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Oh God,
Please help me to win,
For I always want to win,
But if in Thy inscrutable wisdom, Thou willest me not to win,
Then make me a good loser.
For when the one great scorer comes,
To write against your name,
He writes not, whether you won or you lost,
But how you played the game.
-The Sportsman’s Prayer of the Royal Military College (1952-2008).
I just think it suits the mood.
As promised, here are the stats for my Winter 2008 Finals, provided to you on the eve of my first paper.
This is what I have going into the exam hall:
24/04/2008 -
MAT 1341: Introduction To Linear Algebra
At Stake: 45% Final Exam
Current Percentage: 52.7%/55%.
26/04/2008 -
ENG 2110: Children’s Literature
At Stake: 30% Final Exam
Current Percentage: 64%/70%.
28/04/2008 -
MAT 1332: Calculus For The Life Sciences II
At Stake: 50% Final Exam
Current Percentage: 46.46%/50%.
29/04/2008 -
GEO 1111: Introduction To Earth Systems
At Stake: 40% Final Exam
Current Percentage: 53.5%/60%.
Now do you see why I really don’t want to slip up?
God help me.
Missing the cut-off. My personal cut-off.
Yes, I admit, I have lofty ambitions for my Winter 2008 finals at the U of O.
I am asking myself to produce a feat which I have arguably never achieved since SPM 2005-the nailing of a perfect score.
Yes, tak cover langsung – I want a full set of A’s.
And I have to say that the pressure is getting almost unbearable; proof of this is in the fact that even before I have sat for a single final paper, my inner self is already burnt out from all the effort going into this killing spree. For I know I won’t forgive myself if something like last semester happened, in where I entered the finals season in roughly the same situation as I am in now…only to slip up during the exams and crash miserably.
My B minus for the GEO 1111 final grounded away the A+ average which I had struggled so hard to maintain.
Ending up a dangerous 0.3% away from losing my Physics A minus.
And the prize cock-up: a freaking C minus for Calculus finals (I ended up with a B+ in the course, having held an A going into the exam hall).
I won’t let that happen again. I know I’ll hound myself for ages if I do.
But why am I doing this? I tell you that I’m not doing it for Petronas. If I was, I would have stopped studying ages ago…the status quo of my course marks are generally enough to make me pass all of them and meet my sponsor’s cut-off point, the fact that I already have an A+ in this semester (from PHY 1122) not withstanding.
No, I am doing this for me. I want to prove to myself, again, that even if I despise a subject I can still do well in it. I want to prove to those who would care to watch that interest is not a factor in academic success, and that only diligence and desire counts.
So I will not forgive myself if I slip up over the next few days. When I put up the stats of how I’m doing going into the finals tomorrow you’ll see why I should not be able to slip up and yet not lose face.
I won’t let it happen.
…
Let’s continue to Kill ‘Em All.
***And to you, you potential finals student, my thoughts go with you as well.***
I am tired of studying.
Day in and day out, forcing the information to go in when I know they will go out again – it’s just a matter of when.
I am fed up with all this crap.
And to think that I registered for two summer courses.
My Winter 2008 course finals at the U of O officially sort-of-begin tomorrow.
We open with the pseudo-final of PHY 1122; the stats are as follows:
At Stake: A 20% Exam, MCQ (on Geometric Optics, Wave Mechanics, and Diffraction + Interference) Status Quo: An approximated 72% out of a maximum of 80%.At last the Academic Battles begin again. More stats on the other battles to appear on this page later on.
But for now-
We begin the beach landings.
As Metallica would say, Metal Up Your Ass Kill ‘Em All.
Prayers guys 
I went jogging for the first time after six months of no real exercise; it was finally warm enough (and by this I mean 8 degrees Celcius) for me to go outside for a run, and God it felt good.
I had forgotten how beautiful the Rideau Canal is, especially with blooming flecks of green in it.
After the run I headed home and had the most invigorating shower I have had in months-so refreshing you can’t believe it.
Then it was a good dinner of chicken noodles in szechuan sauce and vegetables for me; I had also forgotten how it feels like to be properly full after an physical exercise session.
I am glad that spring is finally here =)
And now I shall get back to the books and finals prep. Heaven save those who stand in my way.
…that to me, a (cute) girl who can play the electric guitar would come across as very, very sexy.
LOL.
@.@
…when I would dig Metallica like this.
I am currently listening to their sixth album, Load, having cycled through their old releases – all the way from Ride The Lightning to …And Justice For All, and right up to the Black Album – and it’s absolutely brilliant. What’s even better is the fact that you can actually see their musical evolution over the course of the years -
Load album cover.
- and what an evolution it is.
This is a song off Load that I simply just can’t get out of my head; it’s titled ‘Mama Said’, and I really think everyone should give it a try – especially if you are a scholar far away from home, and wallowing in childhood memories:
“Mama, she has taught me well
Told me when I’s young
Son, your life’s an open book
Don’t close it ‘fore it’s done
The brightest flame burns quickest
That’s what I heard her say
A son’s heart’s owed to mother
But I must find my way.
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still.
“Rebel”, my new last name
Wild blood in my veins
Apron strings around my neck
The mark that still remains
left home at an early age
Of what I heard was wrong
I never asked forgiveness
But when is said is done.
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still.
Never I ask of you
What never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness
I now take to my grave
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness
I now take to my grave
So let this heart be still.
Mama, now I’m coming home
I’m not all you wished of me
But a mother’s love for her son
Unspoken, help me be
Oh yeah I took your love for granted
And all the things you said to me
I need your arms to welcome me
But a cold stone’s all I see.
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still.
Let my heart go
Mama, let my heart go
You never let my heart go
So let this heart be still.
Never I ask of you
What never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness
I now take to my grave
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness
I now take to my grave
So let this heart be still.“
And folks, this song is a country-themed ballad.
Yes – ballad.
Country.
James Hetfield singing (as opposed to screaming).
At this conjecture I announce that in the near future, Oh!Gravity will actively attempt to chronicle Metallica’s musical evolution, greatest hits, and musical innovations…all in a argumentative, casual essay.
Consider it an extended version of In Your Honor, but without the bias.
This should be a very interesting project to attempt =)
Hmm, before I begin this post I admit I do randomly wonder if Alex is still reading this blog…because comments from him seem to have dried up….And yes LOL I am referring to you, Mr Alex Amar!! I do hope you are, because the writing style of each debate related post placed here is actually tailored to fit with you in mind lol!
But anyway.
Are you ready?
Here we go!!!
Presenting the CUSID English National Debating Championships 2008 @ Dalhousie University!!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Canadian geography (shame on you!! =p), Dalhousie University (and it’s Dal-HOUS-ie btw Ms Farah Hanani, not Dal-WHO-oey XD) is an institute of higher learning located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which in turn is a marine-based province off the East Coast of Canada. Via a rotation policy, it was the institution’s turn this year to host the CUSID English National Debating Championships (colloquially known as ‘Nats’) on behalf of the Eastern region of Canadian Debating.
The province of Nova Scotia (also known amongst Malaysian scholars as the land of Annas, Harun and Afiqah XD) is wholly accessible by land – based on my understanding you can get to it by car/bus/truck/bicycle/back-rolling from Ottawa if you slice through Quebec and New Brunswick – but the entire EDS contingent chose to go there by Air Canada.
And who did the EDS send to Halifax on the 14th of March? We sent three novices and two pros: Pam Anderson was the EDS judge (this was her seventh Nats btw @.@), while Valerie Davis and Alex Amar formed EDS AD, and Oscar Wasilik and myself formed EDS TW. At this conjuncture I have to whole heartedly thank the EDS for being willing to sponsor my registration fee for yet another tournament (I had hit my semester tournament quota with Carleton North Ams earlier this year), and also providing a basic travel subsidy on top of that…many thanks =) I really hope I didn’t disappoint.
You be the judge of that okay?
I do not need an arbitrator to tell me the very beginning of the trip to Halifax was bad however >.< Oscar and I were probably in one of our worst weeks yet in university in terms of academic scheduling when Nats rolled around. The two of us were fresh off a series of Physics Labs, and a few midterms besides (I had Geology and Physics; I think the good kolego had Economics and Physics) plus I wasn’t really sure if I had done well on all of them. Even better (or worse), more midterms were to come immediately after Dalhousie Nats; to put it in Oscar’s words:
“We have exams before and after the tournament…the only time that they’re letting us off is during the weekend of Nats“.
=.=” Well said.
