COMensarations
Sunday, September 13, 2009
It’s That Time of Year!
High School is back in session.....
....and that means Speech Meets will be coming up.
I’ve had a LOT of fun being a ‘critic’, i.e., judge, at such competitions. And I’ve learned a lot too.
One of the things I’ve learned is that there are a lot of intelligent and articulate people coming down the pike, in the form of the next generation. More than I had hoped, based on all the reports of behaving badly we keep getting from the ‘media’. Another thing learned is what the schools are teaching. Some of that is not as good as I had hoped. But that’s another topic.
What I’d like to do here is offer the opportunity to everyone who reads this to join a group of people interested in (1) helping the coming generation, (2) learning about history and current events, (3) humor and drama, (4) logical, civil discussion, (5) possiblly politics and (6) fun.
What does it take? Well. There are requirements. Some are specified. Others are implied. Here are a few:
• An ability to write plainly. The critique sheets require you state your judgment of each contestant.
• An unbiased observation. You need to set aside your political and moral judgments and just listen to what is being said and how it is said in order to evaluate a competition as fairly as possible.
• A stop watch or other timer.
• 3x5 cards with numbers to show the contestant how much time they have remaining.
• Understanding the ‘Rules’. Which can be downloaded from CHSAA’s Speech Web-Site.
• Time to spend on Saturdays and some occasional Fridays. The Fridays come in later in the season for the state championships and national qualifications events.
Events are held all over the state by just about every district. Some driving may be required. For example, if you want to judge an event in Colorado Springs ore the state championships, which frequently occur in northern Colorado. [Note: The location of this year’s state championship is yet to be determined.]
If you enjoy good acting you’ll love the interpretive events of humor and drama.
If you like to follow current events, you’ll get a kick out of extemporaneous speech, which comes in two flavors national and international.
If you like the cut and thrust of a head-to-head competition of wills, you’ll be blown away by debate. REM’s famous It’s the End of the World As We Know It was based on watching a Cross-Examination Competition. The speed at which the verses are sung is indicative of how fast some of the debaters in Cross-X present. But don’t be intimidated. There are also Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas debate forms as well. But they’re all interesting.
If you want more information, drop me a line by clicking on my name.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Another PJM Discussion….
....gone awry.
Here is another discussion that went somewhat astray when someone by the handle of neoneo dropped in to start spewing some interesting dis-information.
He was challenged and gave the wrong answer.
Anyone who wants to discuss the nature of his malfunction is welcome to add a comment here.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Lileks On the Fourth of July
Another HIT Piece.
Check it out....
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Teach Your Children Well — 1
Just when you thought thinks couldn’t get much worse....
...along comes My Little Cthulhu; the cuddly ultimate in [Lovecraft] horror.
And I thought people were being lead astray by the ‘Harry Potter’ series. Will a cabbage-patch version of Satan be next? Can we combine Evil with Horror? Will we be asked to collect the whole set?
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS 031641 Jul 08: For that matter....
Will we ‘go to Hell’ if we don’t?
Will we ‘go to Hell’ if we do?
Who’s ‘in charge’ of this mess anyway?
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Another Hollywood ‘Failure’
Great reviews for Stop Loss, but....
....the general public just don’t buy it.
I’m told #7 Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays and should eke out $4+M. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn’t expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office.”—Commentor
So. What did you expect? From another anti-American POS.
As for the concept behind the film....
...that once you’ve sworn to lay down your very life to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies—foreign and domestic—you’re ‘out’ when your ETS arrives?
How dense are you anyway?
Once you’ve shown you’ve got more courage than those who never took that oath, why should US forget?
On another note....were you, or your parents or friends, asleep during Gulf War 1? They used Stop Loss then.
As for me. I know I could be called back at ANY time, if the government felt I had something they needed. And I’m quite prepared to do it, should they send that call. In my case it is not called “Stop Loss”. Rather, it is called ‘Operation CERTAIN SAGE’. I even practiced it once.
As one sergeant I knew would put it, “Shut up and soldier.”
“‘It’s not looking good, a studio source told me before the weekend. ‘No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It’s a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that’s unresolved yet. It’s a shame because it’s a good movie that’s just ahead of its time.’—Commentor, citing some studio shill
Oh. Great. Another studio hack with his evasions and obfuscations.
The only reason this movie, like so many others of its ilk, is ‘failing’ is because it is, as they are, nothing more than anti-American propaganda. And SHAME on Paramount and other such studios and their staffs and management for attempting such.
If they hate America so much, let them practice their craft in Communist China.
Either that or take the pledge to become a Muslim. [Note: I’d really like to see what they’d think of being ‘cut off’ from all those Hollywood starlet bimbos by Sharia law.]
Personally? I don’t see this as a ‘failure’. I see it as a re-affirmation that Americans still love their lives and their country and are not as stupid as Hollywood and other such propagandists would like to believe. It reminds me of Lord of the Rings, wherein Gandalf comments, that the men of the West are not as weak as Sauron would like to think. That there is still strenght. And Sauron—or his latter-day ilk—fear this.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Quote of the Day — 071117
A Thought on the Music ‘industry’.
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side. — Hunter S. Thompson
Bumper Sticker Wisdom — 071117
Sardonic humor about how smart some slick slogans are.
Check it out....
Science Imitates Hollywood
The SciFi people beat the hard sciences to the punch...AGAIN??!?!?
