Saturday was a great day.
First of all, there’s something about looking out at that sea of new faces at the beginning of the year. Most of these people are not only here for the first time, they’re here at some new place to learn some new stuff that they really don’t know much about. I’m really proud of the workshop and what it does. We had great attendance, and I think we learned a lot about improving it for next year. I think we also had some great discussion about working with the debate community as a whole, either for the NYSDCA or the MHL, depending on which might be relevant. (And of course there is a lot of overlap between the two.) That’s one of the nice things about this day, the chance for coaches to sit down and talk in a relaxed atmosphere, when we’re not trying to get out a round or whatever. How often does that happen?
I think the biggest takeaway this time out was the need to trim the sessions down to 45 minutes. We just go a tad beyond the traditional attention span, not only for the listeners but for the presenters. We can still cover all the same stuff, just in more, shorter sessions. Simple enough. We also saw a lot of benefit in the solid local seniors working with the young ’uns that we want to develop, and I’ll talk about that separately some time this week. In the event, in any case, how sweet is it that one of the top debaters in the region and one of the rising debaters with the most potential to become likewise, staged the demo round? And, of course, no one paid for any of it. Good stuff.
My sessions were, first, the parents. Quite a good turnout, which surprised me. I went through the hoo-ha of what to expect at tournaments and why we need them to help out and all that, and then walked them through PF, which nowadays is mostly where they’ll land. I do sort of think that the age of the LD parent judge is fading away, if it hasn’t already.
The next session was O’C and I and the Monk (this is why there’s a glossary, people) going over the life with the new coaches, of which there was quite a large number. We talked about what tournaments were the best to try, the skinny on the Ivies, invitationals, travel, housing, etc. When I was a new coach, I pretty much had to figure out things on my own. I also had to register for everything by snail mail. Times have changed for the better.
Then we met, i.e., the NYSDCA, and discussed all sorts of business. As I said, I’ll relay that here over the next few days.
The final session was the most fun. Kaz and I were going to do separate sessions with the noobs to brainstorm the Modest Novice topic, but given the numbers that were left at the time, we decided to pool our resources. Hence we did an ad hoc team leadership deal that was absolutely great. We complemented one another’s thinking, while meanwhile keeping a reasonable amount of control on the group (i.e., the usual number of people who always have their hands up versus the others who need to be recognized if they even blink). Anyone who was in that session and is debating next week at the first-timers’ got a really good leg up. And Sheryl and I had a ball doing it. Almost as much fun as the DiDeAd. But not quite.
Showing posts with label MHLW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MHLW. Show all posts
Monday, October 01, 2012
Monday, November 07, 2011
Oh, yeah. We start reading Nietzsche in pre-school.
The Monticello MHL was an oddball, in that instead of having four rounds we had three plus a workshop session. Kaz handled policy, talking about 5 different technical apsects of debate. O’C had a PF demo. I talked morality for LD.
It seemed to go well. My goal was to present the basic lines of thinking about morality, and eventually to tie them into Nov-Dec. So I started with the question of whether there even was such a thing as right and wrong, one someone went off into multi-culturism, and someone else cited Nietzsche’s belief that there is no truth. Did I say that I love debaters? I heavily leaned on x phi stuff, the scientific bases of morality (if any). That the trolley examples travel cross-culturally undermines a lot of cultural morality analysis, and for that matter, just because someone believes something, even if a whole culture believes something, doesn’t make that thing right/moral. It’s a nice belief though, having respect for other cultures. It may not stand if there are inherent evils that a given culture perpetrates. In any case, all of this leads to explaining consequentialism and deontology, then into Hauser and Haidt and Singer, and by then, you’ve given them some decent stuff to start the new topic on (the northeast Modest Novices debate civil disobedience through the end of this month, and get only one month on the supererogatory topic which I continue to believe is among the worse ever for anyone other than novices struggling with morality research).
So I sped along for about and hour and then ran out of gas, which was pretty good. I asked them about the modnov topic, and they were iffy about it. One kid said he would have preferred animal rights because all you had to do was ask if the judge had a pet and then you always won on the aff. Cute: you gotta love novices. This kid needs to read more of that Nietzsche his colleague was digging into.
Then on the way home I had one of those magical moments that makes debate so interesting to me. In the back seat a heated conversation was unfolding comparing the merits of the various LOTR movies. I was asked which one was my favorite, and I said the one with Snooki. “Snooki was in a LOTR movie?” I was asked. “Yes,” says I, “the one with the elves.” “Oh, that must be the second one. That’s your favorite, then?” “Sure,” says I, hopeful that I will somehow be instrumental in starting an urban myth that Snooki played an elf in the second LOTR movie. This stuff has to come from somewhere, after all. Why not me?
It seemed to go well. My goal was to present the basic lines of thinking about morality, and eventually to tie them into Nov-Dec. So I started with the question of whether there even was such a thing as right and wrong, one someone went off into multi-culturism, and someone else cited Nietzsche’s belief that there is no truth. Did I say that I love debaters? I heavily leaned on x phi stuff, the scientific bases of morality (if any). That the trolley examples travel cross-culturally undermines a lot of cultural morality analysis, and for that matter, just because someone believes something, even if a whole culture believes something, doesn’t make that thing right/moral. It’s a nice belief though, having respect for other cultures. It may not stand if there are inherent evils that a given culture perpetrates. In any case, all of this leads to explaining consequentialism and deontology, then into Hauser and Haidt and Singer, and by then, you’ve given them some decent stuff to start the new topic on (the northeast Modest Novices debate civil disobedience through the end of this month, and get only one month on the supererogatory topic which I continue to believe is among the worse ever for anyone other than novices struggling with morality research).
So I sped along for about and hour and then ran out of gas, which was pretty good. I asked them about the modnov topic, and they were iffy about it. One kid said he would have preferred animal rights because all you had to do was ask if the judge had a pet and then you always won on the aff. Cute: you gotta love novices. This kid needs to read more of that Nietzsche his colleague was digging into.
Then on the way home I had one of those magical moments that makes debate so interesting to me. In the back seat a heated conversation was unfolding comparing the merits of the various LOTR movies. I was asked which one was my favorite, and I said the one with Snooki. “Snooki was in a LOTR movie?” I was asked. “Yes,” says I, “the one with the elves.” “Oh, that must be the second one. That’s your favorite, then?” “Sure,” says I, hopeful that I will somehow be instrumental in starting an urban myth that Snooki played an elf in the second LOTR movie. This stuff has to come from somewhere, after all. Why not me?
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Slugs: The Other White Meat
The joy of my life these days is wondering where O'C will check in next. Last night it was Gristedes supermarket. I was thrilled to hear it. Made my evening. Really.
I guess I'll turn off Foursquare notifications today.
We had the inaugural meeting last night, and have acquired a handful of prospective LDers. They didn't jump out the window while we were discussing animal rights, so I guess they'll mostly be back. It was hotter than Hades at the school, but we got through all the formalities. Let's see how many show up next week for the regular meeting, and how long it takes them to figure out how to sign up for tournaments.
Tonight I'll lay out all the MHL workshop stuff and get it out to people. That's mostly just rebroadcasting last year's agenda, but people need to know it's coming.
I find the animal rights topic interesting. I do maintain that it behooves the affirmative to come up with a definition of animal rights that includes having them for breakfast. This may not be essential, but being able to defend a version of animal rights that limits those rights (as all rights must be limited) makes sense to me. The idea that the affirmative must, in CX, claim to be a vegetarian, as a Sailor claimed last night, just strikes me as soooo novice. An animal has the right to certain treatment, but in the old circle of life, that treatment might include being served with mashed potatoes. Keep in mind that the topic says justice, not morality. Giving an animal its due, in other words. What are animals due? What do they deserve? What are their entitlements? That seems simple enough to me for an aff to dig in. On the other side, even walking in off the streets one immediately hinges on to the words requires and recognition for neg positions. Negative need not assert that animals have no rights, although neg can certainly assert different rights from the aff if that seems desirable. The thing is, those rights aren't persuasive enough when compared to human issues to require recognition.
All of which seems true to me. That is, there's real possibilities for real arguments on both sides. No doubt few if any people will argue that way for long, but hope springs eternal...
I guess I'll turn off Foursquare notifications today.
We had the inaugural meeting last night, and have acquired a handful of prospective LDers. They didn't jump out the window while we were discussing animal rights, so I guess they'll mostly be back. It was hotter than Hades at the school, but we got through all the formalities. Let's see how many show up next week for the regular meeting, and how long it takes them to figure out how to sign up for tournaments.
Tonight I'll lay out all the MHL workshop stuff and get it out to people. That's mostly just rebroadcasting last year's agenda, but people need to know it's coming.
I find the animal rights topic interesting. I do maintain that it behooves the affirmative to come up with a definition of animal rights that includes having them for breakfast. This may not be essential, but being able to defend a version of animal rights that limits those rights (as all rights must be limited) makes sense to me. The idea that the affirmative must, in CX, claim to be a vegetarian, as a Sailor claimed last night, just strikes me as soooo novice. An animal has the right to certain treatment, but in the old circle of life, that treatment might include being served with mashed potatoes. Keep in mind that the topic says justice, not morality. Giving an animal its due, in other words. What are animals due? What do they deserve? What are their entitlements? That seems simple enough to me for an aff to dig in. On the other side, even walking in off the streets one immediately hinges on to the words requires and recognition for neg positions. Negative need not assert that animals have no rights, although neg can certainly assert different rights from the aff if that seems desirable. The thing is, those rights aren't persuasive enough when compared to human issues to require recognition.
All of which seems true to me. That is, there's real possibilities for real arguments on both sides. No doubt few if any people will argue that way for long, but hope springs eternal...
Monday, October 04, 2010
Post #1498 (somebody put the champagne on ice, please)
Moving right along… (And let me tell you, the temptation to mire oneself in a certain discussion is strong, but, alas, not very entertaining, and entertainment is where the big coachean bucks are, or so they tell me.)
