UKM IV - Debate we did, adjudicate we shall.

In all honesty, I did not retain any high hopes for how this tournament would go for me. First major tournament I'd be adjudicating, first major tournament in West Malaysia I'd be adjudicating, first major tournament since 2008 (not counting our own WSDC).. Well, you get the idea.


However, I should be pleasantly surprised at how I was able to keep up with the level required to be a relative success at the tournament. In truth, I felt I was heavily penalised by the adjudicator core, simply because I was too generous with how I awarded marks.This resulted in me not breaking into the knockout rounds as an adjudicator. It irked me a lot, simply because I was pretty confident that I had provided better feedback than the Chair Adjus in my rooms, and that I had demonstrated far more empathy in giving oral adjudications.

Someone hinted to me that it was for political reasons that I was not allowed to break, although that would detract from what was, in truth, a good tournament, if one with no frills, pomp or circumstance. It's not easy analysing debates, and trying to get a feel for how everything has developed. I believe though, it is something I do bloody well, which I felt was borne out to me when I felt that I developed far better bonds with the debaters in my rooms than my chair adjus did. Although this is, of course, debatable. :) *boom boom and indeed, boom*

Apart from that particular adjudicating sorepoint, Swinburne did not do well. 4 teams, only 1 in the knockout rounds, one team suffering 4 losses and only one win. It was by far one of our worst performances as an Institution in any tournament, and hints at the fact that we have a lot of work to do to correct the weaknesses that have been identified as being the causes for our downfall.

Team compositions need to be re-evaluated, team dynamics need to be re-examined, training methods will require re-examination, and training sessions will need to be re-tinkered with. It is beyond any doubt that our teams have a good English-speaking base to build from, but somewhere between making the step from being good at arguing to being good at debating, errors have been made. It is immensely frustrating to see the potential that our teams possess, and not see it fulfilled.

Being on the sidelines, as it were, for this tournament, allowed me to see it played out in a manner far easier to dissect. I regularly fielded questions as to 'why aren't you debating', with the reality being that I was just being rotated as a senior to adjudicate, and the others get to debate. But at the very least I feel that I have grown as a debater in this tournament, because I know now, far better than before, what it takes to convince adjudicators that you should win.

So how was the social aspect of UKM IV? In one word, memorable :)  Staying up till 3 a.m in the common lounge with SMKDJ, CBN and the other Swinburners, was a highlight for me, as well as the various philosophical, personal and emotional discussions being held throughout the final day. Tragic first love stories aside, there was a good social mix to the tournament, although due to its shortness (only 3 days), there really wasn't enough time get to know everyone else a bit more.

My memories go out chiefly to the CBN-ners and the SMKDJ gang for enlivening up the days, and providing ample ammunition for excuses to make fun of other people. As someone dared to point out to me, your sarcasm is a self-defense mechanism, and you use your humour as a shield. It's a genuine, and pleasant surprise, for someone to get through to me for a change. Thank you :)

Kenyalang Debate Open next! It starts tonight! Let's get it on!

5th Swinburne World Schools Debate Championships.

Did you know that you can swallow a litre of your own blood before you start feeling sick?

Curiously enough, I haven't actually blogged in a while. Why? I don't know really. I would ordinarily consider myself to be sufficiently egotistical to actually want to see my name up in lights on a regular basis. However, I have not felt that particular inclination much, lately. Perhaps it is because I have actually been busy with real life.

The past week was supposed to be a holiday, but I happily sacrificed it along with most of the Swinburne Debate Club to become a part of a very special occasion : The 5th Swinburne World Schools Debating Championships. Tears were shed, smiles were shared, and all of us were greatly enriched by the experience that it brought into our lives.

I was an adjudicator during the tournament. Which is basically a judge, with added justifications. (Okay, debater's joke done and dusted). It was amazing for me, as I had never adjudicated before in any official tournaments. I was even named favourite adjudicator by a few teams, which obviously made me very proud of what I had managed to achieve in the tournament. I did what I could so that every team that spoke to me could do as well as they possibly could, and I'm happy with how it all turned out.

My old school won in both categories :) Although to put on my unbiased hat on for a moment, they really could have, and should have, done better. I would dearly love to help them, but it is up to them if they really want my assistance, since I am willing to sacrifice the time necessary to make them not just good, but mind-blastingly awesome. School-level at least. At national and International level, I am still pretty much a n00b.

The overall vibe from the tournament has renewed my faith in the youth of today, and how they are progressing. I have met intensely fascinating characters, real personalities, intriguing walking mysteries, and of course, plenty of rather attractive looking members of the opposite gender. I'm happy, that those that I have met have re-affirmed my faith for the future. Thank you debaters. :)

Friday Morning Blues

I have a sneaking suspicion that there is more to be had in this life.

However, they say the best things in life are free. So where's my handout of life-changing awesomeness?

Meh.

One-line philosophy is written by those that have a cruel sense of humour and an immense joy of schadenfraude.

Fuck you.

Oh, an update.

