Media

Media - Books, DVDs, Music, Television

Following is a list of what I've been reading, watching and listening to, and what I think about it or what it makes me think about.

Please feel free to comment with rebuttals, or more usefully, suggest other media that complements or contradicts anything you see here (or see-hear!).

General philosophy of this page is De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum, but more specific philosophy, based on rule #1 is Mea gustat regula

 

Books

Title	Author	Genre	Notes
REAMDE	Neal Stephenson	Sci-Fi / Thriller	Not his best. Pretty good though. Thriller plot mixes up MMORPGs, Chinese Hackers, Russian Mafia, and Al-Qaeda. Does't match 'Snow Crash' or 'Cryptonomicon', or even the 'Baroque Cycle'. About on par with 'Zodiac' and 'Diamond Age', though the latter has special geek-apeal with allegories of historical computing theory (which admittedly may have a 'limited' audience.)
The Hobbit	J. R. R. Tolkien	Fantasy	Great. Nth time through, still a page turner. I heard a rumor about a movie.
The Lost Gate	Orson Scott Card	Fantasy	A bit young (teen-ish), but quite good. Reminds me of cross between Card's 'Ender' series ('Ender's Shadow' in particular) and Pullman's 'Subtle Knife', with a smattering of Thor and Adam's Dirk Gently series.

 

DVDs

Title	Details	Notes
Harry Potter	7.1	Need to see 7.2 now, And 1 through 6.
Yes, Minister	s1e1	Different opening credits
Robin Hood, Men In Tights		Was going to Match LOTR, but somebody removed it from the case! I figure this will be similar. (Later) It wasn't. In spite of Jean Luc Picard meeting up with Farmboy Wesley, it's among Mel Brooks' weaker effort. He's reused jokes from previous movies. He should have tried recycling, or reducing in this case.
Yes, Minister	s1e2, s1e3	e2 riffs on Stateroom scene from Night at the Opera e3 doesn't end with Humphrey saying 'Yes, Minister'

 

Music

Artist	Album	Notes
Pink Floyd	The Wall	Actually Pulse Disc 2, which is a live version of The Wall
Slipknot	All Hope Is Gone (Special Edition)	Sorry KID2, not my cuppa.
Glenn Gould	Art of Glen Gould - Bach, Beethoven, Haydn	Cure for Slipknot
Fleetwood Mac	Best of …	"Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow, Don't stop, it'll soon be here, It'll be, better than before, Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone" "Yes I can live today, If you give me tomorrow"
James Galway	Essential James Galway vol 2	Pop-tunes and movie themes
Chicago	Greatest Hits 1982-1989	Yeah, oldies. (Not the musical / movie)
Mozrt	Introducing Mozart	I thought we already knew him. Also, even oldier.
Bach	Brandeburg Concerti	Oldiest, so far

 

Television

Show	Season, Episode	Notes
Big Bang Theory	s5e22	The Stag Convergence
Fringe	s4e19	Letters of Transit
Fringe	s4e20	Worlds Apart
Once Upon a Time	s1e20	The Stranger
Amazing Race	s20e10

Be A Donor

Though you probably can't help me, there are always ways to help others by registering to be a donor. Here are some options:

• Give blood. In Canada, go to Canadian Blood Services to find out how, where and when.

  I was a blood donor - and that's how I found out I had a problem. Since I don't have any symptoms (at present, anyway), it might have been several months before I was diagnosed. Instead, routine blood tests when donating tipped me off early. So, give blood - the life you save may be your own!

• Get on the Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry.

  Since only full siblings are possible matches; even slightly further relatives are no more likely than any random person to match me. But it could happen, and it would be found if you were already registered. And maybe you'll match someone else, while some other random donor might match me. I'd call that even.

  Note that you need to be between 17 and 50 to get on the registry, but if you're on by that age they'll keep you on.

• Think about organ and tissue donation before the time comes that you don't need them yourself.

PsAcronyms

Here is a list of Pseudonym-Acronyms, or the latest future hipster-like trend to hit the inter-thingy, Psacronyms!

People (pseudo-people anyway)

Who	What	Description
Family
CMC	me	male, 50-ish
WIF	spouse	female, 50-ish
KID1	son	late teens, in university, aka SON
KID2	daughter	mid teens, in high school, aka DAU
MOM	mother	80-ish
DAD	father	deceased at age 71(1997) of lymphoma
SIB1	oldest bro	50-ish, aka BRO1
SIB2	older bro	50-ish aka BRO2
SIB3	sister	50-ish aka SIS
Doctors
DRGR	family doctor	(since 1990, or so)
DRMT	hematologist	first specialist I saw, at St. Mikes
DRRB	hematologist	my main Dr. at Sunnybrook
DRLC	hematologist	colleague of DRRB
DRxx	medic	various other docs
Other Relatives - Use initials in place of 'xx' if you want to pseudo-identify yourself to people who know you
RELxx	relative	any relative of CMC or WIF not listed above
Friends - Same 'xx' note
FRDxx	friend	anyone who's not related to me or WIF
Co-workers - Same 'xx' note again
WRKxx	co worker	anyone from my work, past or present (and hopefully, future!)

