Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's disease
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Ravel H. Joyce wrote:
it's very disturbing that someone so fantastic and so revered by so many people could get a rare neurodegenerative disease.
Well, I'd agree that he's a terrific author, but how is that more disturbing than if my neighbour got it ? Life's not fair. I was only thinking today that the last time I saw my grandmother, the last words she spoke to me ever, were 'who are you?'. Then she collapsed, I had to carry her inside. Which means that, genetically speaking, I'm going to end my days wandering around the nursing home, meeting the same people for the first time, every day.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Christian Graus wrote:
but how is that more disturbing than if my neighbour got it
Because I'm guessing your neighbour doesn't write books as funny as Terry Pratchett. That doesn't mean your neighbour is of less worth: it means that Terry Pratchett has an immediate effect on my life whereas your neighbour's effect on my life is restricted to how he affects you, which could affect your ability to help fix bugs, which will make people angry with me, which is a lot, lot less funny than Terry Pratchett.
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Ravel H. Joyce wrote:
it's very disturbing that someone so fantastic and so revered by so many people could get a rare neurodegenerative disease.
Well, I'd agree that he's a terrific author, but how is that more disturbing than if my neighbour got it ? Life's not fair. I was only thinking today that the last time I saw my grandmother, the last words she spoke to me ever, were 'who are you?'. Then she collapsed, I had to carry her inside. Which means that, genetically speaking, I'm going to end my days wandering around the nursing home, meeting the same people for the first time, every day.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Christian Graus wrote:
Which means that, genetically speaking, I'm going to end my days wandering around the nursing home, meeting the same people for the first time, every day.
Would I notice any difference to how you act today?
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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The best-selling fantasy author Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.[^] I'm not sure if it's a repost, but I'd rather be stabbed for wasting everybody's time than letting news as big as this get unnoticed. Terry Pratchett is easily one of my favourite authors of all time, and it's very disturbing that someone so fantastic and so revered by so many people could get a rare neurodegenerative disease. :(( Maybe I'll write a poem dedicated to him sometime. It's not much, but it's all I can do... :(
Forget about the past and the future. Discard your fears, your regrets, your inhibitions, your neuroses, your self-importance. Who cares what they think?! The world is so much bigger than this! Wanna have an adventure? Come on, take my hand and hold on tight - I think I know a shortcut.
NOOOOOOO!!! :(( First it was poor Robert Jordan and now poor Terry Pratchett. This is so sad.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
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Christian Graus wrote:
Which means that, genetically speaking, I'm going to end my days wandering around the nursing home, meeting the same people for the first time, every day.
Would I notice any difference to how you act today?
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
I doubt it. Who are you again ?
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
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Christian Graus wrote:
but how is that more disturbing than if my neighbour got it
Because I'm guessing your neighbour doesn't write books as funny as Terry Pratchett. That doesn't mean your neighbour is of less worth: it means that Terry Pratchett has an immediate effect on my life whereas your neighbour's effect on my life is restricted to how he affects you, which could affect your ability to help fix bugs, which will make people angry with me, which is a lot, lot less funny than Terry Pratchett.
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
which could affect your ability to help fix bugs, which will make people angry with me, which is a lot, lot less funny than Terry Pratchett.
So, in other words, my neighbour has more of an immediate effect on your life, right ? Although, now you've told everyone I'm working on site bugs, they are more likely to get mad at me. Thanks for that....
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
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NOOOOOOO!!! :(( First it was poor Robert Jordan and now poor Terry Pratchett. This is so sad.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
First it was poor Robert Jordan and now poor Terry Pratchett
I was just going to write that. Although there is a significant difference - James Rigney aka Robert Jordan is dead (and AFAIK didn't finish his series). I am constantly afraid that my favorite foreign writer - George R.R. Martin - will die before he finishes A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, come on, he is old. ;)
Kind regards, Pawel Krakowiak Miraculum Software[^]
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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
First it was poor Robert Jordan and now poor Terry Pratchett
I was just going to write that. Although there is a significant difference - James Rigney aka Robert Jordan is dead (and AFAIK didn't finish his series). I am constantly afraid that my favorite foreign writer - George R.R. Martin - will die before he finishes A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, come on, he is old. ;)
Kind regards, Pawel Krakowiak Miraculum Software[^]
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Steven Erikson[^] is still young so I'm not too worried. :)
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
Theoretically, anyone could die early. Getting run over by a car, drinking too much, being attacked by a pack of rabid server hamsters, vikings plundering and pillaging out of a toilet bowl...
