The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This review is not my own personal "Last Lecture." The temptation is great after reading this book to sit down and create your very own last lecture. All of us have a great desire to pass on our own golden nuggets of wisdom to others. I will use my personal journal for that purpose and leave all of you with a simple book review.



I really enjoyed this book. Not just because Randy had some great things to share with the world but also because this proves that everyone has great things to share. Its not just the muilt-billionaires and mother Teresa that can contribute good advice to us. I'm not trying to insult Randy but simply say that the most extrodinary thing about this book is how ordinary the guy is.



He did some extremely extraordinary things, but hey most of us do! This book was easy to read (listen in my case). It made me want to finish the story and did make me reflect on my own dreams and childhood.



I don't know if I will ever read it again, but I can say I really enjoyed it.



link: Buy On Amazon Now


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The First Day of Spring

As you will see by the pictures below Simon & I enjoyed the first day of spring. We celebrated by making our back yard appear as it did in the fall. I used the leaf blower to blow all the leaves off of the back fence area into the grass where we will in turn mow them up. (Way to lazy to rake) We meant to do this in the fall by just were too lazy then also.

The first day of spring was the end to the cold I've been fighting for about 10 days. It was unfortunately the first day of Ami getting the cold that I've kicked. Simon & I were able to hang out all day while Ami rested. I'm quite glad to be healthy again since I haven't been able to get out and run for over a week.

I am still on the look out for people who want to run a 1/2 marathon with me in August. Jeff, my brother is still on board and that makes me happy :)

As for Simon, he is quite energetic these days and wants nothing more than to be outside all day long. He either wants to be walking around the back yard or in his stroller on walks around the neighborhood. His vocab is expanding very slowly. I think a complete list would include: mooo, woof woof, dog, duck, ball, car, dada, mama, and on a single occasion the words Jesus and candy.

As for work things continue to go well. Agel is flourishing & the spring means an increase in my JPTees and JP Squared business. Recently I was contracted by a local reseller of the Magic Jack product to do some self-improvement newsletters and webinars and that has been fun.

Hope you like the pictures of our "fall-looking" spring backyard.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Sometimes we have to stretch ourselves a little. How often do we really stick out our own necks to perform? In an effort to both make the goal and publically declare it I am writing this post. On August 8th, 2008 I will run a half marathon here in Provo, Utah. The Provo River Trail ½ Marathon is an annual event along the Provo River in the canyon. Even though I’ve always been a runner this will be by far the longest race I’ve ever run. Up until now my morning runs consisted of 2-4 mile jogs and my longest competitive race was a 5K.

I’m pumped. I’m not excited about running 13.1 miles but rather I’m excited about doing something audacious. I’m pumped about bending my own limits and pushing it past the comfort zone. What I’m wondering is what each of you are going to do to stretch yourselves this year? What are you willing to publicly declare?

Here is a picture of the stretch of trail where I'll be running my race!

This is the view I woke up to on Saturday morning. I went on a ice fishing trip with the young men from the church this weekend. We went to the current creek reservoir which is close to strawberry reservoir in central Utah. The first adventure came when one of the boys informed me that the clothes he had on his back was all that he brought with him. This consisted of tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirt, and pullover hoodie. For camping in the mountains in February this was going to be a disaster. Luckily for him enough boys had enough spare coats, gloves, snow pants, etc to donate to his cause.

Ami made me a phenomenal tin-foil dinner which consisted of diced chicken and potatoes. I was the only one to cook mine in the fire as the other boys either brought subway or cooked their dinners over the propane grill. Back in my day...

Several of the boys were convinced they were going to build snow caves to sleep in and though several made valiant attempts only one 12 yr old was able to craft something big enough for him to sleep in it. The sad thing is that he was the only one who got any sleep at all. The rest of us spent the night trying to dream of warm climates and thicker clothing. Even in my thermals, snow pants, heavy winter coat, gloves, beanie, and LL Bean mummy sleeping bag I was freezing cold!!! We guesstimate that temps reached 20 below that night. It was horrible.

The next morning was exciting as we did a little ice fishing. We shuttled the boys across the reservoir on snow mobiles (my first experience driving one) where we dug small holes in the ice (about 8" deep) and put in our lines. This was my first time ice fishing also. There were a total of 4 fish caught between the 18 of us. The most excited moment was when one of the boys was reeling in a fish. I got next to his hole to grab the fish when he brought it out and just as it was coming out of the water it managed to jump off the hook and back into the water. I reaching in after him with my right hand and managed to grab him as he was swimming off. I pulled him out and chucked him onto the ice. It was some sort of reaction and I swear I'm not making this up. It was almost ninja like.

Jacob Paulsen