Tuesday, 10 July 2012
So, I found a penny today. This brings my total haul to $13.70 for the year.
As you may recall (if you’re really, really pathetic), I found $13.68 total last year. I was hoping to beat last year’s haul by mid-year this year, but it turns out I was one week off: instead of making the goal on July 2nd, I made it yesterday. While out for a walk with my wife and daughter (son was at his granparents’ home), I found both a penny and a nickel. Combined, this brought my total up to $13.68, which tied last year’s total. About a half hour later, I found a penny on the floor at McDonald’s —
WAIT! You were at McDonald’s? You, James?
Yes, and I apologize. It is, however, the closest Red Box location, so it kind of made sense to stop there. With Owen away for the night, we figured we’d have time to watch a movie.
—and that meant I officially beat last year’s total.
So, this morning, I woke up with an extra $13.69 to my name. Then I found this here penny, so now I’m at $13.70. My goal now is to find $100 a day, everyday, for the rest of my life.
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Today, in Toastmasters, a member gave a speech titled “Memoria,” probably because his topic was memoria.
Basically, this is a fancy term the Greeks gave to one of their rhetorical devices: memorizing your speech. Or, more correctly, delivering your speech without writing anything down.
The club member noted that it was Socrates who exhorted this method, claiming it gave your words more authority and afforded you – the speaker – more respect. Socrates, he noted, really walked the walk, since he didn’t write down anything. In fact, everything we know about Socrates is from the writings of his most famous pupil, Plato. It’s a bit ironic, the speacker noted, that our only knowledge of Socrates distast of writing things down comes from his student…who wrote those things down.
The speaker offered an example of a speech delivered largely in memoria style: Robert Kennedy’s words immediately following Dr. King’s assassination. Kennedy was on his way to deliver just another campaign speech (he was running for President), but was informed en route that King was shot. Moments before taking the platform, Kennedy was updated and told that King was dead.
The Toastmaster suggested watching this speech as a superb example of speech-giving from memory. Obama could take a lesson. So could I.
(To be fair, Kennedy does have notes, and he does use them. But I think it’s apparent he’s not relying on them at all.)
Finally, can you recall all the words to The Very Hungry Caterpillar? You don’t have to remember them in order, and entering any one word will give you each occurance of that word. I scored 105, which put me in the 97th percentile. See how you do.