Shippy's Enlightenment

I mean, yes, I get the gist of Christian exchange programme...

...still, for a person who worships freedom as the highest value, it's sort of inconceivable to be forbidden to "date anyone in the host country". Not that I would propose that for my top ten activities somewhere in the US - however, I guess I'd still want to have the choice of not doing anything of that kind.

Well, Rotary looked too good to be true from the very beginning - and this is a barrier which a young libertarian can hardly afford to ignore.

I'm not saying it's corresponding to my current situation; yet, I am not confident enough to deny that it very probably may be in less than foreseeable future.

My apologies for the language it is in.

Apart from setting in my new sound card, Adam made a great job in setting up my Český Telecom ADSL modem. eagle-usb worked, they just got wrong that encapsulation of CzT is nowadays PPPoE, not PPPoA. Therefore, gentoo is finally fully prepared to be an operating system.

(Except for that panel is going crazy and refuses to show any application list, virtual desktop switcher or anything. None of the nethelps is really helpful, so I guess I'll have to get a hammer.)

In fact, this wouldn't be a reason to blog, if it weren't for my tendency to share my depressions with you, this time caused by my sucking at debating with NT. Somehow it's always hard for me to contemplate that I am doing stupid mistakes and overall can't stand in juxtaposition with... anyone there, basically. Previously, when I said this, I admit I was exaggerating; now, I mean it.

(As for my Christmas - nothing special happened. Got a soundcard, Emgeton X1 Cult MP3 Player [which I strongly recomment not to buy], a shirt with a tie, and History of Europe; all of which I liked getting. As for New Year's Eve, I don't think I'll ever be able to look at my guitar again without a blush of guilt... and on Matěj's champagne glasses, too. If there remained any. And as for New Year's Morning... the blush of guilt will apply to my sister's bed.)

Second English Debate League Tournament (December 1^st to 2^nd; its name verbatim translated in the heading) could scarcely have preserved remarkable quality of the first one. My claim is based on one single substantial fact: only three teams participated.

Hadn't I behaved as an abominable traitor, it would have been four. Or two.

Before
Basically, what happened was that I had generated the gravest misunderstanding I have ever had the misfortune to experience.

First assumption - that I would be to go with my native team, Frontal Impact, had fallen through - because it had seemed no-one except for me would debate in it. Tomáš had supposedly been in Laura and Karin with Annie had been unavailable. Therefore, this plan in my book had failed.

I had definitely had an aspiration to debate in the Czech Debate League, even with FI... henceforth, my next step had led to GJN, where I had persuaded Anička & Monika to participate in the tournament. We had even written down cases, for IPU's sake! Just for the reason of statistics, this can be perceived as the first betrayal - of GNA.

During the NT meeting and after the GNA ball, Iva had called. It had turned out that Tomáš had after all been willing to go, and that she had fetched her sister, Jana, to be the third member. Ashamed, I had had to confess that I had already promised my capabilities to someone else. This is the second treason - of my teammates.

Afterwards, Jana had decided not to take the trouble and therefore had withdrawn her decision to take part in the tournament. That would have meant that I wouldn't be forced to break any other vow.

Hadn't Kris created an emergency situation. Thus, when the tournament began, I was a Death Star member (with Anakin and Anička H.) and Anička & Monika had been assigned some girl from Brno, whom they taught how to debate afterwards. And that's indeed the third perjury, which I hope I don't have to explain.

During
As I've signposted, quality of the tournament notably decreased. Death Star - two arrogant brats who argue even about who is worse and a charming lady whose level remains undisputed -, Dully Dulls - a team comprised of two National Team members and a substitute, all of them generally lacking motivation - and Crazy Spirits, being as always thoroughly prepared and having almost nothing to lose. (Well, not in ranking. I'm not boasting when I say that DD's and DS's tabs are so high that Crazy Spirits would gain even if they kept on losing.)

Which they, by the way, did not. In fact, they won the entire tournament, partly because they underwent one more debate, which was not taken into account. Which doesn't mean that they wouldn't win it rightfully, just that there was some air of uncertainty.

To point out some of weird things, general discrepancies and so on...

• First debate in Czech this year, against my "supposedly fellow" GJNers. Resulted in a faux-pas, when I was not able to think up anything funny and embarked on being impertinent instead. Hell.
  
• If you get an impromptu motion, be sure that you won't waste majority of your time by handling with your opponents about sustaining your definition. This, though, was not our problem. Entirely. Václav Klaus sucks, anyway.
  
• Try not to lose your temper if the affirmative use a case you had written by yourself as a whole. It doesn't pay out. It's not even complimential when the judge lets them win.
  
• Jana seemed to twist Crazy Spirits' results insofar that half of their debates were decided on the basis of her speech alone. Seems like some prodigous skills simply cannot be but hereditary.
  
• Anakin departed early. I'll expound on this later on.
  
• Béda let me witness his decision on this debate, which provoked Anička's suggestion about re-evaluation of his capability to be a judge. Although I didn't contribute, it was a nice experience. Maybe it was little too much for me to give my fellow debaters the feedback. Hah.

As the tournament officially ended for me on Saturday afternoon, I also clumsily managed to get more sleep! (And no, I do not want any Crazy Spirits member nor my roommate to comment on this. It was jerkish enough to force Jirka to sleep in the same room as I did.) Hence, I missed the Saturday socialization (although this doesn't apply for the Friday one) - but it was definitely worth it.

Afterwards
If I were supposed to deduce impact, I'd list amongst many other things recent accretion of inappropriate gossip and Anakin's problems resulting from his sudden departure (which means that Matěj has refused to be liable for us again, which means that Anakin was ill-advised in an unbelieavable way. Sucker.). But it doesn't really matter.

To conclude this... it was fun. But next time, I'll be a great deal wary about the team I want to go with.

So I did.