It's an incredible feeling to be able to relate the news that my mother seems to be doing great, at least as well as could be expected. Her specialists are very optimistic. She is undergoing prophylactic radiation therapy to avert possible metastasis to the brain, but it appears that the lung tumor is no longer detectable, after five rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Mom is still dealing with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, but seems to be responding (slowly) to treatment.

If you know anyone who smokes - plea...read more

Just over two months ago, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer.
She had been receiving treatment for neurological symptoms, which had
not been responding as well to treatment as her specialist had
expected. He suspected that there might be complicating factors, and
ordered tests that eventually revealed the presence of a cancerous
mass in Mom's left lung. His conscientiousness led to an early stage
detection, a glimmer of luck in a statistically grim landscape.

Mom had been a smoker for most of her adult life,...read more

I'm excited that I'll finally get to hear Wade Davis speak when the Atira Womens' Resource Society brings him to Vancouver to speak at a fundraiser for the Digital Storytelling Project.

Wade is one of those icons of our postmodern age - an explorer in a time when the very idea of exploration seems a thing of the past. He is a superstar academic, a guy who has let his curiosity lead him to parts of the world few people have ever seen, and who has let all that he has observed there shape a deeply felt and passionately articulated view of the planet. ...read more

Yes, using Elgg, of all things. The first, lengthly, 'bio-style' post introduces her to the world: Pamela Richardson. Thanks to Elgg's social networking, her Google rank for 'Pamela Richardson' was 3, even before she started posting. Another Pamela Richardson, who by some co-incidence also lives in Vancouver, has recently published a book and is climbing in the standings. And so the race is on...read more

Brian Jungen's Cetology I keep thinking about Brian Jungen's amazing work, on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery until April 30, 2006.

I arrived at the exhibition one afternoon, more or less on a whim, with almost no prior knowledge of his background or work. The word that popped into my head after a few minutes of seeing his work was 'magic' - in the sense of calling into being something that previously did not exist in this world; in the sense of recognizing the deep, or true, concealed or hidden nature or true being of something, by a deep understanding of that thing's relations in the world, by stripping away the surface or diversionary aspects, by finding hidden connections....read more