Hi,   I’m new.  I should introduce myself.  I’m arriving at a very sad time…
  :(  2 of my friends died recently.  (Within the past year.)  So when I
hear these things, it hits home.

I’m Jonathan Rand.  Spastic, athetoid quad…  Nonverbal.  Official diagnosis
of CP but no one knows wats really going on.  The condition acted like MS at
first…  Episodal, progressive…..  Now, static.  I’m also visually impaired,
had open heart surgery for a congenital condition….  & that’s most of it,
although not all!  :)

I WAS a musician & an artist.  I wrote 50 songs, over the years.  I think
EVERYTHING is lost now.  There’s no written record or recordings of my
latest & best stuff, & after years of not being able to practice the music,
its faded from my memory.

Call me PROFESSOR GADGET, because I designed my own assistive devices to
help me shave & open doors etc. .  I only just got my mouse alternative up &
running.  I call it The SNAKE.  I’m assembling a second snake to enable me
to draw again.  I’m hoping to be able to make drawings of a speech machine I
invented.  I think it’ll enable someone to generate speech at a near normal
rate of speed.  No waiting while u type, “look,


out,



                       he’s,







got,                                  a,









                       gun!”


Anyway, I guess that’s enough?

Except 2 say that it’s a very lonely existance.  I have no normal
friendships, & absolutely no love.  Basically, its just me, my powerchair,
“’;GOO-GOO,” & my RATHER PRIMATIVE speech machine, “Little Stevie Hawking,”
(“Stevie,” for short)!  Traveling through time, headed for the inevidable!
:)

Sounds depressing?  Well it is!  So I came HERE, looking for people who
might share some of my experiences.

OK, that's really it!  :)

                                  JR