Personal Reflections – Poolinger Family Site

2024: A Big Year for Will & Janet

December 27, 2024 by wpoole8

Putting politics aside, 2024 was a momentous year for both of us. We started the year staying at our place on the Big Island of Hawaii as we’ve done for the past three years. Work starts for me long before sunrise. Janet stays on a less early but still busy schedule. We entertained ourselves with visits from friends and family, bike rides, scuba diving, and amazing sunsets nearly every day. We ended the year in Hawaii as well, with me partially recovering from surgery for a partial retinal detachment from which I’m now recovering from a second less invasive surgery the second week of January, and for which I’ve included a public service announcement at the end of this blog. If you’re particularly nearsighted, please be sure to read it.

I’m 25% Swedish but had never been to Sweden even for business. Our good friend Janet M. is 50% Swedish and was in the same situation. In June, the two Janets, Janet M’s husband Tim, and I went to Copenhagen and then drove across Sweden. We visited our ancestral homelands where we enjoyed both the countryside and Stockholm, and completed our trip in Kiruna, the Northern-most inhabited Swedish city, inside the Artic Circle.

In October, we joined friends in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) India for about a week to experience an annual event called Durga Puja, during which the goddess Durga’s victory over evil is celebrated. Even our Indian friends pointed out “…it’s really crowded…”, which says something. Millions attend, similar but likely larger to the numbers for Carnival in Rio. The crowds were not as bad as we were warned, and it was visually stunning along with great cultural immersion, learning, and wonderful Bengali food. More here.

Fulfilling Work for Both of Us

While we did have two nice vacations this year, Janet and I both worked as hard as ever, enjoying most of it as usual. Janet finished her time on the Seattle Foundation board, ramped up her engagement with the Womens Donor Network, and helped the reproductive rights nonprofit she co-founded get into high gear. All of the younger generation are doing well, with William still using big data and AI to help find the fountain of youth at Altos Labs, Sarah with a thriving therapy practice as well as a thriving new office concept for therapists, The Reflective Collective, and Aabha happily working to bring healthcare and AI together at Commure.

I remain focused on venture capital investing in India and the Global South, with a team distributed around the world. There are now only four of us in USA, five spread from Mexico City to Sao Paulo, two in Nairobi, fifteen in Bangalore, and two in Jakarta. We had two big milestones this year – one very profitable sale of a gig enablement company in India, and a second similarly profitable partial sale of our stake in a payments company (that’s now a unicorn!) addressing the under-banked in Nigeria. It helps grow one’s VC business when you start chasing your investors to get their bank info to send them money. With three other companies preparing for IPOs in 2025, the year ahead will not be boring; planning and capacity building is the name of the game. I’ve also been writing quite a bit about VC and Generative AI in the Global South, with some interesting posts here and others here. And I am almost through the first draft of a book I’m co-authoring, titled “Flourishing with AI“. I’m always looking for interesting people to interview for the book – please send anyone my way you think would be interesting (target age 27 to 40).

A Public Service Announcement: Take Care of Your Eyes

As alluded to above, I ended the year with a narrow miss in losing vision in my right eye, and as of week 1 January, I’m still not out of the woods, with a second less invasive surgical recovery in the process. I’ve known I’m at risk of retinal issues as they run in my family (my dad had a detachment when he was 30, and his mother and grandmother had issues as well). I’ve been religious about getting annual exams and watching for anything remotely out of the ordinary. To make a long story short, I had my third posterior vitreous detachment (“PVD”) in late October, which led to a partial retinal detachment likely at the same time, but not diagnosed by two different specialists until I saw a third the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (Nov 26th). The detachment was not caused by my mountain biking or anything I did other than being fathered by someone with similar issues that he inherited as well. Genetics are what they are; being acutely aware is usually all you can do. This is how I spent a week post-surgery, lying on my side or face down, 24×7, other than a few breaks a day. And how I’m doing it again after surgery #2. Ugh.

If you are very nearsighted (which you can determine by a negative number in your distance vision correction in your glasses or contacts being between -3.5 to -6) or extremely nearsighted (greater than -6), and/or you have a family history of retinal issues, please pay attention. Being over 50 is another contributing factor. If you’re farsighted or average nearsigned and have no family history, this situation is not likely to be a problem for you.

