Powerhouse
(2-11 April 2002)
11 April 2002
-Haven't slept yet, but I did manage to do something
reaffirming/validating just now. I took the famous online poetry quiz & came up with T.S. Eliot, the only public
poet I truly like. Go me. Now I'm going to go remember that April is indeed the cruelest month & lay down,
one might say like a patient etherized upon a table...
10 April 2002
-Fair enough. No one's happy with me these days,
& that's some more honesty, I s'pose.
-Alright, here's the deal with the brackets. I'm going to find some cool
way to compile everyone's picks, so you've got till Nats to send them my way. Thus far Pat, Adam Unikowsky, & Jay
Cox are in. Plus me. In an interesting note, 3 of the 4 have the same champion so far (& it's not
MIT-A).
-I'm too tired for everything right now.
-I'm suddenly feeling very vulnerable & I don't know
why.
-Life isn't even trying to cooperate with me today.
-Reading back on the archives from this page in the past
2+ years, I realize that I may never have had a good 10th day of April. It's usually miserable, in fact. This is
both some solace & some kind of disturbing. If there are holidays, can there be perennial days of awfulness?
Is there more to the 365-day cycle than we realize? These are not new theories to me, but their degree of
compulsion is increasing. Today, I circumvent. Today, I quit. I'm going home.
9 April 2002
-Only MITers have sent me their picks for the bracket
so far, though I made my own. I'll probably post them, but I'm worried that the upsets will live up to their name &
upset people who I pick against. Oh well. Also, dunno why everyone's all on board for Hybrid Quals these days.
I understand they benefit certain people, but isn't there some logic to the rule? Also, retroactive anything is
a bad, bad idea. So I reject Kate's counter-bracket.
-Don't look now, but if you go back to the bracket, there
MIGHT be a link to my picks...
-Why am I really only on the meal-a-day plan? I feel healthy enough, but it is a
little unconventional, I must admit.
-Crack's done an excellent job with the SAF stuff, & that's quite impressive.
I do need to transfer the debate webpage, which is languishing. The things people use SAF money
for!
-Great basketball today with Nikki & Beth, even if tensions ran high at times. I really need to get back
into the sports routine.
-Sometimes folks just need to talk things out. I hope.
-Sighhhhhh... Why must people
take things so doggone personally? I am so weary of these things. I don't understand. Bleh!
8 April 2002
-Most of my time at work & the hours afterwards
have been spent developing this project. I know it's a little dubious, but I love
statistics & sports simulations & stuff like that, so I give you what APDA would look like with a March Madness
Nats. See for yourself. Not necessarily a recommendation, just something to think about.
-Alright, with
Chicago's results in, I not only updated the OTY standings,
but also (more importantly!) the bracket of 64 linked above. Again, see for yourself.
-Congratulations to Em on
thesis completion!! Yay! & there was much rejoicing...
-Not surprisingly, today has utterly decimated
all previous records for traffic on my site. I'm glad that the
bracket is popular... I also want to encourage people to follow Pat's
lead in actually making picks on this. Please send me your picks, or a link to them, & I'll compile some sort
of consensus on how this would shake down. I also intend to post my own picks pretty soon. Stay tuned. I
also hope some of you never-before-seen visitors find it worthwhile to keep visiting 'round here... obviously this project
is more popular than the Dylan List, but maybe I'll keep doing enough fun things to keep y'all coming back... (Here ends the
shameless plug.)
7 April 2002
-Missing Em already.
-HWhitty's radar detector
rocks. As does his debating. But only one of these got us home faster. Hearing talk of the time-change
as it happened on the radio was quite something. But the 2 Harvard novii were great sports on the drive home, even
though everyone fell asleep eventually. Now I'm unspeakably exhausted. But happy.
-Alright, metabloggers!
Enough is enough. Can't you just read what you want & not what you don't?
6 April 2002
[from New Brunswick, New
Jersey]
-Did India test nukes publicly in the 1970's? Spending a whole round
arguing about this was vaguely annoying. From what I can tell, 1998 woulda been small potatoes if they had done these
alleged tests.
-HWhitty's a strange strange mix of characteristics.
-Gonna miss this whole debate environment.
Can't say that enough.
-Zirkins! & they came all this way & we don't even know if we
broke...
-Whew.
-I love vindication in the face of doubt. Love it.
-Finally, a semi by one ballot in Deis'
favor.
