Just in from SC DNR: Topic Hunting Season opens Feb. 11

for this week we're supposed to discuss what topics we may choose for an upcoming presentation for the class which must include a PowerPoint presentation. so my first thought was to do my presentation on how to do a PowerPoint presentation, but then I had visions of sitting in my childhood barber's chair staring at the mirror in front of me which reflected the mirror behind me which reflected the reflection of the mirror in front of me which reflected the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the mirror behind me which... which made me have to sit down.
So after I recovered from the haziness of the eternal loop I began to consider other topics. We're supposed to choose something we're knowledgeable about because the point is the presentation, not research. I'd say the things I'm most knowledgeable about are fly fishing, jeeps, the bible, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and deer hunting. A requirement of the assignment is that we must be able to talk about the topic for at least 5 minutes. So that doesn't help me narrow down my topics.
After some thought I decided that the Bible wasn't the best topic because its much too easy for someone to misunderstand an informative speech on a religious topic as preaching. And then flyfishing was out because its really boring to talk about unless I can actually do some flycasting and a 9 foot rod in a room with 12 foot ceilings doesn't really work. Everyone knows how to make a PBJ so my speech on that would simply be 5 minutes of me drooling -- and its a long time from 11am to lunch time.
Some people find deer hunting offensive so I think I'll focus down on Jeeps. I may talk through the workings of the internal combustion engine. I think it'd be a good topic because its systematic (it has a precise flow of operations), there should be plenty of good visual diagrams available online for the PowerPoint slides, and I can easily take 5 minutes to explain it. I'm sure most of the guys will be interested and most of the girls will just go to sleep -- including the professor, who will hopefully wakeup just in time to give me an 'A.'