• Home
  • Home index
  • Daily thoughts — 2008
  • 2009
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2013
  • 2014
  • 2015
  • 2016
  • 2017
  • 2018
  • 2019
  • PROBAWAY
  • Tao Teh Ching
  • Philosophers
  • Epigrams
  • EarthArk
  • World Heritage
  • Metascales
  • Conan Doyle
  • Person of the Year

Probaway – Life Hacks

~ Many helpful hints on living your life more successfully.

Tag Archives: Berkeley events

A brief encounter with Vint Cerf

08 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by probaway in diary, inventions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Andrew Kay, Berkeley events, Buzz Aldrin, Vint Cerf

I was reading when the phone rang. Debbie said, “Quick you’ve got to get down to the IBM office!” “Where’s that?” “It’s in that tall building in downtown Berkeley, and the lecture starts in fifteen minutes.” With no more than that explanation I ran to the BART station where I saw that a train was approaching; thus I ran through the station and up the escalator and dodged through the closing doors. Puff, puff, puff. We stopped at North Berkeley station for a bit, then off to the Berkeley BART station. Ran up the escalator, thru the doors, and into the elevator, where I asked, “Puff, puff, where is the IBM office?” “Top floor.”

I stepped into a room crowded with a mix of business-suited people and shabby ones, too. All of them looked like Berkeley geeks. There wasn’t even standing room in the back, so I curled around the right side toward the podium, when a guy spoke to me. My first thought was this suited guy was going to ask me for my credentials … for crashing this lecture.

He transferred a small flat box to his other hand and held out his right hand in greeting and mentioned his name. However, in my super hurried state I didn’t even hear it, and we shook hands while I said my name. We chatted for a few seconds about the beautiful view out the top floor window of the University of California campus, the San Francisco Bay, and the crowd packed for the lecture.

Vint Cerf profile photo.

“Do you want to introduce me?” Without missing a beat I said, “I think the guy by the podium is scheduled for that” and stepped back with a smile and a gesturing hand in the general direction of the podium. In a couple of seconds, that guy said, “And here he is, the man we’ve been waiting for, a man we all revere who needs no introduction … Vint Cerf!” Everyone cheered and clapped enthusiastically.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he said, “A funny thing happened on the way over here. I was called to the White House in Washington DC and yesterday was sitting in the hall in front of the President’s office next to a guy who was also waiting. He said to me, “Who are you?” “Vint Cerf.” “What did you do?” “I invented the internet.” “What did you do?” “I went to the Moon.” “Neil Armstrong?” “No, Buzz Aldrin.” We laughed and shook hands and were called into the office, where I was given this.” He opened the box and showed us his Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Vint Cerf Google bag.

This is a Google photo, but when I talked to him he was holding his Presidential Medal of Freedom. Vint then gave a motivational talk to this crowd that included some people of well-earned distinction, like Andrew Kay of Kaypro computers. That was a successful portable computer before Apple and IBM-PC displaced them. I got to talk to Andrew Kay for a while.

An hour and a half after that phone call I was sitting in the Med having coffee. Things happen in Berkeley.

A brief encounter with the Dalai Lama

05 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by probaway in Contentment, diary, happiness, Health

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Berkeley events, Dalai Lama, Living in the Berkeley Marina, My Bell's Palsy, My dog Tiger, Paul Ekman, Strange encounters

This afternoon I began reading the Book of JOY by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams. On page 33 I read, “Paul Ekman, famed emotions researcher and longtime friend of the Dalai Lama, has written that joy is associated with feelings as varied as: pleasure, amusement, contentment, excitement, relief, wonder, ecstasy or bliss, exultation, radiant pride, unhealthy jubilation or schadenfreude, elevation, gratitude.”

Berkeley Marina

That brought memories back for me of walking my dog Tiger along the Berkeley Marina and meeting the Dalai Lama walking with Paul Ekman. It was 100 yards west from where Tiger and I lived for a couple of years with nothing but a beautiful park between our boat and where those two eminent persons were walking along the San Francisco Bay. Perhaps Tiger was feeling defensive of his property when he ran over and started barking at those two intruders.

I hurried over to settle Tiger down and apologize to the professorial-looking guy and his strangely orange-robed companion. It was a bit of a problem for me because I had Bell’s Palsy, the result of a bad cold, and had trouble speaking because my mouth wasn’t forming words normally.

Unbeknownst to me at that time, the professor was the world authority on facial expressions and the orange-robed guy was the Universal authority on human kindness. They seemed willing to talk to me about my facial problem but I hurried off in embarrassment.

It was only much later that I discovered those two celebrities liked to walk and talk in the Berkeley Marina.

Things commonly happen in Berkeley that rarely happen elsewhere.

Subscribe with RSS

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Blog Stats

  • 2,069,031 Views of Probaway

Today’s popular 10 of 4,416 posts at PROBAWAY

  • How to do a deep cough to clear inhaled food.
  • A trick for opening a ziplock bag.
  • Allbirds, the best of shoes and the worst of shoes.
  • Colonoscopy - and how to enjoy drinking the foul tasting purging fluids.
  • An unusual hair patch on my inner wrist
  • A morning walk in the snow
  • Philosophers Squared - Democritus
  • Experiments with your eyes and brain #4
  • BMI (Body Mass Index) is replaced by BDI (Body Density Index)
  • A spider bite photographed for two months

The recent 50 posts

  • The Mona Lisa I know.
  • A morning walk in the snow
  • Bend changes color every day
  • Bend views
  • RUBÁIYÁT of Omar Khayyam translated by E. H. Whinfield
  • RUBÁIYÁT of Omar Khayyam translated by Justin McCarthy
  • It’s time for some RUBÁIYÁT of Omar Khayyam
  • In Huawei cropping versus Corel Paint Shop Pro
  • I have a problem. What to do?
  • The Tao Teh Ching – #66 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn
  • Weird stuff at the Lemon Tree restaurant
  • Some stuff I saw in Bend, Oregon
  • Acts of kindness are always right now.
  • What are these bumps on my finger?
  • A prayer to the Universe
  • A brief encounter with Bend, Oregon
  • A brief encounter with my nose
  • A brief encounter with S. I. Hayakawa
  • A brief encounter with J. Robert Oppenheimer
  • A Brief Encounter with a Famous person
  • A Brief Encounter with Josef Muench
  • A Brief Encounter with Algernon Black
  • A brief encounter with Wendy Northcutt
  • A brief encounter with Ron Pelosi
  • A brief encounter with Buzz Aldrin
  • A brief encounter with Ray Kurzweil
  • A brief encounter with Vint Cerf
  • A brief encounter with Art Linkletter
  • A brief encounter with Jefferson Poland
  • A brief encounter with the Dalai Lama
  • You can’t change the present.
  • What is the meaning of life compared to gravity?
  • What to do with Halloween pumpkins?
  • A strange discovery about the word Christ
  • Five hours sleep
  • A prayer to the Universe
  • Real estate explosion here in Bend brings problems
  • I was challenged to rewrite the 23 Psalm
  • A typical view of my present world.
  • We are going extinct
  • The Tao Teh Ching – #65 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn
  • I was recently challenged to define God.
  • I was asked to write a death prayer
  • A photo of my face five minutes ago.
  • Significant places that formed my personality.
  • My ninth day of a cold is close to a normal Sunday
  • Curtis Lemay — the real Doomsday prophet.
  • What’s the kindest thing you can do?
  • What’s the difference between kindness and kind acts?
  • Searching for myself in strange places

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy