Old School'd
Our instructors had offered we wee students to provide career-specific briefings to the rest of the class when time permitted, so I thought the gang might enjoy a brief rundown on space operations. Unfortunately, time permitted on Friday, last thing before breaking for the weekend. So I knew most people wouldn't be listening to me if I was the last thing between them and the door.
Fortunately, the guy before me went long with his briefing, so the instructors asked me to wait until Monday for mine.
Back to UNfortunately, that Friday briefing was painfully unfunny, uninteresting, uncool, and, as I mentioned, longer than it should have been. Granted, it's hard to make NATO logistics sexy, but I half-wanted to brief Friday just to give the Seminar gang a better taste in their mouth for how their week ended.
"How long would your briefing had been?" a Navy Commander asked me in the stairwell later.
"Dunno. Never given it. But I had 64 slides."
"!" said his expression, since the logistics briefing only had 34.
"Well, I have lot of pictures that go by quickly."
"...okay..."
Back to FORtunately, over the weekend my Dad brought over the latest Air Force Magazine, which contained this year's Space Almanac, which allowed me to check my facts -- it's been nearly two years since I've given a full-blown Space 101 brief.
Monday. I was first on the docket, but the 1030 guest speaker had canceled, so the morning schedule was all dorked up. I realized twenty-five minutes into my talk that I was going to go long as well, but when I started hurrying, the instructor told me to go ahead and take my time. I finished after about forty-five minutes, wowing, entertaining, mesmerizing, debunking myths about space, showing cool infrared photos, sufficiently praising Milstar. Then the instructors had a few questions, one about WMD in space (not allowed, by treaty, but other weapons are not prohibited), another about the value of the International Space Station. Then Commander Miller posed one:
"What's your biggest budget crunch currently?"
"Well, my wife really wants to buy a hot tub..."
Fortunately, the guy before me went long with his briefing, so the instructors asked me to wait until Monday for mine.
Back to UNfortunately, that Friday briefing was painfully unfunny, uninteresting, uncool, and, as I mentioned, longer than it should have been. Granted, it's hard to make NATO logistics sexy, but I half-wanted to brief Friday just to give the Seminar gang a better taste in their mouth for how their week ended.
"How long would your briefing had been?" a Navy Commander asked me in the stairwell later.
"Dunno. Never given it. But I had 64 slides."
"!" said his expression, since the logistics briefing only had 34.
"Well, I have lot of pictures that go by quickly."
"...okay..."
Back to FORtunately, over the weekend my Dad brought over the latest Air Force Magazine, which contained this year's Space Almanac, which allowed me to check my facts -- it's been nearly two years since I've given a full-blown Space 101 brief.
Monday. I was first on the docket, but the 1030 guest speaker had canceled, so the morning schedule was all dorked up. I realized twenty-five minutes into my talk that I was going to go long as well, but when I started hurrying, the instructor told me to go ahead and take my time. I finished after about forty-five minutes, wowing, entertaining, mesmerizing, debunking myths about space, showing cool infrared photos, sufficiently praising Milstar. Then the instructors had a few questions, one about WMD in space (not allowed, by treaty, but other weapons are not prohibited), another about the value of the International Space Station. Then Commander Miller posed one:
"What's your biggest budget crunch currently?"
"Well, my wife really wants to buy a hot tub..."
posted by Dan at 10:35 PM
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