Randy Pausch – Goodbye and So Long

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As many of you know Randy Pausch died last Friday, July 25, 2008.  I did not know him or his family, but like many of you, his spirit captured my attention after I watched his “Last Lecture” on YouTube.

I have gone back and forth over the past few days, trying to decide if I would write anything… as you can see, I did decide to write a bit.

Over the past couple of weeks a message has been coming through very clear to me – it is an exciting message, one that says, “if you wish it…”  Randy has inspired this thought and feeling even stronger in me and I want to thank him, and those who are close to him for supporting that message through him.

It may seem trite, but I like these sayings which encapsulate moments of greatness – and I think this message which I heard last week on America’s Got Talent goes hand in hand with Randy’s philosophy – “I don’t know how long I’ll last, but I’m here today!”

What a great blessing… Well, Professor Randy Pausch, Goodbye and So Long – of course, you will be missed, thank you for choosing to sew those nets for all of us.

Pure Digital’s Flip Video Mino

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Pure Digital Flip Mino

Pure Digital, the makers of the original Flip video released their next generation Flip digital video camera, the Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. It looks like it has become available on Amazon.com on Friday, June 6, 2008.

After watching various reviews and reading up on the specs, this little device seems like a great step forward in the Flip video line. Although, my initial impression is that the price point is a little high, there are a lot of refined and upgraded features which may make the price justifiable to potential buyers.

The Mino is equipped with 2GB of flash memory giving it the ability to record 60 minutes of video, and Pure Digital has made the docking of the unit a little more convenient with the USB flip out connector being located on the top of the device. The video is still VGA quality, but this latest version of the Flip camera is using a later version of the original Flip’s image processing architecture – we hope this will improve the image quality in the Mino. Additional features also include touch sensitive buttons, a much smaller form factor which enables the video camera to more easily fit in users pockets and a rechargeable battery.

What I think makes this unit so powerful is the software that comes included which makes editing and uploading the videos to sites like YouTube and MySpace a breeze. If you have been waiting for a device to make Vlogging more manageable and easy, this camera and its bundled features may make a lot of sense.

Randy Pausch Updated – May 18th, 2008

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[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVFmFof6aXg&feature=related[/video]Right away I will tell you that I am not a ardent watcher of Randy’s update page. I go there when I think about him and his family to see what is going on and to see if there is anything specific besides his general condition that I can pray for him and his family.

I was starting to get a little worried that I had not seen any updates to his Update page since the middle of May.  I visited the site on Monday of this week, and was very pleased to see that on May 18th he had what he called, “A Perfect Day”.  Randy comments:

Everyone should have a day this perfect in their lives. Carnegie Mellon flew Jai and me up to Pittsburgh to attend graduation. I had the honor of giving the charge to the graduates at the end of the ceremony. Even the weather cooperated to make it a perfect day with the sun breaking through the rain clouds as the ceremony started. I also got to speak briefly to the SCS and ETC commencement ceremonies. It was wonderful to see all of our old friends and colleagues and I was very touched by the invitation.

I realize that his Update page is probably not a priority in his life right now, and that is as it should be – which is probably why I do not check it daily any longer.  However, I was pleased to see the update and to find out that he had this experience and that the University still supported and invited him to participate in the 2008  Commencement ceremony.

Our prayers and thoughts continue to be with the Pausch family as well as all of those afflicted with Pancreatic Cancer – If you would like to donate or get involved with the organizations Randy has recommended, you can find information on The Lustgarten foundation and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network by clicking on their names.

Juice Feasting… NOT Juice Fasting

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[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvqz5raD498[/video]I have been gaining weight and generally feeling pretty bad recently – I am tipping the scales… no… make that, I am CRUSHING the scales at a whopping 361lbs. For the past six months I have been battling chaotic work and sleep schedules, not to mention needing to improve my health because of the blockage discovered in my heart about a year and a half ago.

I was half asleep Saturday night and as semi-dreams go, I started to get inspired to fast, I thought, maybe I could cut out all food except for almonds… don’t ask me why, but that was how the dream went.

Anyway, after I got up I went to YouTube and Google to search on Fasting, and came across a few resources – The one I liked the best was from YouTube by RawBazaar. What I noticed at first was her annoying habit of calling a Juice Fast a Juice Feast… ah, but it wasn’t a mistake, she really was referring to a Juice Feast… after watching her videos she really won me over by her utterly real perspective and charming personality. So, inevitably, I thought, I should find out what this is a Juice Feasting is all about – If you are interested, you can check out what the author, David Rainoshek says Juice Feasting is at his site.

