Saturday, March 15, 2008

Yay, Randy Pausch!


After a string of embarrassments and blunders this week, I was in a foul mood. I'm a loser! I thought, My life is a freaking joke!
Then, by coincidence, I saw this video. It slapped me into shape. My sulking was replaced with awe and wonder. Wow. See for yourself (if you haven't seen it yet.) It's a lecture of wisdom from a terminally ill professor. He's not pleased with the situation, but he refuses to let it ruin his life.
It blew me (and my bad attitude) away.
Note that this is not religious or political. Nor is it New Age silliness.

A longer (and, in my opinion, better) version of the speech can be found here.
For more info, check out his home page.

7 comments:

booda baby said...

This was great! The best part was his father's humility. I'm glad you felt so much better.

I know that reads just like I wrote it in your high school yearbook - ! - but sometimes, that's really all you can say.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Yes, his father concealing his war honors is a bit more noble than me screaming up and down the block that I worked on a show that won an Oscar.;)
Don't worry about your comment sounding yearbooky (I didn't notice). So many times I've started a comment in someone's blog, only to skip it because I thought my response sounded trite. In retrospect, I probably should have left it anyway. Comments are fun.

Sally said...

The reason you don't have more responses here: most of us are too cowardly to click the link. Or at least I am. I read about him in the paper, but am afraid of the sadness of video, even though I think you say it won't make us sad.

Anonymous said...

I watched the short one, and it was encouraging, not sad. I have been waiting to take the time to watch the longer one. I guess it made me think what I would want to say if I were making my last talk: I started working on that....

Linda Davick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Linda Davick said...

I needed this. I love it; it's true. Thanks, namo, for posting it.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks, Linda. I'm glad you liked it,
As sal pointed out, it's encouraging, not sad. He's calm, down to earth, and wise. He's not a martyr or a know-it-all.
There's no maudlin "Seasons in the Sun" stuff, and no lame platitudes.