Sunday, December 10, 2006

Some Jehovah's Witnesses just stopped by!

Lyle told me that some Jehovah's Witnesses have been coming to his house, and he's been leading them on, so just 5 minutes ago, two Japanese Jehovah's Witnesses stopped by looking for Lyle. He's unleashed a monster...

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

So you think I haven't been blogging

But you're wrong. There is a really big long blog all about the U2 concert last week. But I haven't finished it yet, so it's not here. Maybe I'll finish it this week.

I'm good though. Seeing lots of friends and such. But since it's 2am, that's all your going to get from me about that. And everything else. So bye.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Leaving (projects behind)

I've been packing a bit, but I still have things to finish. One thing on the list, which I've been working on for what seems like forever, is Mark's GoldWing. I got it running and re-did the brakes this summer, and more recently rebuilt the carbs, but the float bowl seals that came with the kits suck, and one float bowl leaks like crazy. And I'm supposed to fix it tonight? Shit. I pulled the carbs off the other night and resealed the gaskets so they'd not leak, or I thought so. I've gotten pretty good at taking them off and putting them back on again, but it's messy, and I don't really want to get gas all over right now. I thought I'd have that problem fixed, and I could just get the thing put back together, and let him tune the thing by himself. If you follow the instructions, it not extremely hard to do. It just takes patience. And I don't have any right now with 11 hours before I have to check in for my flight.

It's going to be really nice to be rid of that project. I like doing things like fixing motorcycles, but I'm not going to take on projects like that anymore. When your doing it for someone else, there are too many expectations, like that I'll get it done in a timely manner, or that once complete, it will stay running. With my own projects, I can tinker for as long as I want, ride it for a while, even running less than perfect, because I know that next time I have a chance, I can tweak something and get it working better. I also like to be able to switch projects while in the middle of another. Having 3 projects going at once is something that I learned from my dad, and is a liberty you can't have while working on someone else's things. So no more fixing things for other people unless I know it will be small, quick and easy. This one has ballooned out of control, and I'm glad to be rid of it.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Packing

Yea... What packing? I haven't done a single thing yet. I've thought about a few things, like how I'm going to get some beer into Japan with me, where I'm going to stick all my cameras so they don't break, and if Lyle has and extra futon I can sleep on until I can get my stuff out of storage. I'm also thinking about if I want an isle or window seat (climbing over people, or having people climb over me). I think I might pick up one of those funky flying pillows that goes around your neck so I can get an isle seat and sleep.

Maybe I'll start going through stuff tonight.

Right...

Packing

Yea... What packing? I haven't done a single thing yet. I've thought about a few things, like how I'm going to get some beer into Japan with me, where I'm going to stick all my cameras so they don't break, and if Lyle has and extra futon I can sleep on until I can get my stuff out of storage. I'm also thinking about if I want an isle or window seat (climbing over people, or having people climb over me). I think I might pick up one of those funky flying pillows that goes around your neck so I can get an isle seat and sleep.

Maybe I'll start going through stuff tonight.

Right...

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Teamster

I'm going to be a teamster for a week! My boss knows that I'll be leaving soon, but wants to keep me for a long as possible. So I'm going to be hired at union wages, then quit a week later. My last day at work will be the 17th, and I'm leaving for Japan on the 21st.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

My new boat and dog

The main reason that I haven't gotten a sail boat or dog yet is that I haven't had a good name. I used my last good dog name on my mom's dog, and that was really only a good pug's name anyway. But now, thanks to the brilliance of my sister, I have both a sailboat name a a dog name.

Background:
I have this friend named Eina (Eh-nuh) who wanders off the places like Nepal or some Buddhist monastery or something like that every once in a while, and never keeps track of people. She's very zen like that. So a few months ago, Sky said that she was in the 'ham.

