• I did what?

    I spent part of my last afternoon of recovery in solitude looking at ’08 presidential candidate videos over at YouTube. I know, conventional wisdom says it’s really early. But consider this, with the front-loaded and obscenely early primary season, each candidate will probably be effectively nominated by the end of January. O.K., seven months is still a little way off, but it’s not quite as far out as you thought, is it?

    Take a look for yourself. Some of the candidates actually put words to some specifics. I’m not going to tell you which ones… you’re going to have to look for yourself if you really want to know.

  • Trouser come lately

    Today I reached another milestone on my road to recovery. Since coming home from the hospital, it was the first time I’d worn a belt.

    That’s right friends, you now know more than you ever cared to know about my waistband. Well suited to the relaxed atmosphere here at recovery central… it’s been all elastics all the time.

    Today, however, I laced up a pair of less casual pants with the leather and buckled down for my first follow-up with the oncologist. Even though I’ve lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 pounds in the last few weeks, it was still a surprise when the well worn groove no longer cued up the right hole on my belt.

    Oh, there was one more thing I found out today: doc says I’m in full remission. As expected, I start back to work part time on Monday. I don’t know if I was just in some kind of denial, but I wasn’t even worried about it until I woke up this morning. I’d just taken it for granted that I would be in remission. Now it’s a load off… a big relief… I can officially start to get back to my normal life.

  • Part-time optimist

    Here’s my second favorite story gathered from the news today:

    BBC News: Vertical farming in the big apple.

    Here’s an excerpt:

    Now though, scientists at Columbia University are proposing an alternative. Their vision of the future is one in which the skyline of New York and other cities include a new kind of skyscaper: the “vertical farm”.

    The idea is simple enough. Imagine a 30-storey building with glass walls, topped off with a huge solar panel.

    On each floor there would be giant planting beds, indoor fields in effect.

    And more:

    The plan is to make the whole complex sustainable.

    Energy would come from a giant solar panel but there would also be incinerators which use the farm’s waste products for fuel. All of the water in the entire complex would be recycled.

    My question is this: is this an example of thinking inside or outside the box?

    I kid the vertical farm… but it does sound interesting, if not wildly expensive and therefore extremely unlikely.