Someone may have finally found the answer to Life, the Universe and Grand Unified Theory....
....and the guy has the attitude of the hero in a science fiction cult classic from the 80s.
Come on now....the Eight Dimension??!??!!
It’s too much of a coincidence to ignore.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Personals SMGHO Seeks SFGHO….
Hooters! The original.
There’s been a lot of hoot’n and holler’n around the house of late.
....for seasonal or lifetime companionship. Enjoy starlit flights, mouse sushi dinners and a love nest with a great view of the surrounding area.”
Key: SMGHO = Single Male Great Horned Owl
SFGHO = Single Female Great Horned Owl
Actually, we’re not too sure whether Great Horned Owls get together for a lifetime or not, but some poor fella (we guess it’s a fella) has been hooting his heart out the last few weeks, trying to get some action. The call exactly matches what we found on the internet; supposed to be a mating call. Either he’s looking for love in all the wrong places, or the hooter just can’t get enough. I mean, we ususally hear the call at 7 am, when most people are through for the night.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Put a Little Laugh In Your Life
If you’re upgrading to Microsoft Vista, you’re going to need it....
I had an interesting discussion with some customer service rep at a major corporation the other day. It was about the new Microsoft Windows OS titled Vista.
Seems this person had access to Vista early on as part of an evaluation. The report makes the Surgery, I’m a Mac, I’m a PC commercial all to accurate. [Scroll back and forth until you find the one titled Surgery and the PC is dressed in a hospital gown. For that matter view them all. The one with the babe in the Summer dress, titled Better Results, is MY favorite.]
At any rate, if you’re considering ‘upgrading’, what a misnomer, to Vista, here’s a Decision Flowchart to help.
Vaya con Dios, compadre.
And....by the way....
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
You Might Get a Friend In Government
It’s going to be a busy year.
And I thought life in Pueblo would be so quiet. Apparently it was too quiet for someone in this household.
Yesterday, Susan announced her candidacy for the Colorado State Legislature’s 46th Distict, in the heart of Pueblo.
It started last month at the county’s Republican Election-Year Assembly. All I did was step out of the auditorium to visit the little boys’ room. And when I came back, Susan was ascending the stairs form the podium to the applause of the assembled precinct delegates.
When I asked her what that was all about she said, “I’m running for the legislature.”
My reply was, “I just leave you alone for a few minutes and THIS is what you get us into??!?!?”
At any rate, she made her public announcement yesterday afternoon on the steps of City Hall. So the fats in the fire now.
You can follow the campaign at the weblog.
Monday, February 06, 2006
SciFi Quiz Cute
Just who are YOU? And what do you WANT, anyway?
 | You scored as SG-1 (Stargate). You are versatile and diverse in your thinking. You have an open mind to that which seems highly unlikely and accept it with a bit of humor. Now if only aliens would stop trying to take over your body.
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com |
This is unexpected. I thought I’d come out more of Babylon 5-esque than Stargate-esque. Although I enjoy both of them. I see Babylon 5 as being akin to Lord of the Rings in space. An epic that has finally been brought into it’s own, thanks to modern movie technology and a visionary producer/director. But Babylon 5 did it first. The computer animation. The visionary approach to doing an epic. The producer, J. Michael Straczynski, could well have been the inspiration for Peter “Lord of the Rings” Jackson.
Stargate has it’s unusual and unexpected and the heroes and heroines face it with a droll sense of what-the-heck humor that is very strongly found in Babylon 5. Every episode I’ve seen has been uniquely interesting.
I just wish the unexpected wasn’t happening all so often in regular life....
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Christmas Day Live Blogging
Blow by blow of the day’s activities.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
2:40 am: The Episcopalian church down the block greeted the day with a tumult of bells. And I, lying in bed afterwards realized that if I wanted to have some extra time to prepare the days feast, I should start the ham at 2 am instead of 3. So I stayed up and now, the pig is in the oven at 450°F for 30 minutes. When that is done, I’ll turn down the heat to 325°F and go back to bed. That should be in another 5 minutes.
It should cook at the lower temp for another 7.5 hours. That’ll have it ready around 11:00 am. This will give me an hour to do the gravey and finish the side dishes.
The folks are due over around 9 am. We’ll open gifts, talk, eat and drink and enjoy ourselves. They’ll continue to do that with the distaff while I bury myself in the kitchen again.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas Eve Day Live Blogging
What’s going on in this household on the day before Christmas.
The day started early; as in 4 am, for normal folk.
Woke up. Could not get back to sleep in 30 minutes. Got up. Checked out the sorry state of the world, via the web. Did some minor modifications/tweeks on code for an app I’ve been working on.
7:00 am: Worried the distaff into a state of wakefullness, commensurate with the tasks ahead of us this day.
8:00 am: Discussed, over coffee and some rather spicey breakfast burritos, what we needed to procure for tomorrow’s feast. These burritos, provided by a man who came to our door selling them, to order, in order to raise funds to buy his son a computer, were rather spicey. I had to eat some sour cream—straight—in order to tone down the fire. And these were only the X version. He offers XX and XXX as well. However, he suggests the XXX only for people you are trying to punish. I can believe it.
8:30 am: The menu is decided upon....
A Monty Python moment for the 21st Century
I don’t know who these guys are, but we need more of them.
Requires Windows Media Player.....