I was thinking about a scratch off lottery ticket that I recently bought. On the surface it seems to fulfill a simple desire, that is, a date with that fickle mistress, Easy Money. Some people say that Easy Money is bad for you, that money can’t buy happiness. I disagree. I think you just need […]
Continue readingAt our recent Toastmasters Leadership Institute, also known simply as officer training, we discussed some of the reasons people leave Toastmasters. Although the numbers vary from survey to survey, about 70 percent leave because they don’t feel their needs are being met or the club is indifferent to their needs. About 10 to 20 percent find […]
Continue readingIf you’re a guy and you’ve ever had trouble getting a date and turned to the internet for help, you’ve probably run across some of the materials and sites available from some of the Pickup Artist (PUA) gurus out there. There’s a plethora of them, from the Mystery Method, David Deangelos’s Double Your Dating (or Eben […]
Continue readingIt can be very informative to see how a speech evolved from its first iteration to the second. This is a version of the Not Self speech I gave at our club level International Speech contest in 2011. If you watch the initial version, you can see how the speech improved. My vocal variety is much […]
Continue readingIf you thought my post about Danger and Insane Lyrics was off the wall, then I feel compelled to point out that somebody agrees with me. That somebody is a fringe artist by the name of Paul Thorn, who was interviewed by NPR recently. Consider this quote from the interview: “…with all the mainstream music […]
Continue readingMy latest speech (March, 2012) follows the theme of mental programs I started with Buttons. Once again, this a topic that cannot be adequately addressed in 8-10 minutes, the recommended time for an after dinner talk (The Entertaining Speaker, project 5). In this speech I reference an editorial from Toastmaster magazine, in which the […]
Continue readingI can’t believe I haven’t posted this humorous speech yet! It’s one of my favorites, but it requires some knowledge of economics and U.S. politics. I was planning to present a humorous speech, so I decided to speak on economics. Now I know most of you think there’s nothing funny about the economy. I suggest […]
Continue readingToastmasters projects limit most speeches to 5-7 minutes. This limit provides an opportunity to practice oratory under a time constraint, and gives more opportunities for speeches at any given meeting. The major disadvantage is that it fails to provide enough time to explore a topic in depth. This is my most recent speech of February 2012, and […]
Continue readingI can’t help myself. I love a catchy pop dance tune, even if it’s the same tunes the teenagers are listening to. A good dance tune helps me achieve a state of bliss, even under the worst case of duress. As I once said to fellow Toastmaster at a district conference, “You just can’t feel […]
Continue readingHere’s a speech I did as a test speaker for an evaluation contest back in the fall of 2010. I discuss Steve Andreas’ concept of Not Self, in which a person defines his or her self concept in terms of things he or she is not, and how it applied to me. I later took […]
Continue readingHere’s the text of another speech I gave at Toastmasters: Several years ago, a coworker introduced me to a newspaper called Investors Business Daily, or IBD. The publisher of IBD has a set of 20 rules for investing success. These are rules based on lessons he has learned over many years of investing. Not only […]
Continue readingI wrote the following for our Toastmasters club’s ill-fated newsletter when I was president: Nowadays social media is everywhere. Social media has gone from a buzzword to a ubiquitous personal tool. You can join MySpace, or Facebook for friend and family online social contacts. Professionals can join Linked In, and research scientists can even […]
Continue readingWelcome to Rhetoric by Eric, or just “rheteric”. This blog serves to share my thoughts on public speaking, oratory, personal improvement and leadership in the tradition of Toastmasters International, of which I am a member. My thoughts are my own, and not the viewpoint of the Toastmasters Organization.
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