Update

I saw the surgeon, and like I anticipated, he said he doesn't want to operate at all. There are too many main blood vessels involved. Which made me think that even if the tumor is clean of malignant parts, it could still cause some serious damages. Instead of a surgery, I will probably go on this medicine called Pazopanib which is supposed to keep killing the cancerous cells. But before all that I'm flying to Israel to visit family and friends.

I went to see the team to beat, also known as the 49ers, take down the Lions on Sunday night with my brother. We had a good time. Alex Smith looked solid. If he keeps it up, he will earn the MVP. Next day, at a supermarket 5 minutes from my place, Vernon Davis was promoting... well I don't really remember I was excited to see and get an autograph from #85 (I think it might have been some chocolate milk drink).

pretty nice view right? (during pregame)

with 49ers TE Vernon Davis

BOGO

What do you think when you read the following text? (it's a text message I sent to about 10 friends).

"Big special for Thursday night football (during the game only): buy one beer get one beer. All you drunkies come on down. Will the Packers be 0 and 2 or will the Bears be 2 and 0, find out tonight ONLY at the Matrix. Please forget to make ur picks in the league."

Some of you might think “wow Packers vs. Bears, that’s a big game, should be a fun night.” It is in fact the oldest rivalry in football (American). Thursday’s game was the 185th time these two teams played each other. If you follow sports maybe you also laughed because I was saying in other words “will the Packers lose, or will the Bears win.”

Some might wonder why I’m asking you to forget to make your picks (we have a pick’em league where each week you pick the winner of each game). I’m actually trying to remind people, in a funny way, to make their picks (I did not forget to write “don’t” before “forget”).

Yet most of you probably focused on the BOGO (Buy One, Get One). So did my friends to whom I texted this message.

The Matrix is a new small casino/card room 10 minutes from my place. They have a great bar with huge TVs and lots of them. I haven’t been out too much lately, you know, because of this whole cancer thing I have... I wanted to hang out with my friends, and watch this big game on the big screens.

Some of you might think “aahhh, you sneaky bastard! You mislead your friends to believe the casino is giving away free beer.” But no! I was just trying to be funny. Surely, if you read this text you might be thinking something like "ka-ching, free beer." But, I did not say “free” did I?!

I made sure not to write the word “free,” so that no one could accuse me of false information. And if anyone would take me too seriously, I could point out that I never said “free.” I simply said: you buy one beer, you get exactly what you paid for, and that is ONE freaking beer. HAHAHA. Yeah ok I'll admit, it was a little misleading.

I thought my friends would all get that I’m exaggerating and joking. However, I was curious to see if anyone would actually think it’s for real. I didn’t think anyone of my friends would fall for it. I mean, come on! I’ve never been or heard of a bar that has a “buy one, get one free” special on beers. I’ve seen many bars that have “happy hour” with discounted beers, but never “buy one, get one free.” I also don’t think any of my friends heard of such a special before. It looks like they’re lacking some basic critical thinking. When you read a text like the one I sent, you should be thinking to yourself “What?! No way, that’s too good to be true, he is probably just joking around.”

I gave other hints that the whole text is a joke. Most of them keep up with sports and for sure knew that the Packers, who lost to the GREAT 49ERS last week, are 0 and 1, and that the Bears who won last week are 1 and 0. So I was saying the same, later in the text message, when I said "Will the Packers be 0 and 2 or will the Bears be 2 and 0" which means in other words "heads I win, tails you lose." (Yeah I know I explained this at the beginning, I just had to throw in the 49ers, especially after they DOMINATED the Packers).

I kept going saying "Please forget to make ur picks in the league." Which is an unusual way to remind people something, right?! I was trying to be funny. Perhaps I was funny, but I only made myself laugh.

In my mind, as I was writing and coming up with this brilliant hilarious material, I was also acting it. I was pretending to read this text out loud like some commercial you hear on the radio only with exaggeration. Exaggeration that should have made it clear it's not real, and that I'm just trying to be funny. I guess it didn't work. Or maybe it did. It depends on what we are asking I was trying to achieve. Did I get people to show up? Yes. Did people get that I was joking? No. Did I actually want my friends the get that my text was a joke? hhhmmmm...

