I want to begin with
an apology for the long delay since the last post. I am doing well, and will add another update
in the near future describing my current condition and treatments.
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| Cover of the current issue of Amazing Figure Modeler |
For the past 14 years I have been writing
instructional articles for Amazing Figure Modeler magazine. For the current issue I wrote the issues
Editorial. Since the it hit the newsstands I have received a lot of feedback
from our readers. Many have reached out
with encouraging words, others have thanked me for the inspiration and a few
have offered help.
One of the more interesting emails that I received was from Dr. Mark Glassy. Mark is a huge collector, modeler and long time reader of the magazine. Where it gets interesting is Mark has made a career out of finding a cure for cancer, and he is currently working specifically with glioblastomas (the type of cancer that I am dealing with). More about Mark can be seen at The Doctor's Model Mansion.
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| Dr. Mark Glassy - Notice his "I Fight Real Monsters" shirt |
Because of the positive feedback I thought it
would be worth sharing what I wrote to everyone. Although it was written specifically for the
readers of the magazine (and I am posting it exactly how it went to print), I
think there are some things here that everyone can benefit from. If you have been following this
blog, some of the text will be redundant, however, I encourage you to read all the way
through it.
Usually on page two of AFM the issue begins with the Deadatorial that
focuses on a particular aspect of the hobby.
However this issue I would like to deviate from the hobby and talk about
more important things. Yes, there are
some things more important than resin kits.
So for the 55th installment I would like to discuss life, mortality and
other related matters.
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| A recent painting of mine that was first shown at Monsterpalooza. |
I was in LA for the awesome
Monsterpalooza show this past April. While
I was there I had a great time visiting with friends and just simply enjoying
the show. The day that I returned home I
noticed numbness down the left side of my body.
After a few days of getting worse, my wife convinced me to go to the
emergency room. Within an hour of my
arrival the doctor came in and told me that the CT scan revealed a tumor in my
brain. By the end of that day the neurosurgeon
suggested brain surgery as soon as possible.
I was in shock. How is this
possible? I went from feeling great, to having
a brain tumor overnight. I went through
the surgery and was back home in a week’s time.
Next came the waiting for the pathology report. That was the most stressful 7 days of my
life. Finally, the results were in and
the verdict was exactly what I did not want to hear. The tumor turned out to be a glioblastoma, an
aggressive cancerous form of brain tumor.
After surgery the
doctors gave me some time to recover before starting me on the next wave of
treatments. This consisted of six weeks
of daily chemotherapy and 30 rounds of radiation blasts to my brain. I am currently on a month long recovery
break. At the end of the month I will
start another year of chemotherapy. To help
my odds, I am also attempting a few alternative approaches to cancer healing
(for more details you can follow the blog http://starvethecancer.blogspot.com). The life expectancy with glioblastomas is not
very great, so the odds are against me.
However, I am not giving up. I
plan on living a full life, and will be looking back on this as an annoyance
that got in my way for a while.
So what does this have to do with
the readers of AFM? Directly, not a lot,
but indirectly, everything! I want to
take this time to remind everyone of how precious life is. You never know what is around the next
corner, so never take anything for granted.
Within a month of my surgery, my sister-in-law’s Uncle Mike was killed
in a work accident. He died instantly
without warning or pain.
Another month went by
before I heard the sad news of the passing of fellow modeler Steve Nagy. Steve was relatively new to the modeling
scene, but was quickly impressing people with his great building and painting
skills. He kicked butt in the contest at
Monsterpalooza 2013, and made his first trip to Wonderfest this year. Steve did not go instantly like “Uncle Mike”,
but his end was almost as sudden, passing away from injuries sustained in an automobile
accident.
Rather than depress
you all with more bad news, I want to take the rest of this space to challenge
everyone reading this to improve his or her life in at least one way. Whether it is to stop procrastinating the
next big project, or pursue a lifelong dream, please make a plan to get things
started. It is very easy to sit on the
couch in front of the TV, maybe watching the Travel Channel. With extra effort, you can go to the exotic
places you learned about on “No Reservations”.
If you have children, make an effort to include them in as many things
as possible (nothing is as important as family time). Getting kids involved in building model kits
is not just a great way to spend time with them, it also insures the future of
the hobby.
If figure modeling is
the most important thing in your life, take it to another level. This could be in the form of setting the bar higher
for your next kit. If you have never
made a custom base, give it a try. How
about getting into kit conversions? There
are endless possibilities from a simple repose, to a complete makeover that
changes a kit into a custom piece of art that nobody else will ever have. If these are all things that you have done in
the past, maybe it is time to try your hand at sculpting.
Outside the hobby
there is an endless list of things to try.
Learn to play a musical instrument, take up hiking, surfing, scuba
diving, skiing, kayaking, photography…
Point is, for every person, there is a list of things that have been
thought of, but never executed. One of
the many keys to a happy life is to not have regret over things that you could
have easily done, but instead put off until later.
If someone would have
told me in March, that I was about to go through everything I am currently dealing
with, I would have told them they were nuts, however, this bad dream is
unfortunately real. I still have a lot
of things that I would love to do, and I plan on doing them. Having said that, if this does not work out
in my favor, I can honestly say that I will be leaving here with no
regrets. I know it is not easy to learn
from others, but trust me, you will be happier trying and failing than never
trying at all.
