In which we show why we haven't been here for a little while

Well, I haven’t been posting, but it’s not as if I’ve been doing absolutely nothing:

http://www.debatecoaches.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/tabroom_guide.pdf

I’ve figured out how to upload files to the NDCA website, and as I’ve said, I think the best thing to do with this and all my other how-to tournament material is to put it in one accessible place for the duration, and NDCA seems like the right place. And specifically with the vade mecum, I’ve also tucked it into the help on tabroom.com, for anyone who wanders over to that previously unpopulated area. (And according to the rule, use it once, use it twice, use it three times and it’s yours, I’ve now used “vade mecum” in 3 recent postings, and it is therefore now officially a part of my vocabulary.) It will be nice to have a document for people when they get lost (or in advance of their getting lost), but I’ll probably also keep an online version going at jimmenick.com, for those who want to browse it more by topic than to dive in to the whole shooting match.

This coming weekend is the NYCFL Grands qualifier for CatNats. Kaz, JV and I do this one mostly by hand, with the computer to back us up, primarily by pointing out whether the judges we’ve put in can actually judge those rounds, the hardest thing to keep straight when you’re working with cards. When I was helping out some folks in Virginia last weekend, they had trouble printing the exact cards we’re going to want to print this weekend, and CP fixed that, so we’re all set, meaning that it is a good thing to help others because you might end up even helping yourself. For us the good news is that we’re under 20 in both the LD and PF fields, which means only 2 judges. Having to use 3 judges is a real bear, but doing 2 is just maybe a little cub.

Last weekend a bunch of the DisAd14 group got together in NYC to celebrate the gorgeous weather and, for most of us, a weekend off. I’ve already spent some time working on the plan for MK day on touringplans.com, the Unofficial Guide website. Because we don’t have fastpasses yet, the times were a little off, and we did encounter a 10,000 hour wait for the Jungle Cruise, but I have assured everyone that the line for that attraction is seldom that long at the time of year we’re going.