C4 - How to Say It

Topic: The 13 and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear
Date: 20090825
Timing: 6"09'
Status: Qualified

Toastmaster of the evening, my dear fellow members and our most welcomed guests. Tonight, I would like to introduce you to one of my favorite novels, "The 13 and a half lives of captain Bluebear". I'm going to give you some samples of a few of the interesting characters in this novel to provide you some taste of the book. In order to get some feelings about this book through these characters,I would like to invite you to follow me with all your imagination.

The whole advanture of Captain Bluebear is taken place in the continent of Zamonia. It is a lost continent on earth long long time ago. As you can see on the whiteboard is a map of Zamonia and its envrons from The Encyclopedia of Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs written by Prof. Abdullah Nightingale.

Prof. Nightingale is an Idet who is the most intelligent spciece in Zamonia. A normal Idet has 3 brains, a talented Idet has 4, and a genious Idet has five. And Professor Nightingal? He has 7. Try to imagine a skinny short gentalman with an eagle like nose and has one brain inside his skull, four outside growing like mushrooms on his head, the 6th one in his stomach and the position of the 7th brain is always under speculation by his students. He is the most intelligent among all Idets and he was Captain Bluebear's porfessor. He taught Bluebear a lot of knowledge of Zamonia and gave him the encyclopedia which is quoted through out the book.

After introducing the most intelligent creature in Zamonia, its time for the stupidest who are the Megabollogg giants. They are a kind of Cyclops, one-eye giant. They are extremely huge. They can be more than 20 km tall. As a living creature in Zamonia, Megabollog can be counted as a kind of natural desaster. Luckily, there are only 5 or 6 of them left in Zamonia. The only ability a Megabollog has is that it can live without its head. As it grow, its brain will gradually lost its functionalities. Usually when it reach 1700 meters high, it will drop its head somewhere and wondering around without it. It is believed that it goes off to look for its head. Captain Bluebear had once ran into a Megabollog giant and climbed through a Megabollog's head in one of his lives.

And inside it he met the next interesting character, 1600H. He is an idea generated in Megabollog's head at hour 1600. He is a little luminated creature in a shape of a light bulb. According to Captain Bluebear, 1600H gave him a depressive feeling when he first saw him. There are a lot of ideas inside Megabollog's head and they all named by the time this idea is formed. And what is so special about 1600H? It turned out that 1600H is the idea to through away the head. So, it is hated by all other ideas. This explained the depressive feeling that Captain Bluebear caught when they first met.

The last and the most important character is Captain Bluebear. He is the main character of this novel and he is a bluebear. He is in the size of a bear and has blue fur. He belongs to the colored bear speciece in Zamonia. The whole book is about his 13 and a half lives and advantures.
He has lived 27 lives and he only wants to tell 13 and a half to the world because he needs privacy and he feels this makes him kind of mysterious.

There are many many other interesting characters in this book. Here I only introduced a few of them. Professor Nightingale, Magabollogg, 1600H and Captain Bluebear. I hope I put some images, and curiosity in your mind that you would like to dig into this book and join the advanture with captain bluebear. Thank you, Toastmaster of the evening.

Comment:


Targets for next speech:


Award:

C3 - Get to the Point

Topic: I Think, Therefore I Am
Date: 20090714
Timing: 6"13'
Status: Qualified

Toastmaster of the evening, my dear fellow members and our most welcome guests. Tonight, I'm going to talk about the famous phrase by Rene Descartes /hehei decarh/, I think, therefore I am.

Rene Descartes was born in 1596. He was a French philosopher, known as "Father of modern philosophy", a mathematician, a scientist, and a writer who spent most of his life time in Dutch Republic. He created analytic geometry and developed Cartesian Geometry system. He also invented the superscript expression for power. And most important to tonight's subject, he brought up the fundamental concept in the field of modern philosophy, I think, therefore I am. Tonight, I want to lead everyone in this room through the basic reasoning of this French master of philosophy to understand the keys to this famous philosophical phrase - I think, therefore I am.

The reasoning that Descartes went through to reach the conclusion of I think, therefore I am, can be summarized into three major parts, assumptions, proof by induction(數學歸納法), and conclusion.

The assumptions were believes of Descartes. He believed that God and spirit exists. He believed that human are basically good. He was against scholasticism, which means he disagreed with school education.

Based on these assumptions, Descartes reached the idea that all facts can be skepticsized. That is to say facts are not equal to truth.
For example, an apple is red is a fact, not a truth. Because this statement is based on many assumptions such as I'm not color blind.
So, Descartes realized that all statements people make are actually facts, not truth.
Then, what is true? What is the truth? he asked.
If every fact is based on some assumptions, these assumptions must be sustained first in order to validate the fact depend on it.

