Saturday, February 25, 2006

Table of Contents

The following contains the links to all information found in this blog. The blog's address is: http://toastmasters-ph.blogspot.com/

I. Purpose of this Blog

II. Sample Speeches

III. Toastmasters Club

IV. Speech Project 1 : "The Ice Breaker"

V. Speech Project 2 : "Organize your Speech"

VI. Speech Project 3

VII. Speech Project 4

  • What I Did For Love by Gege Suge [Full Text ] [ Audio ]
  • Poker Faces and Then Some [Full Text][Audio]
  • My Speech Project No. 4: The Brain is our Universe [Full Text] [Audio]

VIII. Speech Project 5

IX. Speech Project 6 "Vocal Variety"

X. Speech Project 7 "Research Your Topic"

XI. Speech Project 8

XII. Speech Project 9

XIII. Speech Project 10

IX. Contests/Conferences

X. Evaluators

  • Butch Syyap Evaluation [Audio]

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Bringing the Philippines as Part of the Internet Evolution


Today is a very special day for me not only because I will be delivering my second speech project, this is also my 28th birthday! Well, I was so excited today to go to the MSE in Makati where we always hold our meeting. This meeting was also very special because this is a joint meeting between Butter N Toast and Silver & White Toastmasters Club, and the thought that the meeting was between two clubs, that made me more nervous especially now that I have just printed and finalized my speech. As I get out of the office so early, I proceeded to a nearby McDonalds to eat some Big Mac so I can have more power to deliver my supposedly “prepared speech” which will actually come out as half-impromptu speech. So, there you go, as I entered the venue is now quite like “Araneta Coliseum” because of the expanded room, I was so nervous that I don’t know what to do. I was wondering how I can be able to deliver my speech? Now, I’ve learned the technique of pretending to be higher than the people in the room, say, I supposed that I was the President or the secretary of the Department of Science and Technology who will deliver a very important technical speech entitled “Bringing the Philippines as part of the Evolution of the Internet”.

Here are my recordings for the proceedings:


Here is my supposedly prepared speech document but since I’m not allowed to read this, there are some parts in the speech proper where I actually paused and inserted sentences or actually deleted several ideas.


Bringing the Philippines as part of the evolution of the Internet
By Edwin D. Viñas
S&W Toastmasters Club
Speech Project #2 “Organize your Speech”
February 22, 2006

Filipinos are present-minded people… They barely think of the future. As I observed, what's important to most of the Filipinos are their present situation. If what they are doing are not giving them any happiness or not seeing the fruits of their labor in just a month or a year, they'll give up! What most Filipinos don’t realize is that, there are things that we do that may not have significance at present but will be of so much importance in the future just like the Internet which started as the simple interconnection of computers in 1977 to the now millions of computers interconnected forming the now so called information superhighway!

As a regular Internet user or someone who just checks email and chat with friends, have you ever asked what are the contributions of the Philippines in terms of Internet evolution? One way of finding out is to map the Global internet and see how large the Philippine Internet is. Did you know that the Philippine internet is just a dot when the Global internet is mapped? As you can see, the Philippine internet is being dwarfed by those networks in USA, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and other countries. [Show the map of the Global Internet and point the specific location of Philippine internet]

Could the small size of the Internet in the Philippines be attributed to our poor economy? Yes, the poor economic growth of the Internet can be attributed to coverage and growth of the country’s internet. The larger is the coverage of Internet in a country, the more prosperous is its economy. As for now, it's so sad to know that the Filipinos are just users of Internet. They're the ones who top the charts of not only SMS users but also the top users of Friendster, Yahoo messenger etc. It's good to know that we are top users of common internet applications, but have we developed any technology that we can claim our own in terms of Internet evolution? Have we developed technologies that contributed to the evolution of the Internet?




