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The Jeremy Lin Word Generator →
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tommy's tenacious tumblr: What I've Learned About Smart People. →
Going to Harvard means I have the very unique opportunity to be around a lot of smart people. Now, when I say “smart people,” I don’t mean that guy who always wins trivia night. I mean, blazingly intelligent individuals who are regarded as the pre-eminent scholars in their field. It’s pretty…
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Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s going on with me.
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE
- 8/1979: Born. Grew up in CT, built a killer eraser collection, fell in love with computers.
- Left college to start a company. Fell hard. Fled to India for 3 months.
- Started 2nd company. Learned to be an adult. Fell in love with NYC.
- Moved to SF, discovered burritos & some of my fave people on Earth.
- 9/2011: Got diagnosed with Leukemia!
- Cried. Went through 3 cycles of chemo. Hurt. Thought hard about what I want out of life. Grew up a second time.
TODAY
… After over 100 drives organized by friends, family, and strangers, celebrity call-outs, a bazillion reblogs (7000+!), tweets, and Facebook posts, press, fundraising and international drives organized by tireless friends, and a couple painful false starts, I’ve got a 10/10 matched donor!
You all literally helped save my life. (And the lives of many others.)
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Tomorrow, I’ll be admitted to Dana Farber in Boston for 4-5 weeks.
First I’ll get a second Hickman line to allow direct access to my heart (for meds and for nutrients if I’m not able to eat). Over the next week, the docs blast my body with a stiff chemo cocktail to try and eradicate all traces of cancer cells. In the process, the immune system I was born with, and my body’s ability to make blood, are destroyed.
Next Friday, I get my donor’s stem cells by IV. I start on immunosuppressants to prevent my body from rejecting them (I’ll be on them for 12-18 months). For these weeks I’ve no immune system, so I’m severely vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. My hospital room and hallway become my world.
Meanwhile, the stem cells make their way to my bone marrow and, with some luck, start producing platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own.
This is science fiction stuff. I can hardly believe it’s even possible, and there’s lots of chances for things to go wrong. It’s frightening.
AFTER THE TRANSPLANT
Recovery to a new state of “normal” takes about a year, but there’s a few storm clouds hovering:
- My immune system is new, like a baby’s. I’m prone to getting sick.
- Just as with any organ transplant, there’s a chance of rejection. Except in this case, it’s my blood that’s the foreign body, and it touches every organ. They call it graft-vs-host-disease and it can cause health issues and organ complications for the rest of my life.
- Successful transplant or not, Leukemia can relapse. Stubborn mofo.
Overall, 75% of AML transplant patients survive year one, 50% make it through year five. My odds are a little better since I’m young.
THE GREAT NEWS
I’ve got a long road ahead. But I’ve got a donor & amazing family & friends. A few months ago I didn’t have many options. Today I have a plan.
I am alive. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Thank you.
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The Word of Notch: Coding skill and the decline of stagnation →
I am a decent programmer. I know a decent amount of computer science theory, I can type correct code fairly easy. I don’t let my classes expand too much. But I still struggle some with math, and I have a tendency to have too many cross-dependencies in my code.
I used to think I was an awesome…
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kim droppin’ with daft punk
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the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support →
The announcement that Nexus One users won’t be getting upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich led some to justifiably question Google’s support of their devices. I look at it a little differently: Nexus One owners are lucky. I’ve been researching the history of OS updates on Android phones…
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Gimme Culture: Open Letter to UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi →
18 November 2011
Linda P.B. Katehi,
I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a…
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(via sexy-sweaters)
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this is me looking at college apps.
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X
When I left my full time gig at TechCrunch last month, there were a few things on my plate that I was still looking into. One of those was “Google X”.
I first started hearing about Google X in March. I was told it was the codename of the group Sergey Brin took charge of after he handed off control of Google+ — then-called “Emerald Sea” — to Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz. The way it was described to me at the time was “Google’s version of Brickhouse” — referring, of course, to the now defunct Yahoo Brickhouse.
I asked around, but couldn’t get much. Someone else told me it was the place that some of Google’s best talent was going rather than leaving the company to go start their own thing or go to Facebook like everyone else.
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lostinthesedreams asked: hi jam jam. i am currently procrastinating on an application due tomorrow and i felt the need to bother you too. :D
o hai there.
guess what? I’m doing the same. wheeeee -
lostinthesedreams asked: hi kitty ♥
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Instagram Engineering: Instagram Engineering Challenge: The Unshredder →
In our office, we have a pretty amazing paper shredder. Seriously, the thing shreds just about anything. It even has a special slot for credit cards (why anyone would want to regularly shred credit cards is beyond me, but I digress…).
One day, after shredding some paper, I thought to myself:…
