Mediocre Man vs. finales, photography, and music!

Public speaking wrapped up last week with my final speech about global overpopulation and its detrimental effects on the environment. I felt I did okay on that speech. Again, I got kinda tongue tied when I got a little ahead of myself. Overall though I think I managed to do kinda-sorta-maybe okay in the class. I have a week off before my next class which is just awesome!

Here is the intro to my powerpoint presentation.

After that I launched into my Powerpoint--which I haven't yet uploaded. Once I get that uploaded I will update this entry. 

Next up is Intro to Photography. I am already super stoked for this class. I have even been asked by my amigo Ken to photograph his upcoming event, Wyman's Pond Music Fest. I should be about midway into my course by then, so hopefully I will have learned some good stuff so I can capture at least a few decent shots. :) 

Note: Ken still has a few time slots open if anyone is interested in performing an unplugged set, hit the link above for details. 

Super excited for this course, super excited for the entire month of July! My company--shitty though it may be-- has added an extra day to our 4th of July holiday in an attempt to boost morale. So the last week of June I get a 4 day week, first week of July I get a 4 day week, second week of July they are having our annual company BBQ, third week of July I am taking off for my birthday, and the fourth week will be wrapping up the month with the music fest.

Hopefully the start to an awesome summer!

Mediocre Man vs. Boot Camp

So, I haven't mentioned it here yet, but I have rejoined the gym and have been going with my friend--and now personal trianer--Rocio. After the first week of torture going back to the gym with her she earned the name "Boot Camp."

Rocio is a former Olympic athlete in figure skating. After an accident shattered her leg and ended her skating career she stopped exercising while her injuries healed. She expressed a desire to get back in shape (not that she is even remotely out of shape in any stretch of the imagination) and I decided to tag along. The first night I went back to the gym I went with Rocio and my friend/professor Robert. By the end of that session I physically and literally felt like I was going to vomit on the floor. Both Rocio and Robert are health nuts and are in pretty damned good shape, juxtaposed with me who is in about as bad a shape as one can possibly be short of quadriplegia or morbid obesity. Subsequent trips have seen the nausea reduced quite a bit.

I have started a before and after photo project, but wont be sharing that until there is an actual "after" result to soothe the "before" image of me shirtless from your collective mental palettes. If all goes as planned I will try to turn it into a time lapse video. Each week I take 4 shots (front, side, back, other side) and will link those all together so it will appear to rotate and slim (hopefully). I am unsure yet if I want to track those results here or not, but I am leaning toward yes. I know if I attempt to keep more than one blog I will invariably lose interest in both.

So, so far I have tracked my attempts to expand my mental horizons via my collegiate efforts, and now I will attempt to chronicle my attempts to improve my physical situation via my adventures with Boot Camp.

I'll keep ya posted... if I survive.

Mediocre Man vs. Public Speaking: wrapping up.

So, public speaking is almost over. I imagine I will probably get an A for effort, but I don't feel any more comfortable delivering a speech in front of people. It's funny, I can stand in front of my class and hold a conversation with them, but as soon as I get into the presentation aspect I start to falter. My instructor commented that he was surprised to hear my voice shaking during my speech about gay rights and equality (you can view the powerpoint here). I heard/felt it too and remember thinking how odd it was because I was completely at ease in front of the class. I think it was more of an innate biological response as opposed to a psychological response due to nerves.

I have one last presentation to make on the coming Monday about Global overpopulation and whether more nations should adopt a similar policy to China's "one child policy." For the record I am all for it. Maybe not anything as harsh as China's policy, but the need for better family planning, birth control education, and legislation that penalizes rather than rewards unduly large families--especially those on the welfare system--is an absolute must for our species to survive much past the next half century.

Mediocre Man vs. Public Speaking: week something-or-other

We recently went down to Boston for a fantastic day in the sun to travel the Boston Freedom Trail. The idea was to walk the trail and at each location one of us would present an oral history of the site. I drew the Park Street Church and cringed a bit knowing full well my propensity to rage against the turpitude of "The Church" in all its incarnations.

As I delved into the research I found my anticipation was not without merit. I found that the Park Street Church often works with an organization called Exodus International, an anti-homosexual group that classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder and seeks to "cure" gays through behavioral modification and the words of Christ. 

Despite my skin crawling and the words tasting like ash I attempted to present the early achievements of the church in unbiased and impartial voice. My professor said that as long as we presented the history accurately we were allowed to also speak of the modern implications of each site. So yeah... I just had to speak my mind about it. My speech went a little something like this. 

I was the third stop along the trail, so once I got my speech out of the way I was free to enjoy the afternoon in the sun listening to my classmates dominate public speaking. Several of my classmates gathered a bit of a crowd for their speeches, apparently they thought we were the tour guides.  :) I ended up taking something like 170 pictures that day and used picasa to throw together a quick and dirty video slide show.