. I suppose I can understand how a person would be like that, but there is no damn chance I personally am taking something without knowing what it is... and what it is for. Not to mention the side effects. Though I suppose when you take that much medication, just about everything under the sun could possibly be a side-effect.

 

My mother and I end up finding out he had been taking it for almost a week, and a couple days prior to Halloween he started acting forgetful, loopy if you will. By the day of Halloween, he did not know where he was, who I was, or my mom. What he did know is that we were playing a big elaborate hoax on him, and we were the reason he got sent to Desert Storm along with a whole troop of other wheelchair bound soldiers. The day of Halloween we take him to Hines, they see what we see, run tests galore, and they believed that it was a morphine overload (was not breaking down properly) along with the Zoloft that brought this upon. The day after Halloween he has another heart attack while in Hines, and he essentially stopped breathing on his own. He could have breathed on his own, but he would have died due to exerting so much energy just to catch a grasp of air. So they stuck a tracheal intubation tube down his throat, to get the fluid off his lungs, and of course allow him to breath, without it, he was a goner. He was in a coma during this period of time. My father also has had fluid removed from his lungs 10 times in the past five years, and during that span he has had pneumonia several times.

 

Roughly 90% of people that die due to this cancer do so undiagnosed. Those of which that get diagnosed die within nine months on average. To reach five years? The odds are between 1%-3%.

 

Anyway, pancreatic cancer is the toughest of all cancers to detect based on where the pancreas is located within us. A special test has to be done, hence why so few ever get diagnosed. What I am currently in the process of doing in trying to contact every cancer society that will listen, so that I can get in touch with a child prodigy named Jack Andraka. Andraka has created a test strip that can detect said cancer in just five minutes, but it will potentially take upwards of 15 years before it goes through all the loops to get it marketed. Once I have Andraka on board, my intentions are to get a Kickstarter or any other sort of fundraising sort of thing going to create the first full feature length documentary based around this nasty cancer. I plan on speaking to all of the leading experts outside of Andraka, those that currently have the cancer, the loved ones of those that do, and the loved ones that have died because of it. Even celebrities that are living with it would be a much added bonus. It's so draining on the caretakers, that is why I feel it is a much needed aspect of the documentary.

 

This ride, not just the cancer, has been a complete and utter toll on my mother and myself during this period. I simply need, not want, the world to know more, so much more, about this atrocity.

 

Sorry for the jabbering, it was just for those that may have wondered where I have been all these years, as my activity has been almost none. Also, it felt good to get it off my chest, even if it is to people I have never met, nor ever will. I know I have been a pain in the ass in the past, I mean to my knowledge I have the highest warn rating in the sites history, but thanks for listening, for those of you that have made it this far. There likely are some grammatical errors that I have made within this post, but I have been up going 32 hours, with only and hour and fifteen minutes sleep prior, so I do not really give much of a s***. On my good days I get four hours of sleep, and even when that occurs, it is in the form of intervals. I have always done such, and most do not understand how I function. Hell it's the reason why I left school my freshman year of high school and became an autodidact. Technically, I suppose I have always been, but I was not labeled one until that point. Everything just moved too slow for me, and it does this this very day.

 

You see, this is why I do not post, as I can go on, and on, and on even more.. My damn brain never takes a rest, it's so very exhausting. I will shut the f*** up now. Good day, talk to you in another seven months.

 

[Kyyle23]

qwerty, feel free to start your own thread in SLaM if you want to have some sort of free form talking/typing if you need to express this.

 

Im positive there are others on this site that can share some of your pain

[greg775]

I used to post here and there at some point. I mean to the tune of 25-30 posts per day.

 

Then my father got ill, he has had 14 stent '' procedures'' to his right leg. In my book, if they cut you open, it is a surgery, though now it it's just a new cute term these days to keep people at ease. He still ended up getting his right leg amputated because of cellulitis. My father has been diabetic going on twenty years now, he has been taking insulin for over half of those years, as he hits upwards of 500 at times on his sugar count. He has also had 8 stent surgeries (oh yes, procedures) to the heart. Three eye surgeries. My dad has always had a problem with his right eye, as in basic training during his Vietnam war games he got shot point blank with a BLANK. Ergo, shrapnel was lodged within, and they had to remove it on the spot. Advance 40 plus years, just to find out it was not all removed. He also fell from a 40 foot pole, which was part of the daily routine in basic. This happened during the winter with a sheet of ice several inches thick. How did he land? Feet first. Naturally it is hard to believe, but I have had several confirm it via his scrapbooks from his time in Vietnam.

 

My father also broke his back while working on the dock. He was lifting something he lifted daily for years, weight wise that is, roughly 70 pounds, and it just shattered. So to this day he has a metal plate, screws, and bolts to keep himself upright. He was confined to a bed for nine months. This was almost 23 years ago, as he is currently 68 now.

 

Back to those stents on the heart, well he has had four heart attacks in the past nine months, and he had a quint bypass after the first two. After the first two they found out that he has pancreatic cancer, which very well is the most deadly of all cancers. This specific cancer eventually shuts down all of your internal organs one by one, it is simply nasty.

 

My father was having anxiety, which he would never admit to after the first two heart attacks, so they put him on Zoloft. He had been on it for several months, and he had a reaction to it that put him in a state of delirium. Ever see or hear of the film ''Harvey'' with James Stewart? He was living it. So they took him off it, and by they, I mean Hines VA. Months go by with him being off of it and they started sending it again (either comes through the mail or you can pick it up there when present) so he started taking it again without really taking much notice. For the past several years he has been on upwards of 18 medications, some as many as four times a day. So... when he sees a medication he takes it as noted, without thinking twice, because he never has known what half of them even are for. I suppose I can understand how a person would be like that, but there is no damn chance I personally am taking something without knowing what it is... and what it is for. Not to mention the side effects. Though I suppose when you take that much medication, just about everything under the sun could possibly be a side-effect.

 

My mother and I end up finding out he had been taking it for almost a week, and a couple days prior to Halloween he started acting forgetful, loopy if you will. By the day of Halloween, he did not know where he was, who I was, or my mom. What he did know is that we were playing a big elaborate hoax on him, and we were the reason he got sent to Desert Storm along with a whole troop of other wheelchair bound soldiers. The day of Halloween we take him to Hines, they see what we see, run tests galore, and they believed that it was a morphine overload (was not breaking down properly) along with the Zoloft that brought this upon. The day after Halloween he has another heart attack while in Hines, and he essentially stopped breathing on his own. He could have breathed on his own, but he would have died due to exerting so much energy just to catch a grasp of air. So they stuck a tracheal intubation tube down his throat, to get the fluid off his lungs, and of course allow him to breath, without it, he was a goner. He was in a coma during this period of time. My father also has had fluid removed from his lungs 10 times in the past five years, and during that span he has had pneumonia several times.

 

Roughly 90% of people that die due to this cancer do so undiagnosed. Those of which that get diagnosed die within nine months on average. To reach five years? The odds are between 1%-3%.

 

Anyway, pancreatic cancer is the toughest of all cancers to detect based on where the pancreas is located within us. A special test has to be done, hence why so few ever get diagnosed. What I am currently in the process of doing in trying to contact every cancer society that will listen, so that I can get in touch with a child prodigy named Jack Andraka. Andraka has created a test strip that can detect said cancer in just five minutes, but it will potentially take upwards of 15 years before it goes through all the loops to get it marketed. Once I have Andraka on board, my intentions are to get a Kickstarter or any other sort of fundraising sort of thing going to create the first full feature length documentary based around this nasty cancer. I plan on speaking to all of the leading experts outside of Andraka, those that currently have the cancer, the loved ones of those that do, and the loved ones that have died because of it. Even celebrities that are living with it would be a much added bonus. It's so draining on the caretakers, that is why I feel it is a much needed aspect of the documentary.

 

This ride, not just the cancer, has been a complete and utter toll on my mother and myself during this period. I simply need, not want, the world to know more, so much more, about this atrocity.

 

Sorry for the jabbering, it was just for those that may have wondered where I have been all these years, as my activity has been almost none. Also, it felt good to get it off my chest, even if it is to people I have never met, nor ever will. I know I have been a pain in the ass in the past, I mean to my knowledge I have the highest warn rating in the sites history, but thanks for listening, for those of you that have made it this far. There likely are some grammatical errors that I have made within this post, but I have been up going 32 hours, with only and hour and fifteen minutes sleep prior, so I do not really give much of a s***. On my good days I get four hours of sleep, and even when that occurs, it is in the form of intervals. I have always done such, and most do not understand how I function. Hell it's the reason why I left school my freshman year of high school and became an autodidact. Technically, I suppose I have always been, but I was not labeled one until that point. Everything just moved too slow for me, and it does this this very day.

 

You see, this is why I do not post, as I can go on, and on, and on even more.. My damn brain never takes a rest, it's so very exhausting. I will shut the f*** up now. Good day, talk to you in another seven months.

 

Sorry. I read your entire post. That is just one, sad story. I will say a prayer for you all now. It just truly goes to show health is the most important thing we truly have. We can't ever take it for granted. You dad has had so many things wrong with him physically it's impossible to fathom.

I can't even imagine insurance paying for all that, either, though that is a different topic. My prayers go to your dad and you guys.

[qwerty]

Sorry. I read your entire post. That is just one, sad story. I will say a prayer for you all now. It just truly goes to show health is the most important thing we truly have. We can't ever take it for granted. You dad has had so many things wrong with him physically it's impossible to fathom.

I can't even imagine insurance paying for all that, either, though that is a different topic. My prayers go to your dad and you guys.

 

Hines pays for everything. Say a surgery cost $700,000... we do not even pay a dime. All of his medicine is covered, including 30 chemo pills he was taking that cost would normally cost $5,000 for a months script. They pay us/him a monthly check. There is a scale system depending on how ill they deem you, starting at as low as 20%, upwards to 100%, which he passed for with flying colors. My father applied for nearly three years before they finally decided on what percentage he was gonna be awarded, even though everyone in the place knew there was no doubt he would have 100% coverage. Once that finally happened, they gave us one big lump sum, and from that point on a check monthly has followed.

