Today was  the obtuse “word of the day.”  In true Emperor fashion, two words – not just one – were chosen by Sir Albert: masticate and felcherize.  With a theme of “Thanksgiving,” words like “thanks” “turkey” or even “pilgrim” would really nicely roll off the tongue.  Before you report this site as NSFW (Not Safe For Work), let me assure you that these words are very much on the up and up.  Albert showed us all an interesting phenomenon – if you want people to use your word, make it memorable (especially if for all the wrong reasons)!

Erin was Table Topics Master and she let Carol, Robert and Becky duke it out for the ribbon.  It wasn’t much of a fight, though, Robert flubbed, Carol danced and Becky sashayed to victory.  Carol, like everyone knows, is a good dancer, it’s just that when the dance looks like the “aggie chicken dance” there is no way to score a perfect 10.

Louis, John U., and Leif did a triple-tag-team-speech, of the Team Technical Presentation variety.  Louis started off by asking for a volunteer.  Ever the brave Erin, volunteered to start off the pre-Turkey-day-New-Year’s-resolution-making.  (Here’s a tip, Erin, next time be more careful when Louis needs a volunteer, he’s a sly one – I seem to recall him beating up on one of his volunteers [Brian] some time ago).

John led us in a visualization of dealing with a goal that we are procrastinating about.  The process was to envision the goal having just happened, you’re in the euphoria of the victory of the moment, and then work your way back at several points along the path to have gotten there, to envision what it felt like each step of the way.

Leif used Process Oriented Language to demonstrate his point of how to get a diverse group of people into the same boat, by speaking in general terms and allowing the listener to imagine the specifics.  He described strategic usage of pauses to allow the person time to fill in the details on one’s own.  The evaluation of Leif’s contribution emphasized how he usually paints in color, but for the purposes of this speech, painted in black and white.  A very apt description.  Leif uses his whole being in delivering his message with great precision and full effect.

Louis wrapped it up with talking about what maps are: context and comparison.  When envisioning what it takes to get from the present context to a future context, you must know what you want, and place that in the future context.

Since Robbie wasn’t here this week, I’ll use a baseball analogy: Corky knocked it out of the ballpark with his triple whammy!

Ribbon Winners

  • Best Table Topic – Becky
  • Best Speaker – Leif
  • Best Evaluator – Corky
  • Best Humor – Corky
  • Most Enthusiastic – Corky