posted April 12, 2008 04:35 PM         

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Randy Pausch set the tone early on yesterday at his farewell lecture at Carnegie Mellon University.

"If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you," said Dr. Pausch.

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It is probably the last public speech Dr. Pausch will give anywhere. The 46-year-old computer science professor and father of three preschoolers has incurable pancreatic cancer. Doctors have given him months to live.

Yet, standing at the podium in McConomy Auditorium on the campus yesterday, Randy Pausch did not focus on impending death. Instead, he celebrated the chance he had been given to live the life he always had dreamed of.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07262/818608-298.stm
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Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science technology professor, gave his last lecture in September, but before he even spoke - 400 students and fellow professors stood and applauded him.
While he was touched, he asked them to sit down and said: "Make me earn it." His topic for his last lecture was this: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?

For Randy Pausch, it was his last chance in a way...he may only have few weeks or months left to live. Randy used images on a screen throughout his last lecture - and eventually showed his CT scans, which depicted 10 tumors on his liver...but he never paused to be morose or speak of death - he instead spoke of life.

posted April 13, 2008 08:38 AM         

This guy was interviewed by Diane Sawyer the other night.

I guess his lecture is becoming a real internet phenomenon.

(He wrote a book, too.)

I watched it yesterday; 76 minutes.

He has so much enthusiasm, and a charming self-deprecating sense of humor,
and the stories he tells of his life, and how all these people's lives interact,
and how different people tounched his life and he touched theirs,
and his words of wisdom and advice....

All in all, I think this is very worthy of people's time,
and anyone who takes the time to check this out will be glad they did.

posted April 13, 2008 09:18 AM         

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The truth is ... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else. ~ Countee Cullen