TED Talks Speech Tactics

Shubhendu Sharma: How to grow a tiny forest anywhere

      I opened up the TED website and the first thing I noticed was a video on the home page titled how to grow a tiny forest anywhere. I don't know about anybody else, but that title alone intrigued the hell out of me. The speaker on the issue did a very good job with his speech, he transitioned extremely well and he had a great start to the speech.
      One thing I noticed about his speech was his opening. He started out with back story, which seems to be the best way to go when it comes to explaining an idea. Sure you can sit in front of a crowd and talk about growing mini forests, but doing so doesn't tell the audience how the idea came about, or what qualifies you to run this project. A big negative of mine is how brief he was, I'd love to know more about this process, how it works, how this is going to change the world. I was left high and dry at the end with little knowledge other than that this guy can make a dense forest in a short amount of time.
     This speech was well presented, with great transition and flow, but when it came down to it lacked the substance I was yearning to hear after reading such an intriguing headline.

Isabel Allende: How to live passionately—no matter your age

      The second Ted talk I watched was also on the front page of TED, it was an older Latina woman talking about how she lives passionately at her old age. Although she didn't have a ton of material to talk about, her speech was so well presented that she held my attention. A trend I'm beginning to pick up on in any good speech is an attention grabber. The first sentence is the most important. She starts with a comical approach, whereas others may start with a question that leaves one with inquiries; the first sentence is always the most important.
      Transitions are everything. I'm a huge fan of her use of a quote as a transition to more points. In any form of presentation, quotes always seem to grab attention. Another good transitional technique for transitions is asking oneself a question then answering it with a more in depth explanation of the point one is trying to make.
      When presenting information the most important thing one can do is keep the audience's attention. For some topics this task may be easier than others, this reality is the difference between an easy and a hard speech. Whether the topic is basket weaving or cliff diving, the greatest public speakers can hold the attention of the audience throughout the duration of the presentation.

Scandal or Sex Crime?

      The first thing I noticed is how ironic this article is solely because of the fact that the writer, Scott Mendelson, is addressing the issue of sex crimes against women in his article, while in his head shot he has the expression of a guy that looks like he's about to rape somebody. That being said, after reading this article I can tell that this guy is far from a rapist.
      Within the past couple of days multiple celebrities phones were hacked and nude pictures of them were published. This wasn't in the article but it was referred to by many as "the fappening". Many of the news sources covered the story calling this a "scandal" rather than a crime. This must have pissed Scott (or his girlfriend) off, because he wrote quite a heated response to the organizations calling it a "scandal". His argument is that it wasn't a scandal but rather crimes against the women in which the women should not be shamed but rather consoled. He points out that it is their right to have nude pictures of themselves on their phone and not have to worry about them being stolen.
      Scott's argument holds a large amount of weight, but am I surprised about his point of view? Did he catch anybody off guard with this "off the wall" idea that it's not the women's fault that the pictures got out? The answer is no, journalists have been writing about this issue for years. Don't take me as a woman hater because I'm not, I agree with this belief just as much as any feminist out there. The main question for me is: is Scott giving himself credit for this philosophy? All one has to do is Google "sex crimes are never the woman's fault", and pages upon pages of articles will come up on the issue. The media publicizing about the issue isn't doing the victims any favors, because when you get the word out nationally about something like that, viewership is going to spread like a wildfire. Had the media simply left it alone and let the authorities take care of removing the pictures before "the fappening" became a national phenomena, the identities of these celebrities might be more intact then they are now. Even when the publicity is about how it's not their fault.
      I agree with Scott in that the women should not be held accountable in any way for this incident, but i disagree with where the blame lies. Two parties can be held accountable for the damaged reputations of the women: first, the actual criminal; and second, people like Scott Mendelson that publicize the issue; even if they're supposedly on the women's side. I'm just saying, if nudes of me ever get leaked, please don't let the world know about it, Scott.

Introduction of Myself

This post is an introduction of myself so what better to start it with than my name? My name is Mike Eilerman and I'm from the West Side of Cincinnati. If there's anything to know about Cincinnati that one won't find in a textbook it's that: West-siders and East-siders don't get along, it's the biggest small town you'll find in which everybody has a connection to everybody one way or another, and lastly, if someone asks what school you went to they're not interested in your college alma mater. 

When one thinks of places that care more about high school football more than anyone else in the country, Texas comes to mind, and maybe Florida, but I can guarantee Ohio is right up there with them. I played football at Elder High School, listed in USA Today as one of the top 10 places to watch a high school football game. We were given this title because in very few places will you find a 10,000 seat stadium sell out week in and week out. My experience playing football there played an integral role in shaping who I am today.

High School is over, as fun as it was, I'm entering the new chapter of my life at UK. I'm here because I grew up a UK fan, it has always been my number one choice. The song I chose for the icebreaker was "My Kinda Party" by Jason Aldean, which is seemingly the most meaningless in the class, but I suggest otherwise. Both senior year and college are no easy tasks to keep up with, one "works all week, cleaned up, clean cut, and clean shaved" (first lyrics in the song) and then one just wants to cut loose on the weekend, and that's what I did. Some of my most everlasting memories were made in 2014 during all of the shenanigans we pulled. But this song also holds a deeper meaning other than symbolizing all the fun I had.

I started playing the guitar in 2014, learning songs and getting better until I felt I was good enough to play live. The time comes when I finally get the guts to get up and play at a bar, and I closed with that song. Everybody loved it, so now it is bar none my favorite to play. It just has such a good vibe to it.

There's not much more about me to tell in an introduction essay. I like country music ie. my song selection. My goal is to just keep the streak going of getting all my stuff done and still being able to cut loose on the weekends.