The Next Season

The speech season is officially over, with the NU Team in a comfortable bid for first or second in the state of Michigan and even a good national presence. So I'm getting started on my work for next year, I want to do 8 events, almost triple what I did this year. Here they are

Info

• Google Glasses
  • History of AR
  • Positives
  • Negatives

ADS

• Excessive Pessimism
  • Problems
    1. Elitism and false nostalgia
       • http://cnsnews.com/news/article/santorum-state-our-culture-under-administration-continues-decline (everyone thinks their solution is the right one)
    2. Discourages the search for solutions
       • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487010001388
  • Causes
    1. Media
       • Pessimism sells http://www.rationaloptimist.com/
    2. Cultural postmodernism I don't like this point; suggestions would be welcome
       • http://www.phil.ethz.ch/fileadmin/phil/files/13Pessimism.pdf
  • Solutions
    1. Society
    2. Individual

Persuasive

• ???

Rhet Crit

• ???

Prose

• You Don't Know Me
  • Author David Klass
  • Summary
    • John's stepfather is cruelly abusive, and he lives in silence because he wants his mother to be happy.
  • Selection
    • What do you think I look like? Skinny? Freckles? Wire-rimmed glasses over brown eyes? No, I don't think so. Better look again. Deeper. It's like a kaleidoscopic. One minute I'm short, the next minute tall, one minute I'm geeky, the next studly, my shape constantly changes, and the only thing that stays constant is my brown eyes, watching you. That's right, I'm watching you right now, sitting on the couch next to the man who is not my father, pretending to read a book that is not a book, waiting for him to pet you like a dog or stroke you like a cat. Let's be real, the man who's not my father isn't a very nice man. Not just because he is not my father, but because he hits me when you're not around, and says if I tell you about it, he'll really take care of me. Those are his words. "I'll really take care of you John. Don't rat on me or you'll regret it." Nice guy.
    • I walk half way around the house, and see no signs of life. My house that is not a house is quiet, dark and, to all appearances, empty.  I reach my backyard, pass the apple tree that is actually a gray-leaf tree, and stomp through ankle-deep snow to my back porch. I quietly climb the steps, open the door, and slip inside. But as I reach to turn on the light, a hand shoots out of the darkness and grabs my arm in a painful grip. "Gotcha!" a voice says, and I smell the whiskey reek of the man who is not my father.

Poetry

• Quantum Lyrics
  • Author A. Van Jordan
  • Selection
    • Tonight, somewhere lost in the occipital lobe / filled with geometry and seduction, I consider / Newton's laws of motion, force as matter accelerating / at the speed of sound and tearing through a room / like a man bent on destruction

Extemporaneous Speech
Impromptu Speech