Search found 67 matches

by canaanbananarama
Sun Oct 22, 2017 3:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Quizbowl and Mental Health
Replies: 30
Views: 25069

Re: Quizbowl and Mental Health

At the start of playing university, my team and I were made pariahs for playing the Division II ICT twice, which I think that most of us believed was, if anybody's fault, NAQT's. I only ended up playing college quizbowl for a total of 4 years (3 under, 1 grad), and I probably spent too much of my ti...
by canaanbananarama
Tue Apr 18, 2017 5:14 am
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Becoming Part of the Community
Replies: 43
Views: 43376

Re: Becoming Part of the Community

I will follow Jonathan Magin. My father was a smart man who had a good job at Boeing. We lived in Bellevue, WA, and things seemed fine. I could read at birth, write, do maths at a level ten years ahead of all my "children peers." I memorized the sphere that is known as Planet Earth. I star...
by canaanbananarama
Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:39 am
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Favorite Quizbowl Experiences
Replies: 77
Views: 68695

Re: Favorite Quizbowl Experiences

It may very well have been a Meyvis of the Nate-ish variety, sounds about right.
by canaanbananarama
Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:50 am
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Praise Song Part II
Replies: 23
Views: 24401

Re: Praise Song Part II

I've spent so much of my life outside of the United States, where even the Americans present tend to be against the pastimes of the motherland (in my experience, this is quite different than Britons, who flock to pubs to watch EPL and rugby and seem desperately sad outside of their very tight-knit e...
by canaanbananarama
Thu Mar 12, 2015 5:49 am
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Favorite Quizbowl Experiences
Replies: 77
Views: 68695

Re: Favorite Quizbowl Experiences

Referring to Dwight's comment about that ICT. It was a pretty lousy ICT. Jerry - who if I'm not mistaken was playing solo, was in a bit of a sour mode. Brown had made the top bracket, but I believe they did poorly. Brown was playing its round robin game against UCLA, and UCLA was winning. At various...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:04 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2011 NSC: Tournament Logistic Discussion (not the set)
Replies: 62
Views: 23306

Re: 2011 NSC: Tournament Logistic Discussion (not the set)

I did not attend this tournament. If you ever attend my funeral, it will probably be around two or three weeks later than it should have been. I thank the expensiveness of flight costs for that and not being in a situation in which I probably would have had temper issues, as this tournament seems li...
by canaanbananarama
Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Southeastern Quizbowl
Replies: 98
Views: 25685

Re: Southeastern Quizbowl

It won't fall under my purview, since I doubt I'll be at HSNCT, but I'll see if I can at least get a few West Coast people on board for this, and maybe get them to talk to the Arizona teams. As well, there's one high school from Las Vegas, NV and Grand Junction also has two teams. UNLV and Arizona w...
by canaanbananarama
Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:11 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Southeastern Quizbowl
Replies: 98
Views: 25685

Re: Southeastern Quizbowl

One thing that might be wise, and I don't know if there are that many efforts to do so, is to just befriend a Southeast quizbowl player at HSNCT or ICT or whatever habitat you might get a chance to spot one. I'll give an example; I met Chris Chiego through odd circumstances (we were both in the Midd...
by canaanbananarama
Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU is a terrible school
Replies: 7
Views: 3694

VCU is a terrible school

Nick Polk said it once and I and you can certainly agree with the sentiment. We are about to face two more national tournaments in which this abomination of quizbowl teams is allowed to compete based on fraudulent, lousy reasons such as them being better than most of the teams or they actually quali...
by canaanbananarama
Sat Dec 11, 2010 6:52 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: A Moderator's Guide to Pronunciating Foreign Words
Replies: 49
Views: 64077

A Moderator's Guide to Pronunciating Foreign Words

Hey, So, I remember talking about this project a while ago, but drunkenly I decided to work on it tonight and get started on it. Basically what I'm trying to accomplish is getting a guide out there that's reader-friendly and not too wacky on the linguistic terms and down to earth and whatnot about p...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:37 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Universal Pronunciation Guide
Replies: 51
Views: 13905

Re: Universal Pronunciation Guide

As a person whose vocation it is to approach languages from a practical perspective and speak them without worrying much about linguistics and a scientific approach, I would be glad to help with this. I certainly have spent some time in the past helping experienced moderators fumble around eastern E...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:10 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: New "Team" Needs help studying
Replies: 14
Views: 3239

Re: New "Team" Needs help studying

Hey, I'm a former member of the UCLA quizbowl team who has also participated in various events that might be more similar to what this "Greek Week" competition entails. At UCLA, we have a competition between dorm houses at which the level of questions might be similar to what "Greek W...
by canaanbananarama
Sun Feb 21, 2010 1:35 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Best Subject Teams/Players
Replies: 29
Views: 27621

