POTD
Kratos is supreme!
Time for the gigantic mega post! I’ll have to categorize this one…
Debate:
Wee, four hour mini bus trip. Pretty uneventful actually. So whatever, I’ll skip ahead.
So, the resolution is: “Resolved: The actions of corporations ought to be held to the same moral standards as the actions of individuals.”
Some quick background before we begin:
Common Aff arguments: Lots of harms when we hold corporations differently. These include: letting the individuals within the corporation hide wrong doing, excessive corporate power, disregard for human welfare, and similar things. Really, most aff cases are the same, they almost all state that by holding the corporations the same way we get a benefit.
My aff case: In my frame work I establish that morality is only useful when applied to humans, I.E. that morality only matters if it is helping alleviate human suffering. Thus I set up the value of morality and the criterion of decreasing exploitation. In the framework I set it up so that showing a decrease in human suffering (exploitation, this is explained in case) is enough to affirm. And then I basically lay out the ways in which exploitation is decreased.
Common Neg arguments: For neg there is slightly more flexibility. Some people set up cases similar to the aff cases, that is, they try and show that negating has comparative benefits. On the other hand some neg cases try and prove the resolution necessarily false based on universal principles. Arguments of this sort consist of: morality doesn’t exist, the corporations aren’t morally culpable, there are morally relevant differences, etc.
My neg case: It’s just a pretty standard culpability case saying that a corporation is like a thought concept, so it can’t be morally culpable for its actions. The same way Nazis, and not Nazism is responsible for the holocaust, corporate actors and not the corporations are responsible for whatever action.
Round 1: I was neg. This was against some random opponent. I really thought I won this round, because quite frankly his case was terrible. “Since corporations won’t be held to these responsibilities they will turn into utilitarians.” Umm, okay… No warrant, and I that “harm” is pretty silly. But apparently I lost the value-criterion debate, so he got all of his impacts and thus won.
Round 2: I was Aff. This round was annoying as hell… My opponent made really bad arguments, and terrible responses to my arguments, but I dropped her third contention and her freaking underview. And she was on the neg! All that offense she had made it nearly impossible to cover with the limited time in the 1AR. The most annoying thing was the judge said he really wanted to vote for me, but couldn’t just because of that stupid spread. Ah well.
Round 3: I was Neg. Whatever. Her case was overall just pretty strong, and she was a good debater. I felt like I should have lost that round. But I got 30 speaker points, and my judge said it was one of the smoothest deliveries she had ever heard.
Round 4: Aff again here. The two of use were both running benefit cases, but I had the kid’s case and I outweighed his benefits. A pretty easy round. 29 speaks ^^.
Round 5: Neg here. I adapted to my judge really well, the kid dropped my neg case, I kill his value criterion, it was just a pretty good face crush.
Round 6: Aff… I debated a kid (actually I stayed at his house, and he plays Magic, and he’s an overall cool kid) who set out to have fun at this tournament, so he ran… reptilian illuminati. The case stated that we are all being mind controlled by an evolved species of raptors, the illuminati, and that the only way to free ourselves is through the access of the right side of our brain. All of his cards came from David Ick, founder of the Green Party in England (this is why the Green Party will never win an election.) The case wasn’t actually horrible (if the judge decides to go with debate instincts over common sense that is) because against any response I made he could claim that I was brainwashed by the illuminati, so my argument is just an attempt to cover up their presence. However I responded by drawing a caricature of a illuminati, thus accessing the right side of my brain and disproving the presence of the illuminati. I also said that if the judge would buy my opponent’s argument he would also have to buy my argument my opponent was actually brainwashed by the Lupines, an evolved race of lycanthropes. And he dropped my case, so it was an easy win. I had also contemplated reading a poem to access the right side of my brain, and I spent a lot of prep time trying to write a rhyme. Nothing rhymes with illuminati that I could think of. Anyways, in response to my drawing he said I had drawn it with the left side of my brain, since I did it utterly without emotion or conviction. So during my next speech I acted like I was very upset by that, and I channeled my pure emotion into a second drawing, thus accessing my right side. Then the judge gave me 25 speaker points. If he had given me just a few more I could have gotten a speaker award. What a meanie. Maybe if my drawing was better? But man, I deserved more points for coming up with such a novel response.
Anywho, my final record was 3-3, and no one on my team did much better.
WARNING: Politically Correct stuff galore below!
I found it singularly hilarious that the Lynbrook team had a single white kid. And maybe three guys. I was also quite disappointed that I didn’t get to debate any of them, since I told Aaron I would beat some for him. But my record was too sucky to debate them. And another thing I observed, this will sound weird, but Indian girls should shave! And I mean their faces. I can’t tell you how disconcerting a moustache is on a girl. But that is pretty unrelated to anything else. Besides that the Lynbrook team was full of attractive Asian girls that I didn’t have a chance with… <_< Also, apparently Hopkins has a reputation, because the Lynbrook coach said we were one of the teams to watch out for.
After the first day we went to our home-stay. And stayed up till one telling messed up stories. And the second we watched Blazing Saddles and then went to sleep. Hmm. We also went to a really good Italian restaurant called Mondo’s. It was the first real meal I had had in some time, so I was made mucho happy.
