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From: Gleki Arxokuna <gleki.is.my.name@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:53:16 +0300
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2016-02-15 21:17 GMT+03:00 Bob LeChevalier <lojbab@lojban.org>:

> Long promised - let's see if I can keep this to the point.
>
> I suspect that much of the community knows that I am severely obese, if
> only from pictures of me at Logfests.  But my heath was surprisingly good
> until 2014 despite this.  I contracted Type II diabetes about 5 years ago,
> but it has been close to being under control.  I've lost most feeling in my
> feet from nerve damage that preceded the diabetes.  I also have had
> continuing problems with fluid accumulating in my legs from a combination
> of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
>
> At the beginning of 2014, two things happened that changed this.  In a
> January ice storm the car doors and trunk were frozen shut, and in
> attempting to open them I strained my arm a bit (and broke off the door
> handle).  A few days later I was suddenly racked by severe muscle spasms in
> my back and shoulder.  After a couple months of physical therapy, the
> doctors decided that I had a torn tendon and needed shoulder surgery.
>
> Meanwhile, I had an apparently-infected hangnail on my big toe on my right
> foot.  The doctor removed the hangnail and after antibiotics said that
> things looked good.  Occasionally thereafter I would feel a mild pain
> (remember that I have little feeling in my feet).  But when I had the foot
> doctor look at it, he found nothing.
>
> The only other symptom was that my diabetes blood sugar was rising out of
> control.
>
> The day that I was supposed to set my shoulder surgery date (end of May),
> I woke up mildly ill.  But noon, it wasn't mild anymore.  By 3pm I could
> barely walk from the car into the doctor's office, and the doctor took a
> look and called an ambulance to get me to the hospital as soon as
> possible.  I had a septic antibiotic-resistant infection in my leg (a few
> weeks later we found that the hangnail in my toe had not been completely
> removed and had grown much worse, which probably caused the infection).
>
> I almost died from that infection, and was in the hospital for a week,
> then on IV antibiotics for a couple of months afterwards followed by a
> couple months of oral antibiotics.  There was minor kidney damage (but they
> feared kidney failure for a while), fluid in my lungs which caused them to
> treat me for heart failure, and I was told to follow up with a sleep lab
> test for sleep apnea.  Other than the infection, though, I was said to be
> OK by the time I was discharged.  But I was now insulin dependent with my
> diabetes.
>
> Because of the infection, it wasn't until November 2014 that I could have
> the shoulder surgery, by which time all of the tendons in the shoulder had
> been torn or damaged.  People may recall that I couldn't type at the
> computer on IRC for more than an hour or so, without hours of pain
> afterwards.  Surgery recovery took a few months.
>
> One long term result of all this was that I had gained another 40-50
> pounds while getting my insulin levels up to the point where the diabetes
> was again under control.  That's around 475 pounds.  Toward the end of last
> summer, I started having intermittent problems with shortness of breath
> when I was on my feet for a long time (e.g. shopping trips), and I was
> especially susceptible to high humidity.
>
> In October, problems with shortness of breath got worse.  My doctor had me
> see a cardiologist for a heart scan, and a lung specialist to check for
> sleep apnea.  Those doctors noted that I had been treated for heart failure
> while in the hospital, even though it did not show on my discharge report.
> For the next couple of months they were treating me as if the heart failure
> had progressed.  This is what was going on when the members meeting started.
>
> The heart scan surprisingly showed no heart failure.  I have a minor
> thickening of the heart wall but normal blood flow.  My blood pressure is
> normal for some doctors, and high for others, apparently dependent on how
> they measure it.  But they've put me on medications used to protect the
> heart during heart failure.
>
> The sleep apnea study showed that I have extremely severe apnea, with
> something like 100 events PER HOUR.  That is how often I am waking up when
> I am supposedly asleep.  The monitors showed me asleep for several hours
> that I thought I was awake, and then when I was in my deepest sleep period,
> my blood oxygen was dangerously low.
>
> Since that test, I've been told to avoid sleeping pills and strong pain
> meds.  My breathing problems got more severe, but I have found that they
> respond to asthma inhaler and nasal decongestion.
>
> But I have been perpetually tired, narcoleptic (dropping off to sleep with
> no notice while sitting at the computer).  Even when I am awake, I'm not
> very productive, and falling asleep in the middle of things doesn't help,
> especially when I suddenly wake up a short time later after a sleep apnea
> event (I don't get so many attacks when I am asleep sitting up).
>
> All that said, I'm doing somewhat better this week.  I've been tested for
> a CPAP sleep mask, and the apnea may be largely taken care of within a
> couple of weeks (though the doctor said there may be several months of
> catching up from sleep deprivation).  Improved sleep may cure many of my
> other problems, and may enable me to finally lose weight.  (If not, I may
> need to consider bariatric surgery where they remove part of my stomach or
> bowel, but at my weight any such surgery is a bit risky, though the health
> improvement may be major as well).
> --------------------------------
>
> Bottom line is that I severely feel the onset of "getting old".  I so far
> don't have the energy to undertake new Lojban projects with any hope of
> followthrough, though this may improve.  But I've let a lot of stuff drop
> behind while trying to cope, so I don't think LLG should expect much
> increase in my contributions for a while (if ever).  Meanwhile, I've become
> really concerned with what happens when I am no longer around.  LLG needs
> people other than me to take leadership roles, and far better than me to
> follow through on them.
>
> I can't expect people to lead the organization in functions that they
> aren't much interested in, which is why I asked you-all to discuss what you
> want LLG to be doing as an organization without input from me.
>
> It is time that LLG transition to an organization that doesn't rely on
> lojbab.  Someone needs to step up and eventually take on the job of
> president.  I want this to be a smooth transition, allowing whoever takes
> this on to accept a level of responsibility and activity that they can
> sustain.  I want to be sure that the organization continues when I'm no
> longer able to continue.  And I think we all would like these meetings to
> go smoother and much faster.
>
> If my health holds up, I can probably manage one more year if you
> want/need me to.  If so, I'd like the upcoming year to be my last as
> President.  If I suddenly get a burst of health and energy, there are
> Lojban projects that I would like to do (like my Arabian Nights
> translation) that would be a lasting legacy.  My legacy as president right
> now is one of merely hanging on in hopes that someone else will take over
> before I disappear from the scene.
>
> But enough.  Feel free to comment, ask questions especially if they are
> relevant to my continued role in the community.  And consider all this in
> electing the Board for the next year, making sure that there is someone on
> the Board that can and will take over if/when I cannot continue.
>