Re: Best Subject Teams/Players

Having played Jeff a number of times on the West Coast, I would give him the edge over me in general. The problem with history is that it could be split into a number of specialties-I certainly know Jeff would dominate me on English and probably Western European history, but I might know more about ...
by canaanbananarama
Thu Feb 18, 2010 9:01 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Where Are You Going Next Year
Replies: 64
Views: 23983

Re: Where Are You Going Next Year

Dwight, While this is off-topic...it's a very weird subject which would have to be answered by NAQT or ACF. One problem that you would face in any attempt to do this is the long history of the UC-Irvine club. Now, I know this history and I know it's been ruled by utterly dysfunctional people in turn...
by canaanbananarama
Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:46 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Million Argument March
Replies: 9
Views: 2004

Re: The Million Argument March

Laos tossup: Plain of Jars, not a giveaway. Louangprabang, probably not a giveaway. Kingdom of Lan Xang, not a giveaway. Golden Triangle, just before the giveaway. These are middle clues. My memory of actual temple names is foggy on Louangprabang, but quick research shows that the distinct temple of...
by canaanbananarama
Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:24 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Million Argument March
Replies: 9
Views: 2004

The Million Argument March

Hello, geography haters. Our dear friend Matt Weiner has claimed, "i have presented a million well formed arguments and you are just giving a slightly more erudite version of "no"" as to why geography tossups are bad. Well, I want my million arguments. We can either leave this ta...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: On Geography at ACF Nationals
Replies: 31
Views: 10678

Re: On Geography at ACF Nationals

Thanks, Sorice. I wasn't going for cohesion or brilliance, you pretty much nailed it.
by canaanbananarama
Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: On Geography at ACF Nationals
Replies: 31
Views: 10678

Re: On Geography at ACF Nationals

I will make the confession that I was unaware that the distribution had changed prior to the 2008/09 season and apologize for conclusions I've made based on this. While not off my meds, I am out of the country and am completely hazy about what the distribution was and have not followed the board ver...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: On Geography at ACF Nationals
Replies: 31
Views: 10678

Re: On Geography at ACF Nationals

Charles, I don't know if you're off your meds or what, but calm down. There are just as many "leaders" of ACF defending geography as attacking it...and the result of the endless polls and posts has generally been to confirm that a significant segment of people think geography should stick...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:59 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: On Geography at ACF Nationals
Replies: 31
Views: 10678

On Geography at ACF Nationals

I haven't paid very much attention to these various threads and they seem to be an unproductive continuation of an ever-growing trend towards cutting geography out. I would like to point to three people, who as it so happens, are the current leaders of ACF: Matt, Seth, and Jerry. All three of you cr...
by canaanbananarama
Fri Sep 25, 2009 7:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Recruitment and Retention
Replies: 29
Views: 7869

Re: Recruitment and Retention

Eh, I'm convinced that that email did absolutely zero to affect how many people we retained. Your principles are right; that's in no way an effective way to retain people. I just can say with a fair degree of certainty that it wasn't too poorly targeted. The people who were going to drop away alrea...
by canaanbananarama
Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Recruitment and Retention
Replies: 29
Views: 7869

Re: Recruitment and Retention

Let me appreciate very much that my use of the word s-n-i-g-g-e-r-e-d, a perfectly acceptable English word, was censored by this board.
by canaanbananarama
Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Recruitment and Retention
Replies: 29
Views: 7869

Re: Recruitment and Retention

Well, to focus more on recruitment and retention, these are my ideas. RECRUITMENT: 1.) When I recruit for quizbowl, I try to emphasize less on what quizbowl actually is. Yes, I'll bring up Jeopardy, or lame Chip Beall-like competitions, because it's in the average person's field of knowledge. You're...
by canaanbananarama
Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Recruitment and Retention
Replies: 29
Views: 7869

Re: Recruitment and Retention

One thing I think this can be attributed to, Dwight, is our status as West Coasters. For my first three years of college (in which I only played one and a half year), I was perfectly content living in a wonderful bubble outside of this wacky East Coast circuit that I only knew through a forum I neve...
by canaanbananarama
Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:20 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VETO discussion
Replies: 80
Views: 30561

Re: VETO discussion

To sum up my argument: I think that it's within reason that some of the motivation lying within doing this "great deed" lies in a many year struggle against bad quizbowl that manifests itself in periodic outbursts against Canada and the South. The VETO brass made a mistake accepting to do ...
by canaanbananarama
Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VETO discussion
Replies: 80
Views: 30561