Now, at the risk of alienating myself from the entire Juice Feasting community, I am not, nor can I conceive ever being a health food junkie.

You don’t get a body like mine without working hard for it *grins*

Seriously, I do not buy into the whole philosophy, however, it seems that this would be a great way to achieve some better health and balance for my big fat body! Bottom line, I am not doing this primarily to lose weight, although, I do not see how I will not lose weight by cutting my calorie intake down to 1500 – 1800 per day. My real goal with this part of the journey is to achieve a general feeling of well being along with attaining a steady sleep cycle – other benefits that come will be bonuses.

So, I’m going to go for a 5 day fast to see if I can make it… from there if all goes well, I will shoot for another 5, etc. But for now, I just finished my 2nd meal – er, well, I finished my 2nd quart of juice.

Surprisingly, the 1st quart this morning was tasty… but the one I just finished – holy crap! It was disgusting! (I will try to publish some of the recipes later – for now this post is getting a little long in the tooth…)

So, my hope is that after fine tuning this process, I will begin to figure out what is good and what is stomach turning. In any event – we are officially off to the Juice Feasting races!

The Art of the Start – Guy Kawasaki

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[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT7xlFTinIw[/video]Guy’s full presentation video on the, “Art of the Start” can be found at Guy Kawasaki‘s site or on Google Video.

This presentation which runs just under 40 minutes was well worth my time to watch not once, but many times. I find myself watching it when I get discouraged by the daily trappings of my business, things which prevent me from working toward the purpose I have found which drives me to keep going. Besides, the payoff at the end of the video as they are running him off the stage is priceless!

If you are an entrepreneur, business owner, affiliate marketer, or simply somebody who is always looking to be inspired, take some time and watch this presentation. What do you think, is Guy full of it? Do you agree, or disagree with his comments about mission statements, etc.? I’m looking forward to your feedback!

If you enjoyed this article, video, or post please subscribe to Bloglyne.com for more of the same!

Randy Pausch Updates

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Last month I wrote a quick article about Randy Pausch because his “Last Lecture” and testimony before Congress touched me. I find his honesty about pancreatic cancer refreshing. The truth about this brutal disease is just that… brutal – and I hope that the attention he brings to the battle will enable progress on all cancer fronts.

Randy has a page where he updates his progress every few days. I really recommend that you go there and subscribe to the updates. Some truly inspiring and amazing things going on there.

Randy, it is exciting to hear that you are feeling well enough to continue treatment. I’m looking forward to hearing that you are able to ride the bike a little :)
Randy’s last two updates:
April 9, 2008: Getting Ready for Next Step

Well, I’m not quite back on the bike, but I’m healthy enough to travel and move forward with treatment. Tomorrow I’m spending the day at the University of Maryland being evaluted to see if I am a candidate for the Theraspheres treatment.

Basically, it’s a process where a large number of tiny (thinner than human hair) spheres are irradiated with Yittrium-90 and then squirted into the artery that feeds the liver. They preferentially go towards tumors (counter-intuitive, but true), and both block blood flow to the tumors and irradiate them.

April 8, 2008: Book Launch, Media Craziness
The book went on sale today. Lots of media outlets ran stories, which is very nice of them.Diane Sawyer is running a special tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 10pm on ABC. People who know what I’m really like will doubtless be throwing tomatoes at the screen ;-)

Top 10 Ways to Increase Subscribers??? Bloglyne’s Subscriber Dilemma

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Recently a friend of ours pointed out that a bunch of our subscriber links were broken – Thanks Mark from 45n5!

So this started me wondering if I actually had subscribers that were not being measured by our FeedBurner widget – it would be nice to think so, but, whether we do or not, it is a huge struggle to seem to get that number to grow with any significance.

At the end of the day, I really do not think I am qualified to give these types of tips as my subscriber list tops out at a max of about 20 right now … on a good day, but, there are a few articles out there which discuss this topic, two which I really like are 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers and 20 Ways to Grow Your Subscriber List.

What do you think? Do you have a specific formula for growing your subscriber list? I look forward to hearing from you!