Cell Phones, Pizza Grease, and a couple Strokes of the Pen

Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity.
-Opening line to 'Elantris'

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Monday morning, I had a 4-minute persuasive presentation for my technical communication class.  Not exactly the definition of a fun morning.  It was a tense wait; I was only the fifth person to present that day, but I still had almost half an hour of gut-wrenching, chair-gripping, nostril-widening waiting.

Finally, my turn to give a presentation arrived.  I think I blacked out during the presentation the guy before me gave, because I don't remember any of his presentation.  Come to think of it, I don't remember much of any of the presentations from that day.  Maybe I was in a zombie-like state.  Either way, I was up next, walking dead or not.  I shambl

ed up front, accessed the virtual drop-box, and managed to find my name in the list.  Opening up the PowerPoint slides, I checked the remote, smashing random buttons with decaying undead fingers until I found the ones that worked.  And then I waited more.

For those of you who have given many presentations before, there's nothing more awkward and silly than standing up front, slides ready to go, and waiting for the people in charge to give you the green light.  So I just stood there, grinning nervously at the people in the classroom, who were surprisingly willing to keep their eyes on my horrifying zombie form.  Then the professor looked up from his note-taking, and gave me... the nod.

And, at almost the same time, my cellphone started ringing.  Out loud.  Up front.  When I was about to be graded.  My slick zombie fingers almost dropped the phone as a sly grin edged its way onto my face.

"Yeah, this is a bad time, I'm about to make my presentation on..."

ILLEGALLY FORMATTED DATA, BACKTRACKING TO PREVIOUSLY CORRECTED DATA

The class was about to start, but I had a couple minutes.  Time enough to put the plan into action.  I leaned over to the student closest to me, three chairs to my left.

"Hey, do you think you could call my cell phone? Like, right as I'm ready to start presenting?"

DATA REFORMATTED, RETURNING  TO ORIGINAL POSITION

"...ringing cell phones! As you can see, cell phone ringtones are a major distraction..."

Bingo! The hook worked just as planned.  And just like that, I went from being a zombie back to a normal human being.  And I was eager, instead of lethargic.  Probably a little too eager: I went over the time limit, which earned me some docked points.  But it was still went really well: the hook was well-received, and it kept their attention from the start.  That was one of the more fun things I've done this quarter!

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One of the events I've been looking forward to took place tonight.  A bit of research, my trench coat, and a hefty book, and I was out the door toward the University Bookstore.  The Gathering Storm's big book tour was here at last.

While it wasn't too big or bombastic, there were plenty of people there for Brandon Sanderson's signing.  And quite a lot of random posters, bumper stickers, and other goodies to pick up.  I grabbed Elantris while I was there, the first paperback I've actually found.  Brandon was gracious enough to sign both my copy of The Gathering Storm and Elantris, so I came away happy.  Soaked from the rain, but happy.  Good thing that trench coat keeps the rain off.

Brandon Sanderson Book Signing

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