The Assorted, Sorted

  Queen to C-8, Checkmate It’s not always cancer. I mean, you can be a bit of a one-trick pony if you only talk about the thing that’s dominating your life.  Above this writing is a (hopefully animated) gif of a chess game that I played yesterday. Since I lost my dad at the beginning of 2024, my online chess partner has gone away. He and I were always ranked pretty closely, and we’d win in what I’d call “waves.” He’d win most of the time, then I’d start to win a few, then I’d have a streak going. Of course my wave would break, and his would start to build again. The game above, is against a bot rated at 1900, and I beat “Olga” after many attempts. A poor substitute for my dad. But I still get a lot of satisfaction beating the bot, especially because they’re so much better than I am. Chess was a pursuit which, for me, is a lot like running is for some people. They do it because they enjoy it, not because they’re ever going to be an Olympic runner, neither will I become a master...

I may have taken the "wrong lesson" from my cancer journey. Let me explain: Hollywood expects a story arc for people who go through cancer. Unfortunately, the story arc is usually about the person who is the family member of/in love with/long-term friend of the person suffering the cancer. The patient is either a teenage or 20-something woman, or a 30-something man. They'll go through treatment, lose their hair, and with the help of a close friend, they'll either live or die and the patient and/or other person will learn the true meaning™ of life and how to appreciate it without them after they've tragically passed. Okay, sure. Why not. But just as Hollywood isn't real life and porn isn't real sex, neither are our views of cancer as filtered through our media influenced lenses. One thing, for me, which they don't share, is that cancer is f'n TEDIOUS AF. And super banal. Sure, the diagnosis was a novel and altogether unpleasant experience and so wer...

Well, of course this was going to be the first post for me.  I used to be on Facebook. Many, MANY of you still are. And that’s cool. I would still be on Facebook if I had a choice. A lot of people were starting to do the “I’m ditching Facebook and going to BlueSky” or whatever service thing. Well, I've apparently left as well, and possibly for good. Whatever the case, I'm starting this blog.  As many of you know, I’m hopefully on my way to becoming a #cancersurvivor. <eyeroll… yawn> I was diagnosed with liver cancer after it being accidentally found during a lung scan while working at Scouts BSA camp. Early-August is when I was told of the mass on my liver and I eventually found out it was MASSIVE. Long story short, my wife and I went through all of the shit. The formal diagnosis, the doctors, the oncologist, the interventional radiologist. The tumor was shrunk from massive to just big (1/2 its original size) through the use of immunotherapy, which was incredible in it...