I’ve always loved Edward Gorey.
Happy birthday, Edward Gorey.
I’ve always loved Edward Gorey.
Happy birthday, Edward Gorey.
Sarah Burke: Too young, too smart, to go that way
Canada’s women’s soccer team stands for a moment of silence to remember freestyle skier Sarah Burke prior to their Olympic qualifying soccer game against Haiti in Vancouver. Burke passed away earlier on Thursday following a training accident last week.
From the Post’s Joe O’Connor: Her death stings, because it is unfair, because Sarah Burke was too young and too smart and too pretty and too warm and too well-liked and too remarkable, as an athlete, to leave us so soon.
Plug her name into Youtube and watch clips of the 29-year-old B.C. skier taking flight, blasting out of a superpipe and soaring up, up, with the blue sky as a backdrop and gravity, an earthly annoyance, as her only limit.
Ms. Burke twists. Twirls. Flips. She makes us gasp, and it is amazing to see, especially now, knowing that every clip is a reminder and a memorial to a gifted skier who pushed the boundaries of her sport.
Pushed them so hard and so far that Ms. Burke won four X-game titles, five World Cups and a world championship. She is the reason why the Olympic old boys club added women’s ski halfpipe to the program for Sochi 2014. (Photo: REUTERS/Andy Clark)
(via nationalpost)
This is awesome. So many people will be saved by the massive drive for stem cell donors to save Amit Gupta.
I love a happy ending.
Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s going on with me.
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE
- 8/1979: Born. Grew up in CT, built a killer eraser collection, fell in love with computers.
- Left college to start a company. Fell hard. Fled to India for 3 months.
- Started 2nd company. Learned to be an adult. Fell in love with NYC.
- Moved to SF, discovered burritos & some of my fave people on Earth.
- 9/2011: Got diagnosed with Leukemia!
- Cried. Went through 3 cycles of chemo. Hurt. Thought hard about what I want out of life. Grew up a second time.
TODAY
… After over 100 drives organized by friends, family, and strangers, celebrity call-outs, a bazillion reblogs (7000+!), tweets, and Facebook posts, press, fundraising and international drives organized by tireless friends, and a couple painful false starts, I’ve got a 10/10 matched donor!
You all literally helped save my life. (And the lives of many others.)
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Tomorrow, I’ll be admitted to Dana Farber in Boston for 4-5 weeks.
First I’ll get a second Hickman line to allow direct access to my heart (for meds and for nutrients if I’m not able to eat). Over the next week, the docs blast my body with a stiff chemo cocktail to try and eradicate all traces of cancer cells. In the process, the immune system I was born with, and my body’s ability to make blood, are destroyed.
Next Friday, I get my donor’s stem cells by IV. I start on immunosuppressants to prevent my body from rejecting them (I’ll be on them for 12-18 months). For these weeks I’ve no immune system, so I’m severely vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. My hospital room and hallway become my world.
Meanwhile, the stem cells make their way to my bone marrow and, with some luck, start producing platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own.
This is science fiction stuff. I can hardly believe it’s even possible, and there’s lots of chances for things to go wrong. It’s frightening.
AFTER THE TRANSPLANT
Recovery to a new state of “normal” takes about a year, but there’s a few storm clouds hovering:
- My immune system is new, like a baby’s. I’m prone to getting sick.
- Just as with any organ transplant, there’s a chance of rejection. Except in this case, it’s my blood that’s the foreign body, and it touches every organ. They call it graft-vs-host-disease and it can cause health issues and organ complications for the rest of my life.
- Successful transplant or not, Leukemia can relapse. Stubborn mofo.
Overall, 75% of AML transplant patients survive year one, 50% make it through year five. My odds are a little better since I’m young.
THE GREAT NEWS
I’ve got a long road ahead. But I’ve got a donor & amazing family & friends. A few months ago I didn’t have many options. Today I have a plan.
I am alive. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Thank you.
This book followed me around for months so I finally read it. Definitely worth it. Memories of Deadwood for sure.
So good.
This is a good thing for your ears. Wilco, Nick Lowe, and Mavis Staples rehearse “The Weight” backstage at Chicago’s Civic Opera House.
The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje is called his most accessible novel yet, and I have to agree. Never expected to be able to breeze through an Ondaatje in just a few days of reading by the Caribbean Sea, but I loved it. He tells a wonderful story about a 21 day ocean voyage from Sri Lanka to England through the eyes of a young boy traveling alone. Michael, a curious adventurer exploring life on ship with his two new found companions, experiences things in those 21 days that influence him for life.
Nice
(via lisasimpsonbookclub)
(via newyorker)
(via withaflatstomach)
Transition time
It’s that time of year when I need to switch up my fitness routine from summer to winter. No running in the cold, dark early morning hours for me. Spinning? Kettlebell? Something new? All I know is that I’ve got to get out there more than once or twice a week.
