SUN

Well.... if you haven't noticed I've been a little busy recently. As I wrote below (about seven days ago....) I had an debate tournament from last Thursday to Saturday. The tournament's name is SUN and don't ask me what SUN stands for because I have no idea. Last year we won first place at this same tournament so there was a little bit of pressure to at least do "ok" this time as well. Our record for the first 6 rounds that decide whether you get into the "playoffs" or outrounds was 5 and 1 with our one lose being our first round vs what would turn out the 2d best team in the tournament and they ended up with a 6 & 0 record in the first 6 rounds so..... yeah..... nothing to cry about. Once we got into the outrounds we lasted through first round and the second but went down blazing in the third (semi-finals) and ended up finishing in third place.


Ironically enough we only lost to one team in the whole tournament (we lost our first debate to the team and then 9 debates, three days later got eliminated by the same team) and both debates from my view were very close so I have to say that SUN went very well even though we didn't repeat as #1. That really wasn't our goal along though. We really just wanted to get into the top 4 and see what happen from there.... so I guess you could say it was a success.

What Hath Winter Wrought?

An interesting ice formation

Busy, Busy, Busy....

I have a debate tournament for the next three days so don't expect an influx of posting anytime soon.... The reason why I've neglected to post recently is also due to the time I am spending on debate. Researching fascinating subjects such as national sovereignty, military interoperability etc. Really is it fun? Not really; but losing isn't that fun either....

Yes!

The Patriots slapped the franchise tag on Asante Samuel!

Bill Belichick

"Asante Samuel is an outstanding player who has been a consistent contributor for us for several years. We hope Asante remains a Patriot for many seasons to come."

Ingrid the Math Student

Yep... Saxon. That means she should be in calculus when she turns 6....

Writing down the answer

Coffee helps keep her alert as she works out tough problems till midnight....

Things Heating Up (in the debate world)

Has anyone heard of global freezing? It's happening. I saw it myself. This morning when I was outside feeding the sheep I happened to look down and this this little bug frozen to the ground. He was dead as a Apple computer. He was killed by Global Freezing. Let us have a moment of silence in his memory.

Ok - I made that all up.

On the other side of the universe.... Debate has been just eating my time up. So far the season has gone very well - but it's all worth nothing real right now because every round (18?) we've done so far has been a practice debate. However - from now on everything counts. If we lose - we really lose. And if we win - we'll need to win some more. Winning is always nice for the most part though. . . .

Piranha's, Ice, and the Plot to Ruin My Quatriple-Axle

It's a cold - well actually to be accurate - it was a totally freezing Thursday on the farm this afternoon. It was so freezing in fact the only thing - person or animal - outside were my two brothers the below frog and I. The frog didn't have a choice though so please don't question it's sanity. He's our guard frog. His name is Buda, and he can bit off intruders heads off like a dinosaur (so beware...). The main reason we're outside today though is not surprisingly enough to get frostbite. Peter and I are actually practicing our Olympic skating program....

Here I prepare to do my world famous Quatriple-axle jump

At the same time Aidan takes a walk over to us to tell me Nike(c) is on the line with my agent and wants to do a conference call about a potential endorsement

However... Very unluckily for Aidan - just as he gets close - I land my Quatriple-axle jump (it takes two minutes to land after jumping). The shock of my landing causes the ice to dissolves out from underneath Aidan and he plunges into the tropical water. I am left suffering emotional and mental distress as a result.

My first thought is to call my attorney and sue the company that installed the ice.... But then thinking better of it since no one actually installed the ice, it was just there, I decide to attempt to pull Aidan out of the water with the help of Peter.

The intensity gets wretched up a few dozen miles as Aidan resurfaces and reminds me that we have a debate tournament coming up in a few weeks and he's my debate partner. The look on Peter's face says it all... time is running - and we're running out of time.

Peter grabs Aidan's hand and with one powerful pull from me, myself and I Aidan is once again back, safely on the ice.

Strangely enough, Aidan was almost completely dry when we pulled him out of the water. Also he didn't get attacked or bit by even one Piranha when he was in the stream. Who would have thunk that?

This is going to be hard....

Once today is over though - all the teams have perfect records again... So yeah... go Bears. If the Colts win I don't know if we'll ever hear the end of "how Peyton Manning had the greatest comeback in ""playoff history"" vs. the Patriots".... That would be pretty miserable. We shall see though.

Febuary 2

One little inch. That makes at the most three inch's of snow all year....

Arms Race

I have been looking up to last week for looking for a relatively cheap, decent airsoft pistol to go along with my M4 that I got last December. As some of you know, (I'm sure!) last Sunday was my 18th birthday. One of the gifts that I got from my sib's and parents was this - a JLS G19C SIGMA Airsoft Electric Pistol. One of the great things about it is that it can fire both simi automatic and full. The # one things I disliked most about the airsoft pistols I had used previously was the time it took to shoot, pull back the slide, shoot, pull back the slide... shoot, pull back the slide.... etc. To put it really simply - against a automatic - you stand no chance. You mine as well turn around and go tag up before you even shot.....


Anyways, the rate of fire for the JLS when on automatic is good enough to give you a chance to survive in a engagement with anyone. I won't necessarily recommend it as a primary gun to use but it makes a great backup for situations when your primary might break down or someone else who's gun has broke down is using yours (happened to me - and the person I loaned it to was on the other side too....) It's good enough that becoming a war correspondent doesn't have to become your best options till you get your regular airsoft gun back. It gives you a fighting chance to live and do some damage. The accuracy is maybe a little less then average for airsoft pistols but I think it makes up for that with the amount of BB's that you can fire. Plus it's cheap - you can get 2 for the price of one. I think the reason why they are able to sell it for such a low price is because it's almost completely plastic. But then again - I've only had it for a week and a half so check back with me on it's durability later.... (Aidan got one a while ago and he hasn't had any problems whatsoever with it so far).