I tell you, the Internet was never built in one second, day, month, year or decade. It continues to evolve as the number users continue to grow, new applications continue to be developed and applied, and new technologies and users continue to make the Internet function as it designed to be, that is, to bring people together in one world despite of cultural and geographical diufferences. The Philippines, as of now, becomes just an end-user of the Internet and no noticeable contribution in Internet evolution. Not a single technolgy or product can be claimed by Filiponos as owned and developed by the Filipinos which created great impact in the global community. You know what, Philippines can be part of the Internet revolution by concentrating on three areas namely, network devices evolution, network technologies evolution, and software development evolution.In the area of Network Devices Evolution, Filipinos should focus on imagineering what lies ahead in terms computer and human hardware evolution. The Internet was once powered by expensive mainframes, then mini-computers, then microcomputers, then PDAs, mobile devices, embedded devices, and soon human networking?In the areas of Network Technologies, Filipinos should focus on developing new standards and technologies. The Internet was once developed as simple interconnection of computers using dialup technologies, then ISPs, then satellite, then wireless, then broadband DSL/cable, then virtual private networks (VPNs). All of which aims to develop technologies (protocols, communication medium, standards) that will enable high-speed applications to make every Internet user explore the Internet faster than the speed of light. What could be the future technology that will address bandwidth and cost so that ordinary citizens can be able to access the Internet as nearly as a free resource?Lastly, in terms of Software Applications, Filipinos should not be contented in using imported software applications. The internet is now being powered by thousands of software applications including network operating systems, which evolves from commercial to open source software application that interoperates with different technologies, applications and users. Also the development of small-sized operating systems for embedded systems continue to be the focus in bringing mobile and ubiquitous computing. Can Filipinos develop a software application that can be installed to human beings?

And so my fellow Toastmasters, let us therefore not focus on the current problems in politics in our country. Let us think of what we can do to contribute in bringing the Philippines as part of the Internet evolution. I just hope that Filipinos would someday realize how important it is to also think of totally using the Internet not just for emails and chatting but for developing new internet technologies. If only 85 millions Filipinos could be educated with how to maximize the potentials of the Internet, we could be bringing the Philippines into the forefront of Internet revolution.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Preparing for Speech#2 "Organize Your Speech"


I can't believe it! Just last week, I had tested my courage to start delivering my speech project number 1 (after almost six months of fear to speak in public). Truly, life is just a matter of taking your first step. Life is just a matter of taking risks. Now, I am already scheduled to deliver my second speech project about "organizing a speech". The first speech is about "ice breaker" where I talked about my personal background. Right now, I still have no title for my speech project. As I browse through the TMC Manual, I have learned that in any speech our goal is to give ideas and occassionally persuade the audience to take action. I already have some choices for the title, but still can't decide. In short, the hardest thing in coming up with the speech is selecting a topic and coming up with a good title.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

S&W TMC Meeting : February 08, 2006 : Speech Project 1 & Other Recordings


I was so excited and at the same time feeling nervous going to the MSE Bldg from Cybergate because I haven't memorized all my speech. But, overall, it turns out well since it's a big courage for me that I was able to start my very first speech for CTM! 9 more to go.... How did I prepare for the first speech? It's actually a 6 month-long process! It took me 4 months to have courage and finally deliver my speech and only 1 week of which was spent in actually writing the speech, the other days was spent on thinking, embracing fear, and wondering and seeing others do their speeches... and also maybe because of a very busy project at work. Basically, for the last week, I started with the topic for speech project 1 which is about myself. I have revised and revised the speech trimming a 5-page speech into a 2-page speech after 5 revisions. Blogging really helped me a lot as I store here my draft of my speech. I printed a cut-out-pages of my speech so I can take a look or read on some of the paragraphs where I might get lost during the speech (and I really did some lapses and pauses during the speech). Lessons learned "Use your heart in speaking... Get the feel of the audience... Organize well...

Below is my final speech project 1.
Click here to listen to the practice(at home-middle-of-the-night) recording.
Click here to listen to my live speech audio recording.
Click here to listen to my speech evaluation from a fellow Edwin.

