‘The Last Lecture’

PITTSBURGH – Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose “last lecture” about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.

Pausch died at his home in Chesapeake, Va., said Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal writer who co-wrote Pausch’s book. Pausch and his family had moved there last fall to be closer to his wife’s relatives. Pausch was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in September 2006. His popular last lecture at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 garnered international attention and was viewed by millions on the Internet. In it, Pausch celebrated living the life he had always dreamed of instead of concentrating on impending death.

“The lecture was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful,” Pausch wrote on his Web site. “But rest assured; I’m hardly unique.”

The book “The Last Lecture” leaped to the top of the nonfiction best-seller lists after its publication in April and remains there this week. The book deal was reported to be worth more than $6 million. Pausch said he dictated the book to Zaslow by cell phone, and Zaslow recalled Friday that he was “strong and funny” during their collaboration.

“It was the most fun 53 days of my life because it was like a performance,” Zaslow told The Associated Press. “It was like getting 53 extra lectures.” He recalled that Pausch became emotional when they worked on the last chapter, though, because that to him was the “end of the lecture, the book, his life.”

At Carnegie Mellon, Pausch was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, and was recognized as a pioneer of virtual reality research. On campus, he became known for his flamboyance and showmanship as a teacher and mentor. The speech last fall was part of a series Carnegie Mellon called “The Last Lecture,” where professors were asked to think about what matters to them most and give a hypothetical final talk. The name of the lecture series was changed to “Journeys” before Pausch spoke, something he joked about in his lecture.

“I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it,” he said.

He told the packed auditorium he fulfilled almost all his childhood dreams — being in zero gravity, writing an article in the World Book Encyclopedia and working with the Walt Disney Co. The one that eluded him? Playing in the National Football League.

“If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you,” Pausch said.

He then joked about his quirky hobby of winning stuffed animals at amusement parks — another of his childhood dreams — and how his mother introduced him to people to keep him humble: “This is my son. He’s a doctor, but not the kind that helps people.” Pausch said he was embarrassed and flattered by the popularity of his message. Millions viewed the complete or abridged version of the lecture, titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” online.

“I don’t know how to not have fun,” he said in the lecture. “I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there’s no other way to play it.”

Pausch lobbied Congress for more federal funding for pancreatic cancer research and appeared on “Oprah” and other TV shows. In what he called “a truly magical experience,” he was even invited to appear as an extra in the upcoming “Star Trek” movie. He had one line of dialogue, got to keep his costume and donated his $217.06 paycheck to charity.

Pausch blogged regularly about his medical treatment. On Feb. 15, exactly six months after he was told he had three to six months of healthy living left, Pausch posted a photo of himself to show he was “still alive & healthy.”

“We don’t beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Ramesh Santanam contributed to this report.

Why So Serious?

Well, the reviews are in and the label has been set: Epic. The new Batman movie-The Dark Knight begins at midnight tonight, most likely showing on 47 screens PER theater for the next few months. The new release has been called ‘chilling,’ ‘dark,’ ‘not for kids,’ and ‘mysterious and brooding.’ Even The History Channel got in on the action but from a different perspective: they aired a serious documentary which featured top writers and psychologists all of whom ‘psycho-analyzed’ the Batman and the Joker and the symbiotic relationship that has existed between these two characters throughout the years. If there was never a Joker, there couldn’t be a Batman.

Right vs. Wrong, the individual vs. society, action vs. reaction, the Joker vs. Batman. I wonder, could there be a ‘two-faced’ reason for me to go see “The Dark Knight?” Personally, I’ve always been a big fan of ‘The Batman.’ Maybe it’s his dark side, his moody temperment, his time spent in solitary, figuring things out or maybe because he teeters back and forth on what’s right and wrong, or at least what he perceives to be right and wrong. I’ve always wanted to be Superman but methinks there’s no escaping the Batman DNA.

Anyway, I’m considering seeing the midnight showing tonight just for fun. I mean, it is summer and I don’t really HAVE to get up tomorrow morning.  It’s really supposed to be great!

“Christopher Nolan and his collaborators have delivered an elegant, urgent epic that doesn’t just extend the franchise, but deepens it into a film noir morality tale. Even as it upholds ideals of law and order it shrewdly questions the queasy morality of vigilantism, the mob mentality of a society facing terrorist anarchy, and the fine line between idealism and madness.” Me loves the way that sounds – idealism and madness? Hmm…you mean there IS a difference?

