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Washington Week in Review

The tournament in Washington was better than expected on the whole, but I wish we had gone a bit farther in extemp. The team placed in the Top 5 in Speech and the top 5 overall (speech + debate). We also had a finalist in prose/poetry and a national champion in Oratory. Tim only made quarterfinals in extemp (top 24) but I think I have a much better idea of the style which is required to do well there now.

I was going to stay an extra day, but I was unable to change my ticket. As such, I wasn’t able to see any sights. In our hotel, there was also a rally of Vietnam Veteran bikers who were there for a Memorial day ride from the Pentagon to the Mall. High school kids and bikers make for an interesting mix.

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General

W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N-BABY-DC!

So much for updating the site more frequently.

I’m off to Washington Tomorrow for the CFL (Catholic Forensic League) Grand National Tournament. The irony of the tournament is: 1) Its not very Catholic (mostly public schools), 2) its not very national (mostly east coast and Midwest schools), and 3) its not very grand. I’ll be with the Apple Valley contingent, in particular, with our one extemper, Tim Hogan. (who, you might be interested to know won the State Tournament this year.)

I’ll probably stay in Washington a few days and try to get more National Park sites for my quest. I’ve been to Washington a bunch of times, and I’m still a total mark for all the history stuff thats on the Mall. You can easily blow a day in all the Smithsonian Museums and monuments.

I was pretty disappointed with the season finale of 24. What bothered me about it was all the ads the ran about how there was going to be some incredible plot twist that was going to change television forever. The entire episode was predictable, cept in the last 60 seconds, the President gets killed. I’d have preferred that they treat each 24 season as its own self contained story line and not have one season spill over into the next. Its supposed to be 24, not 48.

I’ve seen Matrix Reloaded twice now. I had to see it again just to catch the stuff I missed the first time. After the first watching, I thought that Zion was part of the Matrix. After the 2nd viewing, I am now convinced that it is not. I don’t think there is a definite answer that can be derived from the 2nd film, however. I liked their explaination for “the one”. The key to understanding the movie I believe isn’t so much in philosophy, but in programming. “The One” and Zion is nothing more than error handling.

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General

Now, where were we?

As you can see, everything is totally different. I scrapped the old system, installed MovableType, and soon will redo the entire interface. Right now its looking pretty vanilla, but give it time. Databases and stuff I can figure out, layout and colors and such are beyond my expertise. I very much like this new software.

Since I last updated this site, a great deal has happen in my own life and in the world. I could write a long polemic on the events which have transpired, but I pass, and just promise to update the site more frequently.