This machine, which I first saw on BoingBoing, was all over the interwebs.
9 Mildly Disturbing Scenes Discovered At Legoland For instance, these "hot fireman."
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
More Lego creations
Continuing our public service of providing one-stop shopping for all lovers of little blocks.
Real Large LEGO: Concrete Bridge Turned to Colorful Brick Is there some good reason we don't build real-life stuff out of these things?
There's two sides to every story (via BoingBoing):
This machine, which I first saw on BoingBoing, was all over the interwebs.
9 Mildly Disturbing Scenes Discovered At Legoland For instance, these "hot fireman."
There are complete instructions for making your own Lego Bento box, if you're inspired to do so.
This machine, which I first saw on BoingBoing, was all over the interwebs.
9 Mildly Disturbing Scenes Discovered At Legoland For instance, these "hot fireman."
Monday, October 15, 2012
Debate: The First-Timer's MHL
So, sez you, what was the First-Timers’ like?
Oy, sez I.
First of all, we did use the DIY registrations, and that worked really well once I just gave up and rescheduled the tournament for 2018. Tabroom.com doesn’t like my keeping registration open on the day of a tournament, and I have to sneak up behind it when it is otherwise engaged or else it simply clams up and that’s the end of it. But I did mange to beat it into submission (although it seemed to wreak its vengeance later). Only two schools didn’t comply completely with the DIY, and I will deal with them separately. One was new to the game, the other a serial offender, so each in its own way.
So 9:00 crept up on the clock, and we looked out and saw a virtually packed auditorium, and we hightailed it out to the tabroom, planning on having everything paired by 9:30 and the rounds started by 10:00. As it turned out, we had about as much chance of that as Miss America simultaneously solving world hunger, ending all wars and putting an iPhone in every pot. We were met with the proverbial perfect storm, a serial attack of one damned thing after another, the likes of which none of us had ever seen before.
First of all, we couldn’t get the data to download out of tabroom. It turns out that we had a bad setting, and our immediate reaction, looking at the list of events and not seeing all of them, was to call CP and beg for mercy. Unfortunately, CP sleeps with his phone in the freezer, so by the time we heard from him, we had already gone to plan B and entered the missing data by hand. That was the first half hour we’d never get back. And then the printer went rogue on us. For a while it was pumping out so much paper we had to send an emergency call to Staples and have them rush in a few thousand reams just to keep up with the flow. JV was completely buried under it, with nothing showing but a piece of cowlick. By the time we got this stopped—we found a Dutch boy and had him stick his finger in it—we met with a complete jam, where roughly 728 pieces of paper were lodged in the printer in spaces where no paper had ever been before. This required about fifteen minutes of disassembly and re-greasing the skids, not to mention removing the Dutch boy’s finger, and then for reasons I can’t begin to comprehend, the Mac side of my machine starting sending work to my printer back home while the PC side decided that if it was set for pdfs it would print on the Brother, and if it was set for the Brother, it would create pdfs. It was about 10:30 that we got this all sorted out, as compared to 9:30, at which time the collected masses were sent off to their rounds, except apparently one whole floor of the building was locked and the custodian was nowhere to be found, and the only way out of this was to acquire the master key, kept in a jar on the principal’s office. (I may be getting some of this wrong, as I only overheard the details as I was feverishly trying to sort out a whole ‘nother issue of room double-booking.) With no other resort, O’C was forced to break into the sacred office, and the only way to do this was to break the window by tossing a Bronx novice through it, Bronx novices being in abundance and, well, if they lost a couple, they’d none of them be missed. At least, that's the story as I heard it. In any case, as a result, a hefty number of round ones didn’t happen.
Needless to say, we were running far enough behind that foregoing the fourth round was never much in doubt. Of course, four is a goal, not a promise. And to be honest, at a first-timers’ event, it’s not about the number of rounds, so much as it is about showing up, standing up and getting through the damned thing. Who knew that the same would apply both to the first-time debaters and to the tab room? In the immortal words of CP, repeated at least once at every tournament, “Are you sure you’ve ever done this before?”
What was very pleasing was not just the number of new schools but the success of those schools. I always worry that new programs will get discouraged, but not this batch. I think every single one of them had teams that took medals, and a couple managed to get first place! We’ll be seeing them again, I’m sure. And along the way, the Fordham coach came to me and pointed to the calendar and said that there’s a big bleeping hole in December and that he was willing to offer up his school to fill it. Which suggestion was immediately taken to heart by the assembled 3 out of 4 MHL directors, which means we’ll have an extra event in December for novices and JV. Excellent or what?
And now, back to Bronx again this weekend. I do hope we’ve got the bugs out of the system. (O’C: if you’re reading this, just put it out of your mind. It was all a one-off. Seriously. Maybe. I hope.)
Oy, sez I.
First of all, we did use the DIY registrations, and that worked really well once I just gave up and rescheduled the tournament for 2018. Tabroom.com doesn’t like my keeping registration open on the day of a tournament, and I have to sneak up behind it when it is otherwise engaged or else it simply clams up and that’s the end of it. But I did mange to beat it into submission (although it seemed to wreak its vengeance later). Only two schools didn’t comply completely with the DIY, and I will deal with them separately. One was new to the game, the other a serial offender, so each in its own way.