What a weekend! The centerpiece was, of course, the MHL workshop. For those who have just tuned in, well over a year ago someone (I think at NDCA) suggested things that we all should be doing, and among these was trying to find ways to bring people into the activity without their spending any money. Sounded good to me, and it sounded good to O’C and Kaz and JV, and the MHL Workshop was born. O’C was able to get us rooms at his school, and we had a pretty good event. Our problem last year was that the school calendar was nutty and we had to run it awfully early. This year the calendar is nutty again but in a different way, so we ran it later, and O’C was again able to open the doors of Bronx Science for us, and we got what I would estimate to be about 150 participants, including PF, LD and Policy, plus parents getting orientation and judge training, plus bringing in this year’s crop of new coaches, plus training varsity kids as team leaders with their novices after the event. Once again CP came down to oversee the PF, while Kaz brought her assistant Peter in to work policy, and O’C had some of his assistant coaches onboard for LD training. Plus of course we were all in there running modules ourselves. When one school arrived late with about 40 kids, we had to tack on a whole extra division, and we enlisted the People’s Champion to start them, and then I took over, which meant that I started talking at about 11:00 and by 5:00 my throat was killing me.
And I’m sorry, but I have no choice but to pat us all on the back. O’C and I were beaming all day at the wonderful thing we were doing, and telling each other it’s the best thing we do all year. And it is. The MHL, since its inception, has dedicated itself to bringing debate to the youngest students who can easily be overlooked in the varsity world of invitationals and universities and national circuit. But, ladies and gentlemen, you’ve got to start somewhere, and with MHL, you get to start at a level of equality with other novices and JV, which means you learn and grow together, and competition isn’t a grind guaranteed to hand you a loss. MHL leadership has gone through many hands over its long life but it has never changed its goals. I’m proud of us. Really and truly.
As an antidote to the pride I was able to feel over our forensical activities of the weekend, I was forced to feel nothing but shame for the subsequent event of the weekend. CP stayed over at the chez, and we went out for a little spot of Sunday golf with another friend of mine. The good that had been done for forensics on Saturday was, I’m sorry to say, eclipsed by the bad that was done for golf on Sunday. This was some of the worst golf I have ever seen. Some of the worst drives. Some of the worst putts. Even our cart-driving left something to be desired. The only thing that could have made it worse was if we had asked O’C to complete the foursome. As a matter of fact, when things looked bleakest (about every five minutes or so), we would console ourselves with memories of O’C in the miniature golf video from the DiDeAd: only in the even more abject misery of others could we find any balm for the abject misery of ourselves. And thus, I am afraid, I call an end to this year’s season on the links as the debate season heats up for real. Nothing like ending on a down note. Yet, somehow, we still managed to have fun. Go figure. Then again, if it wasn’t fun, why would we do it? But then again again, we also do debate…
What a weekend! The centerpiece was, of course, the MHL workshop. For those who have just tuned in, well over a year ago someone (I think at NDCA) suggested things that we all should be doing, and among these was trying to find ways to bring people into the activity without their spending any money. Sounded good to me, and it sounded good to O’C and Kaz and JV, and the MHL Workshop was born. O’C was able to get us rooms at his school, and we had a pretty good event. Our problem last year was that the school calendar was nutty and we had to run it awfully early. This year the calendar is nutty again but in a different way, so we ran it later, and O’C was again able to open the doors of Bronx Science for us, and we got what I would estimate to be about 150 participants, including PF, LD and Policy, plus parents getting orientation and judge training, plus bringing in this year’s crop of new coaches, plus training varsity kids as team leaders with their novices after the event. Once again CP came down to oversee the PF, while Kaz brought her assistant Peter in to work policy, and O’C had some of his assistant coaches onboard for LD training. Plus of course we were all in there running modules ourselves. When one school arrived late with about 40 kids, we had to tack on a whole extra division, and we enlisted the People’s Champion to start them, and then I took over, which meant that I started talking at about 11:00 and by 5:00 my throat was killing me.
And I’m sorry, but I have no choice but to pat us all on the back. O’C and I were beaming all day at the wonderful thing we were doing, and telling each other it’s the best thing we do all year. And it is. The MHL, since its inception, has dedicated itself to bringing debate to the youngest students who can easily be overlooked in the varsity world of invitationals and universities and national circuit. But, ladies and gentlemen, you’ve got to start somewhere, and with MHL, you get to start at a level of equality with other novices and JV, which means you learn and grow together, and competition isn’t a grind guaranteed to hand you a loss. MHL leadership has gone through many hands over its long life but it has never changed its goals. I’m proud of us. Really and truly.
As an antidote to the pride I was able to feel over our forensical activities of the weekend, I was forced to feel nothing but shame for the subsequent event of the weekend. CP stayed over at the chez, and we went out for a little spot of Sunday golf with another friend of mine. The good that had been done for forensics on Saturday was, I’m sorry to say, eclipsed by the bad that was done for golf on Sunday. This was some of the worst golf I have ever seen. Some of the worst drives. Some of the worst putts. Even our cart-driving left something to be desired. The only thing that could have made it worse was if we had asked O’C to complete the foursome. As a matter of fact, when things looked bleakest (about every five minutes or so), we would console ourselves with memories of O’C in the miniature golf video from the DiDeAd: only in the even more abject misery of others could we find any balm for the abject misery of ourselves. And thus, I am afraid, I call an end to this year’s season on the links as the debate season heats up for real. Nothing like ending on a down note. Yet, somehow, we still managed to have fun. Go figure. Then again, if it wasn’t fun, why would we do it? But then again again, we also do debate…
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Vatican endorses ModNov (sort of)
The other thing that happened last Saturday (MHLW being the original other) was the meeting of the NYCFL. We held this at Scientific Bronx School of High Dudgeon as well, because so many of us needed to be at both.
NYCFL is a straightforward organization that is run extremely well by Catholic Charlie, who is one of those people who is good at running things. A lot of forensics is run by people who are not of that persuasion, but with the City Cats, this is not the case. Catholic Charlie has an agenda, keeps us focused, runs pleasant tournaments and is generally amiable. What more could you ask?
A couple of things of note were discussed at the meeting. For our purposes, the agreement was reached to continue four-round tournaments, but notably with lunch breaks, so that the Policians wouldn’t be passing out from starvation in the middle of the afternoon. We did allow that some other problem on the ground might throw us off (e.g., some sort of unforeseen delay kicking us in the butt in the middle of an event), and we will use our noggins to decide as we progress in a given contest if there are any issues. Makes sense to me. Also, we’re waiting to hear where the 10/31 contest will be. Kaz will be up at Manchester Under the Sea and Sabrina will be in a mosh pit somewhere, so we won’t have policy after all. But we will have everything else with a debate flavor to it.
We also discussed ModNov, of course, officially instituting it for the league. It will also be used in the Manhattan Debate League. The train has left the station, ladies and gentlemen. This is sooooo good.
We had invited the coaches at the MHLW to visit the NYCFL meeting. Some of them were there for the first time, and I hope they will officially join us at our events. You can’t have too many debate tournaments, and with MHL, CFL and general invitationals spanning all the levels of competition, the northeast at the moment is jam-packed with contests in the best way possible. Something for everybody! Yes!
It’s nice when things are working well. It really is. What is best about all of this is the open communication. When I started doing this activity, it was hard to find things out. The internet was young, and so was I. (Well, all right, the internet was young. I was already older than God.) Now, not only do we have online registrations and email and Twitter and listservers and whatnot, but we actually use them! I feel that there has never been a stronger sense of community among the coaches than there is now. Not that we all love each other and want to have each other’s babies, but we talk together and plan together and disagree with civility, which is the way it should be. Maybe we are finally learning to practice what we so obviously preach.
I have a feeling this is going to be a most fun season!
(And I’m sorry for this outburst of joy and rapture, and promise to return to biliousness and general disagreeability tomorrow.)
NYCFL is a straightforward organization that is run extremely well by Catholic Charlie, who is one of those people who is good at running things. A lot of forensics is run by people who are not of that persuasion, but with the City Cats, this is not the case. Catholic Charlie has an agenda, keeps us focused, runs pleasant tournaments and is generally amiable. What more could you ask?
A couple of things of note were discussed at the meeting. For our purposes, the agreement was reached to continue four-round tournaments, but notably with lunch breaks, so that the Policians wouldn’t be passing out from starvation in the middle of the afternoon. We did allow that some other problem on the ground might throw us off (e.g., some sort of unforeseen delay kicking us in the butt in the middle of an event), and we will use our noggins to decide as we progress in a given contest if there are any issues. Makes sense to me. Also, we’re waiting to hear where the 10/31 contest will be. Kaz will be up at Manchester Under the Sea and Sabrina will be in a mosh pit somewhere, so we won’t have policy after all. But we will have everything else with a debate flavor to it.
We also discussed ModNov, of course, officially instituting it for the league. It will also be used in the Manhattan Debate League. The train has left the station, ladies and gentlemen. This is sooooo good.
We had invited the coaches at the MHLW to visit the NYCFL meeting. Some of them were there for the first time, and I hope they will officially join us at our events. You can’t have too many debate tournaments, and with MHL, CFL and general invitationals spanning all the levels of competition, the northeast at the moment is jam-packed with contests in the best way possible. Something for everybody! Yes!
It’s nice when things are working well. It really is. What is best about all of this is the open communication. When I started doing this activity, it was hard to find things out. The internet was young, and so was I. (Well, all right, the internet was young. I was already older than God.) Now, not only do we have online registrations and email and Twitter and listservers and whatnot, but we actually use them! I feel that there has never been a stronger sense of community among the coaches than there is now. Not that we all love each other and want to have each other’s babies, but we talk together and plan together and disagree with civility, which is the way it should be. Maybe we are finally learning to practice what we so obviously preach.
I have a feeling this is going to be a most fun season!
(And I’m sorry for this outburst of joy and rapture, and promise to return to biliousness and general disagreeability tomorrow.)
Monday, September 14, 2009
We have ignition. We have liftoff. Yahoo!
Wow. Or, if you’re reading this upside down, Mom.
We held the first (and far from last) MHL Workshop on Saturday. This stemmed from discussion on the NDCA listserver about costs and whatnot, and I foolishly jumped in and said, okay, we’ll throw a free one-day institute in the Fall for younger students. Sure. Why not? How hard can it be?
Last spring we quickly laid down a broad outline of modules. Then Kaz and JV and O’C and I sat down one hot summer night at the chez and polished it up. Then O’C went off to get instructors. As the VCA knows, I was a little wary of how long it was taking him to do this, but the man ultimately came through with some spectacular folks who did an amazing job for no other reason than that they’re good people. Cruz will shortly list them over on VBD (which I will call for once by its correct name, so that you know what I’m talking about and you go check it out). He’ll also post some pictures (of course).
We had attendees of every persuasion despite the earliness of the event. (We’ll do it later next year.) There were new coaches, parents, novices, JV, Pfffters, Policians, whatever. The hallways between modules were abuzz with people on their cell phones (and in real life communication) talking about the topics and whatnot. Engagement was full-on. Imagine what that would have been like a couple of weeks later!