Here’s to, what I hope is, a helluva movie and another medium, another installment, another something that validates that deep pocket in the soul: the dark mood.

 

Obama IS Black, Right?

And Jessie is a racist, right?

The often-idiotic, rhyming-reverend Jesse Jackson apologized for some “regretfully crude” comments he made about Barack Obama’s speeches in black churches during what he thought was a private conversation. Do you wonder if Jackson is sorry that he said them or if he’s just sorry that he got caught? He says that the black community has more problems than just moral problems: housing, jobs, prison, etc… and that Obama is speaking down to the black community by emphasizing the lack of a black father. It’s actually funny but it’s THIS type of rhetoric that is the most racist of all: blacks chastising blacks because they’re acting TOO white. Being white implies some sort of birthright to intelligence? It’s this intelligence, genetically isolated to the country-club socialites that should be avoided by blacks? Wait…wait…wait – it’s not because they’d be ’sell-outs’ is it? That really is quite the 1980’s!

If I were black, all of this would be completely offensive to me. But it’s typical of this kind of leadership, or lack thereof, that has dominated the black community for far too long. White people have for years seen this but for years have been unable to say it. Why? The public out crying of “RACIST!! RACIST!!” can be a little much at times. Whites don’t like to talk about blacks. It makes them uncomfortable. Could they help the black community in some ways? Sure. Will they? No. Why? Leaders like Jackson and Sharpton don’t want white people’s help. They need the black community to look to them, the REV’s, for guidance. Yeah, well, there’s this new kid named Obama. Yeaaaahhhhhhh uh…he just might be the President. Yeaaaahhhhhh…..

You know, Jessie, you’re not the ONLY black leader that’s out there these days. They’re closing in on you Jessie, they’re closing! They’re the new and improved, younger blacks who ***GASP*** think for themselves. They don’t follow your cracked up ‘If there wasn’t racism, blacks would rule the world’ philosophy. These are the new speakers – the new leaders – with new ideals. There are now plenty of leaders in the black community that would have no problem listening to another point of view, maybe even from a white, Hispanic or Jewish perspective and these idealists aren’t quite so closed-minded as the dear REV. In time, they’re going to achieve what the good REV. never did: fundamental change within a community as opposed to the diamond-laced crutches they’ve been given (Fake diamonds, yes, but they look real and that’s what’s important!).

One man would be Harold Ford, Jr. Here is an absolutely brilliant man with fantastic insight into realm of good ol’ common sense. He’s articulate and well-spoken, and not in the bad, racist way of ‘talking white.’ He’d listen, I’m sure of it and he’s black, Reverend. I would propose a dare for you to say about Mr. Ford that he talks white just because he’s a professor of public policy at Vanderbilt University teaching American political leadership. Or, because he joined Merrill Lynch financial as a vice chairman and senior policy advisor and in 2007, was appointed the inaugural Barbara Jordan Visiting Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s also light-skinned. Be VERY careful here, Mr. Jackson when determining whether or not he’s black enough for you. I mean, he is, isn’t he? Even with all of these credentials, even though he does ’speak white’ and actually look a little white, please tell me that he IS black enough?

Perhaps Condy? She’s a little darker skinned. But at how many parties have you bashed the talented, genius-walking, former National Security Advisor, current Sec. of State, and future President? Is she too white because she balanced an entire university’s budget? If I told you that Dr. Rice (That’s DR. not REV.) is an accomplished pianist and at 15, she played Mozart with the Denver Symphony, would this be her ‘acting white’ or just being an accomplished black? Let’s see, she’s performed at diplomatic events, at embassies and has performed in public with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who is Chinese (If you want to criticize Yo-Yo Ma for being born in Paris, well, I’m actually ok with that!) She has stated that her favorite composer is Johannes Brahms, not because he was German and white, which you most assuredly could find cause to accuse her, but because she thinks Brahms’s music is “passionate but not sentimental.”

She’s not listening to Snoop – she must be ‘listening down’ to black people. AND OFF GOES MR. JACKSON TO FIND THE NEAREST CNN TELEVISION CAMERA!!

