Green Room - Week 22 - Day 4

[clauderainsrm]

Between Avengers Endgame and Game of Thrones I think a lot of folks are going to be spending the next week in therapy.

If that wasn't true though - there is still one major epic battle scene about to happen - the Literary Prize Fight finale!

The deadline for everyone to get their entries in is TONIGHT https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1063949.html

which means the poll is about to get started!

I promise not to post any spoilers about how the poll is going to turn out! Mostly because I have no idea. Someone should ask Stephen Strange or Bran. I'm pretty sure they've already seen this play out! Maybe that's why they are hiding so no one bugs them about it!

Comments

[rayaso]

What I want is not only the super power to see the future, but the power to create the future, at least as far as the poll goes. Call me Futureman! Now I just need a super-costume. I don't look good in spandex or a cape, and somehow jeans and a t-shirt just doesn't have that super-panache a hero needs. I also need an origin story, an alter-ego, and a nemesis. Too much for today. But not for the next round of Idol.

[murielle]

I got so wound up watching GoT last night I couldn't get to sleep. Needed an episode of The Good Fight to settle down. ;-))

[sonreir]

Entry posted, checked for typos, need to check it again, but...AHHHHHH.

I've never made it this far in Idol, was not expecting to make it this far, and am still waiting for you to tell me that there was a mistake and I was actually eliminated in, like, week 4, Gary!

[murielle]

You've played before?! I don't remember you playing before. Did you play under another name? :-)

[sonreir]

Yeah, I've played before. One of my friends dragged me in for season 7 or 8. I want to say 8, probably? I wrote only non-fiction and never made it very far; might be why I'm not memorable! I had a different name and I can probably dig it up if I really hunt, but I don't really, um, "journal" much outside of this. It felt easier to just start something new here versus over there. I suppose I'll have to resurrect it when Gary moves stuff back. :)

EDIT: I checked, it was Season 8. Pretty sure, anyway. :D

[murielle]

LOL!

I'm hopeless with..."handles"...do we still call them that? Associating names and abstract personalities is not my forte.

Back in the days when the internet was a baby, I belonged to a bulletin board or two and trying to keep track of who was who was a major challenge for me.

Season eight was before my time I'm afraid. I started in season ten I think.

:-)

[sonreir]

I was wondering, because you're pretty memorable, and I didn't think you were in 8...funny how that works out! :)

[murielle]

Woo! I just did a W.C. Fields double-take! "Memorable!" :-D. Thank you!

It's all the exclamation marks isn't it? :-))

[sonreir]

No, it's that you (and halfshellvenus, too!) are some of the nicest people in Idol, and both excellent writers to boot! You're very easy to remember! I lurk a LOT and I'm not very memorable myself, but kindness and always having a good word for everyone sticks out! :)

[halfshellvenus]

Aw, that's sweet of you. Thank you!

[sonreir]

You're welcome! You're consistently nice to everyone and you always leave really thoughtful, detailed comments on everyone's work -- you're great! :D

[murielle]

Thank you so much. That is so kind of you to say. And being mentioned along with halfshellvenus is such a huge compliment. Thank you. :-)

[bleodswean]

Season 8 was before my time, too. How did you know where I lived?

[sonreir]

I've kept up with who makes it to the finals in Idol! :) You're one of the people who consistently does it and I liked your writing, so I read back...

I'm sorry, I realize that this probably seems quite creepy. :x

[bleodswean]

Quite creepy. But I don't write non-fic. How would you know where I live?

[sonreir]

I'm sorry, I thought that you did. I could have sworn that you wrote something about your area, but it would appear not.

It's possible (and likely) that I've confused you with someone else, and I am deeply sorry for causing you any distress. My memory isn't great, so I usually go off icons, and yours seemed familiar...

Again, I apologize. Odds are that it's a creepy coincidence.

[bleodswean]

Hmmmmm....you were pretty specific in stating that you didn't know I was so close to the Camp Fire. If you have coincidences like that, you ought to play the lottery.

So, you wrote for just a short while in S8 and it was non-fic entries and you don't remember your LJ name.

