Tales from the Lung Void

We spent the weekend on Thetis Island , courtesy of Sheryl’s friend Kathy, who invited us to stay in the yurts she had set up for a guitar workshop just before they were taken down for the season. Our first session of therapy took place at a local farm. The owner leaves a bucket of treats by the fence, allowing visitors to entice the horses over to the gate without accidentally feeding them something toxic. The second session was hosted by Hazel, a smart rescue dog belonging to another couple. Hazel agreed to play frisbee, returning it and dropping it directly onto my chair so I wouldn't have to bend over. It is a shame Sheryl missed the shot of me catching it mid- The final session was at the Hand of Man museum , which houses an eclectic collection ranging from prehistoric skeletons to authentic tribal artifacts from around the world.

I was curious about the capabilities of NotebookLM , Google's AI-powered research assistant, so I uploaded all of my medical reports since the beginning of my misadventure with lung cancer. I asked for an infographic, testing various visual styles, to capture the high-level details. The prompt was simple: "Generate a warm graphic mapping my lung cancer journey based on the medical reports. Organize this timeline chronologically." The results are below. I find them amusing. There are two major artifacts: Spelling mistakes that occasionally degraded into pure gibberish. A general disregard for strict chronological order. Click on each image to expand it to full size Kawaii Style This is the only infographic where I manually corrected the spelling. Anime Bento Grid Bricks Clay Editorial Instructional Professional Sketch Note Scientific Cinematic Video I was also curious about the video generation capabilities of NotebookLM, so I asked for a cinematic video (click on the lin...

On June 6, 2026, I was asked to give a two-minute speech at the Give a Breath 5k Walk/Run as a patient living with lung cancer. The event began with torrential rain, but the sun came out just as we started. Last year, I ran the course and paid little attention to the environment. This year, I mostly walked and jogged, which allowed me to take in the lush greenery, the songbirds, and the friendly dogs. I finished in a "PB" of 53 minutes. Still, happy to be among those who understand my specific brand of existence. I was lucky there was no drug testing at the finish line. I’m completely doped up on a cocktail of carboplatin, sertraline, morphine, pregabalin, and the occasional steroid. The following is my three-minute speech. A transcript follows below. Hello, I’m Luc. I’m 56 years old. I live in Vancouver with my wife, Sheryl; we have no children, no pets, and no mortgage. In January 2025, I finished the Disney World Marathon. Two months later, a lump on my neck led to a biops...