BlargenBlog

This week has been ridiculously busy. I had two midterms with minimal time to study. I’m pretty sure I aced the one in my art class. The philosophy one I think I got an A in, a B at the very least. Good thing I have perfect attendance and A’s on my papers so far. Also, I had a philosophy paper due and an art project which has convinced me I am unhappy with anything but complexity. I should be pulling an A on both of those, but we’ll see. Tomorrow I’m pretty sure I have a test, so I’m studying just in case.

——-

The debates: Judging by what I watched and what I saw over at factcheck.org, Obama won by a mile in both points raised and public perception. McCain, once again, was condescending.

——-

Other than that, I was asked to participate in a project over at the Journal Star, in which I gave my take on a number of campaign issues in writing, then sat down tonight for a videotaped debate session which ought to be available on their website sometime this week (I think they’re starting on Sunday or Monday).

I won’t give away many details, but suffice it to say I was more content with my written submission than my performance in front of the camera, where I was debating someone from the opposite end of the political spectrum. I feel I held my own to a degree on two of the three sessions, but utterly bombed the other. I really couldn’t think of anything to add to the discussion since the policies on it are so similar.

I think at one point I actually paused and said,”I’m drawing a blank here” or maybe an “I’ve got nothin’.” That ought to sum it up, really. It’s difficult to argue against something you basically agree with.

Anyway, the discussion was civil. To be fair, the person I was debating had brought notes, whereas I was relying on my tired, shat upon brain for responses. Add to that a dry throat (I had coffee at one point but must have misplaced it), and a shared sense of nervousness and you get the utter failure that was my performance.

Alright, alright, at this point I’m just making up excuses. The experience was enjoyable overall and is something I would consider doing again, hopefully with more preparation. No really, as soon as I saw the other person had notes I immediately thought,”dammit, this is not going to go well.” I started to write some earlier this week, but judging by the format I didn’t think they’d be allowed.

Oh well, it’s my first experience with this kind of project and I am no professional.

I did learn something tonight: I’m much better at writing than speaking. Oddly enough, this feels like an incentive to power on my podcast microphone to get some practice like I said I’d do before life got so busy. Looks like I’ll be taking tapeworm’s suggestion after all.