Maggie's Farm

I do have some updates, but I have been busy.  Short update(s).  First, my personal close family arrived yesterday.  Sister and her family (husband and children) from Vienna, Austria in arrivement.  My father and his wife also arrived.  My mother and my sister (who cares for her at age 88) arrived.  My brother and his wife also arrived.  All of this time spending and tiring, but essential with some more opportunities but with a less likelihood for complete original involvement of this kind likely again soon.

I also have a new teach announced for in 3 weeks as a potential which was unknown, sudden, and possible starting after April's first week.  I have been doing calls and set ups for that as well as preparation for an early MRI and completing chemo and radiology, while taking an in-laws family trip this weekend shortly.

There other stories I will expand on a future day (Monday or Tuesday) but the key point are two fold.  One is a larger natural public completion I will present to High School children after I speak with two of my pastors and possibly a local Rabbi of a friend.  Another is using that as a larger presentation for more options possibly in video and/or public revolutions after it is seen on Maggie's Farm. 

The second fold is this attached story - a great shortage resolution of the value of Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino.  While I have found many very good Tarantino films, Reservoir Dogs has been, since its release, as one of the greatest of its kinds.  I have loved it only slightly less than Pulpy Fiction.  Tarantino had several good films, but these were his two best overall in my view.  My son did a wonderful set up and arranging a discussion about Reservoir Dogs and made it very much worth reading - I recommend it today and will follow up later with more.  Enjoy this, I was overwhelmed by his knowledge as quite excellent.

One side note.  If you have not seen The Conversation, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ASAP as the 50th anniversary this year.  With Cazale in it, the film was largely ignored in the US in 1974 for poor reasoning by criticals.  It is, by far, a great film overlooked back then.  It was Cazale's poorest US film, its only wealth winning a Cannes 1974 Palme d'Or.  It also won or was nominated for various Academy Awards, BAFTA and Golden Globes, in addition to MANY others.  It starred surprisingly great actors.  Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Teri Garr, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, and Robert Duvall put together an AMAZING story with top level management and story making.  Phenomenal and widely overlooked until only now.  My other son, upon my call after watching it, surprised me shockingly by admitting the very day before he'd seen a local Manhattan Film offer for The Conversation's 50th Anniversary and he took it in and was overwhelmed by its great production for 1974.  I laughed and agreed deeply with him.  I highly recommend this if you have time, too. 

Just a few notes from the past week.  

1. It was a great week, overall.  Main issue was the 3/12/2024 62nd birthday.  My family took time off to spend the day.  62 from 1962 is a fine repetition.  I hope I can get to 63 - so far, it seems likely, but we do not know much more yet. 

2. There was a small shift in chemo in the second week.  Several times severe depression was a setting.  It is short, and I've fought it naturally.  But for the first time I fell into depressive moments requiring a push back against the chemo impact on my otherwise greatly positive POV.  I also developed Carpal Tunnel as a related effect on my tennis wrist.  Since I have sciatica the doctor grew my steroid offer and after 3 days it has impacted an improvement on depression and pain from muscles.  It also grows less sleep.  Which to be honest is fine. I still sleep anyway.  At times, hours here and there. 

3. I spent an entire day in NYC on the day after my birthday.  I met my company president and VPs.  I got many notes wishing me well from coworkers and all wishing me happy birthday on my birthday and wishing me well.  My company is the best place I've ever worked.  So much so, the president offered to hear at least 5 of 7 stories I have which I've done over the years.  I will not go into details, but after telling them, he was stunned - never having heard deep criminal situations at companies.  One was a lie against me - which later led to a release and heavy payment which indicated they dropped the lawsuit.  I did depositions in at least 2 specific items where I rejected the company legal support as I stated "I only speak truth, so legal support will back off corporate stories as they see truth filling reality" - each one led to several job losses as lawyres saw that truth is actually rather easy.  Drove some of them frighteningly.  I closed my own lawsuit once, but I cannot discuss the details.  All worth mentioning is the depth of illegal email and other activities and laws taken against me which led to my removal...and could have been more money if I'd pushed it.  I chose to move away as my job I had taken was better and far more interesting than spending time in courts to win a few million dollars. That's a few stories, but opend the door to some massive mainstream illegal activity in many cases.

Starting with my brother's arrival soon.  He is driving an hour from outside Philadelphia to see me.  He will drive me to radiation at 11am, then to Rahway to solve a license issue for a new one.  I can't order a new one online since it ends in 5 days on my 62nd birthday of March 12.  Apparently, you get this close and they want you in reality rather than handling things online.  So after that, we'll grab lunch and possibly walk some - I am finally feeling exercise.

I signed up for a poker tournament locally.  I've never played PLO and I've won that tournament for Texas Hold 'em several times.  So that was always pleasant.  But since my times are shorted, it's time to learn a newer version.  I do well playing Hold 'em online - oddly the removal of my tumor has actually vastly increased my intelligence oddly.  If you've never seen the movie with John Travolta, "Phenomenon" it isn't too bad.  It's a larger intelligence expansion than I'm experiencing, but the testing (outside of a few words I have trouble remembering for speaking or misspelling, which was non-existent a month ago) is different from me knowing and understanding.  The doctors have started at me with suprrise at how much I understand and speak of everything regarding me, my relationships, my business and other items which they fully did not expect after this operation.  They recognize I understand my own situation extraordinarily well compared to many others.  Both the depth of my issues and the knowledge of the problems and how it is often trialed for testing.

Finally feeling well enough to get started on fixing my January travel expenses for business on 2 trips I'd taken before my illness.  I was too messed up after operation to do anything with that.  I'm now 2 days past a month, so that's a benefit.  And my health is vastly improved.  The doctors are getting me passing for local NJ Cannabis Dispensary for edibles.  I do not use cannabis, haven't many years.  I have not liked it ever since college, really.  However, edibles apparently (based on several friends using chemo) that stop several illnesses from chemo.  That has not happened yet.  But I'll use a little if I get messed up.

