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.
Showing posts with label States. Show all posts
Showing posts with label States. Show all posts
Friday, March 30, 2012
Monday, November 02, 2009
Reality sets in
I would like to be sanguine and hopeful and all that good stuff, but there’s just so much steam in the old engine…
I’ve alluded to discussions about the NY State organization, which seemed promising at the time (going back to the beginning of summer). A face-to-face meeting was followed by the creation of a listserver to discuss in-depth the issues that had arisen, to propose possible solutions. I kept my mouth shut here in hopes that good news would arise from there. I even threw together a potential facelift for their old website (in aid of providing a communications base for teams throughout the state).
It seems to have all been for nothing. The minutes of the directors meeting were distributed by our director, and nothing substantive has changed, and for that matter, little un-substantive. The venue is new, temporarily, but that was the least of our issues (aside for a call for hospitality that has historically been sadly lacking). I mean, most of us travel all over the map: traveling to Albany was never an issue as compared to traveling somewhere else. I couldn’t care less where the tournament is held, provided the venue is able to adequately hold the tournament. The issues that did matter, like qualification and the judge pool and the nature of the rounds themselves (that phantom 5th round, most notably) have, at best, been tabled.
I’m not going to go into a whole song and dance here about why I think that is. I thought that they were listening to us, and interested in what the constituency that was hanging on by a thread might want that would pull them back in. This seems not to have been the case. Plenty of time was given to address the concerns, which, honestly, go back many years, and are no surprise to anyone given the attendance at the tournament and the complaints that ensued especially after last year. (For that matter, I have kept my correspondence from the Dark Ages when I originally voiced my objections to the organization, to no avail.)
It would seem that the organization is what it is, and will remain what it is. At the heart of it, this is disappointing. That a state organization not serve a particular constituency, for whatever reason, is unfortunate. Then again, given the nature of that constituency, we really won’t miss it. We wanted to make it better. We wanted to make it a desirable event for our students, and for ourselves, a tournament that served everyone in the state as best it could. It would prefer, apparently, to continue to serve a narrow group that has, apparently, happily been served in the past and which has no interest in changing things for anyone else in the future.
So be it. We tried. Others may continue to try. Unless I’m missing something, and I misinterpreted the events so far, I probably won’t be among them.
I’ve alluded to discussions about the NY State organization, which seemed promising at the time (going back to the beginning of summer). A face-to-face meeting was followed by the creation of a listserver to discuss in-depth the issues that had arisen, to propose possible solutions. I kept my mouth shut here in hopes that good news would arise from there. I even threw together a potential facelift for their old website (in aid of providing a communications base for teams throughout the state).
It seems to have all been for nothing. The minutes of the directors meeting were distributed by our director, and nothing substantive has changed, and for that matter, little un-substantive. The venue is new, temporarily, but that was the least of our issues (aside for a call for hospitality that has historically been sadly lacking). I mean, most of us travel all over the map: traveling to Albany was never an issue as compared to traveling somewhere else. I couldn’t care less where the tournament is held, provided the venue is able to adequately hold the tournament. The issues that did matter, like qualification and the judge pool and the nature of the rounds themselves (that phantom 5th round, most notably) have, at best, been tabled.
I’m not going to go into a whole song and dance here about why I think that is. I thought that they were listening to us, and interested in what the constituency that was hanging on by a thread might want that would pull them back in. This seems not to have been the case. Plenty of time was given to address the concerns, which, honestly, go back many years, and are no surprise to anyone given the attendance at the tournament and the complaints that ensued especially after last year. (For that matter, I have kept my correspondence from the Dark Ages when I originally voiced my objections to the organization, to no avail.)
It would seem that the organization is what it is, and will remain what it is. At the heart of it, this is disappointing. That a state organization not serve a particular constituency, for whatever reason, is unfortunate. Then again, given the nature of that constituency, we really won’t miss it. We wanted to make it better. We wanted to make it a desirable event for our students, and for ourselves, a tournament that served everyone in the state as best it could. It would prefer, apparently, to continue to serve a narrow group that has, apparently, happily been served in the past and which has no interest in changing things for anyone else in the future.
So be it. We tried. Others may continue to try. Unless I’m missing something, and I misinterpreted the events so far, I probably won’t be among them.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Coming tweets, changing venues, cunning folders, clever programs, costumed criterion monkeys
We will be tweeting a little for Monti and probably a little more for the Babycakes Invitational. Sign up to follow @debatetab to enjoy the proceedings.
The latest news on the NY State final is that it is going to be moved to Long Island this year, according to our regional director. For us, this is a move that means little in terms of travel time and probably a lot in terms of hospitality. The folks in Albany have always been stretched. Although they did what I think was a fine job for CatNats last May, with the support of the CatNat organization, over the years they have not been able to handle the numbers for States in all the various venues. I don’t fault them on this; I probably wouldn’t be able to handle it either. But when your stomach is growling and there’s nuttin’ to eat within 20 miles… Well, people get unhappy. Of course, the poor folks who must join us from way up north have a longer journey than usual, but honestly, I make a comparable journey maybe once a month, and there’s worse things in the world than a long bus ride. Add to this that JV is tabbing, and I think we’re definitely starting to see responsiveness in the organization to the desires of the community. And that is a good thing, no matter how you slice it. I did work up some templates for a new website design during the off moments at the Pups. I’ll get those out as soon as I’m at the right place at the right time and remember about them. (Note to self: remember about them.)
How come I can’t find an Ethernet cable in my house? I’ve got enough speaker wire and co-ax to wrap the Pentagon, and not one crappy Ethernet cable? Jeesh. Speaking of supplies, yesterday I bought a folder specifically for important tab papers. The thing is, in tab rooms, we generate enough paper to [insert clever humorous metaphor here]. The problem is, often the unimportant and the important get all jumbled together. You’d think that I’d be better at this after the first million or so years, but just putting the important stuff in the important-stuff pile hasn’t worked yet, and there’s no reason to expect that it will start working some magical time in the future. For five bucks, a nice still little folder? Look in there for the list of strikes, you yabbo! Anyhow, I forgot to buy the Ethernet cable while I was at Staples. Another shopping trip coming up.
Bump is filled up in Novice and PF, but I can’t seem to get those last 7 varsity slots taken. Dagnabbit! Housing is also fully subscribed. I remember with absolutely no fondness the bad old days when I had to do all of this by hand. Now, it’s all automated in tabroom, and all I occasionally have to do is click the odd button. Sainthood for CP? Well, it’s too soon to request it from the Vatican at this point, but some day. On the other hand, his constant turning to me during the Pups and saying, “You have done this before, haven’t you?” started to wear thin after a while. What’s the opposite of sainthood, anyhow? Damnationhood? Sounds right to me.
Speaking of the NYCFL (we were speaking of the NYCFL?) we’re going to speed up the Byram Hills Halloween event so that all those Catholics can get home in time for a little pagan fun and games. Out by 5, home by 6, dressed up in your Tweedle Dee costume and roaming the Village by 7—that’s the goal. Me, I dress up every year as a garden gnome. It just seems to work, and keeps the makeup requirements down to a minimum.
The latest news on the NY State final is that it is going to be moved to Long Island this year, according to our regional director. For us, this is a move that means little in terms of travel time and probably a lot in terms of hospitality. The folks in Albany have always been stretched. Although they did what I think was a fine job for CatNats last May, with the support of the CatNat organization, over the years they have not been able to handle the numbers for States in all the various venues. I don’t fault them on this; I probably wouldn’t be able to handle it either. But when your stomach is growling and there’s nuttin’ to eat within 20 miles… Well, people get unhappy. Of course, the poor folks who must join us from way up north have a longer journey than usual, but honestly, I make a comparable journey maybe once a month, and there’s worse things in the world than a long bus ride. Add to this that JV is tabbing, and I think we’re definitely starting to see responsiveness in the organization to the desires of the community. And that is a good thing, no matter how you slice it. I did work up some templates for a new website design during the off moments at the Pups. I’ll get those out as soon as I’m at the right place at the right time and remember about them. (Note to self: remember about them.)
How come I can’t find an Ethernet cable in my house? I’ve got enough speaker wire and co-ax to wrap the Pentagon, and not one crappy Ethernet cable? Jeesh. Speaking of supplies, yesterday I bought a folder specifically for important tab papers. The thing is, in tab rooms, we generate enough paper to [insert clever humorous metaphor here]. The problem is, often the unimportant and the important get all jumbled together. You’d think that I’d be better at this after the first million or so years, but just putting the important stuff in the important-stuff pile hasn’t worked yet, and there’s no reason to expect that it will start working some magical time in the future. For five bucks, a nice still little folder? Look in there for the list of strikes, you yabbo! Anyhow, I forgot to buy the Ethernet cable while I was at Staples. Another shopping trip coming up.
Bump is filled up in Novice and PF, but I can’t seem to get those last 7 varsity slots taken. Dagnabbit! Housing is also fully subscribed. I remember with absolutely no fondness the bad old days when I had to do all of this by hand. Now, it’s all automated in tabroom, and all I occasionally have to do is click the odd button. Sainthood for CP? Well, it’s too soon to request it from the Vatican at this point, but some day. On the other hand, his constant turning to me during the Pups and saying, “You have done this before, haven’t you?” started to wear thin after a while. What’s the opposite of sainthood, anyhow? Damnationhood? Sounds right to me.
