Ory grew up in Nairobi, probably not too far from me. She's one of the New Africans for whom I'll keep my ears perked. By "New African" I mean a person who lives a life between Africa and the first world, educated here but with a heart and family that's left over... we aren't typical immigrants you see and in Ory's case, she went back to make a difference. You can see her talk at TED here, make sure you get past the Harvard name dropping to the meat of her message.

I love new forms of dance that crossbreed from one culture to another. Here are two breakdancing spinoffs from Japan and France respectively.

Teaching a class this week and of course feeling very old...

A few months ago I saw Randy Pausch's Last Lecture - the backstory being his diagnosis with a terminal illness and departure from Carnegie Mellon.  He passed away yesterday and this morning I watched it again perhaps as an attempt to hold onto what he was planning to leave those alive with after his death. It was as moving today as it was when I first saw it, especially with his ending "head fake"; that the lecture was for his children.

What an inspired life; even though I can't physically be surrounded by people like Randy, listening to him makes me feel the cushion of listening to another dreamer whose dreams were done.

Added: A New York Times summary has some good links related to Dr. Pausch

Today I learned of the death of a person I knew in school. Married, like me. 33, like me. Wife expecting, like me.

Who knows how short life will be? The time that we have around here is just a gift.

REMEMBER me when I am gone away,  
Gone far away into the silent land;  
When you can no more hold me by the hand,  
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.  
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:  
Only remember me; you understand  
It will be late to counsel then or pray.  
Yet if you should forget me for a while  
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave  
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,  
Better by far you should forget and smile  
Than that you should remember and be sad.
- Christina Rossetti, "Remember"

Wow.

What time is it? Hm, 1pm?

My friend M was asking me over the weekend about records - whether I listened to them in the past.  I was never wild about the experience but had a cheap turntable because some music just wasn't available on CD format in my heyday of buying music.  Perhaps the biggest factor for me was that I had to listen to music on a track by track basis with the singles I most often found only on vinyl.  Today, however, I've drawn a connection between that and my YouTube listening - one track at a time.

In rotation? Some talented Japanese people -

Yukumi Nagano

Towa Tei

I stopped only once, for just a second, to look back. I debated whether I wanted to look back—I was afraid I’d jinx myself if I did—but then I thought: this is a huge moment in my life and I want to take just one more look at the homestead.

I paused, turned around and looked. Everything was quiet. No movement, no noise, no lights on in the house, nothing. I was safe. No one knew I wasn’t up in my room sound asleep. I took off again as fast as I could...

The tale is concluded.

"Anaheim, California should be paved over, if it weren’t already... "

Dervala writes about her experiences going there for the last 6 months. There's a lot I wish I could disagree with, but can't. My solution to living in Buena Park, Anaheim's northern cousin, was to get on Interstate 5 and drive north.

Have a look at these. Gas stations seem to speak their own language.

Most people who know me well know that I love books. In fact, my secret hope is to build a personal library - I found some good inspiration today here.

Lost posts always hurt.