Wednesday, 23 May 2012

This afternoon, I gave my tenth speech in Toastmasters. This is notable because the initial book that all new members start with, Competent Communicator, contains ten projects – each focusing on a different aspect of public speaking. So, now I’ve finished the book, becoming the fifth member of the club to do so. I’ll get an award in the mail, along with two books from the advanced communicator series.

Here’s a list of the ten speeches I gave, along with the project name, date, and a brief explanation:

1. (The Ice Breaker) “Four Unique Events,” 20 December 2010

This 4-6 minute speech is intended to introduce yourself to the audience. I selected four unique things from my life and talked about them. The events included performing a wedding ceremony and Isla’s homebirth.

2. (Organize Your Speech) “What Happened to Pluto?,” 26 January 2011

In this speech, for which I was allotted 5-7 minutes, I discussed how our knowledge of Pluto changed over the decades since its discovery in 1930, and why astronomers no longer categorize it as a major planet.

3. (Get to the Point) “My 20 Year Quest of Trying to get Downhill” 23 February 2011

Here, I displayed a list of all the films directed by Alfred Hitchcock and I described my attempts to view them all. This was my worst speech – I wasn’t prepared well enough and I even forgot about 30 seconds worth of material. And though I though the title was quite clever, my evaluator said he found it confusing.

4. (How to Say It) “Firestorm,” 23 March 2011

In this speech, I gave a brief history of the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894, based on my visit to the Fire Museum the previous summer and the book Under a Flaming Sky.

5. (Your Body Speaks) “A Short History of #1,” 13 July 2011

This speech was about Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. I explained its purpose, and how it changed through the years, especially in the 1990s during the dearth of in-store singles and how the charts have been revitalized since the rise of digital downloads.

6. (Vocal Variety) “The 100,” 10 August 2011

Here, I discussed one of my favorite books, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, by Michael Hart. I offered up some info on what “influential” does and does not mean, and I showed a list of the top ten and gave some reasons and opinions on the list.

7. (Research Your Topic) “Who are Our Most Successful Presidents?.” 12 October 2011

For this speech, I talked about some conversations my son and I have had about what percentage of US Presidents successfully completed their terms in office. By “successful,” I  mean they did not die or resign.

8. (Get Comfortable With Visual Aids) “A Backwards Speech,” 25 January 2012

Segueing nicely with the meeting’s theme of “a Backwards Meeting,” I talked about my fascination with palindromes, and the word fun people have had with them. I also showed a clip from my interview on Oprah. Details about this speech – which received a standing ovation and which my evaluator proclaimed “best speech” ever, can be FOUND HERE.

9. (Persuade with Power) “Love Birds?,” 22 February 2012

This was probably the most difficult speech for me to work up, primarily because I had such a hard time coming up with a topic. I ended up talking about the pros and cons of feeding wild birds via feeders in your backyard. At this meeting, we had a contest for best speech and, of the eight speeches, mine won (and, no, I did not vote for my own speech).

10. (Inspire Your Audience) “SMiLE,” 23 May 2012

Today, I tried to ‘inspire my audience’ by telling them first about my friend Rhett Sutter and his love of music and, in particular, Brian Wilson. I then switched gears to talking about Brian Wilson and his struggles with depression and drug abuse, and how he finally finished his long-delayed opus, SMiLE. I wove anecdotes about Rhett throughout, and spoke of his work on his third solo album, which he never completed due to his untimely death. I used Brian’s and Rhett’s experiences to inspire everyone to accomplish something worthwhile in their life and to not put it off. I ended by saying that finally, only after Rhett died, did I give Brian Wilson’s album a listen and that, in the end, Rhett was wrong – I didn’t like the album, I loved it. It made me smile.

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

This evening, my wife and I watched the final episode of Little House on the Prairie. There are more disks to come, but those are just bonus features. So, finally, we are done watching this series.

We began watching the Little House episodes in September 2006. We had just completed watching every episode of Star Trek: Voyager (that only took 8 months because we watched nothing but), and Jennifer said she wanted to get more shows via Netflix. This made sense – we had a one year old son at the time, and he was (IS) a pain to get to sleep every night, so we often had too little time to watch an entire movie. A short TV episode was more our style.

