First item on the agenda: I got my Mini Moo Cards today! FINALLY! I decided to order only two photos for the batch this time instead of fiddling around with the 20 or so last time. There were so many different photos to choose from that I was showing the whole collection every time and people couldn’t decide which one to take. The choices are now narrowed down to two: wedding glasses with (Fancy and Rod’s) rings in them, or a spouting geyser in Iceland. There’s a lot more information in the back, though: my Toronto and Vancouver phone numbers, one email address, two website addresses.

I took a photo of them on my computer in low light and high ISO to test the noise on the D300. It looks pretty noisy here in a larger size, but according to the EXIF data it’s at ISO4000, f/2.8, 1/320s. Not bad. I tested the noise reduction utility in Capture NX on this photo and it works quite well at <15%, better than using Adobe Camera RAW.

In other banal news, it’s SNOWING. Here’s what the tree in the front yard looks like now versus six days ago:

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I spent Saturday afternoon at a house on Broadview Avenue here in Toronto, documenting the search for a wedding dress for a photography client and getting a firsthand look at how The Brides’ Project works.

It all started with an email from Haida last week, inviting me to accompany her on a bridal-themed weekend which included trying on wedding gowns and attending a bridal show. She sent along a link to The Brides’ Project and I was intrigued by the concept as this is something I’d never heard of before but wished was around when I was shopping for a wedding dress in ‘04/’05, even before cancer had touched my own life in such a personal way.

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This year the Terry Fox Run will take place on Sunday, September 14. I need sponsors!

Last year I did the Terry Fox Run with Arliin and her friend Esther, in High Park here in Toronto. This year I will be doing it in Stanley Park, Vancouver.

(Reposting from last year:)

Any Canadian over the age of probably six knows the Terry Fox story because the whole country participates in the annual runs, from coast to coast. The schools I attended had the entire student population do the run every September, as part of school.

Of course, even if I’d never heard of Terry Fox, I have my own personal reasons to support cancer research.

If you’d like to add your support, I’ve got online pledging set up through the Terry Fox website. The site accepts donations in any currency, and has a currency converter.

Yes, I’d like to support cancer research and Gail needs the exercise! Take me to the pledge page.

Where does the money go?
I want to find out more information.
I’d like to do the Terry Fox Run, too! Where else in Canada is it taking place?
I live outside of Canada, are there Terry Fox Runs worldwide? (From Flickr: there’s a Terry Fox Run in Hyde Park, London, every year.)

Please give generously! Thank you!

The bone marrow registry is still seeking a donor for Carolyn Tam:

CBC News, June 10, 2008: Toronto woman seeks bone marrow transplant from donor of Chinese descent

This is a follow-up on the post dated May 4. It’s a race against time now for Carolyn and others diagnosed with leukemia. If you’re of Chinese descent, please take a second look at savecarolyn.com, it’s been updated.

http://savecarolyn.com/

This is Carolyn Tam, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006, which eventually went into remission for one year. She is now back in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy, but she needs a bone marrow transplant to survive. Representation for the Asian population is VERY low on the donor database. PLEASE register and become a potential donor, you could save a life!

Wherever you are in the world, please visit your local bone marrow registry to get yourself tested and registered. All it takes is a simple blood test to determine your bone marrow profile for matching purposes, and there is no obligation to donate, you always have a choice. Not only will you be helping Carolyn, but also any one else in the world who needs a bone marrow transplant.

For more information, please visit the website.

As many of you know, I went to a memorial last year of a friend’s father who died of leukemia 11 weeks from diagnosis. He was 59.

This last trip to Vancouver a month ago, brought me news of two more deaths from cancer. When my father picked me up at the airport, he informed me that my high school teacher, Gwen Bader (48), died of ovarian cancer only three days before. Also, a high school friend’s mother, who I last saw one year ago at the memorial I mentioned above. I believe she died of pancreatic cancer. All three of these people led very healthy lifestyles.

(For those who don’t know, I was widowed by cancer.)

Cancer isn’t just something you hear on the news anymore, it touches people around you and hits close to home. Being a potential bone marrow donor is even more valuable than giving to a cancer charity, it can save a life. Please register.

I was sad to read the news this morning that legendary Canadian musician Jeff Healey passed away last night in a hospital here in Toronto at the age of 41, from the same cancer that took away his eyesight as a baby. It didn’t stop him from building a music career, getting married and having kids, or leaving behind an inspiring legacy of showmanship despite an unconventional playing style and a disability. But in the end it did stop him — cancer took Jeff Healey before his time. 41 is far too young. David would’ve been 41 this year.

