Well, I'm posting a little early, but I'm about to hit the sack and I won't have time in the morning.  So here goes.
 
Daily Journal (11/07/10)
 
Hello.  On this fine Sunday morning, I am going to explain why I fold.  My sister was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at the age of 7.  This lead to my diagnosis of the same disease when I was 5 (you see, I’m 22 months younger).  To give a brief overview of CF, it is a genetic chronic illness caused by the protein CFTR misfolding.  CF can affect many parts of the body.  The most common effect is in the upper respiratory system.  There is an increased amount of sputum which increases the risk of a lung infection which can lead to scarring of the lungs.  I believe the life expectancy of a CF patient is 37 years.  My sister and I are both fortunate in that upper respiratory complications are our only issues (i.e. no pancreatic issues which are common).  I am extremely lucky and am hardly affected at all, my PFTs (Pulmonary Function Tests) are in the 90% range and I have only been hospitalized twice.  My sister however, is much less fortunate.  She is currently at 46% lung function (to put this in perspective, you have 2 lungs; she effectively has less than 1).  And what’s worse is that this makes us HAPPY.  Only a month ago she was at 28% lung function.  She has been hospitalized over 12 times (I may be off by a visit or two).  At this point, there is very little chance that folding@home will benefit her at all.  It will take far too long for results and drug trials, etc etc for her to benefit, however, I still fold in her name.  I also fold for myself, even though I am healthy, I may not be later on, so I fold in an effort to stay healthy so that I can be around for my future wife and future children (who, if my wife happens to be a carrier, may also be CF victims).  This is just one reason I fold.  I also fold for my girlfriend, my grandmother, my other grandmother, and my mother, but I will save the other reasons for other days.

I'm sorry you have to deal with all of that, I pray for you and your sister!
Fold on Brother!

Why We Fold -- November 6, 2010     
 
This is a personal one dear to my heart.  I have two REAL close family members that had an effect on me in my life.  I have to apologize right off hand as my family background is all Dutch and I'm going to refer to then as I've always be taught.   My Oma (Maria van Vlimmeren) and Tante (Thera van Vlimmeren/Bagley) basically raised me as my mom worked damn near 6 days a week.  So I got to be raised the old fashioned way. For about the first 9yrs of my life they both took turns taking care of me and we all did a ton of thing with each other.  My grandmother took me one year back in '85 traveling all over the western part of the US.  It was one of the most memorable moments that I have with her.  Now skip ahead two years later in August of  '87 my grandmother had been getting real Ill and so she went to the doctors as I had to beg her to go.  My mom goes with her and I'm left with my aunt throughout the day into the evening.  By the time they get back I'm just getting into bed for the night.  Come the next morning I can see the that something is wrong.  They sat me down to tell me that the reason that she has been so Ill is because she has Lung Cancer!  WHAT!!!  A few months go by now to April 2, 1988 she passes away.  It affected me in so many ways.
 
My tante who has been there with me for soo many years even after my Oma passed.  She would be there for me when my mom wasn't as the death on my Oma really had a deep impact on my mom that put her in depression.  So my she stepped in and took me into her family.  I got to be very close with my cousins and to this day we all stay in constant contact.  We all had so many good years together and I really would go back to change anything.  Then we come to I think it was June of 2000 my tante went to have one of her annual mammograms.  Come to find that she has a mass in her left breast.  She undergoes many treatments to take care of it to have it get much much worse.  Within 3 months of the treatments it has spread to her spine and was traveling throughout her body in no time.  March 10, 2001 she passes.
 
These two very important people have both been a victim of Cancer.  When I bought my GTX 260 back last October and a few month later I found out about Folding@Home I was totally in.  I will build as many folding rigs as I can afford to do so and truly will not stop till the day I die and hope that my rigs fold even after I pass.
 
I hope you all the best and look forward to read why you fold.
 
Thanks
 
Z3r0
 
Fold on!
 
 
 
 

Z3r0,
 
Amen my brother.  That was a touching story and you have a very good family to stick together that way to help each other.  All the best to you in your Folding work and cool breezes to your Folding rigs.
 
Rick

Zero, great story, it sux that the two individuals that had such a great influence in your upbringing both developed cancer.  I feel for you, I know how personal these stories are and how hard they are to share, thank you.

Flipback, I'm sorry to hear about you and your sister, hopefully all of our folding will be quick enough and good enough to have some of an impact.  You and your sister will be in my thoughts and prayers.