Others audio speeches:
Chris - Speech Project 2 "Ponographic Charity"
Catherine - Speech Project X "Let's make a difference!"
Ramon - CTM Speech Project 10 "The Mind"
Master Evaluator Speech

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Edwin D. Vinas Speech Project 1:

"My Seven Goals and Wishes in Life"

My fellow Toastmasters, good evening! Four years ago, I have written in my diary seven goals and wishes in my life. In those seven simple wishes, I'm not actually dreaming to become a rich person someday, nor to be a handsome guy, nor be a real man, nor to be a well-known person, all I humbly ask are seven simple dreams that touches my heart -- seven goals and wishes that I really felt the only things that could make my life worthy. Those seven goals and wishes are; first, to be able to graduate successfully; second, to be able to find a good job; third, to be able to help my family; fourth, to be able to develop a new system of education; fifth, to be able to develop new technologies; sixth, to be able to publish books; and seventh, to be able to clarify and understand the mystery of the world. I'm sure, you wouldn't be able to understand what those seven goals and wishes mean to me if you don't know my life's story... I am a person who came from a place with no electricity, no jeepneys, no television and no money. But with all the achievements in my life right now, I can't help but smile when I can still imagine myself as a boy coming from the remotest mountainous barangay in our province. To give you a hint where that place is, from Manila you can ride a bus for 13 hours going south until you reach the end of Luzon island, then, ride a jeepney for 2 hours going to the town, and then, ride a jeepney again 2 hours going to the barangay and finally, walk 2 kilometers to reach my birth place—a place ruled by nature—fruit trees, rivers, virgin forests and very nice landscapes but with houses separated by several kilometers from each other… this is the kind of place where I first saw this world. My family's life seemed so miserable during those elementary days. Everyday, I used to walk two kilometers from home to school with my "baon" wrapped in a banana leaf. For six years, I’ve walked a thousand miles with my thin slippers stepping on rough rocky roads. The poor type of living with a family which doesn't have enough income, and a country which during that time is under several economic and political crises has greatly affected my life even at young age. Quest for knowledge was my only life during my high school days. Science books flavored with different sources of knowledge & wisdom have been my only source of inspiration during those days. I want to show all the people that eventhough I came from an ordinary family, I can really make a difference! I know that my family could not send me to college. But I did not bother myself first of where to study in college... I just did my best in everything in every second of the day no matter what. I just let my faith in God find a way. To tell you the truth, God really knows where I am going. I can always feel his love and guidance amidst insurmountable challenges in my life. During my elementary and high school days, my life revolves in praying, wishing, studying, going to church and avoiding things that would hinder my dreams. Dreaming and wishing are the two powerful batteries that powered me to move on with my life especially in high school. A month after my graduation as a Valedictorian, I was already desperate that my only choice to continue with my studies is to enter the seminary. But I can't imagine myself as a priest! So I prayed "Lord, kung ano po ang gusto nyo para sakin para mas makatulong sa pamilya ko, kayo na po ang bahala sakin." That was my only prayer to God as I continuously think of any way that I can go to college. And as always, God really never let me down. After a month, I received an application form from the Department of Science and Technology for a scholarship in Manila. Luckily, I passed the exam granting me a five-year full-time engineering scholarship. I was overwhelmed by the opportunity I got! So my mother and I immediately went to Manila. I was so excited that I will be the only person in our family to take up college and not to boast of, I will be the "only" person in our family’s generation to take up Engineering. “Yes, l will be the first engineer in our generation!”, I said to myself. So we went to the Department of Science and Technology to sign-up the scholarship contract. You know what, we even went to one of my dream schools to inquire but my mother almost got a heart attack by the very high tuition fee that time. As I learned to accept the fact that I can only study in a state university, I have refrained from dreaming for a famous school. I just thought that the name of the school is not very important as long as you study very well. During this stage of my education, I've learned so many things that powered me to strive further in my studies. With three of my goals and wishes have been fulfilled as of now, I can’t help but thank the Lord for giving me the necessary knowledge, wisdom and strength to overcome all hardships and difficulties. I just want to share to you that "if you want to be successful in life, you must have the art of perseverance, the power of dreaming and the science of praying." At this point, I have come to realize that perseverance, dreaming and praying are the most important tools that any person can have to be able attain success! If you have a desire to achieve a specific goal, you should always bear it in mind. As in my case, I even say silent prayers to trees, to the moon, to the stars, to unseen things hoping they can hear me and spell a magic wand to make my dreams come true. “I once wished I can be a valedictorian”, and I did become a valedictorian. “I once wished I can be a teacher”, and I did become more than that as I became the only engineer in our family. “I once wished I can be a Cum Laude”, and I did become a cum laude. “I once wished I can travel to other countries”, and I did cross the Pacific and stepped into the Japanese, Thai, and American soils.

How about you, do you also have your goals and wishes in life?

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