PVDs as the Beginning: PVDs are quite common in people over 50 who are modestly nearsighted. In their simplest form, they create a floater or two and nothing else. But they can be indicative of a potential for a future retinal tear, which is why you should learn the symptoms of a PVD, how to distinguish between a floater and a sign of a retinal tear, and to in all cases ensure you see a good retinal doctor as immediately as possible if you notice a PVD.

Your Eyes and Detachments

Vitreous Humor: This is a gel-like substance that fills the eye, primarily composed of water and collagen. At birth, it has a gel state due to a network of fine collagen fibrils. With age, the collagen fibrils aggregate and the vitreous becomes more liquid, leading to a condition known as vitreous liquefaction. This process typically begins around age four and continues throughout life.

Vitreous Detachment: As the vitreous shrinks and liquefies, it may pull away from the retina, a phenomenon referred to as posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). This usually occurs after age 50, with increased risk as one ages. During PVD, the vitreous can exert tearing pressure on the retina due to its attachment at certain points. This can lead to complications such as retinal tears or detachment.

Symptoms: Common symptoms of vitreous detachment include an increase in floaters (small dark spots in vision) and flashes of light in your peripheral vision. These occur when strands of the vitreous cast shadows on the retina and/or tug on it. You need to get them checked, but chances are you are OK. The things to be really focused on are symptoms of retinal detachment. They include bright flashes of light, especially in peripheral vision, blurred vision, new floaters in the eye that appear suddenly, and/or what happened in my case, shadowing or decreased peripheral vision that seems like a curtain or shade across your vision. The latter is a big deal – don’t let anyone try to convince you that it’s “just a big floater” which is what happened to me.

Treatment Speed: Time is of the essence once your retina starts to tear or detach.

I know two people who had partial detachments and were not able to able to treat them as quickly as they should have. One has regained full vision, the other never will. Fortunately, I noticed the symptoms, went to specialists three times, and during the third visit, Doctor Eugene Ng (to whom I’m most grateful) said “uh-oh”. This is not something you want to hear. We did the ultrasound and saw it was clearly torn. The two lines at the bottom of this ultrasound image are my retina pulling off the back of my eye. I went for emergency surgery later that day. That entailed flying from the Big Island of Hawaii to Oahu which is about a 30 minute flight away, where they have a hospital with appropriate specialized equipment and trained nurses to support the surgeon. We came back the next day and I then spent the following week working from my phone lying face down and/or lying on my side looking at the palm trees and listening to podcasts. Thankfully I had Janet and other family members around to help out. And then 4 weeks later, going in for a routine post-op checkup, we found some anomalies, went to a specialist who did the deep imaging, and found that I have yet another partial detachment in evidence. Hence surgery #2 which is a little different and hopefully will be a once-and-for-all fix. Dr. Eng used a series of laser zaps. Imagine looking into a bright light and the doc looking through a special lens to see the places to fix and he pulls the trigger and a laser cooks a little bit of your eye to make the scar tissue hold it all together. I’ve done this twice now, which hopefully is all that’s needed. I will not know that for another month or two, but everyone is fairly confident that this will work.

Summary

When I had my first PVD 2.5 years ago, it freaked me out and I went to see a specialist immediately. They confirmed it was not a problem, and they said I was likely to have one in the other eye within a year. That indeed happened about a year later, and I took it in stride, going to see a specialist a few weeks after, as I was a bit of an expert at that point. It was the third time, about 9 months later, that the symptoms were different. Thankfully I jumped on it and monitored closely, ultimately getting surgeries not too long after the tears kicked in, and I’m confident I’ll have a full recovery. Recommendation to my readers: if you have any of the correlated risks noted above, dive in and learn more, do not doubt yourself when you see things that do not seem right, don’t take chances, and be prepared to do whatever it takes to get it fixed quickly if this happens to you.

Will

Filed Under: Personal Reflections Tagged With: health, pvd, retina

Kolkata India — Durga Puja and More

October 15, 2024 by Janet Levinger

Will and I went to Kolkata India for Durga Puja. This is a festival in honor of the goddess Durga and is a huge event in Kolkata and the surrounding area of Bengal. Literally millions of people attend. (One web site said there were 30 million visitors in 2022). Durga Puja is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage event. The festival lasts for many days with each day having different meanings. We went for 2 ½ days

Describing the scene is difficult and even photos and videos do not do it justice. There are thousands of displays which are called pandals. Some are massive, multistory buildings. Most are modest with each neighborhood or apartment complex creating their own pandal each year.