Speaking of the NYCFL (we were speaking of the NYCFL?) we’re going to speed up the Byram Hills Halloween event so that all those Catholics can get home in time for a little pagan fun and games. Out by 5, home by 6, dressed up in your Tweedle Dee costume and roaming the Village by 7—that’s the goal. Me, I dress up every year as a garden gnome. It just seems to work, and keeps the makeup requirements down to a minimum.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Any site that tells J G to shut up can't be all bad. (Sorry. Private joke. Damned good one, though.)
Interesting meeting last night. Some Sailors I had thought long gone were short back. We lost General Will to the Mormons, but added a likely replacement. And we worked out of a different room, for no apparent reason.
Nothing is as comfortably predictable as change.
As usual at the beginning of the year, I break the meetings down into newbies first then everybody second including the newbies. I don’t like to separate the newbies completely because then they miss the sense of community that comes from being part of the whole group however dysfunctional it might be, but nonetheless, the most elementary discussion of natural rights in the first half of the evening is a far cry from my novice coordinators telling me that my weighing theorem is faulty during the second half of the evening. When the varsity arrived we went over some things I learned from the RR (the inherent weakness of the affirmative, the need to weigh arguments that are actually related to the weighing mechanism, the need to bring your own Babycakes), and some general business, like why it probably pays to sign up for a tournament a little sooner than two months after the signup has closed. If any of the novices come back, it will be a miracle.
I pestered CP a bit about the Pups yesterday, but he assures me that everything is keachy peen and stop annoying him. I can’t help it. Tournament in two weeks? First one in ages? One’s mind does turn to it on occasion.
I requested coaching materials from folks for the NYSFL website, and gotten some good stuff. If you have any good stuff, send it along and I’ll add it. We’re creating a “care package” of stuff for new coaches. The more we have, the better.
I made my first foray over to LDDebate.org yesterday. Things are pretty lively over there, let me tell you, some heavy duty discussions of what coaches can and should do. I guess O’C was wise to revive this old site. I still find it ungainly, not being a forum kind of person, but I guess I’ll get into it. But I won’t be arguing about what coaches can and should do. I’ve always felt that coaches should concentrate on Babycakes and let the students figure out the rest of it for themselves. I’m way too busy sorting crappy prizes to get drawn into actually educating anybody. I know my place in this activity.
Nothing is as comfortably predictable as change.
As usual at the beginning of the year, I break the meetings down into newbies first then everybody second including the newbies. I don’t like to separate the newbies completely because then they miss the sense of community that comes from being part of the whole group however dysfunctional it might be, but nonetheless, the most elementary discussion of natural rights in the first half of the evening is a far cry from my novice coordinators telling me that my weighing theorem is faulty during the second half of the evening. When the varsity arrived we went over some things I learned from the RR (the inherent weakness of the affirmative, the need to weigh arguments that are actually related to the weighing mechanism, the need to bring your own Babycakes), and some general business, like why it probably pays to sign up for a tournament a little sooner than two months after the signup has closed. If any of the novices come back, it will be a miracle.
I pestered CP a bit about the Pups yesterday, but he assures me that everything is keachy peen and stop annoying him. I can’t help it. Tournament in two weeks? First one in ages? One’s mind does turn to it on occasion.
I requested coaching materials from folks for the NYSFL website, and gotten some good stuff. If you have any good stuff, send it along and I’ll add it. We’re creating a “care package” of stuff for new coaches. The more we have, the better.
I made my first foray over to LDDebate.org yesterday. Things are pretty lively over there, let me tell you, some heavy duty discussions of what coaches can and should do. I guess O’C was wise to revive this old site. I still find it ungainly, not being a forum kind of person, but I guess I’ll get into it. But I won’t be arguing about what coaches can and should do. I’ve always felt that coaches should concentrate on Babycakes and let the students figure out the rest of it for themselves. I’m way too busy sorting crappy prizes to get drawn into actually educating anybody. I know my place in this activity.
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.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Sliding into the penlast of the weekends
There is now a listserver for NY coaches to discuss issues about the NYSFL with league reps. It’s nysfl at Yahoo groups; any coach can sign up. Let me know if you need more information. At the moment we’re discussing qualifications for the state tournament. Interesting.
Just as an update: If you’re not following the Coachean Feed, you’re missing articles on CDC and circumcision, how torture is enculturated via Hollywood, lots of feminism stuff (including the numbers on women and math), and some general stuff on poverty that might be useful on our next international topic. And that’s just the last couple of days… By the way, if you’re at all into books, follow selecteditions.blogspot.com, where I do the same thing for the book world. (I’m really into this interwebs thing.)
And so, we enjoy the penultimate non-debate summer weekend. If it rains enough, maybe I'll learn something about Sept-Oct.
Just as an update: If you’re not following the Coachean Feed, you’re missing articles on CDC and circumcision, how torture is enculturated via Hollywood, lots of feminism stuff (including the numbers on women and math), and some general stuff on poverty that might be useful on our next international topic. And that’s just the last couple of days… By the way, if you’re at all into books, follow selecteditions.blogspot.com, where I do the same thing for the book world. (I’m really into this interwebs thing.)
And so, we enjoy the penultimate non-debate summer weekend. If it rains enough, maybe I'll learn something about Sept-Oct.
Monday, July 13, 2009
General generalities
Going forward I’m going to put together a more complete analysis of PF than I have so far, just to keep ideas closer together. I’m being a lot windier than I expected. Who knew? I should at least have a cogent approach to case-writing finished in a couple of days. I’ll put disparate pieces together rather than breaking them up day-by-day.
Other items on the agenda:
1. Update the MHL site. The big news on this front is the addition of a late-season one-day tournament, a sort of free-for-all MHL Championships. We’ll have novice and JV as usual, plus Policy and LD RRs. This looks like it could be a lot of fun, and a much better way to end the season than just petering out, as we usually do. I’ll send out details to folks within the next couple of days.
2. I have been working on putting together a listserver for the NYSFL so that members can effectively communicate with the regional directors. I should shortly make this public, which was the goal when we met with the NYSFL folks. Good communication is the starting point of understanding.
3. I need to keep track of every bloody minute of every bloody day of WTF Summer Camp. Thank God they post every bloody thing online, from lectures and labs to which students are actually using the deodorant and, more importantly, which students are not. I would hate to miss even one bloody minute of the action. I just wish they weren’t working on that bloody make-poor-countries-pay-through-the-teeth topic…
4. I’m cleaning up my digital photo collection. This is proving much harder than I had anticipated. I didn’t realize just how disorganized I was in the first place. Why is Prague in WDW, for example? Screwy.
5. Prep for vacation. Coming up soon, which means shutting down CL HQ for a couple of weeks, but don’t worry, you’ll have minute-by-minute updates from WTF to hold you in my absence.
Meanwhile, Feed content is a little more abridged than usual. So it goes. Take advantage of the summer. Read a book that has nothing to do with debate. Something to clear your head. I’ve got a nice pile for my trip, including Wodehouse and Huxtable and some book on the 1889 Paris Expo, plus maybe a Pynchon. That should hold me.
Other items on the agenda:
1. Update the MHL site. The big news on this front is the addition of a late-season one-day tournament, a sort of free-for-all MHL Championships. We’ll have novice and JV as usual, plus Policy and LD RRs. This looks like it could be a lot of fun, and a much better way to end the season than just petering out, as we usually do. I’ll send out details to folks within the next couple of days.
2. I have been working on putting together a listserver for the NYSFL so that members can effectively communicate with the regional directors. I should shortly make this public, which was the goal when we met with the NYSFL folks. Good communication is the starting point of understanding.
3. I need to keep track of every bloody minute of every bloody day of WTF Summer Camp. Thank God they post every bloody thing online, from lectures and labs to which students are actually using the deodorant and, more importantly, which students are not. I would hate to miss even one bloody minute of the action. I just wish they weren’t working on that bloody make-poor-countries-pay-through-the-teeth topic…
4. I’m cleaning up my digital photo collection. This is proving much harder than I had anticipated. I didn’t realize just how disorganized I was in the first place. Why is Prague in WDW, for example? Screwy.
5. Prep for vacation. Coming up soon, which means shutting down CL HQ for a couple of weeks, but don’t worry, you’ll have minute-by-minute updates from WTF to hold you in my absence.
Meanwhile, Feed content is a little more abridged than usual. So it goes. Take advantage of the summer. Read a book that has nothing to do with debate. Something to clear your head. I’ve got a nice pile for my trip, including Wodehouse and Huxtable and some book on the 1889 Paris Expo, plus maybe a Pynchon. That should hold me.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Another weekend bites the dust
Very busy. Really.
First of all, I have alluded in various ways and in various places to discussions some of us are having with the NYSFL. While there’s nothing particularly secret about any of this, it seems judicious to me that these discussions not be the subject of instant analysis here the minute after they happen. Suffice it to say two things: first, the discussions are productive, held in a spirit of mutual respect, and second, shortly there will be ways for other coaches in the state to participate in the dialogue. Slice this any way you want, but it is a good thing.