I participated in the new coaches’ discussion, answering questions and helping folks out with stuff, and then I did second chair on PF case-writing with CP. He’s got a solid scholarly approach to content, so I took the position of filling up the blank sheet of paper, the one where I tell people I’m an editor so I know about writing. (I don’t tell them I’m a blogger because then they wouldn’t believe the claim that I know about writing.) What I enjoyed most, though, was the last session, brainstorming ModNov with these absolutely raw newbies. Sacre bleu (as no one in France has ever said, other than in the comic book “Scrooge McDuck on the Riviera”)! This was late in the day, and these people wouldn’t shut up! We covered all sorts of stuff at a very broad level, like right and wrong and rights in general and civil rights and what-have-you, and it was exciting. I can’t wait to do it with some Sailors. There is now no doubt in my mind that ModNov was a good idea, and that this was a good topic to choose. School tests, while relevant to students, doesn’t connect to anything. Civil disobedience, on the other hand, connects to everything (especially when half your class is African-American or Indian).
So I’ll start playing with next year’s calendar and get this where it belongs. I’ve already talked to O’C about where he’ll place the Vassar RR.
I can’t wait for September 2010!
We held the first (and far from last) MHL Workshop on Saturday. This stemmed from discussion on the NDCA listserver about costs and whatnot, and I foolishly jumped in and said, okay, we’ll throw a free one-day institute in the Fall for younger students. Sure. Why not? How hard can it be?
Last spring we quickly laid down a broad outline of modules. Then Kaz and JV and O’C and I sat down one hot summer night at the chez and polished it up. Then O’C went off to get instructors. As the VCA knows, I was a little wary of how long it was taking him to do this, but the man ultimately came through with some spectacular folks who did an amazing job for no other reason than that they’re good people. Cruz will shortly list them over on VBD (which I will call for once by its correct name, so that you know what I’m talking about and you go check it out). He’ll also post some pictures (of course).
We had attendees of every persuasion despite the earliness of the event. (We’ll do it later next year.) There were new coaches, parents, novices, JV, Pfffters, Policians, whatever. The hallways between modules were abuzz with people on their cell phones (and in real life communication) talking about the topics and whatnot. Engagement was full-on. Imagine what that would have been like a couple of weeks later!
I participated in the new coaches’ discussion, answering questions and helping folks out with stuff, and then I did second chair on PF case-writing with CP. He’s got a solid scholarly approach to content, so I took the position of filling up the blank sheet of paper, the one where I tell people I’m an editor so I know about writing. (I don’t tell them I’m a blogger because then they wouldn’t believe the claim that I know about writing.) What I enjoyed most, though, was the last session, brainstorming ModNov with these absolutely raw newbies. Sacre bleu (as no one in France has ever said, other than in the comic book “Scrooge McDuck on the Riviera”)! This was late in the day, and these people wouldn’t shut up! We covered all sorts of stuff at a very broad level, like right and wrong and rights in general and civil rights and what-have-you, and it was exciting. I can’t wait to do it with some Sailors. There is now no doubt in my mind that ModNov was a good idea, and that this was a good topic to choose. School tests, while relevant to students, doesn’t connect to anything. Civil disobedience, on the other hand, connects to everything (especially when half your class is African-American or Indian).
So I’ll start playing with next year’s calendar and get this where it belongs. I’ve already talked to O’C about where he’ll place the Vassar RR.
I can’t wait for September 2010!
Friday, September 11, 2009
MHLW Eve, and the stockings are all hung on the chimney with care
We’ve broken a hundred with the MHLW. In the bowling sense, as compared to the golf sense. Given that some schools (obscure ones like Bronx Science, that I’ve never heard of) haven’t entered their data yet, I think we’ve done pretty well, especially given the time of year.
Woo-hoo!
And I just heard from O’C that we got the building! Wait a minute. We just got the building? Whatever.
CP and I are sharing a PF module. The only problem is, the module’s content is unintelligible to us, given that it’s written in debate jargon. First thing we’re teaching: no debate jargon! Jargon, as you probably know, is nothing other than the attempt to make the simple complicated for purposes of initiation. If you call a black-and-blue spot on someone’s body an ecchymosis, that proves you’re a doctor, but it’s still the same bruise. Being able to use a tribe’s language/jargon is presumed to entitle you to membership in that tribe. If you’ve been a student of CT and pomo, and maybe even structuralism, then you know what I’m talking about. For that matter, if you’re a member of the VCA at all you know what I’m talking about. Hell, I put a glossary over there on the right for a reason, you yabbo! Anyhow, if you’re trying to win the ballot of a PF parent judge, I wouldn’t advise you to cross-apply the Zisek evidence off the permute of the cap-bad argument on econ-ecol. You know?
Tomorrow is also the NYCFL meeting. This is where all the Catholics come together and pray that we’ll make it through another year. It’s worked so far in the past. There usually aren’t many issues worth reporting, aside from who runs which Speecho-American event on what weekend, being that there’s only a couple of debate events under Vatican control. But if anything does come up, I’ll let you know.
Woo-hoo!
And I just heard from O’C that we got the building! Wait a minute. We just got the building? Whatever.
CP and I are sharing a PF module. The only problem is, the module’s content is unintelligible to us, given that it’s written in debate jargon. First thing we’re teaching: no debate jargon! Jargon, as you probably know, is nothing other than the attempt to make the simple complicated for purposes of initiation. If you call a black-and-blue spot on someone’s body an ecchymosis, that proves you’re a doctor, but it’s still the same bruise. Being able to use a tribe’s language/jargon is presumed to entitle you to membership in that tribe. If you’ve been a student of CT and pomo, and maybe even structuralism, then you know what I’m talking about. For that matter, if you’re a member of the VCA at all you know what I’m talking about. Hell, I put a glossary over there on the right for a reason, you yabbo! Anyhow, if you’re trying to win the ballot of a PF parent judge, I wouldn’t advise you to cross-apply the Zisek evidence off the permute of the cap-bad argument on econ-ecol. You know?
Tomorrow is also the NYCFL meeting. This is where all the Catholics come together and pray that we’ll make it through another year. It’s worked so far in the past. There usually aren’t many issues worth reporting, aside from who runs which Speecho-American event on what weekend, being that there’s only a couple of debate events under Vatican control. But if anything does come up, I’ll let you know.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
When I'm not playing Tiger Woods 10 on the Wii...
The numbers for the MHL Workshop have perked up a bit, and this definitely looks worthy on its own merits. And it is worthier still as a dipping of the oar into the water for the future. We didn’t have much choice about timing this year, and of course we added it to the schedule late in the season, but next year things will be different. The big thing is to wait a bit till novices are on board, obviously. After that, we’ll see what flies and what doesn’t in the actual doing of it. O’C has assembled a strong team to do the instructing, and the only thing I need to do is figure out with CP what the hell our shared PF module is all about. Other than that, it’s coaches with O’C and brainstorming ModNov with novices. Simple enough, I think. I’m looking forward to it.
On the NYSFL front, there is, as you know, a discussion database now, and we kicked around some ideas about qualifications. The thing is, if a tournament simply ranks people by number, the qual system is fine, I guess, but when there’s break rounds, it falls down. How do you determine 11th place in a tournament that breaks to doubles? If the 11th seed drops in doubles, then is that person still 11th? Et cetera, et cetera. Some different ideas were proposed; I hope action is taken in that area. Other than that, we talked in our summer meeting about redesigning the website, and I volunteered to work on that, so that will be my next bit of business. We did agree that we would pile on a sort of Care Package of material for new coaches, which I have plenty of and I’m sure others have as well. Anyhow, that will be my next thing, when I get a few spare minutes.
And oh, yeah, I sent in my LD topic ballot yesterday. That is so complicated. I think it's the way it is because everyone loves preferential balloting so much; organizing those piles at a district tournament were always the high point. I watch the Wunn and Only do it in his sleep when I was the World's Worst District Chair (a title I still hold, albeit emeritus).
While you’re reading this, SuperSquirrel is recruiting novices with all her heart and soul. One thing that I did ask her to make clear was that one need not be a freshman to sign up, which is a common misconception. Of course, I’d prefer to catch elvers rather than eels, but an old fish is better than no fish. And, of course, I’ll have to clean up my act here for a few weeks as they come on board, young or old. Not that that many Sailors ever actually tie up here, but if some newbies do by accident, I’d hate to scare them away just by blogging about them.
On the NYSFL front, there is, as you know, a discussion database now, and we kicked around some ideas about qualifications. The thing is, if a tournament simply ranks people by number, the qual system is fine, I guess, but when there’s break rounds, it falls down. How do you determine 11th place in a tournament that breaks to doubles? If the 11th seed drops in doubles, then is that person still 11th? Et cetera, et cetera. Some different ideas were proposed; I hope action is taken in that area. Other than that, we talked in our summer meeting about redesigning the website, and I volunteered to work on that, so that will be my next bit of business. We did agree that we would pile on a sort of Care Package of material for new coaches, which I have plenty of and I’m sure others have as well. Anyhow, that will be my next thing, when I get a few spare minutes.
And oh, yeah, I sent in my LD topic ballot yesterday. That is so complicated. I think it's the way it is because everyone loves preferential balloting so much; organizing those piles at a district tournament were always the high point. I watch the Wunn and Only do it in his sleep when I was the World's Worst District Chair (a title I still hold, albeit emeritus).
While you’re reading this, SuperSquirrel is recruiting novices with all her heart and soul. One thing that I did ask her to make clear was that one need not be a freshman to sign up, which is a common misconception. Of course, I’d prefer to catch elvers rather than eels, but an old fish is better than no fish. And, of course, I’ll have to clean up my act here for a few weeks as they come on board, young or old. Not that that many Sailors ever actually tie up here, but if some newbies do by accident, I’d hate to scare them away just by blogging about them.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
"Hello. This is Bubba. How can I help?" (Spoken in Indian accent, of course.)
Knowing CP is like having your own private help desk, with the one difference that he’s in the USA and he knows what he’s talking about. Two differences, he’s in the USA and he knows what he’s talking about and he’s always one step ahead of me. Three differences, but then again, you probably already know all your Monty Python, so I’ll stop now.
