TM Prep

Now that I am preparing my fifth TM speech (boy, I never thought I’d make it past #1!), here are a couple of thoughts:

1. My first three I never wrote out in full, I just had a general idea and winged the actual words. The fourth, I did write out word for word. I’m not sure which is better (I think maybe writing it in full makes you stressed about missing individual words), but I am writing out #5 in full.

2. I practiced all four over and over – between 5 and 10 times each, and literally out loud, to myself, on my bike, to my disinterested offspring, whatever. For me, this is super important. YMMV.

3. Try to think of a topic where there is so much you could say that you have to chop a lot. If you are struggling to think of ways to fill the five minutes, then you may want a different topic.

4. Try to time it to be just over the minimum time (5 minutes), eg. err on the side of being too short. This might sound opposite to #4, but it’s not. You will probably end up going over anyway, but brevity is always a good thing, IMHO.

5. Memorize the first line or two, word for word, and practice it, like 100 times, even without the rest of it. When you get up there and are scared shitless, force yourself to say it slowly and as loud as you can. This will make you sound way more confident than you really are, and kick-start your brain.

I’m going away for a month on 02/25, and my (not very ambitious goal) is to do my fifth other-club (not BR) speech by then, which means doing two more. Then maybe finish the whole 10-speech program by summer.

TM #3

I did my third TM speech today. I was more terrified than usual, because our TM club had an open house, which means a bunch of extra guests/people; there must have been close to 100 total. I struggled over and over to think of a good topic and completely changed course several times in the days preceding. I finally settled on “Why You Should Read The Economist”. I didn’t faint or throw up, which is the main thing.

On #2, my evaluator said I needed more ‘vocal variety’, which I think I did OK on this time. Today, she criticized my awkward hand gestures, which is absolutely valid. I never know what to do with them!

I do sincerely think reading The Economist is a good idea, by the way. But it is a fairly major time commitment, and it is extremely right-wing. I also learned in the course of poking around that there is a lot of ‘Economist snobbery’ and (eg) claims of people buying The Economist but not actually reading it, just to look cool. Anyway, you should check it out!

Programming Language History

I read this a while back but I forgot how this is golden geek humor.

“1972 – Dennis Ritchie invents a powerful gun that shoots both forward and backward simultaneously. Not satisfied with the number of deaths and permanent maimings from that invention he invents C and Unix.”

Pay More, But …

I love this letter from today’s Sun, which was written by a good friend of my Mom. Unfortunately it fails to mention that he is a retired teacher and Superintendent of Schools, that is to say, he definitely knows what he is talking about.

CYYZ Approach

If you’re at all interested in ATC conversations, the live feed fromToronto Approach is a good one.

Approach (aka. Arrival) is where a guy in a radar center somewhere (probably nowhere near CYYZ itself) is lining aircraft up on approach, clearing them to lower altitudes, and adjusting their speeds so they don’t hit each other. The tower controller only talks to them for the last couple of minutes and generally doesn’t change anything (he is mostly about the runway itself). You can hear them hand off, “Air Canada 139, cleared ILS 26 Left, contact Toronto Tower now 118.35″. 118.35 is the tower frequency. At this point he is typically 5-6 miles and 2-3 minutes from touchdown.

It’s common for them to combine instructions, for example, “WestJet 212, heading 230, descend to 3,000, speed 210 or better”. Approach is arguably the most hard-core ATC position of all, and the guy here is often barking out one seemingly continuous stream of instructions.

No Rafting

*Warning: this blog post contains a horrifying medical term*

My original Africa plan had us taking a white-water trip on our last day in the Nairobi area. When we went for shots, the doctor cautioned us about Bilharzia; this is a common disease in Africa, and I was loosely familiar with it, but I had thought it was limited to standing (as opposed to fast-moving) water. Apparently not. After a horrifying Internet search, which exposed the new (to me) (ALERT, HERE IT COMES) term ‘male menstruation’, I decided to cancel that activity.

We’re going to spend an extra day at Lake Nakuru instead. That is one of three ‘safari lodges’ we are staying at … well, one is more of a camp than a lodge, but the truth is, they all look very luxurious. I’m not really sure what they cost, since it’s a package deal, but we are paying a little under $1,000 per day to be in Kenya, all-inclusive but not including airfare. (Did I mention this trip includes ten flights?)

Whistler

I took Sam (+3) and Ben (+0) to Whistler yesterday. This was my first Whistler ski of the year, which is a bit sad in itself (normally I would have gone at least once by now).

Anyway, it was inhumanly cold in the morning, about -17, with a wind whipping the top of the Green Chair which was absolutely unbearable. I don’t know about you, but I find that at some point, no amount of clothing helps. Fortunately, it got better after 10:00, and, the snow conditions were possibly the best I’ve ever seen there, with everything open, no lineups and excellent visibility.

We skied with Janet (Mom of Colin, friend of Ben) who is an expert skier and took us on a different route into Symphony, and for the first time in my skiing career I felt distinctly scared. It was so steep I had no chance at all of turning and surviving (I suck at skiing, by the way). So I kept traversing forever, hoping not to hit an obstacle. Which I didn’t, so it ended up being fun.

A Few BR TM Moments

I can’t remember what she said, something about books and London, but (IMO) Giselle delivered the best TT response so far. The TT topic was Christmas gifts, and Carisu was TT Master.

“We’re not curing cancer here. Actually, we’re probably causing it.”… Dale said this in his Ice Breaker, relating a conversation with his boss while working at McDonalds.

“Radiates conversational warmth”… DE said this while evaluating JP, and I think it’s true!

“I won’t do that!”… JP’s entire campaign speech for the Sargent-at-Arms job.

Best overall speech so far … ALL of them have been WAY beyond what I expected, but MR’s Ice Breaker was in a league of its own.

TM

I had a double-speech day today at TM (speeches at both clubs that I am a member of). I thought they were both OK, not fantastic, but not too bad (at least I didn’t have a heart attack or anything). On the other hand, today I definitely witnessed the two best TM orations I have seen so far. And my other TM club has a lot of really, really capable speakers.

The first one was at my other TM, and it was the ‘Inspiration speech’ by someone I had never met. The other one was Mat, at the BR TM. Both of these speeches were, for all intents and purposes, technically perfect. But they also had moving content. It’s tough to pull both of those off at once!

All IMHO, of course

Dr. Seuss

Today was quote day at TM, and I heard what might be my new favorite quote ever, by Dr. Seuss. Actually I read it once before, but the true perfection of it didn’t dawn on me until I heard Lyndsey, our club’s TM today, read it:

Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened

I did not get called upon, but had I, I was primed to relate my favorite movie quote of all, from the (IMHO) awesomely quote-infested Jerry Maguire:

“Shut up! Just shut up! You had me at Hello!”

I don’t much like Tom Cruise, but I loved this movie, and now there is a line that should pull at the heartstrings of even the most unromantic Broadridgian.