Secondly, I’m up to my eyeballs in organizing the new computer, which remains unnamed. I sort of like Big Mac, but, well, it’s not as big as the Mac at the DJ, so it seems, I don’t know, a little pretentious. Anyhow, every time I turn around, there’s something else I need to do. Granted, I could have just hooked up the old computer and ported everything over, but that just seemed so…sterile. Besides, I’m using Little Elvis as a fileserver, so to a great degree, what would be the point? This weekend saw the arrival of an FTP program, the indispensable TextWrangler, and the last of my photos, et alia. My pictures situation, in particular, has been a mess for years, with pix spread across computers, disks, etc. Finally, a chance to organize. Plus, I keep finding good shots I’ve forgotten about, including old debate photos. I’ll post ‘em on Facebook and tag ‘em if you’re in ‘em.
I’m also cleaning up the chez, which means that for a while I lost, and then I found, my Pfffft notes from CatNats. I’ll be working on that. I actually did see things that made me want to improve my admittedly haphazard initial take on the activity. With my notes back in hand, maybe this week.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep the Feed articles coming in here, as I find them. I may be too busy to write stuff, but other people aren’t.
First of all, I have alluded in various ways and in various places to discussions some of us are having with the NYSFL. While there’s nothing particularly secret about any of this, it seems judicious to me that these discussions not be the subject of instant analysis here the minute after they happen. Suffice it to say two things: first, the discussions are productive, held in a spirit of mutual respect, and second, shortly there will be ways for other coaches in the state to participate in the dialogue. Slice this any way you want, but it is a good thing.
Secondly, I’m up to my eyeballs in organizing the new computer, which remains unnamed. I sort of like Big Mac, but, well, it’s not as big as the Mac at the DJ, so it seems, I don’t know, a little pretentious. Anyhow, every time I turn around, there’s something else I need to do. Granted, I could have just hooked up the old computer and ported everything over, but that just seemed so…sterile. Besides, I’m using Little Elvis as a fileserver, so to a great degree, what would be the point? This weekend saw the arrival of an FTP program, the indispensable TextWrangler, and the last of my photos, et alia. My pictures situation, in particular, has been a mess for years, with pix spread across computers, disks, etc. Finally, a chance to organize. Plus, I keep finding good shots I’ve forgotten about, including old debate photos. I’ll post ‘em on Facebook and tag ‘em if you’re in ‘em.
I’m also cleaning up the chez, which means that for a while I lost, and then I found, my Pfffft notes from CatNats. I’ll be working on that. I actually did see things that made me want to improve my admittedly haphazard initial take on the activity. With my notes back in hand, maybe this week.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep the Feed articles coming in here, as I find them. I may be too busy to write stuff, but other people aren’t.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Video fans worldwide rejoice, etc.
So for reasons that elude me completely, I decided I desperately needed a Flip. I just opened the box. I bought an older model that takes regular batteries; I don’t know why, but the idea of built-in batteries didn’t sit right with me (says the guy staring longingly at the MacBook Pro). My plan is not, I promise, to start doing this blog as a video. I don’t know what my plan is, to tell you the truth, beyond playing with a new toy. We’ll see.
I’m thinking that I should turn on AIM for one hour a day. Like the hour I’ll be at home and receiving visitors. Otherwise just leave your card in the silver tray. Speaking of AIM, I noticed that O’C appears, IMs, then wanders off. Just like real life.
We’re hoping to set up a meeting to resolve issues over the NYS tournament. In-person is probably the best way to do things. Maybe the last weekend of June. If one operates from the assumption that we all want to do what is best for our debaters, we might indeed solve most of our differences. Fingers crossed.
I’ve heard back from MB South about the coaches discussion site, and MB West promises to respond during the down time at NatNats. Given that NatNats has more down time than a goose factory, I should be hearing from him quite soon. [Aren’t you glad you didn’t have to put in your own metaphor there for a change. I’m feeling frisky today.] I’ve got a feeling that nothing but good is going to come out of this. (Parenthetically, I’ve passed my proposal along to CP, whose input can only make it better. His first reaction was to let in the speech coaches. MB West’s reaction to that was NSFW, but as CP says, a coach is a coach is a coach, or at least he said something like that, it was in AIM, which I’m obviously still attempting to get the hang of.) I did sort of promise not to argue all the issues here, but to stick with arguing them directly with 2MB, which is hard, but I’ll do my best.
We’re in the season of coach moves, and good news around here is that the Edgemont program, which Ben Wittwer has been leading strongly, will pass into the hands of former Lakelander Matt Mallia when Ben moves on to law school. And Brian Manuel, a familiar polician face, will be assisting a bit at that very Lakeland venue. Waiting to hear what happens up in the land of the Albino Bagel, et (a few) alia. One always bites one’s nails worrying that a program might go orphaned, but then again there’s glimmers of new life in places like Harrison, where He Who Fills in Every Inch of the Ballot is putting together a new team. We’ve got a new deal where any new team gets a free ride for the year in the MHL. Not bad. Thinking of putting together a new team of your own? Heh, heh, kiddo, the first one is free…
I’m thinking that I should turn on AIM for one hour a day. Like the hour I’ll be at home and receiving visitors. Otherwise just leave your card in the silver tray. Speaking of AIM, I noticed that O’C appears, IMs, then wanders off. Just like real life.
We’re hoping to set up a meeting to resolve issues over the NYS tournament. In-person is probably the best way to do things. Maybe the last weekend of June. If one operates from the assumption that we all want to do what is best for our debaters, we might indeed solve most of our differences. Fingers crossed.
I’ve heard back from MB South about the coaches discussion site, and MB West promises to respond during the down time at NatNats. Given that NatNats has more down time than a goose factory, I should be hearing from him quite soon. [Aren’t you glad you didn’t have to put in your own metaphor there for a change. I’m feeling frisky today.] I’ve got a feeling that nothing but good is going to come out of this. (Parenthetically, I’ve passed my proposal along to CP, whose input can only make it better. His first reaction was to let in the speech coaches. MB West’s reaction to that was NSFW, but as CP says, a coach is a coach is a coach, or at least he said something like that, it was in AIM, which I’m obviously still attempting to get the hang of.) I did sort of promise not to argue all the issues here, but to stick with arguing them directly with 2MB, which is hard, but I’ll do my best.
We’re in the season of coach moves, and good news around here is that the Edgemont program, which Ben Wittwer has been leading strongly, will pass into the hands of former Lakelander Matt Mallia when Ben moves on to law school. And Brian Manuel, a familiar polician face, will be assisting a bit at that very Lakeland venue. Waiting to hear what happens up in the land of the Albino Bagel, et (a few) alia. One always bites one’s nails worrying that a program might go orphaned, but then again there’s glimmers of new life in places like Harrison, where He Who Fills in Every Inch of the Ballot is putting together a new team. We’ve got a new deal where any new team gets a free ride for the year in the MHL. Not bad. Thinking of putting together a new team of your own? Heh, heh, kiddo, the first one is free…
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The Albany city is closer and prettier than ever! Oy.
The powers that be at the NYSFL are apparently shocked, shocked, to hear that there is gambling going on in Casablanca. (After dinner last night with HoraceMan, TSWAS, I’m tempted to write up this entire entry in movie quotes. There are worse things in life.) Apparently they are also the ones who came to Casablanca for the waters. In other words, they were misinformed.
Be that as it may, that will have to play out on its own terms. Meanwhile, it turns out that there are AirPorts and there are AirPorts. The ones that don’t support network drives are the ones I have. They will network a printer, but that’s it. This is not that horrible a catastrophe; I was only thinking of networking the 1T after I had purchased it when it occurred to me that it might be a possibility. Well, it isn’t, but it doesn’t matter. I’m still cleaning up iTunes, but now I’m cleaning it up on the new drive. Everything’s been ported over. As I explained to Bietz, who’s been doing roughly the same thing, if you have good music on one drive and questionable music on another drive, turning off the questionable drive and then attaching an iPod puts a check mark against all the music that isn’t on the good drive. It’s still tedium to clean them up (you’ve got to reattach the bad drive, check info for the folder location, which is usually heavily nested, then port the files over to the new drive), but it does do the job. What else to we have to do with our boring little lives? And, oh yeah, apparently there is a limit to the number of Firewire drives you can daisy-chain. You only learn this when you get to number three, which is, admittedly, a lot. There may be some other reason why the daisychaining didn’t work (order of connection?) but it, again, doesn’t matter much. The new drive came with every possible cable, including trans-Atlantic. Don’t like the first one? Try another. It’s all bits and bytes sooner or later.
I’ve been playing around with concepts for coachean communication, not terrifically different from what already exists at NDCA, but different enough. What I need to do, now that I’ve conceptualized a good portion of it, is explain it. Easier said than done. Of course, CP is spot on (I hate saying that) that the real issue is the people, not the place. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come, in other words. (There. Another film reference.) That’s where the real work will be. I’ll keep you posted.
In other news, I’ve told the Sailors to pack extra grub for Saturday, this advice coming from long experience of Saturdays past at various CatNat venues. There isn’t hide nor hair of any food services on the Google maps of the PF venue. I may drive rather than taking the bus, though. I haven’t figured that out yet. Nothing worse than waiting around forever for buses on Saturday evening when your stomach is growling and howling…
For Twitter fans, by the way, the CatNats hashtag is #ncfl. As I’ve said, I’ll be microblogging (if anything of note arises, or maybe even if not) as @jimmenick. I know other folks have fired up their cells and whatnot as well. Of course, as O’C points out, it’s hard to make news out of “HC1873674 is hitting DR398726.6.” Thank God CatNats preserves anonymity. If I knew who anyone was, I’d always pick them up. That is human nature, isn’t it? I always pick up the people I know. If I know both sides, I pick them both up. That’s just the way I am. Human in the extreme, in other words. Anyhow, this is it, the last event of the year for me. Time to gear up for 2009-10!
