Christmas 1914

Phil Sutton once again shares his passion for history, belief in the human spirit and the dignity of all people with Katy Toastmasters.  Phil always gives 200% effort in everything he does.  (Normally speakers don’t dress up for their speeches.)     

Presented by Phil Sutton, ACB on July 25, 2013

Advanced Communication Series: The Entertaining Speaker
Project 4: A Dramatic Talk
Time: Seven to Nine Minutes
Evaluator: Andy Paultanis

(Below is a direct Link to YouTube with embedded video below, run time eight minutes and thirty three seconds should the embedded video freeze:)

Christmas 1914 - YouTube Direct Link





Speech Evaluation Video Time:  

 Below is the speech evaluation by Andy Paultanis with a direct link to YouTube should the embedded video freeze.  Run time three minutes and fifty three seconds. 

Speech Evaluation - YouTube Direct Link

Special thanks to Jim Harrington for all his video recording efforts.

CC Project # 9: Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

Competent Communicator/Project 9: Persuade with Power                           
Objectives: Persuade listeners to adopt your viewpoint or ideas or to take some action; Appeal to the audience’s interests; Use logic and emotion to support your position; avoid using notes.
Time: Five to seven minutes
Presenter: Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863

Today is the 150^th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.  This is considered one of the greatest speeches ever written.  A little historical perspective. 

It could be argued Abraham Lincoln was the most hated President in United States history during the Spring of 1863.  The people of southern states (the Confederacy, the gray ) despised him. Many people of the northern states (the Union, the blue) hated him for the horrendous casualties and lack of Union military victories in the first two  years of the American Civil War.

The war began in April 1861 and by 1863, people of the North began to question if the war being fought to preserve the Union and abolish slavery was worth their human cost and suffering.  More Americans soldiers were killed in the American Civil War than almost all the combined wars ever fought by the United States.  It was a bloodbath.  Most of those who were wounded usually endured amputation of limbs. For example, after the war in 1866, half of the state budget of Mississippi was to provide artificial prosthetic limbs for veterans.

General Robert E. Lee of the South continually “bitch slapped” the armies of the North. In the summer of 1863 he invaded the North in hope of drawing out the Union armies where he could once and for all destroy them.  The South was so confident of victory,  Robert E. Lee  carried with him a letter for the terms of peace to be delivered to President Lincoln once Lee captured Washington, D.C.

In July 1863, the Northern and Southern armies engaged for three days in the greatest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere at a sleepy little farm town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg. 

On the third day of the battle, General Lee threw the dice when he ordered the Army of Northern Virginia to attack the center Union line across a mile of open fields which became known as “Pickett’s Charge.”  The Confederates were slaughtered.  It was the first significant victory for the North that marked the beginning of the end of the Confederacy.

On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln travelled to Gettysburg to dedicate a military cemetery for the Union soldiers killed in the battle.  Lincoln was still dealing with draft riots, men angry at being called to serve in the army, throughout the North.  He wanted to persuade the people of the North not to despair and to continue fighting for just causes: Freedom and the American Ideal.

Lincoln wrote a speech he thought few would remember but wanted the Northern people to always to honor the men who gave their lives at Gettysburg.  The Gettysburg Address is considered one of the most eloquent speeches in history.

Lincoln spoke for about two minutes and would not qualify for a Toastmaster International Speech of five to seven minutes.  His speech teaches us  the quality of a speech is far more important than its length. 

Below is a link to a excellent YouTube video of Gettysburg Address narrated by the actor Jeff Daniels that runs for about two and a half minutes. He speaks very slowly and clearly using pauses to emphasize the ideas of the speech. Note the subtle vocal variety in the speech.

The Gettysburg Address

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Below is bonus video link for the historically deranged members of the club (i.e. Phil S, Heleane S, Andy P, et al) of Pickett's Charge which is almost thirty minutes from the movie of Gettysburg.  My sons and I walked across the same fields at Gettysburg to the point where General Armistead was killed at the Union Wall.  Warning: graphic violence.

Pickett's Charge

 

Below is a photo of my sons at the tree line which began Pickett's Charge.

 

 

Posted by Andy Paultanis

Information Security Tips To Protect Your Information

 

Presented by Vimit Gupta

Competent Communicator Manual
Project 2: Organize Your Speech
Time: Five to Seven Minutes

Below is a summary of key points from the speech:

1) Antivirus: Running antivirus does not slow your computer down nearly as much as a virus does.

2) Not all web sites are safe. Always ensure that the source you are browsing or downloading from is legitimate. Use extreme caution if you are referred to a site by an email message. If you're uncertain, don't click or download.

