New manual

My Toastmasters meeting was yesterday and I got started on a new manual, once I finish this one I will earn the Advanced Communicator title and award. Last week was the concluding speech for my previous manual, and the consensus was that it was my best speech yet. That’s a tough act to follow. I just finished the Story Teller manual, now I’m on the Entertaining Speaker manual.

The first assignment in it (the one I did yesterday) was simply to give an “entertaining speech,” hands down the vaguest project I’ve yet completed. I thought all speeches were supposed to be entertaining. Anyway I wrote up the speech, and even though I forgot my notes I did just fine without them and was able to to improvise quite a bit. My improvisations brought a lot of laughter. Overall it was a success and club members thought it was my best delivered speech yet, though the content wasn’t as good as last week’s.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/laughter/

Flexing

Recently I visited my alma mater and had a conversation with a friend who will be graduating this coming weekend. We caught up, then he talked about his plans for life after graduation. I told him how surreal it is to attend events as an alumni. Every time I do I recognize less and less faces.

However I have never been to any events specifically for alumni, although they do send me invitations in the mail every other month or so. Often those events are in California or elsewhere, and I can’t afford to buy a plane ticket  just to attend. Even when they are in state they tend to be way too expensive. The annual black tie gala starts at $500 dollars a person. Several of my more affluent classmates have already went, but me and the friend I visited with both will not be able to go for many years. Both of us agreed that when we do, we will have to flaunt our success to the other attendees. I’ve decided I will wear a top hat, and possibly other things such as white gloves, tails, and maybe even a cane.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/flaunt/

Notable to Wikipedia

As an aspiring writer I’ve always felt a milestone that would indicate that I’ve made it in the publishing world is if there is a Wikipedia article about me. A few times I’ve told people that and they said “I’ll make one for you!” or something to that effect. While I appreciate the thought, they missed the point. The reason I believe having a Wikipedia article is an indicator of success is because it indicates that I’ve made my self well known enough that someone I’ve never met took time out of their day to write an article about me. Especially one that meets Wikipedia’s near indecipherable notability standards. A Wikipedia page about me written by a friend right now would get deleted within 24 hours, probably within a few hours.

I’ve never met any major celebrities per se, but I have met and even known a few people with Wikipedia articles. Here is a list of them in no particular order:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Price_(anthropologist)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9ctor_Tobar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Sessler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jess_Walter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Kelso

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Conover

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Batali

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Webb

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/notable/

Daily Prompts, not every day

I will only partake in the Daily Prompt if the word is something I can incorporate into a blog worthy post without sounding contrived. Yesterday it was mallet, and I couldn’t think of anything so I didn’t post. Honestly I miss the old Daily Prompts that were more than one word. There was a question that formed an actual prompt. Those got my creative juices flowing and resulted in me writing a ton of material on topics I never would have mentioned otherwise. The one word prompts just don’t have that kind of stimulation for me, perhaps it’s different for others.

The last multi word prompt occurred on February 28th, 2016 and it was Five Items and asked what five items you would bring with you on a deserted island. A single word prompt appeared the following day, and there hasn’t been a multi word prompt since. I hope one day the Daily Post will scrap the one word prompts, or at very least not have every single Daily Prompt be a one worder.

“What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word –”

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/partake/

Being real

Jorge Luis Borges once noted that camels are never once mentioned in the Koran, which proves it is an authentically Arabic book. Anyone who isn’t from the Middle East writing a book set there would feel compelled to mention camels, whether it was necessary for the story or mere tokenism. Reading that Borges essay has given me a critical eye for set and setting, and now any details in a work I examine whether I think they were there organically or to remind you of the setting.

It’s truly astounding how whenever characters go to New Orleans it just so happens to be Mardis Gras or at very least Mardis Gras is gratuitously mentioned, similar with Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. No matter what city a film takes place in, you can guarantee that whatever landmark it is known for will make an appearance. In Ratatouille the Eiffel Tower is present pretty much whenever they are outside, even Linguini’s shitty apartment had a clear view of it. That’d be some prime real estate. I’ve been to Paris and I know first hand the Eiffel Tower isn’t omnipresent, I didn’t even see it on my first day there because my hotel room wasn’t anywhere near it.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/authentic/

Encountering a genie

Like most everyone my age Aladdin was a major part of my childhood. The Genie always seemed like such a cool guy and I always thought it would be cool to have a genie of my own. Not just for the wishes, but because of all the other cool things they can do. If I were to get a genie of my own I have two scenarios imagined. In the first one I quickly piss away my three wishes on whatever impulsive shit crosses my mind, all within a week. In the second one I hang on to those wishes for when I truly believe I need a deus ex machina, it would take years for me to spend all three if ever.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/genie/

All Cycles are Friendly, then Vicious

The first half of this semester was depressing for me, the depression was tolerable. Around midterms too many unexpected changes happened and that made me stress out and panic. Shit got too weird and I ended up missing the whole week after midterm, and things have felt like one game of catch up after another. I’ve never been so excited to get done with a semester. Only a week and a half left!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/climate-control/

 

When to eat pie

There are a wide variety of pies I enjoy eating. While pumpkin pie is unpredictable, one of the best ones I’ve have was the one I tried this Thanksgiving. It was from Costco. There is often a stigma attached to store bought pies, but I actually prefer them. My grandma was planning on baking the pie this year, but she couldn’t find the recipe she had in mind. She humbly admitted that, and the whole family could eat the pie without hurting anyone’s feelings.

On Thanksgiving it tasted kind of bland to me but I liked the texture. But on Black Friday it had an excellent flavor.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/humble-pie/

 

Where’s the feather duster?

I decided to jump back into the blogging game. Now I’m a Senior in college and will God willing I will be graduating in May of 2016. Damn time has flown, I remember when I posted on here several times a week (almost every day) and would give blow by blow of my life in school. I won’t be doing that, especially since too much has happened since than to get you loyal readers up to date. This blog was always evolving anyway.

I will get my Bachelor’s in History with a minor in Writing. Right now I am taking a class which has the last third focus on a group blog on Blogger. I will post a link to it once it is set to the public.

Pleasant surprizes

Yesterday in between my 9:00 am political science class and my 1:00 pm history class I decided to begin with my online math class. When I logged into where all the online classes and physical class supplements I was not able to find it. I was worried maybe I wasn’t properly enrolled in it so I went over to the registrar’s office and asked about what was wrong, and turns out nothing was. They told me that the class is only half a semester long and starts after spring break. Great one less class to worry about. For now. On the other hand I absolutely hate math and would like to just get it over with rather than delay the inevitable. Even worse it also means that I will have to worry about that final around the same time as all my other finals, instead of have the final at midterm. Still the fact that it is only half a semester’s worth of material is awesome, because that implies we are not getting into any deep math shit. The name of the course is “Math in Modern Society” which is college Doublespeak for “Math for People Who Absolutely Suck at it But Need to Pass the Gen Ed Requirement.”