Hell what a day
Apr. 1st, 2005 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bliumchikWell, the Rostrum Voice of Youth competition was yesterday. I didn't actually have a speech ready, but luckily that day i had geo in the computer room, multimedia AND careers in the library (which was also convenient for printing since it was last period). Even so I wrote the last few palm cards in pen on the bus. I'd put my speech here, but I don't know how to do ljcuts and cant be bothered finding out. Anyway, I had no idea how to get there, so I went up to Ms Lane at lunch and asked.
Ms Lane: Okay, you know Cathedral street?
Me: ...no.
Ms Lane: ...you know College Street?
Me: Uh... no.
Ms Lane: Do you know Hyde Park?!
Me: Yes!!
Ms Lane: Urgh, I'll just photocopy the map.
I then got convenient bus instructions from the 131500 website, which is 1337.
A crazy drunk guy swore at me as I walked through the park. And I dropped my palm cards at the traffic light. However the cathedral is a fucking huge landmark, and then all that remained was to ask a friendly passerby how to get to the school, where someone was waiting to point me in the direction of the rooms. The thing was organised in heats, one from each group went through to the finals - kind of stupid. What if you have several good people in one heat and all crap people in another?
The first guy was a leetle incoherent - his speech seemed to occupy no less than seven different and somewhat contradictory universes and he tried to use the "mutton dressed as lamb" saying without knowing what it actually meant.
Guy number two was a good if somewhat bland speaker, and his speech mainly made sense too, and he had some funny bits - he was the runner up.
I was third, and the only girl in that heat. I was a bit monotonous but seeing as I wrote my speech that morning and hadn't practiced, it could've been worse. No one laughed at my funny bits, although one guy laughed at a bit I hadn't actually meant to be funny. It was kind of painful to talk with a sore throat and teeth tho. Not to mention the runny nose.
Numero Four was a stuttering Russian guy called Stan - he was trying really hard not to use his palm cards, but it was more like a one sided conversation than a speech, and he kept using the phrase "just think about it".
Five was funny and had some logic to his arguments, although he did blame atheism in part for the "march of material ugliness" (the speech topic he was given). He began with a "So I was getting in touch with my feminine side in the womens clothing department, right..." and started going on about a girl buying a hideous green skirt, and for a second there I thought he was going to flout conformity and not rerun the same old politically correct speeches everyone does on that topic (you ought to be judged on your soul, not your shawl. Yes, we know. Shut up.) but nooo. Of course he did win. He was a very good speaker.
The last one, Paul, I think his last name was Carr, had good politics and some laughs, too. He talked about the failure of democracy, the inefficiency of electorates, and how Bush stole the 2000 election.
I had a chat with Five and Six while the adjudicators conferred. They immediately started with the OMGDOYOUKNOWTHISPERSON - surprisingly I did, since they started off with Zoe, Pia and Ritika. Five, an indian guy whose name I remembered yesterday but has now flown out of my head, apparently has this friend who has a crush on Ritika. So many coincidences.
Anyway, the main adjudicator came up and started talking about good speeches have rhythm and flow, which mine did have (mainly because I wrote it all down as it came into my head) and monotony, which I also had :P
When I got home my dad and I connected the internet to my computer, which then refused to acknowledge it and kept thinking we were on dialup. It turns out my shiny new wireless keyboard has no caps lock light, which is annoying, and then for some reason I kept getting an error message about my graphics driver - after saying yes, okay, no I don't want to send an error message because WE HAVE NO NET, about five times, the whole screen went troppo and did the same thing IE windows do when theyr lagging, they tile something - the start bar tiled freakily all over the screen. Also, the CPU was making ominous buzzing noises. So I switched it off.
I dunno, maybe it's cos my dads friend got rid of the protective coating of dust it's developed over the past few years. Anyway, my dad will ask him, when he goes back to work on monday (he's sick today) and meanwhile he'll call optus and see whats up with our net. So yeah, no computer time for me :(
Ms Lane: Okay, you know Cathedral street?
Me: ...no.
Ms Lane: ...you know College Street?
Me: Uh... no.
Ms Lane: Do you know Hyde Park?!
Me: Yes!!
Ms Lane: Urgh, I'll just photocopy the map.
I then got convenient bus instructions from the 131500 website, which is 1337.
A crazy drunk guy swore at me as I walked through the park. And I dropped my palm cards at the traffic light. However the cathedral is a fucking huge landmark, and then all that remained was to ask a friendly passerby how to get to the school, where someone was waiting to point me in the direction of the rooms. The thing was organised in heats, one from each group went through to the finals - kind of stupid. What if you have several good people in one heat and all crap people in another?
The first guy was a leetle incoherent - his speech seemed to occupy no less than seven different and somewhat contradictory universes and he tried to use the "mutton dressed as lamb" saying without knowing what it actually meant.
Guy number two was a good if somewhat bland speaker, and his speech mainly made sense too, and he had some funny bits - he was the runner up.
I was third, and the only girl in that heat. I was a bit monotonous but seeing as I wrote my speech that morning and hadn't practiced, it could've been worse. No one laughed at my funny bits, although one guy laughed at a bit I hadn't actually meant to be funny. It was kind of painful to talk with a sore throat and teeth tho. Not to mention the runny nose.
Numero Four was a stuttering Russian guy called Stan - he was trying really hard not to use his palm cards, but it was more like a one sided conversation than a speech, and he kept using the phrase "just think about it".
Five was funny and had some logic to his arguments, although he did blame atheism in part for the "march of material ugliness" (the speech topic he was given). He began with a "So I was getting in touch with my feminine side in the womens clothing department, right..." and started going on about a girl buying a hideous green skirt, and for a second there I thought he was going to flout conformity and not rerun the same old politically correct speeches everyone does on that topic (you ought to be judged on your soul, not your shawl. Yes, we know. Shut up.) but nooo. Of course he did win. He was a very good speaker.
The last one, Paul, I think his last name was Carr, had good politics and some laughs, too. He talked about the failure of democracy, the inefficiency of electorates, and how Bush stole the 2000 election.
I had a chat with Five and Six while the adjudicators conferred. They immediately started with the OMGDOYOUKNOWTHISPERSON - surprisingly I did, since they started off with Zoe, Pia and Ritika. Five, an indian guy whose name I remembered yesterday but has now flown out of my head, apparently has this friend who has a crush on Ritika. So many coincidences.
Anyway, the main adjudicator came up and started talking about good speeches have rhythm and flow, which mine did have (mainly because I wrote it all down as it came into my head) and monotony, which I also had :P
When I got home my dad and I connected the internet to my computer, which then refused to acknowledge it and kept thinking we were on dialup. It turns out my shiny new wireless keyboard has no caps lock light, which is annoying, and then for some reason I kept getting an error message about my graphics driver - after saying yes, okay, no I don't want to send an error message because WE HAVE NO NET, about five times, the whole screen went troppo and did the same thing IE windows do when theyr lagging, they tile something - the start bar tiled freakily all over the screen. Also, the CPU was making ominous buzzing noises. So I switched it off.
I dunno, maybe it's cos my dads friend got rid of the protective coating of dust it's developed over the past few years. Anyway, my dad will ask him, when he goes back to work on monday (he's sick today) and meanwhile he'll call optus and see whats up with our net. So yeah, no computer time for me :(
