Moved, Again

In something almost as frequent as my real life moves between apartments and dorms, I have moved my website yet again. This time, I have moved from the hosted version of my blog at njbubb.net to the free wordpress version.

This is more than just a post informing the few people who actually read my blog of this move, but rather, its a test post to check out the slight modifications that took more time than I really needed to spend on this. But Meh. That’s what I do – waste time on things when I really should be going to bed.

The new blog is named after my first blogger blog “Ramblin’ On.” The category with that name are posts from that site. Ramble On 2.0, not only is the actual name of the Led Zeppelin song – but is also a nice, directive command.

I’ve Finished Harry Potter Already, and Everyone Hates it

njbubbster02: dude. there are zombies in the new Harry potter. it’s awesome.
Tim Scheff: go to hell
njbubbster02: alright. I’ll shutup.
Tim Scheff: thats better

If you want to remain happy at me, unlike Scheffler, for not disclosing what happens, then do not read ahead.

Family Guy Quiz

Which Family Guy Character are you? Check out this Family Guy Quiz.
I’m Stewie. Go figure.

“the most important question” answered

What am I doing for the summer?

Working. In Madison.

Allow me to be a bit more specific and to embellish on my sarcasm. I have been asked, what seems a thousand times, by my parents (they’re divorced and don’t communicate with each other well, and never did, when they were married), other relatives, and friends.

What’s Next?

(Those of you who are fans of the West Wing will appreciate this title.)

So it’s 8:30 and I just got home from the 2005 Grand CFL Nationals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I realized that this forensics season is completely over. In many ways, I will never have a season like this again. CFL won’t be in Milwaukee again anytime soon (it usually takes about five to ten years before a location is even considered again, however, the 2008 CFL Nationals was awarded to Appleton and the CFL Diocese in which competed). I most likely won’t be at the TOC for a long time either.

Attendance at national tournaments though is merely peripheral to the large difference between next year and this past season: I am leaving James Madison Memorial behind and I am going/returning to my alma mater to take their vacant assistant coaching job (but I’m staying at memorial for IE’s). The advantage to this move, aside from more money and a better relationship with my parents, is to be the virtual director of debate. Sure, I probably won’t receive any NFL points for the debate work I’ll do at North and sure, if we manage to win any team awards it will have Chad Soik’s name on it and not mine. But, I will have the knowledge that I helped reconstruct the program that I so dearly wanted rebuilt when I was debating. And that’s my main reason for moving: they have interested kids and now those kids have a new, excited assistant coach.

I am excited because I have never had the opportunity to walk onto a team with two debaters seriously attending policy camp and having a serious commitment to work with each other on policy debate. One of which advanced to the final round of extemp at the Grand Nationals; which was a source of great excitement too, because I can’t remember or think of the last time North had someone in the final round. This may be Sheboygan North’s first time for accomplishing such a feat. A huge congratulations is due to him and his coaches: Jay Johnson, Chris Zoch, Paul Seymour, and Justin Ramm. On top of that, I have another sophomore who’s committed to working only on LD. If you noticed the kid I was talking to in between semi’s and final’s, that’s Jake and he’s my long term project. And like any terrible commercial: BUT THERE’S MORE! I also have ½ of the nationally qualified public forum team returning and I am serious about attempting to make Public Forum a fully sanctioned state event this year, and to have a team…. In addition there are a good number of kids who are going to be learning more advanced policy arguments than ever before and simply doing four-person with a coach that simply has more enthusiasm.

In short, it’s awesome to have more kids to deal with than ever before and an equally high level of interest. This will certainly be a challenge, but I feel I am up to the task. Several changes are going to happen, all of which will be in the positive direction: 1) we will travel out of state, 2) we won’t go to uneducational Wisconsin tournaments, 3) I’ll be available once a week, and more through email and aim for actual coaching. On top of all of that will be efforts to help North and South effectively host the 2005-2006 WDCA TOC and late this summer I’ll unveil “wisconsinforensics.net” or some other name, in accordance with my article “Proposing: Wisconsin-Debate.com.

Star Wars Horriscope

Star Wars Horoscope for Aquarius

You can be cruel and torment people who disagree with you. Deep down, there is a peace-loving, friendly side to you. You have a knack for inflicting pain on people and use your intellect during battle. Star wars character you are most like: Darth Vader

What is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

To the Future

This weekend my good friend, Jon Bray, came down to Madison to visit. It was nice, considering I don’t get to see him all that often. And as usual, politics and our collective futures came up as a subject of discussion among Jon, Steve, and myself. We’re all three a year away from graduating, and for Steve and I, a good number of our friends have already graduated and begun to move on to the real world. Needless to say, the pressure of trying to figure out what to do in the real world has started to take effect.

TOC Reflection

Tim, Brian, and I returned to Wisconsin late Monday afternoon and completed what was a long weekend and a fitting end to our debate season. As sad as it is to say, the three of us probably will never be together in the same way we have been for the last three years. But its not that sad, after all, we will all be living in Madison next year, including Jeremy. (Meaning I’m obligated to take them out to at least one party/football game/night drinking on Campus/my house.)

While not acknowledging the end of the debate season thoughts, I reflected on the tournament that was the “Tournament of Champions” for 2005. I came up with several observations that impressed me as a first-time attendee.

Democrats, Judicial Nominees, and Filibusters. Oh My!

If you have not been following the news, President Bush has appointed several judges to the Federal Judiciary. This is not just a routine and constitutional function of the Presidency, but it also happens to be one of the most powerful influences the President has on the nation. The judges of the Federal Judiciary rule on, implement, and enforce decisions regarding Federal Statues and Supreme Court decisions. (For example, Federal District Courts were charged with enforcing Brown v. Board of Education.) Thus, these judges have considerable latitude in exerting and implementing a President’s political philosophy in the real world.

Nothing But An Overdue Update

So things have been pretty hectic around here.

After my last post I realized that I’ve been a way too much of a forensics-debate kick for the last six weeks, and I’m glad that the season is largely over. Since I’ve last posted, I helped run Memorial’s forensics tournament, drove through a billard to get to New London’s tournament, judged way too much poorly done interp at Hartford, went back to Sheboygan for a few days, watched my brother lose his first boxing match, got a perscription for my “sinus infection,” spent Easter with both of my grandparents, drove back to Madison only to go back to Sheboygan to run the LD division at Sheboygan North’s tournament four days later and then come back to Madison a day after that, chose our state team the next day, coach LD later that afternoon, coach every day during that week in preparation for NFL qualifiers, drive to West Bend for NFL Qualifiers and be disappointed and happy with the results at the same time (we didn’t get our top LD and Duo through, but we did get our top DI, Orator, and Extemper), take a day off, and coach all of the next week for the state tournament, drive to Ripon last friday, and then come back to Madison very late at night only to pass out and finally breathe. And somewhere in there, I studied for two midterms and wrote four papers, not to mention two debate cases, as well as looking at about 20 apartments for next year. And in between trips to Madison and Sheboygan I found out Brian got an at large bid to the TOC.