Be that as it may, that will have to play out on its own terms. Meanwhile, it turns out that there are AirPorts and there are AirPorts. The ones that don’t support network drives are the ones I have. They will network a printer, but that’s it. This is not that horrible a catastrophe; I was only thinking of networking the 1T after I had purchased it when it occurred to me that it might be a possibility. Well, it isn’t, but it doesn’t matter. I’m still cleaning up iTunes, but now I’m cleaning it up on the new drive. Everything’s been ported over. As I explained to Bietz, who’s been doing roughly the same thing, if you have good music on one drive and questionable music on another drive, turning off the questionable drive and then attaching an iPod puts a check mark against all the music that isn’t on the good drive. It’s still tedium to clean them up (you’ve got to reattach the bad drive, check info for the folder location, which is usually heavily nested, then port the files over to the new drive), but it does do the job. What else to we have to do with our boring little lives? And, oh yeah, apparently there is a limit to the number of Firewire drives you can daisy-chain. You only learn this when you get to number three, which is, admittedly, a lot. There may be some other reason why the daisychaining didn’t work (order of connection?) but it, again, doesn’t matter much. The new drive came with every possible cable, including trans-Atlantic. Don’t like the first one? Try another. It’s all bits and bytes sooner or later.
I’ve been playing around with concepts for coachean communication, not terrifically different from what already exists at NDCA, but different enough. What I need to do, now that I’ve conceptualized a good portion of it, is explain it. Easier said than done. Of course, CP is spot on (I hate saying that) that the real issue is the people, not the place. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come, in other words. (There. Another film reference.) That’s where the real work will be. I’ll keep you posted.
In other news, I’ve told the Sailors to pack extra grub for Saturday, this advice coming from long experience of Saturdays past at various CatNat venues. There isn’t hide nor hair of any food services on the Google maps of the PF venue. I may drive rather than taking the bus, though. I haven’t figured that out yet. Nothing worse than waiting around forever for buses on Saturday evening when your stomach is growling and howling…
For Twitter fans, by the way, the CatNats hashtag is #ncfl. As I’ve said, I’ll be microblogging (if anything of note arises, or maybe even if not) as @jimmenick. I know other folks have fired up their cells and whatnot as well. Of course, as O’C points out, it’s hard to make news out of “HC1873674 is hitting DR398726.6.” Thank God CatNats preserves anonymity. If I knew who anyone was, I’d always pick them up. That is human nature, isn’t it? I always pick up the people I know. If I know both sides, I pick them both up. That’s just the way I am. Human in the extreme, in other words. Anyhow, this is it, the last event of the year for me. Time to gear up for 2009-10!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The shoe drops
I’ll try to be civil.
There wasn’t much to say about this year’s LD competition at NYSFL in Albany. People debated on the same side for round after round, occasionally against the same opponent. The same judges judged the same people on the same sides. Friday night lasted beyond all imagination. Students who won outrounds didn’t advance. The most qualified judges were given rounds where students were unable to advance. It was, in other words, an adventure, not unlike previous NYSFL adventures. Ultimately the organization posted a message on their website, ostensibly apologizing but in fact explaining to the students who suffered through the experience that there are often bad experiences in life, and that growing up requires you to pull through them. Talk about your cold comfort.
As members of the VCA know, I long ago voiced concerns officially to the organization, and was, for all practical purposes, told to take a hike. Over the years I came to the position that my team attends the state finals on their own dime, against my advice. But after this year’s fiasco, which is not all that different from every other year’s fiasco, truth to tell, I am removing official support completely. If Sailors wish to attend NYSFL’s debate competition in the future, they will be doing so unofficially. Presumably NYSFL has rules against that. ‘Nuff said.
But there’s more to the story. After years of complaining, officially and unofficially, about a state organization that is seemingly deaf to the concerns of the debate community, a number of coaches—ostensibly the chief membership of the MHL—have posted a letter to the organization yet again outlining our issues. But this time the signatories have, like me, insisted that if their issues aren’t adequately answered, they will no longer participate in the league. Additionally, we are creating a New York State Debate Coaches’ Association, which, if necessary, will run its own tournament at the end of the season, starting next year.
No doubt this will be seen as establishing a level of serious political discord in the region, but in reality, the political discord already exists, and the creation of the NYSDCA merely reifies it. Sometimes you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do. We have now, officially, done it.
Alea iacta est.
There wasn’t much to say about this year’s LD competition at NYSFL in Albany. People debated on the same side for round after round, occasionally against the same opponent. The same judges judged the same people on the same sides. Friday night lasted beyond all imagination. Students who won outrounds didn’t advance. The most qualified judges were given rounds where students were unable to advance. It was, in other words, an adventure, not unlike previous NYSFL adventures. Ultimately the organization posted a message on their website, ostensibly apologizing but in fact explaining to the students who suffered through the experience that there are often bad experiences in life, and that growing up requires you to pull through them. Talk about your cold comfort.
As members of the VCA know, I long ago voiced concerns officially to the organization, and was, for all practical purposes, told to take a hike. Over the years I came to the position that my team attends the state finals on their own dime, against my advice. But after this year’s fiasco, which is not all that different from every other year’s fiasco, truth to tell, I am removing official support completely. If Sailors wish to attend NYSFL’s debate competition in the future, they will be doing so unofficially. Presumably NYSFL has rules against that. ‘Nuff said.
But there’s more to the story. After years of complaining, officially and unofficially, about a state organization that is seemingly deaf to the concerns of the debate community, a number of coaches—ostensibly the chief membership of the MHL—have posted a letter to the organization yet again outlining our issues. But this time the signatories have, like me, insisted that if their issues aren’t adequately answered, they will no longer participate in the league. Additionally, we are creating a New York State Debate Coaches’ Association, which, if necessary, will run its own tournament at the end of the season, starting next year.
No doubt this will be seen as establishing a level of serious political discord in the region, but in reality, the political discord already exists, and the creation of the NYSDCA merely reifies it. Sometimes you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do. We have now, officially, done it.
Alea iacta est.
Monday, April 27, 2009
States, the final frontier. Again.
This year’s NY State final was, at least in LD, something of an adventure. My phone practically overheated from all the text messages. Long-time members of the VCA know well my feelings on this organization. That they cannot get students out of the building until 11:00 on Friday night, or that students go 4 rounds straight on one side of the resolution, or have the same judges twice in a row, among other issues, makes one wonder exactly how they go about running their tab room. I’m reminded of the poor operation of the event back in the early 90s, when I went as a parent judge, picking up my daughter at midnight (midnight!) after her third round. Given that it is exactly the same people running things, you’d think by now they would have improved things slightly. I would like to be kind and gentle and supportive—it’s not easy running a tournament—but then again, I run a tournament every week, or support someone else running a tournament every week, and it ain’t that hard either. Not so hard that at least the tabbing isn’t fair and transparent. (Our latest trick of posting the results of every round after every round is the best error-catching gimmick ever invented: thank O’C for that one. One of the best reasons for having a traveling tab staff is that good ideas come from our familiarity with tournaments and one another, and problem-solving is a snap because so many good experienced minds will be on the case immediately.) And I’ve offered many suggestions for improvement of the operation, suggestions that were sniffed at and which placed me in a position of enmity, because I had the audacity to question the judgment of those in power by wanting this important event to fit into the normal pattern of all other tournaments we attend throughout the year. You see, I’m not really an educator. What do I know?
Oh, well. I always tell the Sailors what they’re in for in advance, and every year a handful of the most intrepid go anyhow. Can’t say I didn’t warn them. And, obviously, it’s no skin off my nose, because I enjoyed a fine, warm pseudosummer weekend toodling around Connecticut and playing (for me) great golf and cleaning up my iTunes library which is spread over four—4!—different disk drives and generally wishing it really were summer. I’ve got no complaints. I do, however, have yet another generation of Tars who swear they’ll never go to States again. What a surprise.
I plan on looking at some of the software suggestions people have offered for coachean communication over the next few days (although—preview of coming attractions—I don’t know if I think a forum is the best solution), and I’ll get back to the Bietz Guide to the Galaxy in a day or two. Meanwhile, voting will close this week on the Modest Novice. Let your voice be heard! Email me your preference before it’s too late. It’s still a close race at this point. It can go either way. What fun, eh?
Oh, well. I always tell the Sailors what they’re in for in advance, and every year a handful of the most intrepid go anyhow. Can’t say I didn’t warn them. And, obviously, it’s no skin off my nose, because I enjoyed a fine, warm pseudosummer weekend toodling around Connecticut and playing (for me) great golf and cleaning up my iTunes library which is spread over four—4!—different disk drives and generally wishing it really were summer. I’ve got no complaints. I do, however, have yet another generation of Tars who swear they’ll never go to States again. What a surprise.
I plan on looking at some of the software suggestions people have offered for coachean communication over the next few days (although—preview of coming attractions—I don’t know if I think a forum is the best solution), and I’ll get back to the Bietz Guide to the Galaxy in a day or two. Meanwhile, voting will close this week on the Modest Novice. Let your voice be heard! Email me your preference before it’s too late. It’s still a close race at this point. It can go either way. What fun, eh?
