Forensics, and Subsequent Recovery

Last Friday, I and 5 other trail blazers woke up at the crack of dawn (or, rather, 6:30-7 AM), all climbed into a Dodge Caravan and headed off to the J.F.K. airport. There, we waited ten minutes or so and were joined by the brains of the operation, Jim Shapiro. Our destination? Milwaukee, Wisconsin, via NorthWest Airlines to compete/judge in the National Catholic Forensics League Championships. Oi vey... oi gavult actually.

Two things I learned on the plane over:
1. How small trans-American planes can be, and
2. How f---ing BIG the (aptly named) Great Lakes actually are.
Speaking of which, when I looked out the window (I guess over Lake Michigan), I did a double take and thought, Is that a lake? ...or an ocean?

So we checked into our hotel, the Hyatt, whose claim to fame is that it has the only revolving restaurant in Wisconsin (Polaris--I didn't go up there). Actually, it's claim to fame should be the vertigo that you get when walking from the elevators to your room---the rooms are arranged so that there is a central, indoor courtyard-- and the floors (15, I believe) are all completely identical. So when you are walking along looking out, you feel like you're in one of those space-liners that are in some movies----and oh, the major vertigo it causes....! aaaaaaaaaah...

Anyway, scary rooms arrangement aside, on to Milwaukee itself (my room was very nice, by the way). Compared to New York City? Two words: ghost town. Hardly a person walking the streets, hardly a car driving the streets. Very quiet... and since it's pretty much summer (soon, anyway), fairly mild. Never got colder than , say, 60 degrees? I like it there, though. It's very chill and relaxed. Kind of spread out, but not Suburbia; it still has the city feel. It's small though--you could walk from one side to the other in about 30 minutes.

As for the tournament? My part of Forensics is in the Speech half, and my particular event is called Original Oratory: you write a ten minute speech, memorize it, and deliver it. pretty difficult, I think. My oratory is about advertising, specifically, how it grabs us and tries to make us feel we aren't good enough the way we are. The thesis is that we should buy less impulsively and not be grabbed by advertising.

The outcome was that I didn't break into any of the final rounds, but I don't really care. I blame more my writing than my performance, because since I had a badly organized oratory I didn't have much to work with as far as performance went.

Oh well... well, final exams are soon and I can then start planning my oratory for next year. I'm thinking about America's response to terrorism, or something along the lines of that. I'm currently reading George Lakoff's book, Don't Think Of An Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame The Debate. It's really good stuff--his section on terrorism, 9/11 and foreign/domestic policy is very interesting and I might even end up quoting a thing or two from him for my speech (ah.. thievery... steal from one source and it's plagerism. steal from many and it's research, my friend). I actually advise all people leaning towards the left politically to pick this book up, because it gives such a clear and laid out plan to take back politics from the conservative front.

Alright since it's 12:07 where I am (Eastern Time Zone rather than whatever this place keeps time in), i think i'll go to bed. Peace and love in the highest...