One of the problems of putting CL into evolution mode is that when I say evolution, I meant it. I have no idea what I’m doing or where I’m going—intelligent design does not play into it. My only goal is to open it up to more things than debate. But at the same time, I don’t want to lose the debate parts, which are core. Or the audience that has developed over time because of the debate parts. I have a general idea who’s reading this, in other words. But I don’t think that all of them are only reading it for debate stuff. The VCA is interested in a lot of other things as well. My goal is to provide non-forensic material for those interests, to entertain the sort of person who would be in the VCA in the first place. Forensics remains core, though: make no mistake about that (as Richard Nixon would say, usually when he was lying). I have no intention of moving away from debate, letting the tail take over the dog, so to speak.
Still, we have problems, especially for those who really don’t want the non-debate stuff, or think of the debate stuff as apart from the rest of it. If I could do separate RSS feeds for the same blog, I would, but that is beyond me (or maybe it’s just beyond Blogger). That was one of the reasons Grinwout’s was created, but I’ve already discussed why I’ve given up on that.
Anyhow, to try to make things palatable, I’m adding a generic tag at the top of each post title. I’ll try to keep them to a manageable few, like Movies, Music, Coachean Feed (which I’ve revived as a weekly post), and of course, Forensics. This means that, at the very least, you can see off the top if you want to read that sort of post because you’re in that sort of mood. Or you can just pass over the ones you’re not interested in, if you’re merely reading this to keep up with registration dates at the next high school tournament. Your call. I’ll do this for a while, until I think of something else.
Meanwhile, if you missed it, we put up a new TVFT last week, talking about the second three in the set of 2012-13 resolutions. Mostly we agreed this time around, except maybe on the civil services one, which I went into hating. I came out of it hating it just as much, and I think some of my reservations (chiefly its broadness) started to click with the others. Listen for yourself. In any case, it was good to get all four of us back together again. We do come at things from such radically different points of view. I think of Bietz and CP as hot into the midst of today’s LD, whether they like it or not (L’Etoile did win TOC, after all), while Cruz has such a literally vast army that he has no choice but to take a broader view of forensics as a whole while I’m firmly rooted in the get-off-my-lawn land of about a decade ago. Our longevity is interesting, come to think of it. This was the 59th episode, going back at least a couple of years. We have yet to run out of things to say. How odd that a bunch of speech/debate people could be so chatty.
On the home front, I have sent out the call to the Sailors to get their acts together to sign up for the Pups and Jake, both of which open on August 1. The Pups opens at 1:00 pm and goes immediately to a waitlist, which is pretty sane if you ask me. Jake opens at 12:01 am and closes about a minute later because O’C prefers the style of the midnight opening of the latest Geaoge Lucas film, and models his tournament after The Phantom Menace.
Quick quiz for normal people. No peeking. Okay, quick: Name the last movie directed by George Lucas.
Aha! I knew you couldn’t do it. (O’C doesn’t count.)
Anyhow, at the moment, the Sailor signup sheets remain as pure as the driven snow. I’m sure this will change. (One parent has advised me that their kid is offline for a couple of weeks, which rather shocked me. I didn’t know people could go offline anymore.) I’ll fill in a few slots with dummy entries (that is, temporary space fillers, not wooden-headed students) until a reasonable time. I mean, I do hate going to tournaments alone. It sort of undermines the whole point of things.
Showing posts with label Sailors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sailors. Show all posts
Monday, July 16, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
In which questions are asked and remain unanswered
Wuz happ’nin’, sez you. Nuttin’, sez me.
I’m going to take a couple of days off from writing and blogging and whatnot, which is a literal translation of nothing happening, I guess. I don’t see much news on the debate front, needless to say. Some people will go to the various Nats in the next few weeks, but if you’re not among them, well, there you are. Sailorville officially asked me if I was returning next year, and once again I was forced to disappoint the debate community at large by answering yes. I will go away some day. I promise. But not just yet.
If you’re wondering, the DJ is getting downright weird, in ways I can’t pinpoint. I’d explain if I could, but, well, I can’t.
Those folks who have claimed to be my friends and therefore connected with me on Facebook (many of whom I sort of recognize) know that I’ve started hawking Grinwout’s on my fb page. Anyone who followed the Grinwout’s page knows that I’ve stopped hawking it there. The thing is, I’ve gotten a lot more views, and since I’m not doing it for my health (sort of ), it makes sense to go where the action is. Of course, this means that I won’t be posting much else on fb, but I never really have anyhow, so it won’t matter much. I’ve considered emulating O’C and hooking up to Foursquare and posting every time I pass gas, but decided against it. I don’t do anything all that interesting, and when I do, I’ll pass it along in detail here. Excruciatingly painful detail, as the VCA well knows.
Speaking of which, I was talking with someone yesterday about young and old editors (again a propos of the DJ), and one of the things I realized was that the one big difference is not that the younger ones can articulate an explanation of their connection to social media, but simply that it is in their personal universes in a way not true of old farts. I mean, it’s not as if I don’t have accounts everywhere for everything, but I seldom bother. With Twitter, for instance, every time I look at it it’s as if I’m starting from scratch: you’re either in it, or you’re not. It’s easier to be a casual Facebook user, but that makes you mostly a lurker, reading what other people are up to which, if you have enough friends, can pass a bunch of time interestingly enough. But some people, mostly younger, use Facebook as the air they breathe, or at least the interwebs air they breathe (and the mobile air, as well). I’ve seen no explanation of why this is so, or at least no convincing explanation other than it is what it is. Watching corporations try to find their place in this is interesting. For instance, last night someone (Warner Bros?) streamed the movie Casablanca on Facebook. In the universe of Why Bother, this has to rank pretty high, although presumably somehow or other it probably means the fb is looking toward going into the streaming business along with every other business they’ve invaded. Did anyone watch this? Was it really a movie-watching experience? Is the world now divided into people who watch movies and people who live-blog movies?
As I say, I’m not in the game here. I’d like to understand it more, though.
I’m going to take a couple of days off from writing and blogging and whatnot, which is a literal translation of nothing happening, I guess. I don’t see much news on the debate front, needless to say. Some people will go to the various Nats in the next few weeks, but if you’re not among them, well, there you are. Sailorville officially asked me if I was returning next year, and once again I was forced to disappoint the debate community at large by answering yes. I will go away some day. I promise. But not just yet.
If you’re wondering, the DJ is getting downright weird, in ways I can’t pinpoint. I’d explain if I could, but, well, I can’t.
Those folks who have claimed to be my friends and therefore connected with me on Facebook (many of whom I sort of recognize) know that I’ve started hawking Grinwout’s on my fb page. Anyone who followed the Grinwout’s page knows that I’ve stopped hawking it there. The thing is, I’ve gotten a lot more views, and since I’m not doing it for my health (sort of ), it makes sense to go where the action is. Of course, this means that I won’t be posting much else on fb, but I never really have anyhow, so it won’t matter much. I’ve considered emulating O’C and hooking up to Foursquare and posting every time I pass gas, but decided against it. I don’t do anything all that interesting, and when I do, I’ll pass it along in detail here. Excruciatingly painful detail, as the VCA well knows.
Speaking of which, I was talking with someone yesterday about young and old editors (again a propos of the DJ), and one of the things I realized was that the one big difference is not that the younger ones can articulate an explanation of their connection to social media, but simply that it is in their personal universes in a way not true of old farts. I mean, it’s not as if I don’t have accounts everywhere for everything, but I seldom bother. With Twitter, for instance, every time I look at it it’s as if I’m starting from scratch: you’re either in it, or you’re not. It’s easier to be a casual Facebook user, but that makes you mostly a lurker, reading what other people are up to which, if you have enough friends, can pass a bunch of time interestingly enough. But some people, mostly younger, use Facebook as the air they breathe, or at least the interwebs air they breathe (and the mobile air, as well). I’ve seen no explanation of why this is so, or at least no convincing explanation other than it is what it is. Watching corporations try to find their place in this is interesting. For instance, last night someone (Warner Bros?) streamed the movie Casablanca on Facebook. In the universe of Why Bother, this has to rank pretty high, although presumably somehow or other it probably means the fb is looking toward going into the streaming business along with every other business they’ve invaded. Did anyone watch this? Was it really a movie-watching experience? Is the world now divided into people who watch movies and people who live-blog movies?
