Don't FRO Around

The most recent time that I went to listen to a public speaker, was on the day of my freshmen seminar class. This was a day where all the incoming freshmen had to attend school and was brought to a big auditorium to listen to this guy, a name I had already forgotten, talk about sex. He also gave speeches about people who have been raped and chemistry between opposite sex.

The message he was trying to get across the future students of Baruch was very clear. Even though he had more than one topic to talk about, his overall purpose was accomplished. I would have given him a 4 for his accomplishment in getting his point across. Furthermore, I would give him a 4 for how organized his presentation was throughout the whole thing. It was obvious that he did this quite often and he also made this clear he did this for a living. However, after the first 20 minutes, he lost m attention. Both me and my friend played games on my iphone, and then eventually fell asleep. He didn’t have slides or side notes, but he put us to sleep, so I give him a 2 for maintaining interest.

He did maintain eye contact with the whole room. I would give him at 4 for that because I don’t recall him taking his eyes off the students for a minute. During the time that I was paying my full attention to him, I didn’t remember him having much to answer any questions. In addition, he spoke clearly and enthusiastically; it seemed like he knew exactly what he was talking about and loved talking about it. Although I am not exactly certain, believing that it was a long speech, it was probably slightly over the time he was given. Thus, I would give him a 3 for staying in the limited time.

Let me just get this out right off the back …I HATE PUBLIC SPEAKING! I am the worse public speaking ever. Whenever it comes times for me to do public speaking I forget everything that I memorized 20 seconds before. I think it has to do with talking in front of a lot of people. I’m a pretty out going person when it comes to makingg friends and all that good stuff. But when I have to talk in front of a classroom I go number 2 in my pants (I’m not sure if you can swear on here lol). When I know that all eyes are on me I can’t handle the pressure. Sometimes I learn to humble myself and actually get the job done but then all my ideas get all mixed up and my presentation turns into a HOT MESS! I guess I need to work on that …seriously.

Well, the visit to the library was relatively BORING! Only because I’ve been on the visit like 23 times already. I’ve been on that tour so many times I probably could’ve instructed the tour. As a matter of fact, forget the last thing I said cause every time I go on the tour I sleep walk and tend not to pay attention to anything that’s going on. I firgured the only time I need to worry about anything in the library is when the team has study hall. I only have to worry about what room we go to and even then it’s the same room every time. Thanks but no thanks -_-.

My uncle likes to have speakers give speeches at his house.  The speakers are always talking about different subject matters.  One time he hosted a stand up comedian.  Last month however, my uncle highly recommended that the teenagers and young adults in the family listen to his speaker.  We all went.  When we got there, there was a man from the Israeli Army dressed up in uniform.  He told us that he was the body guard of the man who was going to give the speech.  We spoke to him about army training and things of that nature until my uncle stole our attention to introduce the speaker, “Mr. Eli Ayal.”  Surprisingly, the soldier stood up and walked to the front of the room.

My cousins and I were confused.  He stood in front of us and began removing his uniform and uncovered a suit.  This unexpected act immediately caught everybody’s attention.  He was a very (good looking) young soldier who had a very high position.  His speech was about how there is a lot of anti-semitism on college campuses and Jewish students need to be educated about their religion and place in the world.  He didn’t lose anybody’s focus because he kept perfect eye-contact with everyone.  He did not fidget with his fingers or sway back and forth.  It would have been nice if he walked around a little but he used his hands as reinforcement (and not too much).  He added subtle jokes that weren’t distracting or corny.  His voice was loud and deep (sexy) and his speech was brief and to the point.  He added examples that proved he was aware of his audience.  Lastly, even though he had a slight accent, he did not say “um.” (and if he did it was so few times that I don’t even remember)

He conveyed his message flawlessly.

Although I missed the group visit to the Library last week, I did make a trip there on my own.  The problem is that the library did not grab my attention.  It was the ordinary books on the walls (gathering dust) and the computers on the desks.  What DID catch my attention was the overall idea of the library.  Are they obsolete? Will they become obsolete? Will they change completely and only keep the title of “The Library?” Will we be around to see these questions answered? Will some libraries become museums while others simply die out?  The new Kindle is the perfect example of how the library is no longer necessary in today’s day and age.  People can search a book title or author, tap, and read in a matter of seconds (I sound like an advertisement but it’s true!)!  Some Law School require students to complete an assignment using only old fashion methods of the library.  But is this really necessary? Why should someone suffer through such a tedious task when there are easier methods?

My vision of the library in the future is a place similar to today’s library but the books will be in glass cases, on the walls, for display.  Most of the space will be taken up by the most high-tech computers; there will be a small corner for children to watch a librarian or a parent read to them off a smart board (a projection style i-pad).  The reason that people will still come to this library is to use the new computers, be part of the children’s group, or to study in a quiet place.  A friend of mine thinks that the books will simply become DVDs and Blue-Ray disks.

What do you think?

Usually most people tend to find graduation speakers quite boring and repetative making graduation sometimes a long drag. At my highschool graduation many guest speakers spoke but only one speaker stood out to me. This speaker was the father of a girl who had went to my highschool about 12 years back. This girl who had graduated went on to become a sucessful career woman in business in NYC. This girl having her whole life ahead of her, lost it all on one day…..September 11, 2001. If I remember correctly, she was in the World Trade Center and never made it out of the building. This man had an accent and spoke in a monotone voice which at first made it hard for me to understand what he was talking about. I thought it was going to be a boring speech about education and our future, but I was wrong. The emotion that this father presented to the audience was moving. He showed the love and deep misery that he felt for his valuable jewel. He spoke in an organized manner; he presented his daughter to the audience as if she was still alive and then finished her the story with September 11, which brought tears to all our eyes. He spoke the way any father would about his little girl. This speaker was not only emotionally moving, but used his experience and speech in order to bring out a point about life. It made us appreciate our lives and our oppurtunities. He portrayed our future as not only a time for educational sucess, but as a blessing in itself.

So, obviously I’m doing this blog late at night before its due…. but I very much enjoyed my visit to the library. It was really quiet and I felt like I was distrubing everyone because my shoes were making noise. I’ve never seen such a big library before and I can’t wait to go study in it… just kidding but really…it has a lot of great resources to use for research and projects that I will need to do for my classes at Baruch. The library tour was very helpful because we learned about the free printing and renting calculators. I also heard that it is the biggest CUNY library in all of New York City. Apparently, people from other schools want to use it but I don’t know exactly if they are definitely able to actually use it.

I don’t have anything else to say about the library so I’m going to write about freshman seminar. I really like the class. It’s a good transition from high school to college and I actually feel like I kind of know what is going on in Baruch. When I first got Block 55, I was nervous that everything was going to be all over the place because I didn’t have a learning community… but freshman seminar is basically the same thing as a learning community.  We are supposed to go on field trips and learn the ins and outs of Baruch College.

So basically that is all I have to say for now. This blogging thing isn’t as bad as I thought. Peaceeeeeeee