oasis

I've long debated posting on this blog about Randy Pausch, a former CMU colleague who passed away due to pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008. While Randy was in the same department (HCII) as I was the past 4 years we never met. When the news about his cancer came out he sent out frequent email updates which always ran shivers down my spine.

I also vividly remember the day when the sad news arrived in my mailbox that after a 2 year battle Randy had finally passed away. I was at the CogSci conference 2008 where I had just received a best paper award and the next morning opened my inbox and read the sad email. But there was also an email from my colleague Ryan Baker who had just become first time father of a beautiful daughter.
The circle of life cliche and song rang in my head and I know Randy was a big fan of cliches as well as of "The lion king"! :-)

I would have gone to see his last lecture but at that time I was in the Netherlands to renew my US visa. It wasn't until recently when I finally watched his last lecture on youtube. You know how it goes, always an excuse of being too busy to just sit down and watch it. And I'm really glad I did because his moving and inspirational talk gave me some more perspective on my current jobless situation.

People often ask me how I feel about being back with my parents. I always half-jokingly reply that it feels like being in the twilight zone. Honestly though, I'm pretty relaxed about it and all of us are trying to make the best out of it without getting on each other's nerves too much.
Furthermore, the current situation gives me the chance to self-reflect and re-evaluate things which can't be bad.

I'm at 18 solid applications and have gotten 9 rejections so far. As Randy said the brick walls are there to show us how badly we really want something. Right now I still happily bang my head against the brick wall in hope that at some point it will crumble. Or indeed, until someone comes along to throw me over.

Here's to Randy Pausch and the wonderful life lessons he gave us!