So after a day yesterday which saw pieces falling off my expensive vacuum cleaner, the doors falling of my murderously expensive Indonesian cabinets and my having to invest heavily in Kleenex tissues I wake up today to a message from the vaccum cleaner people 'bring it in, we'll exchange it' - an e-mail from the cabinet people 'e-mail pics we'll see what we can do' and no phlegm courtesy of Allegra (a fine drug)
Hurrah and Huzzah
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006
All medicated up
Ok
I now have anti-biotics and allergy medication.
Need to dump both into my system as a CAT scan can't tell the difference between an area of infection (so any phlegm on your chest) and an area of cancer.
Want to clear this up before Weds then... cause I ain't doing 2 CAT scans, the barium is horrible.
Weird that I think that I'm dying, Jude thinks I have another chest infection (low white cell count, lots of people on the subway) and the hospital thinks that I have hayfever (the pollen count this wek has been 'extreme')
Gotta love perspective, dontcha?
I now have anti-biotics and allergy medication.
Need to dump both into my system as a CAT scan can't tell the difference between an area of infection (so any phlegm on your chest) and an area of cancer.
Want to clear this up before Weds then... cause I ain't doing 2 CAT scans, the barium is horrible.
Weird that I think that I'm dying, Jude thinks I have another chest infection (low white cell count, lots of people on the subway) and the hospital thinks that I have hayfever (the pollen count this wek has been 'extreme')
Gotta love perspective, dontcha?
Damn
Coughing like a maniac today
And spitting clear liquid into a million tissues again
Obviously something isn't right
Last time this happened it took 10 days of anti-biotics to clear things up
Hope that's the case again
have a call in to the hospital, waiting on a reply (and a prescription)
Let's see when they get back to me
And spitting clear liquid into a million tissues again
Obviously something isn't right
Last time this happened it took 10 days of anti-biotics to clear things up
Hope that's the case again
have a call in to the hospital, waiting on a reply (and a prescription)
Let's see when they get back to me
More movie Reviews
Amusing myself with writing more movie reviews
Da Vinci Code today which started with the line
"All you need to know about The Da Vinci Code is this - Tom Hank's hair isn't the worst thing about the movie"
As I said, amusing myself
Da Vinci Code today which started with the line
"All you need to know about The Da Vinci Code is this - Tom Hank's hair isn't the worst thing about the movie"
As I said, amusing myself
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Test schedule
Okay for those who need to know
I have a PET scan on the 23rd
I have a CAT scan on the 24th
I meet with my oncologist on the 25th
And I have a radiation oncology meeting pencilled in for the 30th
All systems are go
I have a PET scan on the 23rd
I have a CAT scan on the 24th
I meet with my oncologist on the 25th
And I have a radiation oncology meeting pencilled in for the 30th
All systems are go
Easily bored?
Throughout my adult working life I’ve been plagued by rumors that I’m ‘easily bored.’ Having not been bored since discovering The Internet, that my neighbors had no curtains and the relentless joys of masturbation I’ve taken great exception to this.
I’m not easily bored, I’m constantly exasperated.
You see I work in an advertising agency. Which these days means working with second string business graduates caught within the moldy confines of their own, MBA inspired, vocabulary.
It wasn’t always thus. There was a time when advertising agencies were full of fearsome, drug addled alcoholic maniacs prone to rage, violence and occasional moments of genius. Unable to hold down a job anywhere else in the world these men were a half Guinness away from being the urine stained guy that corporate clients stepped over as they left the theatre and looked nervously about for their on expenses Lincoln town cars.
And this was a good thing – because the deviants within an agency had very different ways of looking at the world than did the clients who paid for their thinking. And that’s what Lincoln town car ordering corporate clients wanted from advertising agencies. Fresh perspectives.
But somewhere in the 80s tings changed. Tight men with tight mouths and penchants for acronyms took over the advertising world.
HR people were hired, carpets turned a soul sucking gray and a knee grazingly hard wearing corduroy. Trousers turned a khaki beige and acquired neat creases. Good dentistry started to be the norm, swearing stopped being the norm.
