Speaking123 Podcasts

The Last Lecture
“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
–Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture.” Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can’t help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave–”Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”–wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have…and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

Professor Randy Pausch made a surprise return to Carnegie Mellon University to deliver an inspirational speech to the Class of 2008 at the Commencement ceremony on May 18, 2008.

Advanced Project 3 “The Moral of The Story” (4 to 6 mins) requires the speaker to:
- create and tell a story that is entertaining and yet displays moral values.
- tell a story using skills learnt in the previous 2 projects.

“There is always something to be learnt in everything that we experience in life.  We have so many stories to share, so many lessons to learn.  As the VPE, I was caught off guard when informed of some changes to a meeting agenda at the 11^th hour.  After asking around, I couldn’t find a replacement speaker.  So I took up the challenge to ensure that the show would still go on.  The moral of the lesson here, (1) Just Do It, and more importantly (2) If there is a will, there is a way.” ~ 10 Jul 2008

I evaluated Song Lang’s Story Telling AP3 speech “Justice has a long jaw” at the July Chapter Meeting at Chao Chu Kang TMC. Surprisingly, I won the best evaluator award, together with the best table topic speaker award. This is the first time I got a double awards in one meeting. I was very very happy. It really comes as a surprise since I was taking it quite lightly for this evaluation. Unlike my previous evaluations which I usually skipped break to work hard on the evaluation. This time I only jotted down couple of observation points during Song Lang’s presentation and just gave an impromptu evaluation. I let the ideas flew out naturally during my evaluation. hmmm..it seems to work.

Advanced Project 2 “Let’s Get Personal” (6 to 8 mins) requires the speaker to:
- learn the elements of a good story.

“5 years ago, I nearly killed someone due to a moment of rage. Now, whenever I look back, I feel a sense of relief. It was just a thin line and I could have regreted it for the rest of my life if I had crossed that line of no return. Find out how I had come to my senses at the last moment and prevented a tragedy.” ~ 28 Jun 2008

This’s my 1st evaluation on Project 9.  As I’ve never done project evaluation beyond P4, it’s a hurdle for me psychologically and also a challenge in my competency level.  So, I ‘ve read up a little on persuasion skills and also listened to past recordings of P9 evaluations from the better speakers.  Before the meeting, I made an effort to gather more info from Sahana (the speaker whom I was to evaluate).  There is no doubt that a little preparation goes a long way even in project evaluation. ~ 8 May 2008

I took slightly over 7mins to deliver this speech. At least this time I did not exceed the given time limit of 7min 30sec. Overall I think I did ok for it. Not too nervous during the presentation…but still felt that the speech content is not too persuasive.

This speech is Humorously Speaking Advanced Project 4 “Fatherhood”. The title of the speech is “Fatherhood” and the objectives are:

• Prepare a speech that opens with a self-deprecating joke
• String together two or three related jokes in the speech body
• Close the speech with a humorous story

This speech was delivered in Braddell Height Advanced TMC. The evaluator was DTM Gea Ban Peng.

This is a speech about me and my two sons, Ming Liang and Ming Xuan. In this speech, I tried to paint a picture of a pathetic father grumbling about his thankless job of fatherhood. I thought the script is more humorous than my previous speeches. However, it is still difficult to tickle laughter from the audience