So 9:00 crept up on the clock, and we looked out and saw a virtually packed auditorium, and we hightailed it out to the tabroom, planning on having everything paired by 9:30 and the rounds started by 10:00. As it turned out, we had about as much chance of that as Miss America simultaneously solving world hunger, ending all wars and putting an iPhone in every pot. We were met with the proverbial perfect storm, a serial attack of one damned thing after another, the likes of which none of us had ever seen before.
First of all, we couldn’t get the data to download out of tabroom. It turns out that we had a bad setting, and our immediate reaction, looking at the list of events and not seeing all of them, was to call CP and beg for mercy. Unfortunately, CP sleeps with his phone in the freezer, so by the time we heard from him, we had already gone to plan B and entered the missing data by hand. That was the first half hour we’d never get back. And then the printer went rogue on us. For a while it was pumping out so much paper we had to send an emergency call to Staples and have them rush in a few thousand reams just to keep up with the flow. JV was completely buried under it, with nothing showing but a piece of cowlick. By the time we got this stopped—we found a Dutch boy and had him stick his finger in it—we met with a complete jam, where roughly 728 pieces of paper were lodged in the printer in spaces where no paper had ever been before. This required about fifteen minutes of disassembly and re-greasing the skids, not to mention removing the Dutch boy’s finger, and then for reasons I can’t begin to comprehend, the Mac side of my machine starting sending work to my printer back home while the PC side decided that if it was set for pdfs it would print on the Brother, and if it was set for the Brother, it would create pdfs. It was about 10:30 that we got this all sorted out, as compared to 9:30, at which time the collected masses were sent off to their rounds, except apparently one whole floor of the building was locked and the custodian was nowhere to be found, and the only way out of this was to acquire the master key, kept in a jar on the principal’s office. (I may be getting some of this wrong, as I only overheard the details as I was feverishly trying to sort out a whole ‘nother issue of room double-booking.) With no other resort, O’C was forced to break into the sacred office, and the only way to do this was to break the window by tossing a Bronx novice through it, Bronx novices being in abundance and, well, if they lost a couple, they’d none of them be missed. At least, that's the story as I heard it. In any case, as a result, a hefty number of round ones didn’t happen.
Needless to say, we were running far enough behind that foregoing the fourth round was never much in doubt. Of course, four is a goal, not a promise. And to be honest, at a first-timers’ event, it’s not about the number of rounds, so much as it is about showing up, standing up and getting through the damned thing. Who knew that the same would apply both to the first-time debaters and to the tab room? In the immortal words of CP, repeated at least once at every tournament, “Are you sure you’ve ever done this before?”
What was very pleasing was not just the number of new schools but the success of those schools. I always worry that new programs will get discouraged, but not this batch. I think every single one of them had teams that took medals, and a couple managed to get first place! We’ll be seeing them again, I’m sure. And along the way, the Fordham coach came to me and pointed to the calendar and said that there’s a big bleeping hole in December and that he was willing to offer up his school to fill it. Which suggestion was immediately taken to heart by the assembled 3 out of 4 MHL directors, which means we’ll have an extra event in December for novices and JV. Excellent or what?
And now, back to Bronx again this weekend. I do hope we’ve got the bugs out of the system. (O’C: if you’re reading this, just put it out of your mind. It was all a one-off. Seriously. Maybe. I hope.)
Music: Jobim
I saw this video, and just needed to share:
Antonio Carlos Jobim, and often Tom Jobim, and most often simply Jobim. He is something of a Brazilian god; around the world, just a god, period. I want to have his baby, except he's no longer with us, and I'm not quite built that way.
Eliane Elias (another CL favorite) doesn't do a bad job, starting with Aguas and moving on from there.
Here's an English language version of the song. John Pizzarelli reports that he was warned by Rosemary Clooney never to perform it without the lyrics in front of him.
And a little goodbye from Jobim himself, with a different number.
Antonio Carlos Jobim, and often Tom Jobim, and most often simply Jobim. He is something of a Brazilian god; around the world, just a god, period. I want to have his baby, except he's no longer with us, and I'm not quite built that way.
Eliane Elias (another CL favorite) doesn't do a bad job, starting with Aguas and moving on from there.
Here's an English language version of the song. John Pizzarelli reports that he was warned by Rosemary Clooney never to perform it without the lyrics in front of him.
And a little goodbye from Jobim himself, with a different number.
More links with little comment: Early Spielberg, boys' outfits, 2 kinds of people, the Beatles and the Bard, Pentatonix
More good stuff that speaks for itself:
- Watch Steven Spielberg’s Debut: Two Films He Directed as a Teenager That about says it all. Remarkably unamateurish, for some reason.
- I feel like I'm looking at something from another universe with this stuff: The Best Dressed Boys of 1930. Think knickerbockers will be coming back any time soon? Oh. Wait a minute. Now we call them below-the-knee shorts. I call them homey pants. Whatever.