Descartes then went to the source of thoughts, and he found the fundamental assumption which sustains all our thoughts and statements which is one must exist.
One must exist first, so his or her thoughts and statements can be sustained. If one does not exist, his or her ideas shall not exist neither.
And vice versa, if anyone acknowledges someone's thoughts, it is equal to agree that this person exists.
Therefore, Descartes made his most famous conclusion, I think, therefore I am. Meaning, I acknowledge my thoughts, so I must exist.

In summary, grand master Rene Descartes' reasoning to his famous phrase I think, therefore I am can be summarized into three major parts, assumptions, proof by induction, and conclusion. This philosophical conclusion was based on the master's life experiences and wisdom. It was proved by scientific method and the conclusion is strong and convincing. This opened the path to modern philosophy. The detailed reasoning for I think, therefore I am can be found in the book, "Discours de la méthode" written by Descartes. It has a new Traditional Chinese version published in Taiwan in 2007, called 笛卡兒談談方法. If you are interested, you can find it on line and give it a try. I hope you all enjoy tonight's talk, toastmaster of the evening.

Comment:
Specific purpose of the speech is not very clear.

Targets for next speech:
Make the specific purpose of the speech clear.

Award:

Assignment 1 - Timer

Assignment: Timer
Date: 20090609

Preparation:
1. Read the manual
2. Understand evaluation points for a timer
3. Read and get familiar with timer script
4. Prepare a time record sheet
5. Try out the timer
6. Reconfirm with everyone with their timing before meeting

Result: The meeting is still over time for about 7 - 10 mins. However, according to members' comments, I did a great job. The control of timing is very good according to the club's experiences.

C2 - Organize Your Speech

Topic: Mordillo
Date: 20090623
Timing: 6'03"
Status: Qualified

Presentation:



Script:

[Introduction]

Mordillo - a name, which is now a trade mark, a promise of good spirits and a guarantee of quality.

But the career of Argentinean Guillermo Mordillo, who was born in 1932 in Buenos Aires from Spanish immigrants, is the result not just of creative flair and luck but also of willpower and perseverance. It is the result of constant daily commitment and not merely of improvised bizarre ideas.

In Mordillo's career, he began earning a living by drawing when he is young. He has worked as a illustrator for books, a cartoonist, a designer for advertising company, greeting cards company and even a motion picture production company. Popeye and Little Lulu are two of the famous cartoon characters Mordillo has a hand in during his career.

However, Mordillo is not famous because of Popeye and Little Lulu. He is famous of Mordillo style of cartoons, illustrations and humours.

[Main point]

There are three main themes in Mordillo's illustrations.
Stories related to chubby man and round woman.
Stories related to the giraffe or other animals.
And sports, especially soccer.

His illustrations are all about these main themes and their interactions with each other.

There are three important signature of Mordillo's illustrations.
First is the Mordillo style humour.
Second is the wordless characters. As you can see in this example, wordless does not mean they are silent. They can make sounds but they never say any words.
Third is the strong contradiction in his illustrations.
- of colour
- in the situation
- to the reader's expectations

[Summary]

In summary, the famous Argentinean cartoonist and illustrator, Mordillo, is a hardworking talented artist. He contributes to the world by his arts which provide good spirits and beauty to daily life. Now he lives with his family in southern France. Although he has stopped to draw using water ink, he is still continuing his art work by mixed technique, such as, acrylic, pastel and colour pencils. Tonight I shared with you the three main themes and three signatures of Mordillo's works and some of his books. I hope you feel interested in them and enjoyed my speech. Thank you. Toastmaster of the evening.

Comment:
It is suggested that it is better to start using powerpoints at later speeches.

Targets for next speech:
Talk directly to the audience.

Award:

C 1 - Ice Breaker

Topic: Self Introduction

Date: 20090512
Timing: 6'04"
Status: Qualified

Comment:
I did not really write a script for this one because I know what I should talk about for a self introduction. But I felt that I didn't want to just do a self introduction as everyone including myself expected. So, I went collecting some comments about myself from people who are familiar with me. Then I introduce myself from their point of view and my feedback to their comments.
The speech was given in a relaxing atmosphere which I felt fit to my self introduction. I was nurvous when timer signal me with yellow card. I started to repeat "AND". I believe it is because I did not recite the end of my speech. I think I should prepare this part for the next speech.

Target for next speech:
Well prepared beginning and end for the speech.
Emphasized clear organization of the speech.

Award: