Ahhhhhh. The time is coming!!!! The stress is upon us, and new suits have been purchased. Honestly you guys, I am so excited for this season. A new speech, new friends, and more trophies! Things may be a little different this year and there's so many people that have went their separate ways to be alllll successful and stuff. So make sure you guys are prepared!! Watch videos, but be original! Be confident, but never cocky. Be professional but most of all, have fun! Cause one day, your speech days will come to an end.

If you're ever thinking about watching something, 'Never Swim Alone' from NSDA Duo finals is the chiz! I don't understand how you duoers do it. Synchronization is like the best thing in that category. So 'Cut through the water to get to the point' of amazing interp...and cute boys. Very cute boys.

Just like the 3p guys say, looking for cuts is hard! Last year I was handed a piece, I read it, I liked it, and by the end of the season I was tired of it which should be normal  Unless you're one of those people that like endless repetition. Or maybe you just like your piece that much...Well I know that there's no such thing as 'The Perfect Piece', but I havent even found something that I like. Thats how sucky some of the samples are. But hopefully, mu coach has pulled a few things. But for now, I guess the hunt is on. I mean I've been asked twice what I'm gonna do this year. And the answer is always the same. So, if you're on the same road as me, or just on a team in general, Good Luck! We're gonna need it.

See, you have to get some of your competitors' signatures or write to them, or even get a picture with them because one day they might be famous. And I would not wanna miss out on meeting a famous person...especially if they were in speech. Lol.

One thing I've learned as a person from an amazing humor that just graduated, is that life would be so much easier if there was no guessing and you just told someone you liked them straight up. If you think someone is cute, just tell them. If you want to do something completely out of your 'uze', do it! Its better to make a mistake that you can look back to and think of how stupid you were, than to just miss out on life. You never know when you'll be gone.

Ok, so the Jala expectations while performing in HI or Duo or whatever

P-Professionalism
E-Enunciation
R-Realness (Believability)
F-Fun
E-Eye Contact
C-Confidence
T-Timing

P-Precision
A-Audience Usage
C-Crisp Pops and Movements

F-Feeling

P-Poise

See, you'll notice that if you put a 'K' after PAC and an 'O' before the 'F' in Feeling, you'll get "Perfect Pack Of P' but in this case, we don't need the 'OK' becayse speechies are never just OK. Leaving us with Perfect Pac F P. Remember it. Live it. breathe it. Perform by it!

One of the many mistakes I've made during tournament days is nail polish. I never really thought about my nails' attire during a tournament  Usually, I'd keep the fun pink chipped from the school week. I mean no one will notice right? One day it dawned on me that I'm dressed to the nines everywhere except for my nails.
But by then it was the state tournament and regular season was over and done with. I remember going to Sylvania with my left hands nails painted white. Just the left. Not only was it that bright tacky white that could be seen from a mile away, but i thought i forgot the polish back at home! Hey I mean you might as well finish up the job if you forget to bring remover on an overnight trip. Well, for next season I bought a boring dull tannish color that will keep my nails as fancy as my suit. It is called 'Shore Bet' by ICE. Yeah, because Im not paying 8 dollars for a nail polish color that I dont even like.

Hey guys! Saw NSDA Nationals Humor final round a while ago...But I had made sure to catch some duo and drama too. 'Paul' made me tear up. The girl that got first place had me in tears. I mean, it was a really good round to watch of drama. I also saw some old Billy Chengary duo videos from when he was in high school. If you havent seen him, be sure to one day because Ive seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog like 3 times. They even have a girl doing it as a HI on there, but I've hated it every single time. But Billy and his 0artner made that cut bliss like I'd watch it every Saturday in a round if I had to...but only if I had to. Lol Anyway, check out some videos! Even 3p Speech Nationals Videos!!! Chances are, you'll learn something.

As the school year is coming to an end, you may think its time for fun, laziness, an d party hardyness. Sure, you can still do these things, but I believe a tip to being successful in your category is to keep from brushing extra practice off. Some ways you can do that are by watching videos of speeches ( There's plenty on YouTube.), going over your old speech every once in a while, looking at new material and experimenting with it, and if you're a real nerd that has nothing to do, Iguess you could ship yourself off to the nearest speech camp. Just dont blow off everything this summer. Its jut like school   If you want to come back remembering a lot from the previous year, you have to go ove things ove the summer. Otherwise, youll end up spending almost the whole season trying to get back up to the high you were on the previous year. And I'm sure no one wants to do that. Remember: Energy, Poise, Confidence, Professionalism.

