2 posts tagged “public speaking”

I don't update on the weekends. It's like I only update when I'm procrastinating or something.
Like today, I'm procrastinating on doing my chemistry lab.

Wow. Work today was insane. Phone call after phone call after phone call. The phone literally never stopped ringing. Not only that, but several people came in today to sign up. Today was probably the most hectic day since last summer. It was probably so bad because spring break is coming up.

I have one complaint about work and then I'll shut up: if you are a parent and english is your second language and YOU ARE NOT FLUENT, please please please have your child talk on the phone to me. It makes my life SO much easier because it gets so frustrating trying to figure out what they are saying. Because most of the time I am not comprehending what they are saying, I will repeat what they said to just make sure I have it right. I'm always polite when I repeat something, but the damn mexicans (yes DAMN MEXICANS! lol) get frustrated and snappy with me, like it's my fault I don't know how to speak mexican-english or something. Hellooooo, you're in America. Learn to speak english better. Or the other day this asian lady from stockton called in. I could tell she spoke english well, but I absolutely could not understand what she was saying because her accent was horrible. It was like nails on a chalk board, and I literally had to move the phone away from my ear. I mean no offense to asians, or mexicans, or whoever, but it just gets sooooooo frustrating so fast.

Tomorrow the Academy Is CD comes out. I MUST NOT FORGET.

The most embarrassing thing happened to me today. I had to give my Happy Birthday! speech in Public Speaking. I had the whole thing all memorized (well, it was an exemporaneous -sp?- speech, so my points were memorized) and ready to go, until this morning when I decided that it would be a good idea to change the introduction a little bit. Everything in the introduction was the same, just arranged differently, in a more concise and understandable way. So I gave my speech second today. I was trying so hard not to be nervous, but when I got up in the front of the class I was actually shaking. I don't understand what I was so afraid of! Why was I shaking?? lol. The first half of my introduction went well, but then I came to a transition that I had changed, and I forgot what was next. I stood up there for what felt like a good thirty seconds, my face filling with blood, my mind racing trying to remember what came next. Finally, the words came to me, and the rest of my speech went smoothly.

I guess next time I'll know not to change the introduction the morning before I have to give the speech! 

xxo 

I swear, everything that I do is wrong the first time around! lol
Today I had to give my presentation in my Public Speaking class. I was really, really prepared. I emailed my professor the powerpoint the night before, printed out the slides for it just in case, and was actually excited instead of nervous to present it. When I got to class, the professor called me over and told me that I had saved the powerpoint as the newest version, and he can't open it up on his computer because he has the old version. He was nice enough to allow me to go to the computer lab and re-save it as the old version of powerpoint. So I do that. But, of course, the computer lab also has the old version, and it wouldn't allow me to download the patch thingy so I could open my presentation. The lady in the computer lab told me to go ask the computer coordinator thing if he had any bright ideas. I got lost finding his office, and when I did, he wasn't very interested in helping me. At this point I am freaking out. How could I possibly give a presentation with the slides that I had printed out? I was so frazzeled at this point that if I had to hold the slides up to show the class, my hands would have been shaking uncontrollably. Defeated, I began to walk back towards the Bizzini Hall to give my paper slide speech. But then it occured to me: If mom is working near the house today, maybe she can quickly stop by and re-save it on my computer as the old version, and then email it back to my professor. So I called her, and she was near home, but about five minutes away. She said she'd call back when she got there. After going through hell trying to explain to her how to do it, it was finally taken care of.

When I got back to the classroom, someone was in the middle of giving their presentation, so I waited outside until they were done so as not to disrupt it. I walk in the classroom and the professor immediately checks his email. It was there. Victory! But then he went to go turn on the projector, it didn't work. A seriously bad joke.

After minutes of messing with it, he finally got it to work (thank god).

I successfully gave my presentation, and was pretty happy with it. Everyone laughed during the video, and when I was leaving class a couple people came up to me and said that I did a good job and that the speech was interesting.

So it ended up good.
After all that, I definitly would have been pissed if it hadn't.

OH! My mom and I went to Bella Italia today! They have awesome italian food, and the restauraunt has a great atmosphere. It literally feels like you're in Italy! There was a lady playing an accordian, and the decor was so italian-esque. It was such a nice change from places like Olive Garden.

Tomorrow, my Papa and I are going to a peace rally in downtown Modesto. It should be fun. It is going to be in that square that Brendan Theatre's is in, and then if we want to walk for peace I guess we start from Brendan and walk around downtown or something. I'm looking forward to it! I went last year for the anniversary of the war in Iraq, but it was in Walnut Creek. It will be nice to not have to drive an hour away :) (although I was looking forward to getting out of Modesto). 

I'm out.