I've been engaged in public speaking activities for a while now, as a way to keep a hand in the business after leaving the whole corporate employee gig behind. So far, most of my presentations have been centered on the things I love, physics and technology, and have been oriented towards tech hobbyists, their curiosity, and thirst to learn more about their favorite tech.
I'm doing a presentation on January 20th for the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club, on basic antenna principles. This one is a one hour rundown on what makes an antenna actually work, from physics to practice. We will look at how an electric field produces a radio wave, basic dipoles, and how a dipole radiates. We will look at the effect of other conductors near the antenna, and discover some interesting interactions.
http://www.mdarc.org/activities/club-meetings/speakersThis particular presentation is a sort of physics-lite, oriented towards the amateur radio community, and designed to impart some fundamental knowledge of what goes into actually making common antennas work, and how to work with these principles to get the best results. It's aimed at folks with the Technician or General Class licenses who want to know a bit more, or who are preparing to take the tests to upgrade their license to a higher class.
This is a fun activity for me, as I get to carry on about things that are dear to my nerdy little heart and interact with others who have a similar interest. It occurs to me that I might be able to do this in other, non-technical areas as well.
It is probably obvious to anyone looking at this profile that I am not exactly a stock model female person. How I got here is a long story, and outside the scope of this post. That said, I have learned much on my path through life.
I am also an activist. Yeah, shocking, I know. I'm a huge fan of the First Amendment rights guaranteed in the US Constitution, and believe they should be exercised loudly and often. I had the thought that I might combine my activism, life experience, and public speaking as a way to inform others about those of us who stand at the crossroads of gender, balanced on the sharp edge of a knife. My thinking is that I could inform people of the actual facts behind who we are and how we got here, to counter the incredible amounts of misinformation dumped on the populace.
I am curious, though, if this is something worth doing, or if, as with so many other things in modern society, people have already decided on their beliefs and won't bother listening. If truthiness has replaced the truth in most people's minds, I'd be engaging in an exercise in futility, hardly worth dealing with at this point in my life. If there is an honest desire for facts, real information, I think this would be worth doing.
As always, feedback is appreciated. It will help me stumble through life more effectively.
