Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Snow my foot.

I am writing to you today from the library.
Since last time I wrote, a few things have changed and stayed the same. #1 - I now have more NFL poinst than Ali giving me the most on the team. #2 - I have 9 trophies this year, having trophied at each tournament. And Auburn-Riverside rocked. It snowed, which made it tons of fun, and I was really happy about how well I did. Congress was okay, stuff was way off so I got 3rd (lucky I trophied at all the way they screwed up base) and I was also proud of DI. I made it to finals going 2 (I would have gotten 1st had I not been two seconds over time), 3, 1 BEATING Sam in the 3rd round! Couldn't believe it! Finals was really good, too. I love south-end tournaments and this one didn't disappoint. Sam took first and the girl who got 2nd totally didn't deserve it. I didn't like the piece that got 3rd, but apparently everyone else did. I was a finalist, but I beat TJ (both of them, I believe) so that made me happy. Impromptu had TERRIBLE topics, the first round I was completely off my jive and to make matters worse there was this hyper-authoritative Indian kid in my round that insisted on timing us all and sitting next to the judge and generally stressing me out. So I got 5th that round, but I know had I been on my game I could have gotten 1st. The next two rounds I went 1,1 amid fierce competition. My favorite....this uber good LDer I'd watched perviously that day. I asked Ali for a recommondation on which LDer to watch (I wanted to see a good round of open LD) so he recommended this guy. I went, watched the roun, was mildy impressed, and went on my merry little way. Come 2nd round impromptu, who is in my room but said debater. I walk up and he goes "you'd better watch out." Jerk! So I politely nodded my head and said okay, I would watch out. He gave this good impromptu (good, but I've seen better) about the theories of Enlightment and Ideailsm and how they related to eating ice cream and all that jazz, then I gave mine about the word "carry". I totally crushed him, it was epic. And he didn't even know it because he didn't stay to watch! HAHA!
The speechfest today was cancled because "oh my goodness! there will be snow! ooo! let's freak out!" Washingtonians are lame. It's a sad fact of life. We freak out whenever there's even the HINT of snow, much less the real thing. Everyone is saying this will be "Blizzard 2008" but I doubt it will even snow. Bah-humbug, right?
well I'm happy and healthy and warm right now, and I hope you all are too, and I wish you the best of the rest of 2008, and a joyful, blessed, peaceful, lvoely, beautiful, rich, and very Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

restitution, sweet restitution.

So I went to another tournament. This makes...four this year - and I've trophied at each one! Although Snohomish and Arlington were large disappointments for my main events, I have finally gotten back on the congress horse with a 2nd place and top PO at auburn. Now, I'd be disappointed, but the guy who got first is SUPER good and I found out later I was only ONE POINT AWAY FROM BEATING HIM!!!!! HOLY CRAP! I had no idea it was that close. Basically if he hadn't given his last speech I would have really beaten him. So that made me feel really really good. Besides, our parliamentarian was the Eastside Catholic coach and although he wasn't exactly kosher on a lot of congress procedures, he was HILARIOUS which made the 10+ hours of debate bearable. It was a really small chamber too, only 15 of us collapsed, so humor was pretty vital.
One of my favorite tournaments is this coming weekend, and I'll see how I'm matching up against DI and congress competition. Hope it all goes well!
Also, Robert came to judge at Auburn, and apparently Ali and Ariel (from Kamiak) are hoping to pit Robert and Mike Fitzerald (Kamiak alum) up against each other in true LD style so I told them if they do I REALLY want to see it. Both are insanely good. So I've heard. Should be epic.
So my total trophy count this year stands at 7, and my goal is 20. So far - so good! I still have approx... 7 tournaments left? 8, if I count nationals, assuming I go. Ho boy....no pressure there.