August South Main Monthly

South Main Monthly Vol. 2 No. 2

South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609

August 2007

The mission of the Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.

IN THIS ISSUE: *President's Corner *Anniversaries and Milestones Weilie Pan, Lu Yao Brian Zhang, Gary Chen Annie M. Ballatore John Davis Reynolds Jr. (JR) *Calendar of Events Aug 5: Education Session with Michael Plaks Aug 19: Humorous and Table Topics Contests *New Member Spotlight Xiao Yang Eda Morita Mark Desouza *Features “July’s Special Educational Speaker: Yolanda Bynum” by Vivian Li, CC “My Favorite Stand-up Comedians” by Ranjith Poduval “Life Cannot Be without Computers" by Jane Shen

The South Main Monthly is a monthly publication of the South Main Speakers Toastmasters club. We meet every Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in 10305 South Main Street (Houston Chinese Church), Room 411. For more information, please visit our website at: http://groups.msn.com/southmainspeakers If you have any comments, contributions, or suggestions concerning this or future issues, please send them to [email protected]. Thank you for reading! -Judy Yan & Vivian Li, Editors

President’s Corner Time to Compete Again! By Vivek Rajan The Fall 2007 Humorous and Table Topics contests are coming up this month and it's time to compete again! Our club will hold the club contest on the 19th of August, and the winners will represent our club at the area level. Remember that Toastmaster contests are not about winning; they are about improvement. If you are new to competing in humorous speech contests, don't worry about how to make people laugh. Our diligent VP of Education, Vivian Li, has organized two educational sessions by veteran humorous speakers -Yolanda Bynum and Michael Plaks. (Video of Yolanda's session: http://www.atmajnana.org/SouthMainSpeakers/Videos/July152007/.) Michael's educational session, "Humorous contest is SERIOUS business", is going to be held on August 5th. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the 1st place district winner in the 2004 Humorous Speech Contest. The videos of this session will also be made available online. In addition to honing your humor skills, you can also hone your impromptu speaking skills by competing in the Table Topics contest. You can even use your contest speech towards your educational goals. To get this credit just tailor your speech to the objectives of the speech project. "Your body speaks" and "Vocal variety" projects from the Competent Communicator manual are ideal projects for the humorous speech contest. Say yes to the speech contests! Compete and take you speaking skills to the next level!

Anniversaries & Milestones 

August

Congratulations to Weilie Pan, who celebrates her fifth year anniversary with South Main Speakers this month! **********

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Congratulations to Lu Yao, Brian Zhang, and Gary Chen, who celebrate their first year anniversary with South Main Speakers this month! **********

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Congratulations to Annie Ballatore, ACB & CL, for winning the Distinguished Club President award! **********

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Congratulations to JR (John Davis Reynolds Jr.) on his promotion from US Army Captain to US Army Major effective June 17th and his appointment as Area Governor for area 7 in District 77 (Northeast Central Alabama).

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August 5: Special Education Session Michael Plaks, 1st place winner in the 2004 Humorous Speech Contest at the district level, will speak from his numerous experiences on how to best prepare for the humorous speech contest, and show videos of past contests to help familiarize contest hopefuls with humorous speeches and the contest format. This is a must-not-miss opportunity, especially if you plan to compete. And even if you don't plan to compete, come for the great laughter and merriment!

August 19: Humorous and Table Topics contests The Fall 2007 Humorous and Table Topics contests are coming up this month. Our club will hold the club contest on the 19th of August, and the winners will represent our club at the area level. For more information on the contests, you can visit: http://www.toastofchicago.org/hsrules.htm http://www.toastofchicago.org/ttrules.htm

New Member Spotlight South Main Speakers has been experiencing fast growth this year. This month we had 3 new members joined our club! Please give a warm welcome to our newest members, Xiao Yang, Eda Morita, and Mark Desouza!

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South Main Speaker’s July Special Educational Speaker:

Yolanda Bynum

To help us gear up for the club’s Humorous Speech Contest, Yolanda Bynum, this year’s 3rd place winner at the regional International Speech Contest, gave an educational session: “Laugh and the world will laugh with you, cry...and they still may laugh: How humor can work to your advantage in any situation."

Sam getting some face time with Yolanda

It inspired many members to start thinking of the speech contests and they were able to get advice directly from this star veteran speaker in a wonderful reception afterwards. Many thanks Yolanda!

