Wyatt's World
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Apr. 28, 2009
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My first speech at Toastmaster's
Have you ever read a book by Terry Pratchett before? I like Terry Pratchett’s books, because he is a very funny writer who writes incredibly amazing plots filled with incredibly lifelike characters. Most of his stories, (all the best ones any way! )take place in the same place, the disk world.
This “world” is a relatively flat disk shape. It floats through space on the backs for elephants who, in turn, stand on one massive turtle. Because of the way their world is shaped, they don’t have north south west and east, instead, they have rimwards as in towards the rim, and hubwards.
Some of my favourite books by him are,
Making Money ,
Hog Father
and The Final Hero.
Going Postal is the story of a con man, who is about to pull the biggest crime in his life when he is caught. However, the patrician, instead of hanging him, offers him two doors and a new name- his birth name.
One door leads to normalness, he can become a law-abiding citizen and they would say no more about it. All records, would be purged of his existence.
Or, he can walk through the other door. and take up an important government job- the post office. Making Money comes after this. In it, his success with the post office is so great that vetinari, the patrician offers him another job, the royal master of the mint and bank.
Hog Father begins with a mysterious entity offering the assassins guild a contract. Ten million dollars of gold if they inhume the Hog Father, aka saint Nicholas. When they succeed, its up to Death to replace the hog father temporarily, so the thin, skeletally thin in fact, Death, drops the black robe and scythe and picks up the red cloak and a pillow. Then of course he gets hooked on people leaving out cookies and actually TRYING to see him, not fleeing in terror.
The final Hero is about a Conan the barbarian look-alike, Cohen, who steals a huge keg of dynamite, and heads off to blow up the largest mountain in the world- the Cori Celeste, and the band of unlikely heroes who try to stop him: Rincewind , the most inept wizard in the world, Captain Carrot ,the perfect watchman, and Marvelo Da Vinci the worlds greatest genius.
This author is really inventive and I’ve never read any thing like his books. He also has many other books , the opera, feet of clay, thud, and soul music are just a few examples. Many of his books are just single book pieces but he has a few recurring characters. For example, Rincewind the cowardly inept wizard, is in around six books! moist von lipwig the con man is only in two. He also has many books about captain vimes, commander of the watch.
The watch is like the police in his books. Death is in every single book by him, and is one of my favourite characters. You can’t help liking him if you think of him as a individual rather then the final curtain. Another constantly recurring character is Vetinari, the patrician. He is an very interesting individual. Technically, he is the tyrant ruler of the largest city in terry Pratchett’s world -ankh-morpork. Really, up close he’s very mysterious. No one in any book seems to know much about him. The only insight into his true character is that he used to own a small wheezy dog named Wuffles. Even now that Wuffles is dead, vetinari visits his grave every day and leaves a doggy biscuit.
He also has a lot of inventive villains like, the opera ghost, evil Harry, the whole of the race of elves, and Mr. teatime. They’re all rather funny and excellent villains. Evil Harry is a 4 foot high senior barbarian who wears a 2 feet high hat decked with skulls and wings, the opera ghost is the roof jumping alter ego, of the crazy Mr. Williams, and Mr. teatime, is a assassins’ guild foundling who is, frankly, mad. Any way, those are my favourite characters from my favourite books. Another interesting feature that keep his books different is that he has in his books multiple races. He has vampires, werewolves, dwarves, humans, elves some times, and trolls. I hope this speech has shown you why I really enjoy reading terry Pratchett’s books. They’re inventive, funny, well written books, with plenty of lifelike characters.
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• Apr. 28, 2009 - Your Speech
Wy
I think it is really great that you are making a speech. I remember in grade seven doing one on Adolf Hitler and I started it with a Nazi salute and then began, This was the salute to an evil genius...
I got to be one of the finalists from our class to do it at a night with the parents attending. I even remember one other girl Louise did hers on Harriet Beecher Stow. It must have been an impactful event or I had a light load of interesting things...Not really it was a big event for me. Little did I realize at that time that this skill would earn me substantial money, greatly assist my career and give me so much pleasure in later years. I have used these skills over and over and I am sure you will too. You picked a topic that really interests you and that is important. It is hard to be enthusiastic and impactful if you don't. You have chosen your words thoughtfully and have a gift with a turn of phrase. You are logical and easy to follow in your story telling. The delivery I did not see but I know how important it is for people to hear clearly what a speaker has to say. For example I have had a great joke go flat because the croud missed my key words or I was not being loud enough. I am also sure that you would give a positive first impression as you are handsome and people get ready to listen to a smiling happy good looking sort. Your smile is infectious and would make them want to know what you know so would listen up . That smile and excitement will take you to a lot of great places. Congrats on showing the courage required to engage in public speaking. It is a skill you will be glad you hone and the better you get at it the more you are thinking in terms of effective anecdotes and watching speakers to borrow from their tool kit. Even when you detect illogical arguments in speakers which you do so well, you will be able to separate the message from the techniques.
Keep those speeches coming. How about the perfect summer and then we try to live it out this year??
Love Gramps