CAP Congress

I will admit that while I did not have a blast during the week of CAP Congress, I thought I was a good learning experience. I realized how difficult it is for a bill to become a law. Even in CAP which seems to be almost entirely liberal, it was still not easy to pass bills. The food MOCWAS brought in on Wednesday represents the bigger idea that bill sponsors will do everything they can to get their bills passed. In Congress, it was difficult to do something with all six bills in two days. We did not really have time to focus on each word of each bill, but there were clearly loopholes, which swayed my vote. At least once I would have voted differently if more time had been spent improving the bill. I was bored because rarely was a vote in doubt, even on amendments. Nonetheless, I now have a better idea of how Congress works and how every little word in a bill can be subject to debate.

The Real Fall

Today I biked on the Capital Crescent Trail and got a great chance to see fall. Too bad I didn't have any kind of camera with me, because it was a nice ride. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel as though trees are losing their leaves at a wide range of times. When I did my "Capture the Fall" video, I was having some difficulty finding many leaves. Some trees still had all their leaves. But then some had no leaves at all. In the areas with many trees, leaves were coming down everywhere, including on my head. In hindsight, this weekend would have probably been a better time to make my video.

Capture the Fall

I created my "Capture the Fall" video by going around and taking short (usually around 10 seconds) shots. I tried to bring them to life a bit by moving around, just so that it wouldn't be a still frame collage. I took shots of everything that could relate in any way to fall, or even the outdoors for that matter. The flower I briefly showed in it does not really relate specifically to fall, but I thought it was a nice shot to include. I took shots from different heights as well, to "Capture the Fall" from different perspectives. My favorite shot was dropping the iPhone, which I used to film the video, into the leaves. Until I put it into iMovie and slowed it down as much as possible, I did not know how it would look. I elected to leave background sound in just because of the crunch sound of leaves. I ended up with well over a minute of footage, and had to leave out some shots and cut some short.

Local Passion

THE BLACKOUT RETURNS

I've been waiting for five years now! DC United is finally back in the playoffs!

I've never thought Major League Soccer was one of the best soccer leagues in the world, nor have I thought DC United was one of the best clubs in the world, but I have been a fan of this team for about eight years. While I have started to pay more attention to the English Premier League and a little less to the MLS, I've stayed attached to United. The reason for this is the local passion. Soccer is hardly recognized in the U.S., and most people who do enjoy soccer keep up with international teams and leagues, and understandably so, as the quality is significantly higher. But this is what keeps me a fan of United. There is a section of fans in RFK Stadium, who spend entire games singing and jumping. Sometimes I'm right it, sometimes I by my TV. The fans have so much passion, but so do the players. Few individuals in the league are making enough money to be set for life. What most of these players are after is not a celebrity status or tons of money, they want to pursue the game they love. A

As you can see by what I wrote, I still to this day don't know exactly why I love DC United so much. All I know is there is something about the passion of the players and the fans, which makes supporting this team very exciting.

Poem: The Color Blue

The Color Blue

A Masterpiece By Ross

Blue, Blue, O wonderful blue

The color of the sky

The color of the ocean

The color... of blue cheese.

There are so many shades of this wonderful color

There's light blue

Dark blue

The color of jeans (assuming they're blue jeans)

Blue, a powerful color
A primary color
A color that can help make others

What you saw there was Blue
Blue doing what it does best
Blue acting unselfishly
Blue wanting to bring more colors into this world
Blue, just being blue

If you are ever feeling blue
Just remember: blue is feeling you
Its complimenting you on your selflessness
Telling you: while you may not appreciate yourself at the time, others do.

Blue, Blue, O mighty color blue
You always know what to do
You turn me green when I have the flu (best line right there)
You even help me tie my shoe. (rhyme)

Blue...
Blue...
How could I live without you? 

[President]-isms

This week, during the presidential debate, Mitt Romney delivered a classic. Responding to a question on pay equality for women, Romney said that while assembling his cabinet after being elected governor in Massachusetts, he was not pleased to see that his staff only sent him male applicants. He then proceeded to talk about his response. "I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks,' and they brought us whole binders full of women." This binder must have been pretty cramped. 

Romney's gaffe inspired me to search for some occasions in which other U.S. officials have misspoken.

Ronald Reagan on his recent trip: "Well, I learned a lot....I went down to (Latin America) to find out from them and (learn) their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries."

Here's a map of Latin America:

Latin America includes Mexico and all of South America

As I'm guessing you can see, there are multiple countries in this image. What amazes me is that it took Reagan a trip to Latin America to figure that out. And we can't forget that this president was best-known for his foreign policy. I wonder if he thought he was ending a Cold War with all of Asia. 

Here's another one from Mr. Reagan: "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles."

I was going to just let this one speak for itself, but then I found this image describing Reagan's claim:

This tree is breathing out CO2

 
Here's a quote from Joe Biden, which, at first glance, may not seem too bad. He was introducing Missouri state Senator Chuck Graham: "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya."

The only problem with this is that Graham happens to be in a wheelchair. I will give some props to Biden, however, as he did manage to recover from his blunder and give the man a warm welcoming. Take a look:


Just a little slip up from Joe Biden, nothing too bad. Still, it's quite funny: "The next President of the United States — Barack America!" It's a lot funnier of video:

Last up, one of the best gaffers of all time, Mr. George W. Bush. I'm going to pick a couple of my favorite from a long line of Bushisms.

On the topic of teaching to a test, Mr. Bush goes off, but unfortunately for him, what looked to be his most powerful line, turned out to be a topic of jokes for years to come: "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

Clearly having good grammar isn't a requirement to pass literacy tests. Here's a short video compilation of Bush on education (this quote is included):

 
Here's another Bush quote and it's a doozy: "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

I want to say he was trying to refer "love" to the profession, but, well... it came out all wrong.

CAP Debates

The debates started as an interesting assignment but ended up as a real disappointment.

I cannot think of another assignment in which the work I put in could not in any way reflect my result. I'm not sulking about my grade, which wasn't terrible, but I'm frustrated by what high standards we were held to. We spent 30 minutes in NSL class listening to classical music about a river, and that was all the instruction we got on how to debate. Maybe a few minutes of pointers but we got no real practice.

To describe the effort I put in: I worked each minute we were given in class, including through the breaks, and spent most of my Friday after school preparing for the debate. Then I spent several hours on Sunday practicing speaking. I felt there was little more I could do. I clearly do not have a knack for debates, but got little help in school. Now my grade in each CAP class is taking a hit. I find that quite unfair.

I came in with a huge disadvantage, as my group was the first to go. As I watched later debates, I realized several aspects I could have done better, like citing my sources while speaking. Had I presented day two or three, I would have surely made adjustments. So why must I be held to tougher standards?

I'll be the first person to admit that I was far from perfect, but I had never participated in or watched a debate until the presidential one.
 
Last year we had interdisciplinary assignments, which were a nice way once a quarter to take a break from ordinary classes. The work we did was for the most part interesting, and was hardly monitored, much like the debates. The only difference between these two is that last year if one did his or her work and put in effort, an A was easily achievable. It was nice to have one grade in which our effort controlled the result. I expected the debates to be similar, and I was not lacking in effort. So I was left with the question: What could I have done?