Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Academy in action
It worked.
I can only speak to the PF side of things, from personal experience. As intended, we had two sessions. The first was before the rounds began. O’C provided us with Danny M, a former NDCA finalist, and Joe Gazzola, who has been the coach of the Bronx Science team. I had a bunch of pretty elementary questions about how to do stuff, from when to start researching to who writes the cases—very inside baseball material—and Danny was most forthcoming, and interesting. Of course, how a big squad like Bronx does some things may never be the way the Sailors might do them, but still, ideas are ideas. The session in LD was set up the same way. I know our session went well because when I turned to the audience for their questions, a lot of hands came up. Everyone was engaged, and seemed to be getting something out of it. Abhi, leader of the LD session, reported likewise.
The second session for PF was brainstorming on the China topic. Here, Matt Malia, policy coach at Edgemont, joined us, which is sort of like the Pope dropping by for a discussion of the Vatican. Wow! We did this during the off flights, so the groups were small and manageable, and everyone got a chance to speak, be it questions or observations. The only problem I had was that, doing it twice in succession, it took a little while to get our edge again the second time. It might make sense, doing this again in the future, not to go back to back, for just that reason. In any case, I don’t know about anyone else, but I learned a lot. MM helped focus the resolution into two distinct possibilities. Either the growth of a new power is a zero sum game or it isn’t. Either there is a limited amount of power, the acquisition and exercise of which will naturally become China’s goal at the US’s expense, or the equation is open, and everyone can gain on all sides via implicit partnerships. Conservative vs liberal. Hawk vs Dove. Very nice, indeed. One can go at it other ways, but the starting points from this discussion will help people immensely, I’m sure. LD, according to moderator Ari, was, again, a success. I’m not sure how the Policy side went; I’ll get that info this coming weekend, but two out of three ain’t bad, and I’m betting it was three out of three.
The tournament itself was, unfortunately, small. But then again, one of the goals of Academy is to preserve small tournaments. If Byram Hills wishes their tournament to remain on the docket, if I were them I’d embrace the concept, as I know the buzz will be strong on the modules. It could help grow the event, if that’s their goal. I would also, if I were them, work on building up the policy side of things. They’re one of the few regional policy invitationals around, but their costs are high. If they could figure out a way of attracting the NYC policy schools, they’d really be doing a service to the debate community.
Another unfortunate aspect of BH is the severe lack of internet. Even logging in via Ari’s connection didn’t get me email. And there’s literally no phone service except outside the building. I didn’t get a chance to export the data from TRPC to tabroom until I got home Saturday night. And, for some reason, it didn’t seem to work. Tabroom seems to know a bit of what happened, but is not showing full results or pairings. I sent it all to CP for him to sort out. Maybe I was doing something wrong; I don’t claim complete comfort with the system yet. But if not, then a fix is needed, given how many of our venues still have limitations of one sort or another. The thing is, though, if you do use this system, it means that your team results are all available for all tournaments in one place. Not a bad thing at all. [Update: CP pointed to what I have to do. Will do it shortly.]
Throughout the weekend I got various messages from OC down in Florida, where things went swimmingly. He seemed to want to rub it in that he was in the Sunshine State and we were in a thick New York miasma where, driving home, I couldn’t even see the steering wheel, much less the road ahead. This balanced out in the end when his airline explained that the New York miasma was interfering with their flight plans. Nyaah, nyaah! There isn't a lot of bloom left on the rose where the only place you can check into on Foursquare is the men's room of the Fort Lauderdale airport.
I can only speak to the PF side of things, from personal experience. As intended, we had two sessions. The first was before the rounds began. O’C provided us with Danny M, a former NDCA finalist, and Joe Gazzola, who has been the coach of the Bronx Science team. I had a bunch of pretty elementary questions about how to do stuff, from when to start researching to who writes the cases—very inside baseball material—and Danny was most forthcoming, and interesting. Of course, how a big squad like Bronx does some things may never be the way the Sailors might do them, but still, ideas are ideas. The session in LD was set up the same way. I know our session went well because when I turned to the audience for their questions, a lot of hands came up. Everyone was engaged, and seemed to be getting something out of it. Abhi, leader of the LD session, reported likewise.
The second session for PF was brainstorming on the China topic. Here, Matt Malia, policy coach at Edgemont, joined us, which is sort of like the Pope dropping by for a discussion of the Vatican. Wow! We did this during the off flights, so the groups were small and manageable, and everyone got a chance to speak, be it questions or observations. The only problem I had was that, doing it twice in succession, it took a little while to get our edge again the second time. It might make sense, doing this again in the future, not to go back to back, for just that reason. In any case, I don’t know about anyone else, but I learned a lot. MM helped focus the resolution into two distinct possibilities. Either the growth of a new power is a zero sum game or it isn’t. Either there is a limited amount of power, the acquisition and exercise of which will naturally become China’s goal at the US’s expense, or the equation is open, and everyone can gain on all sides via implicit partnerships. Conservative vs liberal. Hawk vs Dove. Very nice, indeed. One can go at it other ways, but the starting points from this discussion will help people immensely, I’m sure. LD, according to moderator Ari, was, again, a success. I’m not sure how the Policy side went; I’ll get that info this coming weekend, but two out of three ain’t bad, and I’m betting it was three out of three.
