Watch this episode on the PA Live! site:
| http://pahomepage.com/palive-details/?nxd_id=230042 |
Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Laughing At My Nightmare! (http://laughingatmynightmare.1000notes.com/) by Shane Burcaw.
Shane is a blogger who lives in Allentown, which is technically outside of Northeastern Pennsylvania. (We're using the Lehigh Tunnel as a cutoff point, and he's just on the other side of it.) But his blog came highly recommended by PA Live! co-host Monica Madeja after one of our weekly spots, and I took a look and knew we had to add it.
Shane is a nineteen-year-old college student with a condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (Type 2.) It has resulted in degeneration of all of his muscles, and will eventually kill him, most likely from pneumonia. He knows this.
Which is all tragic and stuff, but wouldn't earn him a spot as a Blog of the Week if it weren't for the fact that he is also an amazing blogger.
Shane's stories and videos will have you crying with laughter. His stories will also sometimes leave you crying with sadness and anger. Every once in a while he will just rip your guts out with his stories, because he can. He's that good. His writing is powerful, moving, and - when he wants to be - sometimes very, very funny.
Shane's not content to sit in his wheelchair at home and blog. He's currently a sophomore in college. He's also started a non-profit called Laughing At My Nightmare, Inc. (visit their official Facebook page here). Their first official project is a video that you can view here. Eventually Shane intends to gather together many of his Laughing At My Nightmare! blog posts into a book. You can access a set of links to his story posts, in order, here.
Mel Brooks once said, "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die." Shane Burcaw is up against a nightmare many of us could not even imagine, a death sentence that looms somewhere in his future. He's chosen to face it with laughter. He's wrapped tragedy and comedy up into one neat package, and posted it for all of us to see on his blog - Laughing At My Nightmare!
See this post for a news story from Philadelphia's NBC10 all about Shane, his blog, and his nonprofit.
If you have a blog you would like us to link on NEPA Blogs, or know of a blog you think we should link, please let us know! You can always drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com!
All are invited to meet the bloggers of Northeastern Pennsylvania at the Spring 2012 Blog Fest on March 30, 2012 at Rooney's Irish Pub in Pittston! Stay tuned for more details!
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