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Notes from the technogical vanguard
Let us take some time to meditate on technology.
First of all, CP’s latest blog entry is interesting as he rips the cover off the NYSFL and tells it like it really is. Yeah, right. Although actually, he does rather see himself as the puppy to their old dogs, but I have always maintained that age does not wither one’s technological abilities, while lack thereof does not enhance them. I cannot speak to the programming side of tabroom.com, which does tab speech events, except to say that I’ve watched him do it and it seems to work fine. But he may just exude an air of unwarranted confidence/competence. In any case, one does need to immerse oneself in software, regardless of what the software is about, to really learn it, and running something once a year is hardly the way. I feel that way about Goy, which I ran once, wrote up all my issues (which the Goy never acknowledged, by the way, leading me to assume that they won’t be fixed), and won’t see again until next year’s District Tournament, unless I’m ousted from the committee, which doesn’t seem likely, because nobody else wants to do it either. Compare this to Evil TRPC, which is virtually the air that I breathe. I can make that program slice pepperoni, get pit bulls to jump through flaming hoops, and do a mean rumba, while never breaking into a sweat. Yet the first time I ran it back in the day, it defeated me completely. There is no substitute for experience in a tabroom, including experience with the software du jour as well as experience for if there were no software. If you can’t throw cards, you probably shouldn’t be throwing a tournament. In any case, tabroom.com does not tab debate, only speech, but I have nevertheless come to rely on it completely for registration chores, which alone is worth the price of admission, not that there is any. We just need to make sure that CP doesn’t get run over by a bus any time in the near future. By the time he’s no longer a puppy, maybe he’ll have put together a backup plan.
Meanwhile, I’ve been having Little Elvis problems. The keyboard is, well, sticky (the PowerBook in my office, way older, is nonetheless way more pleasant ergomonically). When you type anything serious on it, as in a lot of text, it doesn’t necessarily give you a lot of spaces in between the words, plus a lot of letters simply don’t make it at all. Honestly, Little E has never been all that great in this area, but he’s gotten worse lately. When I was browsing around a Bestbuy recently they had some Mac keyboards, and I figured why not, so I ordered one from Amazon and it arrived yesterday and it’s nice and sleek, and I plugged it into my less than perfect USB connector where it works fine (with its own extra USB outlet for plugging in whichever printer I happen to be using). My typing accuracy rate has improved dramatically. Get the right tool for the job, I always say. I’m almost tempted now to get a standalone monitor. At which point I might as well get a mini, but where is all this money coming from, anyhow? So, one thing at a time.
I’ve become rather addicted to starring feed items for the Menick feed (link to the right). As with working the software over time and getting a feel for it (above), I’m beginning to get a sense of where this could work into the overall picture. So much information, so hard to find. Of course, that’s the point of moderated aggregation in the first place, but if the aggregation is specifically deployed in aid of high school forensics? We’ll see.
First of all, CP’s latest blog entry is interesting as he rips the cover off the NYSFL and tells it like it really is. Yeah, right. Although actually, he does rather see himself as the puppy to their old dogs, but I have always maintained that age does not wither one’s technological abilities, while lack thereof does not enhance them. I cannot speak to the programming side of tabroom.com, which does tab speech events, except to say that I’ve watched him do it and it seems to work fine. But he may just exude an air of unwarranted confidence/competence. In any case, one does need to immerse oneself in software, regardless of what the software is about, to really learn it, and running something once a year is hardly the way. I feel that way about Goy, which I ran once, wrote up all my issues (which the Goy never acknowledged, by the way, leading me to assume that they won’t be fixed), and won’t see again until next year’s District Tournament, unless I’m ousted from the committee, which doesn’t seem likely, because nobody else wants to do it either. Compare this to Evil TRPC, which is virtually the air that I breathe. I can make that program slice pepperoni, get pit bulls to jump through flaming hoops, and do a mean rumba, while never breaking into a sweat. Yet the first time I ran it back in the day, it defeated me completely. There is no substitute for experience in a tabroom, including experience with the software du jour as well as experience for if there were no software. If you can’t throw cards, you probably shouldn’t be throwing a tournament. In any case, tabroom.com does not tab debate, only speech, but I have nevertheless come to rely on it completely for registration chores, which alone is worth the price of admission, not that there is any. We just need to make sure that CP doesn’t get run over by a bus any time in the near future. By the time he’s no longer a puppy, maybe he’ll have put together a backup plan.
Meanwhile, I’ve been having Little Elvis problems. The keyboard is, well, sticky (the PowerBook in my office, way older, is nonetheless way more pleasant ergomonically). When you type anything serious on it, as in a lot of text, it doesn’t necessarily give you a lot of spaces in between the words, plus a lot of letters simply don’t make it at all. Honestly, Little E has never been all that great in this area, but he’s gotten worse lately. When I was browsing around a Bestbuy recently they had some Mac keyboards, and I figured why not, so I ordered one from Amazon and it arrived yesterday and it’s nice and sleek, and I plugged it into my less than perfect USB connector where it works fine (with its own extra USB outlet for plugging in whichever printer I happen to be using). My typing accuracy rate has improved dramatically. Get the right tool for the job, I always say. I’m almost tempted now to get a standalone monitor. At which point I might as well get a mini, but where is all this money coming from, anyhow? So, one thing at a time.
I’ve become rather addicted to starring feed items for the Menick feed (link to the right). As with working the software over time and getting a feel for it (above), I’m beginning to get a sense of where this could work into the overall picture. So much information, so hard to find. Of course, that’s the point of moderated aggregation in the first place, but if the aggregation is specifically deployed in aid of high school forensics? We’ll see.
Notes from the technogical vanguard
Let us take some time to meditate on technology.
First of all, CP’s latest blog entry is interesting as he rips the cover off the NYSFL and tells it like it really is. Yeah, right. Although actually, he does rather see himself as the puppy to their old dogs, but I have always maintained that age does not wither one’s technological abilities, while lack thereof does not enhance them. I cannot speak to the programming side of tabroom.com, which does tab speech events, except to say that I’ve watched him do it and it seems to work fine. But he may just exude an air of unwarranted confidence/competence. In any case, one does need to immerse oneself in software, regardless of what the software is about, to really learn it, and running something once a year is hardly the way. I feel that way about Goy, which I ran once, wrote up all my issues (which the Goy never acknowledged, by the way, leading me to assume that they won’t be fixed), and won’t see again until next year’s District Tournament, unless I’m ousted from the committee, which doesn’t seem likely, because nobody else wants to do it either. Compare this to Evil TRPC, which is virtually the air that I breathe. I can make that program slice pepperoni, get pit bulls to jump through flaming hoops, and do a mean rumba, while never breaking into a sweat. Yet the first time I ran it back in the day, it defeated me completely. There is no substitute for experience in a tabroom, including experience with the software du jour as well as experience for if there were no software. If you can’t throw cards, you probably shouldn’t be throwing a tournament. In any case, tabroom.com does not tab debate, only speech, but I have nevertheless come to rely on it completely for registration chores, which alone is worth the price of admission, not that there is any. We just need to make sure that CP doesn’t get run over by a bus any time in the near future. By the time he’s no longer a puppy, maybe he’ll have put together a backup plan.
Meanwhile, I’ve been having Little Elvis problems. The keyboard is, well, sticky (the PowerBook in my office, way older, is nonetheless way more pleasant ergomonically). When you type anything serious on it, as in a lot of text, it doesn’t necessarily give you a lot of spaces in between the words, plus a lot of letters simply don’t make it at all. Honestly, Little E has never been all that great in this area, but he’s gotten worse lately. When I was browsing around a Bestbuy recently they had some Mac keyboards, and I figured why not, so I ordered one from Amazon and it arrived yesterday and it’s nice and sleek, and I plugged it into my less than perfect USB connector where it works fine (with its own extra USB outlet for plugging in whichever printer I happen to be using). My typing accuracy rate has improved dramatically. Get the right tool for the job, I always say. I’m almost tempted now to get a standalone monitor. At which point I might as well get a mini, but where is all this money coming from, anyhow? So, one thing at a time.
I’ve become rather addicted to starring feed items for the Midhudson feed (link to the right). As with working the software over time and getting a feel for it (above), I’m beginning to get a sense of where this could work into the overall picture. So much information, so hard to find. Of course, that’s the point of moderated aggregation in the first place, but if the aggregation is specifically deployed in aid of high school forensics? We’ll see.
First of all, CP’s latest blog entry is interesting as he rips the cover off the NYSFL and tells it like it really is. Yeah, right. Although actually, he does rather see himself as the puppy to their old dogs, but I have always maintained that age does not wither one’s technological abilities, while lack thereof does not enhance them. I cannot speak to the programming side of tabroom.com, which does tab speech events, except to say that I’ve watched him do it and it seems to work fine. But he may just exude an air of unwarranted confidence/competence. In any case, one does need to immerse oneself in software, regardless of what the software is about, to really learn it, and running something once a year is hardly the way. I feel that way about Goy, which I ran once, wrote up all my issues (which the Goy never acknowledged, by the way, leading me to assume that they won’t be fixed), and won’t see again until next year’s District Tournament, unless I’m ousted from the committee, which doesn’t seem likely, because nobody else wants to do it either. Compare this to Evil TRPC, which is virtually the air that I breathe. I can make that program slice pepperoni, get pit bulls to jump through flaming hoops, and do a mean rumba, while never breaking into a sweat. Yet the first time I ran it back in the day, it defeated me completely. There is no substitute for experience in a tabroom, including experience with the software du jour as well as experience for if there were no software. If you can’t throw cards, you probably shouldn’t be throwing a tournament. In any case, tabroom.com does not tab debate, only speech, but I have nevertheless come to rely on it completely for registration chores, which alone is worth the price of admission, not that there is any. We just need to make sure that CP doesn’t get run over by a bus any time in the near future. By the time he’s no longer a puppy, maybe he’ll have put together a backup plan.