Things got quite funny come game time. I was already at the bar, and one by one my innocent friends (I think this is still the current status) came up to the casino's bar, and asked the bartender about today's special. I think most of them had a good laughed about it (some might have taken it too seriously, and won't trust what I say no more, haha). Some actually seemed a little hesitate to ask the bartender. Instead they quietly asked me first. This might mean that they suspected the text message was a joke, but they score no kudo points, for they still seriously asked me about the special. One actually replied to my text with an "lol."

So that was that. I wanted the Bears to win, but they lost. They lost and looked very bad, and that's after a nice win last week. This Sunday I'm going to see the GREAT 49ERS vs. the Lions with my brother. Should be a fun game. I'm predicting a Niners win by more than 10 points, say 27-13. Last Friday I had some scans, and then saw my oncologist on Monday. In short, she is very pleased with things. Though she still says I will need a surgery at one point or another. I will see the surgeon next week to see if he feels that it is now safe to operate. Last I saw him he wasn’t excited about doing a surgery at all, and was hoping the chemo alone could take care of things. If the surgeon says that he still doesn’t think it is safe to operate, I will go on a medicine called Pazopanib. It is a new medicine that is meant to keep killing the cancer cells. I might have to take it for a year. And if this medicine is doing its job, it probably means no more chemo.

P.S. if you didn’t laugh during this post please go look for you sense of humor in the lost and found.

Let's Make a Deal

I'm reading the book "Conversations on Game Theory" by Haim Shapira. There have been many books written on "Game Theory." I haven't read any of them, but I believe most of them talk a lot about formulas and equations. The book I'm reading is lots of fun and easy to read. It doesn't really talk much about formulas. In this book, Shapira brings up a lot of situations from everyday life among other situations. Tells you what would be the ideal thing to do (mathematically speaking), but then continues to say how things get complicated (and funny) when everyone follows the ideal behavior in these everyday life situations. I haven't finished the book just yet (just past halfway through), but if you can read Hebrew, I would recommend you get a copy.

One problem the book talks about is a well known one, at least by mathematicians, and that's the Monty Hall Problem. Some of you probably know it, but I'd like to share it anyways for those who haven't heard of it before.

It goes like this: You are a contestant on the game show "Let's Make a Deal." There are 3 doors behind one which there is a car. Behind each of the other two doors there is a goat. You pick one door, say door number 1. Now, the host, who knows what's behind each door, reveals one of the two other doors that you didn't choose, the door that has a goat. So now there are two doors left, the one that you choose at the beginning, and the one left unrevealed. One of them has a car, and the other has a goat.

The host now gives you a chance to switch doors, what do you do? Do you stay with door #1 your initial pick? Or do you switch to the other door left in the game? Remember, the host knows where the car is, maybe he is trying to make you switch to where the goat is so he can keep the car to himself (because his car was just stolen, and his wife might think he is cheating if he is late for supper...).

Well, there is a mathematical solutions to this question, which says that you should ALWAYS switch doors. And here is why:

Scenario 1: car is behind door #1. You choose door #1, and switch, you lose.
Scenario 2: car is behind door #2. You choose door #1, and switch, you win.
Scenario 3: car is behind door #3. You choose door #1, and switch, you win.

You have 66.6 percent chance of winning the car if you switch. Confused? Maybe this will help:

Of course it gets tricky a little because on those types of game shows the host usually offers you money or other prizes to make you switch doors. (check out these videos if you're still confused: video 1, video 2).

Tomorrow morning I go in for a PET scan, and I believe a CT as well. I will probably have the results within a few hours, and then I'm seeing my doctor the following Monday where let's hope the news will be that I can take time off and that for now we are just going to wait and see. But I get the impression from my doctor that she expects more will need to be done. Either a surgery, or more, less drastic, chemo.

Huh, looks like I never updated here on the blog after I finished with my last round of chemo. I did mention it on Facebook. I guess I didn't have much to say or didn't feel like saying much, so I only updated on Facebook. You can Like the blog's page here.

So it's been two weeks since I finished the last (scheduled) chemo round. I've been feeling good over all. Though I feel like I might be coming down with a cold tomorrow. My throat is a bit dry and soar.
I emailed my doctor the other day to ask if I can eat raw food again. Food such as boiled egg, which I've been craving lately, and sushi and medium made steaks which I've been missing longly. Yesterday I had me some sushi, and today some steak for dessert!