That fall, we began rotating disks of not only Little House episodes, but also Quantum Leap, Northern Exposure, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We gave up on Deep Space Nine near the end of the first season, and we finished watching Quantum Leap’s  five seasons by January 2009 and Northern Exposure’s six seasons by August 2009. Little House, however, has more than five or six seasons. It has ten. And, in between watching those episodes, we also watched every episode of several shorter-run shows, including: Wonderfalls, Freaks and Geeks, Firefly, Arrested Development, Battlestar Galactica, The Addams Family, Better off Ted, Pushing Daisies, and Rome. Currently, we are working our way through the Sopranos, Modern Family, and Seinfeld. Through it all, there’s been Little House.

I’ve seen this final episode, “The Last Farewell,” before, so there we no major surprises. Both Jennifer and I had forgotten the long intro to the episode, which takes place in Burr Oak, Iowa, though Jennifer suggested that this portion may have been axed during reruns (to make room for more commercials). She’s probably right.

It seemed everyone got in one last hurrah in this episode: Dr. Baker heals one more townsperson, Charles gets one more shot at fiddle-playing, the Reverend preaches one last sermon, Ms. Foster comes running out of the post office one more time with urgent mail, Mr. Edwards get another opportunity to use terrible grammar, Mr. Montague proves once again that he’s pretty much perfect (he plays a stunning rendition of “Flight of the Bumblebee” on Charles’ fiddle, then claims that he’s “a bit rusty”), Laura cries one more time, Rose cries one more time, and Nancy once more accuses whoever will listen that “You hate me!” The only thing missing was Mrs. Oleson (though she is mentioned) and Hester Sue – who inexplicably has gone MIA in this episode.

Parts of the episode were surprisingly weak, which, I guess, was typical for the last two seasons. For one thing, there’s a terribly contrived subplot to get Pa and Ma back into the little house one more time. Later, Ma and Laura have what, I think, is supposed to be a touching conversation while washing the dishes, but it is so syrupy sweet (“If you weren’t such a good Ma I wouldn’t be the person I am today”), that I nearly cringed – and that’s saying something in a show that frequently employs sentimentality. In fact, earlier in the episode, I laughed when Ma and Laura saw each other, paused, then ran into each other’s arms. God, I love when they do that in the show.

Other parts of the show were unexpectedly good. I had forgotten about the scene where all the menfolk in the town start preparing their guns to defend their land. Laura says something like: “I don’t understand, no piece of land is worth losing your life over!” and Pa says, “You’re right, you don’t understand.” Ohhh….good zinger.

Later, during a meeting to discuss their forced eviction from the town, everyone gathers in the church. Reverend Alden asks the questions his flock is always wondering: Why do bad things happen to good people like us? Why do rich robber-barons get to make all the decisions? He spins this into a refreshingly non-religious argument that this is a chance to start fresh, to support one another, and to feel the love of friends. His speech is interupted by the always shoot-from-the-hip Mr. Edwards, who says, “Well I’m feeling something else right now, Reverend. I’m feeling anger.” In a moment of righteous indignation, the Reverend then cuts him off and says, “Do you think I don’t? Do you think, just because I am a man of the cloth, that I don’t feel anger, too?” Very cool. The conversation that ensues from that point is too long to write here, but it’s good.

Finally, I also liked that the town itself was treated as a character; after all, after ten seasons, it sure felt like one. The human characters spoke of the town being “buried” and that it was a “friend that held them together.” As they prepare to walk off their property for the last time, Reverend Alden gets the last spoken line: “Walnut Grove did not die in vain,” he assures his flock. And they march out together, fully aware that the developments of the last few minutes of their time together proved him right.

So long, Little House, and farewell.

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Today was Owen’s birthday party. He turned seven last Monday, so we’ve set a new record for largest gap between actual birthday and subsequent party (6 days).

The highlight of the party was a presentation by a mad scientist, courtesy of the Mad Science Group. I’m not sure why I just said “courtesy,” since we did have to pay for the presentation. Regardless, the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. The scientist used flames, color-changing liquids, and a bunch of dry ice – all of which make great visuals for 6 and 7 year-old kids (and there was one 4 year old in the bunch, too).

Afterward, there was the most frenetic gift-opening I’ve ever seen, in which all 10 guests (and that’s not including Owen’s sister, who was also in on the action) bombarded Owen with gifts to open. Some people brought two or three gifts for Owen, and some of the kids just randomly handed Owen one gift from a set so Owen really couldn’t keep track of who gave him which gift. He seemed to think the whole breakneck pace of opening gifts was just fine, though. We sorted through all the gifts later.

