Wednesday, October 10, 2007

I would like to thank the Academy

In the universe of spam emails that I am unlikely to open, one with the heading “Got fungus? jim_menick” has to rank near the very top. Good morning to you, too, inbox.

Add to that 79 new messages either regarding Bump or Jake. Something tells me tonight is going to be slightly busy at the old chez. Fortunately I need to juice up the MegaPod, so there will be plenty to listen to as I enter the strikes for, as O’C likes to call it, Big Bronx XXX. (He had originally planned to call it Big Bronx NC-17, but he changed his mind at the last minute. I can’t imagine why.) And also I’ll update my Bump data sheet with the real names replacing the nebulous numbers. I’m feeling good about all of this. That has to be a bad sign.

So, this has been quite the week for awards. First, Robbie copped the Spirit award at Monticello. To be honest, I hadn’t been aware that this was going on, busy as I was in tab, but I applaud the idea. To create an award in RJT’s name, to go to someone who embodies all the good things about this activity, is a good idea. As I always tell the Sailors when they come on board for the first time, it’s not about the competition, and they need to know that from day one, because when they show up at the first-timers’ event, they are going to be rubbing elbows with forensicians from other teams who will become, over the next four years, their good friends. This is true at every level of competition, from casual to $ircuit. The people come first, if your head is at all on straight. You could be making friends for life, if you’re really lucky. People with your interests if not necessarily your perspectives, or vice versa, people who are thrown together again and again in somewhat unpleasant situations and survive them with camaraderie and aplomb. That is, I can think of a lot more genial atmospheres than airless cafeterias at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday, or endless bus rides, or yet another fast food meal (although I may be alone on that last one). These situations are not readily apparent as the forges of great communions, but in fact they are. If you can maintain your good nature and a sense of humor and a “whatever” attitude in the middle of all of this, muddled even further by serious intellectual competition, then you’re my kind of person. You’re RJT’s kind of person. You’re Robbie’s kind of person. Excellent!

Next, I got an award, from the School Board. Apparently the new Superintendent is a believer in acknowledging the toilers in the field, and as a result created an Extra Mile award, which I received last night. I popped out of the Bump planning meeting (not to mention the go-over-the-Monti-ballots meeting, the read-this-so-I-understand-every-word meeting, the soft partition meeting, etc.) down the hall to the Board meeting, heard nice praise, shook a hand or two, had a picture taken (which I hate with a passion, because the only picture of me I have liked in the last 10 years is the one O’C took of Becker and myself at TOC, which is the one from which I’ve excised NoRelation and plopped on this page), make the quick TY (with kudos for the Board’s continuing support of forensics) and then back down the hall to the Sailors again. I like all the Admirals, I guess, but the ABs are more important at the moment, with the first-timer event coming up, and Bump, and Jake for the Pffffters, and so on and so forth. Still, I got a plaque out of it. That’s nice. It feels good to know that the school is aware of us. Sometimes I think we’re the submarine division of our nautical metaphor. I don’t need to be the battleships, or the destroyers, but at least we should be the PT boats of our little navy. More than just the dinghies, less than the dreadnaughts.

Works for me.

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