Meanwhile, I’ve been having Little Elvis problems. The keyboard is, well, sticky (the PowerBook in my office, way older, is nonetheless way more pleasant ergomonically). When you type anything serious on it, as in a lot of text, it doesn’t necessarily give you a lot of spaces in between the words, plus a lot of letters simply don’t make it at all. Honestly, Little E has never been all that great in this area, but he’s gotten worse lately. When I was browsing around a Bestbuy recently they had some Mac keyboards, and I figured why not, so I ordered one from Amazon and it arrived yesterday and it’s nice and sleek, and I plugged it into my less than perfect USB connector where it works fine (with its own extra USB outlet for plugging in whichever printer I happen to be using). My typing accuracy rate has improved dramatically. Get the right tool for the job, I always say. I’m almost tempted now to get a standalone monitor. At which point I might as well get a mini, but where is all this money coming from, anyhow? So, one thing at a time.
I’ve become rather addicted to starring feed items for the Midhudson feed (link to the right). As with working the software over time and getting a feel for it (above), I’m beginning to get a sense of where this could work into the overall picture. So much information, so hard to find. Of course, that’s the point of moderated aggregation in the first place, but if the aggregation is specifically deployed in aid of high school forensics? We’ll see.
Monday, April 07, 2008
States and clams; feeds and chips; chez and crackers
In a most shocking development, the Sailors who went to Albany over the weekend were mildly disappointed with the event, and at least one of them suggests that he would not be attending in the future. I assume that at least the debate side of the event is still going on, as no results have been published, which is odd given that the speech results are on tabroom.com. I hope at least that the Tars got a shot at some of those fried clams and fries at that place off Wolf Road. That’s almost worth the trip, if you ask me.
I am continuing my feed page at this link. I’m not quite sure why, as in, I wonder if my original goal is even close to what this might be becoming, but nonetheless the dedicated scientist takes the experiment wherever it goes, and does not make claims of the results before the Bunsen burner even gets warm. Or something like that. What I tend not to include in the feed is the general, meatiest news of the day, because it doesn’t catch my fancy as much as more outré items, or, of course, pieces of obvious debate interest. We’ll see. In any case, if you have an RSS feeder of your own, the best thing to do is just add the feed of this page to that one; then I’m one more list of links in a universe of links lists.
I have reserved my first tee time of the year for next Sunday, the day after the Northeast Championships. Hoo-ha! And yesterday I polished up for tomorrow night’s farewell extravaganza the trivia questions from the Lex RR, which are perfectly good for reuse, except for the handful of obscure debate questions that only O’C knew the answers to (I only write down the questions, not the answers, when I do this trivia stuff because, well, if I know the Q, I know the A, like, duh). And I posted a new Nostrum. And I did all sorts of housecleaning and the like around the chez, and did some reading by the fireside. Lots of time on my hands in the interstitial between debate and golf… I am left with nothing but sending Shortie G on her way to CatNats, which is after I send myself to sunny Espana.
Summer is in the air.
I am continuing my feed page at this link. I’m not quite sure why, as in, I wonder if my original goal is even close to what this might be becoming, but nonetheless the dedicated scientist takes the experiment wherever it goes, and does not make claims of the results before the Bunsen burner even gets warm. Or something like that. What I tend not to include in the feed is the general, meatiest news of the day, because it doesn’t catch my fancy as much as more outré items, or, of course, pieces of obvious debate interest. We’ll see. In any case, if you have an RSS feeder of your own, the best thing to do is just add the feed of this page to that one; then I’m one more list of links in a universe of links lists.
I have reserved my first tee time of the year for next Sunday, the day after the Northeast Championships. Hoo-ha! And yesterday I polished up for tomorrow night’s farewell extravaganza the trivia questions from the Lex RR, which are perfectly good for reuse, except for the handful of obscure debate questions that only O’C knew the answers to (I only write down the questions, not the answers, when I do this trivia stuff because, well, if I know the Q, I know the A, like, duh). And I posted a new Nostrum. And I did all sorts of housecleaning and the like around the chez, and did some reading by the fireside. Lots of time on my hands in the interstitial between debate and golf… I am left with nothing but sending Shortie G on her way to CatNats, which is after I send myself to sunny Espana.
Summer is in the air.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The experiments begin; a light shines in the cemetary; Avignon versus Rome; no feijoada for you, infidel!
Here’s the general sense of potential experiments vis-Ã -vis the newspapers. First, play around with aggregators. I’m using Google Reader now, because you can share it. The question becomes how much to share. Since we’re talking about serendipity, we need more rather than less. But at the point where it’s an avalanche, we become counterproductive. So this may take some time. CLG points out that she simply reads the Times online, and I know plenty of people do, but that homepage brings us back to the self-selectivity issue, where we lose the serendipity. Nonetheless I do feel that an aggregate of sites that one ought to visit daily could be a possible solution to the problem. Forensicians are presumably motivated self-starters, after all. But even there there’s the issue of overload versus underwhelm, and that has to be sorted out. But one thing at a time. If you’ve got a different solution, pass it along.
We ground to a Cavemanic halt Tuesday, pretty much covering everything except a few odds at the end. We hit all the high points. The crappy prize given as a reward for sticking it out for all the installments was an illustrated copy of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Jewish Maiden,” in which our poor little heroine, although she dies at the end like most HCA characters, apparently sees the light in a fashion congruent with Mr. Andersen’s middle name. I like to think of this as a subtle warm-up for the hate crimes rez at States this weekend.
We have three people braving the States elements. Hardy Sailors all. I like to think of them as the proof that statistical deviation is unavoidable, given our team’s general sense of the event. I have detailed my opinions of our State organization at great length in the past; since that organization has not changed, neither have my opinions, so I won’t bore you with them again. As CP says on his blog, what has happened is that we now are edging toward competing culminating events. It’s sort of like the Avignon popes. One wonders if there will ever be any resolution. One doubts it. Building up the Avignon tournament over a few years could do the job in some oblique way. It’s not there yet, though. We’ve got a good start, but the lack of Massachusetts teams hurts. Since CP and I are coordinating calendars (I’ve just given him access to the Google tournament calendar), we should be able to end up on the same page at next year’s end. If we’re really talking a Northeastern event, locating it every now and then in Massachusetts makes obvious sense. Key to this will be the disposition of Lexington after the various chips fall with Maggie’s emigration. We’ll see.
They Who Use Every Inch of Space on the Ballot have sent out their schedule for the Columbia RR, and I’ve been mulling it over. It starts damned early in the morning, and the trains don’t look too agreeable. If I had some way of doing so it would make sense to stay over Friday night, but I don’t really want to spend the money on hotel rooms. Oh well. On the other side of the coin, all these guys who I thought would be chowing down at the Brazilian restaurant have suddenly gone all Jewish on me and are insisting on chowing down at their various seders instead. As I explained to Robbie, who’s never eaten Brazilian food (feijoada forever!), they don’t have Jewish people in Brazil. It’s like Denmark and Hans Christian Andersen.
I wonder how long it will be before Hen Hud comes to its senses and fires me?
We ground to a Cavemanic halt Tuesday, pretty much covering everything except a few odds at the end. We hit all the high points. The crappy prize given as a reward for sticking it out for all the installments was an illustrated copy of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Jewish Maiden,” in which our poor little heroine, although she dies at the end like most HCA characters, apparently sees the light in a fashion congruent with Mr. Andersen’s middle name. I like to think of this as a subtle warm-up for the hate crimes rez at States this weekend.
We have three people braving the States elements. Hardy Sailors all. I like to think of them as the proof that statistical deviation is unavoidable, given our team’s general sense of the event. I have detailed my opinions of our State organization at great length in the past; since that organization has not changed, neither have my opinions, so I won’t bore you with them again. As CP says on his blog, what has happened is that we now are edging toward competing culminating events. It’s sort of like the Avignon popes. One wonders if there will ever be any resolution. One doubts it. Building up the Avignon tournament over a few years could do the job in some oblique way. It’s not there yet, though. We’ve got a good start, but the lack of Massachusetts teams hurts. Since CP and I are coordinating calendars (I’ve just given him access to the Google tournament calendar), we should be able to end up on the same page at next year’s end. If we’re really talking a Northeastern event, locating it every now and then in Massachusetts makes obvious sense. Key to this will be the disposition of Lexington after the various chips fall with Maggie’s emigration. We’ll see.
They Who Use Every Inch of Space on the Ballot have sent out their schedule for the Columbia RR, and I’ve been mulling it over. It starts damned early in the morning, and the trains don’t look too agreeable. If I had some way of doing so it would make sense to stay over Friday night, but I don’t really want to spend the money on hotel rooms. Oh well. On the other side of the coin, all these guys who I thought would be chowing down at the Brazilian restaurant have suddenly gone all Jewish on me and are insisting on chowing down at their various seders instead. As I explained to Robbie, who’s never eaten Brazilian food (feijoada forever!), they don’t have Jewish people in Brazil. It’s like Denmark and Hans Christian Andersen.
