Why, Blog, Why?

This one is a two-fer. The link below goes to a post that starts with a video from the Wall Street Journal in which Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch speaks during one of a "Last Lecture Series," a series of lectures from top academia who are asked to speak as if they were dying. The irony here is that Professor Pausch really is dying - he has pancreatic cancer and expects to live only weeks or months. The short video (4:40) features some of the more poignant clips from his speech, and they are both intense and inspiring.

Following the video is a set of answers that the post author provides as his own response to the hypothetical question. Though not nearly as moving, they are still words to ponder and appropriate to those facing the end of their life as well as those in the midst of it.

5 things to say at your last team meeting

Also, here is a link to Professor Pausch's personal page describing his battle with the cancer.

Finally, here is a link to the complete (I think) lecture, via Google Video. (Alternate Windows Media version hosted at Carnegie Mellon)

This instructional video from Red vs. Blue is just brilliant!

Hello my friends, it's been a while, eh?

The other day the girls and I dropped Sarah off at her rotation site, then ran a few errands while we waited for her to finish up before picking her back up. Our last stop before heading back to get her was to a Starbucks (thank the good IPU (Blessed Be Her Holy Hooves) for Starbucks with drive through windows!) where I ordered our typical order: 1 venti decaf no-whip soy mocha for me, 1 venti decaf no-whip mocha for Sarah, and 1 kids soy hot chocolate for Maelin. A few minutes later we picked up Sarah and decided to head over the Friendly's for lunch before heading home. However, as we pulled out we realized that Sarah ended up with a latte rather than a mocha so we headed back to the Starbucks to set things straight.

It's ironic that after an event occurs you can look back and find several points in time that had you made the opposite decision you probably could have avoided it all together. In this case, had I waited to get the drinks after we picked up Sarah, or had I said 'Yes' to Sarah when she asked if I wanted her to go in to the Starbucks rather than back through the drive through, or had I just double checked the order in the first place the next series of events could have been avoided altogether.

So, we drove into the drive through lane and pulled up to the speaker (no line, thankfully) and explained the mix-up. The woman manning (womaning??) the drive through was gracious and told us to pull up and they'd fix it, no problem. We drove up to the window and the woman stuck her hand out to take back the latte. I grabbed the latte to pass it through the window to her, but right before the cup passed the threshold of the window it clipped the top of the door. The top popped off, the cup collapsed in my apparently herculean grip and hot coffee poured down my arm soaking the door, the floor, the dashboard, the steering wheel, my pants and inevitably the driver seat. The Starbuccaneers offered us a stack of napkins and a measly dry rag to mop up with, then handed us another mocha and watched us drive away. We had to drive all the way home so I could change, meanwhile Maelin was screaming from the back seat that she wanted to go to Friendly's and did not want to go home.

To top it all off, we realized after leaving the parking lot that we never had a chance to tell them the original mocha was a decaf, and since Raya is still nursing Sarah didn't want to drink it for fear of having Raya up all night (boobs are not impermeable to caffeine apparently).

So, the lesson here is that the Fates do not look kindly on second guessing their supreme wisdom. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When the Beaver gives you a fish, you take the fish. When the Fates give you a latte instead of a mocha, you drink the latte.

Update
Part 2: Apparently the fates were still pissed off at us today. On the way home from Maelin's first major haircut, Sarah stopped and got her a hot chocolate. Said hot chocolate now adorns our backseat and floor.

Xwiistation - Just saw this word on Woot.com as a reference to your game console of choice, as in "your TV, DVD, iPod, Xwiistation, or laptop" I couldn't help but laugh and thought I'd pass it along for the other geeks out there in Readerland.

Out of the half-dozen Chinese-food restaurants within driving distance of East Douglas, MA, not a single one delivers here. Any entrepreneurial restaurateurs out there?