Haiti Speculation

Haiti- we've all heard about it in the news recently, but I have had an interesting thought; the response to the earthquake in Port-Au-Prince may actually have a net positive effect. I would like to note now that this is pure speculation. Anyway, after this earthquake, Haiti may end with a stronger infrastructure or something along those lines. Think about it; Haiti has received more attention in a week than it has in years, it has received more aid than it has received in years, and so on. While the loss of life is an obvious loss, the country as a whole, due to the massive attention it has been receiving, may come out a little stronger, maybe a little more unified with the international community, or more unified as a country, or maybe just receiving more attention. Who knows until the final word comes out? (on a side note) You don't, and that's why the future is a bunch of speculation and we don't have Mars colonies by now like was predicted 50 years ago.

Truthfully, I am mostly just trying to be optimistic, I'm not educated especially in topics like this and after all, trials often do leave the recipient stronger by the very end (mostly mentally speaking, as trials often detract from the physical state and keep it down, like when you lose a leg).

Even if my optimistic speculation is a true, that doesn't mean we should ignore Haiti, because if we do, my speculation is void as that attention will flounder and come to an end, and so we should always remember that bad things are going on all the time and when they do, we shouldn't ignore the victims or their relations.

Last Debate Tournament

I had a speech and debate tournament from 1-15 to 1-16. Oddly enough, it says this was published 1-17, even though I finished it 2-2. Go figure.

First, I will start at the speech segment. It was on Friday, and ran from 1:00 to 8:00, located at the Northwest Nazarene University. There were three rounds total and no finals. I was entered in Expository speaking, and my topic was how doodling is a high art. It wasn't especially eventful, as there was a glitch in the arrangement system so that everyone would be in the same rounds with each other. I might also add that everyone in expos was from the same school but me. That fact aside, I went against the same people 3 times. Out of a group of 4, 2 dropped, so it was just me and one other person the whole time. My doodling speech was apparently very good, as I went 3-0, as while my opponent was the same, the judge wasn't. Despite my perfect streak, I took second in novice expos, as there were a total of 2 different groups that went against each other every time, and the winner from the other group had more points than me (besides placing in a round, you also receive points based on performance). The winner's a good speaker, (I've gone against him before), but his topic isn't the most interesting, namely chelonians (turtles, tortoises, etc.), and no matter how good a speaker is, the topic still needs to be interesting.

The debate segment was more interesting, as always. I went 4-2 (I haven't actually received any ballots), and was in the top 30% in Novice LD I believe. I will mention now that the cause of the following rant is for the purpose of that the people I am ranting about placed MUCH higher than me, and it is somewhat nice to rant to someone besides your inner voice.

Resolved: Economic sanctions ought not be used to achieve foreign policy objectives.
The first loss is a judge's fault, as I am quite sure they were a policy judge. A policy judge is mostly focused on evidence, as policy debaters are the people who lug around tubs of evidence. I need to mention that LD is an opinion debate and the amount of evidence is insignificant, as most cases have the evidence but have the actual conclusions of the case made by your own interpretation of the information. I hope you see why policy judges and LD don't mix. Anyway, my opponent won simply because they had a ton of statistics (probably fake, but evidence isn't the main point in LD), and they spent most of their first speech on it. I spent my time on arguments (I completely deconstructed their argument, one of the key components was completely irrelevant). So, I lost.
The other person probably just sounded a lot more professional or something, because he won the tournament even though I've scoured my notes for a good reason for my loss. Honestly, his case didn't make sense. To name a few, they said that the UN opposes sanctions (besides the approx. 70% they impose) and that sanctions were as dangerous as WMDs. Completely ridiculous. Nukes can destroy the world in 20 minutes, sanctions, not at all.

Well, I have reached the end of my rant. I have a winning record of 11-8 (debate), and I'm doing well in speech, so I am content. I actually started the 2 days after the tournament, and it took me this long to finish it. Quite a bit of time, in my opinion.

Third Video- Paper Puppets

The third and final (for now) video. It is called Paper Puppets. It is a short video for a short presentation. It is a step-by-step guide to make a paper puppet or paper cup (which actually hold water, by the way).

I didn't actually choose the topic, my work group did after a few minutes of indesicion. I simply ran with it.

For any Spore users who might read this, I will note that I made an adventure template with this, called Presentation Template under the username Gibbinater. If you want to make a step-by-step presentation for school or something, simply edit the steps and take a video, and don't forget to give me credit.

Enjoy the videos.

Second Video- Brain Drain

This is the second video I'm uploading, and my favorite.

It's about Brain Drain, it's causes, and possible solutions. I made it for a class about Global Perspectives. This was the big project of the class. It had to be 4-6 minutes long, and this video is brilliant because it is 4 minutes and 36 seconds long, so all I had to do was intro the topic and watch, as it did the presentation for me. No actual speaking in front of the class, just enjoying the movie. A non-speaking speech, my favorite. I think it might have taken top presentation. Plus, everything is so exaggerated, it's hilarious. A senior (I'm only a freshmen, as if the specific classes mattered for this) repeatedly called the characters "cute." I don't see it, personally.

First Video- China Ad

These videos are all class projects made on the video game Spore. They're quite intersting.

This first video is an ad about a Chinese replica village that you can visit. It's actually a quick, informative video about ancient China, though not much is actually taught. It was an English project as an intro to the Good Earth.

Sorry it takes multiple posts, Blogger only handles one video per post.