Pandals

The pandals are temporary and all have basically the same format: The Goddess Durga with 10 arms is in the center with a trident and blood on her hands and riding on a lion. Beneath her is Mahishahura, a demon that is part buffalo and part human. Durga has or is killing the demon. Then to Durga’s left (our right), you see Saraswati the goddess of knowledge and music who rides on a swan and to her left (our far right) Karthik the god of war who rideps on a peacock. On Durga’s right (our left) is Lakshmi goddess of wealth who rides on an owl and then Ganesha god of good beginnings and the remover of obstacles who rides on a mouse.

As I understand it, Durga was created by the three main gods, Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, to kill the demon Mahishahura. Mahishahura cannot be killed by gods or man. But that meant he could be killed by a woman. So, Durga kills him.

Another tradition is to have a Durga Puja Bhog meal which means it is free for all. We were invited to share one with friends. It consisted of several dishes, a tasty chutney and a sweet dessert.

The festival goes on 24 hours a day for many days with amazing lights during the dark hours, plus lots of drumming and incense at various times. It was crowded and noisy and smoky and very hot. But worth seeing.

We went out the afternoon and into the evening the first day we were there. Some of the large pandals which I am told cost millions of dollars were extremely crowded with lines to get in to see them. There was security which kept everyone moving but it was hard to see things. Most of the large pandals have themes such as water, connecting with mother earth, or peace. They also have exhibits leading up to the actual display which were impressive.

Because the evening was so crowded, we decided the next day (which was the last day of the festival) to get up early at 4 am and go out while it was still dark so we could see the lights but with fewer crowds. We took an Uber to a place with many pandals and then wondered around.

As we were walking around — we saw a tight rope walker, bottle recycling, and some colonial houses.

Videos

This is a small neighborhood pandal we walked by at dawn.

This one the following video are from a large pandal with a theme about water. It was huge and very crowded.

The second video from the pandal about water — this is further along.

The only one with female drummers — this was a smaller pandal.

This was on a street leading up to some pandals.

Also on a street leading to pandals.

Immersing the Pandals

As I said, the pandals are temporary. The statues are mostly made of clay. So, at the end of the festival, they prepare the gods and goddesses and then bring them – over the course of several days – to immerse them in the river Hooghly which is a distributary of the Ganges. First the small, local pandals are brought. Then the large ones – they use cranes to lift the large ones into the river. Will went out at night to watch them immerse the pandals.

Other Sites in Kolkata and Wandering

On our last day, we toured some Kolkata sites, but also took in a about 10 additional pandals that had not yet been dismantled. We visited a lovely Jain Temple and took a boat ride under the Howrah bridge. We also went to the Marble Palace, the Indian Museum, and a local market.

Boat Trip on the Hooghly

Jain Temple and Area

Wandering

On the day we got up early, we got a little lost along the way so we walked through a low-income neighborhood at dawn. Two white people looking lost clearly amused the locals. We saw very very few western tourists during our entire trip — even at our hotel. I did not get many photos because I try to be discrete.

Filed Under: Personal Reflections

Copenhagen and Sweden

June 14, 2024 by Janet Levinger

We spent two weeks in Copenhagen and Sweden. We had an awesome time. Lots of things to see and do, great food, super friendly people.

Copenhagen

We were in Copenhagen 2 ½ days. I could easily have spent another day – or even two! I loved the energy. We toured the main tourist sites. We also visited the botanical gardens which were lovely. The truck hanging from the tower was for a yearly festival called Distortion which just happened to be going on when we arrived. Big outdoor party.

Sweden

The reason we went to Sweden in the first place is because Will is one-quarter Swedish and our friend is one-half Swedish. Turns out they come from towns very close to each other.

Malmo

We took a train from Copenhagen to Malmo just across the border to Sweden and rented a car. We spent a few hours in Malmo. Had a great lunch including our first Swedish Meatballs in Sweden!