I wonder how long it will be before Hen Hud comes to its senses and fires me?
Monday, March 24, 2008
Info underload; chez maintenance; yeasty debaters; mi weekend es su weekend; et cetarooni
Whatever you do, don’t read the invitation to the Northeast Championships at tabroom.com. No one else has. Why should you be any different? All the information everyone needs is in there, which is why people are avoiding it.
Sigh.
We set the closing for 4/2 or thereabouts, to give NFA time to sort out the housing (which is at the moment totally booked). There is an issue with the software in that if you change an entry too dramatically, you lose the housing. There’s a logic to this, but there’s also a logic to it not happening. My guess is that it’s easier to manage offline than within the program, but that hasn’t stopped me from asking CP if he can do anything about it.
I did a lot of chez organizing over the weekend, cleaning up the detritus from Districts and putting the tub back into the basement, sweeping up the blood and bone chips, etc. I was one trophy short of a full set, because I mistakenly repeated last year’s order, but I’m picking that up from the trophy people Saturday, and will pass that along accordingly, and that would be about it on that particular puppy, unless for some reason Rippin’ decides that we did something bass ackwards, but I don’t think they will at this point since, well, we didn’t. Then again, I could have filled out some form wrong, and could be hanged for it in the morning. That is much more likely. I never did hear back from the Goys about my issues with the software. Which leads me to believe that said issues will be there next year. Responsive these guys ain’t.
I have set a deadline for the end of this week for cases for those going to the Dreaded States tournament. If they’re going to go, they should at least be prepared. Meanwhile my yeasty sophomore is going to the Hockarobin this weekend, but that’s Jan-Feb, which after a while becomes etched into the brain. Yeasty people, by the way, are usually referred to as rising sophomores or, I guess, rising juniors, but I’m not quite sure what they’re rising to. (Given the fact that few of them ever go out in the sunlight, the term yeasty seems especially appropriate.) By the time they’re seniors they are presumably risen debaters. I won’t deconstruct the religious overtones of that, which seem rather timely, but will let you draw your own conclusions.
I had a problem with my setup for processing my old cassette tapes into mp3s, and I think I isolated it to the iMic. Everything else seems to work fine. So, I put in for a replacement. If that is the problem, I will have to admit that, yes, it was cheap, but jeesh, it’s a piece of crap considering that it didn’t last very long. I love resuscitating old music, though, and will continue to do so until I’ve captured it all. Occasionally the resulting recording is unlistenable, but mostly they’re quite good. Beats tossing all those tapes out the window.
I did hear from one of your fine Philadelphia universities over the weekend, asking me to tab their tournament for them next year, but as their event coincides with the novice first-timer MHL, so much for that. Of course, I haven’t attended said tournament in about a decade, although I do have a tee shirt from the school somewhere to commemorate the Sailors having won it back in the day. All I really remember was the trucks that sold Chinese food outside the campus. They’ve got this little vending setup, with a hot plate and a steam table, and they have—and I exaggerate only slightly—a fifty page menu. Order whatever you want. None of it tastes like what it says on the menu, but it does all taste vaguely Chinese. Close enough, I guess, given it’s coming from a truck with a hot plate. Anyhow, I’ve discussed the problem of too many tournaments and too few weekends in the past. At least the conflict between this and the MHL is an agreeable one, in that they aren’t fighting one another for the same entrants. But my heart will always be with the novices, especially the first-timers. I like catching them while they’re still raw and untested. Before they turn all yeasty on you.
Monday, March 03, 2008
I shoulda stood in bed
There is no more textbook version of a chain reaction than one initiated by an act of stupidity. One person puts the old noodle into idle (if, indeed, there is an idle option on the noodle in question—often people whose brains are slow to inoperative have no gear options to speak of, and therefore idling is the only possibility, and therefore no option at all) and commits an action of sheer incomprehensibility. What happens next? People affected by this action all start to tumble, one by one, with Rockette-like precision. A half hour later, the tab room staff (i.e., me) stalks out to make something happen—you know, a round, maybe, or something like that—and rather than a sea of waiting faces, there’s a pile of tumbled dominos scattered across the cafeteria.
This, in a word, is how NY Regionals was run on Saturday.
Details (i.e., names) will not be forthcoming, although those who remained in the tab room heard my plaintive screams on returning from witnessing the Debacle of the Inert Eventers, or DIE as I like to call/wish it. When all was said and done, however, we had quite a showing, and managed to qualify a rather large number of souls for the dreaded NY State Finals, but when I emerged triumphant from tab at the end of the day to make the announcements, having managed to salvage the tournament after all, grasping survival from the jaws of inertia, there weren’t even that many people left to hear about it. The Schools Who Run—that category of participants that you never see all year, that screws up everything, then disappears before its over—were in full attendance. Unless you were looking for them. There weren’t even enough little trophies to go around. When I first looked, there were 8 of them, proud albeit diminutive Nikes, but when it came time to divvy them up, there were 6 of them, proud and rather even more diminutive Nikes. One school with three qualifiers got to split two trophies (just cut both of them into thirds and throw them into a bag and everyone takes two) and one was a School Who Ran, so there you are. Or there you were. Or there you weren’t. You get the picture.
My goal had been to somehow allow people attending the Lakeland Invitational who were so inclined to also participate in simultaneous Regionals, thus making a larger field and more qualifiers, which we did, but the down side of this was a weather delay that had not been in our original estimates, not to mention a simple general-confusion factor. I won’t try it again. Even if things had been on time, it would have been just too much of a hassle. If you want to go to Regionals, go to Regionals. If you want to go to Lakeland, go to Lakeland, and never the tab twain shall meet. Because we do intend to use Lakeland for the event again next year; that part of it worked out fine. It was just the mix and match that was a problem. And, of course, the random acts of stupidity that marked the event. I wasn’t immune myself. Since I was pairing by cards, I managed with a couple of people to whom I gave an early start to forget that I had given them an early start, so I asked them to have the same round twice. They did carefully advise me that this might not be the best use of their forensic skill set, so I knew early on that we were in trouble. But re-pairing the same round may be regarded as misfortune; screwing up an entire pairing is carelessness beyond my imagining.
And then there was the invitational. (And I see O’C on tenterhooks, waiting for tomorrow’s installment…)
This, in a word, is how NY Regionals was run on Saturday.
Details (i.e., names) will not be forthcoming, although those who remained in the tab room heard my plaintive screams on returning from witnessing the Debacle of the Inert Eventers, or DIE as I like to call/wish it. When all was said and done, however, we had quite a showing, and managed to qualify a rather large number of souls for the dreaded NY State Finals, but when I emerged triumphant from tab at the end of the day to make the announcements, having managed to salvage the tournament after all, grasping survival from the jaws of inertia, there weren’t even that many people left to hear about it. The Schools Who Run—that category of participants that you never see all year, that screws up everything, then disappears before its over—were in full attendance. Unless you were looking for them. There weren’t even enough little trophies to go around. When I first looked, there were 8 of them, proud albeit diminutive Nikes, but when it came time to divvy them up, there were 6 of them, proud and rather even more diminutive Nikes. One school with three qualifiers got to split two trophies (just cut both of them into thirds and throw them into a bag and everyone takes two) and one was a School Who Ran, so there you are. Or there you were. Or there you weren’t. You get the picture.
My goal had been to somehow allow people attending the Lakeland Invitational who were so inclined to also participate in simultaneous Regionals, thus making a larger field and more qualifiers, which we did, but the down side of this was a weather delay that had not been in our original estimates, not to mention a simple general-confusion factor. I won’t try it again. Even if things had been on time, it would have been just too much of a hassle. If you want to go to Regionals, go to Regionals. If you want to go to Lakeland, go to Lakeland, and never the tab twain shall meet. Because we do intend to use Lakeland for the event again next year; that part of it worked out fine. It was just the mix and match that was a problem. And, of course, the random acts of stupidity that marked the event. I wasn’t immune myself. Since I was pairing by cards, I managed with a couple of people to whom I gave an early start to forget that I had given them an early start, so I asked them to have the same round twice. They did carefully advise me that this might not be the best use of their forensic skill set, so I knew early on that we were in trouble. But re-pairing the same round may be regarded as misfortune; screwing up an entire pairing is carelessness beyond my imagining.
And then there was the invitational. (And I see O’C on tenterhooks, waiting for tomorrow’s installment…)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Images of betrayal, et cetera
I would have done a new Nostrum last night, but I’m getting over a cold, caught no doubt in the dank, dark dungeons of Bronx Scientology, and I figured one more day’s wait would be a little easier on my throat. Tonight.
But I have completed this, which is a takeout of the art of Caveman. Which means that I have also illustrated the Caveman lecture, if someone is so inclined to look at the whole thing. Of course, it really is a lecture, not an essay—as I was reminded as I was polishing it up for its next presentation—so you’re better off listening to it, if you’re really interested, with these pictures in your hand while you do so. It’s all available on my podcast page. I have mentioned here recently that I intended to give the lecture again live, and I’ll probably start a week from this coming Tuesday. I figure three sessions or so to get through it. Tickets on sale at TicketMaster. I’m expecting SRO crowds, at least.
