JAY CRIS FAMOSO, CC, ALB

Speech Number	Speech Title	Date Delivered	Evaluator
1	Leaps and Bounds	June 23, 2007	DTM Greg Vallejera
2	Brain Drain:An Inconvenient Truth	July 09, 2007	ATM – S Juliana Tan
3	Life’s Instructions From a Marathon Race	Sept 01, 2007	DTM Greg Vallejera
4	Outside the Portals of College	Nov 27, 2007	TM Mhelliton Sillador
5	Frustrations	March 01, 2008	ATM Maricel Locsin
6	Coffee Break	March 08, 2008	DTM Ro Leonora
7	Melamine in Focus	Oct 04, 2008	ATM – S Juliana Tan
8	Ascending to Greatness	Nov 29, 2008	CTM Ester Solidad
9	A Toast and A Smile	Dec 05, 2008	DTM Greg Vallejera
10	Dare to Fail	Feb 27, 2009	DTM Ro Leonora

Highlights:

1. It took me 1 year and 8 months to finish the Competent Communicator Norm.
2. My longest hiatus in delivering a speech is 7 months, that is from speech number 6 to 7.
3. The shortest is one week, Speech number 5 to 6. The reason to hurry is that I wanted to qualify in my first contest in toastmasters. It indeed bore fruit. I was Area 33 Champion in the Speech to Evaluate contest among 8 toastmasters.
4. Among my 10 Evaluators, only one came from my club. One was from First Farmers. Eight were from Barangay TMC. That says a lot. Hehehe.



5. DTM Greg Vallejera held the highest number of evaluations. Three times and that says a lot too.

DARE TO FAIL

There is nothing wrong with my title. It’s no typographical error. Dare to fail! I am articulating! But, this is not to prove my being a non-conformist.

Who wants to fail? Nobody! Who wants to succeed? You’d say, that is a dim-witted question. I am talking of a general perception. In debate, it’s a non-issue. There’s nothing to debate. It’s being truistic that over the time, the notion becomes nonsensical and trivial.

It took me sometime to gather my strength and have the nerve to deliver this 10th speech. To think, I should have hurried so that after, I would become Competent Communicator. Hmmm! That’s quite a big deal! I know it’s being arrogant! But no. I realized that it’s not getting the title that’s of paramount importance, it’s deserving the title. In the same manner, I remember a very striking quote that I read now carved in the recesses of my mind, “It should be the work that should validate the PhD and not the PhD that should validate the work.

We grew up with an indefatigable idea that success is all too nice a thing and that failure is a scrap. The mere thought of failing makes us anxious, pathetic, or even ailing. In our society, the measure of one person is how successful he can be. That way you can etch your name and your story in history books. That has become the standard or the norm they call it.

Growing up, I mean, being a grown-up, I did realize I should not in any way shun away from failure. It is not taboo to talk about failing. Contrary to normal perception, achievers actually fail more times than non-achievers simply because they try more times than non-achievers. One thing that we should realize is that every success story is only one side of the coin. The other side is what we call, failing! Consider the following real stories.

Woody Allen – Academy Award-winning writer, producer and director flunked motion picture production at New York University and the City College of New York. He also failed English at New York University. When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2,000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, “I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process. General Douglas MacArthur might never have gained power and fame without persistence. When he applied for admission to West Point, he was turned down, not once but twice. But he tried a third time, was accepted and marched into the history books.

According to Dr. Robert Schuller, “Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure. It just means you haven’t succeeded yet. Failure does not mean you have accomplished nothing. It does mean you have learned something. Failure doesn’t mean you’ve been a fool to try. It means you were brave, you had nerve, you had courage; be proud of your self. Failure does not mean you’ll never make it. It does mean it will take longer. Failure does not mean you’re finished. It does mean you have a chance to start all over again, try something new. Failure doesn’t mean God has abandoned you. It does mean He has a better idea. So it is true, failure is never final.

Yes. Failure is never final. When we try and fail. There’s no stopping us from trying again. It is when we fail that we learn and we learn best when we learn the hard way. It is when we are pressed hard, pressed to our limits, pressed beyond our comprehension that we realize our worth as an individual.

Kites. I never thought that my leisure activity as a child teaches a lesson. My fond of flying kites in the sweltering heat during windy days can be thought-provoking in a way. The kite must fly and soar up high. The higher it stays in the sky, the more amazing and thrilling it is. Not to mention how envious my playmates could get! Now, here’s the lesson. How does a kite soar higher and higher? It is by going against the wind. The stronger the wind blows, the higher the kite soars. When a strong wind comes in our life, it is when we develop that firmness of strength and character in us.

