Ultimate Frisbee

I remember the first time I read the Stuff Christians Like post on Ultimate Frisbee and yea, the name of that blog should sound suspiciously like that of this one which you are currently reading) which is titled FRISBEE- GOD'S FAVORITE SPORT, and I was like, "What, no, isn't frisbee for dogs?"

Then I joined debate where apparently frisbee is apparently a big deal.

A couple of months ago, I showed up to a party which apparently revolved entirely around frisbee. I was not exactly dressed the part. Some of my friends eyed my summer-y dress and flower-y flip-flops doubtfully.

"I don't have to play," I insisted.

"Yes, you do," they replied.

And thus began my frisbee career.

After a few quick lessons in how to throw and catch a frisbee (think "crocodile arms," or so I was told), I was all too literally off and running. Evidently frisbee involves lots of running, which isn't exactly my favorite, and most of the good people are tall, which isn't exactly something I'm known for. But hey. Frisbee's kind of cool.

I am semi-proud to say that a frisbee has now been thrown to me like, four times, which, when you consider that I've only played three games, is... not exactly good, but I guess not terribly awfully horrible. I'd really rather not be trusted with that kind of responsibility, anyway.

Frisbee is a lot like debate. I run arguments, you run across a field. You drop arguments, I drop the frisbee. It's mostly intense back-and-forth and back-and-forth, like a good Cross-Ex. And keeping score is kind of similar to flowing. And, uh, let's see, what else? Uh, you have teams, like Policy and Parli. aaand the games feel like they're never going to end. Like Team Policy rounds. And some frisbees are yellow, like flowpads. And debaters play frisbee, just like debaters debate. And the grass is green like that pen I kept forgetting didn't have ink. So I guess it wasn't that green. And there's an objective winner and loser, like we all like to think there is in debate. And you're not allowed to touch anyone on the other team, like duos.

I totally see why so many debaters love it.

Totally.

Kind of.

You're homeschooled. Go long!

Thirty Seconds Used

actual comic. don't pretend like you can't relate.

I remember once when this guy named Kyle was thinking of starting a comic for homeschool debaters and he needed a name for it, so he invited a bunch of individuals of that description to a Google doc where we brainstormed together and you can guess what we came up with.

Now, I think the time has come for Thirty Seconds Used to get a cool motto. Here are my ideas:

Thirty Seconds Used: The Webcomic That's Been Making Debaters Look Forward to Mondays Since February 8, 2012

Thirty Seconds Used: Because Debate Is Funnier With Stick Figures

Thirty Seconds Used: The Comic That You Will Think of Every Time You Prepare a Limited Prep or Debate Speech From Now Until Forever Because the Timer Will Say the Name Unless They are a Bad Timer

Thirty Seconds Used: That Comic that Wrote about SCHSADKL Once

Thirty Seconds Used: All the Charts, Scenarios, and Song Parodies Your Debater Heart Could Desire

Thirty Seconds Used: The Best Homeschool Debate Comic by Default

Thirty Seconds Used: The Source of Those Hilarious Pictures That You Sometimes See Taped Next to Postings

Thirty Seconds Used: Basically Your Life in Panel Form

Thirty Seconds Used: Where That Thing You Thought Was Funny Gets Even Funnier When You Put the Mouse Over It

Thirty Seconds Used: Practical Advice on Avoiding the Debate Dungeon

Thirty Seconds Used: Where The Stick Figures Occasionally Wear Hats, Bowties, and Hair

Thirty Seconds Used: Making You Wish Tournaments Had More Hot Air Balloons and Time Machines

Thirty Seconds Used: Discouraging Global Annihilation But Encouraging Impacting to It

Thirty Seconds Used: A Disadvantage Free Comic Brought To You by a Really Tall TPer

Thirty Seconds Used: So You Have Something to Read During IE Patterns and Breaks from Frisbee

Thirty Seconds Used: Admit it, You Stopped Reading the "Thirty Seconds Used" Part a Long Time Ago

Thirty Seconds Used: Actually Neither This One nor the Above Option Would Fly as a Motto

Thirty Seconds Used: Where You Don't Know You're Topical

Thirsty Seconds Used: Drink More Water

Thirty Seconds Used: Dot Wordpress Dot Com

Thirty Seconds Used: Because the Stock Issues are like a Cow

Thirty Seconds Used: Because No One Goes to NITOC in the Fall

Thirty Seconds Used: Because Your Evidence Will Never Love You

Thirty Seconds Used: Frisbee, Alumni, Trophies, oh my!

Thirty Seconds Used: Homeschool Humor Every Monday



...wait, I think that one actually is the motto.

Which mean Thirty Seconds Used already has a motto.

Which means this was pointless.


