Thursday

Thursday sucked, which didn't surprise me much. Staying at school for over twelve hours after no sleep whatsoever and very little food is hardly a pleasurable experience. First period was slightly awkward, as I was one of few who did not write their 40-minute essay, but I survived all of my classes somehow. The newspaper was distributed in third period with minimal hitches; the paper looked nice, although due to various circumstances there were some errors that easily could have been averted.

I decided to simply stay at school until Open House began, because there was supposed to be a rehearsal for Drama (which, I had been told, would be performing a few scenes from the play during Open House), and I would have to be back on campus by 5:45 p.m. anyway. This was difficult, as I found that the later in the day it was, the more tired I became. Like a shark, I had to keep moving to survive. If I had sat still long enough, ëtwould have been off to Dreamland.

Although I'm still not sure how, I avoided falling asleep (barely), and soon it was time to set up for Open House. Nothing much, just setting up a booth for Journalism, sweeping for Mrs. Nickel, the adviser for Journalism and Yearbook, and other such small tasks.

The majority of my night was spent handing out the newly printed newspaper to any parent I could find, with the help of a couple other The Ink Panther staff members. I also ended up giving many bewildered parents directions to buildings, which they needed badly (why didn't the school hand out bloody maps?).

Then, at 8:00 p.m., I helped take down the Journalism booth, detached large pieces of butcher paper adorned with unused yearbook pictures from glass walls (which was a pain), and did other chores. Left with my father at 8:30 or perhaps 9:00 p.m. Warmed up dinner (a fried rice medley with shrimp that I have never been crazy about), but fell asleep while eating. Evil stepmother told me to go to sleep in my bed, so I did, about an hour-and-a-half earlier than I would normally on a Thursday night (I commonly stay up an hour later than usual, till 11:00 p.m., because school starts an hour later on Fridays).

Friday

Wrote my 40-minute essay (or as much as I could think to write) in about twenty-five minutes before school, turned it in, and made it through another day. Nothing noteworthy occurred during the day. Went to a Debate meeting, where I explained what it's all about to some people interested in joining the team next year. (Unsurprisingly, all four were girls. It seems Debate is a chick magnet, as there are two active guys on the team, as opposed to, oh, about ten girls.) Came home, tinkered with my computer for a while, then hung out with Chris (krisavalon) until 1:00 a.m. We listened to music, he played his guitar, and we decided on an intro to our next song. (By the way, Chris came up with a name for our band: Falling On Embers. It's from a Joy Electric song, apparently. I like it.) I finally found some CDs I have that Chris doesn't! I'm burning Stay What You Are (Saves The Day), Are A Drag (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes), and the soundtrack for Josie and the Pussycats (which he already has, but is scratched) for him.

Saturday

Well, today was a debate tournament, the last of the year (and the last of my entire high school career, consequently), held at Buena Park High School. I was somewhat discouraged at first, because I had discovered (much to my dismay) on Friday night that about half my evidence (used to corroborate arguments in debates) was missing. But I managed to do pretty well anyway, as it turns out.

In the first round, we were Negative against a case about Homeland Defense, which wanted to work with Japan to help protect the United States against smallpox, botulism, anthrax, the Black Death, and other such lovely epidemics, by giving vaccinations and all that rot. (According to the other team, there are stockpiles of devastating potential weapons in the United States that can be seized by terrorists, wacked-out Christian groups, or any other nut jobs who are willing.)

My partner Dustin went up to the podium attacking the Affirmative with a Foreign Policy Topicality (which was pretty stupid) and other arguments, but I thought of something during his speech: by vaccinating and such, the Aff plan only reduces the effectiveness of biological weapons, not the use. (You see, in Debate, there is one large topic for an entire year, known as a resolution. This year, the resolution was "The United States Federal Government should establish a foreign policy significantly limiting the use of weapons of mass destruction," so every Affirmative case must adhere to this by limiting the "use" of weapons of mass destruction (although even the word "use" is often contested.)

So, because the plan limits only the effectiveness of biological weapons, terrorists or whomever may still "use" them all they want. It's like giving everyone in the country bulletproof vests — it doesn't keep them from being shot (a nice analogy I gave the judge). We won that round.

In the second round, we were Affirmative, which meant that we would be presenting a plan to limit the use of weapons of mass destruction. Well, Dustin and I have been running Tobacco for a while, an offbeat case that many consider to be a simple joke. (It argues that U.S. tobacco companies should adhere to the same advertising restrictions in foreign countries that they do here: no cartoon characters, no making it look "cool" or "healthy," et cetera.)