Trees. They are simple living things that because of their ubiquity and familiarity, we don’t care much about them. But wait. Trees just like kites teach us a lesson. The lesson lies in the question, which tree is the strongest. The strongest tree is the tree that is hampered by the strongest wind. The strongest tree is the tree that has survived innumerable storms. Because every storm that it survived, is a root grown deeper into the ground.

Diamonds. We all know them. They are symbols of beauty. Charcoal. Yes, charcoal are those black matter we use in cooking when the LPG runs out. Diamonds and charcoal. Unbelievable it may be but they are actually the same in terms of what it’s made up of. I am not in any way bluffing. Both diamonds and charcoal are made up of Carbon. But why is it that diamonds have luster and sparkling while charcoal are flat and unexciting? It’s the extreme heat that makes charcoal turn into endearing diamonds. Yes, it’s the extremely hot environment that transformed these flat, unexciting charcoals into beautiful and precious gem we recognize as diamonds. So when you felt like giving up because life seemed to be so hard, put up a good fight and come out shining like diamonds. They are forever.

I would have opted to stay being a toastmaster. It’s too risky to become Competent Communicator. The pressure to be brazen. The pressure to be superb. The pressure to be at par with iconic toastmasters.

But life is too short to be always on the safer side of the battlefield. Time and again, I should take risks and dare to fail. Just like the kite, I must go against stagnation for growth as a public speaker. Like the tree, I must be faced with every speech project there is to make my foundation as a toastmaster grow deeper and stronger. And like the charcoal, I must be exposed in red-hot-glowing-fire-incessant-evaluations that I will come out polished and shimmering in the pinnacle of every toastmaster’s journey, like Greg Vallejera, a DISTINGUISHED TOASTMASTER!

A Toast and A Smile

Cheers! A celebration is about to unfold! Let’s have a toast and a smile!

We are a unique people. We stand out from the rest of the world. Hmmmm! But don’t think of our being one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Or our being great imitators. Or our undying patronage to international brands that this speech is all about. The uniqueness that sets us apart from the rest of the world is the way we value celebrations that involves the family. Take for example, town fiesta, birthday, death anniversary, wedding anniversary, Christmas, New Year and the list could go on. These are “tatak Pinoy”. These are marks of being Filipinos.

Filipino celebration means extravagance! All kinds and all sorts! The best home decors, the best kitchen utensils, the best food, and the best Beer – the San Miguel Beer. It will not be complete without it! It makes conversations longer, spontaneous, and natural. Remember the saying that “Drunken words are spoken by sober hearts”.

What exactly is beer? Beer is an alcoholic beverage with a distinct bitterness, aroma, and foam. Its main ingredients are malt from the barley plant, hops which provides the bitter taste, and water. An average beer contains zero cholesterol, zero fat, 13 g of carbohydrate, 25 mg of sodium, protein, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins B2 and B6, and alcohol.

Did you know that it is now a proven fact that beer can provide the same health benefits as wine? Studies show that drinking beer in moderation can and will reduce your chances of stroke, as well as heart and vascular disease.

Proof # 1. In November of 1999, the New England Journal of Medicine stated that light to moderate beer drinkers would decrease their chances of suffering a stroke by 20%.

Proof # 2. In May 1999, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas reported that consuming moderate amounts of beer would lower one’s chances of coronary heart disease by 30-40%, compared to those who don’t drink at all. This is because of the fact that beer contains a similar amount of antioxidants as red wine and 4-5 times as many as white wine.

Proof # 3. Alcohol has been attributed to increasing the amount of good cholesterol (HDL) in the bloodstream, as well as helping decrease blood clots.

Proof # 4. Beer provides a 30% increase in vitamin B6 into the blood plasma – something that neither wine nor any other liquor can do. Vitamin B6 prevents heart disease.

Proof # 5. Beer is both fat-free and cholesterol free, something that suits really for the health and diet conscious!

The only problem nowadays is the fact the people seems to abuse everything. They drink more than they should, and sobriety becomes a discarded word. The dictum “too much of something is bad enough” still works. Being responsible is always the key to having fun with friends and enjoying a nice cold glass of San Miguel beer.

Let’s have a toast and a smile. A toast for a celebration of life-long family ties that makes us unique and a smile for a healthier you. Cheers!

