Does this suck?
Michael Phillips was born in College Park, Pennsylvania, on December 31st, 1980. That's right, New Year's Eve, it was a real party. For nine months, Michael seemed to be quite the typical little baby. Well, not little, he was actually quite like a nine month old Jabba the Hutt. Because of his generous proportions, no one thought it odd that Michael had yet to stand up or try saunter across the room. However, at his nine month check-up, the doctor noticed something rather interesting, Michael failed every reflex test tossed his way. Michael was more than fat and somewhat lazy. A muscle biopsy later and Michael was diagnosed with Werdnig-Hoffman, or to use the current parlance of our time, Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Basically, the signal from his brain to his muscles is very weak, thus they atrophy from lack of use.Posted by Mike at May 11, 2007 02:29 PMMichael cannot sit, or stand, or breathe without the aid of a handy little machine and several feet of plastic hosing. However, with his thumb, a switch, a MacBook Pro and assistive software called, SwitchXS, Michael can accomplish great and terrible things. He very well could be the Lord Voldamort of computers and assistive technology. Yes, he's just that good. With only his thumb, Michael can do everything from slaying Orcs in World of Warcraft to creating surreal works of digital imagery in Photoshop. Still, his true love is writing. Aside from reviewing games for InsideMacGames.com, his work has been published in print, including three chapters in Peachpit Press' most recent edition of the MacBible. Michael is also the only web journalist to have interviewed Apple Computer CEO, Steve Jobs, on the subject of gaming.
Through the CityBarter Foundation, we will share Michael's talents in order to raise awareness of assistive technology and in-turn bring such technology to those in need.