3) Be especially wary of emails sent from individuals or businesses you do not recognize. You should never download attachments from unrecognized senders, as they are likely to contain viruses or malicious software that can take over your computer and/or harvest your personal information.

4) On mobile devices your personal information is more likely to be compromised via device theft or loss. Take appropriate precautions.

5) Minimize personal information sharing. If you don’t trust the website with your personal information there is no need to enter more information which is required to use the website or signup for an account.

6) Ensuring your computer has up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software is an important part of protecting your personal information online. Trojans and keystroke logging software can steal personal information from your computer when you use the Internet.

7) Think before you click. Change your Internet habits when you surf. Always think before you click. It’s one of the best ways to protect yourself online.

8) Don’t click links in emails, Instant Messages (IMs), and pop-up advertisements. Be cautious about clicking links and downloading from people’s social networking site profiles.

9) Even if you know better than to click links in those “phishy” emails, make sure your family members do, too.

10) Social networking sites are a common place for people to share pictures of their families, but if you're one of the 40 percent of users who don't restrict access to your profile, then those pictures are there for everyone to see. Sharing your social plans for everybody to see isn't a good idea.

Be Sincere and Be Safe

- Vimit Gupta

(Editor’s Note:  Vimit is an IT professional with plus eight years of experience working with global organizations.  He is a Microsoft, Oracle and ITIL Certified Professional with vast experience in IT management and consulting.  He has helped in IT management, overall infrastructure setup and maintenance for small scale businesses to big multi-national companies.)

 

 

Katy Toastmasters Game Film

During the Army-Navy football game on December 7, 1963, for the first time, sports fans saw an Instant replay.  (For Katy Toastmaster football fans, Roger Staubach was the quarterback for Navy in the game.)  It was replayed at the original speed prompting the sports commentator to tell viewers “Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again.”

Today it is hard to imagine watching a sports event without instant replays.  I believe the rise of popularity in NFL football is due in part to the use of instant replays to review the action. American Tackle football a chess match of the fastest and most complex team sport in the world.  Slow motion instant replays help fans understand the complex interactions of players in any given play.  Oddly, no one watches game film of chess matches.   

Football coaches and players spend hours reviewing game film.  What went right, what went wrong but more importantly, what can we learn by reviewing game film to improve our performance. 

Toastmasters also uses the instant replay during meetings.  The instant replay in Toastmaster is called “Evaluations.”  All prepared speeches are “instantly” evaluated during the meeting with positive and constructive comments to the speech presenter.  These evaluations are usually civil.

In Katy Toastmasters, we have evaluations that are far from civil.  In fact, some evaluations are brutal, merciless, savage and extremely critical. Sometime the evaluators are just disgusted with  performances.  Those evaluators are ourselves as individuals while we watch ourselves on Katy Toastmaster Game Film.

For many individuals, it is difficult to view themselves in still photos much less watching themselves  presenting a speech.  Seeing yourself on “film” is another dimension in evaluations.  A picture is worth a thousand words but a video is worth a million of words.

Those of us in Katy Toastmasters are grateful to Jim Harrington, DTM, for his tireless work in video recording speeches and evaluations.  Not only does he film, he also takes his personal time  to create individual CD’s for members to review their presentation.  As someone who was the film guy for my son’s youth football team, I can tell you it is an effort to create these CD’s.  Yet week after week, Jim creates member CD’s as he sincerely tries to help individuals become better speakers and evaluators.  Jim Harrington’s unselfish service to Katy Toastmasters is an inspiration in leadership for those of us in the club.  We can’t thank him enough for all his efforts and service to the club.

Below is a video clip Jim Harrington created for my speech on “The Big Bang” and it is Jim who was the Toastmaster that night who introduced my speech:

“The Tale of The Big Bang”

Presented by Andy Paultanis on June 6, 2013
Advanced Communication Series: Storytelling

Project 4: The Folk Tale  
Time: Five to Seven Minutes
Evaluator: Sherry Han

                           

Houston Traffic

Presented by Andy Paultanis on August 1, 2013
Advanced Communication Series: Humorously Speaking

Project 4: Keep Them Laughing 

Time: Five to Seven Minutes

 

Houston…we have a problem.  It’s the auto traffic.  Houston is in the top five of the worst cities in the United States to drive in.
 

I am from Michigan so Houston traffic is a cultural shock.  I really don’t understand traffic road design in Houston.

For example, I going to go out on a limb and predict the population around Katy will greatly expand within the next five years to ten years.  Why is new Highway 99 only two lanes? Why not three? Why not four?