As for the non-seen drive connected to Little Elvis, that’s because it’s formatted for Windows. I should have figured that out. Windows can’t see Mac drives without a lot of sturm und drang, or at least they couldn’t once upon a time, whereas the Mac can see anything. So, either reformat or set up a special connection. I think I’ll just copy out the important data and reformat; easier in the long run. It is an old, mostly pointless (and small) drive, after all, that should be dying soon. Then he pointed me to a working beta of Cyberduck, so I can now upload obscenely large files to my site host again; all I need are some obscenely large files. I also have an old version of a program I actually paid for, Captain FTP, but for some reason I prefer Cyberduck. Go figure. How much FTPing do I do in a given life cycle, after all? On top of all of that, I updated Flash and installed Rosetta, and Bigger Elvis seems to be none the worse for wear, although I didn’t test too much last night because I was playing around with the Windows drive thing.
Oh, yeah. I helped someone buy a 15-incher yesterday. Last day of the school discount. I still prefer 13 inches, but that’s just me. CP suggests that Bigger Elvis is a bad name. But Old Fat Elvis seems wrong. Vegas Elvis? Burning Love Elvis? “Hunka hunka burnin’ love.” Hunka Elvis? Hunky Elvis? Honky Elvis?
This is getting us nowhere. Hunka hunka burnin’ love. In my younger days, at a previous DJ, I edited an Elvis book, and we actually threw an Elvis Expo (he died between the planning and the event, as it turned out). We had, on display, the Burnin’ Love jumpsuit, complete with sweating mannequin. Rather remarkable, and quite the attraction. While I was helping unload a truck prior to the expo because the truck unloaders were nowhere around, some person who had been trying to sell me a book of color-your-own mandalas happened to walk by and sympathized with me over my demotion from editor to truck unloader. I accepted her sympathy, the alternative being that I’d probably have had to publish her collection of color-your-own mandalas.
I’ve got a million stories about the old days. Ask me some time.
More germane to the business of debate, CP has laid claim to the control of the signups for the Pups. The thing is, via tabroom.com, one sets a field limit, and then there’s a waitlist. Control of the waitlist, if a tournament is hotly desired, is rather fun. At something like the Pups, control assures that no one school gets a bazillion slots when another school gets none. And people who need to get plane tickets get to know they’ll have slots. Anyhow, with Chris doing that, I don’t have to think about it, and that’s a good thing. I feel that, as far as the Sailors are concerned, my entry is set and the motel is set and the transportation is set, and there you are, except I will read the invitation again one more time to insure I’ve got everything under control. I think we’re back on Friday registering at LC, the building in the middle of the campus that’s central to everything, rather than some backwater over in the corner as we were last year, running debate tab out of a closet somewhere. I usually insist on a men’s room at the very least! LC is nice because we get comfy chairs and JV can run over and yell at everybody without having to exert himself too much. The perfect way to kick off the season.
And as the most organized person I know, watching O’C corral the instructors for the MHLW has been, oh, shall we say, painful. He’s lined up quite a crew (eat your heart out, Camp WTFaMucka), but it’s by the skin of his teeth. On the positive side, he keeps sending me apologetic emails claiming that he owes me for this. He does. Makes me feel like Don Corleone, you know? Some day I will ask of him a favor…
As for the non-seen drive connected to Little Elvis, that’s because it’s formatted for Windows. I should have figured that out. Windows can’t see Mac drives without a lot of sturm und drang, or at least they couldn’t once upon a time, whereas the Mac can see anything. So, either reformat or set up a special connection. I think I’ll just copy out the important data and reformat; easier in the long run. It is an old, mostly pointless (and small) drive, after all, that should be dying soon. Then he pointed me to a working beta of Cyberduck, so I can now upload obscenely large files to my site host again; all I need are some obscenely large files. I also have an old version of a program I actually paid for, Captain FTP, but for some reason I prefer Cyberduck. Go figure. How much FTPing do I do in a given life cycle, after all? On top of all of that, I updated Flash and installed Rosetta, and Bigger Elvis seems to be none the worse for wear, although I didn’t test too much last night because I was playing around with the Windows drive thing.
Oh, yeah. I helped someone buy a 15-incher yesterday. Last day of the school discount. I still prefer 13 inches, but that’s just me. CP suggests that Bigger Elvis is a bad name. But Old Fat Elvis seems wrong. Vegas Elvis? Burning Love Elvis? “Hunka hunka burnin’ love.” Hunka Elvis? Hunky Elvis? Honky Elvis?
This is getting us nowhere. Hunka hunka burnin’ love. In my younger days, at a previous DJ, I edited an Elvis book, and we actually threw an Elvis Expo (he died between the planning and the event, as it turned out). We had, on display, the Burnin’ Love jumpsuit, complete with sweating mannequin. Rather remarkable, and quite the attraction. While I was helping unload a truck prior to the expo because the truck unloaders were nowhere around, some person who had been trying to sell me a book of color-your-own mandalas happened to walk by and sympathized with me over my demotion from editor to truck unloader. I accepted her sympathy, the alternative being that I’d probably have had to publish her collection of color-your-own mandalas.
I’ve got a million stories about the old days. Ask me some time.
More germane to the business of debate, CP has laid claim to the control of the signups for the Pups. The thing is, via tabroom.com, one sets a field limit, and then there’s a waitlist. Control of the waitlist, if a tournament is hotly desired, is rather fun. At something like the Pups, control assures that no one school gets a bazillion slots when another school gets none. And people who need to get plane tickets get to know they’ll have slots. Anyhow, with Chris doing that, I don’t have to think about it, and that’s a good thing. I feel that, as far as the Sailors are concerned, my entry is set and the motel is set and the transportation is set, and there you are, except I will read the invitation again one more time to insure I’ve got everything under control. I think we’re back on Friday registering at LC, the building in the middle of the campus that’s central to everything, rather than some backwater over in the corner as we were last year, running debate tab out of a closet somewhere. I usually insist on a men’s room at the very least! LC is nice because we get comfy chairs and JV can run over and yell at everybody without having to exert himself too much. The perfect way to kick off the season.
And as the most organized person I know, watching O’C corral the instructors for the MHLW has been, oh, shall we say, painful. He’s lined up quite a crew (eat your heart out, Camp WTFaMucka), but it’s by the skin of his teeth. On the positive side, he keeps sending me apologetic emails claiming that he owes me for this. He does. Makes me feel like Don Corleone, you know? Some day I will ask of him a favor…
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Having played dramatically subpar golf, I hang my head in shame and think coachean thoughts
If nothing else, Snow Leopard definitely starts up and shuts down faster that Snowless Leopard. That’s something, anyhow. Apparently I need Rosetta for some printer stuff, which the interwebs tell me won’t screw me up or anything, so I’ll do that tonight. And as I knew Cyberduck is dormant. I heard that Flash was an old outdated version with security flaws (Apple ain't big on publicizing that one), so I updated that. Fusion PC emulation still runs, although when I tested it I was told there’s an update, which I’ve downloaded but not installed. One thing at a time… More to come as I learn it.
I did use some time over the weekend to update Bump. Here’s the overview: mostly, it’s the same. But, I’m eliminating late-change fines. I just can’t get my mind around them, especially in this economic environment. The fees are set, then you pay ‘em, that should be enough, except for one thing. I’m charging $25 a missed judging round, including those yabbos who tell me in advance that they won’t be there for all the rounds. Since I have to buy more judging to cover those rounds, that’s money out of my pocket. No teams with fines outstanding by the final prelim round will be allowed to break (or collect ballots and awards). Suitably draconic? We’ll see.
Otherwise, as I say, mostly the same. I’ve eliminated speed check-in because the physical plant just doesn’t support it unless I were doing it myself, and I can’t guarantee that I will. I’ll try, but I won’t advertise it. And I’ve updated the fields on tabroom.com, although only with the blunt instrumentation of early draftiness. With luck, this will be a done deal by the end of this coming weekend. And I’ll try a podcast of opening remarks again; with luck my site host won’t be hacked again like it was last year.
Surprisingly enough, I’ve already got a novice signed up for the team listserver. SS and the P were apparently successful last week at the recruitment event, and Gung-Ho@gmail.com is already in for the duration. Well, not really Gung Ho, of course, but he might as well be, although in this day and age that does sound mildly vulgar. Anyhow, he might even come down to the Bronchial workshop. We’ll see. School starts for real tomorrow, first meeting next week. Let’s hope we get the proverbial boatload. They’ll all jump ship soon enough, but at least I like to start big.
Speaking of the workshop, a note to O’C: #&^%@$%#@&)*#, you *&#^@%$#$!!! As for everyone else, we’ve got good numbers in most events so far, mostly just failing with novice policy. I did send out a reminder to sign up or cut bait, so that might help. I’d hate to lose a division that would have people in it, but I will cut in advance anything that is undersubscribed. But as I say, most of it looks good. It’s amazing what people will take if you give it away for free.
I did use some time over the weekend to update Bump. Here’s the overview: mostly, it’s the same. But, I’m eliminating late-change fines. I just can’t get my mind around them, especially in this economic environment. The fees are set, then you pay ‘em, that should be enough, except for one thing. I’m charging $25 a missed judging round, including those yabbos who tell me in advance that they won’t be there for all the rounds. Since I have to buy more judging to cover those rounds, that’s money out of my pocket. No teams with fines outstanding by the final prelim round will be allowed to break (or collect ballots and awards). Suitably draconic? We’ll see.
Otherwise, as I say, mostly the same. I’ve eliminated speed check-in because the physical plant just doesn’t support it unless I were doing it myself, and I can’t guarantee that I will. I’ll try, but I won’t advertise it. And I’ve updated the fields on tabroom.com, although only with the blunt instrumentation of early draftiness. With luck, this will be a done deal by the end of this coming weekend. And I’ll try a podcast of opening remarks again; with luck my site host won’t be hacked again like it was last year.
Surprisingly enough, I’ve already got a novice signed up for the team listserver. SS and the P were apparently successful last week at the recruitment event, and Gung-Ho@gmail.com is already in for the duration. Well, not really Gung Ho, of course, but he might as well be, although in this day and age that does sound mildly vulgar. Anyhow, he might even come down to the Bronchial workshop. We’ll see. School starts for real tomorrow, first meeting next week. Let’s hope we get the proverbial boatload. They’ll all jump ship soon enough, but at least I like to start big.
Speaking of the workshop, a note to O’C: #&^%@$%#@&)*#, you *&#^@%$#$!!! As for everyone else, we’ve got good numbers in most events so far, mostly just failing with novice policy. I did send out a reminder to sign up or cut bait, so that might help. I’d hate to lose a division that would have people in it, but I will cut in advance anything that is undersubscribed. But as I say, most of it looks good. It’s amazing what people will take if you give it away for free.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Preparing to play subpar golf, I meditate on OS issues, O'C entropy, shared drives and applied mathematics
I'm hanging around waiting to drive out to golf.