The tournament itself was, unfortunately, small. But then again, one of the goals of Academy is to preserve small tournaments. If Byram Hills wishes their tournament to remain on the docket, if I were them I’d embrace the concept, as I know the buzz will be strong on the modules. It could help grow the event, if that’s their goal. I would also, if I were them, work on building up the policy side of things. They’re one of the few regional policy invitationals around, but their costs are high. If they could figure out a way of attracting the NYC policy schools, they’d really be doing a service to the debate community.
Another unfortunate aspect of BH is the severe lack of internet. Even logging in via Ari’s connection didn’t get me email. And there’s literally no phone service except outside the building. I didn’t get a chance to export the data from TRPC to tabroom until I got home Saturday night. And, for some reason, it didn’t seem to work. Tabroom seems to know a bit of what happened, but is not showing full results or pairings. I sent it all to CP for him to sort out. Maybe I was doing something wrong; I don’t claim complete comfort with the system yet. But if not, then a fix is needed, given how many of our venues still have limitations of one sort or another. The thing is, though, if you do use this system, it means that your team results are all available for all tournaments in one place. Not a bad thing at all. [Update: CP pointed to what I have to do. Will do it shortly.]
Throughout the weekend I got various messages from OC down in Florida, where things went swimmingly. He seemed to want to rub it in that he was in the Sunshine State and we were in a thick New York miasma where, driving home, I couldn’t even see the steering wheel, much less the road ahead. This balanced out in the end when his airline explained that the New York miasma was interfering with their flight plans. Nyaah, nyaah! There isn't a lot of bloom left on the rose where the only place you can check into on Foursquare is the men's room of the Fort Lauderdale airport.
Coachean Feed: college degree$, human organ sales, rights, the rise of Africa, guns in Japan
- 8 College Degrees with the Worst Return on Investment Chances are you probably will end up with one of these. Trust me: turn yourself around and go for high finance. You may end up in jail, but at least you'll be rich enough to pimp your cell out properly.
- The Ethics of Human Rights (68): The Case Against the Sale of Human Organs We intuitively think it must be wrong. Here's some arguments beyond just gut reaction.
- What Are Human Rights? (45): Negative or Positive Rights? Ctd. Spagnoli on core rights issues.
- Talking a bit about Africa while thinking about China makes me believe that this article, agree or not, is crucial: Sorry, but Africa's Rise Is Real
- Even gangsters live in fear of Japan's gun laws Interested in some details about a country where they don't go around waving guns at each other because they don't have the "right" to do so?
Friday, January 11, 2013
Riding off into the weekend
If there's anything spookier than an abandoned amusement park, it's an abandoned amusement park with plaintive music and a light, wispy breeze blowing through it.
More articles we [did not] [had to] finish reading
These headlines are all real, directly copied from our RSS feed without editing.
First, the did-nots.
First, the did-nots.
- Tolkien family not impressed with Peter Jackson
- Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie
- Justin Timberlake to finally release new music?
- iPotty Aims To Entertain Toddlers During Toilet Training
- Waste Cooking: A Reality TV Show about Cooking Food Found in Trash Cans
- WHY YOU SHOULD LEARN WELSH
- Henry Kissinger picks his nose…
- Kooky Christian ‘prophet’ Cindy Jacobs says God supernaturally multiplied her spaghetti
- Topless Protesters, Tortured by KGB, Plan World Domination
- Smurfs Arrested for Assault
Thursday, January 10, 2013
All systems Go for Academy
We’ve ended up with a triple play in Academy at Byram Hills, with modules in all three events, PF, LD and Policy. Which means that we’re inaugurating this idea firing on all burners. No one can say the problem, if any, was lack of actual academy content. Frankly, I’m predicting a runaway success, but then again, I’ve been pushing for this since the beginning. One thing that really intrigues me is how we’re going to try to fold in sessions during the off-flights. If this works, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t, that means we could easily pull this off at MHLs, where this sort of thing would even be more desirable. As I know I’ve said earlier, I’ve had the idea of rolling this over to the MHLs for a while now. Why not? MHL is intended as a learning league. Why not offer not only rounds, which are the best way to learn many things, but also brainstorms and lectures and drills, which are the best way to learn many other things?
Of course, the real bottom line of academy is the creation of a reasonable JV division, without the relatively illegitimate status that JV debate now holds around here. The point of high school forensics is rounding off the education of students, providing experiences and knowledge beyond the classroom. I’m really hoping that we can use academy to provide a stratum of debate that is beyond the just giving it a try but not as far as the selling of the soul for TOC bids. The thing about the northeast is that for all practical purposes, forensics is entirely extracurricular. There’s no infrastructure for anything but weekend tournaments, meaning that there’s no gentle way of, say, heading over to the school down the road for a little scrimmage. We’re either at each other’s throats, or not debating. How many sophomores do we have to lose from the activity before we realize that we’re not providing what we claim to be providing? Academy is a move toward a gentler style of debate in an otherwise grueling environment. I have heard plenty of people bemoan the present state of LD, but it’s sort of natural that styles would gravitate to $ircuit in a region where virtually every tournament is indeed pointed at qualifying for the national circuit. If a debater is not dedicated enough to commit to the intensity of circuit styles, on top of actually going to school and preparing for college, that debater is sort of doomed, which doesn’t seem right to me. Plenty of sports allow play at different levels, and if you move up, you move up, and if you don’t, you don’t. Why should debate be any different?