Lund

We drove to Lund where we spent the night. Lund is a university town and fun to walk around. The Cathedral has an astronomical clock from the 1400s (and restored since then). Twice a day, it becomes animated with heralds raising their trumpets and statuettes of the the Three Kings and others paradign across the top of the clock.

The Kulturen is an Open Air Museum that is several blocks big. It contains historic buildings from the middle ages on as well as some old runestones. It was surprisingly interesting. The homes, farms, and other buildings were well preserved and presented. I learned a lot.

Helsingborg

After Lund, we drove to Växjö and stopped on the way for lunch and a short visit in Helsingborg. Helsingborg is only about 2 miles from the Danish coast. Because of its strategic position, it has a 12^th century fortress. We climbed up to see the view which showed both modern including a modern ferry, and old. Beautiful view.

Växjö

From there, we went to Växjö where we spent two nights. We went to the House of Emigrants Museum where we did an audio tour about Swedish emigration and then met with a specialist where Will and our friend looked up info about their families. Växjö (pronounced something like “vek-chwa”) is a lovely town with several lakes with a beautiful double spired cathedral. I walked four miles around a lake which had a charming, mostly shaded path and sculptures along the way.

Anbey

We stopped briefly in Aneby – the town where Will’s ancestors are from. The records about his family are from the church below.

Stockholm

We spent three days in Stockholm. We stayed in the Old City. We went to see the Royal Palace and changing of the guard. We took a boat ride through the Stockholm Archipelago which has 30,000 islands. We went to the top of City Hall which has a spectacular view of the city and we visited Sodermalm which also provides wonderful views. We walked all over the city – I clocked 12 miles two days and 10 miles the other day. I loved the old and the new.

Kiruna

Finally, we flew to Kiruna which is the northernmost city in Sweden and in the arctic circle. I wanted to go because I love the Midnight Sun. It truly never got dark while we were there.

Kiruna has the largest iron ore mine in Europe. This has brought great prosperity to the town. But the mining has also caused the land to be unstable so they are moving the entire town to a safe area.

We asked several random people – someone we met hiking, someone we met standing in line at the food truck, as well as the guide (who is actually Finnish) about the mine. None of these people were unhappy. The town has grown 30% since 2016. There is full employment between the mine and the other companies supporting the mine (as well as tourism in Winter). The government gave people 125% of market value for their old homes. They are proud that the mine is 2% of Sweden’s GDP. I am sure there are others who object. We did not run into them.

While here, we went hiking in a nearby ski resort, took a Midnight Sun boat ride on the Torne River, and visited a Sami open-air museum to learn more about the Sami culture and pet some reindeer. We also stopped by the famous Ice Hotel and I confirmed that I definitely would not want to stay there.

Filed Under: Personal Reflections

Mexico City

June 10, 2024 by Janet Levinger

I spent a week in Mexico City in May 2024. I was fascinated to learn that Mexico City was originally built on a group of islands in Texcoco Lake that the Spanish drained to have more land and to control flooding. The Aztecs came from the north (apparently their language is similar to Cherokee). The tribes living on the lake were not welcoming so the Aztecs moved to the islands. The Aztecs were not good to the other tribes which the Spanish exploited when they came to the area. The Spanish were able to convert surrounding tribes and get them to fight against the Aztecs. As the adage says, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Mexico City is a huge city. Traffic is terrible. Air pollution bad. It was unusually hot when we were there and many places did not have air conditioning. Mexico City is also at high elevation — about 7300 feet. I had not realized this before either.

Merced Market

I went to Merced Market twice — once with a guide as I did an “overview of Mexico City” tour and once with the group on a food tasting tour. It is a fun and vibrant place, selling everything. We tasted tacos and tamales, mole and fruit drinks. And bugs.

These are murals in a building near Merced Market. As with so many murals in Mexico City, they show the struggle of common people against a corrupt elite.

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

I went with the guide to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The story is of a great miracle where an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appears on the cape of an indigenous person. As she looked like the native people and there were other symbols that locals understood, it helped the Spanish convert the local people and enlist their help to defeat the Aztecs.

In the compound are several churches built over the years. The smallest one is the highest up and has a beautiful view.

In addition, local people would come with pictures of people in their families who needed help because they were sick, for example, and post them in the Basilica. The guide told me that Frida Kahlo was very influenced by these.

