I just finished putting on a full-size school carnival earlier this month to raise money for our local high school, and I am still exhausted.

The idea of the carnival was born about 10 years ago when some friends and I were talking about raising money for our local school. Like most public schools, ours in Hawaii are horribly underfunded. I have always been good at fundraising in creative ways, and one of my favorite ways to raise funds is having a party.

What is a carnival but a kind of large …

This month’s edition of ‘Northern Lights’ marks the 50th column I have written for The Beacon.

Becoming a column writer at the age of 60 more than four years ago makes me a ‘late bloomer’, and it has been a source of great satisfaction to me.

Over the last four years of reading and writing at the Beacon, I have gained a lot of insight and knowledge from the comments left on my columns and from the columns of the other contributors.

To me, writing a column is a window on the …

The de­ci­sions that we must make as cancer patients are all about risk versus reward. If we are told that, without a recommended treat­ment, we will surely die, then the choice is pretty easy, almost re­gard­less of the risk.

But the de­ci­sions that we face are rarely so easy.

Among patients and care­givers, the most hotly debated myeloma treat­ment de­ci­sion is whether or not to undergo a stem cell trans­plant. There are numerous articles on the topic, and the question is the subject of many discussion threads in the Beacon's forum. …

February 9, 2016 was supposed to be a special birthday for me. It marked the fifth anniversary of my autologous stem cell transplant. I had outlived my initial prognosis of four years, which my oncologist had given me at diagnosis (my myeloma is considered high-risk). I had great plans for the day: a mellow cross-country ski with a friend, and coffee afterward with more friends.

However, my wonderful plans ended with me being sidetracked by my disease.

Let’s back up a bit.

I enjoyed a two-year remission after the stem cell transplant. …

It was an unseasonably cool summer morning back in July of 2010, and I had ventured out to get the early delivery from my mailbox up at the corner of the street in our small Missouri town.

When I stepped onto the surprisingly slick, dew-covered lawn, my legs shot out from under me, my arms flailed wildly, and my ball cap and glasses went flying helter-skelter. I landed on my back with a deafening thud which surely must have measured on somebody’s Richter scale somewhere.

Although I was probably quite the comical …

“Calibration” is a good engineering word. It means “to check, adjust, or determine by comparison with a standard; to make corrections in.” We use the word quite a lot in both technical and general contexts. It also seems to me to have many applications when dealing with multiple myeloma.

Let me start out with some examples of the use of the word in my work at NASA.

The mission that I am working on is flying four spacecraft in a tight for­ma­tion in order to carry out detailed scientific measurements of the …

Have you got any plans this February 28th? Throngs of adults will soon don party hats and make champagne toasts in living rooms across the nation. Sur­rounded by black streamers and gold statuettes, they’ll make friendly wagers on who will win the best actor or supporting actress. There’ll be some surprises when nominees’ names are called to the podium that no one thought would win, and there’ll be triumphant cheers when crowd favorites are honored for their popular efforts.

The 88th Annual Academy Awards is a couple of days from now. This …