Anyhow, I’ve written about this stuff ad nauseum. Now actions are being taken, and we can look at the results of those actions and see what happens. I still feel there is a general disinterest abroad in appealing to the mid-level students, though. All the sexiness is where the bids are, and virtually every gleam in a prospective tournament director’s eye is enflamed by the hope of earning TOC bids as some sort of imprimatur for the event, as if the presence or lack of bids is the only way to evaluate a tournament. Coaches only aim their students, all of them, regardless how unlikely they are to succeed at the national level, at events pointing to national-level competition. The alternatives are the little one-day events which are fine in their way, but don’t offer the full buffet of experiences offered by invitationals: the travel, the breaking away from one’s comfort zone and meeting new people, the excitement (and the boredom)—the whole package. I will go to my grave believing that the most valuable lessons of high school forensics are those that have little to do with the skills of high school forensics. Sure, pure forensics skills are valuable too, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not that hard to learn. Throwing yourself into a bus for a couple of tournaments a month, far from home, surrounded by strangers, building a team, showing up on time, taking and demonstrating responsibility, working with younger students and helping them along—all of those things are the real lessons we have to offer. Yeah, we’ll make you a good public speaker too, and a good researcher, or whatever. So will a debate class elective for a couple of months. There’s a big world out there, and for an awful lot of students, forensics is their first real introduction to it, their chance to play a role in it. Let’s offer this to as many students as we can.
Of course, the real bottom line of academy is the creation of a reasonable JV division, without the relatively illegitimate status that JV debate now holds around here. The point of high school forensics is rounding off the education of students, providing experiences and knowledge beyond the classroom. I’m really hoping that we can use academy to provide a stratum of debate that is beyond the just giving it a try but not as far as the selling of the soul for TOC bids. The thing about the northeast is that for all practical purposes, forensics is entirely extracurricular. There’s no infrastructure for anything but weekend tournaments, meaning that there’s no gentle way of, say, heading over to the school down the road for a little scrimmage. We’re either at each other’s throats, or not debating. How many sophomores do we have to lose from the activity before we realize that we’re not providing what we claim to be providing? Academy is a move toward a gentler style of debate in an otherwise grueling environment. I have heard plenty of people bemoan the present state of LD, but it’s sort of natural that styles would gravitate to $ircuit in a region where virtually every tournament is indeed pointed at qualifying for the national circuit. If a debater is not dedicated enough to commit to the intensity of circuit styles, on top of actually going to school and preparing for college, that debater is sort of doomed, which doesn’t seem right to me. Plenty of sports allow play at different levels, and if you move up, you move up, and if you don’t, you don’t. Why should debate be any different?
Anyhow, I’ve written about this stuff ad nauseum. Now actions are being taken, and we can look at the results of those actions and see what happens. I still feel there is a general disinterest abroad in appealing to the mid-level students, though. All the sexiness is where the bids are, and virtually every gleam in a prospective tournament director’s eye is enflamed by the hope of earning TOC bids as some sort of imprimatur for the event, as if the presence or lack of bids is the only way to evaluate a tournament. Coaches only aim their students, all of them, regardless how unlikely they are to succeed at the national level, at events pointing to national-level competition. The alternatives are the little one-day events which are fine in their way, but don’t offer the full buffet of experiences offered by invitationals: the travel, the breaking away from one’s comfort zone and meeting new people, the excitement (and the boredom)—the whole package. I will go to my grave believing that the most valuable lessons of high school forensics are those that have little to do with the skills of high school forensics. Sure, pure forensics skills are valuable too, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not that hard to learn. Throwing yourself into a bus for a couple of tournaments a month, far from home, surrounded by strangers, building a team, showing up on time, taking and demonstrating responsibility, working with younger students and helping them along—all of those things are the real lessons we have to offer. Yeah, we’ll make you a good public speaker too, and a good researcher, or whatever. So will a debate class elective for a couple of months. There’s a big world out there, and for an awful lot of students, forensics is their first real introduction to it, their chance to play a role in it. Let’s offer this to as many students as we can.
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
New noobs? Anchors aweigh, my boys!
Crikies! Two of the late addition plebes returned to the scene of the crime last night! One of them is a new bona fide member, signed onto the listserver. Will wonders never cease?
(I had an author once, a nonfiction sports writer, who in his text described someone as bonified. I assumed, first, that this meant the person had some osteoporotic issue in addition to his legitimate credentials, and second, that my nonfiction sports writer author had a limited understanding of Latin. And yes, I did edit sports books once upon a time, a couple anyhow. This is how I have come to maintain my edge of knowledge of sports over O’C, who may be the only person in the universe who knows less about the subject that I do. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that a good editor can edit anything, but probably shouldn’t.)
Newark finally found this year’s tournament hotel, in the middle of downtown. Traffic around there is abysmal if there’s a game going on, so one hopes that the Newark Bulldogs (or whoever plays in the Prudential Center; given the name of the venue, I would hope for something like the Newark Risk-Averse, but that doesn’t sound likely) have the night off. Usually they find a hotel at the airport, which always takes me about three hours to find, in the middle of the night, after endless driving around in circles. Downtown Newark I can find. Nice pick. I’ll be tabbing again, of course. I’ve also volunteered to help on the RR, but long distance, since I really can’t take the time off from the DJ. That’s always fun; Newark always maintains, shall we say, a certain fluency when it comes to judges…
Speaking of fluency, the use of student judges at Byram allows for incredible movement between divisions. There’s a number of seniors (and above) in the novice divisions. Being able to move people around is always a good thing, especially with smaller fields. This one is not going to be hard to do at all, which means that fitting in the modules will be that much easier. One big problem for them will be finding good big spaces for the Friday events. I don’t think I mentioned that O’C finally came up with an NDCA finalist for the PF module. These are going to be very strong. Plus the whole idea of making this a soph-juniors tournament rather than pretending it’s a varsity tournament has, I think, really made it good and useful, even without the modules. The fields will be level, and that’s a good thing for rising students. They actually have a chance to win something, which always helps solidify one’s forensics career, as compared to losing everything, which has the opposite effect.