- There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. (That's a sign posted in the classroom where we hold debate meetings.) I say that in the spirit of the following clip collection.
- I remember seeing this when it was made, and hadn't seen it since. Gotta love the interwebs for keeping everything alive forever.
- Plenty of these guys' stuff is popular enough that you probably know them already. My take is that I love a cappella so much that I even like covers of songs I don't like. Then again, I like this original. So I'm posting this for the Boomers who also remember the original, and have no idea who Pentatonix is. (Are?)
P. G. Wodehouse
There are some people in the world who think that the character name Gussie Fink-Nottle is about as good as it gets. And that's just one of the folks created, of course, by Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse in his legendary series of Bertie and Jeeves stories. Needless to say, one ought to read Wodehouse, who was a master of language, and for that matter, listening to him via audiobooks is highly recommended, but no one ever went wrong watching Fry and Laurie take on the roles.
Others have also played the parts, with various levels of success, and there was an Andrew Lloyd Webber show, your opinion of which may depend on your love, or lack thereof, for Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Old Plum, as he was known, got into a bit of trouble with the Nazis, raising the question of whether he was, in fact, a sympathizer or merely a naive dupe. Who knows? I have a sense from what I've read that he was pretty much just so wrapped up in his work that he was rather stupidly ignorant, but he's not the first artist to fall into that category. Anyhow, in addition to his books and stories, he did a lot of theater work, including the songs from this little ditty. Talk about a more innocent age...
In the hall of fame it will be Jeeves and Bertie who last the longest. Which is only right. Today is also Michel Foucault's birthday, but I have found that his work is seldom as comic as Wodehouse's, hence I have chosen to profile the one rather than the other.
Others have also played the parts, with various levels of success, and there was an Andrew Lloyd Webber show, your opinion of which may depend on your love, or lack thereof, for Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Old Plum, as he was known, got into a bit of trouble with the Nazis, raising the question of whether he was, in fact, a sympathizer or merely a naive dupe. Who knows? I have a sense from what I've read that he was pretty much just so wrapped up in his work that he was rather stupidly ignorant, but he's not the first artist to fall into that category. Anyhow, in addition to his books and stories, he did a lot of theater work, including the songs from this little ditty. Talk about a more innocent age...
In the hall of fame it will be Jeeves and Bertie who last the longest. Which is only right. Today is also Michel Foucault's birthday, but I have found that his work is seldom as comic as Wodehouse's, hence I have chosen to profile the one rather than the other.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Riding off into the weekend: Epcot's birthday
Of course, for Walt, a man of his times, EPCOT was a potential solution to the problems of urbanization. He wasn't trying to lead us down the path of sterile ruin, he was trying to eliminate slums and tiresome commutes and economic unsteadiness. It just turned out that history has proven that his solution wasn't the right one. When he died in 1966, it was EPCOT that he left behind as his next step forward. The Florida Project was already a go. The Magic Kingdom would be built first, and then the city. But it was not to be.
I don't know whether Disney's successors came to believe that a city like EPCOT wouldn't work, or if they just weren't up to the task of attempting to create it. In any case, what they did come up with was a plan that united two different parks into one, a standing world's fair at least in its inception. On the one hand, corporations would show their ideas for the future, and on the other, countries would exhibit themselves and their people. It wasn't exactly a world's fair (usually countries want to show off their futures, not their pasts), but it was close enough.
It opened 30 years ago, in October of 1982.
It's changed a lot since the early days. Some of the changes are improvements, some are losses, but as with all of the Disney parks, they can't be envisioned as museums, and they move along with the times as the Disney corporation perceives of those times. I would kill to get Horizons back, as would most folks who remember it. Then again, who doesn't love Soarin'? Things come and go.
To celebrate the anniversary, some Epcot (now lower-cased) links:
The Epcot that never was: Walt's original proposal.
World Showcase original artwork I love concept art!
An Horizons tribute. Sigh...
The Universe of Energy original art.
And finally, original art from The Land.
All of this is from the Disney and More blog, which, needless to say, I highly recommend.
More articles we didn't finish reading
These headlines are all real, directly copied from our RSS feed without editing. When we say we didn't read them, we mean it. They didn't exactly pull us in, for some reason...
- Hulk Hogan sex tape: The wrestler shares his side of the story
- Hooray for Men's Underwear Sales!
- Sarah Palin revealed by dad, brother in “Our Sarah: Made in Alaska” memoir
- Mitt Romney Takes Some Tax Deductions Off the Table
- Taylor Swift on Her Messy Love Life
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Debate: AD, and some tournaments
Chrome, or more to the point, my DJ version of Chrome, has gone rogue. For reasons that elude me, it now spits out unfathomable fonts in place of, say, Courier, which for all its dullness, has never been accused of unfathomability. And I like Chrome so much… Oh, well, back to Firefox and Safari.
I’m very pleased with the look of the NYSDCA website. Having listened to SquareSpace being hawked on TWIT for the last millennium, I figured I’d give it a whirl, and while occasionally I have problems lugging things from one part of a page to another, it looks fine and is mostly easy. A nicety not immediately apparent is that a site that looks good on the computer screen also looks good on the mobile or tablet screen, with no effort on my part. We also moved the url over from the old WordPress site, which I never liked. Now I need to get traction with people actually using the site, providing resources and pictures and whatnot. It will happen.
