A SAL Error 404: Emotion Not Found Speech

"Error 404: Emotion Not Found". That was the title of my latest CSL2(2) "Lead with Clear Structure" speech, which I delivered this past Thursday during our regular SAL meeting at Sunway Mentari.

The lineup was packed with 12 speeches, highlighting five project presentations alongside seven quick elevator pitches. With my plate already full from delivering the two speeches, I also took on the roles of speech evaluator and language observer.

Before I summarize my speech, a quick disclaimer: this recap is a highly edited, best-case scenario of what I just said, mostly because I didn't write a script and my brain was actively malfunctioning. 

To recap the core message, my face has exactly one IBL – Instant Blank Look – setting, and if my head were a webpage, the banner across it would permanently read: "Error 404: Emotion Not Found". 

Therefore, it's not true that I don't give a damn about anything; it's just that my facial muscles completely missed the latest Windows driver update. I swear, beneath this utterly frozen exterior, there is actual human activity happening. My face is simply operating on a tragic 14-second delay, so if I look entirely expressionless, just give me a minute to reboot. 

The ultimate takeaway here is simple: never judge a book by its cover – even if that cover looks like a glitched computer monitor. At the end of the day, whether your system runs on high-energy, real-time animation or functions like a quiet, living corpse, the underlying software is exactly the same. We all possess the same core human feelings and emotions; some of us just happen to have a much slower rendering speed.

The one-minute speech topic is "light". I decided to turn it on its head and talked about L.I.G.H.T as in Let's Incite Good-Hearted Trolling. And it's not about being mean, malicious, or leaving moronic comments online. It is about using harmless, clever humor to disrupt the mundane and bring people together through shared laughter. 

Looking back at my speech during the self-reflection session, I have to admit it wasn't up to my usual standards. It was a good performance, but there is definitely room for improvement, and I know exactly what needs to change.😅

A good meeting overall.  Photos:

A SAL No Regrets Speech

On Thursday, I was back in Sunway Mentari for our regular SAL meeting, where I delivered my CSL2(1) "Lead with Clear Structure" speech titled "No Regrets". 

In it, I shared how our mistakes are truly our teachers, urging everyone to view past events as lessons that shape our current wisdom rather than wishing they never happened. This requires us to forgive ourselves and release any lingering guilt, recognizing that we made the best possible choices with the knowledge we had at that moment. After all, dwelling on the past only traps our energy, so we must focus forward – letting yesterday's outcomes guide today's choices without carrying the weight of old pain.

Following the project speeches, it was time for "That's One Minute". The topic was the three-letter word, "Cat" 🐈. 

I must confess I am not a cat person. Still, I tactically chose laziness – skipping the metaphors to talk strictly about whiskers and litter trays. 😁😁😁

Photos of the said meeting:

👇RESPECT!

If you didn't know, Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

SAL Entertainment Speech Contest 2026

There was no regular meeting at SAL on Thursday; instead, we had the Entertainment Speech Contest 2026. Seven contestants in total and I was sixth in line.

Preparing an 'entertaining' contest speech is a brutal task for a naturally deadpan person like me. My progress stopped short after finding a premise: sharing my deepest public speaking vulnerabilities with the audience. All I have to show for it so far is a title: "The Elephant in the Room".

Indeed, my groundbreaking progress grounded to a halt right there. I blamed my calendar. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – all swallowed by back-to-back meetings. Apparently, the remaining scraps of those three days lacked the creative muse required to rescue me from my own stifling seriousness. 

And so, when the time came on the day of contest, I just steeled myself and presented an impromptu speech. I was admittedly pretty much edgy but I shook off my nervousness and even if my knees were shaking, it was because my legs were actually applauding my courage! 

To my surprise, that raw, unscripted honesty – mixed with a dash of desperate wit – resonated with the three judges, and I walked away with second-place. It taught me a valuable lesson: sometimes, the best speech is the one that comes straight from the heart, completely unburdened by overthinking.

SAL Certificate CSL(1)

The first milestone reached! 🚀

I submitted the paperwork at 10:37 PM yesterday and received my Certificate at 11:28 PM the same day! How amazing is that?

Officially certified as a Competent Speaker Level 1 at Speakers and Leaders after crushing eight speeches and stepping up to serve as the Meeting Leader for one regular club meeting!

A big thank you to Sandy Tan, the visionary initiator of this speaking club, for creating the incredible platform that made this growth possible. 🙌

On to the next level! Competent Speaker Level 2! 🎯

My passion for public speaking knows no final full-stop! 

Speaking isn't just what I do; it is an addiction I never want to cure!

A SAL Mind Your Language Speech

Apologies in advance for my post today about Thursday's SAL meeting; expect it to be brashly bombastic, proudly pompous, and vainly verbose! 😂😂😂

The catalyst for this lexical extravagance is my delivery of a discourse on the CSL1(8) "Mind Your Language" curriculum, during which I engineered a deliberate manifestation of sesquipedalian loquaciousness to celebrate reaching the milestone of Competent Speaker Level 1.

On that day, an exceptionally esteemed gathering of seven vocabulary virtuosos assembled to release a torrential downpour of linguistic architecture. Every grandiloquent syllable was meticulously engineered to shatter the boundaries of simple comprehension, leaving the captivated audience utterly drowning in an opulent sea of monumental oration.

My speech title was "From Page to Podium" and I was third in line out of five to present.

I started off by introducing myself as a logophile, a lover of words. A lexiphile. A verbivore. A wordsmith. All these big words carried the same meaning. 

To top it off, I confessed to being a lectiophile, which is just a fancy way of saying I'm obsessed with reading. Naturally, that also makes me a proud bibliophile with an ever-growing book collection.

Reading makes you smarter by physically rewiring your brain. It strengthens neural pathways related to memory, visual processing, and language, while expanding your vocabulary, improving focus, and building your capacity for critical thinking and empathy. 

From reading, I progressed to public speaking. Always, promoting the versatility, vibrancy and vitality of language, I have continued to speak and unleash the power of words since then.

For the legendary "That's One Minute" challenge, six brave souls faced the intransigent word "adamant", followed by an intense session of raw, emotional self-reflection from five heroic project speakers.

This bloated post is truly, a verbal peregrination of exaggerated intentions. 😁😁😁

A visual chronicle of our merry meeting: