I’m not going to tell you what I am attempting to put together for a costume this Halloween.
I will say though that I just won this on EBay:
I’ll also say that its not what you may think. Keep in mind, I like obscure. Hopefully this does not happen to me though.
I have just watched what has to be one of the most inspiring lectures I will ever listen to in my life.
Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie-Mellon University. He has done a lot in his life. He was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He has somewhere between 11 to 15 tumors in his liver. He was told he has about three months to live and this lecture is one month into that timespan.
To view the entire lecture go here. If that link doesn’t work, here’s the actual address you need to open in your media player. (mms://wms.andrew.cmu.edu/001/pausch.wmv)
The lecture covered his dream goals in life and how he attained them, or not and how each achievement and rejection affected his life.
He marked out several specific well defined goals to achieve that for some are a far reach. Some of the goals included:
Along the way, he hit many brick walls. From being rejected to Carnegie-Mellon to being denied by a Dean to become an Imagineer. He talked about each obstacle he faced and what he took away from it, successful or not.
“Brick walls are there for a reason: They let us prove how badly we want things” while keeping everyone else away. This was a key idea that he continued to bring back up throughout the lecture.
When he spoke about the Dean blockading his acceptance to be an Imagineer at Disney, he jokingly said that some brick walls are made of flesh. Joking aside, that is something that is true far more often, in my experience, than I’d care to admit. Another nugget he shared from this event was that “its important to know when you’re in a pissing match and to back out of it as soon as possible”.
Some other advice he shared included:
He also suggested what to do to get people to help you:
The lecture was on the long side, but entirely worth every minute. I recommend everyone taking some time and sitting down to watch it.
“The brick walls let us show our dedication.”
Found on Digg.
I have spent the last three days penned up in my room because I’ve been pretty sick. I worked from home Thursday and Friday only because one person was depending on my help. Thursday was a real struggle. I was practically dozing off in my chair when I wasn’t finishing off another box of tissues. One of my roommates and his girlfriend went grocery shopping in the evening and were quite thoughtful enough to try and cheer me up by getting me a big vat of chocolate chip cookies. They know me far too well. I brightened right up and inhaled 4 cookies.
They were delicious! I finished them off for breakfast this morning. Yum!
Last night, my parents came by and dropped off a big vat of soup that my mom made and some groceries since I’ve been sick since I got back from Otakon and haven’t had time to go shopping. They couldn’t come in because we can’t risk my dad getting sick. He had eye surgery on Monday so no need tempting fate. He looks fine and seems to be recovering his vision quite well.
Most of you won’t know the reference, but Nurse Me is actually the name of a Hentai. It was the hentai used for Dick and Buster’s Hentai Extravaganza panel at AnimeBoston two years ago. It was used for live dubbing. There are few things I will experience funnier than what I was a witness to that night. I don’t remember what the hentai was about, but thats not really important (is it ever?) After getting special attention the past two nights, I figured I deserved some attention tonight. Third time’s the charm as they say.
Sadly, noone is really around and I have nothing but this computer and a connection to the internet to entertain me.
I think I’ll go watch some hentai.
I still have not had time to blog about AnimeBoston, which is now, over a month ago. I have it mostly outlined to write, but I’ve just simply been too busy with work, powet, and upcoming convention preparations that I just have not had time to get to it. This evening whilst attempting to clean a small section of my room, I came across my older digital camera and remembered there were a couple of pictures on there from the convention that I never uploaded. It was just a couple of pictures of Brenna and I in our cosplay outfits from the convention, but I thought it warranted a good blogging, so…
Meet Brenna!
Brenna stayed with me for the con and we, Brendan and Thanh all manned Brendan’s booth in the Artists’ Alley. I’ll do a more detailed write up of the convention eventually. She dressed as Trevor Belmont from Castlevania. Below is a picture of both of us in our outfits. I was time-jump Uchiha Sasuke from Naruto.
Next week is Botcon in Providence, RI, while Otakon follows two weeks later in Baltimore. I’ll upload pictures from everything as I always do. You will see more pictures of Brenna when I get back from Otakon.
After I got back from the cruise, I had about 2 hours to eat and get dressed up in either a suit or a costume for the big new years bash being thrown at the Braintree House. I thought dressing in a suit and consuming alcohol would be a poor combination so while I was in the Carribean, I picked up a couple of sweet button up island shirts and some sunglasses. So my costume was me still on vacation. Here’s a picture of me in my costume and my lovely roommate Natalie. One of my friends was quick to point out that it looks like she is not wearing a shirt. I was just excited to be there.
There was lots of mirth and merriment to go around with good friends, both old and new, and an abundance of champaigne.
You can see an example of said merriment in the following video:
Check out the rest of the pictures in the gallery here.
‘No rest for the wary’ is right. I’ve been back from the cruise for 16 days and back to work for about 14. I haven’t even had time to update this blog. I have lots of pictures to upload from both the cruise and New Years at the Braintree House. I have a couple of video, too. Lots and lots to get done over the next couple of weeks.
Its a new year. New goals to meet, new desires to strive for and new bad habits to break.
Time’s a-tickin’!
I’ve been pretty busy lately and have had lots of stuff to blog, but just haven’t gotten to it. I hope to address that in the near future, but I’ll be going away again for a week. This time my family is going on a cruise leaving San Juan, Puerto Rico and visiting such hot spot destinations as Curacou, St Maarten, St. Thomas and Aruba. Joining me on this jet-set excursion will be my parents, my sister and her boyfriend. I will, as always, be the fifth wheel, but I get my own cabin, so I think some freelance adventuring on my own may be in my future, particularly at the buffets. The ship is supposed to be massive. I think its a Royal Carribean cruise. I’m sparse on the details just now because I’ve been so busy and the trip was finalized so very very late in the game. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to share when I return. I have lots of packing and errand running to do before we leave. The trip will be from December 24th to December 31st. Just in time to be back for the New Years bash at the Braintree House.
In other news, the one rusty spot in my aluminum-walled life of the future will be scrubbed away at the turning of the new year. The fourth roommate in the Brighton house that we found on CraigsList will be moving out because she found she couldn’t stand living with three of the most easy-going people on the planet. Taking her place will be the Duke.
…and there was much rejoicing.
Ok this isn’t really part 5. Ed sent me a picture from the party, though, that I happen to like a lot. I am genuinely happy and don’t look too much like a fool. This was immediately after I won the table radio in the raffle. I am 2 for 2 for the raffles so far. Go me.
When last we left our patriotic guise, we were painting the white stripe of the shield with its first coat of white paint.
You can see Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
In Part 2, I riveted a handle and arm strap on to the sled, so I could hold it with my left arm.
I still needed to address the whole sewing obstacle and paint the sled.
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