As I say, I’m not in the game here. I’d like to understand it more, though.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Bean Trivia
It was a veritable bloodbath.
Turnout was about average; no alums or passers-by, but the usual suspects in spades. Getting off to my usual good start, I forgot to bring the beans with me, but we’ve overcome this beginner’s error in the past and we did it again by keeping track on the board. I did this to begin with; in apparent disgust with my efforts, Meh took over the bean counting halfway through. You can’t please everybody.
I had hoped for an answer like the classic one about Muppets, “Hermit the Crab,” but only came close once. For reasons obvious to anyone who has ever seen Spons at a computer, I put her in charge of the computer, and when attempting to google which president went on to become chief justice, she somehow managed to come up with the answer “Chris Palmer.” I don’t know if I was more surprised that CP was a chief justice or a former president, but I had to mark the answer as incorrect. If there is evidence to the contrary, I’m willing to reconsider.
The lifelines of daughter and O’C proved lively and productive, although I did occasionally steer people away from asking questions about things I knew they would know nothing about. Between the two of them, this is a small area, but it does exist. Then again, it was not a competition between the two of them, even if O’C did keep texting that he was getting asked more questions than she was. I mean, really. She gave four answers to who was the princess of Oz; he never gave more than one answer to anything. What a piker.
When we tried to eliminate down to the lightning round, we ended up eliminating no one, but that was okay. Eliminations went fast, since every now and then someone knew an answer, which is unusual. Crappy prizes flew by, including Portuguese Reader’s Digests and a fine selection of DVD made-for-French-TV movies. Then we got into the big prizes. Third was a box with a piece of Styrofoam promoting some dumb TV show on Fox (is that redundant?). Second was a giant orange Styrofoam thumbs-up; there was obviously a Styrofoam theme to the night. And then there was the first prize: an unclaimed overnight bag from Bump, with no i.d. of course, but with clean underwear. This is the sort of treasure that any Sailor will hold close to heart for a lifetime. It also provides an answer to the question of what to do with unclaimed Lost & Found items from Bump. Our experience is that no one ever finds anything that gets lost, and no one ever lost anything that gets found: these concepts do not seem to travel the same tracks, and make Schrodinger’s cat look positively decisive.
And so another season ended (except for Panivore Junior’s CatNat entry at the end of the month). Excelsior!
Turnout was about average; no alums or passers-by, but the usual suspects in spades. Getting off to my usual good start, I forgot to bring the beans with me, but we’ve overcome this beginner’s error in the past and we did it again by keeping track on the board. I did this to begin with; in apparent disgust with my efforts, Meh took over the bean counting halfway through. You can’t please everybody.
I had hoped for an answer like the classic one about Muppets, “Hermit the Crab,” but only came close once. For reasons obvious to anyone who has ever seen Spons at a computer, I put her in charge of the computer, and when attempting to google which president went on to become chief justice, she somehow managed to come up with the answer “Chris Palmer.” I don’t know if I was more surprised that CP was a chief justice or a former president, but I had to mark the answer as incorrect. If there is evidence to the contrary, I’m willing to reconsider.
The lifelines of daughter and O’C proved lively and productive, although I did occasionally steer people away from asking questions about things I knew they would know nothing about. Between the two of them, this is a small area, but it does exist. Then again, it was not a competition between the two of them, even if O’C did keep texting that he was getting asked more questions than she was. I mean, really. She gave four answers to who was the princess of Oz; he never gave more than one answer to anything. What a piker.
When we tried to eliminate down to the lightning round, we ended up eliminating no one, but that was okay. Eliminations went fast, since every now and then someone knew an answer, which is unusual. Crappy prizes flew by, including Portuguese Reader’s Digests and a fine selection of DVD made-for-French-TV movies. Then we got into the big prizes. Third was a box with a piece of Styrofoam promoting some dumb TV show on Fox (is that redundant?). Second was a giant orange Styrofoam thumbs-up; there was obviously a Styrofoam theme to the night. And then there was the first prize: an unclaimed overnight bag from Bump, with no i.d. of course, but with clean underwear. This is the sort of treasure that any Sailor will hold close to heart for a lifetime. It also provides an answer to the question of what to do with unclaimed Lost & Found items from Bump. Our experience is that no one ever finds anything that gets lost, and no one ever lost anything that gets found: these concepts do not seem to travel the same tracks, and make Schrodinger’s cat look positively decisive.
And so another season ended (except for Panivore Junior’s CatNat entry at the end of the month). Excelsior!
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
The crappy prizes will flow like water
I’m thinking that, maybe, I might start blogging for the DJ again. I’ll at least be doing book reviews (there’s a no-brainer for you); more than that, it’s hard to say. Having sort of invented the category for them, then gotten bumped without notice, then gotten thrown into a random group of other editors, I’m not terribly hopeful, but at the same time, I strongly believe that our brand can do some serious good stuff on the interwebs that we’re just not doing.
I just wasn’t made for these times. It may require reworking of the new sister site. We’ll see.
Speaking of which, I was really taken by that clip of the Beach Boys on Grinwout’s. Previously I was thinking that at best we were talking just another oldies act, but that new song is really good. Can they pull off a whole album like that? We’ll know next month. I’ve been following Brian’s solo career, which has been, in a word, mixed. Sometimes aggressively overproduced misses, sometimes one of my favorite albums ever (“Orange Crate Art”): you never knew what to expect. The jury is still out on the Gershwin album and the Disney album. Interesting choices, though. Anyhow, as a group, the band looks awfully well fed (those royalties must be still coming in), and somebody needs to tell Mike Love that we know he’s lost a hair or two and it’s okay and we’ve known it since 1971, but they sounded incredible. Then again, does anyone look unhappier on stage than Brian Wilson? I’ve seen proctology patients with bigger smiles. (I hope that last sentence doesn’t come across the wrong way.)
Finally, tonight, the Bean Trivialists will get their due. The daughter and O’C are poised to provide their lifelines (I can’t imagine that they’d miss any of these). There’s also a new lifeline, the Spons Google Catastrophe. Can our speech coach Google the answer on the top page of the iPhone? Her computer skills are, uh, well, I’ve seen proctology patients with bigger smiles, so this should be interesting. She’ll be doing it on my iPhone. Of course, she doesn’t know this yet…
I just wasn’t made for these times. It may require reworking of the new sister site. We’ll see.
Speaking of which, I was really taken by that clip of the Beach Boys on Grinwout’s. Previously I was thinking that at best we were talking just another oldies act, but that new song is really good. Can they pull off a whole album like that? We’ll know next month. I’ve been following Brian’s solo career, which has been, in a word, mixed. Sometimes aggressively overproduced misses, sometimes one of my favorite albums ever (“Orange Crate Art”): you never knew what to expect. The jury is still out on the Gershwin album and the Disney album. Interesting choices, though. Anyhow, as a group, the band looks awfully well fed (those royalties must be still coming in), and somebody needs to tell Mike Love that we know he’s lost a hair or two and it’s okay and we’ve known it since 1971, but they sounded incredible. Then again, does anyone look unhappier on stage than Brian Wilson? I’ve seen proctology patients with bigger smiles. (I hope that last sentence doesn’t come across the wrong way.)
Finally, tonight, the Bean Trivialists will get their due. The daughter and O’C are poised to provide their lifelines (I can’t imagine that they’d miss any of these). There’s also a new lifeline, the Spons Google Catastrophe. Can our speech coach Google the answer on the top page of the iPhone? Her computer skills are, uh, well, I’ve seen proctology patients with bigger smiles, so this should be interesting. She’ll be doing it on my iPhone. Of course, she doesn’t know this yet…
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Marginal valediction
The questions are finalized for Bean Trivia. The event is next Wednesday. The crappy prizes are ready.
The season is over…
Last night we TVFTed. It was me, O’C and CP, talking mostly about TOC. This may also be the end of the TVFT season. I mean, things are winding down, aside from CatNats and NatNats, both of which are the same as they’ve always been. (You will debate all day Saturday at CatNats and complain royally about it, you will have mixed feelings about Baltimore, you’ll think the award ceremony is never going to end, and you’ll be glad to get home. As for NatNats, never been, no longer a member, and got nothing more to say.)
