The last lecture...

Here is a great story about Dr. Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University. The university has a lecture series called "The Last Lecture" where professors give a lecture as if it was the last they would ever give. It's a way for them to decide and define what is really important in their career and in their life. Dr. Pausch, though, is dying of pancreatic cancer and is only expected to live a few weeks, so this may really be his last lecture. Here is a report on his "last lecture" that occurred just on Tuesday (Sept. 18th).

Happy Labor Day (but I worked)...

While all of you are enjoying the long Labor Day weekend, I was dutifully at work today. The first Monday in September is not a holiday to recognize workers in the Czech Republic (that would be May Day). Our Radio Free Europe holidays are a mixed bag of US and Czech. While I don't get Labor Day off I do get Thanksgiving off - but not the day after Thanksgiving. Of course, Noah's school has class on Thanksgiving, so having Thanksgiving off doesn't do a lot of good. Last Thanksgiving Kahty and I went to the Museum of Communism, which is some ways was the most poignent way to spend that holiday.

Very strange events last night...

Last night was the first night in three weeks that I have been on my own, after two weeks at my mom's house in the US and then the week long visit of Styopa in Prague. To say the least it was, um, interesting. Let me relay the three interesting (at least to me) things that happened between midnight and 7:00 a.m.

First, I was asleep in bed when I felt someone touch my leg and say "Al". It was a female voice so I assumed it was Kathy. It was a very real sensation, and I woke up right away expecting Kathy to be there standing over me. I looked to the right side of my bed (the side the leg that was touched was) and there was no one there. I then looked to the left and the rest of the bedroom and, of course, no one was in the room. I also noticed that my bedroom door was closed. In a second I realized that Kathy and Noah were still in the States and decided it was just a dream, no matter how real it felt. I fell back to sleep.

Then I had a dream about walking down the street with Tony Soprano, from the TV show "The Sopranos". I had just watched the final episode on the computer last night just before bedtime so it was fresh in my mind. Anyway, as Tony and I were walking we were both laughing and talking. I don't know what was being said except for the fact that we were both happy and I called him "dad" several times. The character of Tony Soprano is my age, so it seemed strange calling him dad, but I did.

Now, the third and especially weird thing. Just as I am in this dream, walking down the street with Tony Soprano and laughing and me calling him dad, I am woken up again. This time by sounds out in the hall outside my bedroom. I open my eyes and I can see that it's morning and I roll over in my bed to look that way - toward my door that goes out into the hall. I looked just in time to see the closed bedroom door swing open. It didn't open just a crack, but wide, like someone was walking through. I had every expectation that someone would actually walk through the door after it opened - but no one did. Surprisingly, I was not afraid by this strange occurance, especially considering the other things that had happened before.

What does it mean? Maybe nothing. The first dream, about being touched, could have been just that - a dream. The second dream, about Tony Soprano, isn't that surprising given that I had just watched the final episode of The Sopranos several hours before. The last thing, the door opening, is a little tougher to explain. But is possible that with the windows open there was a breeze or something that pushed (or sucked) the door open.

What do I think it means? Well, I don't know if this is a common belief, and I don't think it is, but I believe that the recently deceased can and do sometimes send messages to those left behind, usually to let them know that despite what you are feeling everything is OK. I am convinced I received messages from my late wife, Debbie, in the form of especially vivid dreams that I had a little over a year after her death. In the last one, after I moved to Saudi Arabia in 1991, she came to my villa door and when I opened she just stood there for a minute and then walked away. Although there were no words exchanged I strongly sensed the message was "I'm OK where I am and I'm going away now, so you have to get on with your life". These dreams had a very different feel to regular dreams and were very vivid and hard to forget (as opposed to most dreams that are hard to remember). While Debbie would be in future dreams, none of them were of this heightened awareness type.

My dad passed away in March, a little more than four months ago. Was he sending a signal that he is OK where he is and for us not to worry? The character of Tony Soprano is a gangster and a very bad guy, but he is an authority figure, and in the last last scene of the last episode he waits in a diner as his family - wife, son and daughter - join him one by one. The show ends as the last member of the family arrives at the restaurant. Except that this is The Sopranos, the scene is very normal and shows a close, happy family.

What about being woken up by a touch on the leg and a woman calling my name? I don't know, but besides Deb I also lost a sister to cancer many years ago. Could it hve been one of them? If my theory about messages from the departed is subscribed to, it could have been a way to be told to pay attention, because something was going to happen.

Even if it wasn't a message from my dad, it was at least some significant event in my subconscious. I will have to think on it some more. But I hope that tonight I don't dream, and I may lock the bedroom door.

What I don't do...

I have working on the blog for over six weeks now, and I haven't yet dealved in any detail about what I do, or even very much about the company I work for - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. I will get to all of that eventually, but for now let me tell you what I don't do.

I'm not a spy! There are many of you who have - quite independently - come to the conclusion that I work for the CIA. Well, I'm not a spy. I'm not one now and I never have been one. That being said, I guess I understand how some of you could get that impression. I did take Russian and political Science in college. I have worked in the general area of "defense" either with the U.S. Government or on the private side, for over 25 years. And it's also true that I have been to many places in the world just before or after a significant event. Saudi Arabia in 1991 after the Gulf War and back again in 1996 after the bombing of the U.S. Army installation where I had worked. Moscow in 1993 just after the failed coup attempt against Boris Yeltsin. Israel in 2000 just before the start of the first Palestinian intafada. Egypt in 2003 just a couple of days after the Iraq War started. And, to be fair, I did interview with the CIA back in 1985. I didn't get the job [them: "Have you ever used marijuana?" me: "You mean 'ever'?"] and never tried again to work there (or the NSA or the FBI or Homeland Security). And it's also another coincidence that the company I work for now, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was clandestinely funded by the CIA for more than 20 years.

From Wikipedia: "RFE received its funds from the Congress of the United States and until 1971 they were passed to RFE through the CIA. During the earliest years of Radio Free Europe's existence, the CIA and the U.S. State Department issued broad policy directives, and a system evolved where broadcast policy was determined through negotiation between the CIA, the U.S. State Department, and RFE staff. This system continued until the controversy surrounding Radio Free Europe's broadcasts to Hungary during the 1956 revolt. There is some evidence, however, that the CIA did involve itself in RFE projects at least through the mid-1950's.[6] The CIA funding of RFE was not publicly acknowledged until 1971 at which point the organization was rechartered in Newton as a non-profit corporation, oversight was moved to the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB), and the budget was moved to open appropriations."

After re-reading what I have written, I've almost convinced myself that I must be a spy (but I'm not - but that's what you would expect me to say, isn't it?). Next time I'll go into what I do do...

Here's our ride...

When we moved here I thought I might buy a used Audi or BMW or even Volvo or VW. We only need one vehicle so the idea was that we could get something used and more upscale. Who doesn't want to drive a fine German (or Swedish) engineered auto? But we found out that car theft is probably the bigggest classification of crime in the Czech Republic and the car thieves target nice cars like BMWs and Audis. So...we ended up with a Ford Mondeo. What is a Mondeo? Well, Wikipedia says the nickname for the Mondeo is the Mundano - for mundane (bland). It is the European version of the Ford Contour. It had everything we wanted - 6 airbags, it's a little bigger than the average vehicle on the road here, it's a combi (the European word for station wagon), with none of the annoying style or performance that the higher end makes are saddled with. My guess is that our Mondeo has little chance of being stolen.
We have had the car for 6 months now, and have only put on about 6,000 miles. That is good since gas is about $5-$6 per gallon. I take public transportation to and from work and we only need the car to drive Noah to work and for Kathy to run errands and go shopping. We will use it to make day excursions around the Czech Republic and nearby countries - particularly Germany and Austria.

Of course, sometimes I would like to (as the VW commercials call it) "unpimp" my auto.

"oh, snap!!"