Iowa Mock Trial State Competition 2012 Part 1

Well, I just got back from the Mock Trial State competition in Des Moines yesterday. It was quite truly a wonderful experience.

It was different from last year in a lot of ways, though. First of all, we were much better prepared and thus we actually did fairly well. Sebastian and Cole both got astounding witness awards, and Ryan got an astounding attorney award. In addition, the other team got seventh place over all and an award for being civil and sportsmanlike. Out of all the schools that competed this year, Marion was one of the most decorated, if not THE most decorated (in terms of number of awards, anyway). Compare this with last year, where didn't get a single award and where we didn't actually win a single round. Some of this came from putting a lot more work into Mock Trial, and some of it came from a fundamental change in coaching philosophy. The point is, Mock Trial was the life of everyone on the team.

So the first round at State was an extremely close match against Harlan. We did Government, which was our stronger side. In many ways it was a good easing into the unfamiliar territory of State. Nervousness began to fade and everyone on our two teams were pumped up for the next day. Back at the hotel, both teams had team meetings where we "talked about our feelings", after which we all went straight to bed (more or less, anyway). I luckily was in the same room as Gabe, who is pretty much the most mature person on either team. So unlike a few of the other more crowded rooms, we managed to get quite a bit of sleep.

Day two brought forth two more trials. In the second round we were matched against Urbandale, which just so happened to be the second best team in the state. Suffice to say that we lost, but I'm happy to say not too badly. For some reason, when we were against the best team we had ever faced, I think we ourselves did the very best that we had ever done. By the third round we were all exhausted after a long day of trial, but we managed to pick up another win against Wappello (which by the way won third place at State last year).

Now the thing about going to State is never about winning, because our skill isn't at that caliber yet. Instead, it's about the experience. Both in knowledge gained from competing against strong teams, and the great fun that comes with hanging out with friends. The thing is, due to the fact that some of my favorite people in the world being on my team, good times are guaranteed. In fact, virtually any time spent with these people almost always becomes a treasured memory. I mean, let's look at all of the reminiscing throughout this year I've had about last year's team. And I wasn't nearly as close to everyone as I am now! Here's hoping that the team from Marion Homeschool (or Highschool, if you want to be politically correct) will be just as good next year! And why don't we have another sentence with an exclamation point! Because exclamation points are cool! Seriously, I can't stop! Please help me!

Not Excluding New Friends

Currently, I'm fairly close with my group of friends. Not close as is in talking about personal problems (not for me, anyway. Perhaps one of these days?), or stopping from being awkward, but enough that if we are doing something I'm probably going to be invited. I don't have to worry about feeling "left out" or things like that. But I've beginning to wonder lately, have I been extending the same luxury to people I'm not as close to. If I'm starting to feel restricted to not let people into my "group of friends" who aren't in there already. If perhaps I should start inviting people to hang out with the "gang" even if I'm not best friends with them already.

Don't get me wrong, there is a BIG difference between thinking "that person is alone all the time. I should try to do this for them because they are an obviously miserable person that I should pity" and "I should be careful to not leave this super special awesome person from all this fun". Basically, any pity in this situation sort of ruins it. But still, it's kind of a big deal to try to extend beyond a defined group of "friends" to perhaps some other people who have been somewhat excluded. Okay, many of my "close" friends are in Mock Trial, and often we will get together during times convenient to Mock Trial, such as before. But for an example, let's take Cole. He's a pretty cool guy to hang around with, and he's on our Mock Trial team. But with the exception of today, we haven't really thought to ask him to hang out. Why not? I have no excuse. And what about Steven? The only time we really hanged around with him was when he tagged along with us to McDonalds to work on Mock Trial with Mark. But I can't give you a reason for why we don't do that more often.

I'm not so presumptuous to think that I am the only option some people have for social opportunities. All I know is that I should do my best to be the sort of person who reaches out to others. You know, a friendly person. Oh wait, that might be going too far. Does that mean I have to be optimistic too? Nice? Polite? Gah, I can't stand the thought.

