Tag: toastmasters

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A Vacation From My Vacation

Yesterday I flew back from the States, jokingly to escape the Area 51 raid, but seriously cause it was the end of vacation and since said vacation was two weeks taking care of Boy Twin and Visiting Family, I am taking the next four work days off.

Also #JetLag

While I don’t normally do this, I have a ton of Paid Time Off accrued from when I was pregnant with twins and sick nearly every single day and all that vacation rolled over and since the project is mostly quiet in July and I’m also taking off for the week of Gish, I’m pretty much all of July.

My colleagues are going to forget what I look like!

But seriously there are three major projects I’m working on in my copious free time and I’m going to take the next few days to dive into them.

Would you like to know more?

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It Really Is Everything

The beginning of this year was ROUGH.

TL;DR POOP

But it reminded me that I long ago figured out that the key to survive in this totally whack world is perception.

Is the glass half empty or half full?

One of the final speeches I will present to earn the Advanced Communicator Silver award is the fifth project within the advanced manual Speaking to Inform – The Abstract Concept. Present the thought of experts on an abstract concept, theory, historical force, or social/political issue. Present the ideas in a clear and interesting manner.

I don’t know how much the thought of experts will actually happen, because most of the definition of perception is dependent on, well, your perception.

“There is no truth, there is only perception.”

Gustave Flaubert
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Tea, A Drink With Jam And Bread

YES, I KNOW IT’S TUESDAY AND I SAID I’D POST ON WEDNESDAY / FRIDAY.

DEAL.

Cause you should always start a post in all caps, eh? Or start in aggressive American all caps and then switch to stereotypical Canadian politeness, eh?

Ahem.

We talked about how to figure out your topic, but sometimes you want to speak off the cuff, very last minute, and you wonder how the hell I did that speech that one time when I stepped into a speech competition at the very last second and TOTALLY WON.

Yes, it really happened.

Also, I’m writing this in the local cafe and I’m going to need to talk about SOMETHING as an example, so I’m going to talk about this here PLACE.

That will totally make more sense as you read. I promise.

Or not.

Let’s see what happens.

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But, Wait, Is Extemporaneously Even A Word?

first of all, let me say, that i LOVE the word ‘extemporaneously’ and now i’m TOTALLY going to google it because it might not even be a real word and i’ve been using it literally for years cause that’s how i roll.

“Carried out or performed with little or no preparation; impromptu: an extemporaneous piano recital. 2. Prepared in advance but delivered without notes or text: an extemporaneous speech. 3. Skilled at or given to unrehearsed speech or performance: an accomplished extemporaneous speaker.”

ah, that’s a relief.

cause i have entirely mispronounced and / or misused actual words AS WELL AS used entirely MADE UP words in all kinds of conversations including right there ON STAGE.

cause that’s how i roll.

this is how i give talks very last minute or entirely impromptu (one might say EXTEMPORANEOUSLY) including how i narrow down a topic (if i can talk about anything), how to deliver a fully organized speech, and i’m gonna go ahead and give you the punchline right now – once you’ve got the knowledge, you need to practice, practice, practice.

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