Blog Post #6

When we hear the words “Las Vegas” many extravagant things come to mind such as bright lights, show girls, gambling, and the big one; money. The piece “Sucked into the Tunnels Beneath Las Vegas” by Adam Burke brought to life the reality of this show town along with what else is present that is not seen by the typical tourist or avid gambler.

                One point that really stood out to me was the fact that the man leading Adam Burke through the storm drains, Matt O’Brien provided a Thanksgiving dinner to some guys he had met and became close with during his adventures down into the tunnel s beneath the city.  O’Brien had met over one hundred people during his voyages down into the tunnels and had thought so much of and been touched by these guys that he provided them a thanksgiving dinner.  One of the men stated, “We came back and there was Thanksgiving dinner on each of our beds; a big turkey and stuffing.  It was pretty good.”  The men had not seen Matt for over a year since before he brought them the dinner and that was still the first thing they said when they saw him.  This selfless act meant a whole lot to these men who fight to have anything in “sin city”.

This point of the story really caught my attention.  Not only because if how nice of a gesture this was on Matt O’Brien’s part, but also because my family does close to the same thing for our farm hands who do not have much on both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We provide three or four families that help us on our farm with the typical turkey, stuffing, corn, green beans and homemade pumpkin pie.  Even though we do it every year, the workers still react the same as they did the first time; extremely thankful and they never forget what you did for them.  Simple acts of kindness like this go a long way whether it be in the storm drains beneath Las Vegas or in the trailer park of my small rural town.

Blog Post #5

    During my speech, I could obviously tell that I was nervous.  To start off, I stumbled over my words and said "um" four times within the first 30 seconds of my speech.  As a nervous tick, I repeatedly turned around to look at the slide behind me despite the fact that I had little to no words on the slides, only pictures.  Another thing that I noticed was that it took me a few seconds to register the so called “codes” that I had written on my note-cards which ended up throwing me off.  I also noticed that I rocked back and forth quite a bit. That must be a new nervous tick that I have when I am in front of people.  The final major thing that I noticed was that I would start a though out strong, but fail to finish it as powerfully as I started.  It was almost like I forgot that I had to finish my point before I went ahead and moved to the next one.

    At times, I could hear a random glimpse of hope that I was becoming a little more comfortable and was confident in what I was saying.  I also did not hear my voice shake like it used to. In high school when I gave speeches, or had to do anything in front of the class for that matter, my voice would shake uncontrollably when I spoke. Another thing that I noticed was that I did not keep a monotone voice. I was able to keep it a little more interesting even though a few times I did trail off and get very quiet

    Overall, I was pretty disappointed in the way I presented and gave my speech. For some reason, I have always struggled giving speeches to those who were my age, but never felt as intimidated when giving them to older people for scholarships or at banquets.  From this speech I learned how important extensive practice is.  The need to know your material without depending on your note-cards is very important. I feel like I will be able to attempt to fix some of these issues for the next speech.