Patrick Swayze diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

Ironically enough on Oprah last night Randy Pausch gave an on-television version of the 'dead guy' speech he gave (downloaded a gazillion times). Basically pancreatic cancer is the last cancer you want. Your chances are surviving it are very slim.

So if you could choose from a list, Pancreatic cancer would be the last one you'd choose. Only 5% of Americans diagnosed live longer than 5 years. Death itself is also pretty unpleasant, as more and more systems of the body shutdown, including the digesting, liver and lung function. Essentially your body then becomes poisoned, you're unable to use the toilet or metabolise food you eat, and then your lungs stop working. This is what makes Randy Pausch's upbeat speech so amazing. The question is, will Swayze survive? What are his chances? Apparently not terrible. Read here for more.

Watch Randy Pausch on You Tube here.

Let them paint on the walls

Juno MacGuff: I think I'm, like, in love with you.
Paulie Bleeker: You mean as friends?
Juno MacGuff: No, I mean, like, for real. 'Cause you're, like, the coolest person I've ever met, and you don't even have to try, you know...
Paulie Bleeker: I try really hard, actually.

Instead of crawling back into my cave last night I ventured out. As far as - GASP - Montecasino. It was quite funny. I was really starving and so I said to L, "Shall we sit out...er (glancing up at the fake ceiling)...should we sit out inside?"

Salad was great, and the movie was an incredible breath of fresh air.

Back at the cave I had a top 500 worst sleeps in my sleep (around 2 hours, low quality), and so when the alarm went off at 4:30am I cringed, moaned, assumed the foetus position. I sent A an sms saying: "Dude, don't you want to ride tomorrow. I'm death in a blanket." (I'm paraphrasing). After two minutes I said stuff it, and kicked my sorry ass out of bed. Had a very nice ride (this time on my Trek since the Cannon is probably sitting in a hanger in Cape Town already).

Last night on Oprah I watched this professor with pancreatic cancer giving this speech on living. Are you an Eeyore or a Tigger. Oprah summed up the whole show by quoting something from his presentation. He'd said he had fantastic parents. When he was a youngster he asked permission to paint various things on the walls of his room. They felt that art (and expression) was more important than walls, so he went on to paint an elevator, rockets, equations and so forth on his bedroom walls.

We can do the same in our lives today, but the canvass is the walls we put around us, to defend our own views of the world.

Watch Randy Pausch's lecture here.