Adding further damage to the preparations for Nats was the fact that Oscar and I had only three cases worthy of debate – that of the leftovers from Winter Carnival. And although Alex Amar and Pam were kind enough to provide the shells of a few other cases, and Oscar and I drafted a random one on the FIFA World Cup, we hardly had enough time to prepare our material to a form which we thought would be decent enough for us to mount a credible challenge at Nats >.< Oscar and I had also suffered a run of five straight defeats in EDS in-house rounds…also not exactly ideal prep conditions >.<
The binge continued on to the very morning of the Friday that was March 14th: I spent the whole night (or morning @.@) staying up, working on licking into shape the pieces of already-haphazard cases that my team was going to use; Oscar in turn was struggling to hand in his work which was due the very next day – and he subsequently had to hand in early – and did not catch a wink of sleep either. Then disaster struck – Air Canada called us at 2.00am, with the definitely-wonderful news that our flight had been pushed forward due to a storm in New Brunswick.
Instead of being there at 8.00am, we now had to be there at 6 o’clock =.=” My trip to the airport was a blur – I remember chucking things into my bag, stashing away my laptop, kissing Atif goodbye, and grabbing my pencil case, before rushing down to the nearest OC Transpo station to catch a bus to Ottawa International Airport (on the bus, I actually managed to construct a case in freezing temperatures and commit it to memory) to meet Oscar. We ended up on the same flight as Alex and Valerie; Wajid of the University of Western Ontario, and Garnett of CUDS was also on the plane.
Exhausted, Oscar and I slept through all of the flight.
We were on our way at last.
Approximately three hours later, we touched down at Halifax International Airport. By then, I was already feeling hyped (trying to ignore the fact that Oscar and I had no cases here), and had gotten my camera out. The first picture I took in Halifax was this:
That’s Alex Amar’s torso (feel lucky folks! XD), and I think it really sums out how I felt then =D
*Note the uOttawa + EDS logo as well
More random photos of the airport:
Halifax International Airport.
Like, totally random, I know.
We then carted ourselves in a few cabs, and were off to the hotel adjacent to Dalhousie. Having unpacked and grabbed our debate material, we then headed off to the campus to begin the tournament proper.
Dalhousie Nationals was definitely the most diverse debate tournament I have ever attended – we had teams from as far out as Vancouver, Saskatchewan, and Edmonton (we’re talking thousands of kilometers here @.@) come down to compete. There was also a whole plethora of CUSID East teams, but I actually suspect that the gross total of teams from Ontario and Quebec (CUSID Central) actually outnumbered them still lol!! At this point I randomly remember recognizing some teams from York University, Hart House of the U of T (duh =.=”), and Acadia University.
Anyway, this post has now arrived at the tournament proper; as per Standard Operating Procedure this is how Oscar and I did:
- Round 1: TH Uses Golden Eye Dogs
- Squirreled-to-be: THW Do Away With Religious Arbitration.
- Government: Hart House C
- Opposition: EDS TW
- Round 2: TH Is On A Date
- Squirreled-to-be: THB In Mandatory Parenting Licenses (* WC 2008 re-run).
- Government: EDS TW
- Opposition: Acadia B
- Round 3: TH Is Made With Real Lightening
- Squirreled-to-be: THBT The FIFA World Cup Should Be Held Every Two Years.
- Government: EDS TW
- Opposition: Carleton B
- Round 4: TH…I can’t remember.
- Squirreled-to-be: THW Create Publicly Funded Safe Injection Sites.
- Government: York B
- Opposition: EDS TW
- Round 5: TH…I also can’t remember.
- Squirreled-to-be: THW Not Reconstruct The Buddhist Statues Of Afghanistan Destroyed By The Taliban.
- Government: Alberta OC
- Opposition: EDS TW
- Round 6: TH…also don’t remember this one.
- Squirreled-to-be: THBT Magna Corporation’s Workers Should Accept The ‘Union-With-No-Strike’ Agreement.
- Government: Queen’s WM
- Opposition: EDS TW
Final result for EDS TW: 3 wins, 3 losses; ranked 31st.
Speaker score (now with the yardstick of 38.0 as “good”): 38.5-38.0-37.5-38.17-38.5-38.5, Average 38.20 points, ranked 54th overall speaker, 11th novice.