Unfortunately, we simply happened to go against the only other school that runs Tobacco, so they knew how to go against it. They ran four Topicalities (Weapon, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Establish, and Limits Effects), and went on-case. I refuted their off-case arguments easily enough, but the debate went on from there. We ended up winning, barely, by an almost-technicality (if we have even the smallest chance of saving people's lives, that's better than doing nothing). So that's 2-0 in a three-round tourney. Not bad at all.

During lunch, I found that we would be opposing La Quinta High School in the last round, a team I know rather well, as a couple debaters are good friends of mine. Dustin and I would be competing against Lizz (normitivity) and Stephanie, two of the better debaters on the team. I knew we had no chance of beating them, as I had heard horror stories about their Affirmative case. Sure enough, we were Negative, so I went into the round somewhat worried.

When I heard the 1AC (First Affirmative Constructive — the first speech of the debate, detailing the Affirmative plan), I knew there was no point in being serious. So I decided to have fun in the last round of the last debate of the year. My partner ran the Softkill Counterplan, which he built himself, and which proposes that we use non-lethal weapons to achieve our means and disable ballistic missiles (with electromagnetic pulse [EMP] technology) instead of keeping weapons of mass destruction at all.

My speeches (I had two) were probably the most interesting: extremely unorthodox and filled with inside jokes that I share with La Quinta. Amusingly enough, during one of said speeches, a bigwig in the Urban Debate League (which comprises all of the regional debate leagues in the country), coming all the way from Chicago to gauge how debate was faring here in California, watched me. (I can only imagine the impression I must have made on him. I still laugh at the thought.) We lost, of course, but I figure that we were going to be creamed either way. At least look like you're throwing the round and enjoy yourself, instead of actually trying and simply frustrate yourself, I say. It was a wonderful end to what has been a successful high school debate career.

As it turned out, there was a banquet and enormous awards ceremony after the debate, so I grabbed some grub and waited to see how I had done. Pretty well, it seems.

First, Dustin and I were named the fifth best team in the Varsity division (no mean feat, considering the fact that there was some tough competition there). Then, I received an award for being second speaker in Varsity. (I actually tied for first, as I had the same amount of speaker points [given by the judge in a round to signify each debater's speaking skills] as the top speaker, but through some complicated tiebreaker, I was found to have one-half of a point fewer than numero uno. Still an honor, I say, especially considering the last round. I had nothing to say, but apparently I said it well.)

After that, I was awarded the Coach's Choice Award, given by each debate coach to the one debater whom he or she felt best embodied debate. (Honestly, I think it was given to me mostly because I'm a senior, and that this award should have been bestowed upon Amneh (amneh) or Courtney (charismaticap), both of whom are far more devoted to debate than I am, but they claim that I "made" debate. Go figure.)

I'm going to miss the Debate Team. It's a great group, and I had a lot of fun with them. Here's to you, ladies: you're the future of Diamond Ranch Debate, and I have all confidence that not only will you make me proud, but that your accomplishments will make a name for DRHS that strikes fear into the hearts of future competitors. You have an opportunity I wish I could have possessed; most of you are freshmen, and can hone your skills over four years, double what I was allotted. With that, you can all become unstoppable. I'm sorry I was unable to do more for you, as I feel I somewhat let you all down as a captain and a coach. But rest assured that I'm still your biggest fan, and will be sure to visit for meetings and attend tournaments next year, if only for moral support.

Anyway, to continue with my day, I came home, did my Saturday chores, and tinkered with my computer until my family watched Riding In Cars With Boys, a wonderful film that I very much enjoyed. That took up the rest of the night.

Sunday

I haven't done much today, thankfully. It's nice to just do nothing every once in a while. Walked the dog, but that's about all I did in the area of chores. Hung out with my friend Jeff and played Aliens vs. Predator, a lovely computer game he has, but now I'm just writing this incredibly long "daily" journal. We'll see what happens later. Chris is supposed to come over so I can burn those CDs, and I might be going to Wal-Mart with Jeff to buy another computer game, but nothing is concrete as of now.

Oh, and I still need to write a 40-minute essay, although that, fortunately, cannot (by definition) last any longer than forty minutes. Huzzah!

[Exit Orpheum.]

[Listening to: The Process of Belief (Bad Religion); These Shattered Lives (Sick of Change).]