Then we had cake + ice cream. By this time, some of the parents came to pick up their kids, and some of the parents who had stayed for the duration decided to leave (it was the time the invitation said the party was over). So, we gave the kids their Mad Scientist gift bags and soon we were down to just five kids in the house, which was amazingly calm and quiet, relatively speaking.

About an hour later, another kid’s dad stopped by and picked him up, so then it was just our two kids and two friend and their moms. We ordered pizza.

A good day, I think. We were a little concerned having so many people at our house – especially when so many of them were under 10 years old. Owen’s last two birthday parties were not at our home, and the last time we did have a birthday party for Owen at our home (when he was four), was the smallest party he’s ever had (excluding when he was one). But I’m happy to say there were no major mishaps. Owen’s room wasn’t even that messy, though he inexplicably lost the remote control for his wall-mounted moon. No big deal. We’ll find it.

Jennifer says Owen’s next birthday party will be somewhere not here.

Monday, 21 May 2012

Just as the day after Christmas, Owen had to dig himself out from the festivities yesterday.

As of this morning, most of his gifts remained unopened. I mean, they’ve all been unwrapped, of course, but he hadn’t yet taken them out of the box or handled them or played with them as intended yet. This evening, he sat at the dining room table and put forth a concerted effort to construct one of his new Lego sets without any help.When he was done, he proudly showed us he’d pieced it together without any help. There were four pieces still sitting on the table. I was able to identify where two of those pieces connected, but the other two were likely supposed to be buried somewhere in the creation, so he didn’t get it quite right, but close enough.

Then he and Isla sat on the floor and played with more toys. Isla walked around with a small Yoda action figure. This was he gift to Owen, though it became apparent today that her desire to get it for Owen (when she saw it on the rack at the store) was just so she could play with it. She really digs Yoda. I think she can identify with a really short person.

Before bedtime, I asked Owen if he wanted to open up any more toys, but he said he’ll wait to another day. Sounds good to me.

Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Have you heard the story of Harmon?

An eaglet on Minnesota Bound’s Bald Eagle Cam was seen struggling for many hours, causing many people to write and call in asking if he could be helped.

Here’s the story: 

First, they inspected Harmon and took him out of the nest…

Then he had a thorough check-up and some medical attention at the Raptor Center:

Here’s the latest on Harmon:

Thursday, 17 May 2012
So, as I do every week, I headed over to Billboard.com this morning to check on the #1 song and album. The number one song, again, is Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know.” That’s not terribly interesting. But what I did notice is this: We are now more than halfway through the fifth month of the year and every single #1 song’s title begins with a letter in the second half of the alphabet.
Yeah, I don’t know why I notice these things, but I do.
Here’s a list of the song that have achieved number one status so far this year:

“Sexy And I Know It” (LMFAO)
“Set Fire to the Rain” (Adele)
“Stronger” (Kelly Clarkson)
“Part of Me” (Katy Perry)
“We are Young” (Fun)
“Somebody that I Used to Know” (Gotye)
…That’s six songs that have gone to number one this year, that all begin with letters between N and Z. You can also add to this list the song “We Found Love” (by Rihanna), which was already number one when the year began (it thus counts as as a number one hit from 2011), and the total rises to seven. In fact, you’d have to go back to mid-October of last year to find the last time a #1 hit’s title was from the first half of the alphabet, when Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger” barely qualified for the top half.
I was curious…is this a record? The answer is: Yes.
As you can imagine, there are more #1 songs from the first half of the alphabet, and so most years begin the year with a song from A-M. In most other years, the second or third song of the year breaks whatever “streak” might have been starting. In fact, there has never been another year when the year began with more than three hits from the lower half of the alphabet. 2004 was the year to beat: there were three #1 songs in a row to kick off the year that began with the letters W, S, and Y, respectively. The fourth #1 song began with the letter B, and it hit #1 on May 22nd of that year. So, this week (posted for May 26th) beats both the number of #1 songs and the length of time (past May 22nd).
Pretty cool, huh? Alright, I know, it’s really dorky.