Anyhow, getting back to last night’s meeting. We talked at length about China. Rule number one for February: flip con.
(I had an author once, a nonfiction sports writer, who in his text described someone as bonified. I assumed, first, that this meant the person had some osteoporotic issue in addition to his legitimate credentials, and second, that my nonfiction sports writer author had a limited understanding of Latin. And yes, I did edit sports books once upon a time, a couple anyhow. This is how I have come to maintain my edge of knowledge of sports over O’C, who may be the only person in the universe who knows less about the subject that I do. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that a good editor can edit anything, but probably shouldn’t.)
Newark finally found this year’s tournament hotel, in the middle of downtown. Traffic around there is abysmal if there’s a game going on, so one hopes that the Newark Bulldogs (or whoever plays in the Prudential Center; given the name of the venue, I would hope for something like the Newark Risk-Averse, but that doesn’t sound likely) have the night off. Usually they find a hotel at the airport, which always takes me about three hours to find, in the middle of the night, after endless driving around in circles. Downtown Newark I can find. Nice pick. I’ll be tabbing again, of course. I’ve also volunteered to help on the RR, but long distance, since I really can’t take the time off from the DJ. That’s always fun; Newark always maintains, shall we say, a certain fluency when it comes to judges…
Speaking of fluency, the use of student judges at Byram allows for incredible movement between divisions. There’s a number of seniors (and above) in the novice divisions. Being able to move people around is always a good thing, especially with smaller fields. This one is not going to be hard to do at all, which means that fitting in the modules will be that much easier. One big problem for them will be finding good big spaces for the Friday events. I don’t think I mentioned that O’C finally came up with an NDCA finalist for the PF module. These are going to be very strong. Plus the whole idea of making this a soph-juniors tournament rather than pretending it’s a varsity tournament has, I think, really made it good and useful, even without the modules. The fields will be level, and that’s a good thing for rising students. They actually have a chance to win something, which always helps solidify one’s forensics career, as compared to losing everything, which has the opposite effect.
Anyhow, getting back to last night’s meeting. We talked at length about China. Rule number one for February: flip con.
Tuesday, January 08, 2013
Tournament management
I do think we should give prizes to people who, instead of asking me to read the invitation for them, can read it for themselves. I wonder how these people would have fared not too long ago, when everything was handled by the US mail, which meant that getting invitations was luck of the draw, especially if you were new on the scene, and changes were made in-camera, and maybe you had to fax things if you were all state-of-the-art and technological. There’s a reason RTFM is an instantly recognizable acronym. RTFI should be too.
Then there’s the whole, I’ll register the minute it opens deal. This is a down side of the present technology, insofar as if you don’t get in that first day, there’s a very good chance you won’t get in at all, depending on the venue. I’ve got as many people on the waitlist for the Gem as I actually have in, at least in the debate divisions. That separation of fair, as in, first come first served, versus need to make arrangements, as in planes and hotels, is tough. Then there’s all the people who think they are owed slots, or people who precipitously made reservations based on waitlisted entries which somehow becomes my problem rather than theirs, or people who just generally think they should get everything they want, period. I’ve tried to be helpful to people who came to me early claiming newness, and I’ve tried to be fair in clearing the decks, but it’s a toughie. At least I feel as if I’m earning my keep, such as it is, in pulling the various levers while the Gemmers do whatever it is they’re doing.
This is the side of tournament management that often doesn’t arise, certainly not at small local tournaments. Most events I run never have to deal with waitlists. But there’s more to it than that. Running a good tournament means managing everything, including the judge pool and the fields. You need certain balances. As one gets closer to the event, you need to be at the pilot’s station, navigating every shoal. This may be why a lot of tournaments sort of suck. They get people, and they get judges, but it’s all sort of random. I look, for contrast, at the Schappaughtational. I’ve been following Steve as he’s meticulously put this together, with his eye on everything, keeping everyone informed every step of the way, pulling all the gears and levers. No wonder the event became so popular so quickly: he’s working it like a pro. We’ve talked a lot about tournament management on TVFT, and if you ever think you want to run one yourself, you should have a listen. There’s more to it than opening a file on tabroom and downloading TRPC. Lots more. As I say, I think I’m earning my keep, doing my thing backstage, however much it looks as if nothing is going on. It should be so easy.
Then again, I was doing a little too much on the Byram Hills event, which is really Ari’s headache, aside from my wedging in the Academy stuff. I had stupidly put myself in as the contact, which I changed this morning when people started, uh, contacting me. The only tournament I feel that I can wheel and deal on is Bump. For everything else, access though I may have, it is the tournament director who has to make the calls. Start callin’, AP. One disappointment about the tournament is its diabolical lack of cell service, which means that we can’t really do much about notifications via tabroom. I’ll set it up, just to keep my hand in, but no one will get anything until they get home that night. The thing is, if you do it all the time, you build the mental muscle memory. Just do it occasionally and every time it’s all new again with a whole new learning curve. Not the best way to handle things.
