hi jerry

you wrote:
>Important business first: The PWP WebRing
>now has 16 sites online, one in the queue and
>one more on my desk waiting for me to set it up.
>That, my friends, represents 1% of the total viewers
>of this list. ( A moment's pause to ponder this fact.)

while i'm pondering...
[my first message to the list in oct 95
commented on the growth of the list to 900!]
...my mouth is yelping  - 16! - yowza!

>While I'm tickled pink over the people who have put
>in the effort to be part of the ring, I'm a little concerned
>about the 99% who seem reluctant to say anything.

i read recently that shyness is a natural human characteristic
that the only people who aren't shy at all
tend to be psychopaths

i consider myself reasonably outgoing
and i've always been pretty comfortable using computers
but i still remember how nervous i was
when i first started using e-mail

are we being guilty of the all too pervasive negativism in our society?
paying more attention to the empty part of the glass
than to the filled part of the glass?
i don't know

but i do know
that the existence of a parkinson's webring
is an exciting step in this ongoing ongrowing family's life

viz this message from gail vass
not nine  [count'em - nine] days ago:

>------------------------------------------------------------
>Subj:   WebRing for Parkinsons
>Date:  98-04-27 20:56:37 EDT
>From:  [log in to unmask]
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Jerry Finch, bless his heart, wrote: <[log in to unmask]>
>
>>Hi Gail,
>>I'm 100% behind your idea for a PD Webring. Has anyone
>>stepped forward to pursue the matter? If not, I'll start
>>setting it up. Let me know.

i would venture a guess
that there are a lot of shy lurkers and newbies out there
who are interested but intimidated by the internet let alone a web ring

>Let me repeat myself:
>The PWP WebRing has a two-fold purpose.
>One - as a resource for those who seek information
>and personal experience stories about PD.
>Two - as a method of increasing public
>awareness about PD.

this definitely bears repeating

>The larger the Ring, the more power
>it will have to fullfill it's duties.

absolutely!
it will grow at its own pace
as people become more familiar
and more comfortable with the concept

>To join the Ring means simply to place
>a linking banner somewhere on the page
>which many of you have on the web.
>Folks can go from one PD site along
>the ring to the next without having to
>use the search engines.

even i
nerdette that i am
get a bit glazed-eyed
reading "place a linking banner somewhere on the page"
in the same sentence as "simply"

>The offer:
>if you don't have a web site, I will make one for you.
>If you don't have a place to put it, I'll set it up on my server.

again i have to yelp yowza!
jerry, your generosity and energy are mind-boggling and humbling

>This is NOT free.
>There IS a charge for this -
>once a week you must help someone,
>either by writing to this list,
>writing to the PWP Forum on my site,
>or by helping someone in your support group..

again, what a guy!
this charge is one that will be a joy to pay

>Bottom line:
>We need your story.
>Please.
>By helping others,
>you may return the good a million fold to all of us -
>by helping those who are trying to find a cure for PD.

i have started telling my own story in my own way
via my e-mail archives

i have asked jerry to convert my message "a new voice"
into my first web page

it contains the first message i ever sent in to the pd list
on 01 october 1995 - "Hello and Hormones"

i am planning on adding copies of other messages of mine
in particular those which attracted requests for re-posts,
thus reflecting my own growth during the past 3 years
as well as the list's

but we are all unique individuals
and others will have their own way of telling their own story
there is no right way or wrong way

this doesn't have to be a scarey step into the unknown
it can be yet another challenge in this fast-moving techno age

>I really rather not have PD anymore and, all things
>considered, you probably feel the same way.
>Let's do something about it.

i'm actually grateful that i have pd
it has been a huge challenge
but it has given me
huge rewards
like this
list

>Someone complained about the speed of the Ring - saying it
>was very slow to go from one site to another. For those who
>are unfamiliar with the WWW, let me explain something.
>
>I have absolutely no control over the speed of these sites.
>The speed of the internet is dictated by everything from the
>weather around your home to servers in Boston and London to
>the classrooms in Las Vegas. As the internet grows larger
>and the demands placed upon a largely outdated system
>increase, slower speeds are a natural result. I only hope
>that new technology coming online will be affordable enough
>to ease the load.
>
>A great place to check when the Web seems to drag is:
>    http://www.internettrafficreport.com/...
>Which gives a detailed report of the net at any set time. As
>I write this it shows that the routers in Boston and Chicago
>are crawling and Las Vegas and San Francisco routers are
>completely down. The internet speed, on a scale of 0-100, is
>55.
>When Boston goes down, my New Country site in AZ becomes
>unreachable from my home in SE Texas until the traffic is
>rerouted. (Which is why I could not upload anything for
>about 5 hours the other day.)

i love hearing nerd talk converted into english!

>The webring.org site is the only site I know of which has
>the type of webring hosting we need at no cost. These folks
>are basically donating their time, efforts and server space
>to the internet community. They host thousands of rings,
>thus they have a heavy demand upon their computers,
>particularly during heavy traffic hours.

they sound like my kind of people!

>The sacrifice of waiting is worth the time spent
>for what we, the PWP, are obtaining at no cost.

i agree

>Personally, I cannot afford a server to handle the demands
>for the PWP WebRing and keep the site as a free resource.
>I am already out $40 a month for what I have now,
>but it's a price I'm willing to pay for the eventual good
>which we all may receive at some distant point.

again, your generosity is wonderful and greatly appreciated

>Be assured that, were I able to do anything about the
>page loading speed of the ring's member sites, I would.
>The PWP Dumpster's site doesn't cost money.
>No one is paying a nickle to be a part of it,
>or to access it, and I intend to keep it that way.

i thought this was worth repeating

>I'm in this because I don't want to have Parkinson's anymore.
>As much as I love you people, I'd rather none of us have PD
>as our common bond. I think we could all have a lot more fun
>on a trailride, eating BBQ and singing songs, which would
>probably spook the horses into a stampede, but since
>none of us would have PD we could handle that, right?

my singing wouldn't spook a horse,
but speak for yourself!
and since we have PD as a common bond
and since i don't subscribe to the either/or mode of thought
what's stopping us from having a trailride anyway?!?!


your cyber-ring-sib-ling in submitting compliments to the ringmaster

janet


janet paterson
51/10 - sinemet/selegiline/prozac
almonte/ontario/canada - [log in to unmask]