It was good to hear that TOC is getting its act together a bit under its new leadership. People regard this tournament very highly, and it should measure up to that esteem. In slow, steady steps, it is getting there, and as we said in the podcast, only slow, steady steps will work. Witness what CP had to do with the various college tournaments, some of which made TOC, at its worst, look like the Emerald City. I still think the colleges walk a thin line, but we’re keeping an eye on them, or at least on the ones we’re affiliated with. We did pretty well this year. We did Yale without CP and were none the worse for wear. We kept Princeton spinning at its peak. We pared down Columbia and kind of pulled it out of the ashes. UPenn grew some more, as we had always hoped it would. Not bad, overall. Come to think of it, looking back at the year as a whole, I’m pretty satisfied, except for the Incredible Shrinking Boat of Sailors, over which I don’t have much control. Needless to say, we’re working on it. And it must be admitted that our Speecho-American side was thriving, so it’s not totally off the tracks.
What was learned this year? I think that the message of MJP needs to be clearer, but we’ve got it down pat as far as tabbing it. It needs to be recognized as a tool to protect different styles of debate rather than a tool for solely promoting circuit debate, which it de facto becomes if traditional schools don’t pref. PF continues to grow everywhere but in New York, but that won’t last long because the attraction of accessibility for students and judges will sooner or later be too strong to deny. New programs keep getting started, and around here, I don’t recall losing any old ones, so that’s good. On the negative side, O’C discovered Foursquare and has checked into hotels, motels, his subway stop, Bronx Science (multiple times), Japonica (enough times that they’re taking away his wasabi privileges), his podiatrist, Attica, Mos Eisley, Bette Midler’s dressing room and the locked gates of the Liberace Museum, to name a few. In other words, it’s been a pretty good year, mostly moving forward.
Excelsior! This would be the perfect time for me to announce my retirement, but once again I am going to disappoint those who are rooting for me to disappear and have done with it. Sorry, guys. You can't win 'em all.
The season is over…
Last night we TVFTed. It was me, O’C and CP, talking mostly about TOC. This may also be the end of the TVFT season. I mean, things are winding down, aside from CatNats and NatNats, both of which are the same as they’ve always been. (You will debate all day Saturday at CatNats and complain royally about it, you will have mixed feelings about Baltimore, you’ll think the award ceremony is never going to end, and you’ll be glad to get home. As for NatNats, never been, no longer a member, and got nothing more to say.)
It was good to hear that TOC is getting its act together a bit under its new leadership. People regard this tournament very highly, and it should measure up to that esteem. In slow, steady steps, it is getting there, and as we said in the podcast, only slow, steady steps will work. Witness what CP had to do with the various college tournaments, some of which made TOC, at its worst, look like the Emerald City. I still think the colleges walk a thin line, but we’re keeping an eye on them, or at least on the ones we’re affiliated with. We did pretty well this year. We did Yale without CP and were none the worse for wear. We kept Princeton spinning at its peak. We pared down Columbia and kind of pulled it out of the ashes. UPenn grew some more, as we had always hoped it would. Not bad, overall. Come to think of it, looking back at the year as a whole, I’m pretty satisfied, except for the Incredible Shrinking Boat of Sailors, over which I don’t have much control. Needless to say, we’re working on it. And it must be admitted that our Speecho-American side was thriving, so it’s not totally off the tracks.
What was learned this year? I think that the message of MJP needs to be clearer, but we’ve got it down pat as far as tabbing it. It needs to be recognized as a tool to protect different styles of debate rather than a tool for solely promoting circuit debate, which it de facto becomes if traditional schools don’t pref. PF continues to grow everywhere but in New York, but that won’t last long because the attraction of accessibility for students and judges will sooner or later be too strong to deny. New programs keep getting started, and around here, I don’t recall losing any old ones, so that’s good. On the negative side, O’C discovered Foursquare and has checked into hotels, motels, his subway stop, Bronx Science (multiple times), Japonica (enough times that they’re taking away his wasabi privileges), his podiatrist, Attica, Mos Eisley, Bette Midler’s dressing room and the locked gates of the Liberace Museum, to name a few. In other words, it’s been a pretty good year, mostly moving forward.
Excelsior! This would be the perfect time for me to announce my retirement, but once again I am going to disappoint those who are rooting for me to disappear and have done with it. Sorry, guys. You can't win 'em all.
Monday, April 23, 2012
I’ve managed to move my brain so far away from NDCA that it might as well not have happened. A couple of posts didn't go up, though; blogger is going through a revise again. Oy. Anyhow, I just threw them up, so to speak. I know there’s stuff I intended to talk about, but it’s out of my head now. Life has gone on, I guess. Having to make up a day at the DJ didn’t help. By the time the weekend strolled around I was zonked. It’s a good thing I’ve gone on that golf sabbatical: I just don’t have time for it anymore. Which, of course, is why I went on the sabbatical in the first place. Can say that I miss it, to tell you the truth.
The New York State Forensic League finals are this coming weekend. This is a speech event as far as I’m concerned, and the Sailor-Speechos looked mostly ready to me. I will not accompany them; they have their own coach, KS, to attend to their every need. I’m just hoping they return triumphant.
I should get back into working on the cur this week. The Sailors (debater quadrant) have met with the principal to work out details of recruitment at the middle school, and with any luck, they won’t scare too many people away, and we can start rebuilding next year. It would help if I had something to train them with. I could train LDers till the cows come home, except the cows came home a number of years ago and I’m now totally at sea once we get past novices. I am going to have to get into more PF rounds and actually watch things go down, though. I learned everything I knew about LD by judging; tabbing doesn’t train one comparably. I’ll just hand myself a ballot now and then so I don’t get too lost.
The season won’t be officially over until Bean Trivia, which will transpire a week from this Wednesday. I’ve got a couple of new categories (“Which one doesn’t belong and why,” and “Your Mother Should Know”) that I’m looking forward to. Plus there’s some old standbys (how could I now do it without a category called “Obligatory Disney Category”?). O’C seems to be on the line for Ask Cruz lifelines; I’ll see if Kate can do it as well. I’d love to have a lifeline called “Are You Feeling Lucky, Punk” where someone Googles the answer using only the feeling lucky button (we did that my last RR at Lex). Unfortunately there’s no wireless at the Hud de la Hen. So it goes. I’m torn between the top prize of either a gigantic foam thumb or a leftover bag of dirty laundry from last year’s Bump lost and found. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
The New York State Forensic League finals are this coming weekend. This is a speech event as far as I’m concerned, and the Sailor-Speechos looked mostly ready to me. I will not accompany them; they have their own coach, KS, to attend to their every need. I’m just hoping they return triumphant.
I should get back into working on the cur this week. The Sailors (debater quadrant) have met with the principal to work out details of recruitment at the middle school, and with any luck, they won’t scare too many people away, and we can start rebuilding next year. It would help if I had something to train them with. I could train LDers till the cows come home, except the cows came home a number of years ago and I’m now totally at sea once we get past novices. I am going to have to get into more PF rounds and actually watch things go down, though. I learned everything I knew about LD by judging; tabbing doesn’t train one comparably. I’ll just hand myself a ballot now and then so I don’t get too lost.
The season won’t be officially over until Bean Trivia, which will transpire a week from this Wednesday. I’ve got a couple of new categories (“Which one doesn’t belong and why,” and “Your Mother Should Know”) that I’m looking forward to. Plus there’s some old standbys (how could I now do it without a category called “Obligatory Disney Category”?). O’C seems to be on the line for Ask Cruz lifelines; I’ll see if Kate can do it as well. I’d love to have a lifeline called “Are You Feeling Lucky, Punk” where someone Googles the answer using only the feeling lucky button (we did that my last RR at Lex). Unfortunately there’s no wireless at the Hud de la Hen. So it goes. I’m torn between the top prize of either a gigantic foam thumb or a leftover bag of dirty laundry from last year’s Bump lost and found. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Friday, March 30, 2012
As March goes out like a cotelette d'agneau
There may be no more nautical debating, but there are a few Speecho-American Sailors on the loose, heading for the state tournament the end of April. We’ll have a workshop or two at the chez for them. This is where we have them perform but take them apart practically word for word. Since I haven’t seen them in a while, and a couple of pieces not at all, it’s a good opportunity for them to get a last shot at seeing what’s working and what isn’t. The first of these sessions is next Monday, during our school’s break.
Running the NYSDCA tournament this weekend should be interesting. It’s small, and I want to try pairing using TRPC’s pairing-on-screen function, which I’ve never used before. I’ve certainly asked CP to incorporate something like that into his new software, so this will be a fun test. It’s also supposed to be sort of a crappy weekend weatherwise, so I don’t feel as if I’ll be missing anything I could be doing. The really warm weather is coming, and those strolls around Manhattan…
O’C and I recorded a TVFT Wednesday, but the sound quality is miserable. Not miserable enough not to release it (that distinction goes most recently to the “The Train Has Left the Station” episode with Pajamas W), but miserable enough to want to not repeat it. O’C says the problem is Time Warner, and if he’s ever home to let the cable guy in, all will be fixed. Of course, if the cable guy sees all the Willow memorabilia, he may become too distracted to do the job he is paid for.
Grinwout’s continues apace. I’ve started a Facebook page for it, that I’ll promote next week after I play with it a little more. I realize that when I was doing this for the DJ I sort of became obsessed, and the obsession has stuck. My brain is a mess of lightly connected data informed by books and movies and culture in general, which is one of the reasons I’ve done okay as a book editor, where a certain dilettantism can be a plus if you do general stuff. In other words, I have a great interest in a lot of things mixed with a short attention span; this is the mix an editor needs, I guess. Unless you want to edit brain surgery texts, that is. You want those folks to keep their eyes on the ball, so to speak. You’re in there disconnecting the cerebellum from the carburetor or whatever, and the last thing you need is to be distracted by a really good tap dancing video.
Running the NYSDCA tournament this weekend should be interesting. It’s small, and I want to try pairing using TRPC’s pairing-on-screen function, which I’ve never used before. I’ve certainly asked CP to incorporate something like that into his new software, so this will be a fun test. It’s also supposed to be sort of a crappy weekend weatherwise, so I don’t feel as if I’ll be missing anything I could be doing. The really warm weather is coming, and those strolls around Manhattan…
O’C and I recorded a TVFT Wednesday, but the sound quality is miserable. Not miserable enough not to release it (that distinction goes most recently to the “The Train Has Left the Station” episode with Pajamas W), but miserable enough to want to not repeat it. O’C says the problem is Time Warner, and if he’s ever home to let the cable guy in, all will be fixed. Of course, if the cable guy sees all the Willow memorabilia, he may become too distracted to do the job he is paid for.
Grinwout’s continues apace. I’ve started a Facebook page for it, that I’ll promote next week after I play with it a little more. I realize that when I was doing this for the DJ I sort of became obsessed, and the obsession has stuck. My brain is a mess of lightly connected data informed by books and movies and culture in general, which is one of the reasons I’ve done okay as a book editor, where a certain dilettantism can be a plus if you do general stuff. In other words, I have a great interest in a lot of things mixed with a short attention span; this is the mix an editor needs, I guess. Unless you want to edit brain surgery texts, that is. You want those folks to keep their eyes on the ball, so to speak. You’re in there disconnecting the cerebellum from the carburetor or whatever, and the last thing you need is to be distracted by a really good tap dancing video.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
An so we bid another fond farewell
Well, that’s that. Another season bites the dust, at least as far as meetings are concerned. Last night we had the final chez of the year. Tears were shed (not of sadness but of pain, when Tiki attacked poor Zip). And there you are.
With one and a half teams, the meetings have been odd, at best. Last night Zip regaled us with tales of great adventure, to wit, his taking down an entire army of gangbangers in Times Square Friday night. We did talk a bit about mandated vaccines, but we probably talked more about Nabokov. Meh came dressed as a ghost. At one point I had to go online to prove that there were such things as snake-handling religions. Spongebob Squarepants, Saved by the Bell, Alfred Hitchcock and NPH all came up in the conversation at some point. No wonder we’re not winning a lot of trophies!
I have been proceeding updating the cur. I’m now up to the research section, which is a crucial one in the PF world. LD obviously requires research, but it’s of a different nature. It used to be more generally philosophic in the olden days, then it went sort of resolutional. I’m not quite sure what it is now, but people have plenty of cards that they read at speed, so it must be something. In any case, the nature of PF research strikes me as somewhat similar to Extemp, at least insofar as you have to have a solid understanding of the news of the world in general, requiring info intake on a daily basis, rather than just hitting a topic when it comes. Just researching topics is like learning to drive and being unable to shift gears: you jerk all over the place and don’t get very far. Current events tend to be related at least marginally, and a general knowledge of, say, the Middle East, will help you get started when the topic is about Pakistan. A general knowledge of science and international medicine doesn’t hurt thinking about mandatory vaccinations. And so forth and so on. Regular info intake gives you the instincts to find a starting point. Getting that habit, on the other hand, isn’t necessarily so easy. Even I’m not that good at it. A news junkie I’m not. But I’m learning.
Anyhow, there’s the State tournament this weekend, and that’s the last time I’ll have a horse in the race. After that, NDCA in Las Vegas, and the season is officially over. And this time, no golf to fill the gap. Or at least, I’ve stuck to my non-golfing guns so far. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing to fill the time I would have otherwise been golfing, but I vaguely remember reading a book on futurism last Sunday. I wonder when’s the last time Tiger Woods read a book on futurism.
With one and a half teams, the meetings have been odd, at best. Last night Zip regaled us with tales of great adventure, to wit, his taking down an entire army of gangbangers in Times Square Friday night. We did talk a bit about mandated vaccines, but we probably talked more about Nabokov. Meh came dressed as a ghost. At one point I had to go online to prove that there were such things as snake-handling religions. Spongebob Squarepants, Saved by the Bell, Alfred Hitchcock and NPH all came up in the conversation at some point. No wonder we’re not winning a lot of trophies!
I have been proceeding updating the cur. I’m now up to the research section, which is a crucial one in the PF world. LD obviously requires research, but it’s of a different nature. It used to be more generally philosophic in the olden days, then it went sort of resolutional. I’m not quite sure what it is now, but people have plenty of cards that they read at speed, so it must be something. In any case, the nature of PF research strikes me as somewhat similar to Extemp, at least insofar as you have to have a solid understanding of the news of the world in general, requiring info intake on a daily basis, rather than just hitting a topic when it comes. Just researching topics is like learning to drive and being unable to shift gears: you jerk all over the place and don’t get very far. Current events tend to be related at least marginally, and a general knowledge of, say, the Middle East, will help you get started when the topic is about Pakistan. A general knowledge of science and international medicine doesn’t hurt thinking about mandatory vaccinations. And so forth and so on. Regular info intake gives you the instincts to find a starting point. Getting that habit, on the other hand, isn’t necessarily so easy. Even I’m not that good at it. A news junkie I’m not. But I’m learning.
Anyhow, there’s the State tournament this weekend, and that’s the last time I’ll have a horse in the race. After that, NDCA in Las Vegas, and the season is officially over. And this time, no golf to fill the gap. Or at least, I’ve stuck to my non-golfing guns so far. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing to fill the time I would have otherwise been golfing, but I vaguely remember reading a book on futurism last Sunday. I wonder when’s the last time Tiger Woods read a book on futurism.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Full of beans
It must be Christmas: the Sailors and I had a bout of Bean Trivia last night.
It was a rough session. First of all, O’C was unavailable for Ask Cruz. As a substitute, we had a lifeline which was “Call anybody you know and have them Google the answer.” That worked about as well as asking Cruz, since it seemed as if about half the questions were Disney-oriented. But I think I need better Sailors. They thought that “The Legacy” was one of the original hotels on the WDW property. I mean, they were close, except for the fact that there is not now nor has there ever been a hotel called “The Legacy” on the WDW property. This is made stranger because Rafi-Q says he stayed there last time he went. Little Em’ly claimed that she couldn’t answer those questions because she’d never been there. Come to think of it, every question she was asked, that was her answer: “I’ve never been there.” If you ask me, she needs to go somewhere.
We never had any answers to match last year’s Muppet classic, Hermit the Crab. But the event, as always, was rollicking and fun. There’s always the one person who answers the questions regardless of who’s being asked because, lordy lordy, they actually know the answer to this one. This is from a team who decided Fats Waller had to be a jazz musician because all jazz musicians have one-word nicknames, and that he must have played the tuba because he was fat. So, their deductive powers were marginally successful. They thought Lightnin’ Hopkins played the saxophone. They thought that TV’s talking horse was Dr. Ed, which at least gives him a day job. They came relatively close to identifying the main ingredient in haggis—they knew it came from inside the sheep—but went a little overboard claiming that cabbage was a subsidiary ingredient; on the other hand, they’d never heard of saltimbocca. Needless to say, be wary if any of them invites you over for dinner.
We went through my entire batch of questions, which means that next time out, all new categories. I may steer clear of Disney questions for a while, since these people have trouble deciding if Bambi is the character whose foot fit into the glass slipper. I would have thought that kids knew Disney pretty well, but I would have thought wrong. They also don’t know Muppets or classic movies. I think I do a fine impersonation of Anthony Perkins carrying his mother to the fruit cellar. They thought otherwise. They also thought that the character who says the line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” was named Frank.
You don’t want to know what they thought the main ingredient was in spotted dick. Remind me never to ask that question again.
It was a rough session. First of all, O’C was unavailable for Ask Cruz. As a substitute, we had a lifeline which was “Call anybody you know and have them Google the answer.” That worked about as well as asking Cruz, since it seemed as if about half the questions were Disney-oriented. But I think I need better Sailors. They thought that “The Legacy” was one of the original hotels on the WDW property. I mean, they were close, except for the fact that there is not now nor has there ever been a hotel called “The Legacy” on the WDW property. This is made stranger because Rafi-Q says he stayed there last time he went. Little Em’ly claimed that she couldn’t answer those questions because she’d never been there. Come to think of it, every question she was asked, that was her answer: “I’ve never been there.” If you ask me, she needs to go somewhere.
We never had any answers to match last year’s Muppet classic, Hermit the Crab. But the event, as always, was rollicking and fun. There’s always the one person who answers the questions regardless of who’s being asked because, lordy lordy, they actually know the answer to this one. This is from a team who decided Fats Waller had to be a jazz musician because all jazz musicians have one-word nicknames, and that he must have played the tuba because he was fat. So, their deductive powers were marginally successful. They thought Lightnin’ Hopkins played the saxophone. They thought that TV’s talking horse was Dr. Ed, which at least gives him a day job. They came relatively close to identifying the main ingredient in haggis—they knew it came from inside the sheep—but went a little overboard claiming that cabbage was a subsidiary ingredient; on the other hand, they’d never heard of saltimbocca. Needless to say, be wary if any of them invites you over for dinner.
We went through my entire batch of questions, which means that next time out, all new categories. I may steer clear of Disney questions for a while, since these people have trouble deciding if Bambi is the character whose foot fit into the glass slipper. I would have thought that kids knew Disney pretty well, but I would have thought wrong. They also don’t know Muppets or classic movies. I think I do a fine impersonation of Anthony Perkins carrying his mother to the fruit cellar. They thought otherwise. They also thought that the character who says the line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” was named Frank.
You don’t want to know what they thought the main ingredient was in spotted dick. Remind me never to ask that question again.
Thursday, November 03, 2011
The ship of Hud is scarcely manned
It’s hard to say if the number of plebes (and for that matter, Sailors as a whole) is ridiculously diminished in general or if we’re just going through fits and starts, including the Regiscopalypse storm that still had people cut off from the world through Tuesday’s meeting. Only my most reliable plebes showed up, plus Zip, and we did some work and about as much schmoozing, but three people doesn’t make for much momentum. It’s sort of disheartening, because momentum is what carries a team along. An individual can proceed on his or her own momentum, because an individual doesn't look to a team for support of any kind. But a team makes arrangements and argues different topic approaches and plays cards and does all sorts of things that, at the moment, the Sailors aren’t doing much of. My vision of encompassing both LD and PF suffers if I can barely find a one-person team to do LD.
Sigh.
We also didn’t TVFT last night. I admit being personally pooped lately (too much DJ, mostly, for extracurriculars beyond my normal extracurriculars), but I think part of it was that we couldn’t agree on a topic, and if we have nothing much to talk about, schmoozing publicly doesn’t make a lot of sense. The shows should at least attempt to be about something if we really want anyone to listen to them. We did commit to next week, sort of, in the way we have of committing to things. We’ll see what happens.
This weekend is the Monticello MHL. We’re going to try to squeeze a little workshop into that, with me on morality, O’C on PF and Kaz on policy, but at the moment, there isn’t much of a PF signup. Maybe that will change as we near the deadline.
Monticello was also going to host another two-day event, in the place of the suspended Scranton event, but apparently they couldn’t get the numbers high enough. It is hard to add a new tournament or switch gears too much in this business. Schools are not what we would call flexible, and making arrangements is hard enough without having to make rearrangements. Anyone who doubts that bureaucracy is alive and well has nothing to do with school administration…
And meanwhile, Bump cometh. It’s fully subscribed, and now we should get the last-week dropoff. And we’ve cleared off the top of the Princeton waitlists in debate, and sorted out the rooms, so we’re in good shape there. We made the fields a little bigger. People traveling from kingdom come are now all off the list; next up will be the locals. Unlikely anyone will get any extra slots, given the numbers. We’ll see.
Sigh.
We also didn’t TVFT last night. I admit being personally pooped lately (too much DJ, mostly, for extracurriculars beyond my normal extracurriculars), but I think part of it was that we couldn’t agree on a topic, and if we have nothing much to talk about, schmoozing publicly doesn’t make a lot of sense. The shows should at least attempt to be about something if we really want anyone to listen to them. We did commit to next week, sort of, in the way we have of committing to things. We’ll see what happens.
This weekend is the Monticello MHL. We’re going to try to squeeze a little workshop into that, with me on morality, O’C on PF and Kaz on policy, but at the moment, there isn’t much of a PF signup. Maybe that will change as we near the deadline.
Monticello was also going to host another two-day event, in the place of the suspended Scranton event, but apparently they couldn’t get the numbers high enough. It is hard to add a new tournament or switch gears too much in this business. Schools are not what we would call flexible, and making arrangements is hard enough without having to make rearrangements. Anyone who doubts that bureaucracy is alive and well has nothing to do with school administration…
And meanwhile, Bump cometh. It’s fully subscribed, and now we should get the last-week dropoff. And we’ve cleared off the top of the Princeton waitlists in debate, and sorted out the rooms, so we’re in good shape there. We made the fields a little bigger. People traveling from kingdom come are now all off the list; next up will be the locals. Unlikely anyone will get any extra slots, given the numbers. We’ll see.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
The novices are about to launch, etc.
We TVFTed last night, for the first time since August. This abundance of infrequency is not from lack of trying. Early in the year there’s a lot of traveling and setups, and then this, that and the other thing arise, and the next thing you know, it’s the end of October. We should settle into a reasonable regularity going forward.
The abundance of infrequency with this blog, on the other hand, will probably continue. There are just so many hours in the day, and writing that other blog makes this one harder to fit in. I do try, though.
On the Sailor front, it looks as if we have 4 solid plebes and a couple more translucent ones. NPR is dithering between speech and debate and has asked me to choose for him, earning a predictably Yoda like response. I can’t tell people what’s right for them; high school is all about answering that question for yourself. At this week’s meeting the Cannibal stood up to the plate on some training (shades of the Panivore), which bodes well for the future. But the future remains clouded because the juniors were out on the bounding main visiting Ellis Island, my first thoughts on hearing which were that they were leaving the country and going back where they came from. With the abundance of their absence at this week's meeting, we were unable to discuss PF. Next week.
This weekend is the annual First-Timer’s event. I’ve gotten a couple of people complaining about the rules of the MHL, specifically in regards to the fact that a middle school debater is not a novice. Our experience has been that former middle schoolers are way beyond the average novice; after all, Robbie and HoraceMan won novice Scarsdale as 8th graders, and granted they were exceptional, they weren’t all that exceptional. People tell me that their middle schoolers only debated a little bit, though, and I am a little torn. We’ll have to talk about this among ourselves over the weekend. Maybe we can do better than an absolute elevation to JV. Anyhow, the point of first time debate is that it’s a person’s first time; in the past we’ve had a not-first division, and we’ll try that again this time and see if the numbers support it. We want everyone to come and have rounds, one way or another. The goal of the league is inclusiveness. Unfortunately, you can’t please everyone.
