Mediocre man vs. Public Speaking: Weeks two and three

Week two of public speaking was fairly interesting. Our task on evening one was to present a review of our text book How to Give a Damned good Speech by Philip Thiebert, which we were asked to read in its entirety over the course of the weekend of our first week. The book was relatively simple and proved an easy, if not somewhat sleep inducing read. Wheeler decided that we would present in the opposite order in which we arrived at class, and since I was the second person to show up, I was next to last to present.

It is somewhat difficult to present a topic without belaboring the points when 14 other people have presented their take on the same topic right before you the same evening. I touched lightly on a lot of the points that the others brought up and came in about a minute below my allotted time. I felt rather guilty, like I had copped out on the class with such a pathetic display.

The second evening of the class Wheeler presented an award to the best speaker from the first evening. She had to give an acceptance speech. Afterward, we watched several acceptance speeches on youtube to see how some famous people handle them. Before the end of class Wheeler laid out some slips of paper with our next speech topics; we selected at random and I drew the short straw with "photosynthesis." The challenge is to make the topic personal while delivering an expository speech for 5 minutes. I've decided to utilize a powerpoint presentation (which I will post here later so as to avoid spoilers just in case any classmates happen to stop in) to liven up my performance, and to give my audience something other than me to focus on.

Week 3 is only half way over but I wanted to share this bit because it was so much fun. As part of his torturous curriculum, Wheeler had us visit Breaking New Grounds for an open mic poetry reading hosted by Stone Pigeon. There were only 16 available slots so not all of us could get up to read, but those who did made us proud. The hostess invited us back and exclaimed how great we were. I used my phone to gather some really awful quality video (I really want a Digital Video camera, hint, hint) and put together a compilation movie of the presenters from class. We all had such a blast despite some of us initially having massive apprehension and skepticism in regards to the event.

Here is the video of the presenters that made it to the stage. Fear not, those that were unable to present at the mic will get their due in class on Wednesday (myself included).

Mediocre Man vs. Unbridled Rage

Not long ago I wrote about our last town hall meeting and the elusive carrot on the end of the stick. Today we had another emergency "town hall meeting" in which we were informed that the plan for our eventual outsourcing has been changed for the 7th time. The new projection date is August/September at the earliest. I will reiterate at this point that I am grateful to have a job in this down economy, however, I am sick to fucking death of playing this game. I can't look for a new job until I know for certain when I will be done here, I can't plan my class schedule to fit in two classes per semester rather than one because I honestly cant deal with the workload of a full time job, full time school, and having a life. I don't want to spend four years getting a two year degree.

I don't hate my job in and of itself, I am just not happy with it. I want to be doing something that challenges me and forces me to use even a modicum of the mental capacity of a squid. This job is just mind numbingly droll. Not to mention  the simple fact that I genuinely want to punch a majority of my coworkers in the throat on a daily basis. I expressed my frustration with my boss after the meeting and told him that I would like him to write me a letter of recommendation that I can put with my resume in order to start looking for a job. At this point if something lucrative comes along I am going to strongly consider it. It is to the point where the carrot on the end of the string is starting to look a little withered and rotten and is no longer as appetizing as it once was. I think I scared him because he told me he was going to speak to his (our) new director and see if he can't get me a little "sumthin, sumthin." I obviously wont say no to a raise considering how little my salary has grown over the course of my tenure, but that really isn't the point. The point is I am tired of being strung along and having my whole life on hold waiting for these fucktards to pull their heads out of their asses. 

Mediocre man vs. Public Speaking: Week One

Okay, I admit it, speaking publicly isn't exactly my forte. Week one of public speaking proved interesting for me. I find that if I know my topic I am perfectly comfortable in front of the class, but when given a topic and allowed only 15 minutes to research and prepare a speech on said topic I floundered. Our first evening was the usual introduction phase. "Hi, I'm Rob, blah blah blah...." Round two of week one was the impromptu speech. I don't feel that I wowed and dazzled but I also don't feel that I was a complete fraktard in front of the class. Our mission was to make the speech personal. My topic was mandatory uniforms in public schools.

Having grown up fairly un-wealthy, and having been the new kid in school pretty much every year from the first grade on through the 8th, I felt compelled to use that as my personal touch. My stance on public school uniforms was that they would have proven to be a substantial social equalizer in my youth. I talked about how hard it was to be the new kid in my ill fitting hand-me-down clothes, how it was awkward fitting in at lunch time with my free lunch program tickets, and how I spent a lot of time alone worrying about how I was perceived by the other kids in school based upon my second--and sometimes third--hand wardrobe. Or at least... that is how I wanted to present it. It came out more along the lines of "Umm... I was like, poor and stuff and I think school uniforms would have been like... you know... cool... and stuff." I did okay on that speech, but despite the feeling that I was up there for half an hour I was only really up there for just about 3 minutes.

I excel more at the written word rather than the spoken word. In my writing I find I can sort out and compose my thoughts with far greater ease--mixing, matching, cutting and pasting, rearranging and adding to the piece upon later  proofing. Much like the elusive witty come-back or sarcastic retort, I have discovered that when talking in front of a group I always have the right words and humorous anecdotes immediately after I sit down. "Damn it! I should have said this or that" is almost always my first thought upon sitting down. I am hoping that with a little practice and better preparation I will be able to deliver at least a passable presentation in the future.

Week Two of public speaking is under way, but I will save that for another day.