aridhol's Journal: Presentations

I had to do a presentation in Comm Skills today. We had to take an object and describe it in a technical paper, then give a presentation on it. Examples given were screwdrivers, hammers, toothbrushes, etc. I thought I'd feel like an idiot standing in front of a class of techs and describing their everyday tools, so I decided to do something different.

I stood up in front of the class today to describe a shinai (kendo sword). I figured it had a few advantages:

• I've taken one apart and re-assembled it twice a week for the last year and a half. I know it inside and out.
• Because it's user-maintainable, it's easy to find diagrams on the 'net that label the parts the way the prof wants them.
• Because nobody else in my class has seen one, they don't know when I'm making shit up.
• And, as I said before, I'd feel like an idiot telling them about something I know they already know. Here I got to tell them something new.

I got a Bravo Zulu from the class (that's a good thing). They were impressed that I had something they hadn't seen, and I was asked where they can get started :) Unfortunately, there's no kendo school in Newfoundland, so they'll have to wait until they're posted to their base in two years :(

some kind of warriors

[bouncingbean]

I'm always surprised of the fighting men and women who know nothing of the history of warfare and it's implements. Granted a shinai is a fairly obscure term (ok it's the japanese name for a practice sword), however if anyone has done any studying of japanese warfare or have heard of kendo they would know what it was when they saw it. I would expect most of the soldiers to have taken some sort of self defence class, read a book (even a comic) about fighting, watch a freaking historical movie, or something