

The doctors give me 30 days to live, each post is potentially my last - eschnou
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Funcondamne.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F52052034209%2Fjour-1

======
orofino
I feel like this is perhaps fake. The first post read well to me, seemed
reasonable, at least the first time through. The second post, about the job,
is what gave me suspicion.

The way he quits, the feeling of "liberation", it borders on sociopathic in
some ways. Pretending you're going on holiday when in reality you're going to
die, who has time for such games when they've got a 30 day timer running.

It reads like a movie, not like my experience with reality.

~~~
300bps
These come up every day on reddit, and almost all of them turn out to be fake.
There was a guy about two weeks ago that claimed to have Stage IV Pancreatic
Cancer at age 24. He got thousands of upvotes, got a celebrity from the band
Blink 182 to tweet to him, etc. Exposed as fake because he used someone's
actual identity he found on Google who did not have cancer.

This line is an incredible clue that it is fake:

>I do not want to go into details about the disease. I do not want to go into
the particularities of my life. And because time is short, there will be no
comments, no contact address.

Hard to prove false when literally no information is given.

These two lines are interesting though:

>I am 58 years old and I never will 59. I will die in 2013.

>Yesterday, I had the whole life ahead of me. Thirty or forty years, at least.
Today thirty days.

Either he's losing track of his lies, he's bad at math or he has unrealistic
expectations about life expectancy. If a 58 year old had "thirty or forty
years, at least" ahead of him that means that he was expecting to live to "at
least" 98 years old.

EDIT: Here are links to Day 2 and Day 3 translations.

[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl...](http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Funcondamne.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F52127098365%2Fjour-2)

[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl...](http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Funcondamne.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F52209627415%2Fjour-3)

~~~
leephillips
Research on aging is making significant progress. We will know things in 20
years that we can't imagine now. Therefore, a 58 should expect to live past
100 if he or she is in good health now.

~~~
danielbarla
Well, if we take historical trends as any kind of indication, not quite. E.g.
according to Google's life expectancy charts, if we take the period 1992 -
2012 (20 years), and take 3 good, developed countries (USA, UK, Canada), life
expectancy has gone from mid 70s to low 80s in that period. On average, about
1.9 years added every decade, and that would lead us to something like 84
years by 2032. The very high numbers we're used to hearing are fairly wild
extrapolations of this trend for the next 90 or so years, for newborns today.

Of course, the trend could accelerate, but it could also easily plateau (or
even reverse in an extreme case, perhaps due to environmental influences).
Current trends don't seem to show 100-year average life expectancy before
2100.

* Edit: this was combined stats for men and women. For men, you can subtract a few years, and for women, add a few. Also, I realise I'm just linearly extrapolating the data, but it's not like the data shows some kind of exponential growth; if anything, it's flattening out.

~~~
milesskorpen
Life expectancy changes with age -- a 60yr old man should live to 81, a 70yr
old man should live to 86.

This is important because I don't think that life expectancy for a 60yr old
has changed dramatically ... it's just infant care is better, so fewer people
die <5 yrs old, and that raises the long term average too.

This might suggest that your estimate is too liberal — not too exciting. On
the other hand, we are working hard, as a society, on some gnarly medical
issues, and it's possible we'll make a huge break through and figure out how
to deal with obesity, heart disease, or cell aging and totally change the
situation over the next few decades.

~~~
dhimes
And Zeno stirred...

------
ppradhan
You read the post and feel pretty bad. You load the comments. You see what the
top comments are about and it dawns on you - this is why engineers are
stereotyped as being emotionless robots.

~~~
Killah911
Or people sick of some PR firm's bullshit stunts, jerking people around for a
few more follower or clicks. When things don't add up, we take notice rather
than just wishing it to the way it ought to be.

It may very well be that the story is true. But when you see obvious
giveaways, not only is it valid to doubt what is written but in my opinion a
damn public service. I felt sad after reading the post, reflecting on my own
mortality, and fleeting times. Then I felt sadder that some A-Hole may be
deliberately trying to manipulate negative emotions. Perhaps nothing is off
limits.

~~~
ppradhan
when i wrote that comment, the top conversations were about how good the
google translation was. that's what i was referring to.