For Dalhousie Nats, Oscar and I were very much hopeful that it would turn out to be a worthy investment, having paid approximately CAD 300 each to attend the tournament and placed our school lives on the line by committing to so much debate. At the end of it all, I am glad to say it did =) As you can observe from our final tournament results, we weren’t too shabby, and it was not a Winter Carnival Part 2, so cheers!
I also think it was awesome that Oscar and I got to go up against some very decent teams in the country; we hit the Hart House C team of Giorgio Traini and George Trotter (eventual Novice Champions) in the first round, and it was a neat learning experience, especially after we were also judged by Sean Stefanik of McGill – possibly the best Novice-level debater in Canada right now – in that round. Even better, we hit a solid Carleton Pro-Am later on in Round 3 which contained Remi Kanji (of Guindon fame) and Daniel Westlake.
I also felt that this was the tournament which the ‘Oscar-Irving’ partnership showed what it could potentially do. I felt we were very tight as a team against Acadia as early as Round 2, and this manner of speaking actually improved on the very next day when we went up against Jeremy Larkins and Emmett Soldati – the current North American Novice Finalists – and upset them in Round 4. It was good to see months of learning off each other finally paying off, and knowing that our styles were finally starting to mesh with each other.
Credit must also go to Alex Amar. Another reason as to why I thought EDS TW did quite well was due to an entirely random and oblique observation he made during an EDS meeting, telling me that in his mind, Oscar and I should try the Split Opposition method when handed the Opposition side for a round (Split Opp is when the Opposition side uses a 7+7+3 minute speech format, instead of the standard 7 + 10). The two of us tried that out at Nats, and surprise surprise…it did quite a bit. The Split Opp allowed Oscar (the better thinker among the two of us) to better construct his already-decent points to a greater extent, and allowed me to utilize some of my old Australasian knowledge as I was essentially given a Reply Speech at the end of the round. Also, salutations to Pam Anderson for having been patient enough to talk us through our mistakes and help us in case structure…it would be a lie to say that our 3-3 achievement was completely devoid of her help.
As EDS TW, we peaked at Round 4 and Round 5, finding momentum in our upset win over York to later drop Alberta OC out of the tournament proper. Our reward for all this was an appearance in what is called the ‘bubble’ round – the final preliminary match in where if you win, you break to the Quarterfinals – of a debate tournament: we were given Queen’s WM – manned by Christine Wadsworth and Sheldon McCormick (both WUPID Malaysia 2007 Quarterfinalists) – for our final prelim. Basically, Queens was debating to win a spot in the Quarterfinals of the main draw, but in turn if Oscar and I took the match, we would qualify for the Canadian National Novice Finals. We didn’t know all this at the time though – but I’ll explain as we go on.
After Round 6, the two of us were simply flat – the Queen’s team had given us a multi-layered case to debate against, and we had the sinking feeling that we simply did not have the firepower to deal with such construction just yet. The banquet that night was awesome though! Here’s a shot of it:
We shared a table with judges from the University of New Brunswick, and a debater from the University of Saskatchewan.
But for us, the banquet was memorable for other reasons. Having walked around during the post-meal social and talked to awesome people from Laurier, York, and Hart House to name a few, Oscar and I actually gathered that we had an outside chance of making the Novice Finals: people were convinced that we were in a 3-2 room at the end (this was all guesswork as the last two rounds were silent adjudication matches), as they did not think that Queen’s would be a 2-3, and us being a pull-up from a lower bracket was quite unlikely. Speculation was quite rife that qualification for Novice Final would only need 3 wins…which Oscar and I as EDS TW already had as early as Round 5.
I don’t think we were arrogant enough to actually be sure of breaking, but the feeling of actually being able to hang around and wait for the break announcement – knowing that you’ve got an outside chance of qualifying for Day 3 – was something which I had not felt in a long time =) When the break was announced the Novice Final slots went to Hart House C and Alberta TB, confirming we didn’t get a slot, but we still felt rather ‘okay-ish’, as there was always the possibility that our speculation was bunk.
Then came the main break announcement – Oscar and I just collapsed when we heard that Queen’s WM had broken to the Quarterfinals Shkordoff the very next day, just showing how close we were to actually making something happen =’D
I am very happy with how we did at Nats as a team at this point; include the fact that I thought I had debated quite well over the two days, and that for the first time ever, I finished above the tournament average score, I am forced to conclude that it was CAD 300 well spent =)
Now, some more random photos:
Thingummajingy just outside the debaters hall, Dalhousie University.