Jackson is the old school, racist, ‘keep blacks in their place’ type of spiritual leader that actually offers no spiritual leadership whatsoever. If I were black (Actually, my genealogy found that Booker T. Washington is a not so distant cousin of mine so, I guess I am black!) …ok, if I were MORE black than I am, I would jettison these type of idiots faster than Rosa Parks could sit down on a bus seat (Rosa Parks grandfather was Irish. See? She was a fighter!).

But seriously with these clowns, when was the last time you heard REV. Jesse Jackson, or REV. Al Sharpton, for that matter, utter the name Jesus Christ in a public setting? You probably haven’t. You know who has said it and does say it? Sen. Barack Obama! Remember REV –

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” 1 Peter 2:7

Maybe those two, old, tired men are actually jealous of Barack Obama. I mean, he’s done something those two never did – ever: he’s put himself in a position to be President of the United States of America. Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong and am giving these men too much grief. Perhaps they are just envious because Obama ACTUALLY IS African-American.

Riding the coat tails of the great MLK, Jr. can only last for so long. Would Dr. King ever utter such vile sentiment? Methinks not. Can you see Dr. King doing this? No. In 1984, Jackson called New York City “Hymietown,” referring to the city’s large Jewish population. I’m sure Dr. King would’ve been proud then just as he is now! Nice job, Jess!

Jackson’s opinions and rhetoric are stale. He no religious leader, he’s no political player. In fact, he’s laid no groundwork to support any recent political commentary at all. Here’s the best thing I can say about Jackson: you are a freak show and side-show act…and no, I’m not talking about Michael Jackson. You’re getting to be more and more irrelevant and that has got to hurt more than anything. You so desperately want to be relevant, but you’re just not. The 60’s have come and gone, my friend.
He said Wednesday that Obama’s speeches “come off as speaking down to black people” and that there were other important issues to be addressed in the black community, such as unemployment, the mortgage crisis and the number of blacks in prison. The black community has MANY issues that it needs to fix – MANY. But if you were to pick one issue to fix, one which could be the foundation by which all other issues would be built upon, that issue would be the absence the black father. Period!
Look, Obama panders to his base just like everyone else. It’s just politics. He’s a politician. You vote for the guy who’s the best looking on television. We all know that – we’re Americans! But Obama is dead on the money here.

Jessie Jackson just accused a black presidential candidate of ‘talking down to black people.’

Hmm…that’s just weird and actually, pretty funny!

Lord of the ‘Postcard?’ Tolkien sells fireplace? Huh?

A demolition man stripping a fireplace from the former home of “The Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien stumbled across a postcard to the writer dated 1968, and hopes to sell it for a small fortune.

Stephen Malton, who runs Prodem Demolition in Bournemouth on the south English coast, was working in the house in the nearby town of Poole before it was bulldozed to make way for a new construction project.

“Before we demolish a house we do an internal strip out,” Malton said Tuesday.

“One of the main features was a fireplace, and upon removing that we came across three postcards. The third one was a postcard dated 1968 and addressed to J.R.R. Tolkien.”

Malton said research on the Internet suggested that the carved wooden fireplace with marble inlay, a feature of the house when Tolkien lived there from 1968 to 1972, was already worth up to $250,000.

“To tie in both the fireplace and the postcard, we are talking about a price of around $500,000 for the combined pair,” the 42-year-old told Reuters by telephone.

He contacted the Tolkien Estate, which manages the author’s copyrights, and said that they had given him the all clear to sell the fireplace and postcard. The estate could not immediately be reached for comment.

Malton said he would probably sell the items at auction, although according to local newspaper the Dorset Echo, he has already had an offer from a Tolkien enthusiast in Belgium.

The postcard was addressed to Tolkien at the Miramar Hotel in Bournemouth, where he and his wife Edith often stayed.

It is from “Lin,” which Malton believed could be fellow fantasy author Lin Carter who wrote “Tolkien: A Look Behind ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” published in 1969.

Depicting a scene from Ireland, it reads: “I have been thinking of you a lot and hope everything has gone as well as could be expected in the most difficult circumstances.”

Malton was not sure what the “difficult circumstances” might be.

Tolkien had achieved fame by the time he moved to Poole in 1968. His epic “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, already popular before the hugely successful film adaptations appeared, was published in 1954-55.

He remained in Poole until his wife’s death, when he moved back to Oxford. Tolkien died in 1973, aged 81.

By Mike Collett-White