  Hey Hey Hey! Great NEWS!!! I bought the cutest dress for the banquet...well it's ok. Lol. At least my heels are the bomb.

Now, let's talk about pops. Yeah, I'm total amateur, but I'm working on it. Lol. So, in humorous interpretation in my district, and in many other places, HI's do this thing called 'popping'. A pop transition is a transition or switch from one character to another done quickly, smoothly, and crisply. HIs are done alone, so you have to perform as two or more characters. Characters that interact in the same 'area' of your speech should have different view points, and pop transititons make that easy.

1) Your main character should ALWAYS face center. Center is their viewpoint!

2) Sometimes, HI's use their feet to pop along with their upper body. I think using both makes the transition crisper, but it is required that you snap your upper body.

3) When you pop, please do not hurt yourself. You should not look like some sort of robot. The transition should be quick, poised and should put your body just in the correct place. If you watch yourself in the mirror, you can critique yourself. There is a huge difference between a stiff, choppy movement and a smooth effective one. Think dancer...kinda

4) Make sure to turn your head as you are popping. This will put your next character at a different viewpoint.

This will be all for now since I'm at school. I'll have more for you guys soon. :) Keep practicing! HI is ALLLLLL practice!

Hey you guys! It's been a while, but I'm doing ok. Our speech banquet will be May 2. Only one day after my great grandma's birthday. So nice. :D I've been pretty busy the last few weeks with The Wiz and everything. Mehhh. I'm dying for speech season to begin again.

   So yeah you guys, I'm at school. It kinda sucks, but I'm with the smarty pants' so I'm all good... for now anyway. Off to band I go!!! :)

I guess the two most important things I've learned being in humorous interpretation is that 1) Youdon't have to be considered a 'funny' person to succeed in humor and 2) Speech in general is a WHOLE LOT of practice an dedication.

When the team first had tryouts, I honestly thought that I was going to be in drama. See, I never thought in a million years I'd be picked to do humor because
I just was not funny. I would've done anything to be in humor, so I just added it to the list in :case I would've been chosen for something really crazy like debate. I learned later that that was kinda not an option... I did read them a monologue anyway. Oh God. I must've pretty awake that midnight when I snagged that monologue off the first thing that pop
ped up on google after loads and loads of crap writing because the next morning I was pretty impressed with my choice you
guys! guys. It was cute. A bit dramatic, well a girl was bitten by a raccoon, her crush ditched her for her bff and she watched them dancing together outside of a window, in a thunderstorm, with no umbrella...yeah I guess it was funny, but no!!! I was NOT FUNNY!! Because yeah. I'm just Jala. After tryouts at the next meeting, we all were going to find out which category we'd be in this season, and the coach scribbled names out on the board. First categories, and then names....At first, I didn't think I was reading the board right  Hey, I'd just broken my what, fourth pair of glasses? I blinked a few times and surely there was a mistake! Then she SAID categories and followed with the people in them. 'In humor...Jala!' I felt like I was at some sortof informal graduation. Thats how she made this whole thing seem like  Thats how she made everything seem like and I love it to this day! I adore it. At that moment, I thought I was invicible and I could not close my mouth I smiled so big and felt myself gasp. At the same time though, I wanted to cry. I was in humor. It was all too good to be true. I was going to be in humor! I'd always wondered why I wasn't in drama. And one day, I told the coach I usually practice with some stuff towards the end of the season. I went kinda like this 'You know, I always thought I'd be in drama.' I kinda chuckled. It was hard to imagine now that I'd been in humor, and if you know anything about speech, well if you know anything about anything drama and humor are opposites.

I know this will probably sound kinda stupid since I'm just a freshman, but joining the speech team has been the best decision I've made in my life, even with me just finishing my first season. It has made me realize so much about myself! I thought I was perfectly fine after joining drama club at the middle school. But I realized that my shy side still did make appearances especially when I'd speak in front of classmates and after just this season, my social abilities have increased so much. I still have a lot of work to do though before I hold actual conversations with people I don't know, and boys..especially boys. Soo yeah.

  Heyyy guys! It's Jala here and I guess I'll be your site for like...all things speech and stuff! There is a complete lack of speech stuff in this world, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the first to notice. So grab your suits and lets start the timer...Ok that sounds super nerdy!