AuntBeast: I guess I’m about where you are, up to Disc 29 now. Always looking to try a new read. At our local library the only audio fiction I haven’t read in audio are The Left Behind series and Going Rogue, which I would have read if Tina Fey had narrated.
I don’t know how things work by you, but in my library system (Milwaukee County in Wisconsin), I can request materials from anywhere in the network and have them sent to the library of my choice. Definitely worth looking into, if you haven’t already, since you’re reaching the limits of what the local library has.
My librarians are actually VERY good about ordering anything I ask for. If they can’t bring it in from another branch they just buy it for me, but they dont have much of an audio selection to browse through.
I recently came across a free program called Dasher that some people reading this thread may find useful.
Dasher is a text entry program that can be used by anybody that can control a cursor, for example by using a head-mouse or an eyetracker etc.
Rather than using an on-screen keyboard, text is entered by zooming sideways through a grid of letters who’s size is determined by a predictive algorithm, with the most likely letters being the largest and therefore easiest to select.
The dasher website claims that an experienced user can enter text at up to 29 words per minute using an eyetracker
There’s a brief video showing dasher in action on the Dasher website here, and a more detailed demonstration here on youtube.
If you have Java installed on your computer you can try the program in your browser window by clicking this link.
Here’s a page with some tips on using the program. Initially the interface may be confusing, but once you get used to the concepts involved, Dasher can be a very effective method of text entry.
I’ve tried Dasher, to me it was like playing a video game, did get up to 24 wpm though but I lost my train of thought too often. But the system is FREE, bless the designer, and is a lot of fun to use.
Blinkie - Have you seen this article about a man who was presumed for years to be in a vegetative state being able to respond correctly to questions while in a fMRI?
StG
Yes I know about him. ABC interviewed me about LIS before I saw him. Sorry I did the interview after I saw him as it really looks like a hoax to me. People with LIS think in real time but our response time is MUCH slower than what’s in the video.
Hi, blinkie. Hey, imagine when you get your mind-controlled system, and you’re blazing away and all us poor bastards are still getting by, typing painstakingly. 
Further Houben developments: News, Politics, Sports, Mail & Latest Headlines - AOL.com
I just wanted to say that your user title should be, “The silent type,” blinkie. 
Just realized some of you might not know that the second chapter of blinkie’s memoir has been posted in teemings.
Oh damn, a “Clever Hans” situation. Hopefully, he’ll get hooked up with an eye tracker or some other system that will take the other person out of the loop.
Blinkie, what are your thoughts on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
From what I gather, some patients with neurological deficits due to stroke or traumatic brain insult and are in coma or LIS have found limited recoveries by spending time in a compression chamber…like what they treat a diver with the Bends.
The patient absorbs the oxygen enriched atmosphere into their system, and the oxygen-saturated blood gives the compromised neural tissue a “jump start” of sorts.
EnolaStraight
ALIS (Association of Locked In Syndrome) is based in France. They are big users of it over there. My conversations with other LIS patients, limited by language, leads me to believe it really doesn’t work that well.
On the bright side though, my six months of high school French have finally come in handy. 
I don’t have a question, just wanted to jump in and say welcome.
And that this:
choked me up a bit.
Glad you’re here.
Shark Sandwich
Thanks for the welcome and from what I’ve been told my family was a little choked up as well
This doesn’t make sense to me. They did the classic experiment, where the facilitator is not present while showing an object to the patient, and then had the facilitator and patient answer the question. How could they pass that test, and still be fake?
I was wondering the same thing. Could be ways to botch it, though–does the person asking the questions know what was shown to the man when the facilitator was outside of the room? If so, they could be giving unconscious cues.
Personally, it just made me frustrated on behalf of the guy–imagine people finally figure out you’ve been conscious all along… but then you’re stuck with someone who’s just making up what you’re saying. :smack:
It is scary, although there are quite a lot of frauds. I do have a friend in Scotland that this happened to. He was left in a facility for coma patients, BY HIS WIFE, who knew he was aware of what was going on. He was there for over a year before anyone became aware that he was fully cognizent.
He is single now, still Locked In, and living independently. AMAZINGLY, he still has a sense of humor.
Damn, blinkie. It’s a powerful story.
Not the least of which is that I’m the exactly the sort of person who would worry about the stupid cold cuts in just such a situation! Kind of puts things in perspective. Except… that little shit does still matter in the middle of great crisis. Which made the parallel narrative threads – whether the cold cuts were going to make it to their destination and whether you were going to make it, period – particularly effective to me.
Looking forward to the next installment…