Welcome to My World

After much reluctance, I've finally decided to become a member of the blogosphere. It's taken me quite some time to work up to this, because I just don't see myself as a "blog" kind of guy. It's not so much the actual act of blogging that I object to, since blogging is really nothing more than a very public and self-aggrandizing way of keeping a diary, but I have some kind of aversion to the total embrace of technology and "social networking" that becoming a blogger represents. Maybe my aversion is to the very sound of the word "blogger", which sounds like a mash between "clog" and "bugger", and all the uncomfortable mental images that gives rise to.

Anyway, by way of introduction, I'm a 45-year-old married man living in New York City, who was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis in March of 2003. In the almost 6 years since my diagnosis, my condition has deteriorated to the point that I now need a power wheelchair to travel any kind of distance, though I am still able to stumble around the apartment with the help of a cane. I'll use this space to pontificate about life with a chronic illness, to post news regarding my disease and developments in multiple sclerosis research and treatment, and to comment on current events and the flotsam and jetsam of existence.

I'll also post videos and photos I take with my "wheelchair cam", which is basically a camera mounted to the arm of my wheelchair using a flexible tripod. Before reluctantly quitting due to my increasing disability, I had a career in the television/video industry, and was an avid amateur photographer. Multiple Sclerosis forced me to put aside these interests for about 5 1/2 years, because of my physical limitations, but since I got the wheelchair I've been able to start shooting once again. I posted my initial "Wheelchair Kamikaze" video to YouTube about two weeks ago, and the enthusiastic response it generated went a long way towards nudging me into starting this blog. Today a blog, tomorrow a "best short documentary" 0scar. I'd better start saving up for a tuxedo...

So, without further adiue, here's the first Wheelchair Kamikaze video, a trip through the Upper West side of Manhattan that my wife Karen and I took while on our way to get some bagels. When I was an infant, I had a beagle named Bagel, but that's an entirely different story...