I believe the new bridge at I-10 and Highway 99, will be inadequate to handle the huge future traffic flow.  I tell my kids, this intersection will become known as the Malfunction Junction.

Houston suffers from arteriosclerosis roaditis, the clogging of roads.  Where I lived we had higher population density than Katy but half the traffic congestion.  There is no fluid traffic flow or few road alternatives in Houston.

Did you ever heard of bridges to nowhere, how about roads to nowhere.  There are few roads in Houston that go really anywhere for any distance.  Just look my home area.  West Little York dead ends, Keith Harlow dead ends, Clay Road dead ends, Morton Road dead ends, Barker Cypress dead ends, Greenhouse dead ends, West Green dead ends, Fry Road dead ends. Kingsland dead ends.  It seems the majority of  roads go for a short distance only to dead end into a Venus flytrap of humanity, the Houston subdivision.

 

People have been known to drive into a Houston subdivison, never to to be seen again. 

There’s no going around the block in Houston.  Either you know where you’re going or you don’t.  If a road doesn’t dead end it changes direction.  On some Houston roads, you can travel for eighty three miles and end exactly where you started. Consider the Beltway 8 Loop.  It seems we drive in circles in Houston.

 

There is only one viable road from Katy to downtown, I-10.  No wonder it’s clogged and congested all the time.

One of the biggest issues with Houston traffic are the Yes, No, Maybe, I don’t know, left turn lanes.  In Michigan, when a person is in the left turn lane, there is a 99.999% chance they will turn left.  In Houston, there is a 95% chance they will turn left.  I’ve constantly see drivers veer right at the last second crossing two or three lanes to do a right turn.  A few days ago someone cut me off, without signaling or looking, veering right out of a left turn lane.

In Livonia, most left turn lanes also serve as fire lanes.  An emergency vehicle in Livonia could drive a hundred miles an hour down a fire lane because we don’t plant trees in middle of the left turn zones. The boulevards are beautiful but they result in very short left turn lanes which clog rush hour traffic. The boulevards are a public safety hazard.  

Not too long ago, on West Little York,  I watched as an ambulance could  not go with the flow of traffic so he climbed the curb, drove down the middle boulevard, then stopped at the trees. Then he drove off the boulevard into flow of on-coming traffic because it there was much less traffic than the direction he intended to follow.  It was like watching a Hollywood action movie.

The irony of Houston is that there are great medical centers here but don't have an emergency during rush hours.  If the disease doesn’t kill you, the traffic will.

When I first moved to Houston three years ago, I was amazed there were almost no adult traffic signals. An adult traffic signal is where you have the option to turn left on a flashing red turn arrow. You make an adult decision, if traffic is clear then you can make a safe turn.  After seeing how people drive in Houston, I understand why there are no adult traffic signals.  I’ve been driving for over forty years and I’ve never seen driving as in Houston anywhere in the United States

 

Another reason for traffic congestions is that people in Houston are the slowest drivers in the United States that I’ve seen.  I can’t believe how slow people drive in Houston.

Maybe one reason why people drive so slow is that Houston is home to a diverse population of many people who have immigrated, legally or illegally, or come from other planets to the city.  Sometimes I think that there are Klingons driving in front me they are so slow.  I’m no different in a strange city, I drive slow and cautious.  Maybe it’s the southern culture of taking life slow and easy. 

"What… [I receive a cell phone call].  I am in the middle of a speech, this better be very important. This is so embarrassing. It’s one of my  sons. You’re only to call me if it’s an emergency.  Got it.  Six plain chicken sandwiches, no pickle, no butter and two eight piece chicken nuggets, two large waffle fries, a large Coke and Sprite."

"Oh, I’m in the middle of a Toastmaster speech. They don’t care because they know I am multi-tasking.  I can talk on the phone and give a speech at the same time just as I can drive and text at the same time. It’s not like I am going to kill anybody in Toastmasters if I become too distracted."

One of the first times I saw someone on a cell phone multitasking was in the 1990s when a woman went multi-tasking through a red light then t-boned another car.  Had the other car had a passenger, that passenger would have been killed instantly. It only takes a second to make a fatal mistake.

Probably the biggest reason there is so much traffic congestion is that too many people are using electronic devices who don't devote their full attention to driving.  People who drive the speed limit or below the speed limit scare me.  The vast majority are talking or texting who just happen to be driving. They may be driving slow but they aren’t driving safely.   

 

Talking and texting to me is no different than as alcoholic consumption. Some people handle it better than others but in the interest of public safety we ban and discriminate against drinking and driving.  I am as guilty as the next person. 