MELAMINE IN FOCUS

When the feisty senator Miriam Defensor Santiago blurted out in the senate inquiry about the anomalous ZTE deal, that corruption is traceable to Chinese civilization, many raised questions on the verity of her statement. Now after 53,000 Chinese children are ill, over 12, 800 are hospitalized, and four infants died, who dares to challenge Miriam. I dare not! All these evidence are pointing to her statement. Indeed, Mhelliton Sillador Jr,, in his winning prepared international speech, was right in his disposition and I quote, “Blame it to China”.

When the breaking news came out about the menace brought by Melamine present in milk, itt did not instantly panic me. Not because I am a coffee addict but because I understated the atrocity it could get. Then I realized that milk is as ubiquitous as the billboards of Angel Locsin and Piolo Pascual. Cookies, candies, crackers, cereals, chocolates, and a lot more milk-derived food products could also be tainted with melamine. You see how unscrupulous these food companies from China are.

Going into the meat of the matter, we should know the basic facts about this urgent health concern. What is melamine? Where is it used? Why is it abused? What are the dangers of these chemical when ingested? And what are the symptoms of melamine poisoning?

On the first and second question, Melamine is a cheap, industrial substance which consists of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. This is not a food-grade chemical. I reiterate, this is not a food-grade chemical. It is prized for its durability and is used to produce a wide range of brightly colored dishware, bowls, containers, utensils, and coating for wood and textiles.

Why is it abused? Since melamine contains plenty of nitrogen atoms it shows up as a protein. Example of a protein molecule is the white part of the egg. The effect is that these will falsely bolster protein level in these food products. In other words, these manufacturers can use melamine to make their products appear more nutritious.

Melamine is not toxic, but inside the body it can cause formation of stones in the kidney which can eventually lead to kidney failure and death. You might ask why is it that the majority of victims are infants or children? The answer is that the infants have still premature kidneys which are very susceptible to the damaging effects of foreign material. If one is poisoned of melamine the symptoms are irritability, little or no urine, high blood pressure, blood in urine, and signs of kidney infection.

In 2007, pet foods containing melamine was shipped from Chinese manufacturers to pet food companies in the US and elsewhere. After a Canadian pet food company announced this, the US Food and Drug Administration fielded thousands of similar complaints across the US.

Last month, September 2008, under pressure form the New Zealand government, which had received complaints that a Chinese manufacturer was ignoring reports that its baby formula was sickening infants, China made an investigation. By September 22, nearly 53, 000 Chinese children were ill, over 12, 800 were hospitalized, and four infants died caused by kidney stones and other renal failure. In that same date BFAD temporarily stopped importing milk products from China.

In this current time when everyone joins the rat race, it still pays very much to be very vigilant! Our health is always our greatest possession!

FRUSTRATIONS

“Jay, you are out of tune”. This was the comment that I received from my music teacher in Grade 5. I still carry that until now, struggling to prove, her hearing was abnormal!

I am a frustrated singer. I wanted to be like Martin Nievera. Yes. I wanted to record an album and do concerts. I wanted to become a singer.

When I was in grade five, our music teacher called us to sing, It’s a Small world, one by one, in front of the class. It was like an audition in the American Idol where aspiring singers line up in queues singing their best. Some get into the top 100 while others are rejected. I could sympathize with those who are rejected because I was also rejected by my teacher. Being a child, I could never forget that part of my life, where I was deprived of the thing that I really would want to do.

The first OPM song that I knew how to sing was a personal favourite of my mother. There’s never a day that she won’t sing this Imelda song while preparing breakfast for us. She would always belt the song with the lines, “At kung liligaya ka, Sa piling ng iba, At kung ang langit mo ay ang pag-ibig nya, Tututol ba ako, Kung kagustuhan mo, Sapat na ang minsan, Minahal mo ako.” Being repeatedly sung by her every morning I was able to sing and memorize the lyrics of the whole song.

Since I was a child, I have always been a lover of music. The thing that is uncertain though is whether music loves me too. I have quite a broad knowledge in music. I know some technicalities of music like sharps-when you hit the note higher than required in the piece, flats-the opposite of sharps, vibrato-the resonating sound, and voice classifications like baritone which is in between bass and tenor. I also know a lot of music trivias. Jed Madela, is the first Filipino to win the grand prize in the World Championships of the Performing Arts. Vina Morales is the first Filipino and the first Champion in the Asian Aikon Music Festival. I have been a follower of local music contests. Sarah Geronimo won in the Star for a Night, of which her runner up is Mark Bautista. Rachel Ann Go won in Search for a Star. Eric Santos was grand Champion in Star in a Million beating the petite Cebuana Sheryn Regis. Coming from that show is balladeer Christian Bautista.

