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Thank you for being a friend. Travelled down a road and up again. Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant (Andrew Gold).

The 2008 birthday card for Helium, from me, to you...

From an idea to a well established writer resource website, you have become a place where even a schmutz like me can make over $1,000 in a few months simply by writing about things that I know about, things that I am interested in, places that I have been and things that I have done. Just six months ago, I was no more than wasting my days away, a disabled male in his mid 40's, suffering from chronic pain due to major spinal cord disease and resultant conditions. The pain may still be there, but life has a lot more of a zing to it since you have come into my life, and on the occasion of your birthday, I would like to express just how much you mean to me.

Sure, the money may not be enough to buy a new car or to travel to exotic locales for a couple of weeks every Winter, but the extra income sure does come in handy. Being disabled, the money that I just received from this past Summer's rewardathon, and for contest winnings and marketplace purchases, bought me a nice new washer and dryer set and fixed my old car. For the first time in over 15 years, I do not have to load the car up with all of my clothes and beddings, about $30 worth of quarters and a tub of laundry soap, and head off to the laundromat for a few hours of excruciating pain. With any luck, you will be buying me a new Plasma television for my Birthday, even though I didn't get you a gift for your birthday (what a scmuck I am, eh!). And to think you even gave me a t-shirt just for being a site steward, a task that has found me some new friends, and here all I give you is this lousy birthday card!

Ever more than the monetary compensation, you have given my life new meaning, and given me more hope for my future. I was lucky enough to have worked at the job that I wanted to have while in college, a technical writer in the aerospace industry. And now, with you giving me new responsibilities and opportunities, I feel useful again, and that is a major part of being human. And now, I find some of my written words in magazines that I have read in the past, and ones that I have never heard of before joining your wonderful group of talented writers. There is nothing that I could do to properly thank you for what you have done for me.

I do try to give back to you, Helium, in any way that you ask of me, from patrolling my channels and cleaning them up, to performing other tasks that your senior stewards ask of me. And I would like to extend these Birthday wishes to all of your smart, friendly and humorous Stewards, as well as to the site stewards like me, who donate their time in trying to help you become all that you can be.

So, if you would please join me, in four-part harmony...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR HELIUM, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! And many more!

I would also like to take this opportunity, on the joyous occasion of your Birthday, to thank you, Helium, for taking me into your loving embrace as a Channel Site Steward for four of your different Travel Channels. Your employees are first-rate, your senior stewards offer a feeling of belonging and friendship, which is extremely well embraced. And the writers that I deal with here are all first-class, friendly and open-minded people that I never would have had the honour to know without you.

So, to make a short story long, thank you, and have a very happy Birthday!

Learn more about this author, Marc Phillippe Babineau.
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