-I love ProAms. & I'm so glad I got to run that case. When I got done with case statement, it took
the Opp almost 5 minutes to decide & I knew the case was going to be as interesting as I'd hoped. The floor
speeches could've been better (though I liked Neil's), but the round was just plain fun.
-Congratulations to your Speaker
of the Year, Emily Garin. I TOLD you she was better than I am!
5 April 2002
[from New Brunswick, New
Jersey]
-Thank goodness that HWhitty's target isn't here. Will make the weekend
easier.
-I like these tournament things. Are there really only 3 left?
-It's so crazy to be randomly sitting in
a round, especially one you're winning, & be persuaded by the other team. We're so well trained in debate to
disregard the words of others that it's quite an experience when one finds them compelling. Random, & kinda
crazy.
4 April 2002
[from Princeton, New Jersey]
-Where has this break
GONE? Boo Thursday.
-If you're advising theses, you'd think you'd tell someone before you go to South Africa, no?
-Only 12 assignments
remain between myself & academic freedom...
3 April 2002
[from Princeton, New
Jersey]
-I broke down & made my first comment on
someone else's blog... I have a feeling this'll be something I regret, because I don't really
believe in comments on blogs. I'll make the old Nikki joke here... I believe they HAPPEN,
I just don't believe they should. It's not a big deal, it just seems to undercut the
purpose.
-Really nice to just relax for a whole day. Though bball woulda been nice
too.
-Congrats are in order to Drew & Stina for recent post-undergraduate admissions!
I'm glad for them, even if I can't understand wanting another day of school.
-Pat says
he yearns for days of dominant teams on APDA. One's just gotta wonder how dominant those
teams actually were, or how much they got the perceived dominance bounce from anyone &
everyone.
-April 8th is shaping up to be quite a momentous day. Maybe even
planetarily.
-Reading the above, I'm reminded of countless stories I've heard about people
being questioned with regards to September 11th "predictions" or premonitions.
Listening to the last tape I made before then, "The Mightier Ploughshare",
on the way down to Princeton yesterday, I felt kinda weird. There were glimmers. Not
sufficient to freak me out entirely, but glimmers. & it makes me wonder how anyone
can keep anything a secret for very long. Fortunately, the April 8th vibe seems positive,
not negative. But it's more than just all the Princeton theses being done.
-The
aforementioned tape, by the way, was made less than a month prior.
-People are very clever. But I guess I'm the only one who reads every webpage I see by highlighting the text. Regardless of which, I'm not the target audience of certain comments, I don't think. At least, I have no reason to think I would be. (Hint: This is extremely cryptic. This here webpage has a very long & honored tradition of crypticness. I like it that way. Deal.)
-Editing Em's thesis is a fun process & reminds me why I didn't write a thesis. Footnotes. Would 'Deis have excepted the first-ever non-footnoted thesis? I think not...
2 April 2002
[from Princeton, New Jersey]
-I wish I knew what I'd done to get Kevin so upset with me. Almost all of my previous post about the hypocrisy of being irresponsible & then being mad when others don't baby you was about Crack, not Kevin. But Kevin seems to have this growing hostility, culminating in false accusations in his latest post. "Obvious estrangement from the team"??? How about only debating every other weekend in worn out jeans with hybrids & never debating with a novice or sophomore? & calling yourself a member of a different team? THAT's obvious estrangement, folks, & it was a senior from a few years back, not me. Sometimes you guys don't even realize how far this team has come. Sigh.
Kevin has every right not to take debate seriously, but blatant disregard is really upsetting. I wasn't even upset with Kevin before! He at least came to our quarters round! I guess the Princeton tournament, despite being great this year, manages to bring out the pettiest in our team (see last year
too).
-What's great about blogs, though, is that one finds out stuff one would never find out in any other circumstances. Even if that's somewhat trying as a
process, any difficult honesty is trying, & this is better than most.
-Sweet sweet spring break...
-Also, major thanks to Kate for a most illuminating discussion of Cop-in-a-box. Check her page for great details on the hijinks that were quarters. Though she seems to join many people in thinking that cop OUT of box is a better case. This strikes me as lunacy.
Introspection, My Worst
Friend* (Current)
Ye Olde Archive (Past)
The Blue Pyramid (Source)
Tell me this is not the end...*
*-lyrics from an as-yet unreleased song, "The Same Old
Frontiers",
by SWClayton.