Public speaking is public enemy number 1

Current mood: disappointed in myself

I'm great at packaging a lot of information for easy consumption. I'm a lot less great at conveying such information in person. My presentation skills leave...much to be desired. Even when I have a killer presentation readied, my tongue trips all over itself to inadequately communicate my fantastic! and interesting! ideas.

I've pretty much lost most of my old fears about public speaking and now it's more frustrating than scary. I'm quite terrible at extemporizing; speaking off the cuff is so not my forte. The only way to satisfy myself is to practice ad nauseam and have exactly what I want to say memorized - but I'm terrible at memorizing. Yet there's no graceful way to speak while using notes - and I don't really rate a teleprompter. (Though it's amusing to think about showing up at every little school/work presentation with my own podium and teleprompter.)

My presentation did not go very well last night - I was especially stuttery, the clickey thing misbehaved several times, and I was rushed for time because I went last (my choice, my stupid choice). I do think I was able to get across my main points (which were decently well-thought out) and people did seem to be mildly engaged (you can always get a laugh if you say "cheese-eating surrender monkeys"), but I can't help feeling that my nice grade is sort of a pity grade to make up for my poor speaking skills.