I think back to when I was younger, such as ninth grade. I craved socializing with friends, and I would have snapped up opportunities such as these without hesitation. And yet I really didn't "hang" around with people much, just for the point of hanging out. Why? Because I hadn't gotten to know people at Marion very well. In the same way, people hadn't really gotten to know me. What if things had been different? What if this group of friends I have now had joined together two years ago instead of mostly just this year? We would have gained so many memories.

Socializing

I'm a nerd, so it is my responsibility to over think absolutely everything. Today the thing in question will be socializing.

Although you probably don't think of it this way, one of the most important things, if not the most important skill thing in high school is learning social skills. It's kind of a big deal. The silly thing is that how I act has a direct result on pretty much everything in my life. If I act up a lot when Mrs. Flatland is around, then she probably won't think I'm mature enough to get a good part in the next play (in case you are wondering, I've pretty much put aside all thought of getting any half-way decent part in the next play). If I'm super annoying, even more so then I already am, then the natural consequence that I will be less enjoyable to be around. And let's face it, bad things stand out a lot more than good. This isn't anything new, of course. It's mere common sense and probably isn't even worth mentioning.

I think that relationships with friends would get a lot deeper if we could figure out how to deal with annoyances. It seems that we seem to be so focused on not offending or annoying others we miss out on great opportunities. You might think of this silly, but I've actually come up with a system for facebook messaging. If I've been the first one to initiate a conversation with a person several times in a row,  I wait a good amount of time before starting a conversation again, even if the person in question is online and I feel liking talking to them. Actually this is more of an idea that I had and forget to implement because I'm so caught up in the thought of social interaction over the internet, but it shows that I am a little hesitant about bothering people all the time. But then take a person that I am a really, really good friend with: Ryan. With Ryan, if I see him on Facebook I'll message him instantly without a second thought. Why? Because I know Ryan well enough that I know that there is virtually nothing I could do to annoy him. As such, probably the main reason that we've become such good friends is BECAUSE of Facebook chat (so far we've had around 22,500 messages. And that's not counting all the times we've chatted on Gmail either!). Not to use Facebook as another example, but, well, to use Facebook as another example, Facebook wall posts are very similar. There are a few people I know (Ryan, Abby, Allie, Ben etc.) who I write on their walls about anything, even if it is somewhat frivolous. This is because I know that these people enjoy wall posts as much as I do, and they don't consider wall posts spam (unless I go overboard, which I probably have a few times). The point is, I can do one of the most awesome things about Facebook  (writing on people's walls) often because I know that it is very unlikely that they would get annoyed. If we don't have to worry about annoying others, then we can reap much more benefits (in this case, more facebook wall posts!). In case you are wondering, this doesn't mean that I'm not social with other people who I perhaps don't know quite as well. What I'm saying here is that when we don't have to worry as much about discretion, socializing is much more enjoyable.

In case you are wondering, no, I'm not particularly self-conscious when it comes to socializing. In fact, I probably should learn to be a little more so in the future. Actually, the point of this post was to over-analyze something that we probably don't put to much thought into.

The Messy Mondays Guy

On Youtube there is a channel called Blimey Cow with a regular show called Messy Mondays. You've probably seen some of his videos; people mention them on Facebook a lot. But the problem is, well, the videos just aren't that good....

I guess I just don't understand him. In The Three Types Of Churches he'll go from talking about how we should worship God through not just through music, but who we are, to ridiculing people who say "Lord" or "Father God" multiple times in a prayer. Even going as far as asking if these people think that God forgot his name and needs to be reminded and that they need to "get his attention". Excuse me bud, but last I checked it is going WAY out of line to make fun of someone just because of the way that they pray. He does a very similar thing in Ten Ways to Get Girls to Like You (yes, the things I will force myself to watch for the sake of a well-researched post). He'll switch from saying things that are idiotic to things that are in fact very wise. At #9 on his countdown he mocks girls who like photography even if they aren't very good at it. He even says that 98% of girls have no business uploading photos to Facebook. And the worst of it? He encourages guys to "encourage" these photo taking enthusiast females by deceiving said girl into thinking that they enjoy their pictures. And the whole point? To encourage her to keep on taking photographs. Woah, let's take a step back here. It's true that not every girl is a super special awesome photographer, but I don't think you should go around making fun of them for it. But then #3 on his countdown is "Keep your hands to yourself". Not only is this a wise statement, but he gives a nice example too. I just don't understand why there has to be such a big difference between the things he says.