Poetically, music is defined as the language of the soul. Yes it is. I have a wide selection of songs in my heart and fellow toastmasters will you allow me to sing some of them? Just kidding. Songs tell a lot of stories. I have always been fascinated of Broadway songs like Somewhere form the musical West Side Story and On my Own from Les Miserables. There are songs that will inspire us and lift our morale called Gospel Songs. Gary Valenciano is know for his gospel songs like “Take me out of the dark, Warrior is a Child, and Natutulog ba and Diyos. The all time favourite genre of all ages, the ballads or commonly called love songs. Songs that come from the heart. Songs of lovers in love. Songs that will hold our breath. Songs that will palpitate our hearts. Songs of the heartbroken. Songs of the inspired. Top of my song list is Martin Nievera’s Each day with you and Brian Mcnight’s One last cry.

Putting my frustration into action, last year, I enrolled in a voice lesson class. However I will not tell you the name of the music studio and my voice teacher. I believe, it will do justice for the both of us. The lessons went on for 2 months. Sure did learn a lot from her but it came to a point where everything is routinely done. I stopped and tried to enrol in another voice lesson class. Sadly, we only had one singing session since her rate was double than my previous studio. I just sighed telling myself, I am not in perfect timing.

In the course of living this life, I have had received comments, destructive and constructive, but one thing remains for sure. I would still live this life surrounded with good music, singing my heart out when I’m in euphoria or depressed. I would still be singing, this is the moment, this is the day, when I send all my doubts and demons on their way, every endeavour, I have made ever, is coming into play, is here and now today.

Fellow toastmasters I still dream that one day I will be able to sing to all of you. Will you?

COFFEE BREAK

Today life has become very busy. Indeed very busy. Market research revealed that people are tired of their lives running them instead of the other way around.

That's what happened to Miraval's tennis instructor, Eric Hinchman. After playing competitively for most of his life, he had enough.


He said. "It was becoming not a whole lot of fun for me, so I think at that point you have to re-evaluate it and see, 'Why am I playing, why am I teaching, why am I doing this? Just to make some money, or am I doing it because I enjoy it?'"

In one of my solitary walks, I have observed that people have become so weary of surviving life. They have become very focused on their own destinations, which way to go and what pathway to trudge on to. People have become so engrossed with making money, making money, and making money. Thus they forget a lot of things.

Let me ask you these questions. What was the first thing you bought with your first salary? Where did you buy your first pair of shoes? How much is your graduation fee in college? Anyone?

Allow me to ask you another set of questions. Who helped you make your assignments in grade school? Who was your high school best friend? Where do you usually hangout in college?

Comparing the two sets of questions, which set is easier to answer?

Trying to answer the two sets of questions myself, I realized, that all the glamour and glitters contained in this world are not the things that define us, but rather the simple things that we enjoy and the people that we care about.

In the book of M.Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled, he started his writing by saying that life is difficult. Because of this harsh reality, people get into the spell of working more than 8 hours a day to live what he called a “comfortable life”. Getting into the rush of surviving life, people fell into the dungeon of a weary and stressed life.

A close friend of mine invited me for a cup of coffee. We talked about our experience. We talked about life. Our conversation went on until we hit on the topic managing life’s stressors. And I tell u she is an authority.

She told me to Change What You Can Change. Which of your stressors can you change? For instance, you may often get stuck in traffic when commuting. Ask yourself how you can change the situation. Can you start work later to avoid heavy traffic? Can you take public transportation? Would listening to music or to books that are taped help you relax when driving? Think of a few ways to change these stressful situations. You can then decide what will best help reduce your stress.

Second. Let Go of What You Can't Control. Which of your stressors are beyond your control? For instance, you may have to deal routinely with a difficult person. Know that if you can't change a stressor, your best choice may be is to let it go.

Third. Put a Positive Spin on Stress. Seeing things in a positive way can help you deal with stress better. Think of your stressors as challenges you can handle. If you have negative thoughts, learn to change them to positive ones.

Lastly. Make Time for Yourself. In today's world, there is often too much to do in too little time. It may seem hard to make time for yourself. But try to spend just a few minutes each day doing something you enjoy. This can improve the quality of your life and your mental outlook. Also, you'll be more productive when handling your day-to-day duties. And you'll be in a better frame of mind to cope with stress.

So, the next time you’re stressed, have a coffee break and remember the CLPM formula, change that stressor that you can, Let go of what can’t control, Put a positive spin on stress, and Make Time for Yourself. Once your stress free, do not forget to pay your bill.