My First Tournament Competing in LD

   Recently my club, Rainmakers, hosted a Round Robin, which is a practice tournament. After researching and studying the week in advance, the first day came.
   Lincoln-Douglas values debate and speech events were held on the first day. I competed in LD, but no speech events. I must say that the resolution for LD this year is quite interesting; but maybe I'll give my thoughts on it in a later post. This was my first tournament doing Lincoln-Douglas values debate (because you can't do both forms of debate in normal tournaments), and I must admit, it was very challenging. Values debate is far more philosophical than policy debate; as a result, though policy debate is more time consuming, values debate is harder in the debate round. At the tournament I debated far better than I had ever in LD club.
   The first round my mother came to watch me, for she had never watched me debate LD, and I think that it was possibly my best round. My opponent was a novice from a first-year club. Suffice to say, her case didn't hold up very well. At the same time, she responded to some of my argument very well. I hadn't ever gotten those refuting arguments before.
   The second round I went against the most feared LD debater at the tournament, but did better than I had expected. A fellow LD debater watched my round and said that I had crushed him completely. The judge, on the other hand, had voted for him. The reason for this is because I am not the most smooth and polished speaker, and sometimes judges are persuaded by rhetoric alone. This also convinced me that this feared debater wasn't really that great, but just won mostly on speaking (several other people have said the same thing). Unfortunately, some people, well, most people don't really consider things logically, but are rather persuaded by whoever sounded more persuasive; even if someone is a horrible speaker, but they use great logic, they should easily win against someone who is a polished speaker, but doesn't use logic. Surprisingly, there are only a few judges out there that judge solely upon logic.
   The third round was somewhat like the second, except I did better, and spoke just as well as my opponent.
   The fourth round I did not debate well, and lost to a good friend of mine, who had not studied values debate, but is a policy debater. It was a humbling experience to lose to a policy debater who hadn't worked on values debate at all, but merely borrowed an affirmative and negative case from a friend. It was a fun round though, and, as they say, you learn more from the rounds you lose than the rounds you win.

What's been going on lately.

   Since the round robin, I have been doing a lot. I have been very busy with school and debate, and am slowly improving in my speaking skills. My partner and I have decided to change our case, but are still in the process of changing. I just hope that our new case will be more solid that our last.
   While researching, I came across an amazing article. It appears that the North Korea has discovered a Unicorn's Lair. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/30/unicorn-lair-discovered-north-korea
   Friday night, I went to a folk dance, and I learned how to dance. James has been going for several months, and finally got my family to come. (Except that Rosie wasn't able to find a sub for her life guarding shift, so she and my father weren't able to make it.) It was very fun, and I enjoyed it very much. Here's one of the dances that we did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sXthXa_IJ8. It's called the Rakes of Rochester. It was possibly my favorite dance that we danced.

Debate

   I just learned who will be my debate partner; Danny Bello! I am very excited for the upcoming year. Next week we will be presenting our case next week, (right now it's to "Abolish the 'One China' policy and accept Taiwan into the UN") and are working to refine the 1AC. We haven't decide who will be the 1A and who will be the 2A, and the same with Negative position.
   I am suprised at how I am doing in my public speaking skills; I guess that I've been so concentrated on doing well, that I've broken though the total fear of getting up in front of people and making a speech.

   Rosie is gone right now, though she should be back sometime tonight; she went on a Creation Encounter field trip with Mr. Hayley. I was invited too, but was unable to go because of Debate and AWANA.

   Ezra is ahead of schedule and is due in late tomorrow; right now he's in Spokane visiting Nat.

Back from Camp

   I got back from the Bellingham Debate Camp, and am still processing all the information that I have received. I was literally drowned with knowledge. My cousin, Benjamin, came too; I think mostly to be with me than to learn the are of debate. He's in speech (apologetics) so he did well in the speech part. He was also a lot more familiar with it all, having timed numerous debates. We got to be debate partners, and won one debate out of two. After the "mock" tournament on Thursday, Benjamin's mother picked us both up and I spent the weekend at my cousins' house. Very enjoyable time, and had fun with parking lot greeting at their church and singing "The Foggy Dew" with Benjamin, accompanied by Johanna on the piano.
   When I got home, Benjamin and I sat down on the couch and "helped" James on a program that he was designing. This program is supposed to show what kind of word a word is. Let me explain it a little better. You write a sentence, and it detects it by color coding it if the words are nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc.
   One more thing, Debate is starting this week, so from now on I will be extremely busy.
   Also, please pray for me, that I will grow in the Lord, and that I will debate in such a way that will honor the Lord.
   Until next time,
       Go serve your King.

On with Debate!

   I have joined the Rainmakers Debate Club, and have yet to become affiliated with the NCFCA. I will also be going to a debate camp (doesn't that just sound so wonderful), and will not be able to communicate with the outside world until a week from now. I cannot say any more, because I have to get ready; TTFN, ta ta for now.