It's just that the nature of his videos is such that he just throws opinions out there on everything. Look at this video about Facebook changes. Regarding those who complain about Facebook on he Facebook, he said that "there is not even a word for how stupid you are". He continually degrades and ridicules these people, calling them "dumb" over and over again.

Yes, I understand that he uses sarcasm a ton. I also realize that the entire point of the videos is for humour. But if you ask me, even if it is sometimes in jest, throwing out words like "hate", "idiot", and "dumb" literally all the time while describing those who don't agree with you? Excuse me if that isn't funny.

Yup, Mock Trial

Mock Trial. Yes, I realize that Mock Trial has been the subject of more than a few of my previous posts, and I know that it isn't as fancy as the posts my competitions has been doing lately (well, technically she isn't my "competition", but it feels weird to just say "Abby"). But, I don't believe that either of us have actually posted about Mock Trial since it started for this year.

At the beginning of the year, I wasn't quite sure what to think about Mock Trial. Neither of my coached from my first year were still here, and in fact the main coach from last year wasn't here either. Things were so different from last year. A lot of people had graduated, and others just didn't come back (I miss my Teleckies). But I was excited for a lot of the new people (such as Sebastian and Allie), and they turned out to be pretty awesome at Mock Trial. There were some other new people, I have one person in mind right now who I'm not going to name but I can bet you guess, who weren't quite as willing to make a commitment, but we won't get into that.

I must admit, I was disappointed for several reasons when we got the role assignments near the start of the year. First, I wasn't on the same team as Ryan. That was depressing. Second, I only had two roles, and they were some of the shortest roles that I could have possibly have received. It wasn't like it was a major calamity or anything. It was truly a really minor thing, but even those end up working out in the end. Assuming that nothing else changes, I'm going to to not only have a full four parts, but one of those will be a closing. You know, it was probably better that it turned out this way. I might have been a tiny bit too confident before, so I guess being humbled a little bit was probably a good thing.

Anyway, each year has been unique so far. But this year, I honestly think that we have a very good chance of going to state without relying on luck like last year. We've heard do so much from not only college mock trial teams, but actual attorneys who were willing to talk a bit now and then. We seem to be putting proper focus on what counts now (such as making the witnesses more than bland machines who spurt information). With a little bit of spit and polish (minus the spit. This needs to be sanitary), I foresee both our teams very well this year. I mean, it isn't all about winning. Just kidding, yes it is. Kind of a big deal.

I'm excited to see how things will turn out. Mock Trial, as always, is more awesome than I could have thought beforehand. Regionals will be in almost a bit less than half a month. That's a little bit scary, although I honestly think that our team will be ready by then.

It's Only Sexist When A Guy Does It

Before and even during the early 19th century, sexism was a major problem. Woman were regarded as lesser beings, and that was kind of a big problem. But these days the entire situation is reversed. Suddenly it is politically correct to make sure that nothing is "sexist". You would think from the word that by definition it would be being discriminatory based on gender. But for some reason it only applies to males.

The thing that just can't seem to be understood is that men and women are different. That's just a fact of life. One gender isn't necessarily better or worse, and neither is more intelligent. We're just wired differently. That's okay. So why do we as a culture have to be so focused on making everything, and I mean everything "equal"? Take video games. From what I have observed, more boys are into video games than girls. When I start talking about the new free to play League of Legends roster or the best FPS of all time, boys are usually more interested in such subjects than girls. In the same way, most boys (hipsters excluded) aren't going to get super excited about shopping for clothes. Now this doesn't mean that ALL males are into video games, and that ALL females love to shop (PS, girls who aren't addicted to shopping, you have my respect).

