The Last Lecture's Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch the computer science professor who delivered a very moving final lecture at Carnegie Melon passed away last week after a short but fierce battle with cancer. He was 47.

His lecture is incredibly inspiring, here’s a guy who at the time was told he had six months to live (he managed to extend that to nine). He wasn’t maudlin or depressing, but instead he stressed the importance of achieving your dreams.

Between this, and “The Bucket List”, I’ve decided to write my “things to do before I die” list, and start crossing them off.

When I look at my list of things I wanted to do when I was a kid, I’ve knocked a lot of them off, and I don’t get easily starstruck or intimidated. I’ve met a number of my childhood heroes, and I got to meet and sometimes hang out with a lot of my early adulthood heroes too (who were mostly wrestlers and sports figures) as part of my gig at TSN, but there are still dozens of things I want to do.

Things to do before I die:

• Drive along the Pacific Coast Highway in a convertable with the top down.
• Eat a meal by a famous chef.
• Have thousands of people read my work (again)
• Jump out of a plane
• Own a successful business of my own.
• Produce a short film
• See the Grand Canyon
• Ski in Reno
• Ski Whistler
• Spend a week on the beach in the Carribean.
• Take my kids to Disney World
• Take my son on a trip, just the two of us
• Teach my kids how to defend themselves
• Teach my kids to respectfully disagree
• Teach my son to respect women
• Visit London England
• Visit LucasFilm in San Francisco
• Visit Paris France and stroll along the Champs D’elyse (preferably with a baguette in one hand, and my gal’s hand in the other.)
• Walk my daughter down the aisle
• Write and draw an autobiographical web comic / graphic novel
• Write and draw a children’s book
• Be the kind of dad and husband that my family wants to be with all the time