Bigger Elvis is sitting next to me, installing Snow Leopard, which takes forever, of course. I bit the bullet, in other words. But I checked drivers, and I should be okay with printers, and as far as other software, I don't have much, and the thing still has that new-car smell, so I figured, how bad could it be? I'll find out tonight, I guess. Anyhow, I've been religiously backing up, so if there is some dire problem, I'll be set.
This Saturday is the MHL Workshop, provided O'C ever tells me who the instructors are. He claims that places like Camp WTFaMucka don't assign modules until a couple of days after it starts, which may be true but which does not warm the cockles of my particular heart. On the other hand, what does warm the cockles is that now every activity except for novice policy is reasonably large, and there's still more to come. Novice pol may suffer for it being so early in the year; if numbers stay down, we'll can it, but we've still got a few days to find out. If you haven't signed up yet, you might want to do so now.
Oh. Bigger E just booted, although the disk never stopped chugging. Whatever.
Speaking of tech, the People's Champion told me in response to my recent plaintive plea about shared drives that I could set the drives to be read, but it doesn't work like that on Little E, at least. You either set it for sharing drives, or not. No specifying which drives. This is beginning to become interesting (albeit ultimately unimportant). I may do more research, especially since the alternative is biting my nails to the stubs over O'C and the workshop.
Still installing, despite reboot. Time remaining, 33 minutes. I'm leaving in about ten minutes, as soon as I make a sandwich.
Enjoy the weekend (it's been gorgeous here in the NE). Oh, speaking of which, one thing. Although the pieces on WTF are interesting, and may indeed reflect trends, it is more by coincidence than mathematics. Having worked in statistics at the DJ, I can pretty safely say that the samples are way too small for any decent analysis of the TOC beyond the anecdotal. Fun, in other words, but be wary of taking it to the bank. Remember, you've heard this from 100% of the coaches surveyed by this website.
Bigger Elvis is sitting next to me, installing Snow Leopard, which takes forever, of course. I bit the bullet, in other words. But I checked drivers, and I should be okay with printers, and as far as other software, I don't have much, and the thing still has that new-car smell, so I figured, how bad could it be? I'll find out tonight, I guess. Anyhow, I've been religiously backing up, so if there is some dire problem, I'll be set.
This Saturday is the MHL Workshop, provided O'C ever tells me who the instructors are. He claims that places like Camp WTFaMucka don't assign modules until a couple of days after it starts, which may be true but which does not warm the cockles of my particular heart. On the other hand, what does warm the cockles is that now every activity except for novice policy is reasonably large, and there's still more to come. Novice pol may suffer for it being so early in the year; if numbers stay down, we'll can it, but we've still got a few days to find out. If you haven't signed up yet, you might want to do so now.
Oh. Bigger E just booted, although the disk never stopped chugging. Whatever.
Speaking of tech, the People's Champion told me in response to my recent plaintive plea about shared drives that I could set the drives to be read, but it doesn't work like that on Little E, at least. You either set it for sharing drives, or not. No specifying which drives. This is beginning to become interesting (albeit ultimately unimportant). I may do more research, especially since the alternative is biting my nails to the stubs over O'C and the workshop.
Still installing, despite reboot. Time remaining, 33 minutes. I'm leaving in about ten minutes, as soon as I make a sandwich.
Enjoy the weekend (it's been gorgeous here in the NE). Oh, speaking of which, one thing. Although the pieces on WTF are interesting, and may indeed reflect trends, it is more by coincidence than mathematics. Having worked in statistics at the DJ, I can pretty safely say that the samples are way too small for any decent analysis of the TOC beyond the anecdotal. Fun, in other words, but be wary of taking it to the bank. Remember, you've heard this from 100% of the coaches surveyed by this website.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
1201
Good grief. Yesterday was post number 1200. Yaketty yaketty yak...
Anyhow, I’m finally getting a few things off my to-do list. Last night I put together and edited my series on PF, and saved it out as a PDF over there on the right-hand column under the Greatest Hits heading. I also added it to the Sailor website. Feel free to grab it for yourself, and use it as either the bible or as the quintessential guide on how not to PF. Your call. At least I’m done with it for now.
I don’t seem to have any Sailors on the immediate PF waters in October. I can’t say I’m wildly enthusiastic about the topic. It’s virtually identical to an old LD rez aside from the UN part of it. What torpedoed it in LD was that people would run “sustainable development,” thus totally ignoring the conflict. Sustainability is a compromise between the two sides, not a choice between the two sides. My blood boiled for two months straight, if I recall correctly. The PF wording shouldn’t have that same result, but the UN aspect sort of throws me. I guess an agent of action is required, but given the lack of authority in that particular agent, I suspect a lot of smoke and mirrors will be employed in people’s cases. But, as I say, it probably won’t affect me at all, so I won’t bother about it herein.
We had a most intimate chez last night with the Panivore and SuperSquirrel. SS has returned from Camp WTFaMucka with a list of case positions on Sept-Oct that makes one wonder if people out there have ever heard of the concept of inherent contradiction. I love when one side runs the other side’s position and doesn’t even know it. Needless to say there’s plenty of mutton-headed approaches to the topic (both independent of and stemming from Camp WTFaMucka), but buried among them are a couple of obvious ones, and I have a feeling that people seriously seeking bids will quickly dispense with the silly stuff and get down to the real business of the pros and cons of testing. I certainly hope so. What are the pros? Well, I hate to tell you, but separating the elite from the riffraff, one popular case position, isn’t really one of them. But tests that objectively measure knowledge seem to be useful when there’s a need to do that measuring. Against it one could say that the objectivity is impossible, which is cute and current (if you think CT from the 80s is current, but LD does usually run about a generation behind state-of-the-art academics) but maybe not necessarily true. Can you create an algebra exam devoid of social context? Frankly, how can you not? I mean, the day X+Y=3 is biased against [fill in identity] is the day X+Y actually <> 3. Oh, well. Anyhow, there’s better arguments in the purer areas of pedagogy, in the goals of knowledge and teaching and education, and there will be a few lost souls in LD land who will attempt debating at that level. I salute them.
Long weekend coming up, so you probably won’t hear from me for a few days, unless I don’t get the instructor suggestions from O’C real soon now. In which case you’ll see me on the Eleven O’Clock News being dragged away from his bleeding, battered body. Although, of course, I’ll claim innocence. “His mother did it,” I’ll say, pointing to her Facebook messages. I’ll be back on the streets by midnight.
Anyhow, I’m finally getting a few things off my to-do list. Last night I put together and edited my series on PF, and saved it out as a PDF over there on the right-hand column under the Greatest Hits heading. I also added it to the Sailor website. Feel free to grab it for yourself, and use it as either the bible or as the quintessential guide on how not to PF. Your call. At least I’m done with it for now.
I don’t seem to have any Sailors on the immediate PF waters in October. I can’t say I’m wildly enthusiastic about the topic. It’s virtually identical to an old LD rez aside from the UN part of it. What torpedoed it in LD was that people would run “sustainable development,” thus totally ignoring the conflict. Sustainability is a compromise between the two sides, not a choice between the two sides. My blood boiled for two months straight, if I recall correctly. The PF wording shouldn’t have that same result, but the UN aspect sort of throws me. I guess an agent of action is required, but given the lack of authority in that particular agent, I suspect a lot of smoke and mirrors will be employed in people’s cases. But, as I say, it probably won’t affect me at all, so I won’t bother about it herein.
We had a most intimate chez last night with the Panivore and SuperSquirrel. SS has returned from Camp WTFaMucka with a list of case positions on Sept-Oct that makes one wonder if people out there have ever heard of the concept of inherent contradiction. I love when one side runs the other side’s position and doesn’t even know it. Needless to say there’s plenty of mutton-headed approaches to the topic (both independent of and stemming from Camp WTFaMucka), but buried among them are a couple of obvious ones, and I have a feeling that people seriously seeking bids will quickly dispense with the silly stuff and get down to the real business of the pros and cons of testing. I certainly hope so. What are the pros? Well, I hate to tell you, but separating the elite from the riffraff, one popular case position, isn’t really one of them. But tests that objectively measure knowledge seem to be useful when there’s a need to do that measuring. Against it one could say that the objectivity is impossible, which is cute and current (if you think CT from the 80s is current, but LD does usually run about a generation behind state-of-the-art academics) but maybe not necessarily true. Can you create an algebra exam devoid of social context? Frankly, how can you not? I mean, the day X+Y=3 is biased against [fill in identity] is the day X+Y actually <> 3. Oh, well. Anyhow, there’s better arguments in the purer areas of pedagogy, in the goals of knowledge and teaching and education, and there will be a few lost souls in LD land who will attempt debating at that level. I salute them.
Long weekend coming up, so you probably won’t hear from me for a few days, unless I don’t get the instructor suggestions from O’C real soon now. In which case you’ll see me on the Eleven O’Clock News being dragged away from his bleeding, battered body. Although, of course, I’ll claim innocence. “His mother did it,” I’ll say, pointing to her Facebook messages. I’ll be back on the streets by midnight.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Killer moths (shades of Mieville), killer PSATs, killer tweets, killer dummies
This is the last day of August. Once again we wonder how we managed to squander an entire summer without feeling as if summer ever happened. In the northeast, this was possibly the worst weather ever, with a couple of nice days but mostly rain whenever you needed sun, and cold whenever you need warm, and generally bleeech whenever you needed aahhhhh. So it goes. If past were meteorological prelude, the coming winter would look like something out of some story with a lot of winter in it (I can’t think of one offhand, so you’ll have to be a little supportive here of my failing memory), except, as far as weather is concerned, there are no reliable signs of weather to come. Past is not meteorological prelude. That is, if the wildebeests or carnivorous caterpillars or whatever have mangier coats this summer, that does not indicate above average snowfall in the coming winter. The coats of wildebeests or carnivorous caterpillars or whatever can only reflect last year’s snowfall. Trust me on this. I’m a weather lore expert. (For example, “Cat sleeps on its brain, sure sign of rain.” I got a million of ‘em.)
The Sailors of the Junior persuasion seem to have suddenly suffered PSAT shock, as in, “The test is Big Jake weekend, wait a minute, how does that affect me?” Given that 3/4s of my entry is of that junior persuasion, this could be a real slimming down. They are all at sixes and sevens, and I’m no help because, not being a school sort, I have no idea what the options are, if any. I’ve suggested they actually ask someone who knows something about the subject, a radical idea if there ever was one, but then again, I’m full of radical ideas. I trust they’ll sort this out over the next couple of days. Same group is debating Sept-Oct elsewhere, however, regardless. We’re putting together a nice entry for Monticello, for example, and I’ve already got a couple of hotel rooms at the notorious oh-no-two-nights-minimum-oh-wait-we’ll-call-you-back motel that is the only one in the city that doesn’t offer on-site shootings. And of course there’s also the Pups, although I must point out that my Speecho-American entry for which is about as solid as [damn, I need another metaphor; it’s been one of those days, obviously]. Don’t ask.
I just did a little test of @tabroom for the Pups, by the way, as in, I do a direct message from my cell when I don’t have wireless. Worked fine. I will alert the troops shortly of the tweeting of the event. I notice the WTF is reviving their Twitter account to tweet, well, every event. I await the results of this with trepidation, since my interest in tournaments I am not attending ranks about as high as [no, no, not again!!! I’m going to need to remove the word “as” from my writing vocabulary].
The MHLW is slowly getting some decent numbers. I’ll send out a couple more reminders this week and next, to get things working. O’C will help me assign instructors today or tomorrow, and we’ll be set there. If you’re coming and you haven’t signed up yet, please do, even if it’s only dummy names, so we’ll have some ideas of numbers. Just don’t tell your debaters that you think they’re dummies.
The Sailors of the Junior persuasion seem to have suddenly suffered PSAT shock, as in, “The test is Big Jake weekend, wait a minute, how does that affect me?” Given that 3/4s of my entry is of that junior persuasion, this could be a real slimming down. They are all at sixes and sevens, and I’m no help because, not being a school sort, I have no idea what the options are, if any. I’ve suggested they actually ask someone who knows something about the subject, a radical idea if there ever was one, but then again, I’m full of radical ideas. I trust they’ll sort this out over the next couple of days. Same group is debating Sept-Oct elsewhere, however, regardless. We’re putting together a nice entry for Monticello, for example, and I’ve already got a couple of hotel rooms at the notorious oh-no-two-nights-minimum-oh-wait-we’ll-call-you-back motel that is the only one in the city that doesn’t offer on-site shootings. And of course there’s also the Pups, although I must point out that my Speecho-American entry for which is about as solid as [damn, I need another metaphor; it’s been one of those days, obviously]. Don’t ask.
I just did a little test of @tabroom for the Pups, by the way, as in, I do a direct message from my cell when I don’t have wireless. Worked fine. I will alert the troops shortly of the tweeting of the event. I notice the WTF is reviving their Twitter account to tweet, well, every event. I await the results of this with trepidation, since my interest in tournaments I am not attending ranks about as high as [no, no, not again!!! I’m going to need to remove the word “as” from my writing vocabulary].
The MHLW is slowly getting some decent numbers. I’ll send out a couple more reminders this week and next, to get things working. O’C will help me assign instructors today or tomorrow, and we’ll be set there. If you’re coming and you haven’t signed up yet, please do, even if it’s only dummy names, so we’ll have some ideas of numbers. Just don’t tell your debaters that you think they’re dummies.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Chez nuts, fan boys, yabbos and pills
So we sat around chezzing last night and came up with bupkes on Sept-Oct. Okay, not exactly bupkes, but close enough. The thing is, standardized testing seems to exist as an attempt to provide equality. While it could conceivably fail to do so because a particular test is flawed, I really don’t believe in CT arguments that would claim that all testing in inherently flawed and unjust. I mean, people, it just ain’t true. If you really believe that an algebra test discriminates against anyone because of race, gender, creed or color, your issue isn’t with the test but with algebra itself. (Unless women aren’t good at equations with both X and Y in them because of their chromosomes? You know, that would explain the gender gap in math if, in fact, the gender gap in math wasn’t a myth.) This shifts the question to whether algebra, or any subject you may care to name, is intrinsically flawed as a study in secondary school. The tests seem rather incidental to the question at that point. Anyhow, no immediate hooks for serious discussion of the issue arose as we sat around relatively undisturbed by Tik (pronounced teek, who seemed much more interested last week in attacking coaches than he did this week in attacking students. He is a cat of discriminating tastes. We will attempt the same again next week. I’ll do some more research myself in the interim, for what it’s worth. Anyhow, it was nice to tentatively get back into the swing of (debate) things again. The season slowly clicks into place.
I noticed yesterday that this blog has a Facebook fan page. Interesting. I wasn’t aware of that. I always feel so friendless on Fb compared to, say, O’C, who has more friends than Carter has little liver pills (now there’s a line I haven’t heard since my great-grandmother died). Of course, I hardly ever befriend anybody unless they keep getting recommended to me by the Fb software and I get tired of looking at their face and I befriend them to make the recommendation go away. Which, I think, is not the point of social networking, but what can I say?
(Two weeks till the MHLW. Have you signed up yet? What are you waiting for, you yabbo????)
For those of you who track this sort of thing, I think I have finally gotten back into the normal pacing of existence following my northwest vacation. This one really threw me off: the DJ is just too busy and demanding these days. Which, of course, just engenders the need for more vacations, followed by more displacement and busier and more demanding DJ days. But I’ll give up vacations when O’C gives up Carter’s Little Liver Pills. I like having the break. I need that break. It’s just the mess the break leaves behind that’s the problem. So it goes.
I noticed yesterday that this blog has a Facebook fan page. Interesting. I wasn’t aware of that. I always feel so friendless on Fb compared to, say, O’C, who has more friends than Carter has little liver pills (now there’s a line I haven’t heard since my great-grandmother died). Of course, I hardly ever befriend anybody unless they keep getting recommended to me by the Fb software and I get tired of looking at their face and I befriend them to make the recommendation go away. Which, I think, is not the point of social networking, but what can I say?
(Two weeks till the MHLW. Have you signed up yet? What are you waiting for, you yabbo????)
For those of you who track this sort of thing, I think I have finally gotten back into the normal pacing of existence following my northwest vacation. This one really threw me off: the DJ is just too busy and demanding these days. Which, of course, just engenders the need for more vacations, followed by more displacement and busier and more demanding DJ days. But I’ll give up vacations when O’C gives up Carter’s Little Liver Pills. I like having the break. I need that break. It’s just the mess the break leaves behind that’s the problem. So it goes.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
MHL is now MHL, topics, justice, Pups, orgs
I sent out an update on MHL today, although most of it was old news, aside from the fact that the MHLW will include modules for varsity team leaders. We have transitioned from the old name (MHL) to the new name (MHL). Anyone who has trouble with the change can use the mnemonic device More Hungry Latvians (MHL!). That’s how I remember it.
We talked a bit about topic choices Tuesday night at the Elder Hostel Chez, a natural since JV is on the selection committee. Which reminded me I’ve got to get my list put together. I was just looking it over again. How much you want to bet that if the nuke topic is selected, some yabbo critiques states as entities like Rhode Island? Can you imagine if Alaska had had WMDs during the tenure of the previous governor? Mama mia! We wouldn’t even have had death panels to help her choose who to nuke!
I played with my new thoughts on Justice against my old material on Justice last night, and decided that the new was better than the old but that the old did contain some good information left out of the new. Which got me going into the cur for the first time this season. Sure enough, last year I had kicked off with morality because of the fat-trolleyman topic. It worked okay, but I do sort of prefer a political theory kickoff over good old right and wrong. Anyhow, the cur is now pulled out of the dusty pile of old stuff and back into the get-on-it-bubbo pile of new stuff, which makes the season seem all that much closer. And, of course, it is.
Yale opened yesterday. As of my last look, the Pups had almost gotten VLD totally filled up. There’s a new look to tabroom.com, and it only took a minute to get used to it, and most of it works fine. The Sailors are totally organized, sort of, for the event. 10 ABs altogether, 4 LD and 6 Speecho-Americans, 3 judges, 6 hotel rooms. Kaz said that there’s going to be space for early-arriving Policians to hang out on Friday (they don’t start debating till Saturday) which solves a problem I had of a couple of S-As to dump somewhere without sending them off unchaperoned into the wilds of New Haven. One less thing to worry about.
Meanwhile I’ve got to find some time to drop in on lddebate.org, which O’C has unaccountably breathed new life into. I’ve never been a fan of bbds but I do recall following the org’s threads back in the day. The day is apparently here again. O’C even made me a moderator. I should go find out what it is I’m moderating…
We talked a bit about topic choices Tuesday night at the Elder Hostel Chez, a natural since JV is on the selection committee. Which reminded me I’ve got to get my list put together. I was just looking it over again. How much you want to bet that if the nuke topic is selected, some yabbo critiques states as entities like Rhode Island? Can you imagine if Alaska had had WMDs during the tenure of the previous governor? Mama mia! We wouldn’t even have had death panels to help her choose who to nuke!
I played with my new thoughts on Justice against my old material on Justice last night, and decided that the new was better than the old but that the old did contain some good information left out of the new. Which got me going into the cur for the first time this season. Sure enough, last year I had kicked off with morality because of the fat-trolleyman topic. It worked okay, but I do sort of prefer a political theory kickoff over good old right and wrong. Anyhow, the cur is now pulled out of the dusty pile of old stuff and back into the get-on-it-bubbo pile of new stuff, which makes the season seem all that much closer. And, of course, it is.
Yale opened yesterday. As of my last look, the Pups had almost gotten VLD totally filled up. There’s a new look to tabroom.com, and it only took a minute to get used to it, and most of it works fine. The Sailors are totally organized, sort of, for the event. 10 ABs altogether, 4 LD and 6 Speecho-Americans, 3 judges, 6 hotel rooms. Kaz said that there’s going to be space for early-arriving Policians to hang out on Friday (they don’t start debating till Saturday) which solves a problem I had of a couple of S-As to dump somewhere without sending them off unchaperoned into the wilds of New Haven. One less thing to worry about.