 

If people are smart there are many perks to be had from VA, even though the process can be incredibly slow depending on what it is you are attempting for. You see, after the lump sum, we bought a van that was desperately needed, as nothing else would suffice for someone in his condition. Well, once you go through this book of perks you see that VA offers, they offer a grant of $18,900 towards a vehicle. We bought the new car within a week of the initial check as what we had prior was a deathtrap waiting to happen. A door did not work, no heat, nor air conditioning, half of a window worked, oil leaked from all over. The timing was beyond perfect, because I felt that bastard car was about to implode on us any moment. I mean it was 21 years old with nearly 400,000 miles on it. This is to be expected. So to be perfectly honest, it was a deathtrap.

 

Generally, the car grant takes six months, upwards of nine months to get approved. Essentially everyone gets approved, it's just that they are so backlogged that most purchase a vehicle before the grant is... well granted. So once you can prove that you indeed used the money VA has given you, they give you that $18,9000 back in a lump sum. Other perks would be a free scooter, free hospital bed if needed, housing grants despite how poor your credit is/was at the time, etc. It's pretty much limitless what they do for you once you are in the system. My mother and myself also receive monthly checks because of the fact he has needed around the clock caretaking. They do this because they realize many cannot juggle working a full work week, while helping your loved one maintain a life that resembles some form of normalcy that they were once used to.

 

We used to own a fast food trailer that you see at fairs, carnivals, bizarres, flea markets, etc. Years ago it got broken into and they stripped it all, nearly $13,000 dollars worth of equipment. Once that happened my parents were demoralized and sold it as is, for dirt cheap, for not even 1/6th of it's worth. Which pissed me off, but I had no say as I was not a partner. I mean these trailers make six figures a year, if you do it right that is. So over the past six months I have gathered the money to buy a nice snazzy one, better than the one we previously had. Alongside that, I have purchased a dunk tank. Now if anyone has stopped for even just a minute or two and watched the lines that amass for those suckers, at the going rate of 3 balls for $5 dollars, that is another six figure business venture, especially when the two are side by side. I know this because I know a man who has run the two for decades, and could have retired several times over if he so decided. Generally, the ''prize'' of hitting the target at a dunk tank is just to see a fatty or hot chick get soaked. I have two of each ready to go to alternate at any given time. I have contacted every junior high school and up to see if they were looking to do a form of fundraising for whatever their school may need, and have gotten many deals sewn up already. This includes high schools and colleges. Who doesn't want to dunk their most hated teacher, or hell the principal? Imagine being able to go back to your old high school and drenching that teacher you oh so despised?

 

The ''prize'' I will be giving away is a ''free'' large popcorn, hoping that once the customer receives their popcorn they will say ''let me get a drink while I am at it". My prices/our old prices have always, and will always snipe anyone that we potentially are selling against, by a substantial margin. I have always been a firm believer in that. I know that a large coke costs only several pennies, so I see no need to sell a drink for $2.50 or $3.00, when I can get away selling it for $1.50, max $2.00, and steal a large amount of customers. On cold nights at haunted houses we have made a thousand bucks selling hot chocolate and coffee for a buck a piece, and that is not accounting for any other items we sold. Also, we used to do giveaways for a certain amount of hours, generally four, and the items were almost always sno-cones and cotton candy, we charged $800 many years ago, while the going rate others charged was an easy $1,000 at the time. So with inflation I figure to charge at least very least $1,000 for the four hours, as I have heard others range anywhere from $1,200-$1,500.

 

From there I plan on taking on a massive vending route that an old family friend is trying to get rid of by the end of 2014, and having my brother along with a couple friends doing some of the stocking and collecting. I will not be able to maintain it by myself, as the route is simply too large, and it is gonna be essentially a seven day ordeal.

 

Within just two to three years I plan I getting into the movie producing game, as anyone here who knows me most, knows the film industry is what I have always most desired to be apart of. Though I actually plan on directing the pancreatic cancer documentary as I mentioned prior, and that I plan on starting up within the next year.

 

My advice to someone who has some money stocked away, and is looking for a way to make a huge bang for their buck, get into the two things I have spoke of in the prior paragraphs. If you have a remotely good head on your shoulders there is no reason for you to fumble them. This is not like the restaurant business in which 90 percent fail within their first year of opening. Far f***ing from it.

 

Btw, if anyone here is amazing with photoshop/infographic templates, send me a pm. I promise you I have something up my sleeve, something that has not been touched on, and in the way I imagine it, it will easily be worth seven figures within no more than 18 months, and I feel 12 is not out of the realm of possibility. You may think I am crazy, and talking out of my ass, but sending me a pm and letting me run it by you can't hurt, now can it?

 

Lastly, thanks greg, you were just about the last person I expected to respond given the fact that I have given you such a hard time all these years, so it's appreciated. You keep up the good work, that being, you rile everyone up, and at least give me a desperately needed laugh from time to time. Take care.