Current mood: sad
Category: Friends Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain;Awake but one, and lo, what myriads rise
~Alexander Pope
Dear Diary,
Things have been kind of loopy lately. Kind of like a Heyoka. A backward-forward kind of progress. Not sure if it is the planets or the full moon or something totally not related at all but it ended with me calling Friday "Freaky Friday".
Bills getting paid, buying a few new things for the place to make it look nice. I bought a pretty new Buddha statue. One I haven't seen before. It was on sale at Lowe's for $19.95 in the garden department. Reminds me that it is time to inquire to the heavens about a new teacher. In the last ten years since starting this diary, I have learned a series of lessons. Some the easy way and some the hard way. But they wouldn't be lessons if I didn't learn something from each of them.
I came up with a beautiful headboard idea for my oriental theme.
What if I made a large wooden frame and used some bamboo rods going from the bottom to the top of it. That would be really cool.
Took the time to put up a small fence around the yard to protect the new dog from roaming and from blocking people from getting up to the trailer and getting bit by her or something. I feel much safer knowing that Little Fawn can't run out into the road or get kidnapped while I am at work. Sometimes she would get mad at mom and take off without mom even knowing it so it nipped that in the bud as well. We have some new people in the department but all they want to do is stand around and talk or answer the phone instead of working the freight from the back so nothing is still getting done. I am over it.
Had to go down the rapids in rubber pants and drag float the deck back up the creek. I don't think it could have gotten there by itself with parts on top of the bridge but stranger things have happened. It is back in one solid piece.
Much to my surprise the creek really isn't too deep except right in the very middle. Those rubber pants have already paid for themselves. Feels nice to have the day off, even though I spent 3/4 of it in bed completely exhausted.
Lately Little Fawn has become rebellious and I find myself getting more and more frustrated with her. Possibly we are both short on patience and on time. I did manage to find some black cohosh in a supplement called Oona that stopped my hot flashes. I am glad to finally be able to stop taking the hormones because I have been on them almost four years now. Five ensures breast cancer. That is cutting it pretty close but I couldn't find anything that worked until this product. Damned if you do...damned if you don't....
I was deeply saddened to learn that Professor Randy Pausch died. Here is what I found on him this morning on yahoo. He will be a lasting legacy to his friends, his family, and his students.
Here is the lecture url via utube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
'Last Lecture' professor, Randy Pausch, dies at 47
FROM RANDY PAUSCH'S 'LAST LECTURE'
-Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it.
-Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
-No one is pure evil. Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you.
-Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough.
-It is not about achieving your dreams but living your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.
-We can't change the cards we're dealt, just how we play the hand. If I'm not as depressed as you think I should be, I'm sorry to disappoint you.
Yahoo! Buzz
By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY
Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor who became a YouTube phenomenon with his "Last Lecture," died Friday of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47. He died at his home in southern Virginia.
Pausch told USA TODAY during an interview at his home in March that the now-famous lecture was never meant for public consumption, nor was it for his colleagues or students. It was for his two sons and daughter: Dylan, 6, Logan, 3, and Chloe, 2. "If people are finding inspiration, OK, but the book is for my kids," Pausch said.
"I knew what I was doing that day," he wrote in the introduction of his best-selling book, also titled The Last Lecture. "Under the ruse of giving an academic lecture, I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children."
Pausch's wife, Jai, said Friday, "I'd like to thank the millions of people who have offered their love, prayers and support. Randy was so happy and proud that the lecture and book inspired parents to revisit their priorities, particularly their relationships with their children. The outpouring of cards and emails really sustained him."
The Last Lecture (Hyperion, $21.95) has been atop or near the top of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list since it was published in April. This week it is No. 8. It has been translated into 30 languages, and nearly 3 million copies are in print.
President George W. Bush, touched by Pausch's story, recently honored him in a letter, citing his service to his country.
"Your love of family, dedication in the classroom, and passion for teaching will stand as a lasting legacy, and I am grateful for your willingness to serve," Bush wrote.
Bush's wasn't the only accolade that came Pausch's way. He made Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Although celebrated in his field for co-founding the pioneering Entertainment Technology Center and creating an innovative software tool known as "Alice," it was his lecture that earned Pausch worldwide fame.
Titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," the humorous and heartfelt talk was videotaped and quickly spread around the world via the Internet. Millions of people have since viewed it. It was delivered at Carnegie Mellon on Sept. 18, 2007, a few weeks after Pausch learned he didn't have long to live.
In the lecture he urged his students and colleagues to live life to the fullest. Among his words of wisdom:
•"Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it."
•"We can't change the cards we're dealt, just how we play the hand. If I'm not as depressed as you think I should be, I'm sorry to disappoint you."
"Good teaching is always a performance, but what Randy did was in a class all by itself," says Andy van Dam, co-founder of the computer science department at Brown University, which Pausch attended as an undergraduate. "His students responded to him as athletes do to a great coach who cares not only about winning but about the team players as individuals."
Donations can be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon's Randy Pausch Memorial Fund (www.cmu.edu/giving/pausch), which supports the university's continued work on the Alice project.
Be well.
You are loved.
Aho Mitakuye' Oyasin,
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