Boring Olympians - Champion Talkers

[Aberforth's Goat]

OLYMPICS

First Amanda "I'd watch 'em" Geist suggested,

> How about having them do the Games in the buff again? It'd sure
boost
> attendance and viewing percentage....

But Cindy "keep your riddles veiled" Sphynx spoke,

> We will also have automatic
> disqualifications for any men sporting chest hair through
plunging
> necklines, and a life-time ban for anyone with a large gold
medallion
> on a gold chain resting on top of their chest hair. [...]

Oh dear, oh dear. I do hope we don't have a flameout brewing here
... Oh well. It's an ill wind that blows *no* good. Perhaps we
*won't* all have to charge over to the movie list for our kicks.

* * * * * * * *

VERBIAGE - FACT AND FICTION

Tabouli talked about the fictional self of the net, as opposed to
the reality of f2f - but also wrote,

> Do you think you, and people in general who
> are given to copious letter/post writing, reveal
> more meaningful things about who they are in
> fiction than in reality?

Well, I've certainly never heard anyone unbosom their deepest
feelings about Tom Bombadil in RL, so the internet has gotta be
*worth* something ...

But seriously: This dichotomy between a "real" self (as expressed
in a oral, visual and physical communication) and "fictional"
self (as expressed in purely verbal communication) sounds like a
deconstructionist's field day. Isn't the "unified self" a social
construct, to some degree an expression of social tyranny? Maybe
*it's* the fictional part - and subversively so, since we always
assume that it's our real, normal self.

Maybe they're both real in some ways, and misleading in others.

Maybe I'm just jealous of the alpha-type socialites.

VERBIAGE - THE JOYS OF ORATORY

As far as public speaking goes, it sounds like I'm weirder than I
thought ... though Amy said something I could fully identify
with:

> Where my fear of public speaking expresses itself is in the
writing
> of whatever I'm going to say in public.  90% of my considerable
> writer's block comes from the fear that I'm going to sound
stupid,
> boring, trite, disorganized, pompous . . . you name it, my
inner
> editor accuses me of it.  I am okay once I get up there, but
the
> process of writing it all down beforehand is fraught with
terror.

Actually, by that standard, I'm freaking *horrified* of public
speaking. I'm physically incapable of just standing there
waffling. In fact, I usually write out my texts to be absolutely
sure that I won't get lost - and I regularly spend entire nights
writing. (I blame it on working in my third language, but I think
that's actually just a handy excuse.) (As for laziness - err,
actually, never mind.)

>From that standpoint, I don't see much difference between acting
and public speaking - except that in public speaking you get to
make up your own script. I suppose that's also why I don't feel
much difference between (my sort of) public speaking and online
conversation. In either case, the problem is getting a script
written. Everything else is just delivery ...

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that
may not have been bravery...."



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