The discussion of Academy Debate with the NYSDCA board (I sent it to them because I want the organization to officially support it) was, at the first volley, mostly about things unrelated to the concept, e.g., costs of tournaments. While I have nothing against discussing ways to reduce costs (and AD has one way, albeit a limited one, reducing the need to hire judges), it’s a separate argument, as were the other unrelated issues. The nice thing about discussing stuff with debate coaches is that they immediately recognize the concept of sticking to the framework and debating the pros and cons of the subject at hand. We seem to be working toward a practical application of the idea as the best forge for its development, and I’ll start on that this weekend. One thing that came up is that we might not allow students who have gone to debate camps to participate at this level. Maybe it’s better that we merely recommend they not participate. I don’t know. After all, in my mind we would only be doing this a few times a year, primarily because the tournaments we’d be doing it are already not attracting circuit types. We’ll see.
The First-Timers’ is this weekend, and on face looks to be pretty fantastic, with about 350 students (this includes small JV divisions). We’re also officially offering parent judge training; God knows how manypoor fish parents we’ll attract, but I know I’ve got 3 from Sailorville (1 ½ for each debating student). Lots of new schools this year, too. The thing about new schools is that they usually disappear quickly enough, but the more that start, the more that survive. Here’s hoping we can keep them committed.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, O’C is no doubt nearing the point of insanity on Jake, although he claims to be as calm as a cauliflower in a frozen tar pit. I’ve said this before: If Jake doesn’t drive him crazy, it’s only because he’s already crazy to attempt to do it pretty much on his own. The things people do…
And speaking of tournaments, Princeton is about to come to the plate, opening registration next week. This year we’re back to having PF off-campus, which is a boon to LD, but we’ll stick to the two hours on and off approach, as I don’t think anybody didn’t love it. You can plan your down time, and when it’s time to judge again, you don’t feel battered. Best, most timely ballot pickups in recent memory, as I recall it.
And Bump is plodding along. This is the point at which it’s wildly over capacity, and nothing is happening. I’m trying to acquire more judges (and if you’re one, let me know), but I’m not sanguine. It’ll be a BYOJ tournament, for the most part. Sigh. On the other hand, that’ll knock out a few of the ribbon clerks and clear up slots before long. But it’s too far away for people to be thinking about it seriously yet. After Jake, though, it’ll start looming in the public eye.
I’m very pleased with the look of the NYSDCA website. Having listened to SquareSpace being hawked on TWIT for the last millennium, I figured I’d give it a whirl, and while occasionally I have problems lugging things from one part of a page to another, it looks fine and is mostly easy. A nicety not immediately apparent is that a site that looks good on the computer screen also looks good on the mobile or tablet screen, with no effort on my part. We also moved the url over from the old WordPress site, which I never liked. Now I need to get traction with people actually using the site, providing resources and pictures and whatnot. It will happen.
The discussion of Academy Debate with the NYSDCA board (I sent it to them because I want the organization to officially support it) was, at the first volley, mostly about things unrelated to the concept, e.g., costs of tournaments. While I have nothing against discussing ways to reduce costs (and AD has one way, albeit a limited one, reducing the need to hire judges), it’s a separate argument, as were the other unrelated issues. The nice thing about discussing stuff with debate coaches is that they immediately recognize the concept of sticking to the framework and debating the pros and cons of the subject at hand. We seem to be working toward a practical application of the idea as the best forge for its development, and I’ll start on that this weekend. One thing that came up is that we might not allow students who have gone to debate camps to participate at this level. Maybe it’s better that we merely recommend they not participate. I don’t know. After all, in my mind we would only be doing this a few times a year, primarily because the tournaments we’d be doing it are already not attracting circuit types. We’ll see.
The First-Timers’ is this weekend, and on face looks to be pretty fantastic, with about 350 students (this includes small JV divisions). We’re also officially offering parent judge training; God knows how many
On the opposite side of the spectrum, O’C is no doubt nearing the point of insanity on Jake, although he claims to be as calm as a cauliflower in a frozen tar pit. I’ve said this before: If Jake doesn’t drive him crazy, it’s only because he’s already crazy to attempt to do it pretty much on his own. The things people do…
And speaking of tournaments, Princeton is about to come to the plate, opening registration next week. This year we’re back to having PF off-campus, which is a boon to LD, but we’ll stick to the two hours on and off approach, as I don’t think anybody didn’t love it. You can plan your down time, and when it’s time to judge again, you don’t feel battered. Best, most timely ballot pickups in recent memory, as I recall it.
And Bump is plodding along. This is the point at which it’s wildly over capacity, and nothing is happening. I’m trying to acquire more judges (and if you’re one, let me know), but I’m not sanguine. It’ll be a BYOJ tournament, for the most part. Sigh. On the other hand, that’ll knock out a few of the ribbon clerks and clear up slots before long. But it’s too far away for people to be thinking about it seriously yet. After Jake, though, it’ll start looming in the public eye.
