In which Cookie Monster is spotted in the vicinity

It was Tuesday night when I first couldn’t get into tabroom. I had cleared some of the Tigger waitlist and was going back to finish up. At which point the bottom fell out of everything. If you’re reading this, you probably had the same problem. Eventually we learned that one had to clear cookies to fix it.

This was obviously a tabroom.com problem and not a user problem, otherwise it wouldn’t have been widespread, nor would it have occurred on the 3 computers I accessed, as well as my iPad and my iPhone. If you’re interested in learning more about the subject, there is actually a website called whatarecookies.com, which in its way reveals that there is also a non-naughty application of Rule 34. Meanwhile, resetting cookies means reentering your passwords on, oh boy, everything. On every device. Is this some secret plan on CP's part to wreak vengeance on the debate world at large?

In any case, getting halfway through a waitlist is like getting halfway through [please enter your preferred humorous metaphor here, as I’m very busy these days]. But I did finally finish it up. I left a bit of room for latecomers, but the main lot has been determined. I did the debate divisions and Congress; JV will handle speech (if he hasn’t already). There were very few suspect entries, at least as compared to Rather Large Bronx, and a number of those proved to be real despite their look of shenaniganation.

The big thing this time will be partial obligations in PF. While this is pretty much becoming the rule now in LD, schools that only do PF will be rather taken aback by it. I don’t think it will have much affect on the actual rounds, but there is a perceptual aspect to it. It shows that PF is taken seriously, at least on the back end. No, it doesn’t eliminate parent judges—nor would I want to—but it does clarify who’s doing what, as did the mandated paradigms at RLB. Did the paradigms help much in striking? Hardly. Could it have helped teams prepping for a round? Absolutely, if they chose to use it. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t.

Meanwhile, this Saturday is the first NYCFL debate event at Regis. 3 rounds, 2 or 3 levels each of PF and LD, lots of newbies, judge training, paper ballots (because God himself couldn’t get the Regis wifi to work) and a superior judges’ lounge. Not that we let the judges lounge all that much with a 1-4 ratio. With luck, tabroom will be working. If not, I’m sure there’s index cards in the building somewhere. And plenty of cookies in the judges' lounge.