We stayed in Polanco which is near a great park with has the Modern Art Museum and the Anthropology Museum. I liked these fingers outside the Anthropology Museum.

Murals

We did a Mural Tour where we visited the Palace of Fine Arts and the xxx.

The Palace of Fine Arts is Neoclassical on the outside with an Art Deco interior. It has murals by Rufino Tamayo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. I loved having a guide to tell us more about the art and the architecture.

Filed Under: Personal Reflections

Diving Adventures

March 27, 2024 by Janet Levinger

Every dive is an adventure – an opportunity to see the creatures who become like familiar friends as you watch them eat and swim and rest. Sometimes I have fun looking closely at their eyes and decorative colors. Other times, I like to watch how their fins move or they stab at what they eat. For me, diving is also a game – can you find a new fish you have not seen before? Can you find a camouflaged one hiding in the sand or reef? Will you be looking in the right direction when a large creature – a ray or shark or even a whale – swims by? I have fun identifying new fish in the fish books or online and truly geek out over how some change from juvenile to adult.

Here are some photos and videos — though not many of actual fish. You can look at previous diving posts:

Whale and Dolphin Under Water

Turtle Playing with Leaf

Dive Photos including Night Dive

Amazing Octopus

Diving on the Big Island

Fish in Transition

Here is a dragon wrasse — a juvenile rock moving wrasse. It is about 1-2 inches long.

As an adult, it is known as a rock moving wrasse. Here is a photo. I like the distinctive markings on its face. The adult can be as big as 10 inches

Here is a video of the rock moving wrasse — makes it easy to see how it got its name.

And then every now and then, you see one in transition with some of the shape and markings of the adult and some of the juvenile.

Another type that makes a fun transition is the Yellowtail Coris wrasse. The juvenile is about about 3 or 4 inches and is orange-red with white spots outlined in black.

The adult can be10-12 inches, has a shimmering blue body and yellow tail. This is a female.

And the ones in transition have the front of the juvenile and the back of the adult.

Well Camouflaged

Lizard fish:

Leaf Scorpion

Scorpion Fish

Peacock Flounder

Frog Fish

Note that the frog fish also changes a lot. Here is a juvenile which is only an inch or two long:

Big Creatures

Shark

Manta Ray

Eagle Ray

Nudibranchs

Nudibranchs, affectionately referred to as nudis, are essentially sea slugs. Mostly only a few inches, though some can be bigger. Some like the egg nudi. Otheres are more rare.

Sea Urchins

There are lots and lots of sea urchins. I think some are really beautiful.

Coral

Obviously also a lot of coral. Some are just lovely. Here are some more unusual ones.

Upside down jelly

Filed Under: Personal Reflections

Whale and Dolphins Under Water

March 7, 2024 by Janet Levinger

Diving has been especially exciting! Every dive this time of year, we can hear the amazing hump back whale song as background as we look for fun underwater creatures — big and small. Sometimes the whales are so close, you can feel the vibration. I call those dives “sub-woofer” dives.

Then we saw a whale swim by underwater. We were all so excited!

Photo courtesy of my diving friend Mary who got a better shot than I did.

Another day, at the end of the dive, a school of spinner dolphins came by. We watched for about 15 minutes. You can hear the whale song in the background. Apologies for quality of video. I don’t take many videos while diving and this is the first time I have ever edited and combined videos.

Filed Under: Personal Reflections

Turtle Playing with Leaf

February 6, 2024 by Janet Levinger

I was diving and watched this Turtle chasing and eating leaves. He was super cute.

Filed Under: Personal Reflections

Whale Watching on the Big Island — January 2024

January 28, 2024 by Janet Levinger

We went Whale Watching with some friends. Will brought his good camera so these are his photos. We got an amazing show! The whales were so close, you could see barnacles and “Whale Lice” which looked to be about 12 inches long.

We went whale watching a second time. Here are a couple photos of a baby whale.

Filed Under: Personal Reflections

Cool Birds from New Orleans

January 2, 2024 by Janet Levinger

Went to New Orleans with some friends. Had a lovely walk in Audubon Park and saw the biggest swan I have ever seen as well as hundreds of black bellied whistling ducks.