Inspiration

Randy Pausch died yesterday morning, finally succombing to the pancreatic cancer he'd battled for several years. He was an inspiration to many, especially Carnegie Mellon students, for the wisdom by which he lived his life, and imparted to us in his final acts of teaching: his last lecture.

His speech at my commencement this past May was the best part of the ceremony, eclipsing even Al Gore. It is a memory I will cherish the rest of my life, and his words I never want to forget: you don't beat the Reaper by living long, you beat the Reaper by living well. "If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you."

Pictures Finally!

Finally, I am posting the pictures I took nearly a month ago. Enjoy!

I've been feeling rather antsy lately. It's been a month since I've arrived in Adelaide, and while I enjoyed that month, I'm getting to the point where I'd like to do more, see more of the area and Australia. However, I am severely limited by a very small budget and no personal transportation. In a few weeks some of my friends were considering a trip to Melbourne, which I'll probably end up going on. But I guess I'd really like to be more active in Adelaide, and do something other than drink on weekends.

Last week I attended a meeting of Adelaide Bushwalkers Club, hoping to finally meet some Australians my age and find a group of people to explore the outback regions with. Unfortunately, I was cruelly disappointed. While the group itself is very active, and the hikes they go on seem very fun, the average age of the group was mid-50s, with many people in their 60s and beyond. I invited a few of my friends along, and we were the youngest people there. I am not necessarily opposed to enjoying the company of older people, and I'm sure they have the energy and strength to do strenuous hikes, I would have preferred a much wider mixture of ages, and a few still in their 20s. I'll just have to keep looking for a group that suits my needs.

Updates from OZ

I finally got my act together and uploaded my pictures from Australia. They're of Adelaide and North Adelaide. I haven't gotten out of the city at all yet, but have plans in the works for a short winery tour and Great Barrier Reef snorkeling in the near future. Otherwise, life is good, better than good, despite the fact that I haven't been properly warm for any length of time in weeks. Something they don't tell you before you leave the US is that the rest of the world doesn't heat their buildings like the US in wintertime. My bedroom is consistently between 9-13C (50-58F), non-insulated, and with a completely inadequate space heater. Needless to say, I don't spend much time there other than sleeping.

In the near future I will be racking up many new pictures, once I get around to hiking with an organisation I discovered through a co-worker. However, being completely unprepared for this kind of cold weather, I might not start hiking until it warms up a bit (oh, to have days of 17C again!).

EDIT: My internet is so bad here that I think I'll forego posting these pictures until I get a faster connection. One hour for only 25% completion is certainly too long.