Survivor Journals
Bob of If I Die Before I Wake
has invited nine journallers to participate in a Cyber
Survivor Adventure.
Every couple of weeks, the
group will be issued a "challenge entry". The
site will post a excerpt from the challenge entries, as
well as the link to the complete entry found on the
journaller's own journal site.
After the challenge entry is posted, the nine journallers
will vote one of the writers off the site.
The "ousted" journaller will actually remain on
the site, but rather than posting further challenge
entries, they will act as a judge and commentator.
The first challenge entry has been issued, and can be
found at the Survivor Journal website. The actual entries
should be completed by
October 1, 2000.
Please take the time to visit, especially once the
challenge entries are posted. There is a message board to
post your thoughts/comments and also a instant poll where
visitors can vote for who they would want to see kicked
off the site.
The reasons behind Survivor Journals are simple.
1. To try something new.
2. Increase the interaction of the journal community.
3. The challenge.
4. Increased exposure to all journals involved.
So take a look around, explore all the journals involved.
If you would like to take part in Survivor Journals, Year
Two (around Nov/Dec 2000), let Bob know!
Diet Week #12
Goal :
lose 100 lbs.
Immediate goal:
the next 10 lbs.
Lost to date:
18 lbs
this number updates
on Tuesdays --
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THE LADY IN RED
October 11, 2000
"Take off that red top!"
Here I am, old Cal person, a blue through and through, and I'm traveling around the Stanford campus today in my RED jacket. I will admit it was with malice of forethought. When I was looking for something appropriate to wear to a formal dinner and spied this outfit, I knew that it would be perfect for Stanford. I wore it. It revolts me, but I do it.
Today is day #1 of Steve's whirlwind tour as Jonathan L. King lectureship featured speaker on the Stanford campus. King was a professor here, who died of cancer 10 or so years ago. (The details are on the program, which I don't have with me, so the details may not be exactly right.) He made an impassioned presentation to the Stanford Medical Bioethics Committee (a film clip of which was shown before Steve's presentation) on what it's like to be a dying patient and how doctors should view and treat those with terminal illnesses, allowing them to die with dignity, to have their questions answered, to be treated with respect, etc. Out of King's desire to educate the medical community about terminal illness from a patient's perspective has come the lectureship, which has featured 9 previous speakers (one a year), all with alphabet soup after their names, who have lectured on lofty topics. Steve is the first "patient" to be invited to give a presentation. From the response he got, both from listening to comments at the reception following and from things told to us directly, he was the most memorable of the bunch. He certainly got a fantastic reception.
But the day didn't start with the concert. First there was a meeting with various members of the bioethics committee, just sharing information and concerns. Nobody actually KNEW Steve or what his program would be like. He was kind of hired on blind faith on the recommendation of a doctor who had seen him two years ago. But Steve has this way of rising to the occasion and he gave an excellent presentation to the people who showed up to talk with him.
 
Then there was a big lunch and more schmoozing, following which we had a couple of hours to "rest" (Steve hogged the modem line, so I only got a little bit of time to check e-mail) before we headed off to the theatre for sound check.
Right off the bat, things were not right. The piano was not turned the right way, and some officious prissy queen who seemed to be in charge was very huffy at Steve's suggestion that they turn the piano around (who was Steve, after all? Only the performer!) They compromised on changing the angle of it slightly, which the PQ made a big to-do about because it screwed up the video camera angles and the lights. I kept thinking of Paul and how he would have responded in a similar circumstance. Definitely not with the "attitude" that the PQ was exuding. He then proceeded to spend about 20 minutes trying to focus a light on an arrangement of flowers, totally ignoring Steve. I hope the flowers look FABulous on videotape.
I was very impressed with the concert. Lord, I've seen the man do this show a bazillion times now, but it's different each time (he actually had me in tears three times). He did a wonderful job of weaving his own story into the story of Jonathan King. He had done his homework and had spent a day on the Internet reading all he could and watching the videos of other King Lectureship speakers, so he knew when and where he could refer back to King, or to other speakers. He also got a bit carried away in his "preaching" (even he was surprised at himself) to the medical profession about the importance of looking at patients as individual people, not as "the patient in Bed B." I told him his tears were "cheap theatrics," but I wasn't really serious. When he spoke truth from his heart, you could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium. The doctors, nurses and other medical professionals really listened. It was a connection between audience and performer that you could feel in a very unique way.
Following the concert (standing ovation, of course), there was a reception and Steve got lots of hugs and lots of people telling him how wonderful he was. Ken and I just stood in back and made nasty comments (Steve has referred to us as his nay-sayers. He says most people travel with yes men, but he's traveling with nay-sayers. We say he needs us to keep him humble.) After the reception, there was a dinner at the home of the woman who used to coordinate such events. It was a lovely evening with about 20 guests. We were introduced by the hostess as Steve's "entourage." There were speeches after dinner and then Steve just couldn't keep his hands off the piano, so he played "Lazarus," as a kind of private encore for this group, and "Where is God?" to end on a lighter note.
By now it was pushing 10 and he had been going for 12 hrs and was heading into a real crash-- plus it was time for meds, so we came on back here to the faculty club. Tomorrow it's more of the same, but with the focus on students instead of faculty.
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Then there was a big lunch and more schmoozing, following which we had a couple of hours to "rest" (Steve hogged the modem line, so I only got a little bit of time to check e-mail) before we headed off to the theatre for sound check.
Right off the bat, things were not right. The piano was not turned the right way, and some officious prissy queen who seemed to be in charge was very huffy at Steve's suggestion that they turn the piano around (who was Steve, after all? Only the performer!) They compromised on changing the angle of it slightly, which the PQ made a big to-do about because it screwed up the video camera angles and the lights. I kept thinking of Paul and how he would have responded in a similar circumstance. Definitely not with the "attitude" that the PQ was exuding. He then proceeded to spend about 20 minutes trying to focus a light on an arrangement of flowers, totally ignoring Steve. I hope the flowers look FABulous on videotape.