I believe if we banned electronic devices, traffic flow in Houston would improve 25%. 

 

This is no joke, please drive safely and minimize your use of electronic devices. It takes only a second of being distracted to destroy your life.

Dear Prospective Parents

 Presented by Daisy Huang

Competent Communicator Manual
Project 2: Organize Your Speech
Time: Five to Seven Minutes

 





Miss Daisy! Miss Daisy! Look what I did!  Miss Daisy, I need to go to the bathroom! Miss Daisy, my shoes are untied! Miss Daaaaaisy!

Ah, the daily trials of a kindergarten teacher. Such was my life.

Fresh out of college, I joined a program called Teach for America, where I spent my days teaching underprivileged children. I was assigned to teach kindergarten.

I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into. What was I thinking? Nothing forces you to mature faster than controlling the chaos created by 30 kindergarteners, all while trying to cram vital information into their brains.

I wore many different hats other than being a teacher. I was part-time parent, when their own parents couldn’t be there for them. Part-time police officer, busting the candy black market on a daily basis. Part-time nutritionist, making sure they didn’t blow their lunch money on doritos. Part-time nurse, bandaging up little booboos and ouchies with spongebob bandaids. And my favorite, part-time janitor, mopping up spills, accidents, and occasionally vomit and pee.

It’s not as bad as I make it sound. Despite my initial fears, I was actually a very good teacher and the kids were adorable.

I don’t have children, and after teaching young children for a few years…I have the strong urge to keep it that way.

But really, even though I don’t have kids of my own, I think I’ve learned a few things about parenting during those years. Today, I would like to reveal some good parenting practices. This is for anyone out there who is planning to spawn, keep this in mind so you don’t drive your child’s future kindergarten teacher up a wall.

Good parenting practice #1: Teach your children how to tie their own shoes. Ah yes, the challenge of tying shoes. Believe it or not, we’re too busy in kindergarten learning how to read, so we don’t have time to teach children the art of lacing up your own shoes. It’s also a huge safety hazard in the busy hallway if kids have their shoes untied. If you can’t teach them how to tie their own shoes, at least get them those cute little Velcro sneakers so they’re not tripping over their own feet all day.

Good parenting practice #2: Teach your children how to wash their hands. As cute as little kids are, let’s face it, they are germ factories. Their hands have more bacteria than you could culture in a petri dish! I can’t even remember the amount of times I observed a kid dig touch the floor and then stick their thumb in their mouths, ick! And then they would get sick. So parents, make it a habit for your kids to wash their hands.

Good parenting practice #3: Teach your children that they are responsible for their own homework. The earlier your kids take responsibility for themselves, the more self-motivated they’ll be and the better they will do in school. Routine is important, set a designated “homework” time. Excellence is the result of developing good habits, and before long, you’ll notice your child automatically doing their own homework without supervision, simply because they are accustomed to the routine.

Good parenting practice #4: Don’t tell your children they’re smart. This goes against everything we know as parents, but praising your child with “Oh Johnny, you’re so smart,” will end up crippling him. And I’ll tell you why. They’ll get it into their heads that they need to appear smart all the time, and thus will go to great lengths to avoid anything that might make them look stupid. They’ll shy away from trying new things, and be more prone to giving up easily. So when Johnny does something correctly, instead of saying, “Wow, Johnny, you’re so smart,” tell him “Wow, Johnny, I liked how you worked hard on that. I like how you didn’t give up until you got the correct solution.” Kids who are told this work harder, have more persistence, and don’t back down when they encounter new problems.  This will set them up for success in life.

So those are my four parenting tips for getting your child ready for kindergarten, for school and life. Follow these and not only will teachers thank you, but your kid will most likely grow up to be well rounded and successful.

 



Tale of the Big Bang

 
Presented by Andy Paultanis on June 6, 2013
Advanced Communication Series: Storytelling
Project 1: The Folk Tale
Time: Seven to Nine Minutes

 

Bam….[Andy gets to slam unto a table top the “Cosmos” picture book by Carl Sagan to get everyone’s attention.].

The earth was created….According to the 17^th Century  Bishop James Ussher in the year 4004, BC, October 23rd,  at exactly 9 a.m.

Almost every human culture has their “tale” on the creation of the universe.

I think most people in this room believe in the  “The hypothesis of the primeval atom.”  Most people know it as the “Big Bang Theory.” 

The Big Bang Theory is one of the best known scientific theories of our time.  Just to do a survey, how many people here know the name of the scientist who is the  father of The Big Bang Theory?

