Yet Another Ending

 Another chapter has come to a close in my life tonight. Mrs Wilson, my Model United Nations (MUN) teacher just announced that there will not be  MUN next year. I'll probably write more about this later, but at this point I'm too tired and sad to write any more now.

Until I write again, au revoir.

~Nat

LD vs TP

So, they finally came out with the topic choices for next years debate season. For TP (Team Policy): "Resolved: That the United States Federal Government should significantly reform its foreign policy toward Russia" and for LD (Lincoln Douglas): "Resolved: A government’s legitimacy is more determined by its respect for individual rights than by popular sovereignty." 


I was super excited when the LD resolution was announced, especially since I am is almost definitely for sure going to be doing LD this year (eek), and I think this one will be fun to debate. Last year my debate partner graduated; and since I would rather not be partners with someone who isn't on the same skill level with me, there isn't anyone (who is available) in my debate club to be my partner for TP. That means the only thing left is LD. Now don't get me wrong, LD looks super awesome, and I think it would be tons of fun. But I've been doing TP for the past five years (almost 1/3 of my life) and the thought of changing now kinda freaks me out.  


In the end though, I think switching over the LD is for the best. The other night I was considering the possibility of trying to be partners with someone else from a different club who had the same skill level as me, when I realized that my main reasons for wanting to stick with TP was that it was safe, and I thought I would have a better chance at qualifying for Nationals. In my opinion, those aren't good enough reasons to stay, and it will probably be good for me to stretch myself and try a new form of debate. Also, it would have been really tough to be partners with someone who was far away.  So it looks like I'm going to spending the next year of my life debating about government legitimacy; and, to be honest, I couldn't be more excited.  


Until next time, au revoir.


~Nat

Protesting Spelling

The other day I came across this news story. These protesters have the wrong idea, if you want to change how words are spelled in the English language, standing around dressed like bees isn't the way to go. No, if you really want to make a difference, the best way to do it is to strategically infiltrate the companies that print dictionaries and the school system. Then, then over the course of 70 years, slowly change the spelling of words. Not that I've actually given this much thought or anything...

But in all seriousness, I have agree with these protesters, the English language is overly complicated. Any language that has words like colonel where we pronounce it with an 'r' that isn't even there, has a problem. Plus, what's with all these letters changing their sounds? Although, it could be worse, we could be French.

Some would argue, that the English language shouldn't be changed, that it is perfectly fine the way it is. In fact one of the people who commented on the story wrote, "This former "educator" thinks that because it takes effort to read and write English, we should simply dumb down our language rather than challenge ourselves to learn?!" but people like this are missing the point, the English language wouldn't be "dumbed down" it would be made more logical. It doesn't make sense to have so many letters duplicate the sounds of others, and don't eve get me started on silent letters. But in the end, the argument doesn't really matter. The English language is here to stay, and no number of protesters is going to change that. Unless, my scheme works. But of course, your not supposed to know about that...

Until I rite agen, gud bie.

~Nat