Vivek timing a staring contest between the Russian (Michael) and the French (Annie)

Ranjith starstruck in Yolanda’s presence

Yolanda sharing her words of wisdom with Jian, Gary, and Renay

Please come again!

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We're here, we are everywhere. We're honking our horns to serve you better……”

My Favorite Stand-up Comedians by Ranjith Poduval Stand-up comedy is the art of presenting jokes, humorous stories, and one-liners in front of a live audience. It is usually done by a single comedian and often involves props in their acts. I have loved to watch stand-up comedy for a long time. Stand-up comedy is something you can enjoy whenever you have time. The art of stand-up has evolved and perfected over time. It encourages one to look at life on a lighter note. Each comedian has his unique style of delivery and range of topics that they like to talk about. So there is a wide variety of performers out there for a wide variety of audience. Jerry Seinfeld is probably the first stand-up comedian I have seen. His bit encourages you to take interest in the whole art of standup comedy. Jerry usually talks about the little idiosyncrasies in relationships and the basic philosophies of men and women. He would say things like: "Men, I mean, men are with women. You see men with women. How are men getting women? Many people wonder. Let me tell you a little bit about our organization. Wherever women are, we have a man working on the situation right now. Now, he may not be our best man, OK, we have a lot of areas to cover, but someone from our staff is on the scene. That's why, I think, men get frustrated, when we see women reading articles like: "Where to meet men?".

George Carlin is another stand-up comedian that one shouldn’t miss. He is probably one of the shrewdest and most incisive comedians to walk on stage. His selection of topics ranges from the weird use of the English language, cunning interpretations of everyday events, to deep philosophies, the bits he does more and more of now. His style of delivery is mostly outspoken, brash and in your face. Some of his favorite bits can have you in splits: "Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday." "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." "I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed." For those who have watched Lewis Black, they would have seen a style much more different from the subtleness of Seinfeld and brusqueness of Carlin. Lewis Black usually does his bits showing anger and frustration, and the audience loves it since his anger is directed at general policies of government and pointing out what is wrong in society. Some of his most famous excerpts: "In my lifetime, we've gone from Eisenhower to George W. Bush. We've gone from John F. Kennedy to Al Gore. If this is evolution, I believe that in twelve years, we'll be voting for plants." "The Republicans are the party of bad ideas. The Democrats are the party of no ideas." One more stand-up comedian of the present era one should never miss is Chris Rock. His comedy is more of a mixture of current news, racial issues, and men women relationships. The style of delivery is loud and he uses a lot of pause as well as strong facial

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expressions. As soon as the jokes reach the audience, the enactment captivates them. Some of his most famous bits: "A man is only as faithful as his options." "I live in a neighborhood so bad that you can get shot while getting shot......" In the world of today, where life is fast paced and we live in turmoil of events socially and politically, stand-up comedy comes as a breath of fresh air. It gives a new perspective to life that it is not meant to be taken seriously, but lightly with a pinch of humor. Amen.

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Life Cannot Be without Computers by Jane Shen I was so interested in the theme of this Sunday’s meeting, “Pondering Life Without Computers.” Similarly, it raised again the question debated for a long time: does the computer bring more positive or negative impact to people? Like almost anything else, the computer has its good and bad sides. Today, most computers are used for the Internet. Some parents, educators, psychologists, and crime experts are worried that computer’s influence has been extremely harmful to the young, since the young spend too much time on playing electronic games on computers or surfing online to catch violent scenes in videos.

But for me, the computer is a valuable and important tool. I cannot live without computers. I have to use computers to do my homework and search for some useful information or answers to my homework. In addition, it opens windows toward the world in my life. I like to look through news on websites every morning so that I know what happened at local places or elsewhere. It not only delivers the news instantly, it also shows it in pictures or video on the screen. Also, a computer brings me a lot of fun. In my spare time, I can watch movies, listen to music, or chat with my friends on computers. Moreover, our modern societies can not develop further without computers. The applications of computers are penetrated in all kind of fields: industry, education, agriculture, economy, etc. If you cannot imagine the consequence of breaking down all computers in crucial fields, you should see the horrible scene described in the movie, Live Free or Die Hard, where the government is in a state of chaos when most computers of the government are intruded and infected with viruses. It is certain that computers have deeply changed our lives and our society. It is also certain that, along with its benefits, it has many serious problems. To these problems we must soon find a solution because, whether you like it or not, the computer is here to stay. So we should take good advantage of it to make our lives better.

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