Some more handsome devils
Another set of folks you ought to recognize.
We're looking for the name of the guy in this first one:
Nice dress:
We're looking for the young lady on the right:
Imagine her as a little girl.
Just change the mustache a little bit...
Answers: #1
#2
#3 (the 7th picture down: her married name was the same as her maiden name)
#4
#5
We're looking for the name of the guy in this first one:
Nice dress:
Imagine her as a little girl.
Just change the mustache a little bit...
Answers: #1
#2
#3 (the 7th picture down: her married name was the same as her maiden name)
#4
#5
Movie pot pourri: Chaplin, Miles, Zisek, Cinerama, Welles
A collection of movies to watch, and postings about movies.
- Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights (Full Film) Arguably Chaplin's best feature. Note that it was made during the sound era; Chaplin was nothing if not dedicated to his own beliefs.
- GENIUS, HUSTLER, SUPERSTAR: ‘THE MILES DAVIS STORY’ Lots of good music, lots of Miles, who was probably the coolest guy in the room (in the true meaning of cool) his entire life.
- This is Slavoj Zisek on Vertigo. The Vast Coachean Army already knows my opinion of this movie lording it over all the rest at the top of the 50, but that doesn't make it, in my estimation, a bad movie. In any case, watch it (elsewhere) and judge for yourself, then listen to what SZ has to say
- The wayward charms of Cinerama Once upon a time, Cinerama was a big thing (no pun intended). As this article says, it was something of a precursor to IMAX, but the concept was much more surrounding and horizontal. To be honest, it really didn't work all that well, but there is something to be said for seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey in this format, which I did the first time I saw it. Anyhow, it's one for the history books now, but movie technology buffs will enjoy this.
- There is lively debate over whether Chimes at Midnight is, well, any good. It is, at times, wildly creative, and at times, a little dull. Here's the whole thing. At the very least, watch them fight in the mud, starting at about 54:00.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Academy Debate
The idea we are considering to invigorate the middle level of participation in debate is called Academy Debate. In a way, this is little more than a rejiggering of JV, but if implemented at invitationals, it could change those events dramatically. On the one hand, it creates a new division with a different judging structure. On the other hand, it restructures tournaments to offer not just rounds of debate, but also debate education.
Here is the message I sent to the board of the NYSDCA to get the discussion kicked off:
We need a division of debate that recognizes that while every student can benefit from forensics, not every student wishes to make it their life’s work. Additionally, we need to provide a better link from beginner to varsity, regardless of a student’s commitment to the activity. And finally, we need to insure that all our regional tournaments provide the community with appropriate levels of competition and engagement, so that our rich competitive calendar continues to thrive.
I offer the solution tentatively titled Academy Debate.
Academy Debate is, essentially, a level of competition that can be applied to any division of policy, LD or PF. Academy Debate is primarily intended for sophomores and juniors, and is open to anyone except seniors and students past their third year of debate (i.e., juniors who debated in middle school now in their fourth year would not be eligible to participate at the Academy Debate level).
Additionally, Academy Debate can be judged by seniors in their fourth year of debate. In fact, seniors in their fourth year are urged to judge, and will be considered not only judges but instructors, especially at tournaments that embrace the full Academy Debate designation.
We have a number of students at the senior level who have a lot to give to the community beyond their ability to adjudicate rounds less expensively than college students (although one reason for creating the Academy level is to remove the need to hire judges for local tournaments). This proposal intends to use those other skills of our upperclassmen. The idea is that if a tournament wishes to adopt an Academy Debate structure, we (the NYSDCA) will work with the tournament to develop a program beyond the rounds that will be interwoven into the tournament. Beyond-‐ the-‐Rounds activities will include lectures and brainstorms on new resolutions, demo rounds by TOC-‐level seniors with commentary, stop rounds (coaches judging a round can break in at any time with advice and questions), background lectures by coaches and student instructors (e.g., a unit on sovereignty or due process or whatever). The hope is to work maybe three of these special events into a tournament, during down time and even in lieu of a round.
Our belief is that this will invigorate tournaments that do not have TOC bids by making them appealing to younger students, who can come and actually learn something, and to older students, who can come and, quite frankly, show off their skills.
Any tournaments in the region could find material that would be of great interest in the Academy Debate model, depending on the time of year. There are always new resolutions to explore and new techniques to learn. For instance, look at January in the northeast. On Martin Luther King weekend we have Big Lex, a triple-‐threat TOC-‐ level tournament with heavy competition in each division. Additionally, for most LDers this is the first TOC-‐level shot at the Jan-‐Feb resolution that will also be the TOC resolution and, probably, the NYSDCA resolution. In our present system:
• Seniors and TOC hopefuls are working hard on their cases, and have little interest in “prepping for Lex” at a tournament with competition not at their own level.
• Younger students are preparing to have their heads handed to them at Lexington, starting for some what might be the inglorious end of their careers because they are not interested in continuing with high stakes TOC level competition.
• Nobody knows what other schools are going to be running, and everybody finds out during the competition. And if you happen to be running something totally illogical that sounded really good back home, well, it’s too late now.
These apply fairly equally across the divisions, but of course with different ramifications. January in PF, for instance, is rich with opportunities, but again, is it best to dive into a TOC bid tournament with a new case filled with untested ideas? Well, what if there were an Academy Debate tournament the week before Big Lex?
• Seniors who are working hard on their cases would not have to present a finished case, but as judges they could hear what other folks are running and maybe get some ideas therefrom.
• Seniors who have been working hard will get a chance to lecture and brainstorm their ideas
• A coach or two might do a half hour unit on background for both the PF and LD divisions
• A “lab” might do a training session on CX for all divisions You get the picture.
To pull this off requires commitment from everyone. There is a fear that some tournaments, primarily those without TOC bids, are not getting the attendance they deserve. (The likelihood that any new tournament will somehow work its way up to attaining bids is, honestly, about nil, given the politics of TOC.) At the same time, there is a big issue that we want younger students to remain in the activity if at all possible without becoming dispirited. Additionally, the removal of the need to provide hired judges seriously reduces the cost of debate in the region. And for large programs, there becomes a logical way to split the squad between events. There are other things that venues, and the NYSDCA, can do to improve to improve tournaments, but they are outside the range of the Academy Debate concept, and will be presented elsewhere.
Here is the message I sent to the board of the NYSDCA to get the discussion kicked off:
We need a division of debate that recognizes that while every student can benefit from forensics, not every student wishes to make it their life’s work. Additionally, we need to provide a better link from beginner to varsity, regardless of a student’s commitment to the activity. And finally, we need to insure that all our regional tournaments provide the community with appropriate levels of competition and engagement, so that our rich competitive calendar continues to thrive.
I offer the solution tentatively titled Academy Debate.
Academy Debate is, essentially, a level of competition that can be applied to any division of policy, LD or PF. Academy Debate is primarily intended for sophomores and juniors, and is open to anyone except seniors and students past their third year of debate (i.e., juniors who debated in middle school now in their fourth year would not be eligible to participate at the Academy Debate level).
Additionally, Academy Debate can be judged by seniors in their fourth year of debate. In fact, seniors in their fourth year are urged to judge, and will be considered not only judges but instructors, especially at tournaments that embrace the full Academy Debate designation.
We have a number of students at the senior level who have a lot to give to the community beyond their ability to adjudicate rounds less expensively than college students (although one reason for creating the Academy level is to remove the need to hire judges for local tournaments). This proposal intends to use those other skills of our upperclassmen. The idea is that if a tournament wishes to adopt an Academy Debate structure, we (the NYSDCA) will work with the tournament to develop a program beyond the rounds that will be interwoven into the tournament. Beyond-‐ the-‐Rounds activities will include lectures and brainstorms on new resolutions, demo rounds by TOC-‐level seniors with commentary, stop rounds (coaches judging a round can break in at any time with advice and questions), background lectures by coaches and student instructors (e.g., a unit on sovereignty or due process or whatever). The hope is to work maybe three of these special events into a tournament, during down time and even in lieu of a round.
Our belief is that this will invigorate tournaments that do not have TOC bids by making them appealing to younger students, who can come and actually learn something, and to older students, who can come and, quite frankly, show off their skills.
Any tournaments in the region could find material that would be of great interest in the Academy Debate model, depending on the time of year. There are always new resolutions to explore and new techniques to learn. For instance, look at January in the northeast. On Martin Luther King weekend we have Big Lex, a triple-‐threat TOC-‐ level tournament with heavy competition in each division. Additionally, for most LDers this is the first TOC-‐level shot at the Jan-‐Feb resolution that will also be the TOC resolution and, probably, the NYSDCA resolution. In our present system:
• Seniors and TOC hopefuls are working hard on their cases, and have little interest in “prepping for Lex” at a tournament with competition not at their own level.
• Younger students are preparing to have their heads handed to them at Lexington, starting for some what might be the inglorious end of their careers because they are not interested in continuing with high stakes TOC level competition.
• Nobody knows what other schools are going to be running, and everybody finds out during the competition. And if you happen to be running something totally illogical that sounded really good back home, well, it’s too late now.
These apply fairly equally across the divisions, but of course with different ramifications. January in PF, for instance, is rich with opportunities, but again, is it best to dive into a TOC bid tournament with a new case filled with untested ideas? Well, what if there were an Academy Debate tournament the week before Big Lex?
• Seniors who are working hard on their cases would not have to present a finished case, but as judges they could hear what other folks are running and maybe get some ideas therefrom.
• Seniors who have been working hard will get a chance to lecture and brainstorm their ideas
• A coach or two might do a half hour unit on background for both the PF and LD divisions
• A “lab” might do a training session on CX for all divisions You get the picture.
To pull this off requires commitment from everyone. There is a fear that some tournaments, primarily those without TOC bids, are not getting the attendance they deserve. (The likelihood that any new tournament will somehow work its way up to attaining bids is, honestly, about nil, given the politics of TOC.) At the same time, there is a big issue that we want younger students to remain in the activity if at all possible without becoming dispirited. Additionally, the removal of the need to provide hired judges seriously reduces the cost of debate in the region. And for large programs, there becomes a logical way to split the squad between events. There are other things that venues, and the NYSDCA, can do to improve to improve tournaments, but they are outside the range of the Academy Debate concept, and will be presented elsewhere.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Debate: Ten to one my weekend was more event-filled than yours
Very unusual weekend:
- Tabbed Monticello? Check.
