Weds June 20th: An "Illuminati-ng Toastmaster Meeting"
In attendance:
Rob Cardinal: Toastmaster Simon Jackson: Speaker #1; Mahdia Ibrahim Grammarian and Ah Counter; Darlene Davies, DTM: Timer; Val Erickson, ACG, ALB: TT Master; Rosario Talavera, DTM: TT Evaluator; Julie Wright, David Zhao, CC: Speech Evaluator #1; Kim Beckett: General Evaluator; Chris Hecker CL, Kyle Wilson CC, CL, Helen Eng, Lora Johnston, Geetha Nicodemus, DTM; Josefina Perez, Jodi David, Jean Francois Amiot
GUESTS: Janet (who has now joined us), Vince
Word of the day: (Phrase) Where were you 10 years ago?
Today we celebrated a historic, monumental, stupendous, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious event.
Yes...CTI Techtalkers turned 10.
In case you missed the magnitude of what this means, let me enlighten you. Here's what normally happens in Calgary:
Day 1: Someone proposes idea.
Day 2: Nobody shows up
Day 3-538: People promise to show up but don't
Day 539: Proposer of idea moves back to Ontario.
Or:
Day 1: Structure/Building/Group is created.
Day 1000: Maintenance is needed. Committee votes to disband/ tear down structure and build something new.
As far as I can tell this means the oldest things in Calgary are now: 1) Fort Calgary, 2) CTI Techtalkers
See...we are awesome!
In the spirit of our awesomeness, Toastmaster Rob asked us to share where we all were 10 years ago. A summary of some of these included:
Rob - starting to build asteroid tracking software (as opposed to me, I was busy playing Asteroids on the Atari 2600); Mahdia (aged 14) plotting escape from Sudan in order to become an Astronaut (is anyone getting a space theme today... CTI Techtalkers "We've got the Right Stuff"); Darlene was an Area Governor for Toastmasters and started CTI Techtalkers along with Rosario (who was busy proving she could pass her Oral for her Masters degree in World Peace).
Chris Hecker, Kim Beckett, Val Erickson and David Zhao were busy destroying the death star in a galaxy far far away. No seriously...have you ever seen Princess Leia and Val in the same room?
Jean Francois was in Montreal, being so very very French. Almost as French as Simon, who was living there renovating a house.
And Lora was getting drunk. At least if "partying a lot" means the same thing in Canada as it does in England.
In her defense she was just N-n-n-n-n-Nineteen.
After that we had some topics ala table, in which we got to play with Val's ball.(Add your own comments to that, my mind overloaded).
Our winner, was Kim Beckett, with a poignant tale of how she learned to stop worrying and love the bomb, sorry, how she and her daughter enjoyed a wonderful trip to Hawaii together and formed a great Adult relationship.
Kim's victory reflected her connection to the audience, the emotional depth displayed, and the raw passion she kept just beneath the surface. Well done Kim!
And finally, Simon told a tale about Freemasonry for his 4th speech. Describing its practices and methods, and potentially dispelling several myths in the process. In a stunning tour de force, he completed his speech without using a single bit of humour or comedy, thus baffling all of the club with this extreme deviation of form.
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| Simon clarifies that the sale of Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings was not a secret Illuminati plot |
Evaluator David appreciated the simplistic sentences, and clear and concise vocab, describing it as "the first time I've completely understood everything you've said" (I'll let my family know David, they've yet to reach that epiphany).
All in all another splendid meeting...here's to another 10 years!
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