So Kelsey and I were driving though town the other day when I said, "I need to find Ena sometime". Kelsey, who can't hear because years of talking too loud have damaged her hearing, thought I said "I need to find ainus umtime" No it doesn't make any sense at all, but that's what she thought. So we get into this discussion about words that, when follow or preceded by other words, morph. For Example: Larry's sail boat becomes Larry's ale boat. So I said, "That's It! That's what I'll name my boat. Ale Boat. So now that I have a name, I can get a boat. (Except for one of the minor reasons I don't have a boat yet: lack of money)

But sister's ideas didn't stop there, "And you can name your dog 'Schooner'". Perfect a beerboat boat, and a beerboat dog. So now that I have a dog's name, I can get a dog too. (Except for the minor reasons I don't have a dog yet: lack of money and no place to live.)

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Getting ready

It's already October. I just realized that the other day. Time to get moving. I've started looking at airfares for Tokyo. $500 or less seems to be what I'll be able to get tickets for in mid to late November. My current job will end around the 15th, so any time after that will work.

I have a place to stay for as long as I need. My friend Lyle, who's probably the best friend I have in Tokyo, has a 3 bedroom house, paid for by the US government, in a suburb of Tokyo, and has an extra room that he'll let me have for half of utilities. Lyle was the fist of my friends I told when I found out I had Hodgkin's, and he was the first person to give me some reassurance, though in an odd sort of way. He said, "It seems like everyone I know either dies, or gets cancer, but never both, so you'll be fine."

I'm also hunting down jobs. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find something fairly quickly. I will have to wait until I get there probably to have any interviews, but I'll be in contact with some recruiting agencies, and there's a job fair for bilinguals in December (not that I'd consider myself bilingual, but hopefully my excellent English Language skills will be a selling point). I should be able to make it living with Lyle since it will cut my expenses considerably. Commuting will be pricey for a time, since it's so far in the country, but companies always pay commuting expenses, and once I get a job and get some cash in the bank, I'll be able to move closer to work. Maybe back to Koenji. I really liked that neighborhood.

So now I have to get everything I have here finished up. I'm going to sell off my darkroom stuff, put two bugs together into a drivable one, and maybe I'll be able to get my SL350 together and sell that. Lots of stuff. Too bad I work so much!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Looking for a car

On Sunday, the rain made me realize that I didn't want to ride in it. Kind of a late realization. I just thought, "hmm... rain... wish I had a car."

And so began my car hunt. What I'd really like is a Karmann Ghia, but they're a bit hard to find, and not so cheap, so what I'll probably get is a Super Beetle. And this causes another problem. He wants a curved windscreen because they have a little more nose room, (maybe that's how his nose got squashed?) and they only made those for three years, as Beetle production was starting to wind down. So I'll have to find one, have him sit in it, and see if he can tolerate it.

But I really do want that Karmann Ghia.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Forever is not really that long

It seems that I have been writing this blog forever, so I went back in my archives to see what I wrote 5 years ago. Well, 5 years was really not long ago, but I've only been writing this blog for two and a half years, not quite forever.

5 years ago, I was on my one year exchange program at Asia University, and I lived in the men's dormitory a cross the street from the campus. At night, when I was cooking dinner in the kitchen on the first floor, I'd watch the news on CNN. This night, when I turned the TV on, a shaky camera was focused on the World Trade Center tower, just after a plane had hit it. The reporters at the time were saying that probably a small plane like a Cessna had hit it. A few minutes later, the second tower was hit, and all doubt as the what was going on was gone. I ran up stairs and knocked on Mick's door, and told him he had to come downs stairs. We both watched the news for the rest of the night live. First seeing papers from offices flutter to the ground, then people, then the entire buildings. It was all too strange to be a movie, yet it didn't seem real. For the next several days, people asked me if everyone I knew was alright since a plane also crashed in Washington (The Washington I come from is a state, not a city, and not the capital of the US). For me the surreally I'm sure ended more quickly than for people in the US. Things were notably different when I came back though. The US had become plastered with flags.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Promotion

So I'm working now. I wrote about that right? Basically, it has sucked since I started, around the 15th. I've been putting things in boxes. So finally, last Wednesday, I got put back on the machines. I'd driven order pickers, forklifts, ect. the last two summers I worked there, so I know how everything works basically. The only difference now is that everything is done electronically. It actually makes the job harder to do, but I figured it out pretty quickly. Well last Monday, one of the permanent employees was sick and didn't come in, and the lead in the area I had been in, who goofs around a lot, was goofing around, and got demoted from his lead position the next day. The permanent employee who was gone that day, then took charge of that area for Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday though, he kind of blew up at the Somalian women who are working there after one hurt herself. He thought that she was faking it, and was ready to fire the whole lot of them.