Re: VETO discussion

Man, this is utterly formulaic. I've mentioned to a couple editors, in joking terms and more serious ones that this idea was one of the worst dreamed up in quizbowl. All this effort, and look, people, we knew what was going to happen. Two months ago, any reasonable person could have figured out, hey...
by canaanbananarama
Wed Jan 07, 2009 5:40 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Announcement: Geography Monstrosity (May 2009, Chicago)
Replies: 158
Views: 59828

Re: Announcement: Geography Monstrosity (May 2009, Chicago)

Possibly, this is the two liter bottle of Montenegrin beer talking. Be warned, and geography nerd alert: Would anybody be interested in a post-Geography Monstrosity freehand cartography event? No atlases, no resources, we just get a random country, city, historical region, alternative historical reg...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Dec 29, 2008 9:24 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Replies: 28
Views: 4987

Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament

Jeff, I just sent you a message on Facebook, but wasn't aware of the existence of this thread. Have you come up with a distribution yet-I'm very curious to see it. That being said, I'm going to try my darnedest to get some vacation time that would allow me to spend a couple of weeks in California an...
by canaanbananarama
Tue Aug 05, 2008 6:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gauging Interest: Fantasy Quizbowl League
Replies: 35
Views: 8508

Re: Gauging Interest: Fantasy Quizbowl League

Sign me up for this. Sit on the injured reserve and take it, #1 draft pick CHRIS RAY.
by canaanbananarama
Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:42 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF nationals discussion
Replies: 89
Views: 18501

Re: ACF nationals discussion

I will agree with Dwight that the whole prelims were effectively made a waste of time. There was absolutely no incentive for Maryland to go 6-0. We could have just taken a siesta against Stanford, Minnesota, and Florida State, let them blow us out as we get some much needed sleep, cranked it up to 7...
by canaanbananarama
Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2008 NAQT ICT to be held in St. Louis
Replies: 29
Views: 15117

Re: 2008 NAQT ICT to be held in St. Louis

NO! ERIC MUKHERJEE COME HERE! CHARLOTTE, YOU'RE SO LUCKY! ICT SUCKS WITHOUT YOU!
by canaanbananarama
Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:18 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MCMNT 2008 Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 14383

Re: MCMNT 2008 Discussion

In Arabic, the book's title translates most literally to Guide of the Perplexed (or Baffled or Bewildered), since it's an idaafa (construct state) and therefore the word "Guide" is in the "nominative" (marfu') and perplexed is in the "genitive" (majrur) [there is no dat...
by canaanbananarama
Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:42 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Pronunciation question
Replies: 24
Views: 6261

Re: Pronunciation question

Within the Altaic language family, Kazakhstan's name is pronounced Qozoqistan (or other spelling variants) in the Oghuz (Turkmen, Azeri, Turkish) and Karluk (Uzbek, etc.) groups. Therefore saying it as four syllables should be perfectly fine-as a Turkish speaker I'm inclined personally to add in the...
by canaanbananarama
Fri Feb 22, 2008 1:58 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Official ICT Hotel
Replies: 10
Views: 3121

HKirsch said: If I go to ICT, I'll be the only Brandeis person there, and I'll be going on my own funding. With that in mind, is there anyone who might like to split a hotel room? So, wait a minute, from what I hear, you're a GIRL, right? Deal. You're buying the liquor, though. Oh, and I'm choosing ...
by canaanbananarama
Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:31 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Cardinal Classic Predictions
Replies: 2
Views: 2041

Cardinal Classic Predictions

All right, these are my Cardinal Classic predictions. Feel free to comment if you want, or make your own. Actually, please make your own-don\'t let this fine tradition die. 1.) Rom-Just because Eric Smith is being a cock and isn’t granting certain people permission to visit Stanford University doesn...
by canaanbananarama
Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: COTKU discussion
Replies: 14
Views: 5873

ROAR Jonathan Magin angry at your misplaced best friendship forever that has not been placed in he who is BFF to all. The sky over Maryland and Magin's hall of plenty the South Campus Commons looms red as if Bruce Arthur were drawn and quartered by Fra Filippo Lippi and Lippi ascended to the heavens...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Jul 30, 2007 3:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open Predictions
Replies: 9
Views: 5107

Chicago Open Predictions

Make predictions in this thread. Mine are below: First: Weiner/Sorice/Potru/Ullsperger Jerry’s lazy decision to let Ray Luo write another misguided India theme packet gives Sudheer a 17/0 round and the team a much needed win against Kemezis et al. Second: Westbrook/Luo/Lafer/Vinokurov Manage to be...
by canaanbananarama
Tue May 22, 2007 1:14 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Guns of August: CO History Doubles
Replies: 42
Views: 25517