I have talked a bit about Big Jake last weekend, and there isn’t a lot to say. Each happy family is the same: a well run tournament mostly does all the things a tournament should do the same as every other well run tournament. The problem is that well run tournaments are not guaranteed at any level. But I have to admit that, if nothing else, the reliability of the software these days, combined with the experience of the folks behind the wheel (Bietz and I worked like telepaths—it was spooky) means that things will probably go okay at that end at least. As I said to O’C, running a tournament, i.e., being the tournament director, means you don’t do anything yourself but manage everybody else doing things. He’s gotten there now. And he’s appreciative, as a manager, of the roles everyone else plays. If he thanks the little people (like me) one more time, I’m going to have to poison his dragon roll. On the other hand, he did claim that the entire Bronx team (there’s 2837 novice LDers just for a start) have all come down with Big Bronxitis. There’s a price to pay, apparently.
The abundance of infrequency with this blog, on the other hand, will probably continue. There are just so many hours in the day, and writing that other blog makes this one harder to fit in. I do try, though.
On the Sailor front, it looks as if we have 4 solid plebes and a couple more translucent ones. NPR is dithering between speech and debate and has asked me to choose for him, earning a predictably Yoda like response. I can’t tell people what’s right for them; high school is all about answering that question for yourself. At this week’s meeting the Cannibal stood up to the plate on some training (shades of the Panivore), which bodes well for the future. But the future remains clouded because the juniors were out on the bounding main visiting Ellis Island, my first thoughts on hearing which were that they were leaving the country and going back where they came from. With the abundance of their absence at this week's meeting, we were unable to discuss PF. Next week.
This weekend is the annual First-Timer’s event. I’ve gotten a couple of people complaining about the rules of the MHL, specifically in regards to the fact that a middle school debater is not a novice. Our experience has been that former middle schoolers are way beyond the average novice; after all, Robbie and HoraceMan won novice Scarsdale as 8th graders, and granted they were exceptional, they weren’t all that exceptional. People tell me that their middle schoolers only debated a little bit, though, and I am a little torn. We’ll have to talk about this among ourselves over the weekend. Maybe we can do better than an absolute elevation to JV. Anyhow, the point of first time debate is that it’s a person’s first time; in the past we’ve had a not-first division, and we’ll try that again this time and see if the numbers support it. We want everyone to come and have rounds, one way or another. The goal of the league is inclusiveness. Unfortunately, you can’t please everyone.
I have talked a bit about Big Jake last weekend, and there isn’t a lot to say. Each happy family is the same: a well run tournament mostly does all the things a tournament should do the same as every other well run tournament. The problem is that well run tournaments are not guaranteed at any level. But I have to admit that, if nothing else, the reliability of the software these days, combined with the experience of the folks behind the wheel (Bietz and I worked like telepaths—it was spooky) means that things will probably go okay at that end at least. As I said to O’C, running a tournament, i.e., being the tournament director, means you don’t do anything yourself but manage everybody else doing things. He’s gotten there now. And he’s appreciative, as a manager, of the roles everyone else plays. If he thanks the little people (like me) one more time, I’m going to have to poison his dragon roll. On the other hand, he did claim that the entire Bronx team (there’s 2837 novice LDers just for a start) have all come down with Big Bronxitis. There’s a price to pay, apparently.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
It's in their pipes and now they're smoking it
So I walk into the meeting last night, and the room is packed with newbies. Instead of the three I was sort of getting used to, there were maybe a dozen fresh-faced little freshman staring up at me. Apparently there was a general recruitment for all the teams/clubs, and we got some people answering the call. Very nice. Of course, this meant that I had to start at the beginning again, which I really can’t do, but I managed to cover Debate Philosophy 101 in about 20 minutes, and then we went on from there. Whether any of these people will return is questionable, but I talked nonstop for 90 minutes and occasionally someone got one of the jokes and either they will come back or leave the district immediately for gentler shores. I’ll find out next week.
Okay and the Cannibal weren’t there for the PF announcement, but my entire slate of Juniors (two, count ‘em, two) were, and at least one of them was quite happy with this, he being of the persuasion of former LDers who weren’t all that excited about VLD. The plebes probably couldn’t make heads nor tails of any of it; the first-timers probably even less so. Whatever. I’m thinking that the best thing to do is get on the train for December rather than just the one time at most in November. This will allow me to continue concentrating on the Modest Novice and then Nov-Dec through October, which is only two more meetings, while setting up the infrastructure for PF (viz team research).
In private conversations I have had, no one is surprised by the switch. It’s not absolute, which helps. People can LD their little hearts out for four years if they are so inclined, as I’ve said. That’s a good thing, but only for some people. For other people, and I think a majority, PF will be a good thing. As I seek to spread the benefits of debate as I see them to the greatest number, it is, as they say on Vulcan, the logical thing to do.
Okay and the Cannibal weren’t there for the PF announcement, but my entire slate of Juniors (two, count ‘em, two) were, and at least one of them was quite happy with this, he being of the persuasion of former LDers who weren’t all that excited about VLD. The plebes probably couldn’t make heads nor tails of any of it; the first-timers probably even less so. Whatever. I’m thinking that the best thing to do is get on the train for December rather than just the one time at most in November. This will allow me to continue concentrating on the Modest Novice and then Nov-Dec through October, which is only two more meetings, while setting up the infrastructure for PF (viz team research).
In private conversations I have had, no one is surprised by the switch. It’s not absolute, which helps. People can LD their little hearts out for four years if they are so inclined, as I’ve said. That’s a good thing, but only for some people. For other people, and I think a majority, PF will be a good thing. As I seek to spread the benefits of debate as I see them to the greatest number, it is, as they say on Vulcan, the logical thing to do.
Friday, October 07, 2011
The new season
So where are the Sailors this year?
Turnout at the first general meeting was spotty at best, although on the bright side most of the people there were potential debaters. Speecho-Americans, who operate on S-A time, started showing up at later meetings. Subsequently, after a little mix and match, we’ve got three debate plebes. This is about average for the course. One of them is already rebeling against his nickname, NPR, which is a hell of a lot better than some other nicknames I’ve come up with over the years. The other two have no nicknames. Come to think of it, the team is fairly free of this curse at the moment, although the Cannibal is arriving next Tuesday (I’m sure much to her chagrin, but as I always say, wipe that chagrin off your face!). Two of the three are on the listserver, the official measure of enlistment. NPR is on the fence. We’ll see. If he hits the road, I’ll give the nickname to someone else. I like the sound of it. It’s no Panivore or Wheat Germ or Termite, but it will do.
Last night we had the parent meeting, where first I tell everyone what we do, and second, I lock everyone in until I have the requisite number of volunteers to run Bump. By now I have my spiel down pretty well, including the timing of all the jokes, although I can never resist tossing in a few ad libs, and they worked pretty well. I mean, I’ve got some good material, people. I’m wasted on forensics. I always promise a half hour meeting, and it always comes in at exactly a half hour, and then maybe another half hour and some change. And we did get Bump parceled out. Food, housing, judges’ lounge. That’s their job.
My job is registration. This year we’ve about doubled PF, which really doesn’t surprise me. What surprises me is how long it’s been taking for PF to get any traction in the region. But maybe that’s ending. In any case, we’re roughly at waitlist in every division, and a hundred over in housing (so for most of those folks, it isn’t going to happen, although I’ve asked the parents to do their best, and last year they found 20 or so extra slots, to the thanks of a grateful debate nation). This is the point at which I keep an eye on it, looking for shenanigans (and in some cases, heading shenanigans off at the pass), worrying it as deadlines approach. The most important thing maybe be that I got Kathy S, the S-A coach, to promise to sell water this year in bottles bigger than one ounce. I mean, I like ripping off debate children as much as the next guy, but those bottles last year were ridiculous. On the other hand, Mrs. Panivore explained how, at housing, she gives kids bottles of water to bring with them to the school. Which, of course, undermines my ability to rip off debate children. We did have a talk about that. She’ll just hand them bagels in the future. Lord knows, the Panivore household has more bagels than it knows what to do with.
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...