I haven't been to a tournament in about a month, now. I think I'm going crazy. I need to get back into the swim of things. Tally-ho!
Then there’s the whole, I’ll register the minute it opens deal. This is a down side of the present technology, insofar as if you don’t get in that first day, there’s a very good chance you won’t get in at all, depending on the venue. I’ve got as many people on the waitlist for the Gem as I actually have in, at least in the debate divisions. That separation of fair, as in, first come first served, versus need to make arrangements, as in planes and hotels, is tough. Then there’s all the people who think they are owed slots, or people who precipitously made reservations based on waitlisted entries which somehow becomes my problem rather than theirs, or people who just generally think they should get everything they want, period. I’ve tried to be helpful to people who came to me early claiming newness, and I’ve tried to be fair in clearing the decks, but it’s a toughie. At least I feel as if I’m earning my keep, such as it is, in pulling the various levers while the Gemmers do whatever it is they’re doing.
This is the side of tournament management that often doesn’t arise, certainly not at small local tournaments. Most events I run never have to deal with waitlists. But there’s more to it than that. Running a good tournament means managing everything, including the judge pool and the fields. You need certain balances. As one gets closer to the event, you need to be at the pilot’s station, navigating every shoal. This may be why a lot of tournaments sort of suck. They get people, and they get judges, but it’s all sort of random. I look, for contrast, at the Schappaughtational. I’ve been following Steve as he’s meticulously put this together, with his eye on everything, keeping everyone informed every step of the way, pulling all the gears and levers. No wonder the event became so popular so quickly: he’s working it like a pro. We’ve talked a lot about tournament management on TVFT, and if you ever think you want to run one yourself, you should have a listen. There’s more to it than opening a file on tabroom and downloading TRPC. Lots more. As I say, I think I’m earning my keep, doing my thing backstage, however much it looks as if nothing is going on. It should be so easy.
Then again, I was doing a little too much on the Byram Hills event, which is really Ari’s headache, aside from my wedging in the Academy stuff. I had stupidly put myself in as the contact, which I changed this morning when people started, uh, contacting me. The only tournament I feel that I can wheel and deal on is Bump. For everything else, access though I may have, it is the tournament director who has to make the calls. Start callin’, AP. One disappointment about the tournament is its diabolical lack of cell service, which means that we can’t really do much about notifications via tabroom. I’ll set it up, just to keep my hand in, but no one will get anything until they get home that night. The thing is, if you do it all the time, you build the mental muscle memory. Just do it occasionally and every time it’s all new again with a whole new learning curve. Not the best way to handle things.
I haven't been to a tournament in about a month, now. I think I'm going crazy. I need to get back into the swim of things. Tally-ho!
More articles we didn't finish reading
The internet never fails to provide material that need not be provided. These headlines are all real, directly copied from our RSS feed without editing.
- Photographer Captures Owners Wearing Sweaters Made From Their Dogs’ Fur
- ‘The Ladies of Manure 2013 Calendar’ hopes to make composting sexy… fails
- Slavoj Žižek Demystifies the Gangnam Style Phenomenon
- Karaoke singer gets dunked in a tank of snakes
- Richard Nixon eBooks Available for the First Time
Monday, January 07, 2013
Return to normalcies
The chez is back to normal. The Captain, my daughter’s cat, was installed in the family room, with Tik (pronounced teek) often installed at the closed door thereto, howling like a banshee. The Captain had been billed as a moderate, relaxed sort of feline, perhaps a result of his having only one eye, but I’d be sitting at the computer doing whatever it is I do and he’d be lounging on my comfy chair and the next thing I knew he’d be bouncing off the walls for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Weird cat. He managed to lose my computer mouse and an Ernie Kovacs disk in his rampages. He also, unlike Mr. Toad, doesn’t like motorcars, if one can judge my his desire to defecate in them. He seemed happy as all get-out to be back in Brooklyn, when he arrived there Saturday, as did Kate, who is much more well behaved than her pet. She is recovering well, her next step being the commitment to therapy to get her arm back over her head (whcn she lifts it, not as a regular thing). Tik (pronounced teek) also seems to be his old vicious self again. All is well with the world.
I’m pretty happy with the way Academy is coming together at Byram Hills. I do wish we were able to come up with the odd PF star for a How-I-Do-It session, but instead I’ll be interviewing Gazzola about the practices of the Bronx Science team, which is almost as good, considering their results overall. The problem is that a lot of people are going down to sunny Florida for the Schappaughtational. (I’m not sure why, given that it’s going to be—seriously—about 60 degrees in sunny Byram Hills.) Of course, the point is to provide debate for people who don’t/can’t travel, or aren’t at the level yet where travel makes sense. We’re still not booked for anything Academic on the Policy side, unfortunately, so that may have to wait till next time. Still, a pretty good start, all things considered, and the numbers remain good at the tournament. If we pull it off well, it could be the beginning of a nice new brand of service tournament.
And then there’s the Gem of Harlem. They’re battling room issues even as we speak, including the likelihood of not having the auditorium on Saturday, thus requiring folks to venture far afield for their lounging about. Not much we can do about it. I’m more worried about event rooms and clearing as much as we can of the rest of the waitlist. There’s too many people who aren’t in yet for my taste. Most of them are of the Speecho-American persuasion; I’ll be passing the remaining WL duties there to JV as soon as it’s feasible, hopefully in a day or two.