~~~
Killah911
Ah! Taken in context your comment makes more sense. I must admit that while
reading the post, my first feeling was of sorrow, but as someone fascinated
with technology, I was also thinking a little about someone who speaks a
different language being able to communicate their innermost thoughts with
people half way around the world.

While posting a comment, stating the story is sad, might be redundant. But,
posting a comment about some silver lining might be a common response. My
siblings and I laughed at some of the funny events about my dad did while
transporting his body to the cemetery. The feeling of grief was overwhelming
and that was a coping mechanism.

That being said, given the level of info that was passed on, one might be more
enamored by the blog and twitter and translate, as they try to cope with the
terror or death. Smells a lot to me like PR company BS. While I suspected it
when reading the post, looking thru the HN comments showed that my suspicions
weren't unfounded.

------
aiham
He talks about his job in day 2:

[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl...](http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Funcondamne.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F52127098365%2Fjour-2)

~~~
antinitro
That really puts life in perspective. Enlightenment, I suppose, is living
every day as if it's your last. I wonder how to reach that mindset.

~~~
pavs
I don't know how. But one way I can think of is to not make any long-term
plans.

All your plans and goals can be achieved in one day. You finish the day
reaching your goals. You wake up next day, find yourself alive, you make new
goals for that day only.

Rinse. Repeat.

~~~
antinitro
Yeah I agree with this. I seem to have reached a point in life where I don't
really think about the past and future often, but I wouldn't say I've quite
reached enlightenment yet.

------
adrianN
I'm really impressed by the quality of Google's translation.

~~~
cschmidt
Me too. I didn't notice the "translate" in the URL, and just thought it was
written by a non-native English speaker. I did a double take at the end when I
realized it was translated. Does Google do a particularly good job on French
to English? (Bigger training corpus?) I more often used it on Chinese or
Japanese, and it didn't seem as good.

~~~
Vivtek
French to English generally works rather well because they have similar
sentence structure (except for inverted adjectival order) and neither has a
lot of long-distance dependency stuff. Even Systran kicks ass on French to
English.

Where FR>EN fails is vocabulary. This text, as you see, is really basic
terminology, nothing technical. The French categorize things _very_
differently in technical texts sometimes - to the point of despair for the
translator. Google tends to do OK on that to a point, then fail in alarming
ways when you least expect it.

~~~
raphaelj
French grammar is very similar to the English's one.

A text translated "word for word" to English from French, using the later
grammar, will almost look readable. Strange but not really wrong.

Most errors will be from an over-usage of perfect tenses ("I have visited" vs
"I visited") and wrong superlatives ("most fast" vs "fastest"), as these are
the biggest differences between the two languages.

------
eschnou
Just to clarify, I'm not the author, I'm doing fine. This blog is having quite
a buzz in France/Belgium right now.

Many wonder if fake. Not much evidence pointing one way or the other.

~~~
conradfr
Seems fake from day one. The tone, the Twitter account etc.

But I guess almost twenty year of Internet can make you a bit over-suspicious
:)

~~~
cLeEOGPw
I think you are completely reasonable. Exceptional claims requires exceptional
proof, and this blog only has a claim and no proof. I don't see any reason to
believe it.

~~~
kohanz
OTOH, someone who has 30 days left to live has absolutely no motivation or
need to prove the validity of his story to anyone.

~~~
jetti
One would think that if you are taking the time to write something like this
in your last 30 days of life, you would do what you can so it wasn't just
dismissed as fake since it would have meant that you have wasted some of the
last time on Earth.

~~~
kohanz
I can't think of any better circumstance than knowing your living days are a
numbered few, to absolutely not give a damn about what other people think.
There are many therapeutic reasons to write a blog/journal during this time
that are not diminished by worrying about skeptics.

------
swombat
Heavy stuff. I'm reading it in french at <http://uncondamne.tumblr.com> . I've
subscribed to the RSS.

~~~
Numberwang
Him or google reader...the race is on!

------
prothid
All of the posts on one page:

[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl...](http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Funcondamne.tumblr.com%2F)

------
oh_sigh
This is going to be revealed as a "public art piece" in about 45 days, with
commentary on the morbidity of the media outlets that picked up on the story.

------
jvzr
It's very well written. Touching, to say the least.

