Here’s to a safe and happy holiday for everyone out there! May God bless you in the new year, as well.
As if the B1G football championship Saturday weren’t going to be enough, we have awesome match-ups the next two nights in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. UM better take care of business against Virginia, then OSU/Duke tonight, MSU/FSU and Wisconsin/UNC tomorrow. Much fun!!!
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/40351/big-tenacc-challenge-day-1-preview
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/40381/big-tenacc-challenge-day-2-preview
Apparently the site has been down a lot lately. Unfortunately, my webhost is proving to be not only somewhat slow to respond, but the performance of the site itself is becoming prohibitively slow. For now, I will try to monitor performance and uptime, and if needed, I will be seeking a new host in the Spring. Meanwhile, please let me know if you notice the site is down. Email is chris at this domain.
Thanks,
-Chris
Now that I’ve slept for about 14 hours and have a clear head, I wanted to share some thoughts on Relay for Life.
First, the selfish stuff about my 24-hour walk. Final tally is actually about 50 miles. We recounted my beads (lap counters) and I had 148, and I didn’t collect beads for the walk from the campsite to closing ceremonies, the ceremonial last lap, or the walk back to the campsite, which amounts to 2 more laps. I want to point out that this wasn’t 24 hours with no rest. After the first 10 hours, I had to stop every hour or so to rest briefly and massage my feet and calves and try to stretch.
However, the more important reason why I finished was the support and encouragement. The organizers made sure everyone knew I was going for 24 hours. Nearly every lap someone shouted my name or clapped or otherwise urged me on. Especially in the early morning, that was huge. Andy Douglas and Craig Olson walked many laps with me — the discussion helped take my mind off sore legs and feet. My son Joshua walked more than 10 miles with me (he’s 9!!!). Connie Page paid for my chair massage (which was a godsend!), and she and Tammie Morrell (the event chair) were my biggest cheerleaders and kept me supplied with hugs and laughter throughout. Deb Foster and her family kept me company and cheered all through the night — one of my favorite cheers being the truck PA announcement near the end of the event. The limo driver whose name I don’t know who would shout something about an ungodly amount of time or laps I had left — every single lap — keeping me smiling. Many others as well, Brian Foster, Sue Bergin, Charlotte, Mary, and all the other people who knew my name, but I failed to catch or remember theirs — I remember their faces and their words of encouragement. The shouts of “Go Chris!” and “Keep going!” at 4 something in the morning helped more than they will ever know. The standing ovation at the closing ceremonies was the icing, and elicited the expected tears.
Our relay raised nearly $40K and more than doubled last year’s event, and this was with fewer people and teams. Limping one final time around the course for the final lap felt really good (emotionally).
I don’t know if I’ll ever try to do 24 hours again, but I hope my effort inspires other survivors to fight hard and live life to the fullest! I will certainly return to the Milan Relay for Life. I met so many wonderful and kind people from my community working in concert for a cause that is important to me.
Last week, my oncologist shared with me a grave concern for patients like me. There is currently a nationwide shortage of two of the chemotherapy drugs that helped save my life, and just a few months ago, there was a shortage of the third. With extremely aggressive cancers, immediate treatment is vital to success.
Legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate to try to give the FDA the ability to take action to prevent shortages of live-saving drugs like Bleomycin, Etoposide, and Cisplatin — all of which are either in shortage now or have been recently. Those three drugs put a stop to the spread of embryonal carcinoma in me last summer — what about the people being diagnosed now?
Here is the text I added to the form letter to express my personal concern and support for the bills:
“This bill is of particular interest to me, because currently two of the drugs that are in shortage are drugs that helped save my life: etoposide and cisplatin. These chemotherapy drugs are currently the best options for treating and often curing testicular cancer. At diagnosis, I was facing a very aggressive cancer (embryonal carcinoma) that grew a 14mm (~0.5 inch) tumor in my left lung in less than 8 weeks. Without aggressive treatment with a combination of drugs known as BEP (Bleomycin, Etoposide, and Cisplatin), the metastasis would have continued, and my prognosis would have not been good. As a result of treatment with these valuable medicines, I am 100% in remission — my wife still has a husband, and my three children, a father. Others, who are being diagnosed every day, could lose their cancer battles unnecessarily, if we cannot ensure they get the treatment that can cure them. It is imperative that supply of these life-saving drugs be maintained to save lives.”
Please consider contacting your representatives and senators to let them know that this is a situation we need to prevent.
Take action on Senate Bill 296:
http://capwiz.com/asco/issues/alert/?alertid=27086626
Take action on House Resolution 2245:
http://capwiz.com/asco/issues/alert/?alertid=50821901
NPR did a special on Eddie Vedder’s new record Ukulele songs.
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/25/136649054/first-listen-eddie-vedder-ukulele-songs
This makes me so very, very happy. I love that the venerable uke is getting some love from more mainstream people these days. Greg Hawkes (of ‘The Cars’) did a record of Beatles covers a few years back called The Beatles Uke that is worth a listen as well — really nice. http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Uke-Greg-Hawkes/dp/B001FWPXYA
Even if you don’t have an obsession with the adorable 4-stringed instrument from Hawaii, you might find that in the hands of the right musician, it creates some lovely (non-cloying) sounds… Give these a listen.
I am planning to walk in the local Relay for Life to raise awareness and funds for the American Cancer Society. Check out my page here: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/chrisoverbeek
Please consider supporting this worthy cause. I know very few people who haven’t been directly affected by cancer, and as a recent survivor myself, I am acutely aware of the impact a diagnosis can have on someone and their family.
Well, I have finally given up and admitted to myself I wasn’t going to be able to recover my Community Server site. It appears that some ne’er-do-wells found a vulnerability and wiped out enough tables in the DB that: 1. I lost all posts since January of 2009, and 2. I would have to hand-recover the DB since I don’t have my original install scripts.
I will miss the flexibility of the forums and photo pages, but perhaps I will readd some of that functionality here over time. For now, I am simply starting with a rudimentary WordPress blog for myself, and I will slowly re-add little items like my brewing pages and anything else I feel compelled to play with. For now, there won’t be much here, as I try to sift through the old data and whimper that all those thousands of posts and forum entries are completely gone… sniffle, sniffle.
