Thursday, February 05, 2009

Waning, I hold a grudge.... for a long flipping time...

I'm finding that I have a rather unpleasant personality trait.

I hold a grudge.

In many ways I'm easy to get along with. I think I'm generally pretty laid-back, reasonable and respectful. I also have a fairly long fuse -- sure, I get irritated -- but getting me really mad takes a prolonged effort and some serious ass-hattery.

Three-plus years ago -- an ass-hat in the local debate community pissed me off. It took him a while, I tried to play nice and persuade him that his view was not only mistaken but actually anti-educational. He thought he was king-shit and ignored me. I also suspect a lot of sexism -- which would fit the larger picture.

In response, I raised the funds to take my teams out of state to avoid his stupid-ass rules. The one thing I wanted to do was to take the team to the state championships.... which really are kind of a joke, especially since they don't seem to do anything to sort teams by ability (my 'bad' teams win, by actually good team(s) lose predictably). The thing is, not all of my teams were going to nationals, so going to state would be their last tournament and I wanted it to be a decent experience for them.

The ass-hat unilaterally inserted his rules into the "official" event description, counter to the procedures of the state organization. I caught him ('cuz I don't trust him at all), busted him and he had to not only change it but post a retraction of the change. He claimed it was a mistake, but I know better. He was trying to disadvantage my teams and it pissed me off even more than when he fixed two prelim rounds to keep my teams from advancing in his tournament..

Fast-forward to today.... I have no teams in the tournament and no reason to care -- except that I hold a grudge....

You guessed it --- I followed a link and found that the ass-hat included his "rules" to the event description.

I don't know that this wasn't blessed by the organization. If it was, they deserve the stupid-ass rounds they hear.

I did send a couple of e-mails that question the inclusion of his "rules". One went to the sweet and very fair person who is in charge of the state organization. The other went to the one coach in the state who actually takes his teams to debate nationals (aka my only debate coach pal in the state).

IF the ass-hat is pulling a fast one, these two will object like they did last time.

Larger moral of the story --- don't take the effort necessary to really piss me off.... I'll watch you, I'll bide my time, and I'll get you.

1 comment:

julie said...

Ha. Good for you. I'm of a similar temperament.

P.S. Really good "all clear!" news, pal.