Randy Pausch 1960-2008

So I have recently been encapsulated by the teachings of Professor Randy Pausch - you probably know him as he was the centre of a viral youtube video known as the “Last Lecture” and his teachings on “How to Achieve your Childhood Dreams.” His story of leaving a legacy for his wife and three young children as he tackles terminal pancreatic cancer has left a lasting impression on me. After reading his book I just wanted to put some of his ideas here on my blog for others to read - if anything just a reminder to myself on how to live life. These ideas are so simple - but too many times we are making life more complicated than necessary.

Ways to overcome the “brick-walls” that we encounter...
It's a long, regurgitated list ... but it was all so good ....

pg 87: “Not everything needs to be fixed” (like dented cars)
pg 108-109:
“Time must be explicitly managed, like money”
“You can always change your plan, but only if you have one”
“Ask yourself: Are you spending time on the right things?”
“Develop a good filing system”
“Delegate”
“Take a Time Out”
pg 133: “Give yourself permission to dream”
pg 138: “Don’t complain, just work harder”
pg 139: “Treat the disease not the symptom”
pg 148: “Experience is what you get when you didn't’ get what you wanted”
pg 156: “A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the long way, which is basically two words: work hard”
pg 162: “Proper apologies have three parts: 1. What I did wrong 2. I feel badly that I hurt you 3. How do I make this better?”
pg 168: “There is more than one way to measure profits and losses. On every level, institutions can and should have a heart”
pg 171 “If you can find your footing between two cultures, sometimes you can have the best of both worlds”
pg 174: “If you want something bad enough, never give up (and take a boost when offered)"
pg 176: “When we’re connected to others, we become better people”
pg 177: “Sometimes, all we have to do is ask”
pg 200: Caregiving advice from flight attendants: “Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others”
pg 206: “If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dream will come to you”

Ironically, Dr. Pausch passed away from his cancer the day after Emily showed us the video of him, which just made me appreciate his strength throughout the battle even more.

The Book: Pausch, R. (2008). The Last Lecture. Hyperion: New York.
The lecture: http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/

Pictures of Ramadan

So beautiful. 

... in honour of my friend Layial to worked so hard, but had to do so so much harder as she fasted during the month of September!

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/observing_ramadan.html

Learning French

.... or rather the lack of me learning French that is really starting to annoy me. After coming back from an awesome Quebec Regional conference at the end of September I found that representing myself as a leader of this national organization felt humiliating at times given my inability to speak the French language. 

All of my teammates had at least a decent understanding - then there is me - stereotypical isolated  student from Alberta. It is at home in Calgary where you hardly notice it for you feel quite far from the East and French - you just know that Canada is a bilingual nation and you accept it just as that. In my time as a student I just took other paths that (at that time) happily avoided French. In junior high I took Drama and Art instead of French, then when it got to high school French didn't seem like such a good idea given that I never really took it before. 

I think the school system has changed now to make French compulsory - more than the four elementary years that I received. But now I am thinking that bilingual school is a must if I had to do it all over again. 

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure I've had this revelation before ... yep... just checked the archives, I definitely felt this way after being in Paris :P (Link to previous post)