Friends, Foreigners and Countrymen

For those of you, to whom me pursuing Masters in Environmental Engineering may be news or as old as fuse, I had my demanding project and examination schedule standing between me and carefree explorations.Yet there were a few noteable things in this month as well, which form the E-Lore of this month.

During the documentation of my thesis work, I was literally struck at one particular point. I had to describe the surroundings by mentioning the group of pigs. We normally refer animal group by names like "army of ants", "herd of elephants" etc. However my knowledge on the group name of pigs was found wanting and if not for the help of Stalkings Animal Group Names Listing. It provides the list for a wide variety of animals.

One more thing that held my attention during my project documentation was the usage of Roman Numbers. Roman Numbers have come into good use nowadays with more emphasis on Numbering and indexing in documents. In this regard, I deem the site Nova Roma - Roman Numerals a very useful one for computing the Roman equivalent for any number and for a good introduction to the roman numerals.With this regard, I would also recommend the site Lee Calculator

From numbers to words, let me introduce this lovely e-mail service A-word-A-Day. For all of us who want to enunciate or enhance our English Vocabulary, this site is indeed a kewl tool. If sends you one unusual english word to your e-mail every day alongwith its meaning, usage, prounonciation and historical facts associated with the particular word. And its AWAD Issue that feautures the feedbacks of the readers sharing thier experience of using the particular word, is a literary delight. Definetely a kewl site for those on hunt for exquisite English.

It is not enough that you know words, you should put them into use and display your verbal might. One way of putting your verbal histronics into action is PUBLIC SPEAKING.

There are a lot of sites that offer essential training on this aspect and you can find them for yourselves by typing "Public Speaking" in Google. Off all these, I find the site "Art of Speaking" by Mahavir Mahonot very comprehensive and useful. I am also a fan of the sister sites SpeechTips and SpeechSuccess, which provide us with tailor made speeches for all occassions apart from providing valuable tips and clearing misconceptions. Yours truly has also shared his ideas of PublicSpeaking at Mouthshut.com through his review "Let me KISS(Keep it Short and Simple)".

With our development touching new scales, public speaking has become a very commonplace activity and I strongly suggest every netizen gets him/her self trained in this area. The rapid development of our society has also made the professional speakers switch over from Public Speaking to Presentation Skills. With the easy and ample availability of technology, speeches have given way to(in an truly optimistic sense "evolved to") Presentations. "Presentation" though closely related to "Speech" has one huge difference over the former, there is equal or I shall say more emphasis on "planning", when compared to the actual "delivering".

In this background, it would better for ourselves to emphasise on good presentations as well and you have to bookmark "Virtual Presentation Assistant", a great guide for equipping oneselves with Presentation Skills. As a trainer, I can affirm that this site is one of the best sites, I have ever come accross. The links to Presentation Skills offered by KU Medical Centre and Business Connection are definetely worth a click.

One more way to express your verbal powers is through Writing. The Internet gives us a lot of oppurtunities to hone your writing skills. You may start by writing feedbacks and gradually post in forums,write reviews, try poetry, get into blogging and ultimately find yourself writing Essays/ Articles for various websites and magazines. For budding and amateur writers, E- Writers Place, Writers Digest, Writing Resources Center are all good patrons.

Before I conclude this November Blog, let me remember a few sites for you

(1)GoodHit.com, which gives a good list of various weblinks associated with India,
(2)Webattack.com, a website that offers a variety of novel freeware and shareware
(3)HPs Everyday Home Fun, which provides projects and tips to make a house a home

And thats for good old November, meet u all in the last month of 2003

Urs always
Rathnavel
www.reavan.cjb.net