I'll play, too.
by canaanbananarama
Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:06 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Movement/Retirement Thread
Replies: 33
Views: 17365

Since my efforts to use my wusta to get flights from London to Sana'a cancelled are doing nothing to ruin Jordan Boyd-Graber's weekends, I'm going to probably go to the University of Maryland to be better positioned for scheming to disrupt the weekends of Princeton college bowl personnel. I'll proba...
by canaanbananarama
Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Consolidated College Bowl results thread
Replies: 96
Views: 45220

Wow, congrats on the triple digits figure. Could I trouble you to drop Mjollnir long enough to airmail a lock of your divine Nordic hair to Sana'a to highlight my great moments in CBI history shrine? It'll go great between my copy of William Shatner theatrically reciting Richard's Reid famous Auburn...
by canaanbananarama
Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MASQUE III -- University of Minnesota
Replies: 5
Views: 3783

Wow, if anybody starts up one of those high school threads about Minnesota Comparisons ’06-’07 and I don’t happen to post, chalk up my vote for Stanford College Bowl as the odds-on favorite to dominate the circuit. Let’s just hope an ill-timed baby delivering doesn’t derail them from an ap...
by canaanbananarama
Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Some constructive ECSO criticism
Replies: 17
Views: 9123

While I made the same logical leap on the Diwali tossup (sounds like an Indian religious festival, can anything else really come up at this level of difficulty?), your claim on the "mahdi" tossup, which I wrote, is misinformed. There isn't a large answer space for what it could be, I'll gr...
by canaanbananarama
Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:11 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pronunciation
Replies: 67
Views: 33562

Bruce writes: I know this from personal experience. At Chicago practices, I am notorious for anglicizing things (just the other day I pronounced "mahdi" with a h and got a dirty look from Selene Koo for it). The truth is that this is only half or even just one quarter political; much of it...
by canaanbananarama
Thu Jun 22, 2006 7:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Western Teams
Replies: 8
Views: 4551

I would guess that the bulk of members on this board from the West are from California, which has two rather thriving circuits in Southern California (LA, Orange, and San Diego counties) and Northern California (SF Bay Area). Although, like many here, I don't know that much about other states in the...
by canaanbananarama
Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Cardinal Classic XVI at UCLA: 6/24/06
Replies: 0
Views: 1957

Cardinal Classic XVI at UCLA: 6/24/06

The UCLA College Bowl Club is pleased to announce Cardinal Classic XVI: Fugitive from the Stanford Campus Police on June 24, 2006. This tournament will be a mirror of the tournament held in Pittsburgh under the auspices of former Berkeley quiz bowl player Jerry Vinokurov. N.B. Though we're calling t...
by canaanbananarama
Thu May 25, 2006 9:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Are there really "Masters" tourneys?
Replies: 3
Views: 3066

There are usually several events throughout the year in the West Coast that are open to any players. For the summer, there will possibly be two events held. I'm trying to host a mirror (at UCLA) of an East Coast tournament that would likely be hosted in late June (June 24th is the probable date as o...
by canaanbananarama
Sun May 14, 2006 2:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: UCLA HS Tournament May 13
Replies: 6
Views: 4495

I checked Stanford college bowl's website beforehand-they had a field listed for the Menlo tournament and Edison was listed on the field. Brief results from the tournament: San Dieguito defeated Arcadia A to win the overall title. Rancho Bernardo finished third, and Torrey Pines finished fourth. Aft...
by canaanbananarama
Thu May 04, 2006 9:41 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: Underwhelmed
Replies: 141
Views: 153842

Matt Weiner writes: Let this be a lesson in why democracy doesn't work. What is the interest of the 90% of teams who have no realistic chance of winning any tournament where the best teams in the country compete on good packets and rules? It's to make the tournament less fair by making questions sp...
by canaanbananarama
Mon May 01, 2006 1:18 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: UCLA HS Tournament May 13
Replies: 6
Views: 4495

UCLA HS Tournament May 13

I suppose some people from my state now actually read this board, so I'll belatedly announce this tournament here. Field Update: Arcadia (3) Foothill (1) Los Altos (1) Pasadena Poly (2) Rancho Bernardo (1) San Dieguito (2) Torrey Pines (1) Troy (1) Tustin (2) Charles Meigs The UCLA College Bowl Club...
by canaanbananarama
Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CBI Nationals Results
Replies: 11
Views: 7355

CBI Nationals Results

This was mentioned in another thread, but was glossed over, so here is a more detailed synopsis of CBI Nationals for the couple of people who care. In the round robin, the four best teams actually managed to escape alive, clearly separating themselves from the pack with Illinois getting the #1 seed,...