our first grade rugby team is getting demolished by joeys somewhere in hunters hill as i write. its such a tragic indictment of our rugby program when a 114-5 loss is an excellent result against joeys because it actually meant we scored. even more so when our 16A's, many of whom are actually 17, are playing the actual st joseph 16D's. and will still probably lose.

on the other hand, on friday night, opens debating rolled joeys (though debating isn't an actual sport - which may explain why we're better at it). despite a shocking performance 2nd's won, as did 3rd's and 1st's (with sriram, a member of the Australian All Schools Team, no less). the highlight of the night was bumping into clegg, and experiencing the de ja vu of him pretending to be very private schoolish - correcting the description of Dr Jaggar as a principal, to the correct term of "head master" (two words). and then hearing him describe how the "head master's" office needed a chandelier (don't mention the failing power in the killip wing, and the malfunctioning equipment elsewhere). anyways...

public speaking: regional finals were interesting. except for the 27 speeches on racism and the cronulla riots. but none-the-less it was better than raising money for a little known charity (raymond raised a grand total of 40 cents) for a day. even better made it to state semis! not that it seems encouraging at all, with the other three people being vikram (of winning lawrence campbell fame), rosie (of general public speaking skill fame - and also the one who found the duke of ed pin - lol), and chris (of 'i'm so goddam good lookin, or at least coutt's reckons so')...humph.

if it weren't for goddam trotsky and the "economic, political, social and military consequences of Democratic Republic of Vietnam's policy", life would be pretty good now...

anyone notice a pattern? of public speaking and debating occuring in clumps? well...

it was a very very very very tiring day (have i emphasised that enough?). first an hour's drive down to oatley, which is a college for only yr 11, 12 students. it used to be a teachers' college and is subsequently gigantic and very modern. its public though (rather incongrous). so... 17! speakers. times eight minutes each and turn around time. and only two of them were funny!!! depressed out of my mind over the state of women's rights/education in africa/child obesity/john howard screwing australia over/how crap our transport system is/trapped miners/sophi delesio etc etc. i swear after that morning i had DVT (how am i going to last a 19 hr trip to NY!?)...

so. my own speech was rather similar, except that this issue was actually important:
There are more slaves today than were seized from africa in 400 years of the trans-atlantic slave trade.
true. 2 million women and children are trafficked across US borders last year. the average price for a slave in 1850 was $40k in today's money. now it is just $1.5k

and the impromptu was awesome...i actually quite enjoyed it. after lawrence campbell, a three minute impromptu seems like (and is) a piece of cake! "passing the buck" was the topic, and alexander downer's/brendan nelson's/george bush's collective stupidity and passing-the-blame game was explored...

so...regional finals. i hate regional finals. on account of being knocked out there last year... :-( and also perhaps of the existence of people like marcus and rosie in the syd east region. damn.

jesus christ. i am never going to spend a couple of hours locked up in an empty, freezing theatre with a bunch of equally nervous guys at trinity...besides the waiting it was a pretty good night:

random topics. really really random ones: the devil can quote scriptures for his purpose, i am fates lieutenant i only act under orders, and couch jumping. nearly everyone did the first one (what the hell does couch jumping mean? and what do you faustian topic like "fate's lieutenant"). furthermore everyone who did it pronounced it the american "lootenant" instead of the eminently more sensible and correct "leftenant"

so... previous winners include malcom turnbull and andrew o'keefe (of parliamentary and deal or no deal fame)...interesting. other people there: ahsas! of kings! god, he is exactly the same, and no offense was quite crap. Marcus! (why am i finishing with exclamation marks?), of legacy nationals and SMH state fame, Harry! who captains NSW all schools debating...

so...pretty tough eh? it was fun...perhaps the most intimidating part of the night was practising in front of hamish; the actual event itself was quite entertaining...

the winner: Sydney grammar, for the thrid year in a row. boy, they must be on a roll.... and guess who it was? someone coutts knows: Vikrum! didn't actually get to see him speak though, i was after him. Amazingly Harry and Marcus both missed out on places....

~

on another note:

Richmond 9.8 (62) Sydney 28.12 (180)

ON A day when the Swans went on an unusual scoring binge, racking up 180 points against an undermanned Richmond, most of the credit for the club's highest score since 1987 went to the hard-working midfielders and dominant forwards.

~

exams nearly over. hate legal for being the last bloody exam on monday!!!

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Karl Rove: Young Republican

Karl Rove, George Bush's chief political strategist, once told an audience that, when he was nine years old, he put a Richard Nixon sticker on his bicycle - and was promptly beaten up by a little girl who supported John F. Kennedy.

(haha. everyone hates republicans)

exam week has to be the least favourite time of year. esp when you mix public speaking and debating AND birthdays into the mix... :-P anyway...

just debated randwick girls b in karl kramp. felt embarassed at walkover. perhaps coutts shouldn't have said "you know its a desperate affirmative team when they hold up goods made in china as good quality", despite the fact taht it was true...they were pretty good for a 'first debate'... anyway.

i turn 16 tommorow. strange that i share my birthday with jazzi and annie AND ian's brother... according to famousbirthdays.com i share mine with AUDREY HEPBURN ... and the usual helping of b grade celebrity...

~

hmm... so, feeling happy and fulfilled (haha, grammar on friday in eastside final)...for the week before exams...promise to write more too...(hopefully) (if i can get through forty pages of crap for legal)...

seriously the day i spent driving to some god forsaken place in outback NSW (it was Kangaroo Valley i think) was more productive than today. in fact eight dollars has never been wasted more completely than the thousands the NSW govt gave to the losing bidders on the wharf redevelopment projects...fair to say we never had a chance of making state anyway, so i suppose the end result is no different..

humph. feeling pissed off (as you'd imagine)

wow. school debating sucks heaps. without POI's. which should immediately be introduced everywhere.

training is fun, and strange. met koziol at last. so much aggression concentrated in such a small package. the way he rejected POI's... anyways... its exhausting stuff. here is my prediction of who will be in the final six:

marcus, sriram, ben, the other two riverview guys (not the american), and a girl so it doesn't appear quite so sexist. but its true, you get so much good training for free...can't wait to test it all out in gps...

first up: from the man who brought you "children under three years aren't self aware and their mothers should have the right to kill them" comes "women who have been indecently assaulted should just go wash themselves and stop clogging up the courts with such trivial matters.." (we're talking about roca of course - no liability is accepted by the author for comments taken out of context)..

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I am so so so so stuffed for the next couple of weeks. pushing off 2000 word legal assignment and english stuff "till tommorow" every day (it is in week ten right?). problem is head of the river (everyone has to go to this - including perhaps you people from sydney girls) is on the weekend before, and put with state debating on sunday is very icky...*sigh* must work around it..

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ok: dora your friends are really really...what can i say? funny? this eventually requires proper explaining...lol. but they're awesome (what can you POSSIBLY be complaining about???)

anna: yeah, i called jacinta pretending to be ian.
me: what? rich ian?
anna: yeah
me: so what did you say?
anna: (male falsetto) hi, this is ian..(bursts out laughing hysterically)

apparently she was wondering why 'ian' was laughing...god, don't you just love gullible people??

fairly hectic last couple of days. in fact that is understatements. apologies are in order for pat and morris (in that order) for maths. apologies are most definately not in order for bludgers like raymond who not only miss the eco test on friday, but can't be bothered to turn up to the UNSW invitational based on "i can't be bothered getting up on sunday morning".

~

speaking of debating: the state trial screw up got fixed. which means we go again this sunday to see if we're good enough for the final 12. which i personally doubt i will be unless we do well against that south african school this friday...what was it? reddam?

~

so what has happened over the past few days? nothing much. lots of remembering to do (like the HDI ranking of Poland is 36!). fun. observation of the week:

(and this REALLY pisses me off)

why the fuck are girls ALWAYS so happy, cheerful, and bright eyed? and never cranky? it gets annoying when you see the contrast in guys who are sullen, tired, yawning, and swearing like troopers. this is ridiculous. but the reason is that they have no work! not much at any rate. outrageous. but true. gah. cannot wait until the eco test is over. Moody broke his foot in the lead up to this assessment and everyone (moussa especially - so take that you in-denial terrorist woman who is deluded and deaf - don't worry about this) is crapping their pants because we can't ask anyone what the difference between the GINI index and PPP per capita, and the hausner plan ... not that moody'd know anyway.

so, everything sucks now. won't get better until all the english things are over; and of course the much looked forward to picnic (dora - can we get more people? that would be awesome - but then the internal politics of your school are strange and indecipherable)