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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Impeesa" data-source="post: 970382" data-attributes="member: 498">Interesting discussion. The only thing I can think of to emphasize is be yourself, and tailor the presentation to the audience. Rather than being opposed, these are in fact two things that go well together, and many people would do well to remember that. I was at a barbecue recently, put on by our faculty sponsor (I work at a summer science camp put on at the university here). There was myself, my girlfriend, three female coworkers (all early 20s, slightly older than me), one of their boyfriends, and our faculty sponsor (a chemistry prof) and his family. I mention at one point that I game - I believe I was telling funny story about my co-gamers' young child - and he (the prof) asks what kind of games. I say "D&D, rolemaster, stuff like that." I think that's the ideal reply, someone who doesn't know about it will brush it off, and someone who does gets the information he was after. So he starts talking about his favorite character. My girlfriend makes me tell the story about the infamous Button Room, my greatest moment of rat-bastardry. The others are kind of smiling and nodding politely, so conversation moves on to other topics pretty quickly. Had there been more gamers in the room, it might not have. It's a matter of reading your audience, be it one person or several, and keeping to what seems to get the best reaction. Maintain an even composure (depending on what you're doing or talking about <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />), and you come across as confident and interesting - you're set.Oh, I can second another piece of advice too - take up teaching. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Seriously, I've done public speaking for like 8 years (speech arts and drama - mostly poetry/prose sort of stuff), and just a few weeks of experience working with a class full of kids for an hour was still like night and day in terms of confidence speaking to people. While I'm at it, I can confirm something else, too - fusangite isn't a social moron, just as he claims. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Not that I've ever met him.. but he made an 'alternative' party into a viable choice, and that's damned impressive given the political climate around here at the time. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> *hides from non-political mods*--Impeesa--</blockquote>

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