In which we move on to this, that, and the other thing

Having been left in the lurch by the bus people last Friday, and there being no school this week and no bus people around to offer non-lurch assurances, I am keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a bus Saturday to the MHL Blowout. I could always drive down, of course, but there’s not enough room in my car for all the Sailors attending, and I’m not looking forward to picking out which ones ride and which ones run behind the car.

The Blowout, for members of the VCA who are unaware of it, is the last MHL of the season. Lately we’ve been plussing it up, to apply a Disney term to it. We give students and/or judges “superpowers,” which they draw from a hat. Maybe they get an extra speech, or a lifeline to a coach, or whatever. We’re also going to have something very special this year for round 3, where we’re going to—

Na’ah. We’ll get to that when we get to it.

My Unofficial Guide to tabroom.com continues apace. I’ve set myself a goal of adding at least one section a day. I sent it off to the powers that be at Lakeland; having looked at their setup, such as it is, it seemed like a good idea. Eventually I’ll put all the pages into one document, but for the time being I’m keeping it online. It will probably stay online, but I will want to keep it from getting unwieldy. I’m not explaining the obvious, just the things CP thinks are obvious. No doubt many people will learn the system by knocking about in it, but a little hand-holding never hurt anybody.

I’m also winding up a very big piece on conflicts. It started in my mind back at the beginning of the season, and some recent events have underlined the need for some standards. That actually isn’t so hard, but some other issues also arose while preparing this piece that go beyond simply marking a judge as a strike or a conflict. I think the VCA will find it interesting. I hope to get a lot of people onboard with it overall, the conflict part that is. The going-beyond isn’t so easy. What bothers me a lot about the high school debate community is that issues come up, but more often than not, after everyone says their piece about those issues, usually in agreement, nothing much comes of it. Sometimes talk isn’t enough, and sometimes it is. The issues I’m thinking about are way beyond a talking solution. I’m not trying to be coy here by not being specific, but this is important stuff and needs a full explanation. I’ll let it go until it’s ready.