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Rare Disease Research Thyroid Disease

Rare Disease Day -Hypothyroidism

Today is #RareDiseaseDay.

 

http://www.rarediseaseday.org

 

Okay, everyone!  Don’t get all excited and try to get to the head of the line. They aren’t giving out samples…lucky you. But they are acknowledging …pain. 

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Most people don’t know that I was born with a genetic illness.  I considered myself lucky.  When I was born, my genetic illness kept turning on and off.  My body was able to grow, and it did with a lot of pain. In the 1960s unknown diseases were considered ‘all in your head.’  That made me angry.  Angry that no one listened. So I stopped talking about my pain. I was barely four years old when I stopped complaining and stood away from walls and ran. I ran from my pain.

 

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What is my illness?

 Hypothyroidism. I was born with it. It affected my ability to walk, until I learned to ignore the pain. ( And yes! That can be done, especially with young children; pain will become the norm.)  I would hold onto walls, sit on the stairs and move slowly up or down, navigating one step at a time. I learned to pretend I wasn’t in pain. To pretend that I didn’t feel like biting ants were crawling under my skin or my head wasn’t about to explode or that the bones in my legs didn’t feel like my flesh was being shaved off or that time hadn’t just moved away from me, and I didn’t know where I was.

 

When my body turned on; my thyroid would decide to work. I would play catch up in school. Passing tests and watching where I stepped and walked, mainly ran, from the school to home. I grew up on the Westside of Chicago. So ignoring what was around me could be deadly. I grew up with those riots of the 60’s and I saw racial or rather ethnic tensions. The color of your skin defined who you were thought to be.  All the while, my skin felt like it was being carved off my bones.

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What kept me going was a simple phrase: “But, for the grace of God, go I.” I went to church every Wednesday for catechism and every Sunday morning mass at Our Lady of the Angels church.

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I read a lot of books, stories,  and encyclopedias; any books I could get my hands on  I read over and over. When I was in high school the pain took over my hands. At that time, I was an art major at Lane Tech high school.

I married young, had two children; my second pregnancy I stayed on the couch for seven months….praying.

I wasn’t diagnosed until I was in my early thirties. And then I remember the doctor getting close up to my face and asking how I was still moving. I had barely any thyroid hormone in my body; I should have been in a coma.

Ah, “But, for the grace of God, go I.”

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That doctor saved my life, Dr. Paloyan; he believed in my pain, and he gave me a pill that opened up the world for me. It was as if the wind moved inside me and the pain was being swept out. I went through two cancer surgeries over the next eight years. And for the rest of my life, I have yearly check-ups. But… I have a life.

We need to support rare disease research.

http://www.rarediseaseday.org

 

Genetic testingFulgent Therapeutics LLC

 

Categories
James Patterson online class Writers Site

James Patterson video lesson 21 Personal Story Masterclass.com

James Patterson starts this video with this:

“I don’t think I ever had aspirations in terms of, One begin writer or Secondly- what would happen with it. It just seemed to me, to be- overstepping to do that. I came from a background, that was- people just didn’t make it out of my hometown. I was never a stylist as a writer and I am still not. So I don’t I don’t think I ever expected that things would happen, and I still don’t, I mean, I don’t think about it. I don’t think about selling a lot of books or supposedly I am the best-selling author in the world, I love that. But I don’t think about it.”

Picture by: Daniel Case

Where it all started

 

James Patterson grew up in  Newberg, New York, a tough little river town, 60 miles north of New York City. A mix of City kids, farm kids, and kids from the air force base, that have been all around the world. “A nice mix of different kind of ways of looking at stuff.” ~James Patterson

His father was brought up in the Newberg poor house was called the Pogey.   His mother was a charwoman – she cleaned up the bathrooms for the poor people. His father went to Hamilton College, “a very good college.”  His mother was a schoolteacher for 50 years.

He went to catholic schools. In high school, if he didn’t have his homework done he got hit in his face. (And yes, that did happen) College and Advertising were nothing to how difficult high school was. James shrugged  and said,  “big deal, nobody is hitting you”

His grandmother was a very strong woman who would tell him what he couldn’t do and then add, “But there are a lot of things you can do… you could do a lot of things” She built up his confidence.

Why James Chose Writing

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He started scribbling at nineteen- he loved writing stories. He liked fast past stories.

The Thomas Berryman Number first book: he said, that book doesn’t have a good pace.

The Thomas Berryman won: Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, Edgar Award for Best First Mystery.

The height Of Success

One of the exciting things is seeing your books in a bookstore.

Family

James tells us that family comes first. Do the right thing as much as you can. The only time his father hugged him was on his deathbed. He hugs his own son every chance he can.

Balance

James, tells us he finds things he likes and does them. He loves to write. He loves his wife and son he likes to be with very good friends. He loves what he doing.

James Patterson said,  “he try’s not to do boring things.”

This classes contest is open now until March 1, 2017.  If you are interested- click on the link in the top left sidebar the one with James Patterson’s picture on it. 

Categories
James Patterson online class

20th James Patterson Masterclass.com Video Lesson Hollywood

It has taken me a while to get to lesson 20; time flies, flu happens over and over, add in stress, which takes away everything, and there you have a jump in time, forward and away, from when I was supposed to post this.

Lucky for me I can jump in my time machine and you will be looking at the date posted, scratching your head and wondering what I am talking about… With this strange intro finished here is Lesson 20.

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HOLLYWOOD

James Patterson starts with a long exhale and makes a sound like his doctor is checking his tonsils. Sort of like this… Ahhhhhhhh!

 

James Patterson looks down and to the left, scratches the right side of his head above his ear with his right pinky finger then he looks up at the camera and says to someone off camera: “Before I answer this I gotta take a shot.” He picks up a glass, raises it slightly towards the camera, and tosses back his drink; turns his head to the right, shakes his head, eyes closed tight and makes a heavier more harsh, “Auhhh” sound, as the sharpness of the drink slides down his throat. Then he turns towards the camera, blinks a couple of times, staring straight ahead and bitterly says,   “Hollywood!”

https://www.masterclass.com

 

In this lesson, we are told, by James Patterson that when Hollywood comes-ah-knocking it is wonderful, they are wonderful, that …“Knock, Knock it’s Hollywood” is an amazing thing to hear,-they want your book. You can’t believe how nice they will be… then he adds; “it’s all lies”

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He tells us that it is the best thing, and you are lucky when they start shooting your movie. That once it happens, enjoy it and don’t take it all too seriously.

“The novelist ranks below the caterer on a movie shoot- they know why the cater is there they have no idea why the novelist is there”…

Now, if that were me, I would be checking out that appetizing catering cart. I would be there for that Caterer. I would be wondering what was on his cart, mentally picking out what I can’t eat, counting calories and centering in on the salads or fruit.

Hmmmm! That pretend movie set in my mind, where I can eat anything …and still I will gain weight. (Oh!  Stop whining and get back to lesson 20 and James Patterson) 

James Patterson tells us, that his best Hollywood experience was guest starring on the Simpsons, March 4, 2007, in “Yokel Chords” which is the fourteenth episode of the eighteenth season of The Simpsons He was riding a white horse across a beach in Marge’s fantasy.

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Simpsons, March 4, 2007, in “Yokel Chords”

Speaking of Hollywood and having your novel made into a screenplay Mr. Patterson said. “Just laugh at this stuff better have a sense of humor if you are going it sell it out there.” Great advice!

You can listen to this lesson at MasterClass.com and hear more of what he has to say about Hollywood and editors, and agents, just click on the link; top left.

Here are previous lessons.

 

Categories
Rambling Writers Site

What can ‘you’ do for the United States of America?

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When my great-great- grandparents came to this wonderful country they weren’t running away from something; they were heading towards something, they were willing to fight for their freedom, fight for ‘a united’, United States Of America, they believed in freedom; real freedom ‘Not’ where someone else stood up for them, but that they had the right to stand up for themselves; freedom to make a living, a family, be a part of America and give back to America not just in paying taxes but in their lives. Here a dream keeps us going; a dream of peace, prosperity, and safety without thought, jobs for citizens, building a place without hatred and hardship. They believed in that right to grab a soapbox and stand on it and speak their mind.

Yes, some would laugh, but all would give them that right to speak it.