Of course, I'm not saying that all boys fit into the "male" stereotype, and that all girls fit into the "female" stereotype. Remember the video game example? Well, there are plenty of exceptions to that general rule. I know several girls who are almost as hardcore gamers as me, which is saying something. This doesn't mean that they are less "female" than any other girl (although they just might be a little more awesome). In the same way, there are a hoard of girls who are into more casual gaming, like a bit of Mario Kart here or there. Of course, playing video games in moderation might just be an example of increased intelligence, but you can be rest assured that I won't go there.... The point is that everyone is truly and wonderfully unique. Lumping people together into one group is only useful in extremely broad situations.

Let's take a moment to look at the family structure in movies and television. If the family is of a more traditional sort, then it is usually portrayed with the parents both being idiots, the mother being smart and the dad being an idiot, or both parents being knowledgeable people who should be respected. Admittedly there is quite a bit of the first going around, yet one of the only places that you can see the third is through reruns of "Leave it to Beaver". So why do we have all these "dumb dads"? Because if the dad was smart and the mother was an idiot then feminists would scream "sexist". <sarcasm> And of course we couldn't have BOTH parents be smart. That wouldn't be interesting! </sarcasm>

Because of this mentality, chivalry is dying. Dear feminists: when we open doors for you we aren't doing it because we have exterior motives. We aren't doing it because we think you are too weak to open the door for yourself. We don't think that you are too dumb to understand how to operate a door. We just do it because we are trying to respect you by being gentlemen. Is that so bad? Now admittedly, I don't usually have the aforementioned opportunity very often, and when I open a door it's usually because I'm near the front of a group and it's just common courtesy to everyone in said group, and if a girl is in the front of the group she would probably do the exact same thing. But you can still see my point.

An Ode To A Legendary Reddit Comment

Dear Redditer: I saw a comment of yours tonight. In a sea of blackness: profanity, improper grammar, and trolling, your comment stood out with a blinding light. It was truly beautiful, you see, the sarcasm was well formed and sharply pointed. You reached the very heart of the subject at hand, Redditer. You did not tally in other matters, but instead diligently and honestly made your point. Your comment was sincere, you see. A rare sight on the internet of today. Your comment was neither so short that I missed it, or so long that I forgot what I was reading. No, it was three sentences. Three sentences that I began to think were not formed of mere words, but of pure power. Yes Redditer, you might not have realized it, but there is great power in your words. I was honoured to read your words Redditer, as if I was looking at a great ancient power. From what time I cannot even guess. Were your words prompted by a supernatural event, Redditer? Although it might seem absurd, perhaps something is at work here besides the possibility of birds committing copyright infringement. Perhaps this is actually a sign.

But something is wrong here. So far you have only had two upvotes. Two? Two thousand is a more pleasing number. Or twenty thousand. Or two hundred thousand. Two is a disgrace. But do not despair yet; I have a theory of how this came about. The air that we are currently are breathing has been tainted. Whenever "normal" people read your comment, it is replaced in their minds with a nonsensical piece about unicorns. Make no mistake, there are dark powers at work here. They realize if everyone was to read your comment, there would be a revolution on the Earth. People everywhere would  realize the truth; they would break the deception. And that would not do, no, that would not do at all. How do I know this, you ask? I live in a windowless sterile room with the finest of air filters. I plan ahead.

Alright, sorry about this post. You see, this is what happens when I see a hilarious comment on reddit, but am unable to do anything about it except for one lousy upvote. I couldn't exactly do anything else because no one would understand. But perhaps now I've laid enough background information that you, dear reader, can take a glimpse of the awesomeness.

Yes, they'll be tweeting angrily about the potential infringement per bird in USA that's causing job losses and profit losses for hard-working Americans and artists.
Birds should pay the periodic protection fee like the others. They also demand the right to send notices to the local government to have trees be taken down and burnt within 24 hours since some of them are venues for blatant infringements. They will give gold records to the group with the first 1000 venues cut down.

Trust me, it was better in context.