Well, that’s that. Another season bites the dust, at least as far as meetings are concerned. Last night we had the final chez of the year. Tears were shed (not of sadness but of pain, when Tiki attacked poor Zip). And there you are.
With one and a half teams, the meetings have been odd, at best. Last night Zip regaled us with tales of great adventure, to wit, his taking down an entire army of gangbangers in Times Square Friday night. We did talk a bit about mandated vaccines, but we probably talked more about Nabokov. Meh came dressed as a ghost. At one point I had to go online to prove that there were such things as snake-handling religions. Spongebob Squarepants, Saved by the Bell, Alfred Hitchcock and NPH all came up in the conversation at some point. No wonder we’re not winning a lot of trophies!
I have been proceeding updating the cur. I’m now up to the research section, which is a crucial one in the PF world. LD obviously requires research, but it’s of a different nature. It used to be more generally philosophic in the olden days, then it went sort of resolutional. I’m not quite sure what it is now, but people have plenty of cards that they read at speed, so it must be something. In any case, the nature of PF research strikes me as somewhat similar to Extemp, at least insofar as you have to have a solid understanding of the news of the world in general, requiring info intake on a daily basis, rather than just hitting a topic when it comes. Just researching topics is like learning to drive and being unable to shift gears: you jerk all over the place and don’t get very far. Current events tend to be related at least marginally, and a general knowledge of, say, the Middle East, will help you get started when the topic is about Pakistan. A general knowledge of science and international medicine doesn’t hurt thinking about mandatory vaccinations. And so forth and so on. Regular info intake gives you the instincts to find a starting point. Getting that habit, on the other hand, isn’t necessarily so easy. Even I’m not that good at it. A news junkie I’m not. But I’m learning.
Anyhow, there’s the State tournament this weekend, and that’s the last time I’ll have a horse in the race. After that, NDCA in Las Vegas, and the season is officially over. And this time, no golf to fill the gap. Or at least, I’ve stuck to my non-golfing guns so far. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing to fill the time I would have otherwise been golfing, but I vaguely remember reading a book on futurism last Sunday. I wonder when’s the last time Tiger Woods read a book on futurism.
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