Agencies started to look like their clients – who all looked like each other and profit margins started to shrink. When you have a plethora of identical companies offering identical services to identical clients price tends to become a bigger factor.
To compensate for this the acronym’d holding companies invested in advertising testing companies and demanded that all ads be tested – lest something damaging slip through the net.
Thus the identical agencies started to run their ideas through a hugely profitable marketing wind tunnel – and the ads, like the cars sculpted in a wind tunnel before them, all came out looking the same.
It was around this time that people stopped paying attention to the ads.
It was into this freshly minted hell that I fell. Head full of jingles, instant potato shilling aliens and naked, bald, fat orange men who might just give you a slap if you weren’t careful.
And here the exasperation started.
Exasperated at the number of times I hear the words ‘Out of the box’
Exasperated at having to explain that an ad’ featuring a 13 year old Romanian gymnast that ends with the words ‘full splits, crotch shot’ isn’t right for a brand whose tone is sophisticated, witty, more Noel Cowerd than Noel Edmunds.
Exasperated at the number of suits and identical hairstyles.
But worst of all exasperated to be in an industry where tasseled loafers still abound unpunished.
So these days upon hearing of plans to escape the dreaded box, or upon being slowly read a script that’s heading towards pre-pubescent snatch or approach by a tassel loafer’d suit I run for the hills.
Easily bored? No just in mourning for the industry we lost.
I’m not easily bored, I’m constantly exasperated.
You see I work in an advertising agency. Which these days means working with second string business graduates caught within the moldy confines of their own, MBA inspired, vocabulary.
It wasn’t always thus. There was a time when advertising agencies were full of fearsome, drug addled alcoholic maniacs prone to rage, violence and occasional moments of genius. Unable to hold down a job anywhere else in the world these men were a half Guinness away from being the urine stained guy that corporate clients stepped over as they left the theatre and looked nervously about for their on expenses Lincoln town cars.
And this was a good thing – because the deviants within an agency had very different ways of looking at the world than did the clients who paid for their thinking. And that’s what Lincoln town car ordering corporate clients wanted from advertising agencies. Fresh perspectives.
But somewhere in the 80s tings changed. Tight men with tight mouths and penchants for acronyms took over the advertising world.
HR people were hired, carpets turned a soul sucking gray and a knee grazingly hard wearing corduroy. Trousers turned a khaki beige and acquired neat creases. Good dentistry started to be the norm, swearing stopped being the norm.
Agencies started to look like their clients – who all looked like each other and profit margins started to shrink. When you have a plethora of identical companies offering identical services to identical clients price tends to become a bigger factor.
To compensate for this the acronym’d holding companies invested in advertising testing companies and demanded that all ads be tested – lest something damaging slip through the net.
Thus the identical agencies started to run their ideas through a hugely profitable marketing wind tunnel – and the ads, like the cars sculpted in a wind tunnel before them, all came out looking the same.
It was around this time that people stopped paying attention to the ads.
It was into this freshly minted hell that I fell. Head full of jingles, instant potato shilling aliens and naked, bald, fat orange men who might just give you a slap if you weren’t careful.
And here the exasperation started.
Exasperated at the number of times I hear the words ‘Out of the box’
Exasperated at having to explain that an ad’ featuring a 13 year old Romanian gymnast that ends with the words ‘full splits, crotch shot’ isn’t right for a brand whose tone is sophisticated, witty, more Noel Cowerd than Noel Edmunds.
Exasperated at the number of suits and identical hairstyles.
But worst of all exasperated to be in an industry where tasseled loafers still abound unpunished.
So these days upon hearing of plans to escape the dreaded box, or upon being slowly read a script that’s heading towards pre-pubescent snatch or approach by a tassel loafer’d suit I run for the hills.
Easily bored? No just in mourning for the industry we lost.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Easy money
There’s an old advertising cliché that insists that everybody involved advertising secretly has a screenplay tucked away in their bottom draw.
