Randy Pausch Video

Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, diagnosed with terminal cancer, has some words to live by that ring particularly true.

Here's the intro from Business Week...

And, here's the 2-hour You Tube link...

This is so worth it.....

New bike? The internal conflict....

So, it's the day after Thanksgiving, crisp, cold, clear, and time to burn off some of the calories. Haven't been to the gym in almost a week, given my schedule and the time off, and don't want to totally neglect the Cycle U regimen, but it's a good morning for a spin.

So, down the BGT, and around Magnolia, to waterfront, and my half-way break at Uptown Espresso. Then, the thought crystalizes....why not stop by Elliott Bay Bicycles, and just do a 'look-see?'

Danger! Peligro! Aposna!

Yes, there's Bill D, and Bob F, and I talk with Bob, and the words pop out, "What would it take to get me on a new steel Davidson?" Answer......a lot more $$$ than I can afford! But, I'm going to investigate this, see how practical it is, as well as how much I really want the new ride....so, the question now is more complicated....no new bike for the coming year? Bianchi Volpe? or?????

To be continued......

Veterans' Day in Nashville

Walked out of the League Conference to grab some lunch, across the street from the Ryman Auditorium, the Birth of Bluegrass, and worked down to Broadway, where the country music is piped onto the street 24/7, just to remind you where you are and why Nashville is what it is..


But, it's November 12, and the Veterans' Day parade is on.....tanks rumble down the street, firing blanks....the crowd goes wild. This is how the military coup will be greeted in this town...



Following the few remaining soldiers who are not in Iraq, there was a Confederate Contingent that was wildly popular...

Next in the line up was a smaller group of Union soldiers, with Abe Lincoln waving bravely to the crowd. Honest Abe walked briskly, just in case...

Much more warmly received were the babes in the Santa's helper outfits, reminding us that the Holiday Shopping Season was just around the corner...

But, the biggest cheers were for the Nashville Special Weapons and Tactics team.....

I decided that I had enough, and went back into the League Conference for a discussion on virtual reality, seemingly more real than what had been on the street......

Randomness on plane to Nashville - 11/11

Early morning to the airport on trip to Nashville. Alarm goes off at 3:15 a.m. just as C comes to bed……we’ve got the bases covered …….

Don’t know how many more of these conferences I’ll be going to. SC and I work well together, and it will be fun to exchange ideas, check on the publishing game, see about HMCO potential deals, be one of their stable of SMEs, but would rather include…….

Globalization trends ---- D Cordell’s meeting last week had promise, was positive, good ideas all around the table, both in terms of traveling to strange lands as well as bringing folks to EdCC…..need to check on Fulbright, is Russia for real in September, or would I rather do the NYC Century, on new steel-frame Volpe or ???? --- --Tying a 101 or 201 to an EAP class… Work with GVB on class for Fall 2008…

Sustainability – among other things, including carbon footprint reduction, using both sides of paper, turning off lights, biking more and single-occ-vehicle less, that means profit-sustaining orgs and building businesses that are designed for 100 years, not to be sold next week...

Good design….

Teaching with technology – reach more, more convenience, plug & play curriculum

Web 2.0 – We are all content providers distributing through a variety of networks, including the ones from conferences, so I guess that going to Nashville, CIT, TACTYC, is important after all, but to do the above, not to create more CPA corporate drones, but thinking, understanding, creative business improvement types, energetic free-thinkers with org skills who can connect the dots and develop the new combos, glide between opportunities,

Which is why the PodCast/Vodcast/Skype/Jing thing is important. Creating own audio/video content expresses the instructor well. The tools meet the criteria, easy to use, short learning curve, low cost and mesh well with both what the publishers provide and how students use the content. Of course, the notion of leading the horses to water but, still obtains.

Watch out for the Zach re-entry……China’s been great for him. He’s found a voice, but how will he adjust to being back home…..with C, with all of Seattle domestic distractions, but UBC, studies, Gage Towers, social, summer upcoming will he work, go to school?……looking very forward to picking him up in Van BC on 12/22……

The workouts this week have gone well. Surprising jump in the 2nd weight sessions, and it makes good sense to lower weights and increase reps…..as well as alternating days of weights and spins. Want to keep up the biking in winter, weather permitting, but am torn between just maintaining the LeMond, or getting a new bike and then, if adding to the herd, what kind? Clunker MTB with fitting for racks & fenders (like the old Trek), new model of same, or the Volpe. I keep coming back to the Bianchi, but would like to find a pre 2008, with the gang-green color. Although, the $950 option from River City Cycles in Portland is intriguing. Go down for a weekend, no sales tax, have an out-of-town excursion, visit the Saturday market and Powell’s. When does Max do the Vancouver Jazz Festival, Fort Collins I believe it is? Is that a one-day shot or an ovenight?

Nick Hornby’s new read (Dirt vs. Housekeeping) is great, and it’s always refreshing/energizing to pick up his prose and get inside his thoughts…..like, does it matter that you read the good books, or that you just read, and the liberal chatterers…..Dylan’s Chronicles….and other life in the post-modern perspectives.


Stay away from the negatives…….no time for that now. Stay away from the petty internal nonsense, choose life……follow the bliss of what fascinates, which is why the Business of Baseball course makes sense, even thought I’m watching a slow erosion of enthusiasm for pro sports. But the SABR meeting was great in terms of renewing the appropriateness of the baseball metaphor for all that may be left of the good in this country…….that and jazz/pop/some rock…..Dawg and Dead…..Generica still sucks, and is a sad morphing of the distinct, different, fresh and fun into the bland, corporate suck the money out of everyone’s wallet consumerism…..

Wake Up, Little Suzies……out there, there’s someone working twice as hard to develop skills, who is not distracted by the noise of Generica, and who is willing to work for half the pay and over the twice the time with half the quality defects….and you will call them, “Boss.”

And, keep blogging…..consider it the shitty first draft of what’s going on. But, better to get it down in type than to keep it rattling around in my head…

NYC

New York City Century -

I want to do this next year.