In which we allude to big doings behind the scenes

So many issues are being tossed around these days behind the scenes. Why behind the scenes? Well, that’s not my first choice, but one of the issues being discussed is online flaming, so some folks are a little gun shy, so to speak. And there is no question that a private discussion can be more direct than a public one. Allow me another metaphor: the gloves can be taken off.

This all arises, to some extent, from my call to arms about an ombudsman/student advocate. (I prefer the latter designation because too many people think, erroneously, that ombudsman is linguistically similar to chairman, and want to change it to something neutral, which is like changing mandible to persondible.) I think the questions were already being asked one way or the other, but no one was taking much action. Now we’re having meetings at all the major national events to figure things out. That’s pretty good, a start in the right direction, if not necessarily action per se. A lot of people kept asking, why now, as if there were some hidden agenda (presumably against the why-now askers). I think the answer is simply that things have been simmering for a while, and a lot of people are not happy about the present state of debate. Each unhappy group is unhappy in its own way, and some of the unhappiness may not be meaningful, but some of it definitely is, and why shouldn’t people take charge of their issues and try to solve them? Anyhow, I don’t take a lot of credit/blame for any of this, but I’m happy to have acted even marginally as a catalyst. If we can improve the atmosphere of tournaments and provide a safer environment for students, which was my goal, I’ll be very satisfied.

Meanwhile, last night the Sailors heading to State this weekend threw a little practice round. Useful, of course, as are most practice rounds. I experimented with flowing on my iPad; I need to fix up Numbers a little, but I liked it. I need to set up a good template, but I’ll do this from now on. I used a portable keyboard, of course; I never could type very quickly on the tablet’s virtual keyboard. I also managed to blow my top when I looked over and saw that two of our attendees weren’t flowing. Watching a round and not flowing? What is that all about? At this point in the year, no less. Goobers. I threw them out of the room. Anyone who claims they can do a good job following a round without flowing is [fill in the blank yourself, depending on who you envision when you imagine not flowing]. Feh!

I’m more and more looking forward to this weekend. We have all kinds of divisions, each with its own unique issues. It makes tabbing fun. Who was it that said it’s all just hitting a button or two and the system takes care of itself? Spoken like someone who does a couple of invitationals a year, where you mostly do hit a button or two and the system takes care of itself. Our tab team is more like guerilla warriors when it comes to tabroom. We climb the program’s trees and snipe from the highest branches, living on nuts and berries and cutting out our eyeballs Terminator style whenever there’s any personal damage. Or something like that.

I also finished listening to Book 1 of Harry Potter this morning, in preparation for Universal Studios as part of the DisAd. I’m practically packed and ready to go. Only 142 days!