Toadfish Monastery

So, I'm generally speaking a pretty laid back sort of person. But this damnable weekend has been chock full 'o crap, both little and big.

I'm a competition room. Which means that I have to be cleared out for the day from my room at 7:30am so people can come in and compete. I don't have a damn thing to do until 11-ish am. Can't go to sleep and I can't do much else. There's also no wireless in the hotel, so I end up bored outta my gourd for several hours a day. I'm also paranoid about people stealing my stuff, since they're in MY ROOM ALL DAY LONG! Even though it's hidden or locked in the bathroom.

I'm in the tournament hotel. Pretty nice, over all. But, as usual, there's lots of drugs. Loooooots of them. The hallway outside my room reeks like weed. Seriously, opening my door is just asking to be hot boxed.
And of course, these are just the most obvious ones. I am willing to bet biiiig money that there's illicit substances of various types in some suit cases.

My coach put me with a guy (Kev) who's here for the credits only. He's barely putting in any effort. Coach thought he was worth more than he is, and so he's disappointed with Kev (though he didn't really bother to teach my partner anything--I've been teaching him as we go along, and he deserves some credit for his improvement).
The guy's been making outrageous claims all day, even though I told him not to. I'm beyond done with this cat. He showed up to our first round buzzed and sleepy. Kev admits to not giving a damn. Told me he's putting "about four per cent of [his] effort into this."


He's one of those people who's gotten away with gliding through life without any effort because he's smart. And he's gotten away with it for so long that at a hint of required effort, he bolts faster than Bush at the suggestion of rehab. (Rehab is fer quitters!)

And I'm going to have words with my coach about this.



Lots of words with the man. 

Jeebus! 



You're strong, keeping your attitude in a environment like that.

And you're not paranoid if you have a reason to believe that someone might steal or go through your stuff and it sounds to me like you have plenty on reasons.
I would be crawling on the walls in your situation...

(I can't help but be baffled that your parents let you go to an event like that but has problems with letting an male friend of yours stay the night in your house when they are home...)


It's not like you can hear it but I'm rooting for you! GO Scribble GO!

They don't provide a locked room?? OR an alt/resting room for those losing their room to the tourney??

Cheap-asses.

As to partner, ask coach how he feels about wasting YOUR time that much, seein' as how you time is worth $$ (your Starbuck's salary per hour) to you, so he's just wasted X amount on some doper/wanker's half-assed goofing. Point out that you'll miss work to actually compete, to LEARN something, but if this clown and his type are what he wants to dump on you, you'll need to be given a Teaching Assistantship at an appropriate amount to recompense for your lost wages AND your time doing the actual teaching of these dregs.



One reason I no longer judge...If I saw a team where a good debater had been sandbagged with a lump like that, I would go to their coach and ask WHY he wanted to waste the potential of a good person by pairing them with a selection from the Burpee Catalogue. (Not grow up enough to even be a vegetable.) They always seemed to do it to females (male coaches) and it was always some charmer boy with a smooth shuck and jive who didn't know his ass from a butter churn.

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What she ranted!   

Go, Scribble! (You might quietly and judiciously mention to him the risk to your personal liberty -- and entire future -- at being in a captive situation with those using controlled substances, as well...)

Ya know--- that idea of people being out of the seed catalog is a good one----- maybe you should discuss several types of seeds with coach(hemp seeds, stupid seeds, wasting time seeds, seeds of change)

I'd also do a write up for the school paper

Hang in there ---

My parents don't know what happens at tournaments, and I love competing so much that I'm not going to tell them. They'd get the team shut down, and this team is about half the reason I allowed my parents to con me into not going to my university.

I think my coach feels very bad, since I know he heard me yelling at Kev this morning for being a total FUBAR in round (beyond anything he's done before, and I'm loud enough to be heard anywhere in the atrium without shrieking). He sort of looked at me apologetically this afternoon when I was stomping around still.

And I don't think Kev can find his ass with an atlas.

And yes, cheap-asses. But at least my room won't be used tomorrow morning, so I don't have to clear out. And the competitors are forbidden from entering the closets or bathrooms in the rooms at least, and doing so is grounds for being disqualified from the tournament.

I've also considered suggesting that I get compensation for a week of lost salary for this FUBAR. Or that I might seek it if he pairs me with a Burpee kid ever again (and I agree that that's a fab analogy).
I also suspect from the discussion we had yesterday that there have been judges coming up and asking WHY on earth he paired us up, given the head shakes and the "I thought he was going to be better than this."

I'm seriously considering dropping all team events from now on, and just doing individual events so I don't have deal with this crap ever again.

The drugs I don't mind when it's not billowing down the hall. Tonight, for example, it was just in one section of the hallway, rather than creeping under my door. And a stoned/drunk/high opponent is an easy one, right?

Quote from: Scriblerus the Philosophe on March 16, 2008, 07:11:01 AM

I'm seriously considering dropping all team events from now on, and just doing individual events so I don't have deal with this crap ever again.

Sounds like a good idea to me.
You seem to have everything but you idiot partner under control and that is admirable I think.

Quotey parents don't know what happens at tournaments, and I love competing so much that I'm not going to tell them.

I don't suggest you should tell them either... You are eighteen right*?
I'm just baffled at what I see as double standards; hotel with a lot of other teenagers, both sexes, and a few supervising adults is OK, letting a male friend of yours stay in the house over night under their supervising is Not OK.
I mean to me, a lot of teenagers+ hotel+out of town, is a quite easy calculation.   


sorry for the


I hope the rest of the competition goes better.



*In Sweden that means you're of age to do anything but buy alcohol (or get your self sterilised) and that you don't need your parents permission for anything any more.

I'm thinking about it. I can do anything required, to be honest. And in a partner I need a good speaker and someone capable of doing most things reasonably well (which is why I miss my old partner. She was at my same level).

Actually, I'm nineteen (not to quibble) and the same thing here. I can do anything I like except buy or consume alcohol.

Some how, me staying at a hotel with a few adults and lots of teens is different. And I also think that since my mother went on my first trip (in high school), she's not thought about it much. I also assume she thinks the coaches do bed-checks (which they don't).