It's Been Fun

I've had enough people start to ask me questions like, "So... your blog...?" that I felt it was fitting to give some kind of "here's what happened to the blog" post. 

This is it. Welcome. Take a seat. I'm not quite sure how long and sappy it will be but it's not a bad idea to get comfortable and put on some non-distracting instrumental music.

Ok cool. Hi. It's possible you haven't heard from me in a while. Why is that?

Well, perhaps you picked up on this, but I graduated. That was over a year ago, actually. I anticipated keeping up the blog for that year because I would still be involved in the Stoa community, which I was, but it became harder to write when speech and debate wasn't my life any more. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but it wasn't me. I wasn't super motivated to write. I stopped thinking about speech and debate every day, and mostly thought about it on Monday nights when I coached. I stopped having stress dreams about showing up to tournaments without script submission and started having stress dreams about showing up to work with, well, inadequate clothing. I stopped worrying about wanting to win rounds because taking debate really seriously started seeming silly, because I felt so much older than the twelve year-olds who were on the losing side, and it seemed weird to want to beat them. But I loved speech and debate, and I loved this blog. This was who I was, a Christian homeschooled speech and debate kid.

And then, I wasn't. 

But I was for a while. And it was so fun to write about. I started this blog in April 2011-ish, or at least that's when I started the blogspot page. It's based off an HI I did my sophomore year, Stuff Christians Like. Sometimes people reference a specific thing that Christians like that I mentioned in my speech, and I don't remember talking about that thing, because that speech feels like at least ten years ago. 

Last Tuesday someone asked me if I could demonstrate an interp I did for a bunch of novices I was teaching. I told her I couldn't. I told her I hadn't done interps in years. 

But it hasn't been years. It's been a year. It just feels like so long ago. 

Writing blog post ideas on post-it notes mid-debate round feels like a long time ago, too. 

I stopped writing this blog a long time ago. But I never told you about that. I won't be so narcissistic as to assume you've noticed a lack of posts, but if you're reading this, you probably have. 

I'm thrilled with the impact it had. It's had an impact on you maybe, and it's definitely had an impact on me. I still call Policy debate "Policy" because I said I would on this blog, so, that's at least one impact. I'm thrilled that people can reference "CHSADKs" and assume their readers or listeners know what they mean and potentially be correct. I'm thrilled people read it, still talk about it, think I'm funny, and ideally, learned something. If not, read the Not Giving Up post. I love that my former debate partner is still upset that I called him "monochromatic," even though I think he knows what that means. I love going back and reading my old posts, crazy as that sounds, like the ECD scorecard, because now Shy Guy is now one of the most outgoing people I know, and also I've forgotten most of the categories so I'm genuinely entertaining myself here. I love the guest posts, I love the LD secret society, I love the honesty this blog allowed me. I love SCHSADKL because it's about people I love. Some I used to be terrified of and/or had competitor crushes on, but now we're friends. Some were the alumni that adopted me, but now we're alumni friends and I guess I'm adopting other people. I love that I can tell people stories and they're like, yea, we know this story, and I'm like, oh yea, I think it was on my blog. I love that they read that thing. I love that I've grown as a writer and potentially a person in terms of personal betterment if not stature. I love this all of it the whole thing.

But I'm not the person I was when I started writing. There were competitors months ago who already didn't know who I was, and I had just graduated. There are people who have talked to me about DIs without knowing that's kinda my thing to, at least, some extent. I'm now the arguably intimidating alumni judge instead of the arguably intimidating competitor, or fairly unknown competitor, or any of the things I used to be. I'm not sure I'm a grown-up yet but it's only a matter of time. 

And for some strange reason, that's okay. 

I'm moving to Michigan which means less judging and coaching and whatnot. It'll be different. I'll be different.

But thanks for being here. I'm glad we were both able to make it. It really means a lot. It's weird, but I couldn't have done it without you. This blog isn't going anywhere, it's just not growing, if you feel me.

I needed to tell it goodbye.