And, after a ridiculously long hiatus, I meet with the Sailors again tomorrow night, barring any unforeseen passing of gas/typhoon/volcano/rift in the fabric of time and space. What were the topics again?
I’m pretty happy with the way Academy is coming together at Byram Hills. I do wish we were able to come up with the odd PF star for a How-I-Do-It session, but instead I’ll be interviewing Gazzola about the practices of the Bronx Science team, which is almost as good, considering their results overall. The problem is that a lot of people are going down to sunny Florida for the Schappaughtational. (I’m not sure why, given that it’s going to be—seriously—about 60 degrees in sunny Byram Hills.) Of course, the point is to provide debate for people who don’t/can’t travel, or aren’t at the level yet where travel makes sense. We’re still not booked for anything Academic on the Policy side, unfortunately, so that may have to wait till next time. Still, a pretty good start, all things considered, and the numbers remain good at the tournament. If we pull it off well, it could be the beginning of a nice new brand of service tournament.
And then there’s the Gem of Harlem. They’re battling room issues even as we speak, including the likelihood of not having the auditorium on Saturday, thus requiring folks to venture far afield for their lounging about. Not much we can do about it. I’m more worried about event rooms and clearing as much as we can of the rest of the waitlist. There’s too many people who aren’t in yet for my taste. Most of them are of the Speecho-American persuasion; I’ll be passing the remaining WL duties there to JV as soon as it’s feasible, hopefully in a day or two.
And, after a ridiculously long hiatus, I meet with the Sailors again tomorrow night, barring any unforeseen passing of gas/typhoon/volcano/rift in the fabric of time and space. What were the topics again?
More articles we didn't finish reading
The internet never fails to provide material that need not be provided. These headlines are all real, directly copied from our RSS feed without editing.
- This Is the Best Soda Drinking Simulator You’ll Play All Week
- Meet Larry, the Vomiting Robot
- THE RISE & FALL OF GOD PART 3
- Why can't Kate Winslet stop getting married?
- Germans Still Weird
Friday, January 04, 2013
Riding off into the weekend
It's been a long time since we've ridden off into the weekend. It seems a propos to link to this abondoned dinosaur park in East Berlin that apparently fell when the wall did. These dinos look much like the prospective attendees of the abandoned DisAd13.
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Debate: What do Polish people polish?
I’ve officially announced the first committed sessions of Academy at Byram. Still waiting for confirmation of policy and the leader(s) of the Friday PF. Getting very close.
I have to admit that I’m especially bereft at the thought of DisAd13 becoming DisAd14. 589 days to go, according to my countdown applet. That’s longer than the Iranian hostage crisis back in the 80s! In other words, this is becoming the DisAd Hostage Crisis. No wonder O’C seems to have wandered off permanently, after having announced on Facebook that he wants more people to follow him on Foursquare so that they can join the teeming masses in learning every time he stops for a meatball parmesan at Subway or gets his toenails polished or, shock of shocks, has dinner at Japonica. He was looking forward to WDW just as much as I was. My cousin Denise was stoic in her evaluation that we could use this time to polish our mini-golf skills. Maybe that’s where O’C wandered off to. His mini-golf certainly needed the most polishing. That and his toenails.
Speaking of TMI via social media, I’ve decided to catalog my reading on Twitter, for no particular reason other than to see how it adds up. Of course, I don’t necessarily finish every book I start at the DJ: I get paid to select books, not to read them, so once I’ve decided that I don’t want to use one, I put it aside. And for that matter, I don’t finish every book I start at home, although there I’m more likely to because I’m picking them myself, and they’re not just arriving randomly on my desk. Anyhow, I’m sort of curious to see what sort of things I stuff into my brain over the course of time. I’ll also add my toenail updates, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for those if I were you. I’ve gone all these years without polishing them so far, but I was thinking of having them painted with the faces of Great Debaters of the 90s. If I do, I’ll show them to you next time I see you.
Speaking of the DJ, why do people, sitting alone in their offices, feel the need to use a speakerphone so that everyone within a hundred yard radius gets to share in the call?
This coming weekend will be the last free one for a while. Ari suggested I take that next free one, coming in March, and join him at the Beltway. Needless to say, this was an idea that I jumped on. Jumped on, stomped on, held it underwater for five minutes until it stopped breathing, and then put it into the shredder, lit fire to it and sold it back to the Irish. Yeah, I really want to drive a thousand miles down 95 on my one weekend off in the season to, wonder of wonders, tab a tournament. How novel. Oh, well. Ari is still one of our younger Jedi. He will learn.
I have to admit that I’m especially bereft at the thought of DisAd13 becoming DisAd14. 589 days to go, according to my countdown applet. That’s longer than the Iranian hostage crisis back in the 80s! In other words, this is becoming the DisAd Hostage Crisis. No wonder O’C seems to have wandered off permanently, after having announced on Facebook that he wants more people to follow him on Foursquare so that they can join the teeming masses in learning every time he stops for a meatball parmesan at Subway or gets his toenails polished or, shock of shocks, has dinner at Japonica. He was looking forward to WDW just as much as I was. My cousin Denise was stoic in her evaluation that we could use this time to polish our mini-golf skills. Maybe that’s where O’C wandered off to. His mini-golf certainly needed the most polishing. That and his toenails.
Speaking of TMI via social media, I’ve decided to catalog my reading on Twitter, for no particular reason other than to see how it adds up. Of course, I don’t necessarily finish every book I start at the DJ: I get paid to select books, not to read them, so once I’ve decided that I don’t want to use one, I put it aside. And for that matter, I don’t finish every book I start at home, although there I’m more likely to because I’m picking them myself, and they’re not just arriving randomly on my desk. Anyhow, I’m sort of curious to see what sort of things I stuff into my brain over the course of time. I’ll also add my toenail updates, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for those if I were you. I’ve gone all these years without polishing them so far, but I was thinking of having them painted with the faces of Great Debaters of the 90s. If I do, I’ll show them to you next time I see you.
Speaking of the DJ, why do people, sitting alone in their offices, feel the need to use a speakerphone so that everyone within a hundred yard radius gets to share in the call?
This coming weekend will be the last free one for a while. Ari suggested I take that next free one, coming in March, and join him at the Beltway. Needless to say, this was an idea that I jumped on. Jumped on, stomped on, held it underwater for five minutes until it stopped breathing, and then put it into the shredder, lit fire to it and sold it back to the Irish. Yeah, I really want to drive a thousand miles down 95 on my one weekend off in the season to, wonder of wonders, tab a tournament. How novel. Oh, well. Ari is still one of our younger Jedi. He will learn.
More articles we didn't finish reading
The internet never fails to provide material that need not be provided. These headlines are all real, directly copied from our RSS feed without editing.
- Man Cuddles With Pythons To Celebrate The New Year
- Getting a Vasectomy Has Never Been Easier!
- How much does it cost for Malcolm McDowell to go to the toilet?: A rare interview from 1976
- Did Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie secretly marry on Christmas Day?
- A Wine Made From Feces Gets Good Reviews From Unsuspecting Tasters
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Debate: Academy unfolds
I’m looking at Byram and Academy thus:
The first session, in both LD and PF, will be called “How We Do It.” It will cover everything from hearing about a new topic, research, writing cases, preffing judges (in LD), rewriting cases, working with a partner in PF, how teams as a whole handle research storage—all sorts of stuff. I’m still waiting on who the PFer will be; Danny DeB, JoshA from BH and Bronx alum Abhi will run the LD side.
The second session in LD will be “What I'm Running for Jan-Feb, and What I Wouldn't Run if You Paid Me” with DDeB, JoshA and AdamH from Lexington, with Ari moderating. The second session in PF will be brainstorming February/China with me and Aracelis, much as Kaz and I did the brainstorming at the MHL workshop on civil disobedience.
I’m working on the details of the policy side with Kaz. Presumably Peter C will lead those sessions. Ari is going to have to get us some big rooms, at least for Friday, when everybody will be there in the LD and PF sessions. I find this all pretty exciting. Let’s just hope that it isn’t the blizzard of the century (again) and that it isn’t all canceled. It is the middle of January, after all, and possibly the worst weekend of the year in terms in inclement weather. Would the debate gods be so cruel to us?
Meanwhile, I was back at the DJ today after the long break, and it felt of course as if I had never left. I was getting used to sleeping late in the mornings, though. One recollects one’s dreams so much better when the alarm isn't going off and they’re playing music guaranteed to make you run screaming from the room, which is the whole point of an alarm in the first place. The s-in-l has decamped, just as we were starting to get used to him. His travel arrangements inspired us to complete our own plans for the Spring trip. Holy Hopping Hegemonies! The price of an intercontinental ticket is half ticket price and half extra fees, thus doubling the posted cost. Where did that come from? Paris and London better be damned entertaining this time out. Oh, well. It’s done now, although we’ve had the Paris digs reserved for some time, since it’s one of those places that rent by the week and you need to grab it about a year in advance. Now I’ve got to start practicing my French. Sacre bleu, Monsieur le Dentiste! (That doesn’t sound right. What I’m trying to say is Please pass the pork chops. Oh well. There’s still time.)
The first session, in both LD and PF, will be called “How We Do It.” It will cover everything from hearing about a new topic, research, writing cases, preffing judges (in LD), rewriting cases, working with a partner in PF, how teams as a whole handle research storage—all sorts of stuff. I’m still waiting on who the PFer will be; Danny DeB, JoshA from BH and Bronx alum Abhi will run the LD side.
The second session in LD will be “What I'm Running for Jan-Feb, and What I Wouldn't Run if You Paid Me” with DDeB, JoshA and AdamH from Lexington, with Ari moderating. The second session in PF will be brainstorming February/China with me and Aracelis, much as Kaz and I did the brainstorming at the MHL workshop on civil disobedience.
I’m working on the details of the policy side with Kaz. Presumably Peter C will lead those sessions. Ari is going to have to get us some big rooms, at least for Friday, when everybody will be there in the LD and PF sessions. I find this all pretty exciting. Let’s just hope that it isn’t the blizzard of the century (again) and that it isn’t all canceled. It is the middle of January, after all, and possibly the worst weekend of the year in terms in inclement weather. Would the debate gods be so cruel to us?
