Anything but that.

I had my breakfast of champions, eggs and milk.

I made a calculated decision in skipping class this morning, breaking my streak of perfect attendance. For two or three weeks now, I’ve managed to not even start my ‘presentation’.

I hate that word, it terrifies me. Are there any other words I could use?

I thought that if I went to class, I’d just be more demotivated to do it. Do ‘other things’ during the day to distract myself. Productive, but missing the point. I wouldn’t want to pressure myself into doing it all in one day, now would I?

I would be fine, splendid, if it weren’t for this. I’d sooner write a ten-page research paper than get in front of the room. I’d sooner write a novel. I’d sooner write a critique of one of Immanual Kant’s 8000 page epics.

See, I had trouble falling asleep last night. And I simply didn’t want a repeat of last Monday. Horrible, horrible feeling. I simply don’t do well going to bed Sunday nights. I went to bed around 12:30. I didn’t fall asleep until 3 AM. My brain does not give a shit about being academic if I don’t get enough sleep. I’d rather sleep at home than the study lounge.

I’ve never done this before. I’ve taken F’s rather than do presentations. But I don’t think this is something I should try to get out of. I don’t know where to start. Because I’ve never done it before. I told my OS teacher I’d do partitions. Because she was stopping people from leaving and getting topics out of them. What am I supposed to say? Just how much depth am I supposed to go into? Does she want implementation or usage? BLAH. I DON’T CARE.

And now it’s midday and I’ve spent a fair amount of time running around in circles like my pants are on fire. I know I have no pants. I’m just terrified.

I can’t do this right now. But when?

I think I’m better off grabbing some supplemental food and tearing through some spanish homework, or reading in my econ book, then stopping and calling it afternoon before going to my evening econ class. Something. Anything.

My confidence is so easily shaken.

Presentation schmesentation.

Your pants are on fair??? Where? Is it an exhibit I can go see?

Indyzie

December 12, 2005

‘breakfast of champions’ i like that *snatchs it and runs away*

RYN: Actually, Timbo, I’ve expected guys to all be different and they’ve been tiredly the same. *sigh*

Dammit. Your pants were at the fair. Now they’re on fire. *pouts*

Timmy. Don’t make me BREAST-SLAP you again. It has everything to do with you. You’re a male, I value your opinion. That ‘my space’ thing?? What is that?? I’ve gotten that tired old jargon from so many dudes much older than me. I think they really just want freedom to flirt with anything with tits without me getting offended. Asses.

Well, here’s one thing– still looking for more about the actual preparations. http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/history/study/oral/

http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~artstein/101/presentation.html Basically, you’re going to research your topic. Find several sources to draw from, and once you have all your information collected, write an outline of the key points. Then put the key points on invidual notecards, and go through your resources to find information that pertains to those points. When you have lots of notecards, go through

and start practicing the presentation out loud, just reading the key points. If you have any visuals, graphs or charts to support certain points, use those as well. As you practice, weed out the less relevent information and get your presentation to the right length of time. To spruce things up a bit, make sure your sentences are clear, succinct, and not overly wordy. Use phrases that are

somewhat natural for you to say outloud so you don’t stumble over them during the presentation. The main priority is making sure your presentation is well organized, relevant and somewhat interesting. When you practice giving the presentation, use a mirror if you can. Get really familiar with the notecards so you don’t wind up standing in front of the class, staring at your cards the whole time.

I am sure you will do great.. *crosses fingers for you* *hugs*

Give yourself time to pause– keep an even pace, and don’t say too much too quickly or lose your breath. Speak as comfortably as possible. During the actual presentation, let your eyes sweep over your audience, pausing for brief eyecontact. Move around if it’s comfortable for you to do so. Smile if possible, and pay attention to see if people are comprehending what you’re saying. Mostly, you

want to go in there “knowing your shit” and feeling comfortable with the topic you researched. You’ll want to breath deeply beforehand and think encouraging thoughts so you don’t psych yourself out. Think of it as acting– you want to project easy confidence, as though you’re talking to an intellectual group of friends– regardless of whether you feel confident or not. Research and practice.

That’s all you need to do to prepare yourself. You’re going to do just fine. And good for you for not opting out of doing the assignment.

Oh, and PS: Please don’t let this turn into something that gets postponed– you’ll just wind up setting yourself up for unnecessary anxiety. Try to partition it into manageable projects: research, making an outline, making notecards, finding visuals, practicing, editing, practicing. Once you start it, I guarantee you’ll learn that it’s not as big of a deal as you think it is. You can DO this.

RYN: I don’t think anything anyone tells you will make you feel better. You *are* making this into something humongous, and you’re just going to wind up psyching yourself out even more. : ( Please just know– this is completely manageable, and entirely within your capabilities. You have done things MUCH harder than this.

RYN: Now that’s not true. Calling Wendi wasn’t a big deal, but mentally, it turned into one. Basically, you’re spazzing simply because you’ve never done this before– so you don’t KNOW if it’s a big deal or not, but you’re assuming it is. The sooner you start it, the sooner you’ll realize how out of proportion your anxiety is. Take a deep breath. Mountains vs molehills, here.

(and PS: HUG HUG HUG.)

Scorpio Frost

I own you.You’re here to listen to what I have to say. Yeah. That mantra rarely fails me when I pubicly speak. *smirks*

Dude. Darcey is going to breast-slap you.

Evil Peanut

December 13, 2005

Did you take speech class? they made us take it.