You're homeschooled, and I hope you never, ever forget

Judges. Just be Nice - Elijah Adams

(New guest post from Elijah Adams, whose duo partner Jared we've met before. Enjoy his thoughts on something we can all relate to.)

Hello, homeschoolers (if that’s what I’m supposed to call you guys)!I am Elijah Adams, and this is my second year of Stoa. What is Stoa, you might be asking. Well, it is-wait. This blog is for Stoa-goers. I forgot. Silly me. Ahem.
Judges. Don’t give me that look. We’ve all dealt with weird judges. You know, the community judge that chooses who wins the round by whoever looks the nicest or the alumni who goes for a double-loss because you didn’t look at your opponent during Cross-Examination? Both of those are the judges that make you want to gnash your teeth because you lost round because that guy before you had a better tie than you? Ugh. These judges can be annoying. They can be aggravating. Heck, you might even want to storm into the judges’ lounge and give that judge a piece of your mind and tell them WHY THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG. Anyway, you worked for MONTHS preparing this speech. You waited to go up and speak while your stomach did somersaults. Then you go in, do your best effort, and WHAT do you get? You get a “Fifth and Below” because your suit had a wrinkle in it! But you must remember that these judges are as nervous as you are. Even more so, in fact. They are TERRIFIED that they might misjudge you and break your heart. They are PETRIFIED that you will forever dislike them for their comments. That they are RUINING your Speech career by telling you that you need to work on inflection. These community judges are new to this. They don’t know what they’re doing. They are probably lost and confused. But you have had months to prepare your speech (or weeks, if you’re like me). They just showed up the morning of the tournament ready to listen. Judges. Don’t give me that look. We’ve all dealt with weird judges. You know, the community judge that chooses who wins the round by whoever looks the nicest or the alumni who goes for a double-loss because you didn’t look at your opponent during Cross-Examination?Both of those are the judges that make you want to gnash your teeth because you lost round because that guy before you had a better tie than you? Ugh. These judges can be annoying. They can be aggravating. Heck, you might even want to storm into the judges’ lounge and give that judge a piece of your mind and tell them WHY THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG. Anyway, you worked for MONTHS preparing this speech. You waited to go up and speak while your stomach did somersaults. Then you go in, do your best effort, and WHAT do you get? You get a “Fifth and Below” because your suit had a wrinkle in it! But you must remember that these judges are as nervous as you are. Even more so, in fact. They are TERRIFIED that they might misjudge you and break your heart. They are PETRIFIED that you will forever dislike them for their comments. That they are RUINING your Speech career by telling you that you need to work on inflection. These community judges are new to this. They don’t know what they’re doing. They are probably lost and confused. But you have had months to prepare your speech (or weeks, if you’re like me). They just showed up the morning of the tournament ready to listen.

Both of those are the judges that make you want to gnash your teeth because you lost round because that guy before you had a better tie than you? Ugh. These judges can be annoying. They can be aggravating. Heck, you might even want to storm into the judges’ lounge and give that judge a piece of your mind and tell them WHY THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG. Anyway, you worked for MONTHS preparing this speech. You waited to go up and speak while your stomach did somersaults. Then you go in, do your best effort, and WHAT do you get? You get a “Fifth and Below” because your suit had a wrinkle in it!

But you must remember that these judges are as nervous as you are. Even more so, in fact. They are TERRIFIED that they might misjudge you and break your heart. They are PETRIFIED that you will forever dislike them for their comments. That they are RUINING your Speech career by telling you that you need to work on inflection. 

These community judges are new to this. They don’t know what they’re doing. They are probably lost and confused. But you have had months to prepare your speech (or weeks, if you’re like me). They just showed up the morning of the tournament ready to listen.