- Mistakenly upgraded iPhone to IOS 6? Check.
- Daughter married? Check.
- Website for NYSDCA? Check.
- Academy Debate defined? Check.
And you thought I didn’t have a private life. Pshaw! I have to admit, though, that the speed of this rather took me aback, which is probably why, when I plugged in my iPhone Saturday night to grab a couple of new books from Audible (I prefer using iTunes to the Audible app), when I was asked if I wanted to upgrade, I said yes. I forgot completely that I wanted to wait for IOS 6 until a couple of advancements on the following decimal, but what are you going to do? I had already gotten MapQuest to solve the major problem of turning left in Albuquerque to get to the Hindu Kush. As for the rest, we’ll see.
As for Monticello, well, it was small, which meant a lot of hand-pairing, since TRPC refused to have anything to do with it. But by the same token, I had plenty of time on my hands to, first of all, advance the idea of what I’m calling Academy Debate, which in some ways is a revitalization of JV, but a lot more, as it calls on the resources of the NYSDCA to work with tournaments to insure their continued prosperity. I’ll talk about that more tomorrow.
And I also went to SquareSpace and threw together a new NYSDCA website, which went live today. And also there’s a @nysdca Twitter account and a gmail account. And O'C has pointed me to our Facebook account. We’re cooking with the proverbial gas, in other words. Again, more on these things shortly. The most important is Academy Debate, which, as I say, we’ll go into tomorrow.
More articles we didn't finish reading
These headlines are all real, directly copied from our RSS feed without editing. When we say we didn't read them, we mean it. They didn't exactly pull us in, for some reason...
- TURN YOURSELF INTO A PLAGUE
- Lady Gaga Vomits Onstage in Barcelona
- Tobacco enemas for everyone!
- When Did Military Hats Get So Boring?
- Jews Not Keen On Neo-Nazis: Science
- Roach-Eating Contest Ends With Winner's Terrible Death
Monday, October 08, 2012
Friday, October 05, 2012
Riding off into the weekend
I've shown videos before. This one is narrated.
CoasterRadio.com has had a long running podcast, first with a fairly large cast, and then off for a while, and then back with a duo. It's a lot of fun, and if you're into this sort of thing, why not give it a try? After all, you didn't go to Monticello this weekend, so what else do you have to do with the holiday?
CoasterRadio.com has had a long running podcast, first with a fairly large cast, and then off for a while, and then back with a duo. It's a lot of fun, and if you're into this sort of thing, why not give it a try? After all, you didn't go to Monticello this weekend, so what else do you have to do with the holiday?
More articles we didn't finish reading
These headlines are all real, directly copied from our RSS feed without editing. When we say we didn't read them, we mean it. They didn't exactly pull us in, for some reason...
- Meet the ‘invisible people’ who pick up the trash at Mitt’s $12 million beachfront mansion
- Here Is A Cautionary Illustration Of Why You Should Not Stick Your Head In A Trash Can
- Things You Need to Know about Memory Foam Mattresses
- Pass Me That Bowl of Maggots, Will You?
- And Here Is a Wookiee Belly-Dancing to a Four-Piece Klingon Band
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Debate: And God said, let there be another God
There comes a time in the life of every programmer when programming one more line of code will put him or her over the edge. Have you ever looked at computer code? Have you ever programmed the stuff? I've done it, years ago, in Basic, and I've watched CP zip away in Perl like a house afire. It's all really intricate stuff that requires you to maintain a line of thought from the beginning to the end of the logic you're trying to effect, and any distraction will send you immediately back to the beginning, and the slightest syntax error could set off bombs everywhere. It takes a certain kind of mind to do this, but even that kind of mind has its limits.
And that's where things go a little nutty.
CP is, of course, the proud parent of tabroom.com. For the longest time he maintained the system alone, which means that not only was he always keeping the pipes fitted and the steam rising, he also had to deal with user issues. Like any systems person, the idea of dealing with users is a virtual nightmare. It's not that they don't like people—CP is rather a friendly fellow, in his overly tall way—but they don't like dealing with the laity about computer issues. It's like the Pope not wanting to explain to a Unitarian where they keep the Vatican's sacred monkeys. They just don't want to get involved in that conversation out of fear of losing their sanity. In CP's case, he enlisted a couple of us to work with the outside world, AKA the users, as his interlocutors. He called this admin status "godlike powers." It means mostly that we can go into the system and help people fix their tournaments or get logged in correctly or whatever. It's logical for me to have those powers because I tab every week, and it makes life easier for not only me but the tournament directors I deal with. And CP doesn't have to get involved in any of it.
