Midstream completed - check

On Friday at noon, I gave my midstream seminar. It went really well, as judging from the positive feedback I got from several people. I have found that my project topic ends up being quite interesting to a wide range of people, regardless of what they themselves are actually studying. I also make a lot of effort to give comprehensive talks to teach the audience really well.

I actually gave my talk twice on Friday - once with my supervisor, Lorne, who was out of town until the morning before my talk, and the second time in front of my department. The funny thing is, when I practiced the talk with Lorne it took me 50 minutes. When I presented it to the department it took me about 44 minutes. I shaved 6 whole minutes off my talk, simply by talking faster when in front of an audience. I know I talk really fast - even on a regular basis, I'm a fast talker - so before my talk, I try to remind myself to take my time. However, once I get going, that thought doesn't cross my mind once and I just go go go. As well, I really like my project and my experiments have been working well lately, so I was excited to present my data. This means that I talk even faster, because I am excited! It's going to be something I have to work on, but I don't know how much slower I can talk - it's not in my nature. I think I'll just have to make my talks longer than 50 minutes in practice, so that in the real thing, I am not short on my time.