Meanwhile, I was back at the DJ today after the long break, and it felt of course as if I had never left. I was getting used to sleeping late in the mornings, though. One recollects one’s dreams so much better when the alarm isn't going off and they’re playing music guaranteed to make you run screaming from the room, which is the whole point of an alarm in the first place. The s-in-l has decamped, just as we were starting to get used to him. His travel arrangements inspired us to complete our own plans for the Spring trip. Holy Hopping Hegemonies! The price of an intercontinental ticket is half ticket price and half extra fees, thus doubling the posted cost. Where did that come from? Paris and London better be damned entertaining this time out. Oh, well. It’s done now, although we’ve had the Paris digs reserved for some time, since it’s one of those places that rent by the week and you need to grab it about a year in advance. Now I’ve got to start practicing my French. Sacre bleu, Monsieur le Dentiste! (That doesn’t sound right. What I’m trying to say is Please pass the pork chops. Oh well. There’s still time.)
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Debate: DisAd14 and so forth
It was not easy, but we had to bow out of the DisAd13, which I assume will become the DisAd14 if those other people don’t want to end up spending all their time waiting on line. Although I did give O’C a copy of the Unofficial Guide for Christmas… The thing is, with Richard (the spouse) moving to the US of A in March to begin seeking gainful employment, it could get very dicey immediately taking a week off (assuming he’s lucky enough to get hired that quickly). Also, with Kate out of commission for a while in her new job thanks to her accident, and uncertainty about when she’s going back, it seemed to make sense to play it safe. It was a family decision. I am now trusting that we will proceed according to plan 365 days later. I regret getting everyone all excited about it, but then again, as I told the prospective travellers, look at all that extra anticipation they have to look forward to! This also means that I’ll get a week more of vacation days to fold into my debate operations, which translates into things like taking full days off instead of halves, when appropriate. Things were sort of cut close otherwise; I get umpty-ump days off from the DJ, but even umpty-ump are often not enough with multiple vacations (there’s a European trip already planned in the Spring) and endless three day forensic weekends.
Sigh…
Meanwhile, O’C seems to be especially impressed that, at various points in my life, I was not the age I am today, and is posting a bunch of old pictures on Facebook as a result. Some people are easy to impress, I guess. I have more pictures around here somewhere. There’s me smoking my first cigarette, drinking my first neat Jack Daniels, buying my first brick of cocaine from my partners in the Colombian cartel, giving an audience to Paul Pius XII, tearing down the Berlin Wall, marching with Mao, etc. My favorite is rather young, which is me as a sperm. I’ll get that one to O’C ASAP. I have even more hair in that one, which seems to be the major attraction.
Jeesh!
It has been time to get down to some business. There’s actually a speech tournament this weekend, with a boatload of Sailors all prepped and ready with their Dec speeches all burned into their hot little brains. On the one hand I’m glad to see that we’re using Dec to train our noobs, but on the other hand, all that Dec can turn the brain to molasses. Oh, well. They’ll be doing something more useful before long. A few of them are heading to the Gem of Harlem, for instance, where they have to double-enter. From little sprouts do big interpers grow.
Still waiting on Gem rooms, by the way, although we should have them by the beginning of next week. At that point we can get the first final wave off the wait list. It’s been a long haul. Now we’re in the process of acquiring judges. It tends to be a tough-ish weekend, but it’ll happen.
And then there’s Byram Hills and Academy Debate, which is shaping up nicely. I’m waiting on O’C to provide us with our PF keynote person, but the rest is about ready to go. At the moment, registration is about 50% up from the previous year. Even with the inevitable paring down that always occurs, that’s a good sign.
And so 2013 begins.
Sigh…
Meanwhile, O’C seems to be especially impressed that, at various points in my life, I was not the age I am today, and is posting a bunch of old pictures on Facebook as a result. Some people are easy to impress, I guess. I have more pictures around here somewhere. There’s me smoking my first cigarette, drinking my first neat Jack Daniels, buying my first brick of cocaine from my partners in the Colombian cartel, giving an audience to Paul Pius XII, tearing down the Berlin Wall, marching with Mao, etc. My favorite is rather young, which is me as a sperm. I’ll get that one to O’C ASAP. I have even more hair in that one, which seems to be the major attraction.
Jeesh!
It has been time to get down to some business. There’s actually a speech tournament this weekend, with a boatload of Sailors all prepped and ready with their Dec speeches all burned into their hot little brains. On the one hand I’m glad to see that we’re using Dec to train our noobs, but on the other hand, all that Dec can turn the brain to molasses. Oh, well. They’ll be doing something more useful before long. A few of them are heading to the Gem of Harlem, for instance, where they have to double-enter. From little sprouts do big interpers grow.
Still waiting on Gem rooms, by the way, although we should have them by the beginning of next week. At that point we can get the first final wave off the wait list. It’s been a long haul. Now we’re in the process of acquiring judges. It tends to be a tough-ish weekend, but it’ll happen.
And then there’s Byram Hills and Academy Debate, which is shaping up nicely. I’m waiting on O’C to provide us with our PF keynote person, but the rest is about ready to go. At the moment, registration is about 50% up from the previous year. Even with the inevitable paring down that always occurs, that’s a good sign.
And so 2013 begins.
Coachean feed: A new theory of retributive justice, prisons for veterans, and the feminist battle is not quite over
- Empirical desert theory has nothing to do with apple pie after the meal. LDers might find it interesting for Jan-Feb. I mean, who's not interested in a new theory of criminal justice?
- New wing in Virginia prison just for veterans That sort of speaks for itself. The Sentencing Law and Policy blog is pretty valuable overall.
- Why you need to be a feminist: Priest Blames Women For Femicide
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