One cup of Hoobidy and a pinch of Doobidy and what do you get?

My first tournament as a head coach, and my students did me proud!


Glendale Community College’s Speech and Debate team just returned from
the San Francisco Golden Gate Swing with phenomenal results! We drove a
small squad of seven students to San Francisco (an entry less than half
the size of most other schools) and won 1st place in community college
sweepstakes points (out of over 25 schools) and 3rd place against all
colleges and universities. Our novice debaters shined in their first
tournament, with Bjorn Lundberg and Lauren Sublett making it to the
final round of parliamentary debate and narrowly losing on a 2-1
decision. Out of 54 Novice debaters, Lauren was named 2nd overall
speaker and Bjorn came in close behind at 3rd speaker. Debaters Lewis
Robinson and David Redkey also did well, narrowly missed breaking to
quarterfinals with a 3-3 record.

Our individual events squad shined just as bright with our novice
speakers stealing the show. On day one of the tournament, two of our
novice speakers broke to varsity finals (the only two novice competitors
in the entire tournament to do so) with Andrea Berning winning top
novice speaker in Dramatic Interpretation (4th in varsity) and Shannen
Walsh winning 1st place in Varsity Communication Analysis. Shannen also
won 2nd place in novice After Dinner Speaking. Not to be outdone,
returning member Elizabeth Calvert came in 2nd place in Varsity After
Dinner Speaking and 3rd place in Novice Poetry Interpretation, and
returner Lewis Robinson received 5th place in a very competitive Varsity
Poetry Interpretation final round.

Day 2 of the tournament went even better. Elizabeth Calvert was named
tournament champion in both Varsity After Dinner Speaking and Novice
Poetry Interpretation. Shannen Walsh won 2nd place in Varsity
Communication Analysis and 1st Place in Novice After Dinner Speaking.
Andrea Berning was named Top Novice speaker in Dramatic Interpretation
and won 2nd place in Novice Poetry Interpretation, and Lewis Robinson
won 5th place in Varsity Poetry Interpretation.

Needless to say, these results hint at a fantastic year ahead! We are
hosting our high school tournament this upcoming Saturday, October 1st,
and our next college tournament will be October 14th-16th when we travel
to Azusa Pacific University in Southern California. Thanks for all of
your support!

Sincerely,
Kevin Briancesco, Jay Arntson, and Roxan Arntson


Full Results Below
Overall:
1st place in overall community college sweepstakes points
Individual Events - Day 1

Andrea Berning (her first tournament ever):
1st place in Novice Dramatic Interpretation (4th place in Varsity)

Elizabeth Calvert:
2nd place in Varsity After Dinner Speaking
3rd place in Novice Poetry Interpretation

Lewis Robinson:
5th place in Varsity Poetry Interpretation

Shannen Walsh (her first tournament ever):
1st place in Varsity Communication Analysis (Top Novice Speaker)
2nd place in Novice After Dinner Speaking

Individual Events - Day 2

Andrea Berning:
2nd place in Novice Poetry Interpretation
1st place in Novice Dramatic Interpretation

Elizabeth Calvert:
1st place in Varsity After Dinner Speaking
1st place in Novice Poetry Interpretation

Lewis Robinson:
5th place in Poetry Interpretation

Shannen Walsh:
2nd place in Varsity Communication Analysis (Top Novice Speaker)
1st place in Novice After Dinner Speaking

Debate Results
Bjorn Lundberg / Lauren Sublett
2nd place in Novice Parliamentary Debate

Bjorn Lundberg:
3rd Overall in Individual Speaker Points

Lauren Sublett:
2nd Overall in Individual Speaker Points

Lewis Robinson / David Redkey
3wins, 3 losses (one win from making quarterfinals!)

When I was a little boy, learning new fun facts about the world, everything seemed so amazing. Bullfighters were courageous, and in my mind the bulls simply ran through these red capes and then were led back to their cages to be fed. I remember learning of Gladiators, and going out to the playground to have mock fights with foam swords. No one ever got hurt, in fact it was much more fun to slam the swords together to make loud sounds than to actually hurt the other person.

Then I got older, and I learned the things you don’t tell little kids. I learned of the tercio de muerte, where the bull was worn down and stabbed and that they awarded that matador with the bull’s ears. I learned that Gladiators weren’t simply men that liked to fight. But were often slaves or others shunned by their society and were pitted against others of the same ilk, or criminals, and fought till the death.