Meanwhile I’ve got to find some time to drop in on lddebate.org, which O’C has unaccountably breathed new life into. I’ve never been a fan of bbds but I do recall following the org’s threads back in the day. The day is apparently here again. O’C even made me a moderator. I should go find out what it is I’m moderating…
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Chez Moi: Elder Hostel Division
There are chezzes and there are chezzes. The usual chez has me sitting at my desk in the family room and Sailors sitting scattered about and Tik (pronounced teek) nastily biting anyone who forgets for even a second that there are monsters walking the earth. We gossip mindlessly for a while until finally getting down to business and talking about the resolution or whatever, interrupting ourselves with more gossip and we go along, plus solving the occasional medical emergency brought on by the cat. As a matter of fact, I’ve scheduled just such a chez for next week to discuss Sept-Oct with the assembled multitudes.
Last night, however, we had a chez of a different stripe. JV and O’C and Kaz came over to hammer out the curriculum for the MHL Workshop on 9/12. If you ask me, we did a pretty good job of it. Sure, we did have to have dinner first and gossip mindlessly for a while, but to tell you the truth, not much has transpired lately that you don’t already know about. Everyone’s aware, for instance, that Bill flew the Coop, or Coop flew the Arthur L, or whatever, for instance. A few programs that have been just under the radar may be resurfacing, which is a good thing, but there were no surprises there either. There was nothing as earth-shattering as O’C forswearing Disney princesses or anything else equally cataclysmic. And when Tik started attacking people and striking poses variously interpretable as either oddly cute or incipiently maleficent, I locked him out of the room for the rest of the night. So, mostly, we got down to business, and it’s looking awfully good. We should be able to publicize it by the end of the week, after we all polish it up. One big new thing is the addition of a, for lack of a better term, Senior Track. We’re going to invite teams to send their top varsity to help us scope out ideas for developing ModNov, and also brainstorm among themselves ways to train their novices. Since we’ve also got novices and JV and parents and coaches covered, in LD, PF and Policy, I think we’ve covered just about everything. As I say, I’ll send everything out by the end of the week. If you’re on the fence about being there, it’s time to cut bait, or whatever.
It was also nice to see a substantial portion of the Northeast’s Traveling Tabroom again after a long hiatus. We work together so much during the year, and I sort of miss everybody during the summer, since unlike them I get no forensics fix via any camps, aside from looking at the WTF site and trying not to gag. So just on a social level, it was fun. Damned hot, though. If I hadn’t known it was summer, last night would have set me straight.
Last night, however, we had a chez of a different stripe. JV and O’C and Kaz came over to hammer out the curriculum for the MHL Workshop on 9/12. If you ask me, we did a pretty good job of it. Sure, we did have to have dinner first and gossip mindlessly for a while, but to tell you the truth, not much has transpired lately that you don’t already know about. Everyone’s aware, for instance, that Bill flew the Coop, or Coop flew the Arthur L, or whatever, for instance. A few programs that have been just under the radar may be resurfacing, which is a good thing, but there were no surprises there either. There was nothing as earth-shattering as O’C forswearing Disney princesses or anything else equally cataclysmic. And when Tik started attacking people and striking poses variously interpretable as either oddly cute or incipiently maleficent, I locked him out of the room for the rest of the night. So, mostly, we got down to business, and it’s looking awfully good. We should be able to publicize it by the end of the week, after we all polish it up. One big new thing is the addition of a, for lack of a better term, Senior Track. We’re going to invite teams to send their top varsity to help us scope out ideas for developing ModNov, and also brainstorm among themselves ways to train their novices. Since we’ve also got novices and JV and parents and coaches covered, in LD, PF and Policy, I think we’ve covered just about everything. As I say, I’ll send everything out by the end of the week. If you’re on the fence about being there, it’s time to cut bait, or whatever.
It was also nice to see a substantial portion of the Northeast’s Traveling Tabroom again after a long hiatus. We work together so much during the year, and I sort of miss everybody during the summer, since unlike them I get no forensics fix via any camps, aside from looking at the WTF site and trying not to gag. So just on a social level, it was fun. Damned hot, though. If I hadn’t known it was summer, last night would have set me straight.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Jake, the MHLW, Pups and Bump
While I was away, of course, Big Jake came and went. Registration, that is. It opened on August 1st and closed on August 1st. According to O’C, he’s got enough people on the waiting list to run another tournament simultaneously. And a really good tournament at that. But he’s doing it the right way. There have to be limits, of both schools and field, otherwise a handful of schools can throw off the competition completely. All the major national tournaments worth anything work likewise. Not that I don’t like a venue with open limits, mind you, especially when I’ve got a mess o’ novvies to herd, but if you’re trying to develop a highfalutin event, you need highfalutin rules. So it goes.
A few of us are meeting next week to polish the curriculum for the MHL Workshop, or MHLW as we call it. (If you haven’t already done so, check out the details on the MHL site, and feel free to sign up.) We’ve already got a good starter set of JVers signed up in both LD and Policy. Given the late start of the school year (after Labor Day, which is also late), I don’t know what our novice slate will look like. There won’t be any Sailors, for instance. I won’t even have had the first meeting yet. But it might be better if the workshop this year is small. It will give us a chance to try things out and, if it’s a hit, make it bigger, and later, next year.
The next registration on the docket will be for the Pups. I don’t think CP has put anything together yet but he’s got a few hours before it opens and I’m sure he’ll come through. I’ve got a bunch of Sailors lined up, and a bunch of hotel rooms, and some drivers, and at some point between now and the end of this week I’ve got to finalize all of it and make it so.
After that, I’ll have to start thinking about—oy—Bump. Nothing much will change from last year, although I’m beginning to focus in on judge commitments. A lot of people sign up for a tournament and register judges, and then add notes about all the rounds the judges won’t be able to attend. My theory is that if you have debaters in all the rounds, you need judges in all the rounds. Am I missing something here? I’m thinking about eliminating pre-registration fines altogether and instituting missing-judge surcharges. The only problem is, I don’t want people to think that I’m condoning it because I’m allowing them to buy out. Other than that, as I say, it will probably be status quo. As longtime members of the VCA know, I hate Bump with every fiber of my being. I’m happy to run your tournament, but running my own? It is for the proverbial birds.
A few of us are meeting next week to polish the curriculum for the MHL Workshop, or MHLW as we call it. (If you haven’t already done so, check out the details on the MHL site, and feel free to sign up.) We’ve already got a good starter set of JVers signed up in both LD and Policy. Given the late start of the school year (after Labor Day, which is also late), I don’t know what our novice slate will look like. There won’t be any Sailors, for instance. I won’t even have had the first meeting yet. But it might be better if the workshop this year is small. It will give us a chance to try things out and, if it’s a hit, make it bigger, and later, next year.
The next registration on the docket will be for the Pups. I don’t think CP has put anything together yet but he’s got a few hours before it opens and I’m sure he’ll come through. I’ve got a bunch of Sailors lined up, and a bunch of hotel rooms, and some drivers, and at some point between now and the end of this week I’ve got to finalize all of it and make it so.
After that, I’ll have to start thinking about—oy—Bump. Nothing much will change from last year, although I’m beginning to focus in on judge commitments. A lot of people sign up for a tournament and register judges, and then add notes about all the rounds the judges won’t be able to attend. My theory is that if you have debaters in all the rounds, you need judges in all the rounds. Am I missing something here? I’m thinking about eliminating pre-registration fines altogether and instituting missing-judge surcharges. The only problem is, I don’t want people to think that I’m condoning it because I’m allowing them to buy out. Other than that, as I say, it will probably be status quo. As longtime members of the VCA know, I hate Bump with every fiber of my being. I’m happy to run your tournament, but running my own? It is for the proverbial birds.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
In which we study the irons in today's fire.
I’m trying to be productive. Really. I’m not just bloviating on my pipedream of an active virtual coaches league. In fact, I’m putting that aside for a while (or more to the point, working up some concrete examples offline). So, meanwhile, what else is going on?
First of all, CatNats is this weekend. My chief interest is learning some more about Pffft, which I’ll be judging. As I’ve said before, what eludes me is a paradigm for winning rounds. What, exactly, is a team supposed to do? In the rounds I’ve seen, admittedly of a pick-up nature (at Districts), everybody knew how to put it together but nobody knew how to close. But in debate, closing = winning. So, how do (presumably) good Pfffters close? With luck, I’ll find out. Or maybe everybody just flounders around, hoping that looking sharp will do the job. I certainly hope not, but what is, is. We’ll find out soon enough.
I’ll also be testing Twitter as a team-roundup tool, with a small experimental team to round up (the Panivore and the People’s Champion). Relatives at home will follow our progress. This should keep everybody connected and provide the sort of information that families like to have (such as, is my child still on the planet?). Additionally, I’ll be microblogging on Twitter at @jimmenick, if anyone is interested. That information will not be echoed over to Facebook, needless to say. My feeling is, get the right tool for the job. Facebook is not a good tool for microblogging (despite Zuckerberg’s feelings to the contrary); Twitter is. Of course, I’m aware how Twitter is quite definitely not an adolescent’s app. The numbers on this are rather clear that it is a tool for the fogie contingent. Still, that’s no reason for students not to embrace it, or at least debate students, who are hardly representative of the breed of adolescent in the wild. (More of a subspecies, if you ask me. Or a mutation.)
I’ve put together a tentative (and I mean tentative!) curriculum for the MHL institute/workshop in September, and passed it along to the usual suspects. As I said to them, I’m probably the last person who should be doing this, having had no experience of debate institutes a’tall, but I did take notes at our initial discussion, and I do know how to construct a spreadsheet…
Another issue that’s hanging fire is developing some content for the Modest Novice. I’d like to get some structured material posted so that coaches can work from, at the very least, a decent brief. In a way, that will dovetail with the MHLi/w, which will cover ModNov for the newbies. Again, it’s something that’s got to be done, so, I guess I’ve gotta do it. I did post an interesting article on legal postivism, which is hardly novice grist, but is quite interesting for the rest of us.
And lastly, I’m looking forward later tonight to hooking up my 1T hard drive. I think it makes sense to network it, which would untether Little Elvis, which if nothing else is my iTunes machine, but which also could use a little fresh air and exercise as I cogitate over what and how to upgrade this Fall. So many options: netbooks (with Windows 7, about which I’ve heard nothing but praise), MacBooks with Snow Leopard (about which I’ll assume nothing but praise, but having a non-Intel Mac is starting to get a little lonely), iMacs (think desktop), etc., etc. Oh, yeah, I should point out, as well, so little money. Last I heard there was a recession going on around here.
So, that’s where we are on most fronts of interest. Excelsior, you fathead! (As Jean Shepherd would explain it.)
