Feel Good post — and a warning
(sipping a nice locally brewed beer, connected to a blazingly fast broadband connection, enjoying a quiet Thursday afternoon)
Everyone needs a bit of Feel Good now and then. These are probably old news to a lot of folks, but they made me feel good and I thought I’d share.
Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2006 and was told in August 2007 to expect a remaining three to six months of good health. Randy delivered his “Last Lecture,” titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” at CMU on September 18, 2007. This may seem to be leading up to something just the opposite of Feel Good, but the lecture had such a positive impact on so many people (including myself) that it deserves a much broader notice. The lecture led to a book (which I have on order) and much more attention to Randy and his disease. On July 25, 2008, Randy Pausch died from pancreatic cancer at his family’s home in Chesapeake, Virginia, having moved there so that his wife and children would be near family after his death.
A bit more goofy are these videos I ran across. Matt Harding travels the world. Matt dances funny. Kids love Matt dancing funny. Just watch. It makes you feel good.
Where the Hell is Matt - 2005
Where the Hell is Matt - 2006
Where the Hell is Matt - 2008
Warning
I’m *way* behind with blog software. I’m running 2.1.x and the latest is 2.6.x. I’m going to upgrade in the next week and *hopefully* I’ll cover all possible failures, but if you come visiting and things don’t look right, take a deep breath and come back in a day or two… 
Popularity: 38% [?]
StellaMM wrote:
ovely to see you back Gerry. Love the site.
Posted on 10-Aug-08 at 3:19 am | Permalink
LynnH wrote:
I just discovered Matt about a week or two ago, what a delight!
And it took me 4 tries to get all the way through the last lecture, my connection would go all funky and stop streaming. However, I switched to a different computer with a better networking setup and just finished with tears in my eyes. Too cool.
You see, my dad died when I was 14. He was a professor, who was brilliant at teaching. His very first doctoral advisee got her PhD and later went on to become the Census Director of the USA. Arguably the most prestigious (and difficult, politically) job in the USA for a statistician. He was good.
I still miss him every day. He died in ‘73. That’s how it goes sometimes. As long as I still remember what he taught me, he’s not really gone yet.
Thanks so much.
LynnH
Posted on 11-Aug-08 at 10:06 pm | Permalink
Lisa D wrote:
Dances with Matt - how cool is the world?
Thanks!
Posted on 15-Aug-08 at 6:10 am | Permalink