AWKWARD TRANSITION

So, Thirty Seconds Used. Have you read it? Because if not, the entire post thus far has made little to no sense. Fortunately, you probably read the comic at the top, so maybe that was helpful.

This post is written in appreciation of a fantastic comic penned by a fantastic individual who enjoys reminding us that yes, we are topical, and makes our Mondays a little brighter and stick figure-y-er.

You're homeschooled. Four and a half minutes remaining.

A Comic About Us!

Well, mostly me, but that's okay.

click here for the original comic from Thirty Seconds Used, the best homeschool debate webcomic on the planet.
click here to like that thing on the Facebook.

You're homeschooled, and you're already here, so, good job.

Actually Judging for Real

If you liked the SCHSADKL Facebook page (which you should), you may have seen something kind of neat pop up on your feed. It was this:

At first you may be thinking, "Ah, the classic coffee drink turned with the name visible, two different-colored pens, a flowpad turned sideways and HOLD ON IS THAT A BALLOT."

Yes. Yes it is.

Exciting, right? I know!

Backstory: I went to a camp recently where I was finally old enough to work instead of just being worked on like every other year. I was contractually obliged to judge as many rounds as humanly possible, which meant filling out TP ballots during LD prep time, as well as wishing Parli had prep time. It was so super fun from beginning to end.

Because at the beginning, they ask you for your judging philosophy. Sometimes. They usually forgot. But I was able to tell a few LDers to make sure they prove the resolution true or false, and a few TPers not to get overly technical on me. And do you know how fun that is because that is fun. Then they shake your hand and ask if you are ready. And they ask if you are ready before every single speech and frequently Cross-Ex even when you nod before they ask to indicate that you are, in fact, ready, but they apparently feel the need to double-check.

Then they start speaking and I, the judge, start flowing, of course. I also reach into my bag and pull out a notebook in which I jot down notes to later be translated in a semi-legible penmanship to a ballot, and/or which will be read aloud because I am also contractually obliged to give verbal feedback. I try to write without breaking eye contact because I imagine they find that unnerving and so I find it terribly amusing. Then Cross-Ex, then prep time, and I can read over to ballot and ask myself things like, "Wait, was their plan to lift a moratorium on drilling oil seeps all over the whole entire US of A or just the Gulf of Mexico? Wait, is it just me or is this case structured logically backwards by assuming that because injustice leads to conflict, mitigating conflict leads to not injustice aka justice aka the value? Wait, is this iced carmel macchiato incredible or what?" or I can write things on the ballot like, "Quoting Wikipedia isn't the greatest idea" or "Thank you for making eye contact sweet little novice, keep up the great work."

This continues for a span of 5-8 speeches and then they are done and I clap and if I am also timing, because I can multitask like that (and because I judged a lot of novices and didn't want to give them too much to think about by having them self-time), I also stop the timer and then (this is great), they come up and SHAKE MY HAND and thank ME PERSONALLY ME for judging! And I glance over the ballot thinking about which side I'll circle and how happy I'll make the winner and how the loser will never be able to make eye contact with me again until they forget in a couple weeks, and how much power I have.

But I try not to let it go to my head as I make the long trek to the judge's lounge. Which was a wonderful, magical place filled with judges. Well, it was sort of magical. Okay, it wasn't. But it was fun. They had some somewhat not-melted candy. Then I find a chair and potentially a table and write and write until I have to go find the ballot push people to go judge another round. It was great fun, really. Especially judging finals. Again, so much power.

So, there you have it. Actually judging for real. Good stuff. We like it.

You're homeschooled, and non-judgmental unless you graduated.

Ranking Speech Categories According to Coolness- Ian Caffarel

(This guest post is from Ian Caffarel who's been competing in speech and debate for two years. He says it's very cool and is a huge part of his life, and he also enjoys classic rock. Enjoy! Want to write a guest post? Click here.)

So I’ve competed for two years in Speech (I started debate officially last year, before that, I did some Parli classes [knock knock]). I’ve done five of the 11-12 events Stoa has to offer (DI, Expos, Extemp, Impromptu, and OI), however, I didn’t really excel in them. Yet, I sort of felt that all 12 events being offered had some cool factor about them, and, after giving it some thought,  I now came up with this list, with each category getting it’s place for a reason or two explained, and see if you notice a trend.

So now, here we go:

12: Storytelling. Sort of cool, but it sort of bridges between limited prep and interp, so it is hard to decide which it fits into.

11: Persuasive. Due respect, it’s good in persuading. It’s in it’s place because there are some cool speakers, however, they are on the dark side in debate (LD, due respect to them.)

10: Original Oratory. For most of the reasons as Persuasive.