Also, many things need effort and interest over the weekend.  Finalize taxes, work on the house, and spending to improve the house.  Frankly I suggested to Mrs. Bulldog to sell one old 15 year car which needs a new timing belt (over $4,000 to fix, but just trading it will add $2,000 to a new car).  She'd rather pay too much to fix it and keep it for 2 years as after 2 years with me gone - who needs a second car?  We have a disagreement on that.  Also suggesting we sell the house rather than pay to fix it all.  I told her a smaller place for her to live in is preferable after I'm gone.  Let the buyer pay for our home now, pay way less for a smaller home.  That's a conversation for this weekend, I suppose.

Pastor next week on my birthday to speak with students so they can learn about life difficulty.  An odd conversation with the sociology administrator at the hospital was learning a lot.  She loved my very rare attitude and approach.  She pointed out people rarely consider or think about the fact that everyone dies.  As a result, life is often managed over the fact they are living now as is - often leading to difficulties and disagreements (or worse).  Once you know the ending (as I do) your life and efforts change.  Few change it the same way - often it's related to fear, annoyance or scare.  She was pleased with my open conversation and belief that death happens, anyway - so why get upset or worry now?  It's a waste of time.  When you don't have a timing like mine, she pointed out, there are lots of other issues people engage.  Because you forget you never know when things happen or end.  It is intriguing.

One final conversation.  Dogs.  I love my little dog.  Not an English Bulldog like my first two.  A French Bulldog we rescued after a mill planned to kill it after it had several puppy birth groups.  Many of these mills are just awful and do not care about dogs except to make money from puppies.  Rescues get a push from people saying helping mills is poorly thought out.  I disagree.  We originally planned to just foster the dog for 2 weeks and release it to someone who wanted it.  But at her 5th year, when we rescued her, I fell in love with her.  A co-speaker commented that, as I die, I will have the chance to finally se"e my last 2 again, as well as my current one someday.  I agreed and reminded her that there is a wonderful Twilight Zone TV show - one I think is the best.  The link to The Hunt.  I studied Twilight Zone while I was studying TV Production in college as part of my 3 way major/minor.  Serling was from Syracuse and it often aired in his shows.  All his programming was genius while I was a child.  Double, if not triple true today.  So many people pass on it now.  My sons still love it - and my boys are film/TV geniuses, even though neither had it as a major as I did.  I could share their lists and I may after my birthday.  Lots worth seeing.

One thing I have is 6 weeks off.  No work.  But I have learned a few things.  

I'd like to thank one commenter who shared a book lead for me to order it  I have not read it yet.  I have, over the past few days, read a few articles about my specific issue.  It is, indeed, a strange one.  15 months, not 18 (which my brain keeps telling me) is the average period left for non-methylated versions of Glio Blastoma.   Naturally that's an average.  I have heard 18 and longer for a few people.  Oddly it is not frightening at all, nor is it saddening.  I don't know why.  I did feel bad playing with my little dog today, as she wakes up for a bit a small wrestle with me each morning.  I did feel a bit sad because I've lost two previous dogs, and I'm afraid I'll pass before my current one.  That said, I do look forward to seeing them all again.

I read the news this AM.  Quite a bit about politics and the Fed.  Nikki Haley is seeing a relatively "larger" level of voting, but she is not winning at all, really (except DC).  One article points out that her voting is in states which allow Democrats to vote on non-Democratic votes.  However, she will likely end her ballots after Super Tuesday.   A few Democrats, noting Biden's ultimately declining opportunities are hoping for alternatives to Trump, at which point Biden may beat Nikki.  Or at least they feel Nikki is not as "bad" as Trump.  While I favor none of the current political choices, I'd definitely say she'd be a mild improvement over Biden, but still hardly supportable, though she was when she worked under Trump.  I felt bad for her when she jumped ship after 2020.

The Fed has a massive problem growing.  Really at least two at this point.  First, wages are still growing faster than inflation.  Which does not mean inflation will fall.  In fact, the bigger issue is the massive Jan 2024 growth (most in about 2 years) that nobody who is a "professional" was predicting (I had, mainly because it was overdue).  The Fed is planning to reduce rates.  That's a bad idea as inflation becomes a bit more troublesome.  They should have had at least one more increase several months ago - that may have helped reduce inflation further without too much trouble.  Sadly, they are pushing for lower rates for political Biden/Democrat support.  A terrible idea.  I had feared a potential decline in inflation if they had pushed too far and too fast.  But they did less and slower.  Not a bad idea, but they did not go far enough.  Anyone with a basic understanding would know this already.

Interestingly, as the chemo and radiation has kicked in, I'm sleeping well still (lucky) and my interests have increased.  Some things (like economics) had dropped off but for some reason I've been reading more lately and I do not know why.  LOL but that's a good.  I've done a ton of Roman History reading - it is rather reminding of how truly awful Democats are if you mix and match behaviors of misleading leaders and activists in the past with those in the current era.  I've long felt it would come to play, and it has, though in a significantly different way than I'd originally expected.  Biden, in particular, has moved far beyond the earlier eras in Rome I was comparing to (I thought Sulla vs Marius was likely - I have long since been proven Biden is moving several hundred years PAST that era with more authoritarian attempts and growth of government overspending).  He is, in fact, rather frightening to me.

Anyway, I'm heading out to radiation yet again and hoping to find a massage to get the muscles feeling better.  Hopefully soon.  Hoped to be back in the gym, but felt off on Monday and Tuesday but getting back to feeling better now.