@ Texinga: thank you for sharing this, and for the photo... Really makes an impact to see the face of someone we fold for, and I think you set a great example for future posts. I am sorry to hear of the passing of such a central part of your family, but think you do her great justice through what you've said here; it is also very caring of you to have taken her into your home all those years, that can be very challenging especially (as you said) in the late stages of these diseases.
 
Also, thank you for posting on such short notice, and interesting you pointed to some of the same themes my would-be post had been about (the part about how it's "what we can do" or have available to us to do). Really appreciate everything you've done here!
 
@ z3r0: it is sad to hear that you have lost such important people over the years to these diseases. It sounds like they were among the most important people in shaping who you are, and got you started in life. Now you're all "growed-up" and even though you don't have them anymore, they're clearly still a big part of who you are, including our little hobby here. Hope to see some of those farms in the coming years.
 
@ FlipBack: than you for sharing this. I only knew a little about CF and your story makes it much clearer what people who have it go through. Also didn't know it was so heavily determined by misfolding and am glad to add it to the list of diseases when telling people about what folding is all about. Thank you for sharing this, and best wishes to you and your sister. I am sorry that we cannot do more for her (and you) right now when she needs it most, but you do her a great honor!
 

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My apologies if anyone's post got delayed or a reminder wasn't sent; been traveling with less access to the web. Thank you all for keeping things moving, thought about you all!

Thanks guys!  As like others,  this was a tough one to type.  I was going to post both pics of my Oma and Tante but I could not find them for the life of me.  I will edit my OP as soon as I find them.

Flipback,
 
You are Folding about as close to home as it gets and we all Fold for you and your sister too my friend.  My wife is COPD and I understand very well what less than 50% lung capacity means to someone's heath.  It just about opens that person up to every type of lung related illness than goes around.  I pray for you and your sister and that our Folding efforts would help you  both.  Take care,
 
Rick

[November 8, 2010]
 
It all started back in Early '09 when a young gamer at work egged me on to start folding.  I had never heard of it before so the investigation started as a cursory read through the Stanford site.  Distributed Computing to help find a cure for common diseases.  Sounds good to me.  Started folding on his team for a while using my G92 card (see avatar) and my C2Q 9550.  That started a whole new addiction to graphics hardware, buying up cards on sale and testing.  Sometimes I'd sell them (8800GT, 9800GT, GTX 285) and sometimes I'd run them for quite a stretch of time (8800GTS 512, 9800GTX+, GTX260, GTX 460).  I've had quite a number of cards over the past ~2 years.  I game quite a bit so the balance between PPD and FPS is a never-ending struggle.
 
Somewhere in during the Spring of '09 I stumbled across team EVGA when I was looking to fold in a bigger group.  It was a no-brainer given the group of people here who all share a common sense of purpose and helpfulness.  I appreciate the positive approach to almost everyone's postings.
 
What keeps me going?  Is it my addiction? YES!  Is it the competition? You Betcha (Palin ref...) How about the cause?  Uh HUH, first and foremost.  The last 5 years have been pretty rough for our family.  My wife lost her Dad to cancer, his brother to cancer AND Parkinson's, all 4 grandparents to cancer, and her 27 year old cousin to cancer!  Long ago (70's-80's), my two grandparents on Dad's side died of cancer as well.
 
In 2008 I lost my other grandma (Mom's side) to Alzheimer's via an ankle injury (yes, you read right).  It's a sad story that I think is so unbelivable you couldn't make it up.  You see, Grandpa has a balance problem and one day he fell onto Grandma.  She was actually trying to catch him.  She was like that.  Anyway, he fell on her ankle and broke it.  While in the hosptital she would have Alzheimer's moments where she'd freak out and try to get out of bed.  This led to her eventual death as the ankle injury led to complications you could well imagine if one were to continue walking on that foot.  She was so healthy I imagine she'd still be around today.  Grandpa was devastated.  We all were.  It motivates me.
 
To top all of this off, my wife found out she has a degenerative tissue disease.  She's had two surgeries already, and another coming up this month.  I told her about my protein folding and how it will eventually lead to a cure for this.  She laughs and says it's just me justifying a new video card...again.  LOL, of course.  But the two aren't mutually exclusive.  Why not enjoy something AND have it help mankind!
 
On that note I'm off to look for more info on the GTX 560/570/580's.  Rest assured I will make sure the PPD is acceptable before I buy.