First of all, CatNats is this weekend. My chief interest is learning some more about Pffft, which I’ll be judging. As I’ve said before, what eludes me is a paradigm for winning rounds. What, exactly, is a team supposed to do? In the rounds I’ve seen, admittedly of a pick-up nature (at Districts), everybody knew how to put it together but nobody knew how to close. But in debate, closing = winning. So, how do (presumably) good Pfffters close? With luck, I’ll find out. Or maybe everybody just flounders around, hoping that looking sharp will do the job. I certainly hope not, but what is, is. We’ll find out soon enough.
I’ll also be testing Twitter as a team-roundup tool, with a small experimental team to round up (the Panivore and the People’s Champion). Relatives at home will follow our progress. This should keep everybody connected and provide the sort of information that families like to have (such as, is my child still on the planet?). Additionally, I’ll be microblogging on Twitter at @jimmenick, if anyone is interested. That information will not be echoed over to Facebook, needless to say. My feeling is, get the right tool for the job. Facebook is not a good tool for microblogging (despite Zuckerberg’s feelings to the contrary); Twitter is. Of course, I’m aware how Twitter is quite definitely not an adolescent’s app. The numbers on this are rather clear that it is a tool for the fogie contingent. Still, that’s no reason for students not to embrace it, or at least debate students, who are hardly representative of the breed of adolescent in the wild. (More of a subspecies, if you ask me. Or a mutation.)
I’ve put together a tentative (and I mean tentative!) curriculum for the MHL institute/workshop in September, and passed it along to the usual suspects. As I said to them, I’m probably the last person who should be doing this, having had no experience of debate institutes a’tall, but I did take notes at our initial discussion, and I do know how to construct a spreadsheet…
Another issue that’s hanging fire is developing some content for the Modest Novice. I’d like to get some structured material posted so that coaches can work from, at the very least, a decent brief. In a way, that will dovetail with the MHLi/w, which will cover ModNov for the newbies. Again, it’s something that’s got to be done, so, I guess I’ve gotta do it. I did post an interesting article on legal postivism, which is hardly novice grist, but is quite interesting for the rest of us.
And lastly, I’m looking forward later tonight to hooking up my 1T hard drive. I think it makes sense to network it, which would untether Little Elvis, which if nothing else is my iTunes machine, but which also could use a little fresh air and exercise as I cogitate over what and how to upgrade this Fall. So many options: netbooks (with Windows 7, about which I’ve heard nothing but praise), MacBooks with Snow Leopard (about which I’ll assume nothing but praise, but having a non-Intel Mac is starting to get a little lonely), iMacs (think desktop), etc., etc. Oh, yeah, I should point out, as well, so little money. Last I heard there was a recession going on around here.
So, that’s where we are on most fronts of interest. Excelsior, you fathead! (As Jean Shepherd would explain it.)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
A tad of venom is released, but things settle down once we engage the warp drive
I just can’t agree with commenter Rob, that if we were to ask the NFL to do something like this, that they would do it, and do it well. I may be completely wrong, however, so if someone in some position in the NFL is reading this, please respond.
And that’s why I think I’m right. Either 1) no one in any position in the NFL is reading this, or 2) they’re reading it and not acting on it. This is not the first time I’ve discussed NFL business. Most recently, I went into an incredible song and dance about adhering to NFL rules on LD, so it’s not exactly as if I’m inimical to them (although, anecdotally, my understanding is that they think I make the antichrist look like Mary Poppins). And let’s face it, after VBD, this is probably the most popular high school forensics blog in the country, so it’s hardly unknown. So either Rippin’ really doesn’t know (which is inexcusable) or else Rippin’ really doesn’t care (which is more inexcusable) or else Rippin’ really does think I make the antichrist look like Mary Poppins (which, if you actually read the Travers books, is not such an odd suggestion, but seriously could only be based on my unwillingness to act as the country’s world’s worst district chair because I feel that their rules indirectly punish schools from New York, but as members of the VCA know, I tried hard to do a good job for many, many years, for which the only thank you I ever received from NFL was a lack of acknowledgment of my resignation—yeah, a little bit of sour grapes, I admit it).
Bietz, of course, has taken the bait and agreed to try hosting something like this with NDCA, and asked if I would participate. To which the answer is, of course I will, although I would not give up my venue here for all the coffee in Seattle. I look forward to working with him on it, and ironing out ways of making it effective along the lines already discussed. (Here's his blog post.) I think the first thing we need to do is figure out who, exactly, is already blogging, even just a little bit.
Meanwhile, the next concentration has to be the free MHL Workshop in September. I’d like to get a broad sense of the curriculum in hand for CatNats to spread it around to the assembled multitudes there for input. I actually did create a signup at tabroom.com, but just in the vaguest sense. I’m really looking forward to this, and expect to bus down literally all the Sailor plebes when the time comes. It’s so early in the season that no one has quit yet, and it will capture a little of the (black) magic that is the debate universe.
And last night I saw Star Trek. If you go on a Tuesday night in the boonies, you share the theater with about half a dozen people who, like me, remember watching the original on black-and-white televisions and thinking, even then, that this Shatner guy must have been related to the producer. Anyhow, the movie was a hoot, and I enjoyed it from start to finish (although I have as much trouble imagining Harry as a starship navigator as I did imagining Kumar as a pathologist). I noticed that Star Trek is one of the trending topics on Twitter. My guess is that everyone who tweets has already seen the movie by now; it’s sort of like the far-from-secret handshake. Those who haven’t seen the movie (or who don’t plan to before the week is out), are simple Twitter poseurs. I wonder what Oprah thinks about the new transporter effect?
And that’s why I think I’m right. Either 1) no one in any position in the NFL is reading this, or 2) they’re reading it and not acting on it. This is not the first time I’ve discussed NFL business. Most recently, I went into an incredible song and dance about adhering to NFL rules on LD, so it’s not exactly as if I’m inimical to them (although, anecdotally, my understanding is that they think I make the antichrist look like Mary Poppins). And let’s face it, after VBD, this is probably the most popular high school forensics blog in the country, so it’s hardly unknown. So either Rippin’ really doesn’t know (which is inexcusable) or else Rippin’ really doesn’t care (which is more inexcusable) or else Rippin’ really does think I make the antichrist look like Mary Poppins (which, if you actually read the Travers books, is not such an odd suggestion, but seriously could only be based on my unwillingness to act as the country’s world’s worst district chair because I feel that their rules indirectly punish schools from New York, but as members of the VCA know, I tried hard to do a good job for many, many years, for which the only thank you I ever received from NFL was a lack of acknowledgment of my resignation—yeah, a little bit of sour grapes, I admit it).
Bietz, of course, has taken the bait and agreed to try hosting something like this with NDCA, and asked if I would participate. To which the answer is, of course I will, although I would not give up my venue here for all the coffee in Seattle. I look forward to working with him on it, and ironing out ways of making it effective along the lines already discussed. (Here's his blog post.) I think the first thing we need to do is figure out who, exactly, is already blogging, even just a little bit.
Meanwhile, the next concentration has to be the free MHL Workshop in September. I’d like to get a broad sense of the curriculum in hand for CatNats to spread it around to the assembled multitudes there for input. I actually did create a signup at tabroom.com, but just in the vaguest sense. I’m really looking forward to this, and expect to bus down literally all the Sailor plebes when the time comes. It’s so early in the season that no one has quit yet, and it will capture a little of the (black) magic that is the debate universe.
And last night I saw Star Trek. If you go on a Tuesday night in the boonies, you share the theater with about half a dozen people who, like me, remember watching the original on black-and-white televisions and thinking, even then, that this Shatner guy must have been related to the producer. Anyhow, the movie was a hoot, and I enjoyed it from start to finish (although I have as much trouble imagining Harry as a starship navigator as I did imagining Kumar as a pathologist). I noticed that Star Trek is one of the trending topics on Twitter. My guess is that everyone who tweets has already seen the movie by now; it’s sort of like the far-from-secret handshake. Those who haven’t seen the movie (or who don’t plan to before the week is out), are simple Twitter poseurs. I wonder what Oprah thinks about the new transporter effect?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Modnov and MHLW updates
A couple of things. First of all, the Modest Novice website is up and running, thanks to CP, at http://www.modestnovice.org/ I’d be curious to hear what everyone has to say about the wording of the resolution, which is the next big item on the agenda. We’re doing civil disobedience, as I pointed out earlier, but we don’t want to have Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King on one side, and a losing debater on the other. Help us out here! Throw your comments up at the site.
Secondly, as hoped, we had a lot of discussion at Scarsdale about the MHL Institute, or MHLI, which makes more sense to refer to as the MHL Workshop, of MHLW, given that it will be a one-day affair. We brainstormed an enormous amount of possibilities, enough for a couple of weeks anywhere else, and no doubt we’ll have to pare it down, but in general we’re looking at some basic, general lectures plus breakout sessions, and we’ll try to bring in some local ex-debater college talent. The curriculum will probably follow the numbers signed up. We’ll cover LD and Policy (and maybe a little PF too, I’m not sure). And we’ll probably do it Sept 12 at Bronx Science, but that sort of specificity is a little hard to pin down this early on. I took voluminous notes as we talked, and I’ll try to sort something out over the next couple of weeks so that we can begin planning. I’ll probably put up a page as part of the MHL site to explain everything. Just for the hell of it, I tried creating a registration page at tabroom. I figured, why not? Maybe not the perfect tool for the job, but it is the tool that we’ve got, so I figured, go for it. What I did looks feasible. The real questions revolve around the curriculum, after which we can look at who signs up for what.
Secondly, as hoped, we had a lot of discussion at Scarsdale about the MHL Institute, or MHLI, which makes more sense to refer to as the MHL Workshop, of MHLW, given that it will be a one-day affair. We brainstormed an enormous amount of possibilities, enough for a couple of weeks anywhere else, and no doubt we’ll have to pare it down, but in general we’re looking at some basic, general lectures plus breakout sessions, and we’ll try to bring in some local ex-debater college talent. The curriculum will probably follow the numbers signed up. We’ll cover LD and Policy (and maybe a little PF too, I’m not sure). And we’ll probably do it Sept 12 at Bronx Science, but that sort of specificity is a little hard to pin down this early on. I took voluminous notes as we talked, and I’ll try to sort something out over the next couple of weeks so that we can begin planning. I’ll probably put up a page as part of the MHL site to explain everything. Just for the hell of it, I tried creating a registration page at tabroom. I figured, why not? Maybe not the perfect tool for the job, but it is the tool that we’ve got, so I figured, go for it. What I did looks feasible. The real questions revolve around the curriculum, after which we can look at who signs up for what.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)