I remembered seeing pictures of the crowds watching and cheering for these terrible sights and thinking how thankful I was to not be a part of us. Even as I got older, I would think of how blessed I was to live in a society that, even though it has a death penalty, it was not the case of spectacle. Never celebrated, just a “necessary” punishment to stand as a deterrent to would be murderers. How lucky, that I came to adulthood and could still be shaken by the death of another, regardless of how close I was to them. How wonderful it was that I valued life and could pass this same value onto my children. We were nothing like these “barbarians” of many years ago.

And then the republican debate happens last night. I didn’t see it live, but the clip of the audience cheering at the mere mention of Rick Perry’s 234 state-sanctioned killings will haunt me. This is not a partisan statement, it is simply my coping through text that I lost some of that childhood innocence today. There are barbarians among us, and not all of them are behind bars, many were sitting in an auditorium last night cheering…celebrating the ritualistic spilling of blood for sport. No longer in a Coliseum, but at a podium.

A friend of mine asked me to write a poem for her wedding. They met in a bar called the Phoenix, so she wanted it to be Phoenix themed. This is what I came up with.



What if every day
As the sun began making love to the horizon
Instead of watching television or working out
Instead of talking on the phone or eating dinner
Everyone stood frozen.
Looking to the west for just a moment,
Afraid to even blink
Just in case
If time were to somehow stop
We wouldn't be left with our backs to the ocean
While the Earth sat in an infinite sunset.

And in that masterpiece
What if we noticed the sun wasn’t the sun at all?
It was not the perfect glowing yellow marble
We’ve seen gods playing with in pictures
But instead we saw it for what it was—
A phoenix.
Not setting, but falling.
Ablaze in flame, soaring to it’s resting point
Its ashes covering the sky and turning the day into night.

This is the world I live in since we first met.
Anything is possible.
Just as that phoenix falls from the sky
You fell into my life and became just as important

You are that phoenix
My own personal fire
My flicker of flame lighting me ablaze
Burning, but leaving me oh so hygienically clean
Only to rise together from the ashes of what we were alone
With a fire fueled by the passion of our combined hearts

And from this day forward,
No matter where we are
No matter where we go or what we do
Separated by inches or miles apart
If I need you or you need me
All you have to do is open your eyes as wide as you can
And in the fire that shoots down from the sky--
There we'll be.

I'm in a 14-team mixed league. 5x5, one keeper per year (you forfeit the round you picked the player in the previous year).

So My team ended up like this:
C: J.P. Arencibia, Tor (18)
1b: Carlos Pena (16)
2b: Brian Roberts (12)
3b: Michael Young (5)
SS: Rafael Furcal (15)
OF Jason Heyward (11)
OF Shane Victorino (8)
OF Michael Bourn (10)
Util: Aramis Ramirez (7)
Bench: Gordan Beckam (13)
Bench: Adam Laroche (17)

SP: Roy Halladay (1)
SP: Tim Lincecum (2)
RP: Chris Perez (9)
P: Cliff Lee (3)
P: Justin Verlander (4)
P: Jered Weaver (6)
P: Brad Lidge (14)
P: Daniel Bard (19)
P: Jon Rauch (20)

( Commentary and round by round selection below the cut )

So early this afternoon I started getting lightheaded and my mouth and extremities started getting numb...needless to say, I was a bit freaked out.

I called my doctor, but she left early on Friday, so I was told to go to the emergency room. I don't have insurance for 5 more days, so I told her this and she says that I should go to an urgent care.

Several hours at the urgent care later, spending hundreds of dollars that I don't have just to be told:

I'm not diabetic, I'm not having a heart attack, my EKG is perfect, and my heart rate and blood pressure are textbook. Thus, my prognosis, don't do anything active for the next few days and if my condition persists, they will do further tests on Monday.

Worst of all, I was told that I am not allowed to go anywhere tonight...meaning no Encyclopedia Show: Arizona.

I hate tonight.

Learn the origins of Santa from around the world!

Random doodles I've been working on. I plan on doing one for almost every Pooh character.

for a teaching job in the Bay Area. I will most likely be there for an interview the last weekend of October! Everyone send good vibes my way!

Looks like I need to get a second job again...ugh. I love teaching, but got it is hard to make it with just a teacher's salary.

Mallory and I got 2 little puppies. Their names are Tonks and Luna.

Luna!


Tonks!


Luna is about 3 months old, less than a pound and will only be about 3 pounds full grown. Tonks is 7-8 months old, 6 pounds, and will be about 7 or 8 pounds full grown.