Speaking123 Podcasts

The Last Lecture
“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
–Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture.” Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can’t help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave–”Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”–wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have…and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

Professor Randy Pausch made a surprise return to Carnegie Mellon University to deliver an inspirational speech to the Class of 2008 at the Commencement ceremony on May 18, 2008.

Advanced Project 3 “The Moral of The Story” (4 to 6 mins) requires the speaker to:
- create and tell a story that is entertaining and yet displays moral values.
- tell a story using skills learnt in the previous 2 projects.

“There is always something to be learnt in everything that we experience in life.  We have so many stories to share, so many lessons to learn.  As the VPE, I was caught off guard when informed of some changes to a meeting agenda at the 11^th hour.  After asking around, I couldn’t find a replacement speaker.  So I took up the challenge to ensure that the show would still go on.  The moral of the lesson here, (1) Just Do It, and more importantly (2) If there is a will, there is a way.” ~ 10 Jul 2008

I evaluated Song Lang’s Story Telling AP3 speech “Justice has a long jaw” at the July Chapter Meeting at Chao Chu Kang TMC. Surprisingly, I won the best evaluator award, together with the best table topic speaker award. This is the first time I got a double awards in one meeting. I was very very happy. It really comes as a surprise since I was taking it quite lightly for this evaluation. Unlike my previous evaluations which I usually skipped break to work hard on the evaluation. This time I only jotted down couple of observation points during Song Lang’s presentation and just gave an impromptu evaluation. I let the ideas flew out naturally during my evaluation. hmmm..it seems to work.