I'm sorry to hear those news about your health. I hope you'll be fine soon.
a'o do zenba lo ni kanro
Currently the most important issue as i see it is to protect Lojban from
drowning into obscurity.
Robin still provides hosting and it's free of charge.

For other alternatives I recommend such payment schemes as
http://elasticweb.org/en
because we don't know beforehand how much resources we'll need.
For static websites like dictionary search engines and parsers static
websites like provided by Github are one of the best solutions as of now
since Github has compared to Robin's servers almost no downtimes.

For increasing the presence of Lojban I used gateways between
IRC/Telegram/Slack which are some of popular replacements for IRC chat
these days. Again we rely here exclusively on Robin. We can of course move
them out of his servers and that would be not more than 7 USD per month
which I'm sure we can handle (in this case there will be no downtimes at
all).

It might be necessary to make a static version of mw.lojban.org website as
well.

This was about IT-issues.

As for paedagogics I finally moved my dictionary project into beta and now
I'm working on creating a corpus of texts which basically means that I'm
translating, translating, translating or fixing translations. And what is
equally important adding parallel translations of English text into Lojban.
Currently, it's Alice in Wonderland which will be aligned with the original
sentence by sentence.
Also we have some textbooks done via a grammarian approach (drilling rules
of grammar) for which we'll need to work on anti-grammarian approach (learn
via passive immersion into speaking Lojban) for which only real-time talks
in Lojban Text Chat (can no longer say IRC) are now available. But I made
an initial sketch of first "flashcard sentences" on memrise.com although
the latter is terrible in teaching languages (although almost noone tried
teaching there through sentences). Basically I could as well make a file
with those sentences to be printed on paper to be put on the wall to be
read.
But grammarian textbooks need to be finalized too.
But of course the next edition of CLL first needs to be done since Robin
has done everything he had promised (I suppose we can already order CLLs
from Amazon). I'm surprised that very few people are working on CLL these
days.

So for me internet presence, Text Chat and CLL must be the main "leaders"
of Lojbanistan. I'm not sure how single individuals can lead Lojban (Lojban
movement???).
I supposed everyone to come and to do whatever they are able for or
interested in.
Not that a leader can tell newcomers what Lojban is for and where it should
go.
We have a ToDo list on mw.lojban.org but it's edited by pragmatically
everyone interested.


> lojbab
>
> _______________________________________________
> Llg-members mailing list
> Llg-members@lojban.org
> http://mail.lojban.org/mailman/listinfo/llg-members
>

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Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<div dir=3D"ltr"><br><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><br><div class=3D"gmail_quo=
te">2016-02-15 21:17 GMT+03:00 Bob LeChevalier <span dir=3D"ltr">&lt;<a hre=
f=3D"mailto:lojbab@lojban.org" target=3D"_blank">lojbab@lojban.org</a>&gt;<=
/span>:<br><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.=
8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-st=
yle:solid;padding-left:1ex">Long promised - let&#39;s see if I can keep thi=
s to the point.<br>
<br>
I suspect that much of the community knows that I am severely obese, if onl=
y from pictures of me at Logfests.=C2=A0 But my heath was surprisingly good=
 until 2014 despite this.=C2=A0 I contracted Type II diabetes about 5 years=
 ago, but it has been close to being under control.=C2=A0 I&#39;ve lost mos=
t feeling in my feet from nerve damage that preceded the diabetes.=C2=A0 I =
also have had continuing problems with fluid accumulating in my legs from a=
 combination of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.<br>
<br>
At the beginning of 2014, two things happened that changed this.=C2=A0 In a=
 January ice storm the car doors and trunk were frozen shut, and in attempt=
ing to open them I strained my arm a bit (and broke off the door handle).=
=C2=A0 A few days later I was suddenly racked by severe muscle spasms in my=
 back and shoulder.=C2=A0 After a couple months of physical therapy, the do=
ctors decided that I had a torn tendon and needed shoulder surgery.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, I had an apparently-infected hangnail on my big toe on my right =
foot.=C2=A0 The doctor removed the hangnail and after antibiotics said that=
 things looked good.=C2=A0 Occasionally thereafter I would feel a mild pain=
 (remember that I have little feeling in my feet).=C2=A0 But when I had the=
 foot doctor look at it, he found nothing.<br>
<br>
The only other symptom was that my diabetes blood sugar was rising out of c=
ontrol.<br>
<br>
The day that I was supposed to set my shoulder surgery date (end of May), I=
 woke up mildly ill.=C2=A0 But noon, it wasn&#39;t mild anymore.=C2=A0 By 3=
pm I could barely walk from the car into the doctor&#39;s office, and the d=
octor took a look and called an ambulance to get me to the hospital as soon=
 as possible.=C2=A0 I had a septic antibiotic-resistant infection in my leg=
 (a few weeks later we found that the hangnail in my toe had not been compl=
etely removed and had grown much worse, which probably caused the infection=
).<br>
<br>
I almost died from that infection, and was in the hospital for a week, then=
 on IV antibiotics for a couple of months afterwards followed by a couple m=
onths of oral antibiotics.=C2=A0 There was minor kidney damage (but they fe=
ared kidney failure for a while), fluid in my lungs which caused them to tr=
eat me for heart failure, and I was told to follow up with a sleep lab test=
 for sleep apnea.=C2=A0 Other than the infection, though, I was said to be =
OK by the time I was discharged.=C2=A0 But I was now insulin dependent with=
 my diabetes.<br>
<br>
Because of the infection, it wasn&#39;t until November 2014 that I could ha=
ve the shoulder surgery, by which time all of the tendons in the shoulder h=
ad been torn or damaged.=C2=A0 People may recall that I couldn&#39;t type a=
t the computer on IRC for more than an hour or so, without hours of pain af=
terwards.=C2=A0 Surgery recovery took a few months.<br>
<br>
One long term result of all this was that I had gained another 40-50 pounds=
 while getting my insulin levels up to the point where the diabetes was aga=
in under control.=C2=A0 That&#39;s around 475 pounds.=C2=A0 Toward the end =
of last summer, I started having intermittent problems with shortness of br=
eath when I was on my feet for a long time (e.g. shopping trips), and I was=
 especially susceptible to high humidity.<br>
<br>
In October, problems with shortness of breath got worse.=C2=A0 My doctor ha=
d me see a cardiologist for a heart scan, and a lung specialist to check fo=
r sleep apnea.=C2=A0 Those doctors noted that I had been treated for heart =
failure while in the hospital, even though it did not show on my discharge =
report.=C2=A0 For the next couple of months they were treating me as if the=
 heart failure had progressed.=C2=A0 This is what was going on when the mem=
bers meeting started.<br>
<br>
The heart scan surprisingly showed no heart failure.=C2=A0 I have a minor t=
hickening of the heart wall but normal blood flow.=C2=A0 My blood pressure =
is normal for some doctors, and high for others, apparently dependent on ho=
w they measure it.=C2=A0 But they&#39;ve put me on medications used to prot=
ect the heart during heart failure.<br>
<br>
The sleep apnea study showed that I have extremely severe apnea, with somet=
hing like 100 events PER HOUR.=C2=A0 That is how often I am waking up when =
I am supposedly asleep.=C2=A0 The monitors showed me asleep for several hou=
rs that I thought I was awake, and then when I was in my deepest sleep peri=
od, my blood oxygen was dangerously low.<br>
<br>
Since that test, I&#39;ve been told to avoid sleeping pills and strong pain=
 meds.=C2=A0 My breathing problems got more severe, but I have found that t=
hey respond to asthma inhaler and nasal decongestion.<br>
<br>
But I have been perpetually tired, narcoleptic (dropping off to sleep with =
no notice while sitting at the computer).=C2=A0 Even when I am awake, I&#39=
;m not very productive, and falling asleep in the middle of things doesn=
9;t help, especially when I suddenly wake up a short time later after a sle=
ep apnea event (I don&#39;t get so many attacks when I am asleep sitting up=
).<br>
<br>
All that said, I&#39;m doing somewhat better this week.=C2=A0 I&#39;ve been=
 tested for a CPAP sleep mask, and the apnea may be largely taken care of w=
ithin a couple of weeks (though the doctor said there may be several months=
 of catching up from sleep deprivation).=C2=A0 Improved sleep may cure many=
 of my other problems, and may enable me to finally lose weight.=C2=A0 (If =
not, I may need to consider bariatric surgery where they remove part of my =
stomach or bowel, but at my weight any such surgery is a bit risky, though =
the health improvement may be major as well).<br>
--------------------------------<br>
<br>
Bottom line is that I severely feel the onset of &quot;getting old&quot;.=
=C2=A0 I so far don&#39;t have the energy to undertake new Lojban projects =
with any hope of followthrough, though this may improve.=C2=A0 But I&#39;ve=
 let a lot of stuff drop behind while trying to cope, so I don&#39;t think =
LLG should expect much increase in my contributions for a while (if ever).=
=C2=A0 Meanwhile, I&#39;ve become really concerned with what happens when I=
 am no longer around.=C2=A0 LLG needs people other than me to take leadersh=
ip roles, and far better than me to follow through on them.<br>
<br>
I can&#39;t expect people to lead the organization in functions that they a=
ren&#39;t much interested in, which is why I asked you-all to discuss what =
you want LLG to be doing as an organization without input from me.<br>
<br>
It is time that LLG transition to an organization that doesn&#39;t rely on =
lojbab.=C2=A0 Someone needs to step up and eventually take on the job of pr=
esident.=C2=A0 I want this to be a smooth transition, allowing whoever take=
s this on to accept a level of responsibility and activity that they can su=
stain.=C2=A0 I want to be sure that the organization continues when I&#39;m=
 no longer able to continue.=C2=A0 And I think we all would like these meet=
ings to go smoother and much faster.<br>
<br>
If my health holds up, I can probably manage one more year if you want/need=
 me to.=C2=A0 If so, I&#39;d like the upcoming year to be my last as Presid=
ent.=C2=A0 If I suddenly get a burst of health and energy, there are Lojban=
 projects that I would like to do (like my Arabian Nights translation) that=
 would be a lasting legacy.=C2=A0 My legacy as president right now is one o=
f merely hanging on in hopes that someone else will take over before I disa=
ppear from the scene.<br>
<br>
But enough.=C2=A0 Feel free to comment, ask questions especially if they ar=
e relevant to my continued role in the community.=C2=A0 And consider all th=
is in electing the Board for the next year, making sure that there is someo=
ne on the Board that can and will take over if/when I cannot continue.<br><=
/blockquote><div><br></div><div>I&#39;m sorry to hear those news about your=
 health. I hope you&#39;ll be fine soon. a&#39;o do zenba lo ni kanro</div>=
<div>Currently the most important issue as i see it is to protect Lojban fr=
om drowning into obscurity.</div><div>Robin still provides hosting and it&#=
39;s free of charge.</div><div><br></div><div>For other alternatives I reco=
mmend such payment schemes as=C2=A0<a href=3D"http://elasticweb.org/en">htt=
p://elasticweb.org/en</a></div><div>because we don&#39;t know beforehand ho=
w much resources we&#39;ll need.</div><div>For static websites like diction=
ary search engines and parsers static websites like provided by Github are =
one of the best solutions as of now since Github has compared to Robin&#39;=
s servers almost no downtimes.</div><div><br></div><div>For increasing the =
presence of Lojban I used gateways between IRC/Telegram/Slack which are som=
e of popular replacements for IRC=C2=A0chat these days. Again we rely here =
exclusively on Robin. We can of course move them out of his servers and tha=
t would be not more than 7 USD per month which I&#39;m sure we can handle (=
in this case there will be no downtimes at all).</div><div><br></div><div>I=
t might be necessary to make a static version of <a href=3D"http://mw.lojba=
n.org">mw.lojban.org</a> website as well.</div><div><br></div><div>This was=
 about IT-issues.</div><div><br></div><div>As for paedagogics I finally mov=
ed my dictionary project into beta and now I&#39;m working on creating a co=
rpus of texts which basically means that I&#39;m translating, translating, =
translating or fixing translations. And what is equally important adding pa=
rallel translations of English text into Lojban. Currently, it&#39;s Alice =
in Wonderland which will be aligned with the original sentence by sentence.=
</div><div>Also we have some textbooks done via a grammarian approach (dril=
ling rules of grammar) for which we&#39;ll need to work on anti-grammarian =
approach (learn via passive immersion into speaking Lojban) for which only =
real-time talks in Lojban Text Chat (can no longer say IRC) are now availab=
le. But I made an initial sketch of first &quot;flashcard sentences&quot; o=
n <a href=3D"http://memrise.com">memrise.com</a> although the latter is ter=
rible in teaching languages (although almost noone tried teaching there thr=
ough sentences). Basically I could as well make a file with those sentences=
 to be printed on paper to be put on the wall to be read.</div><div>But gra=
mmarian textbooks need to be finalized too.</div><div>But of course the nex=
t edition of CLL first needs to be done since Robin has done everything he =
had promised (I suppose we can already order CLLs from Amazon). I&#39;m sur=
prised that very few people are working on CLL these days.</div><div><br></=
div><div>So for me internet presence, Text Chat and CLL must be the main &q=
uot;leaders&quot; of Lojbanistan. I&#39;m not sure how single individuals c=
an lead Lojban (Lojban movement???).</div><div>I supposed everyone to come =
and to do whatever they are able for or interested in.</div><div>Not that a=
 leader can tell newcomers what Lojban is for and where it should go.</div>=
<div>We have a ToDo list on <a href=3D"http://mw.lojban.org">mw.lojban.org<=
/a> but it&#39;s edited by pragmatically everyone interested.</div><div><br=
></div><div><br></div><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px=
 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);bor=
der-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
lojbab<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Llg-members mailing list<br>
<a href=3D"mailto:Llg-members@lojban.org" target=3D"_blank">Llg-members@loj=
ban.org</a><br>
<a href=3D"http://mail.lojban.org/mailman/listinfo/llg-members" rel=3D"nore=
ferrer" target=3D"_blank">http://mail.lojban.org/mailman/listinfo/llg-membe=
rs</a><br>
</blockquote></div>=C2=A0</div></div>

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