If you don’t know, don’t feel bad.  You’re not supposed to know.  When he created the second most watched PBS Series of all time, Cosmos, in the 1980’s, Carl Sagan was extremely careful not to talk about the father of the Big Bang.

His name was George Lemaitre who as a young man served with the Allies in the Belgian army as an artillery officer in World War I.  He was awarded the equivalent medal to the United States Silver Star for bravery.

After the war, Lemaitre earned a doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Louvain in Belgium.  He went on to graduate study in astronomy at Cambridge University in England.  After Cambridge, he spent a year of study at the Harvard College Observatory. In 1927 he earned a PhD in Physics from MIT.  

George Lemaitre was also a Roman Catholic Priest. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century,  actually beginning with Aristotle, Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein all believed the universe was stable and an eternal universe.  Einstein used a “cosmological constant” to plug his various equations to maintain an eternal view of the universe.      

Lemaitre was intrigued with Einstein’s theories.  The first thing Lemaitre did was to toss out Einstein’s cosmological constant. Then he worked Einstein’s equations backwards.  In 1927, Lemaitre was the first person to publish a paper asserting  the universe was expanding. Lemaitre calculated the rate of expansion of the universe from observations of faint nebulae. This calculation today is known as Hubble’s Law?

 

Einstein didn’t believe the universe could expand and Einstein was not happy with Lemaitre.  In late 1927 when Einstein met Lemaitre at a scientific conference, he told Lemaitre to his face, “Your mathematical computations are correct but your physics is atrocious.”   

In 1929, Edmund Hubble published a paper identical to Lemaitre with additional observational evidence of new galaxies in an expanding universe.

In the early 1930’s,  Lemaitre learned Einstein was going to visit Edmund Hubble and flew to California. According to Stephen Hawking, it was in this meeting of these three great minds, Einstein, Hubble and Lemaitre,  modern Cosmology was born. 

 

Personally, I believe Hubble and Lemaitre slapped Einstein around, knocked some sense into the man, who came out of the meeting convinced the universe was expanding.  Einstein admitted his use of the cosmological constant was “the greatest blunder of his career.”

In 1931, Lemaitre published his paper on the “Hypothesis of the Primeval Atom”. Lemaitre calculated the universe began from a very tiny point where time, space and matter was created.  An event so violent  it would echo background microwave radiation throughout the universe.  As with Albert Einstein, it took a great deal of courage to challenge the existing scientific establishment.

Because Lemaitre was a Roman Catholic priest, many people thought he was trying to prove the story of biblical creation.  Not true.  Lemaitre was an accomplished scientist who had a firewall between his scientific beliefs and his religious beliefs.  Lemaitre became very upset with the Catholic Pope who wanted to use his theory as proof of biblical creation.    

In 1949, Fred Hoyle, a brilliant British scientist was so upset with this obscure theory, went on BBC Radio to argue with the general public against it. Hoyle coined the phrase the “Big Bang Theory.”

When I hear the phrase, “Big Bang Theory”, I hear little children taunting  naa, naa, naa big bang theory. Ha..Ha..Ha!

The term Big Bang was intended to be a put-down and an insult. Fred Hoyle was mocking and tying to make fun of Lemaitre.

In 1964, two radio astronomers by the name of Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson  accidentally and I mean accidentally, because they were never taught as students about the Big Bang, discovered the background microwave radiation of the Big Bang.  This was the smoking gun proving the theory. 

They were given use of a radio telescope just outside New York City and as they were trying to calibrate it, kept hearing a buzzing noise no matter where they pointed the feed horn of the telescope.  They reached a point where they thought the noise was from pigeon droppings on the feed horn.

 

Being nice guys, they trapped the pigeons and set they free a hundred miles away. Soon, the pigeons were back, they were homing pigeons.  In the early 1960’s they did what many American men would do, they took out shotguns and solved the pigeon problem.  It didn’t solve the buzzing noise.

They eventually realized they had discovered the echo of the Big Bang.  They should have won a Noble Prize for cleaning pigeon droppings but instead in 1978 won the Noble Prize in Astronomy. 

Everyone in this room has heard the echo of the Big Bang.  If you ever tuned a radio or television and heard some static, one percent of that noise is from the Big Bang echo.  

In 1966, as George Lemaitre lay dying is a hospital, they told him, “George, they found the background radiation  of the Big Bang.  Your hypothesis of the Primeval Atom is now irrefutable scientific fact."

A few days later George Lemaitre died

[Special Thanks to Jim Harrington for video taping this speech.]