------
jumblesale
That's really bleak. I wonder what kind of disease can kill you in 30 days but
otherwise leave you well enough to write and travel? It doesn't sound like he
has a history of anything. Does anyone have any experience with this kind of
thing and could hazard a guess?

~~~
lukevdp
Brain tumors can be very quick, that would be my guess

~~~
jvzr
He writes that his wife is worried for his liver (Day 3, I think). Maybe he
has Hepatitis C?

Edit: Well, this shows that I'm not a doctor. I have no idea if Hepatitis C
can kill as quickly as this. Maybe he was diagnosed very late and his malady
already is at its final stage?

~~~
kome
> He writes that his wife is worried for his liver

lol no! you lost something in translation...

~~~
jvzr
I'm French. She says it because of the wine, but maybe it has to do with his
illness? Maybe not...

~~~
vidarh
It reads to me as a dark joke by repeating a common caution that is now
completely irrelevant. Note the "Je ris" ("I laughed" for the non-French
speakers) immediately afterwards. I'm presuming that's what kome think you
missed.

~~~
Yeri
It's meant as a joke. As a wife who is worried about his health, although
irrelevant in his current state, continues to pretend having a normal life.

Such sentence is very common in my (Belgian) entourage.

This is also why he adds he is smiling.

~~~
jvzr
Yeah, I totally missed the sarcastic tone. I just thought she was making the
joke on his actual illness, not the possibility of having another illness due
to wine abuse.

------
jterce
I wonder about all this talk and arguing back and forth over whether "it's a
fake".

What this man is expressing is real. I can confirm it is real, because as a
human I can feel many of the same things, as I read it. Whether he will die in
30 days or not, we don't know. And you can, of course, argue about that all
day long. You might even be quite put out if he does not. But whether he is
having these thoughts and feelings because he is about to die, or whether he
is simply exploring these thoughts and feelings because he is a human (and
facing death like us all), they are no less real. You may call one fiction
because the man does not die on cue, but after reading it, I say it is not
fake.

~~~
dclowd9901
Well said. Joseph Gordon Levitt isn't actually facing death in the movie
50/50, but I can assure you the anxieties expressed in that movie touch me
profoundly.

------
jacquesm
I can't tell whether this is a fake or not. But ever since calling the one
about the one night stand woman in Denmark that wanted to contact the father
of her baby I've had a healthy dose of unbelief for anything that goes viral
and that involves some personal tragedy.

Another couple of those and real people with real problems or calls for help
will find it impossible to be heard.

If this is real I hope he makes the most of whatever time he's got left.

------
sasoon
After reading day 2 and day 3, it started to sound fake

------
xutopia
What does it matter if this were fake? It's not like they're asking us to
donate a tithe.

------
hef19898
I just read the french original, and fake or not it is certainly well written.

If it's not fake, I hope he keeps up like this until the inevitable.

Ah, and before I forget, he's certainly right with a lot of things, fake or
not.

------
gesman
There was someone else who was sent home by doctors to die:
<http://www.presentlove.com/lester-levenson/>

------
ck2
Even if it turns out to be fiction, it does make you stop and think at least
for a moment how you'd spend your own final 30 days.

I think I'd like to travel. Not sure.

------
l0c0b0x
That's got to be the saddest thing I've read on HN. I'm going to hug my sons,
and play with them more.

------
aiham
"See you tomorrow..."

~~~
esamek
Love the optimism in the farewell.

~~~
johndavidback
That is an interesting parting phrase. I suppose on that level where he's
coming to grips with only have 30 days, he must be rationalizing that today is
the first of those, and that he'll at least get the 30... Heavy.

I can't even imagine the understanding of my own mortality where I could say
"See you tomorrow... Maybe." and actually mean it.

~~~
Yeri
The three dots ("...") show an uncertainty. I could imagine someone saying see
you tomorrow, even if there is a (big) chance that won't happen.

A form of self mockery.

------
shenanigoat
Get this man a ticket to Waponi Woo.

------
knodi
valar morghulis

------
camus
i'll assume it's fake. We dont know who the guy is, no name no address ,
nothing. i could come up with the same stuff ( i'm french). IF you cant verify
an information , assume it is fake.

------
yoster
Why would the author waste time posting about the things he is doing? I hardly
speak for everyone, but I would be using that time to for a bucket list,
visiting friends, and other personal things that needed to be done.

<Well, I think my son must have created and configured the blog.

He is an engineer and he isn't sure?