Meanwhile, there's O'C. There has never been a person on the face of the earth who is more interested in the minutia of debate than Jon Cruz. He has all his ballots from his novice LD year. Come to think of it, he has all of everyone's ballots from their novice LD year. He tracks every tournament in the country obsessively. He knows who signs up, he knows who drops, he knows how well they do. He knows when they are sleeping, he knows when they're awake, he knows if they've been bad or good, and I wouldn't be surprised if he breaks into their homes on Christmas Eve to check up on them, which is why a lot of debaters leave cookies and milk out at night, just in case.
The fact that I had godlike powers on tabroom and that O'C did not just drove him crazy. If he asked Palmer once, he asked him a million times, to give him these powers too. And every time, Palmer said no.
And then one night, when Palmer hit that time in the life of every programmer when programming one more line of code will put him over the edge, he was reminded of O'C wanting godlike powers. And he decided to do something about it.
One day shortly thereafter, I saw Palmer, for whatever reason, and he took me aside and told me that because I have godlike powers on tabroom, it is within my abilities to give someone else those same godlike powers. I could even give them to Cruz. According to Palmer, he didn't want to do it himself, because if I did it, he could claim plausible deniability. If I did it, sub rosa, everybody would be happy. Just don't do it when Palmer was around: that was the only limitation.
During the MHL Workshop last week, when we had some downtime, I remembered this exchange with Palmer, and when we had a break, I took Cruz aside and told him I had a present for him. We went into a small room with a computer, and I explained that I was going to give him godlike powers on tabroom, but that he had to be very careful with them, and promise not to screw anything up, but that it was all right with Chris as long as O'C used his powers wisely. With great power comes great responsibility, and all that. For Cruz, this was Christmas, Hannukah, the lottery, American Idol and the Lost Ark all wrapped into one. His brain was about to explode at the mere the thought of it.
So I logged into tabroom and turned on my godlike powers. I went over to O'C's account and brought it onto the screen. Right there, as big as day, was the button to grant him godlike powers.
With Cruz sitting right next to me, his eyes aglow knowing that perhaps his greatest dream since becoming a debate coach was about to come true, I clicked the button.
And now you can too:
--> CLICK HERE <--
And that's where things go a little nutty.
CP is, of course, the proud parent of tabroom.com. For the longest time he maintained the system alone, which means that not only was he always keeping the pipes fitted and the steam rising, he also had to deal with user issues. Like any systems person, the idea of dealing with users is a virtual nightmare. It's not that they don't like people—CP is rather a friendly fellow, in his overly tall way—but they don't like dealing with the laity about computer issues. It's like the Pope not wanting to explain to a Unitarian where they keep the Vatican's sacred monkeys. They just don't want to get involved in that conversation out of fear of losing their sanity. In CP's case, he enlisted a couple of us to work with the outside world, AKA the users, as his interlocutors. He called this admin status "godlike powers." It means mostly that we can go into the system and help people fix their tournaments or get logged in correctly or whatever. It's logical for me to have those powers because I tab every week, and it makes life easier for not only me but the tournament directors I deal with. And CP doesn't have to get involved in any of it.
Meanwhile, there's O'C. There has never been a person on the face of the earth who is more interested in the minutia of debate than Jon Cruz. He has all his ballots from his novice LD year. Come to think of it, he has all of everyone's ballots from their novice LD year. He tracks every tournament in the country obsessively. He knows who signs up, he knows who drops, he knows how well they do. He knows when they are sleeping, he knows when they're awake, he knows if they've been bad or good, and I wouldn't be surprised if he breaks into their homes on Christmas Eve to check up on them, which is why a lot of debaters leave cookies and milk out at night, just in case.
The fact that I had godlike powers on tabroom and that O'C did not just drove him crazy. If he asked Palmer once, he asked him a million times, to give him these powers too. And every time, Palmer said no.
And then one night, when Palmer hit that time in the life of every programmer when programming one more line of code will put him over the edge, he was reminded of O'C wanting godlike powers. And he decided to do something about it.
One day shortly thereafter, I saw Palmer, for whatever reason, and he took me aside and told me that because I have godlike powers on tabroom, it is within my abilities to give someone else those same godlike powers. I could even give them to Cruz. According to Palmer, he didn't want to do it himself, because if I did it, he could claim plausible deniability. If I did it, sub rosa, everybody would be happy. Just don't do it when Palmer was around: that was the only limitation.
During the MHL Workshop last week, when we had some downtime, I remembered this exchange with Palmer, and when we had a break, I took Cruz aside and told him I had a present for him. We went into a small room with a computer, and I explained that I was going to give him godlike powers on tabroom, but that he had to be very careful with them, and promise not to screw anything up, but that it was all right with Chris as long as O'C used his powers wisely. With great power comes great responsibility, and all that. For Cruz, this was Christmas, Hannukah, the lottery, American Idol and the Lost Ark all wrapped into one. His brain was about to explode at the mere the thought of it.
So I logged into tabroom and turned on my godlike powers. I went over to O'C's account and brought it onto the screen. Right there, as big as day, was the button to grant him godlike powers.
With Cruz sitting right next to me, his eyes aglow knowing that perhaps his greatest dream since becoming a debate coach was about to come true, I clicked the button.
And now you can too:
--> CLICK HERE <--
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