Two Minutes of Terror

My presentation is tomorrow and I am more than a little nervous. I know that there's no sense to being frightened, because I have to do it, frightened or not, and it's only a two minute piece, but this fear does not back down in the face of cold logic. It's weird -- and if I weren't in said state I'd find it fascinating -- because in general I'm not frightened by things, but the idea of public performance fills me with a cold, dark terror.

I've come up with a bit of blather about an aspect of technology -- I chose The Gimp as it's something about which I know at least a little -- and after some practice I've got it to fit into two minutes with a little wiggle room if I need it. It starts with a joke -- oh dear -- and ends with some blatant tubthumping for the open source movement, and with any luck I will never be asked to speak in public again.

It's only two minutes; what a sissy I am.

Not Brian Cox

It has been a weird few days. I was told something earlier in the week that has shaken me up more than a little; it's not a bad thing -- far from it, in fact -- but it's given me a lot to think about. I'm being coy, but I'll talk about it more when I know more.

With most of the art and graphics done for Horror Among Thieves, I've been working on the text, something that I've been putting off as I was much less confident about the quality of my writing. It's all coming together quite well but what I've realised is that the final product isn't going to be quite what I want it to be; that might seem negative, but I see it in a more positive light. Through the production of the book, I've thought of better ways to do things and so while I think -- or hope -- that Horror Among Thieves will be good, I believe that whatever I do afterwards will be even better. As of right now, I'm aiming to have the art and the first draft of the text to Lamentations of the Flame Princess HQ by the end of February; before then if I can manage it.

As well as getting Horror Among Thieves finished, February will also see me doing the thing that I perhaps fear the most: public speaking. My boss turned on the charm today and convinced me to take part in an upcoming training day by giving a presentation on Technology; the agenda for the day spells it with a capital letter for no good reason at all. I wasn't keen at first but then I thought that I know enough stuff that I could at least prevaricate for the required two minutes, and it would be a small audience made up of people I know, so it wouldn't be too bad.

It turns out that I'm going to be talking in front of pretty much everyone at my place of work, and it's going to be recorded and streamed live to other colleges across Sussex. "Abject terror" would not be an understatement.

I wonder if I can just put this on and sit down for six minutes?