I regularly checked out Jake Thorn’s (meteoriot here at Docudharma) blog, Lose the Label, it’s a cool blog and I would check up now and then to see how he was doing, as he was battling cancer.
In September Jake wrote a post saying he was cancer free.
His next post, written in October, talked about the problems he was having with his bone marrow transplant, but I didn’t check the comment, where he said:
med update details…
the day after I made my last post, “REMISSION”, I was readmitted to the hospital because the transplant side effects had gotten too difficult to endure at home. Since coming back in, I’ve been getting “gut rest” to combat the symptoms… at first,this meant a “clear liquid diet” which consisted of chicken broth, jello and a few juices but I deteriorated further and am now on an “NPO” diet, which means I can’t eat anything but ice chips. I’ve been NPO for 5 days. I imagine it’s kind of what being on a hunger strike would be like. I hate it but I have to do it. I still get nutrients from my “TPN bag”, which is basically like getting food through a tube. I can’t wait until I can eat again. The doctors say they’ll let me have one new food at a time if I show improvement, but it’s very frustrating and seems to move at a snail’s pace. I’m trying very hard to be disciplined, but damn, the next time I eat a Double-Double I’m going to orgasm.
It was his second last comment on that blog. As I read down the comments I saw something from his cousin, Jackie:
Hi Jake, I just learned of your passing this morning. I am at a loss for words. I will always remember the times we shared when we were younger and how when we came to visit you would always be at the window waiting. I promise I will help take care of your mom and brothers. You are a true inspiration to me. I am glad you are now at peace.
Love your cousin, Jacksie
Jackie has set up a donation page for Jake here.
I’ll miss you meteoriot.
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… he was a really good blogger. Always made a point to read his essays when he posted them here.
So often online we don’t find out whats happened to people when we don’t hear from them for awhile. Thanks for checking and posting this here Kitty.
I hope meteoriot got his list completed. He was such an upbeat, thoughtful guy. I’ll miss him.
That is very sad. He was a great kid with a positive attitude and a lot to live for. I remember the list he made of all the things he wanted to do when he got out of the hospital. One of the sweetest things was how much he loved his little brothers. I am sad for them too.
{{{{NPK}}}} Thanks for taking the time to keep an eye on him and posting this tonight. sniff sniff
It was in meteoriot’s… Jake’s… second last essay here “Urgency” that he wrote about and told us he had been diagnosed with cancer, and he opens that essay with:
In the essay Jake writes a long list of “things I want to do after spending 3 weeks in the hospital and learning my life clock is shorter than everybody else’s”.
It’s along list, but the three things in it that caught me most of all, above all the others he wished for are these:
I hope he got the chance to do the first two. It looks like he got the chance to do the third…
Jake was a singer and a musician, and it seems those were two of his biggest passions in life.
He also liked to write and have and create an strong online presence, and I got curious and went to do a bit of searching…
It turns out that Jake had set up a YouTube user account using the name “activistmusician”. His YouTube channel is here.
The top video/song on his channel is called “Streaks of White” (there is no video component to it – just a black screen).
Here is Jake playing his guitar and singing… about having cancer:
He also posted on his YouTube channel, down near the bottom of the page, a video he made about student activism, with him singing his own version of Country Joe McDonalds “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die”:
Jake also had another page where he had set up an audio player with recordings of his music so people could listen to the songs or download them, at http://www.purevolume.com/jakethorn
Jake Thorn, aka meteroriot
All of Jake’s DD essays are still here.
Bye, Jake. See you, man…………….
What an amazing inspiration he was to all of us!!!
I had just thought of him a few weeks ago when I watched the movie “Bucket List” and wondered how he was doing.
Thanks NPK for letting us know and thanks Edger for bringing in all of those wonderful ways to remember him.
i remember his aunt came to visit here.
Another good one bites the dust. :/
of the people you read and learn to love dies. It makes you realize that your world here is not virtual but merely an extension of community. I worry when the voices I love and know are absent much like my family where are they? We all know the part we read but often forget that the life outside the net has it’s own time and space. I knew this fellow traveler as meteoriot, I mourn his dying, in all his manifestations.
The big “C” is taking far too many good souls from us this winter.
My brother’s wife just got diagnosed with breast cancer. Double mastectomy.
Think of the progress we could have made if the money spent on Bush’s misadventures had been put to better uses. Just sayin’
Thanks for cross-posting this at orange, or I might have missed this. I haven’t been online much lately so I’ve only occasionally been scanning and/or dropping a couple of comments.
One of my favorite screennames, too, and so so young. Condolences to his family and friends.