I did update it a bit, and I was indeed struck by how much of a lecture it is, and not an essay. It doesn’t read like something you sit with like a book, and I know that a lot of what is there is simply starter material for me to digress from. Lectures, in my world, are as much performance art as delivering the material. In a way, working on it again marginally inspired me to make more of it, given all the tangents I’ve run since doing it back in the day. For instance, there is no material in it on the aesthetics of art, which I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. But I left it mostly alone: it is what it is, which is an attempt to provide historical background for the understanding of the major ideas of postmodernist thought. Everything else is just gravy. Someday I may just do Art History for Non Art Historians, but that’s another beast altogether. Anyhow, one thing I did as I worked was throw in pictures of stuff when it made sense, and when I was starting I thought there might be a lot of that, but surprisingly enough, there were quite a bit fewer than I expected. Still, I hated to waste them, which is why I’ve assembled them (with captions) and referenced them here as a separate entity. You might find it entertaining. Just looking at that Magritte O’C picture always entertains me, for instance. What more can you ask for? The other thing I did to the lecture was shuffle some of the elements at the end. I always felt the thing sort of trailed off, and by combining some of the linguistics material and reorganizing the Critical Theory stuff, things now seem better connected. Much of this does rely on the conceit that there is some relationship between the various pieces of modern/postmodern thinking, which in many respects is simply empty noodling. But I’m trying to make a story out of it, and it is about the making of stories, so even if I’m marginally intellectually dishonest, at least I’m marginally intellectually dishonest in a consistent sort of way.
Tomorrow is Lakeland, and Saturday is Lakeland cum Regionals, for those interested in pursuing the NY State finals in Albany. As far as I know, exactly one Sailor is interested in said pursuance, for reasons that elude me completely. After this weekend I’ll do what organizing I intend to do for States, which isn’t much, as my chips are riding on TNC at NFA. For that matter, we intend to polish the invite of TNC at NFA this weekend, and go live with the invite. There was some exploration of maybe Massachusetts joining us en masse, but they told us Tufts darts and figured they’d re-attack their original venue, which had told them Tufts darts in the first place. Whatever. I don’t want all those people who can’t pronounce the letter R hanging around causing trouble, as is their wont.
And before heading off to the Land of Lakes I will send a final reminder to the Districtians, reminding them to sign up for that roundfest. I’ve done all I can do to prep the data while having in hand, uh, no data. The Sailor entry is pretty much set, although I need some parent judges to come around and take up some space. I’m working on it. Even just putting them in the odd round of PF will make everyone’s life so much more easier.
But I have completed this, which is a takeout of the art of Caveman. Which means that I have also illustrated the Caveman lecture, if someone is so inclined to look at the whole thing. Of course, it really is a lecture, not an essay—as I was reminded as I was polishing it up for its next presentation—so you’re better off listening to it, if you’re really interested, with these pictures in your hand while you do so. It’s all available on my podcast page. I have mentioned here recently that I intended to give the lecture again live, and I’ll probably start a week from this coming Tuesday. I figure three sessions or so to get through it. Tickets on sale at TicketMaster. I’m expecting SRO crowds, at least.
I did update it a bit, and I was indeed struck by how much of a lecture it is, and not an essay. It doesn’t read like something you sit with like a book, and I know that a lot of what is there is simply starter material for me to digress from. Lectures, in my world, are as much performance art as delivering the material. In a way, working on it again marginally inspired me to make more of it, given all the tangents I’ve run since doing it back in the day. For instance, there is no material in it on the aesthetics of art, which I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. But I left it mostly alone: it is what it is, which is an attempt to provide historical background for the understanding of the major ideas of postmodernist thought. Everything else is just gravy. Someday I may just do Art History for Non Art Historians, but that’s another beast altogether. Anyhow, one thing I did as I worked was throw in pictures of stuff when it made sense, and when I was starting I thought there might be a lot of that, but surprisingly enough, there were quite a bit fewer than I expected. Still, I hated to waste them, which is why I’ve assembled them (with captions) and referenced them here as a separate entity. You might find it entertaining. Just looking at that Magritte O’C picture always entertains me, for instance. What more can you ask for? The other thing I did to the lecture was shuffle some of the elements at the end. I always felt the thing sort of trailed off, and by combining some of the linguistics material and reorganizing the Critical Theory stuff, things now seem better connected. Much of this does rely on the conceit that there is some relationship between the various pieces of modern/postmodern thinking, which in many respects is simply empty noodling. But I’m trying to make a story out of it, and it is about the making of stories, so even if I’m marginally intellectually dishonest, at least I’m marginally intellectually dishonest in a consistent sort of way.
Tomorrow is Lakeland, and Saturday is Lakeland cum Regionals, for those interested in pursuing the NY State finals in Albany. As far as I know, exactly one Sailor is interested in said pursuance, for reasons that elude me completely. After this weekend I’ll do what organizing I intend to do for States, which isn’t much, as my chips are riding on TNC at NFA. For that matter, we intend to polish the invite of TNC at NFA this weekend, and go live with the invite. There was some exploration of maybe Massachusetts joining us en masse, but they told us Tufts darts and figured they’d re-attack their original venue, which had told them Tufts darts in the first place. Whatever. I don’t want all those people who can’t pronounce the letter R hanging around causing trouble, as is their wont.
And before heading off to the Land of Lakes I will send a final reminder to the Districtians, reminding them to sign up for that roundfest. I’ve done all I can do to prep the data while having in hand, uh, no data. The Sailor entry is pretty much set, although I need some parent judges to come around and take up some space. I’m working on it. Even just putting them in the odd round of PF will make everyone’s life so much more easier.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Fever all through the night; CP and the undead; money for nothing; do what I tell you to do and I'll be happy as a [you know the drill]
I managed to forget to post yesterday, which is, no doubt, a reflection of bumpomania. I mean, everything’s about settled, and I’m prepping the invoices, and we’ve got the rooms, and the housing is manageable, so aside from the presumed certainty of earthquakes, tornados, locusts and barn rot, things are looking good. One or two yabbos are keeping me hanging about this or that, but that’s always the case. A week and a half from now and you won’t hear another word about this from me for a while.
Saturday’s MHL at Monticello is a policy love-in. How often does Policy beat out LD in pure numbers? Of course, there are plenty of people who were stymied by tabroom.com. This is pretty interesting to me, given that it’s pretty easy, and in fact, these people seemed to have gotten their data on and then screwed it up, rather than having initial access problems. And as I mentioned, there are those who sign up like good little soldiers and then change their entry so much that one wishes they had never signed up in the first place. Question for CP, though: why do the drops persist in the system? If I drop someone, they should be dropped. This happened with the Pups, too. I guess I can pull my data from another list, but perhaps there’s some reason for keeping the undead alive in the system. Maybe CP needs to be attacked by my Facebook zombie. Anyhow, the C-TRPC data is all in. All we need now is for O’C’s bus to realize that Monticello is north of the Bronx, and we’ll have a tournament.
There’s a check for the NYSFL on my desk, ready to be mailed. Sigh.
There was a flurry of parent judge discussion on the NDCA listserver. A number of people like the stuff I wrote and asked it they could access it. Let me see. If people read my judge how-to, they’ll judge the way I want them to judge. Does that work for me? By the way, the listserver is open to all and sundry, rather than just members, and maybe this one will be the one that becomes the de facto discussion group in the activity. So far NFL and LDEP weren’t able to do it. WTF works fine for students but I only check it at the highest top-page level, and seldom read too far into postings and comments unless they’re about me, or O’C has clued me into a interesting discussion. The idea of coaches connecting painlessly to other coaches is an idea whose time has come. About a decade ago. You want to know why it hasn’t worked so far? Too many luddite coaches. And they freely admit it.
Jeesh.
Saturday’s MHL at Monticello is a policy love-in. How often does Policy beat out LD in pure numbers? Of course, there are plenty of people who were stymied by tabroom.com. This is pretty interesting to me, given that it’s pretty easy, and in fact, these people seemed to have gotten their data on and then screwed it up, rather than having initial access problems. And as I mentioned, there are those who sign up like good little soldiers and then change their entry so much that one wishes they had never signed up in the first place. Question for CP, though: why do the drops persist in the system? If I drop someone, they should be dropped. This happened with the Pups, too. I guess I can pull my data from another list, but perhaps there’s some reason for keeping the undead alive in the system. Maybe CP needs to be attacked by my Facebook zombie. Anyhow, the C-TRPC data is all in. All we need now is for O’C’s bus to realize that Monticello is north of the Bronx, and we’ll have a tournament.
There’s a check for the NYSFL on my desk, ready to be mailed. Sigh.
There was a flurry of parent judge discussion on the NDCA listserver. A number of people like the stuff I wrote and asked it they could access it. Let me see. If people read my judge how-to, they’ll judge the way I want them to judge. Does that work for me? By the way, the listserver is open to all and sundry, rather than just members, and maybe this one will be the one that becomes the de facto discussion group in the activity. So far NFL and LDEP weren’t able to do it. WTF works fine for students but I only check it at the highest top-page level, and seldom read too far into postings and comments unless they’re about me, or O’C has clued me into a interesting discussion. The idea of coaches connecting painlessly to other coaches is an idea whose time has come. About a decade ago. You want to know why it hasn’t worked so far? Too many luddite coaches. And they freely admit it.
Jeesh.
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