Blackballed again, bastards!

So this weekend was Ethics Bowl in Missoula, Montana. We left on Friday afternoon at 4:00 PM from the Lindamann parking lot. Weather was overcast, and the mood was tense. When it came time to divy up cars, it basically ended up RE/PH people in the van with Keith, and everybody else in cars. The school gave us one of the vans to use, and it was basically a giant brick on wheels, a weird voice, and an air-conditioning unit on top. While not aesthetically pleasing, it did possess the virtue of head-room for those of us over six feet (of whom there were two riding). As we left, it seemed as though some of us (namely Miranda and myself) were on our path to vengeance against our foes. We stopped in Couer d'Alene for dinner at a local Pizza Hut. While we were there, I found myself contemplating just how brain-dead the average Pizza Hut employee must actually be, considering that they messed up two of our pizzas for no apparent reason. However, on the bright side, we were not charged for the mess-ups. In fact, the corrections were free. So, we basically got much of our meal for no cost. I probably wouldn't go back to that restaurant, but that's just me. Anywho, we then saddled up again, and made for the border, agreeing to stop at the famous 10,000 Silver Dollar Casino for gas and stretching and such. However, there was a mix-up amongst us as to where exactly that was. We stopped there, while everybody else stopped in St. Regis. The upside of this was that I bought a new sword, Etrigon. Thus armed, we proceeded on to Missoula. We met up with our people, and proceeded to check into our rooms at the Campus Inn. I ended up with Jeff, Craig, and Chris. It was weird because three of us (Jeff, Craig, and I) were over six feet, while Chris was a measely 5'9. At any rate, there was very little actual sleep for one reason or another. Come morning, we showered and dressed in our very best for the bowl. We got to the university at about 7:45 Montana time, got registered, and prepped for the first rounds. DD3's first round was against a team called Bits n' Bites, composed entirely of UM computer science majors. They talked like CS majors, and did not really know a whole lot about philosophy. Oddly, the judges, who were also ignorant of philosophy, gave the round to them, while failing to understand our more complex and philosophically grounded argument. As the scores were announced, the only rational explanation I could think of was that the scores were switched. Either that, or the judges felt like we were bullying the poor U of M students with our sound logic and good public speaking skills. But no, they were finalized. As we walked out, one word rippled through our minds: robbed. At any rate, we proceeded on to the next round, debating wolf relocation and Native Alaskan fishing rights with a team from UW called the Justice League. Again, we presented strong cases grounded solidly in philosophical concepts, and again we came up short in the judges' eyes. One of our profs happened to see the round, and felt the same way we did: robbed. At this point, we were beginning to feel somewhat frustrated by the whole mess. This round we lost by only one point, but it was still a loss. Our third and final round came against an UM team called Hypatia's Daughters, and we thoroughly trounced them on issues of relational fidelity and spy scholarships, bringing our win-loss record to 1-2, not good enough to make the finals. Oddly, we were the second-highest scoring team overall in the tournament, but with our crappy record (which looks horrid on paper), we were unable to make the semi-finals. In short, I was pissed. I wanted to win, and I wanted blood. Still do, come to think of it. The one Whitworth team that did make it in wouldn't let any of us watch them, so we couldn't tell what they had said or anything like that, so there was no real way to watch all of it. After all was said and done, we went back to our vehicles, and headed home, stopping briefly for gas, and then for dinner at the Outback in CDA. I had a nice Ribeye steak cooked medium rare. Ah, delightful. At least I got some of the blood that I so hungrily desired. Anywho, that was my weekend in a nutshell.