The objective of this speech is to use visual aids to complement your speech. I chose cartoon strips as the visual aid to support my speech. I talked about how it is okay to resort to humor and sarcasm to escape from the daily frustrations and be the other (not-so-perfect) me ! To illustrate this I chose 5 of my most favorite cartoon strips of all time.
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Here is the speech -
source: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php;http://xkcd.com/;www.dilbert.com/;
garfield.com/;www.gocomics.com/;calvinandhobbes/
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Here is the speech -
Right after finishing one of my table topics Emory remarked
that I am so full of optimism and positive thought in the way I present my
ideas/express my opinion. That remark got me thinking – That is the impression I
project? Hmm and an internal dialogue started – That’s just one side of being
me – I too am full of irritation, frustration, at some times anger too! How do
I combat these feelings? What happens to this other me? And then as I searched for the answer
something brought a smile to my face – humor.
Mark Twain’s quote to the rescue – Humor is a great thing,
the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations & resentments
slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
And when it comes to daily dose of humor or even laughing at
your own misery I take resort to some of my favorite comic strips. Fellow
Rhetoracles, through the medium of cartoon strips – animated characters, I am
going to reveal how I escape from my negative emotions or from the other not-so-perfect
me.
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Let me start with this graph from PHD comics – Piled Higher
and Deeper – is a web comic strip that depicts the life (or the lack of it!) of
grad students. I got addicted to during my grad school and found solace in it
while spending long hours, racking my brains, in my research cubicle. This one
pretty much sums up my commitment to exercise! Yes, to the world I appear to be
eating consciously, being aware of daily physical routine, but really the other
me completely agrees with what is depicted here!
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Work frustrations – no one can voice your feelings like
Dilbert does! Working in a large corporation has its pros and cons. The biggest
of the cons – inefficient middle management –Middle managers - how do you deal
with an incompetent boss – This strip is unbeatable – In computing and artificial
intelligence, the Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit
intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of an
actual human.
So every time I fume over a behavior issue with my manager –
I imagine myself telling him – Stop failing the Turing test repeatedly!!
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Sarcasm, a flavor of humor that I enjoy the most is rather
inappropriate a lot of times to apply socially! Unfortunately, it is difficult
to be sarcastic and politically correct at the same time. The bitter, stinging
sarcasm is left to be practiced only in a group of close friends who understand
and appreciate the art! For other situations, I try to do it the Garfield way (again
by visualizing and through internal dialogue) Look at this strip – although
Garfield is known for laziness, gluttony, his sarcasm is hard to miss!
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I always thought that once I finish working and earn enough
for travel I would be free to go around the world, pretty much do whatever
pleases my mind. But realized very soon into the job that you are so much tied
to your routine that your only escape is by traveling through the virtual world
– social media – Facebook, Twitter. But even that escape has turned into a
routine- like I know I am going to check my Facebook updates at breakfast, comment,
connect with friends on twitter as part of my afternoon break and so on. How
pathetic! Can’t think of a cure to this monotony L And yes this xkcd
strip is exactly what happens today.. I like to travel a lot and when I am
clicking a pic and it comes out well my husband says – oh wonderful it will
gets at least 50 likes on Facebook , I see a something beautiful and I exclaim
– I have to tweet about this! Life revolves around the social network. I can’t help but think how miserable I am!
The only way to end this misery is by joking about it!
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Finally, I’ve saved the best for the last one.
We all want to make the most of our life, live it efficiently
and emerge successful.
To hell with productivity apps, tips to stop procrastinating
and all that self-improvement stuff, time management seminars. Little Calvin
knows what essential skills one really needs to survive. It’s simply these 2 –
procrastinating and rationalizing.
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Who doesn’t crack up after looking at these graphic strips?
We often feel less bogged down if our miseries are shared by others. That’s exactly
what these comic strips do to me. They tell me its okay to not strive to be
perfect- it’s okay sometimes to take the path of least resistance – or at least
to be wishing for it! Once I have that assurance, my frustration doesn’t really
show up and the other me – the sunny side gains control again!
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source: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php;http://xkcd.com/;www.dilbert.com/;
garfield.com/;www.gocomics.com/;calvinandhobbes/
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