9: Dramatic. This is the first one listed that I did last year. It’s run by cool people, however, due to the difficulty of finding a piece (or coming up with one yourself) that will warrant the use of the tissues carried on the audience, it gets ranked relatively low.

8: Humorous. Cool? Maybe, as people usually gather by the crowds to watch them. However, it gets its ranking due to the difficulty finding a funny piece.

7: Mars Hill. It is cool reaching out to the nonbelievers around us, so it would deserve a higher place, but it won’t breach the top 6 due to the fact it is now being substituted for Impromptu D:

6: Duo. Great, as they are usually cool and people flock to watch them. Need I say more?

5: Open. Cooler, as they are usually great, a ton of my cool friends do them and, as if that didn’t already make it cool enough, you can write/adapt your own! Can that get better?

4: Expository. Smaller, but still run by awesome people, and I gave it runs last year and the year before that. I plan on doing better, and possibly anyone else great that will do one next year.

Now, here are the top 25%, and tell me if you notice a trend.

3: Apologetics. The defenders of the faith. These speakers have a very important job to do, so that drives the category to this high a spot in the rankings.

2: Impromptu. Cooler, as you don’t know what topics you’ll get until you set foot into the room and see them. And then you get to talk about anything you can think of that relates to the topic (for me, I usually have this rule of thumb: When in doubt, use the war, as in WWII.) Sure, the category is dead, but that won’t knock it out of it’s spot, just below the coolest speech category ever offered:

1: Extemp. Talks a lot about the news. Sure, it involves a ton of hard work, but who cares?  Because there is a HUGE cool factor that comes with it. And at the final prelim tournament last year, I used a song that I heard on YouTube as an intro. There is nothing like Extemp. Once an Extemper, always an Extemper.

So there you go, the different speech categories according to their coolness.

You’re homeschooled, and that’s cool.

Not Giving Up

Once upon a time, I attended a debate camp as a newbie Lincoln-Douglas student with high hopes. The previous year had seen me as a novice TPer who could never quite get higher than 3-3, an experience I wished not to repeat. The camp tournament came and went and left me with a record of 2-4. After a couple of frustrating tournaments where I found myself the top 3-3 debater (so close!), I finally broke into an upper bracket, making me an automatic semi-finalist, with a 5-1 record. As the months passed, I had the opportunity to debate three of the four students whom I lost to at camp. I won each rematch. I was particularly thrilled to win two out-rounds against two very, very good and high-ranked debaters, and several months later, am still surprised it happened. The fact is, I kept working and improved.

Once upon a time, I had a DI my first year. I only did it at one qualifying tournament, squeezed my way into finals, took 8th place (not to be confused with last place, by the way), qualified for Nationals because you only needed to place in the top 40% once back then, competed at NITOC, didn't break and certainly didn't expect to. Throughout the tournament, I watched lots of other DIs and noticed that each was way, way more dramatic than mine, and decided that I would never do another DI again. Three years and three DIs later, I came home a few weeks ago from another NITOC with a shiny trophy that says, "First Place: Dramatic Interpretation." The fact is, I kept working and improved.

It took a friend of mine years to win more than one round at a competition, but he has since won entire tournaments. Another friend was so terrified of giving her first impromptu speech that she ran away and cried rather than speak that round, and years later, won a limited-prep event at Nationals. A third friend put a lot of time and effort into debate year after year and never managed to get a winning record, then suddenly went 6-0 a few times. They worked hard, and improved.

The best speech I ever gave was the only interp I did that didn't qualify for Nationals, but not only was it a powerful speech in the opinions of much of my audience, if not my judges, it also stretched me more than any other speech and allowed me to later prepare speeches in two or three weeks and still break to finals, to really know what it means to be in character, and ultimately, to become the interper I am today. I would not have grown that way if that speech had been getting checkmarks and winning tournaments like we expected it to, because then I wouldn't have had to work as hard.

The fact that I and countless others can keep at it and someday taste success makes me very, very happy to be a part of homeschool speech and debate. Never ever ever give up. Keep working. Keep taking feedback, especially criticism. Keep watching some of the greats if you wish to improve. Keep practicing, keep writing, keep discussing with others, keep speaking.

This is a friendly reminder that lots of us CHSADKs like not giving up, and we're right to. Success in competition is a minor perk to becoming a great speaker. There may come a time when you lose much of the thrill of breaking to finals because you aways do, when trophies become things you have to struggle to find room for, when you're more concerned about being one of the top competitors than qualifying for Nationals, because you did that a long time ago and the former is a real possibility. There may not. It's not important. What's important is that you don't stop doing what you are supposed to be doing, and if you are called to be a speaker, then speak as though Christ Himself is speaking through you. Success only matters as a sign of improvement, and if you work hard and don't give up, you will improve.

You're homeschooled. Keep at it, and carry on.