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
First it was poor Robert Jordan and now poor Terry Pratchett
I was just going to write that. Although there is a significant difference - James Rigney aka Robert Jordan is dead (and AFAIK didn't finish his series). I am constantly afraid that my favorite foreign writer - George R.R. Martin - will die before he finishes A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, come on, he is old. ;)
Kind regards, Pawel Krakowiak Miraculum Software[^]
Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
Although there is a significant difference - James Rigney aka Robert Jordan is dead (and AFAIK didn't finish his series).
Sadly that's true. He was a very good writer. I've been on edge ever since he got sick and now that he has departed, thousands of fans and I are anxiously waiting to find out what happens in the very last book of his Wheel of Time (WOT)[^] series. However, my reference, albeit after reading it again is not obvious from what I wrote, was that both are incredibly good writers and both have been afflicted with rare diseases. Pratchett with a rare type of Alzheimer's and Rigney/Jordan with primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy Clickety[^]. I wish Pratchett well. Losing him would be a loss to writing, comedy and arcane fantastic humor.:rose:
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
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Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
Although there is a significant difference - James Rigney aka Robert Jordan is dead (and AFAIK didn't finish his series).
Sadly that's true. He was a very good writer. I've been on edge ever since he got sick and now that he has departed, thousands of fans and I are anxiously waiting to find out what happens in the very last book of his Wheel of Time (WOT)[^] series. However, my reference, albeit after reading it again is not obvious from what I wrote, was that both are incredibly good writers and both have been afflicted with rare diseases. Pratchett with a rare type of Alzheimer's and Rigney/Jordan with primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy Clickety[^]. I wish Pratchett well. Losing him would be a loss to writing, comedy and arcane fantastic humor.:rose:
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
Sadly that's true. He was a very good writer. I've been on edge ever since he got sick and now that he has departed, thousands of fans and I are anxiously waiting to find out what happens in the very last book of his Wheel of Time (WOT)[^] series.
Brandon Sanderson[^] will be writing the final book in the series.
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Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
Although there is a significant difference - James Rigney aka Robert Jordan is dead (and AFAIK didn't finish his series).
Sadly that's true. He was a very good writer. I've been on edge ever since he got sick and now that he has departed, thousands of fans and I are anxiously waiting to find out what happens in the very last book of his Wheel of Time (WOT)[^] series. However, my reference, albeit after reading it again is not obvious from what I wrote, was that both are incredibly good writers and both have been afflicted with rare diseases. Pratchett with a rare type of Alzheimer's and Rigney/Jordan with primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy Clickety[^]. I wish Pratchett well. Losing him would be a loss to writing, comedy and arcane fantastic humor.:rose:
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
Damn - I didn't know that Jordan was dead. I assume that the illness was the reason that the last couple of books took so long to be released. It's hard to see how anybody else could do the finale justice.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
Sadly that's true. He was a very good writer. I've been on edge ever since he got sick and now that he has departed, thousands of fans and I are anxiously waiting to find out what happens in the very last book of his Wheel of Time (WOT)[^] series.
Brandon Sanderson[^] will be writing the final book in the series.
Wonderful! When was this decided though? Last I checked on wotmania, there was nothing new. He's got some BIG shoes to fill. I sincerely hope he does at least half as good a job as Jordan did.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
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Damn - I didn't know that Jordan was dead. I assume that the illness was the reason that the last couple of books took so long to be released. It's hard to see how anybody else could do the finale justice.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
Sadly he is. And I agree, Brandon is going to have on heck of a hard time getting that book out with any semblance of Jordan's ability and style.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
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Chris Maunder wrote:
which could affect your ability to help fix bugs, which will make people angry with me, which is a lot, lot less funny than Terry Pratchett.
So, in other words, my neighbour has more of an immediate effect on your life, right ? Although, now you've told everyone I'm working on site bugs, they are more likely to get mad at me. Thanks for that....
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Hmmm. Chris doesn't mention judo in his bio, does he?
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Ravel H. Joyce wrote:
it's very disturbing that someone so fantastic and so revered by so many people could get a rare neurodegenerative disease.
Well, I'd agree that he's a terrific author, but how is that more disturbing than if my neighbour got it ? Life's not fair. I was only thinking today that the last time I saw my grandmother, the last words she spoke to me ever, were 'who are you?'. Then she collapsed, I had to carry her inside. Which means that, genetically speaking, I'm going to end my days wandering around the nursing home, meeting the same people for the first time, every day.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )