In 2024, I was learning to fly airplanes, as one does. Jokes aside, it was amazing. And terrifying. Occasionally, while a thousand feet in the air lining up with the runway, I'd have to remind my brain it was real. This wasn't flight simulator. I... me... shy little Kevin Koperski from Illinois... had the controls of an actual airplane, and the ground beneath me was solid and unforgiving. In my late 40s, I still wondered which adult allowed me to do such a thing. Before I could solo, I needed a medical certificate. A routine blood test resulted in another surreal and equally unforgiving adventure: cancer. Prostate cancer, to be exact. A genetic legacy from my dad and grandpa. Thanks, gents! In this video, I wanted to chronicle a little bit of how that diagnosis felt, how it impacted my life, and what it means for my piloting aspirations and future. Spoiler alert: My surgery was a success and I'm currently doing great. Cancer proved just as scary as flying airplanes, but in a different way. It can be lonely, even with the support of everyone around you. During and after the process, I found solace in the stories of other men with the same diagnosis. I found reassurance and hope. So many men get prostate cancer, but it's not as public as other cancers. I'm not good at public advocacy and stuff like that, but I can at least share my story. Maybe it will bring peace of mind to someone else on the same journey. So that's all this is. My experience with prostate cancer. I'm particularly lucky to have caught it so early, and I'm thankful for all the help and support. Just wanted to make that clear in a video. Also, I wanted one last chance to use some of my many many hours of flight footage. Thanks for being here. And thanks for watching. I appreciate all of you.

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday... Wait. No. That's something else. It's ten am on a Friday. I'm sitting outside in the sun. Leaves fall from the trees and blow across the sidewalks. Autumn is here, but summer hasn't yet conceded its rule. The temps promise to drop fifteen degrees overnight. And while I love the brisk rainy colorful Autumn weather, I'll happily sip my coffee and enjoy this sunshiny warmth one more day. This week, I've accomplished a lot. I narrowed down the initial architecture for a social app I want to build. I dabbled a bit in HomeAssistant and set up my first local server and docker instance for a computer Home lab. I designed an easily assembled streetlamp that I 3D Printed. It includes a slot for a tiny LED bulb, so it lights up. I may next learn sodering skills so I can add a switch for the bulb, but that's further in the distance. I'm also anxiously awaiting some black metal filament, because the current orange streetlamp (I always have extra orange filament) is a bit too Halloweeny to survive past October. This week, I also had my initial blood draw for Whoops' Advanced Labs program. I've been excited for this feature since they announced it. Basically, you get a normal blood test that scans for a few extra biomarkers not normally covered by your primary care physician, then all that data populates your app with your other fitness data. Last year, my partner went through a similar program with Functional Health, and she loved it. But given my preference for technology and centralized data, I was extra excited to get my blood work taken on a more frequent schedule and to see the results alongside my other behavioral data. The process has been great. I chose the number of blood draws I wanted over the next twelve months. I opted for quarterly. Drove to a Quest Diagnostics location five minutes from home. Whoop provided clear instructions. Test went smoothly. Results started to populate my biomarker dashboard the same day. Most importantly, Whoop offers plenty of insight about every biomarker. What the test measures, why it matters, how it relates to other biomarkers, how it relates to Whoop behaviors (sleeping, fitness, journal data, etc.), and how to improve it. In the past, if a lab test was abnormal, I'd google for an hour and read all sorts of contradictory info about whether or not I'm dying. Whoop puts all that medical info in one place, right alongside your results, and I love it. My traditional trouble spots (i.e. cholesterol) show up. I also see some indicators of inflammation, which feel accurate. Still waiting on a handful of results to arrive, but so far I'm thrilled. Most importantly, I can modify my behavior, knowing I get tested again in 3 months, which is better than the 12 months I usually wait with a primary care physician. For my brain, this really makes experimentation plausible. I'm not the most disciplined person in the world, but I can certainly manage to (mostly) control my behavior for three months to see if the modifications bear results. I'm super excited about that. The only feature I'm still waiting on is an analysis of the biomarkers alongside my journal behaviors and exercise habits. I want a plan specific to my data. There's a clinical review of my labs coming once all the results arrive. Once I find out, I'll report back with an update below. Now that Whoop has that data (including some past tests I uploaded to see trends), I hope they can create a more comprehensive analysis and plan. Fingers crossed. It's the closest thing I've seen to a "full" picture of my health. Optimistic that it can grow into something awesome. Devestated that modern American healthcare hasn't already provided it. In any case, that's what's happening in my world. Blood, software, and 3D printed streetlamps. What a time to be alive.

Okay, maybe not a haha funny comedy. Maybe more of a tragi-comedy. Or maybe not a comedy at all. But definitely a learning experience. I haven't traditionally blogged about my day to day coding adventures, but I dream of blogging much more frequently, so these little mini tasks must become a larger part of my blogging life. They are, after all, a significant part of my life life. Which is probably why I rarely have interesting things to blog about. But I digress. Today, I challenged myself to set up a Tana MCP server. I use Tana for daily notes, linking notes, tracking projects and tasks. My grand plan was to use Gemini to interact with my Tana workspace, analyizing, prioritizing, and creating tasks while on walks and in the car or even on the web like a glorified personal assistant. Sounded simple enough, right? First, I dove into Docker, setting it up and creating a container for the MCP server. This was my first experience with Docker, which has long been on my list of "things to learn." (I'm developing my first Home lab, so containers are an important education task to check off, but that's an upcoming post). Turns out Docker is pretty straightforward, even on Windows in WSL. Feeling ambitious, I deployed my newly built container to Google Cloud Run. And guess what? It worked! Everything worked. I couldn't believe it. Felt pretty proud of myself. Until I realized Gemini couldn't access it. Spent the next two hours troublehsooting. Turns out, the Gemini web and mobile apps can't directly interact with MCP servers. I had never thought to check. So, after a full day of tinkering, my dream of Gemini-powered Tana management was dashed. And yes, Tana has some inbuilt AI functionality, but the two times I tried to use it, I didn't get the results I wanted. Plus, it's not as easily accessible on my phone as Gemini. In any case, at least I learned a lot about Docker and Google Cloud Run. And who knows, maybe someday I'll revisit this project with a better understanding of the limitations. Or maybe those limitations will vanish soon. The AI world is moving so quickly. For now, I'll keep prioritizing the old way. Or maybe I'll manage all my projects and tasks in markdown. Hard to say. Anyone else have similar experiences with overly ambitious tech projects? (Oh, and I'm about to redesign this website again. Why? Why not?)

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