Monday, March 3: Despite long battle with cancer, Jeff Healey’s death still shocking: bandmate

I have several versions of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” including a classical guitar instrumental, but Jeff Healey’s is my all-time favourite. When I moved to Toronto two years ago (tomorrow today), I listened to Healey’s jazz show on local radio, but when I think of him I will always think of this performance first.

click to view photo notes in Flickr

I use my passport quite often (especially at the U.S. border), and came across this page recently when I was at the Passport Office to renew it.

October 1, 2004, is when I first met David face-to-face. We were in some online forums together and until that point our communication was online and on the phone. I mentioned in September that I was interested in flying with him — I never knew anyone who owned his own airplane — and suggested that we should meet.

David picked me up at JFK, quite nervously. I told him later that my first impression of him was that he was "a little gruff". It’s about 2.5 hours from JFK to Scranton, Pennsylvania, so my goal for the whole car ride was to make him feel more at ease. By the look of things when we left JFK, I had my work cut out for me.

We got engaged shortly after, so I would venture to say that first weekend was a resounding success.

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It’s next weekend, Sunday, September 16. I need sponsors! I was reminded recently that the run was coming up, and I’ve just decided to try and do it every year. My goal is to actually RUN it, but I’m in no shape to do that next weekend — I’ll have to work up to it. Since I only signed up today and it’s 10 days from now, I’m going to set a modest goal of $300.

Any Canadian over the age of probably six knows the Terry Fox story because the whole country participates in the annual runs, from coast to coast. The schools I attended had the entire student population do the run every September, as part of school.

According to Wikipedia, the Terry Fox Run is the largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research.

From the Terry Fox website:

Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a community near Vancouver on Canada’s west coast. An active teenager involved in many sports, Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres (six inches) above the knee in 1977.

While in hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope.

After 18 months and running over 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles) to prepare, Terry started his run in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 with little fanfare. Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day through Canada’s Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario.

It was a journey that Canadians never forgot.

However, on September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at age 22.

The heroic Canadian was gone, but his legacy was just beginning.

To date, more than $400 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry’s name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.

When Terry Fox died in 1981, I just turned 9 years old, but I distinctly remember the television footage of this lonely figure running along the side of the road, trying to achieve this monumental goal and outrun the cancer. He had a prosthetic leg, so he had a unique lopsided running gait. That kind of imagery sticks with you for life.

Of course, even if I’d never heard of Terry Fox, I have my own personal reasons to support cancer research.

It’s been years since I did the run — Grade 12! — but it’s high time I joined it again. If you’d like to add your support, I’ve got online pledging set up through the Terry Fox website. The site accepts donations in any currency, and has a currency converter.

Yes, I’d like to support cancer research and Gail needs the exercise! Take me to the pledge page.

Where does the money go?
I want to find out more information.
I’d like to do the Terry Fox Run, too! Where else in Canada is it taking place?
I live outside of Canada, are there Terry Fox Runs worldwide? (From Flickr: there’s a Terry Fox Run in Hyde Park, London, every year.)

Please give generously! Thank you!

For the seventh morning in a row I woke up wishing for a cough-free day and to be miraculously cured of this throat plague. Alas.

Hacking miserably all the way to the office, as soon as I reached my desk I called the medical clinic to see a doctor and got an appointment for 11:15. I was hoping — as bizarre as it sounds — for a diagnosis of a bacterial infection because then I could take antibiotics and hopefully be done with it. But the doctor said it was definitely not a bacterial infection, it was viral. So, no antibiotics, she says, I just have to let this virus run its course.

It’s been a week but it feels like forever, like this virus has had ample time to play a course of 18 holes all around my throat and lungs and is now looking for teammates to play another round.

Probably the other part of this that riles me up is the memory of David’s PCP (Primary Care Physician) in Pennsylvania — an FAA doctor — who prescribed antibiotics over the telephone. David had been coughing for a whole month because this same doctor kept postponing his appointments by a week at a time, and he never looked at David’s throat. If he had, he wouldn’t have prescribed antibiotics because IT WASN’T BACTERIAL. In fact, if David had a viral infection, those antibiotics could’ve made things worse. As it stood, David’s condition was neither viral nor bacterial, it was because a tumour was growing in his lung and irritating his air passage — a discovery only made by the ER doctor after discussing all the symptoms with David in person.

And those are the operative words: in person.

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Wednesday, May 30
NY Yankees 10, Toronto Blue Jays 5

This is what the Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome) looks like with the roof open. I’m moving tomorrow, after a year with this view from my balcony at night facing east. I can’t say I’ll miss living next to a 55,000-seat baseball stadium. I’ve still not seen inside it.

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