These judges can be annoying. They can be aggravating. Heck, you might even want to storm into the judges’ lounge and give that judge a piece of your mind and tell them WHY THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG. Anyway, you worked for MONTHS preparing this speech. You waited to go up and speak while your stomach did somersaults. Then you go in, do your best effort, and WHAT do you get? You get a “Fifth and Below” because your suit had a wrinkle in it!But you must remember that these judges are as nervous as you are. Even more so, in fact. They are TERRIFIED that they might misjudge you and break your heart. They are PETRIFIED that you will forever dislike them for their comments. That they are RUINING your Speech career by telling you that you need to work on inflection. These community judges are new to this. They don’t know what they’re doing. They are probably lost and confused. But you have had months to prepare your speech (or weeks, if you’re like me). They just showed up the morning of the tournament ready to listen.

Well, before we begin, I’d like to say that I like reader involvement. I’m also an interper at heart. So, while you’re reading, please read the CAPITALS as shouting. Thanks! (Please don’t ACTUALLY shout. That’s not the best idea…) All lame starters, introductions, and disclaimers aside, let’s begin.

So please be nice to them. Give them grace. Don’t flip your chair. You need them to get to NITOC. It’s not your speaking that gets the checkmarks. It’s the judges who assign them. So just be patient. There are more tournaments. Speaking of which, I think I see the S.S. Concordia on the horizon. I should get ready for it. Onward, S.S. Paradigm!

Competitor Crushes

This is a post I've been thinking about for a while.

It's time to come clean.

Do you know what a "fangirl" is? You probably do. The Google defines it as "an obsessive female fan (usually of movies, comic books, or science fiction)."

What the Google doesn't know is that this doesn't just have to be movies, comic books, or science fiction. There are speech and debate fangirls as well.

You know what I mean. Don't tell me you've never "fangirled" or "fanboyed" over a fellow competitor, as they say. I can give you quite a few personal examples. See, my fangirliness doesn't just apply to one speecher or debater. That would just be a regular crush, not a competitor crush. I have lots of favorites.

First, there's this one interper I totally fangirl over. And even though he's my favorite in interps, he's also great in any other forensical thing that involves him speaking, which is luckily every event. He's got the kind of voice that you hear and go, "Whoa. Please do audiobooks or something because seriously your voice is like the sound of happiness covered in chocolate and skipping through Disneyland eating ice cream while Coldplay plays in the background." I'm not even kidding. And in interps, my gosh, talk about becoming the character. And his blocking was always incredible. He also often sang in his speeches, and his singing voice is just as good as his speaking voice. I am a hardcore fan of this guy, I won't lie. My friend is too, and she and I would fangirl over him together, and totally look like idiots but in the best way. One time, his mom told my mom that he was a big fan of my speeches and it was the greatest thing ever.

And then, of course, there was my favorite LDer. The one I was super in awe of who also terrified me. I might have accidentally told him that he'd been my favorite LDer for years, ever since I had decided that LD was cool, and yea, I guess my fangirl showed a little. He's always been one of those debaters that was right 100% of the time, even when I disagreed with what he was saying, because he was saying it, so it had to be true. His opponents were probably evil, because how dare they negate him? (I debated him once, and hereby admit that whatever I argued was probably blasphemous.) The tournaments he didn't win were clearly rigged. His arguments were brilliant, and apparently I saw him debate enough times to be able to recognize cases he wrote that I'd never heard before, simply by glancing over them, because I knew his style that well. True story.

I could go on, but I think I've sufficiently embarrassed myself. I could remind you of the time I geeked out when someone who had just won an event (and remains one of my favorite speakers/people ever) congratulated me on winning novice impromptu of all things. I could tell you about how this kid whose speech made me cry won a major tournament and I made him give me a hug and told him I was proud of him, because I was, and how I am such a big fan of that guy for so many reasons. I could tell you about how one of the most widely recognized Stoa-ites for his great speaking and humility remembered my name months after he judged me, and emailed me to answer my questions, and how special that made me feel. I could recollect the story of how one of my favorite Humorous Interpers ever got mad when my measly first ever HI didn't break and how awesome that was. I could even mention how excited I used to get when "famous" speech and debate people added me on Facebook, or Google+, as the case may be. I could tell you all of those stories about my fabulous encounters with the objects of my speech and debate affections, but I won't. I'm sure you have your own.

You're homeschooled. Oh, the feels.

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.