Let me see, let me see. So much happening, so hard to keep track. I like that, especially since, after this weekend, so little will be happening. Districts really does mark the end of my active season. Stuff still happens going forward, but the hard work is over, and the every-week-an-event part is done with. There’s only one more tournament to run, the Northeast Championships (which has a pretty good-sized pool already: don’t miss this one, folks, because it’s going to be a hoot, and if you win you get to put “Ize Northeast Champeen” on your resume). There’s only one or two events to think about other than that: Dreaded States, which I’ve now passed along to my Dreaded States parent (father of Stealth, which indicates to me that I’ll hear little or nothing about it ever again); Six Rounds of Spring at Columbia, which looks like fun, under the auspices of They Who Fill Out Every Inch of the Ballot; prepping for CatNats, about which I’ll reserve judgment until I hear the topic at the end of this month—let’s face it: they have had some stinkers in their day. At some point Alli’s also going to the Hockarobin down there in Texas, which is on Jan-Feb, so not much new from that angle, but the event always inspires my seasonally banked feminist fires to rage up again (and maybe I’ll get that feminism podcast finally done). For some reason, despite the 2007-8 season ending, I haven’t quite run out of steam yet this year. Maybe Districts will change that. It usually does.
Last night I printed up all sorts of Districts stuff, and I’ll do some more of that tonight. So far I remain on the side of the Goy vs doing it by hand. Rippin’ sends you a whole skein of people to call when all hell breaks loose during the tournament, so Cherian will hear from me if necessary, but I’m hoping it won’t be. For one thing, given that cell phones only work on two square feet of the Scarsdale turf, it’s almost impossible to connect to the outside world for any purpose, much less fixing computer problems. Over the years we’ve have very few reasons to phone home because we just haven’t gotten into any unfathomable positions. Maybe that’s the virtue of a small tournament. Or maybe it’s luck. Whichever.
My CatNats adventure has finally culminated in O’C judging for us in [fill in name of some Midwestern state, or maybe some Western state, or was it Alabama?] and JV chaperoning. My hat is off to them. But then again, my hat is off to everyone who offered, one way or another, to try to help out. And I mentioned this briefly on Facebook, but it bears elaboration here. There is a feeling of community in our region among forensicians that is remarkable (and I hope it is the same where you are, although I know that in some places there is a miasma of academic politics that seems to make things more difficult than they ought to be). I will not claim that every single person is a saint, but week in and week out the same people are in there chugging away, and they’re chugging away not for the glorification of themselves or their teams or their careers, but just because they’re committed to the activity and all its many benefits to all its participants. They go from tournament to tournament insuring competent, reliable operation of events, coaching their kids, working to attract judges and training newcomers, eating crappy pizza and, dare I say it, suffering through some of the worst restroom facilities on the face of the planet. They don’t have to do this, and they’re certainly not paid any great amount of money for it, and they’re not getting any particular credit for it from their own schools. But at least we can acknowledge them here. Thanks, everybody.
And, getting back to the bile that supplies fuel for our particular furnace, why am I not surprised, on learning about Wookieepedia, that O’C is a major contributor? Wookieepidia. Whoda thunkit? But ya gotta love them internets: they’ve got something for everybody.
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