So on Friday I came to work, hopped on my machine and drove down the the other end of the warehouse to start working, and the warehouse manager called me up and offered me the lead position. That meant that I had to deal with the aftermath of the previous day's events. So what was the first thing that two of the girls asked me? They wanted to leave at 4:45, one hour away. I told them that the management is not happy with the productivity of the packers, and that they're getting ready to fire some if it doesn't improve. There had been too much socializing rather than working, and tons of mistakes. And since they were in such a difficult position, asking to leave in only one hour would probably mean not coming back at all. I guess they didn't really think that they'd fire anyone because they still pressed the issue, so I referred them to the manager, who told them that it was fine to leave, but that he couldn't guarantee that their jobs would still be there on Monday. I think they got it that time, because for the rest of the night, I barely heard any talking that interfered with work, except for one girl, and another, afraid that one of the people I was talking about might be here, moved away from the other talking girls, and was fine the rest of the night.

The main problem was that the PIC (People In Charge) didn't give them any warnings, so they thought that they were doing fine. I think for at least one, it was a perceived language barrier or some other reason that he didn't want to give them a chance. On Monday my manager wants a list of all my people, and a ranking. If my lowest ranked people match the list of the guy who blew up, some heads may roll. I hope that I can prevent that though. I think that the problem was do to the old lead, who never told them when they were goofing off too much because he was always too busy goofing off himself, and the management, who would rather git rid of the whole group and start over.

So I had a bit of training today, and I'm coming in an hour early on Monday for some more training and a pay increase! That and an extra room at my friend Lyle's house means that I may be able to return to Tokyo a bit earlier than my last estimate.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Dead Bike

I've been riding my CL350 Scrambler a lot recently, but it, as old bikes will, leaks. A lot. The first engine was leaking out of the head gasket after I put a few hundred miles on it, so I figured that I'd swap it with one of the other 6 engines I have laying around. The one I put in it was out of a bike that I payed $55 for, and was seized at the time. This one ran a lot better, and didn't leak out of the head gasket much for the first 1000 miles, but just after I fixed the leak in the crankcase, the head gasket sprung a leak, and it started smoking. On saturday is started smoking so bad, that I decided to swap the engine out again, this time with the engine from the bike that Mark Risvold, Sky's dad, gave me in exchange for working on his GoldWing. I spent the better part of the day on Sunday and Monday Morning working on this, and started it up about 3 hours before I had to head to work. It sounded a lot better than the engine I had been using, so I went on my first test ride.

About a mile down the road, I thought it was sounding pretty good, so I turned onto the highway, intending to take it up to speed. Half way through the corner, my rear wheel slipped. This could either be dirt, ice, or oil. There was no dirt on the road, and it's the middle of summer, so that leaves the last option. I proceeded slowly to the first place I could park, looked down and oil was pouring out of the engine onto the ground as if the drain plug had come out. I shut it off as quickly as I could, and the oil slowed to a trickle. I had my phone, so I called both mom and dad, who were just leaving for vacation, to come pick me up. Mark however, is always free, so I called him and he was able to come pick me up.

So this week, I'm riding granddad's GoldWing, which I've gotten a lot of comments on since it's in almost pristine condition except for the dents that Kelsey put in the tank a few years ago. It's also one of the few GoldWings without a fairing and saddlebags, which makes it cool, and the bike that I wish I was on when I bad ass Harley rider (or so he thought) challenged me to a race a few weeks ago. (It would have been fun to kick his ass, but I still probably wouldn't have raced him.)

In other news, I've been working for one and a half weeks now, and I'm trying to get a job at REI. It's part time, so ideally, I can work there in the mornings and at my current crappy job in the evenings, and easily make my November goal of returning to Tokyo.

Also, coffee helps get blogs posted. This is the second post today? I've had so much that I can't stand still.

Appointment with Nick


I think I finally have an appointment with Nick to see a bike that he told me about a month ago. It's a 1953 Triumph that's torn apart in his friend's basement. I think it might be a 650 Thunderbird like what Marlin Brando rode in "The Wild One". It's missing the tank, but I know where to get one. I just have to figure out how to keep dad from claiming it as his.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Keep writing

and I keep forgetting to save what I write. I have a job, and it sucks. Not the principle of having a job, just this particular one. It's crappy. I'd much rather do just about anything else. I have some requirements, but not many.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Seattle International Film Festival

I have have a two person pass! If anyone wants to see anything with me, let me know! I'm planning on using it as much as possible. I used it last night, and it was pretty cool. I was able to just walk past all the ticket holders who were waiting in line outside the cinema, and right to a line outside the theater. About 20 minutes before the start of the movie, they let all the pass holders in for their choice of seats, then ten minutes later, they let in the ticket holders.

The movie I saw last night was this low budget Japanese movie called Princess Raccoon that was a musical, but just about the strangest thing I've seen. Tonight, mom and I are going to see A Parie Home Companion and hopefully a documentary about the Afghan buddah statues that were destroyed by the Taliabn. I'm trying to make up a schedule of movies for the rest of this week. There are at least 24 movies each day, and I can probably make it to 4 or 5 depending on the location and how sick I am of sitting in a theater.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Aaron the Riding Instructor?


Last week I took my riding class in Bellingham. The wait to sign up for a subsidized class was only three weeks versus the three to four month wait for any of the schools around here. The class was pretty easy. Two half days of class instruction, and two half days of range riding. The first day of riding was a bit boring. It was paced for people who've never touched a bike. Some of the people in the class hadn't even driven a stick car before. So the first day was a bit slow, but the second day was a bit better. Basic components of the riding course were clutch use, braking, maneuvering and cornering.

The riding test was four quick exercises, two of which I thought for sure that I'd been marked down on. But when I got my scores, the instructor said that I'd gotten the best score in the class, and asked if I'd be interested in teaching the class in the future. That was kind of cool, but I'm not interested in doing it. First, I'm planning on leaving the country again soon, and it would take up all my weekends if I weren't leaving the country.

Kelsey's been wanting me to take some pictures for her, but my good camera for that is in Tokyo, so I'm looking for a cheap medium format similar to the one I had. I'm house sitting for Steve this weekend, so maybe I'll be able to use a small about of that money on one. If I can get some shots that she likes, there's potential to make a bit of money doing shots for some of her friends, so it's not hard to justify. Plus I've been wanting a TLR to replace the fungusy one I have in Tokyo anyway, and that's justification enough.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

New Bikes

 
Today, dad and I went back to the house I discovered on Tuesday. The old lady was really nice to us, but I could really tell there was a feud going on between Zach and her. She called him some pretty dirty words for an old lady. She complained that he's nosy and tries to get involved in everything. Which is true, but Zach's still a nice guy.

When we got there, the lady told us that she'd had someone from her motorcycle club tell her the values of the bikes. He'd recommended that the DKW's should go for $200 for the 3 of them, which turned out to be 2 DKW's and a basket cast Kawasaki. It was just a frame and part of an engine, so they probably assumed it was the same bike as those on either side of it. So we bought those three bikes. The Kawasaki is going to be stripped of all usable parts to be sold on eBay, but I think we can get two running motocross bikes out of the DKWs.