Friday, 18 May 2012
I took the day off work today to volunteer as a chaperon for my son’s first greade class. They – or, rather, we – went on a field trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
I, and this other student’s mom, were assigned to watch over a group of eight students. I rode on the bus with them, which is always a trip, and when we got to the museum a guide was assigned to us.
I guess I had this idea that we would be walking around the museum on a guided tour, but instead, the guide just took us straight to certain pieces of art. This meant flying past other noteworthy pieces of art. It also meant having to weave around people a lot. I didn’t really like the style. We spent time sitting in front of, and discussing, about five pieces of art. There were another five or six pieces that we talked about in passing simply because one kid in the group thought it was “cool” or “neat.”
I think it was fieldtrip day at the museum, as the place seemed pretty full with groups of children. So, maybe the museum sets aside one day a year to whisk a bunch of kids through their halls.
This marks the second time I’ve been to the MIA without actually getting to look around. A couple of years ago, Jennifer, Owen, and I went with another family of three to attend the event “Rock the Cradle,” which is just a loud, crowded event at the museum that lets kids stand in line and wait for activities and get upset when they never get a chance.
Anyway, I’m done whining. All in all, I had a fun time, and I think Owen liked that I was there. Afterward, I joined him and his class for lunch in the school cafeteria, where, again, I had a fun time.

Saturday, 19 May 2012
Mere days after inquiring about my life insurance policy, my wife tried to kill me today.
After several hours of unremarkable weather, she asked if I wouldn’t mind going to the store to pick up a few grocery items. Cluelessly, I went outside and, sensing it was going to rain, decided to roll up the windows on my Cavalier. I then hopped in our Saturn and drove off to Mississippi Market.
Actually, I first stopped to get gas. Right as I was returning to my car after paying, it began raining. No big deal. I sprinted to the car and then continued on my way to the grocery store.
Almost immediately, it began raining. Like, REALLY raining. I had the wipers on high and, even then, my visibility was limited. Some drivers were pulling over to wait out the heavy downpour.
Then it began to hail. The hail was so loud in my car, I shut off the radio since I couldn’t even hear it. I began to worry that balls of ice were going to smash through the windshield. As I approached the grocery store, I decided to park under a tree to mitigate the hail damage at least a little bit.
During a brief respite from the hail, I ran inside, where an employee quickly corralled me into the bulk section – the one part of their store that is neither near windows nor under skylights. I waited there with a few other chumps for about ten minutes. Then they let us shop.
Jennifer seemed really happy that I made it home safe. But it might have been just an act.

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Now that the semester is over, I’m diving right in to about half a dozen books I’ve been meaning to read. I’m now about halfway done with Guy Harrison’s 50 Popular Beliefs that People Think are True. Here’s a great excerpt from chapter 19, “Television News Gives Me an Accurate View of the World:”

The primary problem with most television news today is that it’s just nowhere near the reflection of reality that most viewers probably assume it is. Much is said about conservative and liberal biases in the news, but political favoritism is a trivial concern compared to the irrational fears and warped perspectives that TV generates. Political leanings are not the biggest problems with Fox News and MSNBC. The primary problems are that they illogically prioritize news coverage, cover politics like sports events, present tremendous amounts of nonsense as important news, fail on competent science reporting, and stroke fears unnecessarily. Anyone who doesn’t know how to assess television news for what it is and recognize the nonsense is likely to end up with a wildly inaccurate view of the world.

Later, he says:

I wish more people appreciated the unique power of a book. Not because I happen to write books, but because I sincerely believe that books (most of them) are good for the world. One could make a case for the book being the most important and powerful invention of all time. Given the impact of the book on human history, it certainly has to make top ten, no doubt.

And:

If one is short on time and has only thirty minutes or so per day for reading, I suggest spending five of it doing a high-speed headline-skim of a couple of the most reputable news sites or newspapers, then use the remaining twenty-five minutes turning the pages of a good mind-expanding book or science magazine. High-quality nonfiction books and science magazines offer two thing television news is unwilling or unable to provide much of these days: information presented in depth and a realistic perspective of the world.

So, yeah, I liked that stuff. Don’t misunderstand me, though, I’m not saying you should read the book. Like Harrison’s other similarly titled book, this one suffers from too many overlapping beliefs. A book covering only 40 (or, heck, any arbitrary number would do) would be better. Harrison also has a bad habit of talking about how awesome his life has been. For example, in one chapter discussing the supposed moon landing “hoax,” Harrison takes a good two paragraphs to talk about what a successful photographer he’s been. Also – in that same chapter – he says it’s just unbelievable that all those astronauts and NASA employees would have lied about the moon landing, yet in other chapters, he says that just because someone claims something is true, doesn’t make it true. So which is it?

Bottom line: decent book with a lot of overlap. Some annoying bits in it. The best bits are quoted above.