Redwings Bust

Just got back from the Redwings @ Sharks game, where the Redwings lost 1-5. They had a shitload of their top players taking an extra day off from their Olympic tour.

About 16 of us from work went, and poor Ben, who had arrived with three of his friends, all of whom were decked out in full Redwings jerseys and regalia, was practically in tears! I wasn't so much disappointed as pissed off, though I was definitely rooting for the Wings. Can't these fuckers even tie their fucking shoelaces without their Swedish star teammates babysitting them?

Real bummer, I paid 27 bones to see some of the shittiest hockey. Amazingly the Sharks had it together. But there was a lot of fighting and headlocks, so it was still worth it. My high school friend RM was a Redwings postergirl and sort of inspired me to root for them. *sigh*

Judged a round at my little sister's NFL tournament Sunday. No, that's National Forensic League. Debate. But she does the much lamer "Lincoln Douglas" style debate. I did Policy (also called Team) debate. I loved debate so much during high school; it was wonderful coming back to judge. The Aff team dropped a few critical arguments in their rebuttals, and it pained me to vote Neg, because the Aff was clearly a way better team. *sigh* again. But I did run into JD, whom I debated once with my debate partner RL, and I hadn't seen him since the Santa Clara University tournament many years ago. Also, one of the teams that I judged knew my debate partner RL and some other people associated with my high school debate team. What a small world! And the Lynbrook high school coach looked the same as always, just older.

My favorite part of judging is being able to wear ripped jeans and flip-flops and maintain my stoic, impartial countenance while the teams falteringly debate each other. It's a powerful position to be in and it's just fun to be so relaxed and act blase about it while the high school debaters are sweating bullets in their suits, ties, skirts and heels. I remember paying those dues long ago and it's nice to be on the other end of it.

I loved how you could adopt a "what the fuck are they talking about" attitude during cross-examination, as you belittled the opposing team's bullshit arguments and came up with a crazy line of questioning that made them sound like idiots. I loved looking through the other team's evidence while they were speaking and pointing out fallacies and general bullshit during the next speech.

Bantering offhandedly about two nuclear wars outweighing the impacts of localized genocide may seem sick, but I overlooked that because strategizing about which arguments to run and how to "turn" them was fun. You can even come up with alternative voting paradigms and try to sell that to the judge. Then the debate becomes highly philosophical, evoking the likes of Kant and Machiavelli, and Edward Said ... through some feminist authors in there too. If the judge agrees with your paradigm, it's more than likely that s/he will vote for you too. It's a very tactical activity.

But what I loved most about Policy Debate is that it was the only Speech & Debate event where it often didn't matter what you wore or what you looked like, and you didn't even have to have good presentational skills. You could stutter up a storm, but as long as you were somewhat intelligible and made better arguments than the other team, you won. I liked Team Debate (or Oxford, as it was often called) because it was almost anti-presentation, anti-looks, anti-fluff, anti-stlye, all about substance.

Which is probably why I quit the swim team to focus on the debate team. It doesn't get any nerdier than that!