The BSA 441 Victor was, as I said, not for sale. However, Zach though the lady had given it to him, but there was no way the lady was going to do that. "Excuse my language, but that piece of shit thinks that just because he cleaned it up, I'm going to give it to him." initially she said that it was her son's, but as we were getting the DKWs out to the truck, she asked us if we wanted it, I think just to spite Zach. Zach, was understandably disappointed, but I think he'd rather us have it than her son, and I think she'd rather us have it than Zach, so the two played off each other in out favor. So we got the BSA for $800. I bit more than we'd anticipated, but dad's always wanted one, and and it was probably an okay deal. It looks kind of bad in the picture above, but new paint and a new seat cover, and it'll look great. And why didn't everyone make aluminum tanks? Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Barn full of bikes

That's what every collector dreams of. A barn full of whatever they're collecting. Well, I found it today. I just got a new front tire put on my CL350, and was out testing it out, when I noticed a guy walking back from the mail box into his yard full of motorcycles. The bike that caught my attention was an old Sears bike that I thought was a Honda 150 Benly. I made a quick u-turn and went back to talk to the guy.

"You know what that is? It's a Sears."

"Oh", I said, slightly dissapointed. I told him that I have a couple hondas that I'm working on resoring. Riding one right now in fact.

"Turn off your engine, I'll show you around."

I got off my bike and he showed me a couple piles of bikes in the yard. I talked to him about the bikes that I have, and he explained to me that the owner of these bikes use to race motocross in the '60s and '70s. He died a couple years ago, and he'd been kind of taking care of the place for the widow since then. I told him what I was looking for. Something a bit older that the mid seventies bikes that were out in the yard, thinking that I'd seen all there was to see.

"Come back here, let me show you something. Now I haven't shown anyone else these bikes." In another shed, further back on the property were a couple other bikes. Three DKWs, one nearly complete, one missing some engine parts, and one missing the engine altogether. I started to lift the cover off the fourth bike in the shed.

"That one's mine." He hesitated for a second, then pulled the cover of to reval a nearly complete BSA. "I've been cleaning this one up a bit. Before you couldn't even tell this tank was yellow. The engine kicks over and everything. Good compression. But this one's not for sale. This is the one bike that I got her to give to me."

We stand in the shed and talk about those bikes for a while, then he brings me into the shop. There is stuff everywhere. Chainsaws, outboard motors, lawmowers, all in various stages of disassembly. Scattered amongst the clutter, one bike catches my eye. There's a '60s road racer towards the back of the shop. Closer inspection reveils that it's a CB92R, from what I know, an extremely rare bike. It's missing the motor, which is probably around the shop somewhere, but it has a nice tank, restorable seat, and road racing fairing. If I can find the engine, it will make a very nice restoration project. Even if I can't, it would be a good thing to pick up. There is also a fairly complete Maico buried in there.

By this time, the old lady has noticed that I've been traipsing around her yard. As I've looking through the piles, I've heard all about her. How she'll ask me where I live, that the Kawasaki on the front porch was purchased by her husband for $500 9 days before he died, even though he only paid $300, and how someday, she's going to have the people from the local motorcycle club come out and put prices on the bikes. Zach introduces me to her, and she tells me about her husband, and that they've been members of the motorcycle club for 45 years, and that her husband purchased the Kawasaki for $500 nine days before he died. I tell her a little about my interests, and ask for her number. Zach coached me as to when to come.

"Come back this weekend. If you wait more than a week, she'll forget who you are. And schedule it at noon on Saturday. If you come during one of her TV programs, she wont even talk to you. You'll be luck if you get her to give you her number though"

So I asked if I could contact her and come back with dad this Saturday.

"Sure that would be fine"

Ha! I ask if I could have her phone number.

"Oh, Okay, where do you live?"

My answer seems acceptable to her, and she writes her name and number, on a notepad that she got for free from some prescription drug company. I guess that's what you get in exchange for the handfuls of pills you'll take when you get old.