Houses in Nova Scotia (we had a blizzard on Day 2).
EDS TW. (excuse my fringe btw)
Quarterfinals Draw (note that Queen’s WM was knocked out in the Shkordoff).
Random shot of the debaters waiting to watch the National Quarterfinals.
And did I mention we also had sketches at Nats?!?!? LOL, these things were awesome!!! Done by a local Halifax group called Picnicface, the sketches were essentially satire of humour itself, and also a poke at generic societal norms. I didn’t get that many pictures (too busy laughing XD), but I’ll leave you some quotes from the performers, and hopefully you’ll get an idea how wild it was!! =D
Of Pickles and Flirting.
Excerpt:
GUY: “Do you have a quarter?”
GIRL: “Yeah, why?”
GUY: ” I want to stick it in you.”
XD
Suicide.
Excerpt:
GUY #1: “I’m gonna jump, I swear!!!!!“
GUY #2: “Yeah okay…but before you do, could I have that cool black t-shirt you’re wearing?“
Later…
*Guy #1 has removed shirt and is now topless, revealing an interesting array of chest hair* XD
GUY #1: “Okay, now I’m really gonna jump!!!!!“
GUY #2: “Yeah okay…but now, can I have that AWESOME SWEATER of yours?“
XD XD XD!!!!
Fast forward a few more scenes…(Guy #1 has refused to surrender his chest hair, obviously XD)
GUY #2: “Hey!!! Quebec called – they want their fleur-de-lis back!!!!“
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!! XD XD XD
Fun aside, the tournament proper was won by the Hart House team of Monica Ferris and Jon Laxer, beating Richard Lizius and Dash, who are also of Hart House. The finals motion, interestingly enough, was This House Would Legalize Blackmail.
The Affirmative won. Cool eh? =D
The Finals: Jon Laxer onstage.
Nats also included the voting process for next year’s edition of the tournament; congrats to the University of Saskatchewan, who put together an impressive bid and won the voting process. Aside from that, the CUSID President, VPs, Treasurer and Executive Director for next term was also elected – Adam Coombs from neighbouring Carleton University will be helming CUSID next year. Other notable election results were Rudi Lof’s – of York University – claiming Treasurer unopposed, and Alex Amar winning the Executive Director seat by acclamation =D It was really cool to watch the CUSID bureaucracy in action – ridiculously fast, and extremely effective in that sense. Another cool thing was that I got to vote on behalf of the EDS of the University of Ottawa at the delegates meeting, as seeing I was the highest ranked (more like, only =p) member of the exec present!! =D
Thanks Alex for showing me the ropes!!
At the end of it all, I have to say that Dalhousie Nats 2008 was easily the best debate tournament I have ever attended throughout my debating career in Canada thus far. It was much better than my insipid performances at McGill Winter Carnival, and my North Ams gong show at least. It was very satisfying to finally see the end results of weeks of training with Oscar, and I sincerely think that the only way we can go from here is up (in fact, I refuse to go down lol XD + =.=”). To this end, I thank everyone who have helped us get this far…know that we intend to go further once the Fall 2008 season opens later this year.
And of course, thank you my kolego/comrade Oscar. This was one helluva ride, and I look forward to reforging these heights come September.
Flying home to Ottawa =)
And did you really think I would forget my “Photo of the Tournament” section? LOL, not in the least bit!! XD
Here’s my fave shot from Dalhousie Nats:
The ever popular Wajid Sayeed, singing at the formal banquet.
(Congrats on breaking, and finishing 5th individually at Nats btw! =D)
Right, I think that ends it.
With that, cheers people!!! =D
People.
You are all very much allowed to read the protected post entitled The Tail of Peter Rabbit. The only reason the post is passworded is to crudely ensure that search engines do not directly open up my essay to unscrupulous sources – sources who may actually attempt to circumvent my pride and joy for the course ENG 2110.
The password is given in a very bold hint in the “Quote of the Moment” section. Think about it…the pun is not that hard.
IN FACT, it’s very soft.
…
…
XD?
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!
I look forward to hearing what you all have to say =)
And please do excuse the title of this post. I realize that people may not get it, and that it’s not very p…funny.
XD
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