Sunday, December 07, 2003

Last Buffalo Entry of Deuce Ought Ought Tres

So tomorrow I will finish school and we will get on the road for Minneapolis. I won't use this time to do my annual year in review, that will be coming up in the not to distant future. Anyway, there were some good things about juding at John Carroll. We got some money, for instance, an advance from Rochester which makes our trip home much more relaxing and less stressful. We judged a bunch of debate rounds, most of which were of Liberty. To prove this to you I might, for instance, recite by memory their politics shell:

Bush has the votes to win the 2004 election
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More in 2003

(INSERT SPECIFIC LINK HERE)


Party leaders are key to mobilize the voters necessary to win the election
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Bulletin Frontrunner in 2003


Bush presidency is key to American hegemony
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Seal in 2001


Hegemony solves nuclear conflicts
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Khalilzad in 1995

I shit you not, Katie and I each heard this disad 5 times this weekend. It was ridiculous, but I heard a number of good debates between some entertaining teams. Alot more old school policy throw-downs then I am used to, but thats how it goes in the ADA. At least it gets me nice and freshened up for the Southern NFL contract I have this upcoming weekend, which, by the way, is now a 2-day contract, thank you very much Southern NFL voters and people who did not accept their two day contracts. We also got a Packers victory and a Baby Joe Mesi victory in an incredibly interesting but really close fight last night.

In something that is in-between a good and bad thing Oklahoma lost to K. State. This is bad because I kinda liked that Oklahoma team, they were hella fun to watch and I felt bad that they had just fallen apart. I mean, maybe if they got beaten in a heartbreaker, but losing your starting Heisman-nominated quarterback in the second series of the game and then just getting dismantled kinda sucks. There are two bright sides-first, I like Kansas State, or at least I did like them back in the early days of the season when there was something to like about them. Sproles and Robeson had the potential to be an incredible one-two punch early on but injuries and kept them from every developing. They had some shitty losses at the beginning and have dragged their way back to the top 10 or so. I mean, Robeson played well, and Sproles is good, both fun to watch, so at least that was entertaining. I just wish it could have been a shootout or something, because fundamentally, Jason White is the fucking nuts. I hate to see him go down like that. The second potential benefit is that it means that Oklahoma CAN be beaten (HAS been beaten actually) so that the Sugar Bowl willm be a game. It now seems silly, but I was scared that this team was so good that they would blow it out.

The shittiest thing, most likely, about this weekend, is what has happened to USC. I am not saying they are better than LSU or Oklahoma, I don't know if they are or not. I know that it sucks a fat ass to finish the season ranked number fucking one and not play in the Sugar Bowl. I am not sure whether I think a split National Champion is a good thing or not. Obviously it will renew calls for a playoff, which would rock, but I am not sure it matters:

1) its non-unique: the only things hipper than hating on the BCS are Michael Jackson jokes, no one likes it now, it still exists

2) too much money in the bowls-how do you work the playoff, obviously it has to come after the bowls that are currently the BCS ones right, because no way in fucking hell do they give up their sponsorship, you don't jack them like that--hence your national championship game has to be on a different night, because the sugar bowl is not giving up New Years let me tell you, that weekend is worth fucking millions to these people, which is at least a week later--you start competing with the NFL playoffs and you will simply never get the audience you could've gotten the week before, I just don't know how you satisfy all the concerns

3)they can't do the playoff right away-the BCS contract runs through the 2005 season, so even if they riot in South Central the craziness will have died down enough by the time they decide what to do-obviously they will modify it somehow, probably by introducing the requirement that you have to win your conference championship to play for a national championship and altering the computer formulas, but remember that the split title was the reason for the BCS in the first place, though everyone wanted a playoff then too, its just not really practical so much.

So those are my college football thoughts for the day. Whatev, suck it, sniatch.

I have started reading Phil Hellmuth's book, its pretty good so far, though I am only into the section on Intermediate Limit Hold'em Strategy. I don't necessarily agree with the cat on everything, though he is obviously correct in many instances. He plays pretty tight most of the time (so you know, Katie, tight is a specific poker term regarding how many hands you play, no gender connotations, I would just tell you this verbally, but you are sleeping on the couch next to me, so I thought I would put it online for everyone to read and so I remembered) but he can be a wildman, which has never been my strat. I have, already, learned a couple mistakes in my general strategy, some moves that make logical sense that I just hadn't put enough thought into. I hope he gives some of his insight into reading people at some point in the book, because accoridng to everything I have read and seen about him, his real skill is how well he does it. I mean, yeah, for the most part everyone knows what hands they can or should play and bluff or semi-bluff. Phil Hellmuth doesn't know any more about pot odds than anyone else because there is only so much that can be said about pot odds-division is division. But so far, I like the book. I think the stronger insights will show up when I get to the advanced chapters, since anyone who has read even a small amount of poker strategy will understand what Phil is saying early on. That is not an indict obviously, you need to start from the standpoint of a beginner, after all, people who know how to play poker will buy your book for the stuff they need to study, regardless of if the beginner info is there, the ones you have to worry about are those who don't know the game at all. If you start from the beginning you can capture some of those all important virgin poker dollars.

Anyway, I am going to finish watching the Atlanta-Carolina game and go to sleep soon. I will do some work tomorrow, then go to class, then we are in transito a les ciudades twinkino. Catch you all soon. From Western New York to the Great Midwest---HOLLA!!

Peace,

MB-K

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Busynessosityism

So I know I have been absentio in divengioneis, but fear not, I am just finishing up all these finals and shitty that be happenin up in the heezy. I really hate looking back and reading that I wrote that, I feel like I have been taken advantage of by a rhinocerous or something, the type of feeling I think Fran Drescher must have when she says shizzle on the Old Navy commercial or Lil' Kim when she sees herself argue that she, Lil' Kim, will keep it hot in the Old Navy hood.

I mean, I understand, if the money was there I would do any ad Old Navy wanted me to. It doesn't hurt that they will then play your song 20-30 times an hour in each of their approximately 2 billion stores. Not the point.

We are rolling to John Carroll University in Cleveland tomorrow to make a little cash before we roll back home to the TC early next week. I have about half a paper remaining, but that won't be done until Monday at the earliest. I think more likely it will be at the end of the week, but lets see how fast the Benjamin section goes.

Anyway, I will likely say hey later on. Keep it rizzle. Countdown 3 days to Buffalo exit.

Peace,

MB-K