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The Pup Thickens
Flies are in the Puppish ointment, but that is to be expected. They lost the building we had last year for LD, so they’ve had to juggle some things. The biggest problem is attempting to share judges; JV and V will be in two different venues. This means we can’t be as generous with judge hires as we might have been otherwise. A bunch of folks who are still waiting for hires are going to be a little bummed, but so it goes. They can’t sell judges they don’t have, and quite honestly, they’ve got a good bunch, so no one can complain. I doubt if that will stop them, though. Our other problem is splitting up the tab staff. With Vaughan in Speecho-American land, other arrangements must be made. Oh, well.
At least the Sailor registration is intact. One thing about a small team is that you don’t have to move an entire army (or in our case, an entire navy). Three cars worth, altogether. Compared to some folks who have, maybe, 77 entries, including teams and excluding judges; they might as well hire a battleship for the weekend. The grass is always greener. I’m sure these battleship folks wish they had three cars worth, while I would love to have all that raw material to play with.
It occurred to me at some point yesterday that Bump registration will open in a couple of weeks. Jeesh. We had to postpone tonight’s inaugural until tomorrow; tonight is school open house. Why do I never check the calendar?
At least the Sailor registration is intact. One thing about a small team is that you don’t have to move an entire army (or in our case, an entire navy). Three cars worth, altogether. Compared to some folks who have, maybe, 77 entries, including teams and excluding judges; they might as well hire a battleship for the weekend. The grass is always greener. I’m sure these battleship folks wish they had three cars worth, while I would love to have all that raw material to play with.
It occurred to me at some point yesterday that Bump registration will open in a couple of weeks. Jeesh. We had to postpone tonight’s inaugural until tomorrow; tonight is school open house. Why do I never check the calendar?
Monday, September 12, 2011
A Well-Oiled Machine
The NYCFL moderators met this Saturday at Iona. It used to be that this was some sort of grand reunion at the beginning of the year, but in the age of Facebook and Twitter and the DiDeAd (we have our own listserver), I feel that we’ve barely been away. Kathy S and I talked a lot about the Sailors on our way down and back, and that was productive, but at the actual meeting, it was mostly, let’s do it again. I recall back in the day when this meeting would run on and on, but after a while you run out of things to discuss. There were a few new faces, but most of us are growing mold, and, well, there you are: a well-oiled machine. When it was over, JV and Kaz headed down to the VassaRR, which was at Collegiate. No doubt the Collegiate Alumni were meeting up in Poughkeepsie. If anyone doubted that the RR was at Collegiate, both O’C and CP kept checking in on Foursquare, presumably for no other reason than to annoy me. I had no choice but to retaliate. I am going to be the Mayor of the Taconic State Parkway in 3 days!
We’re still organizing who’s running what at the Pups. A few folks haven’t been heard from yet. And meanwhile we’re beginning to set up the Tiggers, with some defections here and there. That’s very early days, though. Pups, on the other hand, are breathing down the proverbial neck, and as far as I can tell, reality is just beginning to settle in and people are beginning to realize that they’re not going to be able to hire 50 judges and they’re paring down their entries. We could still use more LD judges, just to make things that much more swell. O’C is on the case, says he.
Tomorrow night is the inaugural Sailors meeting. I heard from the admiralty that there was whining about the pamphlet, because it had pictures of people who were no longer at the school. So, I wonder, we put on pix of people still at the school, for what? The pamphlet goes to people before they show up, to convince them to enlist. Does it matter which pictures of people they don’t know are on the page? It’s not like the pix are so old that everyone has a mullet or something. Speaking of which, if you Google Hen Hud for images (I was looking for the official Half Moon for O’C for the Bump medals), pretty much the first image you get is The People’s Champion. He obviously made his mark on the place.
We’re still organizing who’s running what at the Pups. A few folks haven’t been heard from yet. And meanwhile we’re beginning to set up the Tiggers, with some defections here and there. That’s very early days, though. Pups, on the other hand, are breathing down the proverbial neck, and as far as I can tell, reality is just beginning to settle in and people are beginning to realize that they’re not going to be able to hire 50 judges and they’re paring down their entries. We could still use more LD judges, just to make things that much more swell. O’C is on the case, says he.
Tomorrow night is the inaugural Sailors meeting. I heard from the admiralty that there was whining about the pamphlet, because it had pictures of people who were no longer at the school. So, I wonder, we put on pix of people still at the school, for what? The pamphlet goes to people before they show up, to convince them to enlist. Does it matter which pictures of people they don’t know are on the page? It’s not like the pix are so old that everyone has a mullet or something. Speaking of which, if you Google Hen Hud for images (I was looking for the official Half Moon for O’C for the Bump medals), pretty much the first image you get is The People’s Champion. He obviously made his mark on the place.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Nipping at the Pups
When you have a lot of people attending a tournament, there’s a lot of hoo-ha. For the Pups, aside from my own entries, which include some waitlisted Speecho-Americans, all I’m really interested in is the LD side of things. At this point, it is all waitlist management. There is a practical, objective limit to the size of the fields (the number of rooms does not infinitely expand to meet the field), and there’s obvious reasons to limit the size of any one school’s entry (two or three big debate schools could take up the whole thing, given the opportunity). The goal of the Pups is diversity, and an inclination to draw from more than just the region. So one pulls schools in from far away if one can, although mostly one goes down the waitlist in the order of FIFO. If one were to play favorites, it would be fairly obvious, I think, and would not be to the benefit of the tournament. Similarly, one could presumably play non-favorites (“I never did like you, hence I’ll punish your students”) but I’m sure that would also be fairly obvious. If a school does have a bad history, though, and choices must be made, well… If your judges notoriously don’t show up, for instance, don’t be expecting any extra favors. Anyhow, at the moment it’s looking to me that maybe all the schools on the VLD waitlist will get slots, just because every day there’s a little movement as people drop. Whether anyone will get more than the allotted 4 slots is something else. JVLD seems more steady. The tournament is a mere two weekends away. We should be down to business after the end of this weekend, I would imagine. Plans will be in the works, and unless someone comes down with a severe case of the Creeping Crud, they’ll be there.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I sent out the recruitment marching orders to everyone yesterday. Play nice together and bring in as many sheep as possible, essentially. Despite all our knowledge that recruiting can be done, somehow, for the Sailors it remains pretty much of a genetic crapshoot. People in the district know about forensics, and somehow a few of them sign up for the team. No matter how aggressive or passive we are, same results. Maybe if I taught at the school it might be different, but who knows? In any case, the fingers are crossed. Give me 5 novices with staying power. Is that asking too much?
O’C’s latest check-in on Foursquare is that he got a haircut. How can Bronx Funnies possibly compete with the reality?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I sent out the recruitment marching orders to everyone yesterday. Play nice together and bring in as many sheep as possible, essentially. Despite all our knowledge that recruiting can be done, somehow, for the Sailors it remains pretty much of a genetic crapshoot. People in the district know about forensics, and somehow a few of them sign up for the team. No matter how aggressive or passive we are, same results. Maybe if I taught at the school it might be different, but who knows? In any case, the fingers are crossed. Give me 5 novices with staying power. Is that asking too much?
O’C’s latest check-in on Foursquare is that he got a haircut. How can Bronx Funnies possibly compete with the reality?
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Don't clean your glasses. It's me, not you.
I'm not quite sure why I disparage Speecho-Americans' response rate to messages from on high. (Note: On high = me.) Debaters aren't much better. I'm trying to assemble a quorum for a little chez on the new topic, but the responses range from nil to spam to no to demurrals from people I didn't even know were on the team. Obviously, when Menick cracks the whip, the whip gets cracked. Nothing else happens, though. You'd think I'd know better by now.
We're shooting for the season opener of TVFT tomorrow night. I forget who cracked the whip on this one. Bietz, I think. He's obviously rarin' to go on the new topic. I hope he doesn't propose the sushi affirmative.
For reasons too complicated (or too inane) to explain, I've redone the blog template. Most of it's still here, it just looks a little different. Bear with me as I punch it up a bit. I mean, before, everything looked so... 2010...
We're shooting for the season opener of TVFT tomorrow night. I forget who cracked the whip on this one. Bietz, I think. He's obviously rarin' to go on the new topic. I hope he doesn't propose the sushi affirmative.
For reasons too complicated (or too inane) to explain, I've redone the blog template. Most of it's still here, it just looks a little different. Bear with me as I punch it up a bit. I mean, before, everything looked so... 2010...
