Portus 2008 Flickr Pool

There's a nice photo pool for Portus accumulating at Flickr. I've added my photos. If you couldn't make Portus, check 'em out to see what fun we had.

A Last Lecture worth hearing

Randy Pausch, a man almost exactly my age, died today at the age of 47. The New York Times wrote here:

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon computer science professor whose last lecture became an Internet sensation and bestselling book, has died of pancreatic cancer. He was 47.

Randy Pausch with Dylan, Logan and Chloe. Dr. Pausch, whose proudest professional achievement was creating a free computer programming tool for children called Alice, was an improbable celebrity. A self-professed nerd, he pushed his students to create virtual reality projects, celebrated the joy of amusement parks and even spent a brief stint as a Disney “Imagineer.'’
Last September, Dr. Pausch unexpectedly stepped on an international stage when he addressed a crowd of about 400 faculty and students at Carnegie Mellon as part of the school’s “Last Lecture” series. In the talks, professors typically talk about issues that matter most to them. Dr. Pausch opened his talk with the news that he had terminal cancer and proceeded to deliver an uplifting, funny talk about his own childhood dreams and how to help his children and others achieve their own goals in life. He learned he had pancreatic cancer in September, 2006.

Sitting in the audience was Carnegie Mellon alumnus Jeff Zaslow, a columnist with The Wall Street Journal, who wrote about the speech. Media outlets and bloggers linked to the story, and more than 10 million people have since watched an Internet video of the talk. The lecture was translated into seven languages, and Hyperion published a book version that became a New York Times bestseller.

I listened to the lecture on video, and it was truly excellent (Here's a synopsis in another article). It seems that Dr. Pausch had figured out a lot of stuff I've been trying to figure out, and he was very satisfied with his life, as short as it ended up. I will think some more on what he passed on, and how I can apply them to my own life.

Another excellent article/tribute, from the writer at the Wall Street Journal who ended up collaborating with him on the book.

Obliquity

kijjohnson does this. I can do it, too.

1. It would perhaps be easier if I were more used to it. Why now? Hormones? I thought that by now it would be going the other way.
2. There can never be enough, but drawer space is limited.
3. There are times when I am convinced that they really don't deserve me.
4. That's okay, because I really don't deserve them either.
5. The guilt would be more productive if I actually did something about it.

A nice surprise earlier this week

Fiona serves dinner July 21, 2008