I haven't been able to sit down and think about things that I have wanted to say on this particular channel of informational dissemination, considering that I am rather caught up in that pesky thing known as real life. Be it as it may, I owe it to myself to at least scribble down a few random thoughts as an ode to my ego and the embodiment of my over-inflated sense of self.

As it is, I am at a rather interesting crossroad this semester. It is the week where you either make a good semester great, or make a bad semester awful. Choices, decisions, gambles, risks, considerations, second-guesses. Take the road less traveled? Screw you Robert Foster, for your chancy philosophical poetic musings.

Before I get completely side-tracked, it is imperative on my part to note that I am actually in the midst of trying to repair a relatively okay semester, to make it into a good one. Why? I have been slacking. The sheer amount of activities has caught up to me. The gym workouts, the football training, the futsal, the assignments, the debate sessions, matches, work.. It's all getting a bit much. I come home every day absolutely knackered, and have rarely gone to sleep past 1 am anymore, which is an astounding achievement in itself.

Curiously enough, my videogaming has hardly suffered, as I have actually been able to budget my time for it much better than I thought I would. When I tell myself "Ok, time to stop", I actually DO. Unless of course there's a plot twist.. Or an unexpected loss.. Or there's a new area to explore.. Oh, you get the idea.

The fact of the matter is that I am tired. Really, really, REALLY tired. I'm slow to get up in the mornings, and I'm usually asleep before my head hits the pillow. The only thing keeping me afloat is my PS3 (I love you baby! Thank you thank you thank you girlinstiletto ;) ) and the joy it brings.

I should just graduate as soon as possible, and go work for a videogames company. Anyone know how I can get in touch with Crytek, or Sony Worldwide Studios?

Indiscretion and Inundation.

I just wanted you to know something.

I love you.

Thank you for forgiving me for everything that I have ever done.

24 inches, HDMI, 1080p, RM 600. I heart You, Technology.

Only in Malaysia. Maybe. Who cares.

Technology rocks.

That library again.

So here I am again. Curiously enough, it's actually pretty quiet today. I guess people have finally caught on to the idea that Gossip Girl is best reserved for the screen, and not real life. Then again, what would I know? (Talk about making assumptions, and drawing parallels that make no sense)

As it is though, I find myself with little to do at the moment, other than to count down the minutes to the next appointment I have, which is supposed to be in a little under 2 hours time. I could eat (again), but I wouldn't want those recent hours being put into the gym and football training to go to waste simply because I am bored.

I've been playing Final Fantasy XIII a lot lately. Way more than any person (other than a fellow gamer) would consider healthy or nomal, and I have paid for it with a lack of sleep. It is simply too addictive. I'll be coming up with part two of my review on it soon, which will cover the deliciously intricate battle system, which is by far one of the biggest reasons to actually play it.

I am unabashedly in love with Lightning, and Vanille. Serah is taken (gasp, I know) so perhaps I should stay away from pining for her too much. Having said that though, maybe it would be unhealthy to begin with, to even suggest any sort of emtoional attachment with what amounts to be a punch of polygons on a disc, being pushed out on to a screen. Then again, the same could be said of people that develop attachments to movie or book characters, entities that merely exist in a medium of entertainment, and not in real life.

It puzzles me why there are human beings that seek to rubbish the videogame culture, implying that it is nothing more than sad childish escapism, when the same could be said of other entertainment options (Roger Ebert, I'm looking at you). If you were, on average, to watch a movie three times a week, be it in the cinema or at home, assuming that a movie is generally two hours long, then that means you use up 6 hours just sitting there and watching. And this is better than picking up a video game and using your brain to outwit the AI and exercising your fingers to do your will?

For those of you that consider videogames to be merely child's play, then please, pick up a copy of FFXIII, or God Of War 3, or Metal Gear Solid 4, or Uncharted 2, and tell me that your brain doesn't HURT trying to figure out everything; that the stories being told are not legitimate attempts at not just entertainment, but discussions on morality, ethics, love, life, philosophy and history; that the underlying genius of being a game developer lies in not merely making a world for us to play in, but making us feel like we are active participants in something greater than ourselves.

Let's not kid ourselves. None of us will become Luke Skywalker, and have the opportunity to blow up a moon-sized battle station. None of us will become Jack Sparrow, and be able to survive seemingly impossible odds just by swigging rum and making it up as we go along. None of us will become Batman, with huge amounts of money and martial arts skills that would give Bruce Lee a run for his money.

But in a video game, we can. It is one of the few, if not the only, way to be able to experience euphoria on an epic scale, to have an inkling of what it feels like to save lives, to experience new adventures, to challenge societal norms. In short, we can change the world.

Is that childish? Is that a sign of immaturity? To go up and beyond our normal selves, to become guardians of the virutal universe, to go beyond what we could possibly do in the mundane reality that we all share?

I am not advocating an existence that ignores reality. Far from it. I am advocating an existence that has its reality augmented by not just the tangibility of the physical realm, but the lessons and experience that mediums of entertainment can offer us.

Go play a game.  A proper one. Experience it at its most intense, and fullest. I guarantee you will learn something new about yourself, and how you view the world.

Seriously, what is up with this library?