Glios, Resin and Fighting Real Monsters.

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.

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.

 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.

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.