Zach says that what I've just accomplished has never been done before. We talk for a while longer as the sky darkens and begins to rain. I learn that he lives in the van parked on the property. He was living at a place not to far from where we are until one day the owner came up to him and asked, "Are you Zach? Gotta move out." Being jobless and now homeless, he was offered a place to stay by the old man. As he got sicker, he sort of became the caretaker, keeping the grass from getting too out of hand, and increasingly, caring for the old man himself. He's still living there, waking at 2 am when he hears his name being called from the house. It becomes clear that the BSA is infact for sale. He needs the money. He'd like to get it running, but just doesn't have the know how to do it. He'd like to even see it run. I think I'll make an offer on it, and ride it over to show him once I get it going again.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

In Bellingham


Last Friday, right after chemo, I headed up to Bellingham to take pictures of Kelsey for acting jobs. Unfortunatly, I haven't really been able to take any pictures because I had a whole roll of fast slidefilm in my camera, and I needed to use some slow B&W. I managed to finish that roll last night, but the weather's been crappy today, so I don't know if it's going to happen. Hopefully, it will be nicer tomorrow when she isn't working.

What I have been doing is hanging out with friends. On Saturday I had dinner with Risa and her boyfriend, who is looking for a job in Tokyo starting around July. We sat in Boundary Bay having a beer and talking about teaching and my quest to not teach. The anwser? Beer. (It may just be the answer to everything) Later than night, I met up with Louise and Michael, who's house I'm staying at, and went to the Chicken House for more beer, a big fire, and music. On Sunday, I went to Eyone and Jessie's where we had a BBQ. On Monday, I spend the day scanning negatives on campus, and wondering if someone wanted to come play. Just on time, Jenn called, and we agreed to meet up at her place, where I made some pizza for her and Dave from scratch. Scratch scratch. She was scared of that, but I assured her that it was easy (it really is). We had happy full stomachs. Today, I weent out for lunch with Susan and Rick from my old job at Western. I think there's something going tonight, but I don't know what yet. I'll be taking the train home Thursday morning.

Bellingham is great.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Here's Frankenbike


Here's my bike. The orange and white on the head light look out of place, but it's actually everything else that's out of place. The tan tank and side covers are from the other CL, and are on this bike until we strip everything and repaint.

Thanks to some helpful posts on USENET, I tore apart the carbs again last night to squirt some cleaner into some of the smaller holes, and realized that there was something not lined up right. This is what was causing it not to run right. So this morning I fired it up, and dad fiddled with the mixture a bit, and took off on a ride. He got it up to 80 going up the 410 hill, so it's running pretty good.

So today I've been riding around, getting the hang of it on some back roads. I'm not going to take it anywhere too far or fast until I get some new tires on it.

Bike

"Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like"
-Queen

I've been fiddling with the bike for a while, and it's running pretty good at slow engine speeds, but I've been having trouble getting it to rev as high as it should. I've posted in USENET and gotten some good tips though, and I think my problems can be mostly fixed with some carb adjustments. It kind of looks like franken-bike right now because it has parts off of two different CLs, and it hasn't been cleaned up at all. Probably I'll trip it all down again once the weather gets nicer so that he frame can be blasted and powdercoated and the tank and headlight housing repainted. I'll post a picture of franken-bike once I find where the digital camera has wandered off to.

On friday, dad and I went to the DOL and got the bike licensed, then stopped at the DMV and picked up a motorcycle endorsement hand book. By 3:30 I had read the whole book, and was ready to take the test, so I went down the the DMV again and passed the written test to get a 90 day permit. I think that mom and I are going to take the rider corse together to get out endorsements. It costs $100, and includes one full day of classroom instruction, and a day and a half of riding. After passing the class, you receive a certificate that will get you an endorsement without having to take the riding test at the DMV.

On Thursday I went to meet Kay Jones, my highschool Japanese teacher, at Starbucks. We had a nice chat about everything, and she invited me to join the Japanese classes that she goes to once a week. Her class is taught by a UPS Japanese professor, and the students include some other area Japanese teachers. Kay and I are actually at about the same level of Japanese now, so her class should be a good fit. I will start at the end of March after she gets back from her trip to Osaka.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Car Crash Bonsai


I haven't done anything with bonsai since mom killed mine a few years ago, but this is inspiring. Who thinks of these things?


In the chemo realm, I've got only two more (again). Everything is going fine with that, and I still expect to be done with everything and free to leave the country again in July.


Two weeks ago I started tearing about the carbs on one of the CL350s. I cleaned them all out in Simple Green (so much less toxic than carb cleaner, and seemed to work just a well), and put them back on the bike, got a battery, cleaned out and put new gas in the tank, and fired it up. There was a mysterious electrical problem for a while, but I've got that solved, so now all I have to do is get it and me licenced. I think I'll sign up for a motorcycle class pretty soon.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

They Were Fucking With Me

(Please remove necessary 'u's if you are not old or mature enough to view such letters.)


Yesterday afternoon, right after my last post, I got a call from my doctor. He and the radiation oncologist had been discussing the rest of my treatment. My doctor had intended to follow my chemo with 4 weeks of daily radiation, which is pretty standard practice for my type of Hodgkin's. My radiation oncologist however didn't like the location of my tumors, and didn't think that radiation was right for me. So my radiation oncologist gathered up some studies showing that more chemo is just as effective as radiation following chemo, and the two of them had an arm wrestling match. I don't know if the radiation oncologist is younger, but he's in a bit better shape, so he won the arm wrestling match. So now I get 8 more weeks of chemo with no radiation. Although I was very happy to have finished chemo two weeks and never wanted to have to do it again, I guess it's for the best. If I'd had radiation, there was a good chance that end up with damage to my heart and lungs. Heart problems probably wouldn't show up for a few decades, but this is something that I'd rather not deal with. With chemo only, the likelihood of heart and lung problems is much lower. So tomorrow at 9:45, I get to go back and puke on some nurses.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Living in a Black and White World


For the last couple months, I’ll I’ve shot are B&W pics. Back in November, I bought about 6 rolls of Illford FP4 and HP5, and I still have one more left. The reason is that I have a B&W darkroom set up, but I’m bored with it. It’s time for color. Spring is coming soon, and plants are begining to spring from the cold dirt, and color is beginning to return. Last week, I picked up a few rolls of Ektachrome and Kodachrome slide film, and have them in my LC-A and new Canon. So now I need to get some color equipment. I have a color head for my enlarger, which is the biggest part of printing color. Now I need a print developing tube and some chemicals. I think I can make a hot water bath out of a plastic tub and aquarium heater, and the print developing tub I might be able to make too. I’ll have to go to a photography shop and see how they’re made. Paper and chemicals can be picked up on eBay.



Speaking of chemicals, they’re not being injected into my veins anymore. Last week I had a PET scan and CT scan, which my doctors will use to determine what comes next. Probably, I will have about 4 weeks of radiation starting soon. My doctor will be contacting me sometime today to tell me what’s up with that.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Good thing I have insurance

We actually opened a statement from the insurance company today. The envelopes have just been piling up since I started treatment, but last week we started wondering how much all this is costing. The price? The day which we have the statement for cost just over $5000 for injections and "misc expenses". I'm not sure if I saw the doctor that day, but I doubt it. So for the entire treatment, we're guessing the cost will be over $100,000. Good thing I don't have to pay for it, because I wouldn't be able to.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Snortin Norton



Mom got a dog. Here are some pics of it.


I only have 2 more chemo sessions to go before I'm done. The last two are Jan. 19th and Feb. 2nd. After that, I will have four weeks of radiation, and I will have to go to Seattle every day for that. We still haven't worked out how I'll get there but I might just get a month bus pass or something.


For New Years I went up to Bellingham to hang out with the friends that are still there. On the 31st, a bunch of us went to see La Push a local funk band at the Nightlight, the club that they were building in the basement of the building that I lived in during my last year in B'ham. What a cool town. I love going up there.

My posting's been kind of sparse lately, so I'll try to post more and keep you all updated on my exciting life.