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
MJP at Bump
For reasons that are not quite clear to me, when I was cleaning out my mother’s apartment I found a bar of soap labeled Bate’s Motel. Is there something going on with the Aged P that I’m not aware of?
Anyhow, the second big change at Bump will be MJP. Again, this is something we’ve discussed at length on TVFT one way or the other. It’s pretty much the norm at $ircuit tournaments, but if you’ll remember, the very first time I ran it was at Ridge a couple of years ago as an experiment. It worked fine with what I would call a normal pool of judges, meaning that the best judges (best as defined by the field of debaters) seemed to be where they belonged when they belonged there. Granted we could do that same in tab by just paying attention, but this puts power into the hands of the people, so to speak. Community rankings, which I’ve done for a few years, come close, but MJP is closer. I realize that there remain some coaches who are not in favor of it, but if a team doesn’t rank, they’ll just get somebody else’s high ranker, meaning that the judge in question will be one considered strong by at least one of the debaters. To presume that this means a bias against the other debater pushes things a bit. And anyhow, those non-rankers are the ones who always say you should be able to pick up any judge, so, well, pick up this one. I’m also recommending MJP for everyone else, including Monticello; I’ve just set it up for RJT on tabroom.
I’m writing a little bit of the invitation every day or two, when I get a chance. I’ll have to trophy up before the end of the summer, but I am thinking of getting some medals, no doubt enlisting O’C in aid of that. You know how Scrooge McDuck has a big pool of money he likes to dive into? O’C has a big pool of medals and trophies for his swimming enjoyment. What can I say?
I’ve got people signed up for Yale and Bronx, and I have to say, getting the Speecho-American Sailors organized was no easy task. Lots of begging them to tell me what activities they’re in, begging them to sign up for activities actually being offered, etc. They’re less than conversant with the team schedule, which always amazes me given that every other team around here knows about it by heart. Must be something Speecho-American about it. They just don’t think like debaters. That may not be a bad thing, mind you. I’m simply pointing it out.
Speaking of schedules, the plan is to publish BFs at 1:30 and blog posts at 7:30, until I run out of ideas for one or the other. Tally-ho!
Anyhow, the second big change at Bump will be MJP. Again, this is something we’ve discussed at length on TVFT one way or the other. It’s pretty much the norm at $ircuit tournaments, but if you’ll remember, the very first time I ran it was at Ridge a couple of years ago as an experiment. It worked fine with what I would call a normal pool of judges, meaning that the best judges (best as defined by the field of debaters) seemed to be where they belonged when they belonged there. Granted we could do that same in tab by just paying attention, but this puts power into the hands of the people, so to speak. Community rankings, which I’ve done for a few years, come close, but MJP is closer. I realize that there remain some coaches who are not in favor of it, but if a team doesn’t rank, they’ll just get somebody else’s high ranker, meaning that the judge in question will be one considered strong by at least one of the debaters. To presume that this means a bias against the other debater pushes things a bit. And anyhow, those non-rankers are the ones who always say you should be able to pick up any judge, so, well, pick up this one. I’m also recommending MJP for everyone else, including Monticello; I’ve just set it up for RJT on tabroom.
I’m writing a little bit of the invitation every day or two, when I get a chance. I’ll have to trophy up before the end of the summer, but I am thinking of getting some medals, no doubt enlisting O’C in aid of that. You know how Scrooge McDuck has a big pool of money he likes to dive into? O’C has a big pool of medals and trophies for his swimming enjoyment. What can I say?
I’ve got people signed up for Yale and Bronx, and I have to say, getting the Speecho-American Sailors organized was no easy task. Lots of begging them to tell me what activities they’re in, begging them to sign up for activities actually being offered, etc. They’re less than conversant with the team schedule, which always amazes me given that every other team around here knows about it by heart. Must be something Speecho-American about it. They just don’t think like debaters. That may not be a bad thing, mind you. I’m simply pointing it out.
Speaking of schedules, the plan is to publish BFs at 1:30 and blog posts at 7:30, until I run out of ideas for one or the other. Tally-ho!
Friday, July 22, 2011
See you in the funny papers
There's an app for the iPad called Comic Life. I think they used to give it away with Macs back in the day, but now, as I said, there's an iPad version, and last week it was half-price, and, well, there you are. I spent this week giving it a road test. I am happy with it. I wish now to thank O'C for providing enough content to last until, oh, 2032, give or take a month or two. I won't post them every day, but when the spirit moves me, Bronx Funnies it will be.
Other than that, we're closing in on opening the first tournaments of the year, with both Bronx and Yale getting out of the gate on 8/1. O'C is going for the every-screen-in-the-cineplex-Harry-Potter approach, meaning that if you're not signed up by about twenty minutes after midnight, we'll see you in 2012. CP is going for the you-sign-up-for-the-waitlist approach, which I know others, including Bietz, have done. I'm agnostic on approach, to tell you the truth. One thing is certain, though, the rise of the electronic registration has taken a lot of the mystery out of things. Of course, while registrations may close the minute they open, forensicians themselves are not so efficient. Not yet, anyhow. The Sailor Speecho-Americans are all of the maybe-might persuasion, and few have committed to actual events. But they can't just sign up in general... [Sigh.]
Things at the DJ have heated up so much that I've boiled over, which is uncharacteristic for me, as the VCA well knows. I like to maintain a detached, mellow attitude, but lately I've been reduced to an attached stridency. I'll be taking some days off shortly, and that may help. If not, just try to stay out of my way. JUST TRY!
And on the home front, so to speak, I have finally gone to the movies this year. I think this is the first time, but I don't know anybody who's not running out to see HP7.2. What are we all afraid of that we have to see it practically the minute it comes out? Spoilers? Like we don't all know? The only surprise was that Kaiser Soze was actually Snape. To be honest, I couldn't remember all the details from the book or the last movie about what piece of YKW was where, and what that sword was all about, and the chalice or whatever it was at the bank. But it didn't matter, because as one watched the movie, there was stuff our heroes needed and they were trying to get, and that much was clear, and it didn't really matter why. It was nice to see every actor in England assembled for the finale except, as my daughter has pointed out, Alan Cumming, the only living British thespian who wasn't hired for the series.
Over the next week or two I've really got to get Bump organized. A couple of major changes need to be thought through; if you followed TVFT you may know what some of them are. If so, could you please remind me?
Other than that, we're closing in on opening the first tournaments of the year, with both Bronx and Yale getting out of the gate on 8/1. O'C is going for the every-screen-in-the-cineplex-Harry-Potter approach, meaning that if you're not signed up by about twenty minutes after midnight, we'll see you in 2012. CP is going for the you-sign-up-for-the-waitlist approach, which I know others, including Bietz, have done. I'm agnostic on approach, to tell you the truth. One thing is certain, though, the rise of the electronic registration has taken a lot of the mystery out of things. Of course, while registrations may close the minute they open, forensicians themselves are not so efficient. Not yet, anyhow. The Sailor Speecho-Americans are all of the maybe-might persuasion, and few have committed to actual events. But they can't just sign up in general... [Sigh.]
Things at the DJ have heated up so much that I've boiled over, which is uncharacteristic for me, as the VCA well knows. I like to maintain a detached, mellow attitude, but lately I've been reduced to an attached stridency. I'll be taking some days off shortly, and that may help. If not, just try to stay out of my way. JUST TRY!
And on the home front, so to speak, I have finally gone to the movies this year. I think this is the first time, but I don't know anybody who's not running out to see HP7.2. What are we all afraid of that we have to see it practically the minute it comes out? Spoilers? Like we don't all know? The only surprise was that Kaiser Soze was actually Snape. To be honest, I couldn't remember all the details from the book or the last movie about what piece of YKW was where, and what that sword was all about, and the chalice or whatever it was at the bank. But it didn't matter, because as one watched the movie, there was stuff our heroes needed and they were trying to get, and that much was clear, and it didn't really matter why. It was nice to see every actor in England assembled for the finale except, as my daughter has pointed out, Alan Cumming, the only living British thespian who wasn't hired for the series.
Over the next week or two I've really got to get Bump organized. A couple of major changes need to be thought through; if you followed TVFT you may know what some of them are. If so, could you please remind me?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)