So in summary: I think I could have done a lot better if I had put more work into debate, but I didn’t have the time to commit. I’m still deciding whether or not I’ll be doing debate next year.
Music: Yay! Music!
So I’m probably neglecting to talk about a lot of new bands I got, but I didn’t get those CDs as recently, so I just won’t talk about them
X&Y and Rush Of Blood To The Head, by Coldplay: Well, Coldplay, is one of those bands that I really want to like, but I somehow can’t. The singing is overall subpar, ugh, I can’t even hear him half the time. And the instrumentation although cool, if the same in every song! I’m serious, all their songs sound exactly the same. Not cool. Except for a couple stand out tracks I was very disappointed by Coldplay. I’m not sure what they are aiming for, but they sound like a combination of The Frey and Death Cab for Cutie, and the result isn’t too great.
Franz Fredinand, by Franz Fredinand: This album, was very cool. The guitar playing is cool as heck, and the songs are fun. Yeah, not much else to say, but I like it a lot. Especially Take Me Out, which is a cool song.
And I have a hard calc test coming up, in addition to the AIME on the same day.
Sorry for the long post...
POTD
Except for the fact that that that picture (oh yes, I used three "that"s in a row) has an impossible structure it's really cool. The background is very nice.
So I had a lot going on, as you can probably imagine. I just fixed the desktop computer, which was broken over the weekend while I was gone at debate. I don't have time to write a good summary tonight, because I'm going to bed soon, and I'm distracted to boot. But never fear, tomorrow you will get a giant report on the debate tournament, and my thoughts on debate as a whole. Short story: I think the tournament went pretty well. I was a little thrown off by the tougher competition at first (especially those silly spreads), so I began 0-3, than made a comeback and ended 3-3. And I was disappointed by the finals and stuff, because the novices really weren't that good. I felt that I could have done better than them in the same positions, something I never feel watching varsity rounds. Ah well.
POTD
Wow, that thing is mean looking. Holy turd that is cool.
So erm. Stress. Yeah that. I'm weighing my possible out comes for this summer. It looking sort of meh. I could either do well on my AIME and go to MOSP, which would be very good for my math, and I could meet a lot of old friends. Or I could fail horribly, end up going to the DIDT gathering and making some money on a summer job. Either way A Realm Divided looks like it loses out.
POTD
That has some very good lighting going on there. The one thing I love about old cathedrals like that is the light.
AIME is happening soon. And I'm only somewhat prepared for it, although I have a feeling I'm more prepared for it than some of my UMTYMP classmates. But then there are people taking it outside of UMTYMP... And I have an UMTYMP test coming up soon. And I have Novice Nationals. And I need to take my physics test. When it rains it pours. Actually my life just happens to always become extremely stressful.
POTD
Dwarves are cool as heck. Nearly as cool as ninjas, and turtles, but not ninjas and turtles combined .
So I'm back to blogger. Wanna know why? Vox has almost no cool customizability, I can't even change my lousy background there. And since I can't change the HTML it means I can't display my own AdSense ads, while I'm displaying their ads. Truly disgusting. I like control over my blog, and Vox can't offer that. So here I am again. And I just found out Blogger has a spell checker. Where was it all this time?
Today I went out with my mom to buy a new pair of shoes. Then hilarity ensued. First we got there before the mall opened, and then the store wasn't there anymore. Great stuff. But will I was at the Borders nearby I found a sweet book on hacking.
And I just did about a tenth of my physics course in an entire day. Now I'm behind in my history, of course. It's the story of my life.
POTD
Hmm, another gross looking demon. :D
So I thought I would be getting my braces off, but appearantly they are going to let it go for a month or two more. :( And I got a 28 on my UMTYMP homework today. Go me. And soccer practice was cancelled, which caused much rejoicing, since I'm sick anyways.
And I'm hooked on Dwarf Fortress.
POTD
Ooh, that is one of the coolest concepts ever. Wow.
Well, not too much exciting going on, but there is stuff going on. I just took my third physics test, which was okay. And I'm about to turn in two UMTMYP assignments. And I'm about to finish a philosophy paper, again. And I'm about to write a new debate case for novice nationals.
Most exciting is I'm getting my braces off tomorrow. Woohoo! If I start wearing more normal t-shirts I might actually pass off as a normal person...
POTD
Hehe, that looks funny.
So a lot has happen since the last post, if you've noticed I've been a little lazy about posting.
UMTYMP: 29, 23, 27
At least I think those are my scores.
I just got my ACT scores today. I'm super happy with them, because I did not think I would do so well in some of the sections. But the test did turn out to be the American Reading Test.
ACT: 33 English, 35 Mathematics, 34 Reading, 34 Science, 34 Composite.
Hmm. And I went to the party at Slagathor's* house. I was the only person that went, but it was fun nonetheless.
*His name isn't actually Slagathor, it's Baratheon**
**His name really isn't Baratheon. It is closer to Bosh***
***If you haven't figured it out by now, his name is actually Josh****
****Josh does not care whether his real name is used on the internet.
