Speech and Debate, Ladies and Gentlemen
After talking to Sean and thinking about how my life was pretty empty and that I had basically abandoned my friendships, I came upon a subtle remedy: Join the UO speech and Debate team.
I wrote a medium length e-mail to Aaron, the Coach of the team here, telling him that I was a former debater who was interested in rekindling the old fire. I recieved an enthusiastic response from him where he told me to show up at a practice. I fired back asking him where to go and he directed me to the UO annex. The Annex is a large white colonial style house on the edge of the campus. It is next to a bar and houses several student organizations. The speech team headquarters (hq is definitely the most appropriate name for their space) is in the basement of this building. To reach it, one must descend a long and treacherous staircase that is actually steeper vertically than it is long, so that each step tilts a person uncomfortably forward. A single dim bulb lights this staircase, and as I descended, the boards creaked ominously. at the bottom there is a door that has a white dry erase board on it. The board is artfully drawn to say "UO speech and debate". Above it is a tiny newspaper clipping that shows alan Greenspan's head peeking above a stock ticker.
Upon entering the room I encountered a multitute of speechy people, particularly Paul, the assistant coach for the policy debaters. He has a powerful +10 nerd aura that transforms all nerdy utterances into hilarious anecdotes. He is also very good at bowling. Legend has it that on one of the speech trips where he was driving a schoolbus he informed his students that he has "school bus immunity", meaning he was only required to act as mature as he was last time he was on a school bus. No, that wasn't supposed to make sense.
Anyway, the team is pretty cool, the coach, Aaron, is quite dedicated to the team and has a vast well of knowledge. The team also features the talent of the fine young man Bradley Kupricka. I got lucky and am partered with an expert debater named Jenny, who I'm sure will steamroll the competition. My outlook is cheery.
My favorite argument from practice debates is "Nuclear power plants produce nuclear waste. Nuclear waste lasts FOREVER. Future civilizations are going to try to blast the waste into space. So there is going to be a rocket packed with 2000 pounds of radioactive waste blasting off into space when it will explode like the columbia and wipe out life on North America. So we should not expand nuclear power plants."
Godspeed and Good Night
I wrote a medium length e-mail to Aaron, the Coach of the team here, telling him that I was a former debater who was interested in rekindling the old fire. I recieved an enthusiastic response from him where he told me to show up at a practice. I fired back asking him where to go and he directed me to the UO annex. The Annex is a large white colonial style house on the edge of the campus. It is next to a bar and houses several student organizations. The speech team headquarters (hq is definitely the most appropriate name for their space) is in the basement of this building. To reach it, one must descend a long and treacherous staircase that is actually steeper vertically than it is long, so that each step tilts a person uncomfortably forward. A single dim bulb lights this staircase, and as I descended, the boards creaked ominously. at the bottom there is a door that has a white dry erase board on it. The board is artfully drawn to say "UO speech and debate". Above it is a tiny newspaper clipping that shows alan Greenspan's head peeking above a stock ticker.
Upon entering the room I encountered a multitute of speechy people, particularly Paul, the assistant coach for the policy debaters. He has a powerful +10 nerd aura that transforms all nerdy utterances into hilarious anecdotes. He is also very good at bowling. Legend has it that on one of the speech trips where he was driving a schoolbus he informed his students that he has "school bus immunity", meaning he was only required to act as mature as he was last time he was on a school bus. No, that wasn't supposed to make sense.
Anyway, the team is pretty cool, the coach, Aaron, is quite dedicated to the team and has a vast well of knowledge. The team also features the talent of the fine young man Bradley Kupricka. I got lucky and am partered with an expert debater named Jenny, who I'm sure will steamroll the competition. My outlook is cheery.
My favorite argument from practice debates is "Nuclear power plants produce nuclear waste. Nuclear waste lasts FOREVER. Future civilizations are going to try to blast the waste into space. So there is going to be a rocket packed with 2000 pounds of radioactive waste blasting off into space when it will explode like the columbia and wipe out life on North America. So we should not expand nuclear power plants."
Godspeed and Good Night