Other Strange and Exciting Terms

Eh?	What	Description
AML	Acute Myelogenous Leukemia	(Sometimes called 'myeloid')
MDS	Myelodysplastic Syndrome	(formerly known as 'pre-leukemia')
ish	adjectival prevaricative suffix	if attached to a number it means 'more than' by any amount somewhere between a tiny bit and laughably too much if attached to anything else it means 'not really'

The Rules

I figure if I'm going to have a Blog, I get to make the rules.

So, here are the rules.

Rule #0

You must follow the rules.
Sometimes I will follow the rules too, but that's not one of my rules.

(Why #0? See Rule #3)

Rule #1

Tone. Let's keep it light. As much as possible anyway.
Cancer is not funny, but it's much easier to get through it (and to get through life in general) if we can all have a sense of humor (which may, in my case, include sarcasm!).

Don't have one? Try amazon.

Rule #2

Anonymous. I'm trying to keep this anonymous, and not name anyone who isn't already famous. So all comments may be made without any sign-in whatsoever. Please try to follow this rule as well, for the sake of others if not yourself. If you really do want to identify yourself, I suggest using either just your first name and last initial, or use the pseudonym-acronyms. But I WONT be moderating your comments (I expect to have other things to do), so it's up to you.

Perhaps I'm too paranoid, but I'm told that beats three noids of a kind.

And, BTW, if you think you are famous and you are still referred to by a pseudonym-acronym, I'm sure you can find another blog to deal with your 'issue'.

Rule #3

The G word. One day, I went to my parents and told them "It's time I came out of the TARDIS. I'm a Geek." They said "We know. We've always known. We love you anyway."

You too can be a geek. It's ok. If you see too many obscure references, go read / watch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Lord of the Rings, Monty Python, The Princess Bride, Star Trek, Star Wars, Young Frankenstein, et al ad infitnitem. (n.b. previous list shown in alphabetical order to eliminate possibility of favouritism and prevent global-thermonuclear-geek-flame-war.)

When you can contribute your own obscurities, grasshopper, you will finally be ready to admit to your inner-geek.

Rule #4

No Adult content. No more 'splanation required. End of 'scussion!

Rule #5

If you have particular views on religion, spirtualism, psychic powers, no-traditional medicines etc., that's fine, and I really honestly appreciate that from your point of view this may help you (and perhaps me). So good wishes stemming from your beliefs are alright, but as I am not of the faith (any one you'd like to mention), I don't want to get into debates about 'do this, follow that', etc.

Rule #6

There is no Rule #6.

Rule #7

Topics can be anything I like. (See Rule #0)
Frequency will be whatever I can manage.
Diversions may happen. Diversions of diversions may happen.

Rule #8

All rules are subject to change at any time at my sole discretion, except Rule #8.

About the Blog

This is the blog for Canadian Man with Cancer.

The cancer in question is Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), and it's related disease Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS).

This started up with me in February of 2012, and while I am undergoing treatments and life in general, I intend to use this blog to keep anyone who's interested up to date. I may also use it for random topics to help relieve me of boredom, and anyone is welcome to join in on any topic he or she likes.

I'll assume that you, visitor, either know me and have been given the Blog address in order to keep in touch vicariously, or you have stumbled in as a result of searching for cancer or leukemia or something similar. In either case, you are welcome here. If you do know me, then you'll probably know many of the other people I refer to cryptically (see the psacronym page for some de-cryptification. And if not, it doesn't matter.

And don't forget to check out the Rules please. Though they may sound strict, I am nothing if not flexible. (Quiet in the back, there.) So if they aren't working out, I'll consider changing them.

About the CMC

I'm CMC, or CanManCan.

You can call me:

• CMC, or
• CanManCan, or
• Cancer Man (from) Canada, or
• Canadian Man (with) Cancer, or
• Cancer Man Can (beat this cancer), or
• Canadian Man Can (beat it),
• But ya doesn't have to call me Johnston.

Here is a picture of NOT ME.

That's the 'Cigarette Smoking Man', or 'Cancer Man', from the X-Files. I don't look like that. And I don't smoke. (But apparently, neither does William B. Davis, the actor playing the CM. And he is Canadian too. All the coolest people are.)