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Just because we all don’t agree on the same things, that line you see right at your feet, you drew, you drew it when you said that my words are better than yours; that my ideals are wrong and yours are right; that what you see here -is not -what you want…

You won’t be real about moving forward and changing what you don’t like. Instead, you insult instead of talk; you put down the person next to you for having a different opinion; that difference is why we all live here, America is about being different, about listening to those differences and making choices…Choices to make a real change… and violence won’t do that when your standing in my house, our house, our home, our country.

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Remember that those new people who show up on our borders are bringing with them the violence that they said they left behind. (Yes, I know you hate to hear that) It is ingrained in their views of the world. Just like my great-great- grandparents they had to learn a new way to speak out loud. Out loud ‘and’ find the position or a person in the right position, to help them change what they think should be changed, without stepping on the rights and security of the people living here now.

 

I am repeating that last line, just in case you missed it: “without stepping on the rights and security of the people living here now.”

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Has anyone thought; maybe the people in charge of our safety know something we don’t? Are you the child that runs into the street even when your parents told you cars can run over you; hurt you; even kill you? I hear you, the government isn’t your parents they don’t own you (like some other countries) they can’t make you do anything you don’t want to…but, if something falls through your roof or water sweeps away your home, do you call out for help? And playing in traffic is illegal!

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You called for a change; when change really showed up it scared the shit out of you.

Has it been that long that you forgot your great-great- grandparents and that look of pride that they were in America; they were Americans! And no one could take that from them ever again.


It took you a long time to get here. Yeah, you! You with the signs, showing off your sex to the world; you who thinks that freedom is free; you who loves your privacy when you’re feeling ill; you who wants what you want without even thinking how it got here; you who are dissing the people who are keeping you safe and tossing blame when you don’t want to accept your own part in this; this wonderful country of ours….

What are you really pissed off at?

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I’m talking to you. What do you believe in? What do you stand up for? What is freedom mean to you? What are you proud of? What really is going on…and I mean the ‘Real’ news and have you checked it out or just posted-posted- and posted because so many like-minded people …liked it?

We live with poverty, hunger, disease; a place where people are lonely, suicidal, scared where they pray for change and a person to hear them call out. Where the elderly are ignored, the jobless loose their homes and if they are lucky they live in their cars until something new comes up. Violence against people who are different: violence against children; violence against animals; violence against our planet. Were the news is fabricated to appease the masses and we worry about evil appearing on their doorsteps; and that is just here in the USA.

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The world isn’t shrinking; humans are expanding. And the world is shaking under the weight of all those meat suits.

 

And here you are, because your family came here, instead of going to one of those ‘seven’ countries; those seven countries that would take your freedom, your home, the soil you stand, on your life. I am not saying they won’t be trying; they will try…

No, you didn’t go there or stay there, you came here hoping that your adopted country is looking out for you; keeping you safe and rich.

Hang on a minute my lunch is ready…Mmmm! I love bacon.

Here’s a question for you. Yeah, you! What can the United States of America do for you?  Not those million dollar comments; streets paved in gold, freedom to be an asshat ….yadi-yadi-ya.


A thought out answer to intensely hard questions, no bitching and moaning, I know it is your right, so go on a bitch! First answer one question. Come on I know your head is hurting, but…

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“What can ‘you’ do for the United States of America?”

“What can you contribute?”  

“What do you want to do with your life?”

Photo are from Pexels.com & clipartfest.com & Flickr.com & The pooping troll, he’s mine.

 

Categories
Writers Site

Insecure Writer’s Support Group question of the month

Here I go again, I just realized today is the first Wednesday of the month. And I am getting this in by the skin of my teeth….

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

“Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer – aim for a dozen new people each time – and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.”

Now, my answer to this month’s question:

February 1 Question: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?

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I find myself picking apart stories; making notes of the characters; even copying down descriptions and idiosyncrasies that make them believable or unique.

I start wondering if I could have done something differently; if my adaptation would have changed that story on its ear or would it have fallen flat.

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I look up places, just to see if they are real. I end up looking up the author to see if he or she lives/lived in that area. Here, I   find that the soul of the writer comes out in their words and their imagined world.

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Writer’s truth or their reality, their secrets, their wishes, and dreams; even their nightmares will show through if you look deep enough.

I just read a short story by Willa Cather. So much in-between her words, so many beautiful phrases and images. From her, I have learned to be myself because no one else can be.