The cliché is that the screenplay will be their salvation – an escape from the crushing routine that goes into making of 30 second films that will be skipped, ignored and used as an indicator that it’s okay to run to the bathroom now.
An escape from commerce into art.
I don’t have a screenplay. It’s too much like hard work. Instead I have elevator pitch ideas for shows that I invariably see months later on television.
I really ought to try harder to sell them, here are the latest
Last Shot – American Idol for contestants between 30 and 45.
The twist? In addition to the auditions the judges have to go out and find half of the final 12 (in clubs, busking, on cruise ships, etc.) “Sponsoring” two contestants.
Every contestant has to have been trying to break through for at least 10 years
And we’re emotionally invested because unlike the kids on Idol… these guys don’t have years in front of them.
This is their Last Shot
Redemption
Apprentice style soulless business types are given the chance to perform Extreme Home Makeover style good deeds for ‘worthy families’
We get to see them evolve as people as well as cry with the families
The Pitch
Teams of four pitch against advertising professionals to come up with the best ideas on some of the biggest brands in America. We watch them at the briefing, working on original ideas, presenting to client and testing their ideas. Those who beat the professionals see their ideas made and win $250,000
Maybe I should flesh these out
The cliché is that the screenplay will be their salvation – an escape from the crushing routine that goes into making of 30 second films that will be skipped, ignored and used as an indicator that it’s okay to run to the bathroom now.
An escape from commerce into art.
I don’t have a screenplay. It’s too much like hard work. Instead I have elevator pitch ideas for shows that I invariably see months later on television.
I really ought to try harder to sell them, here are the latest
Last Shot – American Idol for contestants between 30 and 45.
The twist? In addition to the auditions the judges have to go out and find half of the final 12 (in clubs, busking, on cruise ships, etc.) “Sponsoring” two contestants.
Every contestant has to have been trying to break through for at least 10 years
And we’re emotionally invested because unlike the kids on Idol… these guys don’t have years in front of them.
This is their Last Shot
Redemption
Apprentice style soulless business types are given the chance to perform Extreme Home Makeover style good deeds for ‘worthy families’
We get to see them evolve as people as well as cry with the families
The Pitch
Teams of four pitch against advertising professionals to come up with the best ideas on some of the biggest brands in America. We watch them at the briefing, working on original ideas, presenting to client and testing their ideas. Those who beat the professionals see their ideas made and win $250,000
Maybe I should flesh these out
Monday, May 15, 2006
Just another pic
Before chemo I wouldn't have my picture taken, now I'm a lens whore... never leaving the house without a camera and just willing people to say the words "Let me take one of you"
Wonder if 'attention seeking' is a side effect of the drugs still coarsing through my system? Might explain the 'drama queenery' too.
Wonder if 'attention seeking' is a side effect of the drugs still coarsing through my system? Might explain the 'drama queenery' too.
Still here, still waiting
In what's become a familiar refrain, I'm still waiting on some news of when my scans will be.
Scheduling is not what Cornell does best.
The weird thing is that I might be 'cured' (the quotation marks representing the high relapse rate) and ready to be back at work full time and proper by June 1st.
In my bones however I feel that they're going to to radiation therapy. Weird how it works, radiation therapy. Basically it breaks down the cell DNA. Brutal huh?
Have to be careful about phrases like ''in my bones" too - as that's about the only place this cancer didn't visit pre-treatment.
Anyway just wanted to put up a simple update that let people know where I am medically rather than mentally.
That's it
Scheduling is not what Cornell does best.
The weird thing is that I might be 'cured' (the quotation marks representing the high relapse rate) and ready to be back at work full time and proper by June 1st.
In my bones however I feel that they're going to to radiation therapy. Weird how it works, radiation therapy. Basically it breaks down the cell DNA. Brutal huh?
Have to be careful about phrases like ''in my bones" too - as that's about the only place this cancer didn't visit pre-treatment.
Anyway just wanted to put up a simple update that let people know where I am medically rather than mentally.
That's it
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