Randy Pausch's Last Lecture and other stuff hmm..sometimes it feels like such a chore to blog.. and i wonder whether there are people who actually visits this site. At any rate, the written word serves as a good reminder of things past, of things to come, and of things that will remain. Haha Meyy perhaps you're right, it is the story that becomes the legacy, and as such it is important to chronicle the thoughts and deeds in case this will be the only legacy i leave behind.

A few random thoughts on a few random issue..



1. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
Randy was a former processor with the Carnegie Mellon University. Former, because he just passed away sometime this week. In the university, there was a series of lectures called the Last lecture, essentially a chance for professors to imagine what the end of their life would be like, and how to impart pearls of wisdom to their protege and students. In Randy's case, the irony of it was that he was truly giving a last lecture. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, having 10 tumors in his liver, and the prognosis then was only about another 3-6 months to live. And he gave this wonderfully superb lecture, which you can find on youtube.

Meyy gave me his book as a graduation gift and I just started reading it about a week ago. And all i can say up to now is that I've been completely awed by his tenacity, his zest and his drive for life, and how his life lesson's truly are applicable to all. One quote that i'll like to put here ,which i think wil be relevant to me in the next few months is this "When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you." Sometimes a little bit of scolding goes a long way, and it's not because the person has a grudge against you, instead he is only interested in you going far i.e. the person has not given up on you.

There are plenty of other gems in the book. I like how Randy as an individual basically chased after his dream, and such a dreamer was he. He was willing to take risks, to let everything go , just in order to obtain his dreams, something which I think will be hard for me personally to do..if you have the time, do watch the video, and if you want to experience his words like I did, i would gladly lend you the book. A little bit like Tuesday's with Morrie but i think for me personally, it's much more impactful and relevant.



2. Rubik Cube
Hmm I think all of you should be familiar with the Rubik cube....I was toying with one some moments ago, and a few observations entered my thought (i've never been able to solve a rubik cube)

a. What might seem impossible is actually quite possible.
Well to all us normal average sentient beings not blessed with tremendous intelligence and have not been able to solve a rubik cube in our lives, sometimes it would seem that the cube is just one impossible problem. Can it really be solved? is it for real? maybe it's just a trick to cheat people, u know maybe they mixed up the colour on purpose and there is no real solution. Well when i was young, that was what entered my mind, and that's what caused me to give up on the cube, proclaiming it as simply impossible. Truth of the matter is, it isn't impossible. When the cube is new, all the colours on each face is the same, there isn't any trick to it...simply put, when you turn things around and mess it all over the place, you should be able to turn it back.
Thus an impossible problem actually isn't impossible at all...but anyway, i wont bother to attempt the cube cause i'm not too interested in it (i have Attention deficit disorder i think..hehe)

b. Sometimes things doesn't happen as you want them to
haha okay, so the cube was nicely fixed, all colours on the right face. Being the brat that I am..i wanted to make it a bit more tougher for my brother to solve the puzzle. I wanted to have each of the 9 boxes on each face to be of a different colour... but the more and more i tried, it looks as if i was m ore closer to solving the puzzle than messing it up. Haha i guess the lesson here is that sometimes things just happen, and we shoudln't try too hard. And sometimes we shouldn't want things so badly, that it has the potential to affect us in a negative manner (this will be quite hard for me in certain areas). If not we'll all end up like whiny spoilt brat.

c. Make sure the things that you want to do is possible
okay on the converse of my impossible is possible, make sure that the possible is not impossible. Like i said earlier, i wanted each of the 9 squares to have a different colour on a single face. I was trying very very hard to get 9 different colours on one face, but all the time, I ended up with 2 or 3 squares having the same colour. I forgot, that there are 6 faces on a cube, and thus it is utterly impossible to get 9 colours on a single face, talk about achieving the impossible. Whenever you're doing something, know your limitations, know what you're doing, and know what is possible and impossible.

3. Hair for Hope
well what can I say, a picture says a thousand words and there are plenty in the earlier posts. Enough pictures to make you rich if I would ever become the prime minister, the president or some rock star. You could either a) blackmail me with those pictures, b) sell them to the press or c) do both and end up living a very comfortable life. haha. It's been 20 days since the event and i've got a bit of hair back. I look more like a monk now...and well to be honest i dont quite like this hairless or short hair look. I'm guesssing it'll take me around 2 more months or so for my hair to go back to a length i'm comfortable with. But what the heck, it was for a good cause although it was somewhat traumatizing. I remember sitting on that chair, and seeing the hairdresser pull out clumps and clumps of hair..OH GOSH!!!. Proud of what i did? Certainly. Like my 'new' hairstyle? Certainly not! Do it again next year? only if my donations hit 5k...hehehe shall not announce this to the world. But it goes to show, if we have so much issue with thte hair, what more the kids afflicted with cancer who have more of an inferiority complex, especially when they have to deal with tactless peers.

4. Work
I haven't talked much abnout work yet, just started less than a month ago. But basically this is my work place


I work in the World's Busiest Port! Wow what a statement to make... (as a janitor) haha kidding. but yea that's where I work. Most days, when I'm allowed to go out and play in the yard, I feel like i'm a little kid again playing with all these gigantous monstrous machines and they are really, really cool! Pity that due to security reasons i cant bring ppl around to tour the place. it would be really really cool to show this place to friends and family.
Got a wonderful bunch of colleague that i work with ( have to write this,, at least ONE of them reads this blog, yes YOU! hehehe) but at the moment things are still pretty slow on the work front. We're LIABILITIES to the company (for those who want a refresher in accounting , asset + liability = equity, you want more asset and you want to get rid of liability) and hopefully our liability status will be converted to asset status in a few months time (asset = get more scolding) haha..basically it's still a honeymoon period where we're being exposed to the work environment etc before they let us plunge into the deep end. I'm waiting to see how things will turn out for me and for everyone else here. Exciting times ahead certainly...maybe in another post i'll tell you y i chose this job instead of joining some other MNC, or becoming an investrment banker, or personal banker, or gigolo boy (as if) haha...when i was offered the job, i signed on almost immediately :p (that is how strongly i felt for the company)

till next time...goodnight  ¶ 10:25 PM