[sonreir]

I realized that I confused you with another Idoler. Apparently there's more than one person who has played and lives in northern California? I'm sorry, I'm really not great with names.

I mostly tend to lurk. I'm getting the sense that perhaps I should go back to doing so, so as not to scare anyone else. :/

[bleodswean]

No worries.

[halfshellvenus]

I'm also in Northern California, though not quite as close to the Camp Fire as bleodswean.

We got quite a bit of the smoke from it, though. It was the principal reason we lost our cat in early December. :(

[sonreir]

I think there's someone else, too, at least from my reading-of-finalists. I'm not going to tag them, though, because I don't want them to be alarmed by some stranger saying, "HEY REMEMBER THAT TIME YOU WROTE ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVED? I DIDN'T FORGET!" and freak someone else out...

I'm sorry to hear about your kitty! :( My mom had to put down one of my childhood cats (adopted when I was 13) in November. She was an old, old lady (almost 20), and it still hurt...losing a pet is always hard.

[halfshellvenus]

Hahaha! I like that summary. :)

Well, rayaso is my husband, so he also lives in Northern California. ;)

And furzicle lives in Southern California...

We lost our cat SO much earlier than we expected. We got her when she was four, and we didn't realize she had health problems (heart and kidney issues). But the smoke made her so much worse, so much sooner than we could ever have imagined. She was only 9. Poor thing. :(

[halfshellvenus]

All of that is in your regular journal entries-- not your Idol entries. And those entries are public, so anyone can see them.

I've back-read people who seemed interesting to me, especially if I like what they write and I'd be interested in friending them.

[bleodswean]

Maybe. But this person didn't say they were going through old journal entries. Besides which, my journal is pretty locked ever since that horrific and devastating public attack I endured in an Idol Green Room.

I guess I just am not understanding the anonymity issue?

[clauderainsrm]

FYI - your DW journal is public. I wasn't sure so I logged out of my account and went to look. Sure enough, it's public.

If you want to lock it, I think you have to set that as the default. I still don't know a lot about DW though.

[bleodswean]

Thanks for the heads up!!!! That must be some sort of thing having to do with DW because it's been filtered ever since....I will rectify!

[clauderainsrm]

Yeah. I could have sworn it was too!

The public stuff on LJ is probably what was crossposted (I didn't look to make sure, but that makes the most sense)

[clauderainsrm]

Because I could very well be confused (being out of it) I went over to your LJ and that's mostly public too. Again, I was signed out...

You may want to check your security settings to make sure it's where you want it.

[bleodswean]

Thanks, again. I'm not terribly concerned, this has been such a sweet and gentle season. But I'm slightly frustrated that crossposting somehow wiped out my filters. One would like to believe (unlike on FB) that privacy filters stay, uh, private! ;)

[clauderainsrm]

EXACTLY! I did a quick sweep of my own journal (not that I actually use it) to make sure that it was what I thought it was!

When social media sites start changing up the privacy settings that's definitely a cause for concern.

[halfshellvenus]

I think the problem is that the privacy filter you're using is for friends-locked posts (rather than just "private to you").

LJ has no context for determining who your friends at Dreamwidth were, and vice-versa, so the entry just becomes entirely public.

It probably should do the REVERSE of that ("Let me add only users A.lj and B.lj and Z.lj, who are friends"), because not finding specific 'friends' should mean that nobody but you sees it.

But no. I think that's a bug worth reporting, personally. :)

[halfshellvenus]

It isn't locked, though. At least, not mostly. Most of it is public, at least as far back as I went to look to check (November). Including all those entries.

"Reading back" could mean either reading through journals or through previous Idol entries. The journal entries are easier, in fact. Can you imagine wading backward through the polls?

[bleodswean]

Well, I certainly don't mean to be argumentative, K. And you definitely know better than I do about it. I just found it odd that this unknown-to-me person commented about their knowledge of my location the day after the fire on a comment I made in the GR about waiting for evac orders. I don't see much in my journal that would have given such information away.

Anyhow, I'm not really that plussed about it.

Good luck in the finale!

[clauderainsrm]

Email me and I'll tell you the name you wrote under for that season.

[sonreir]

Thanks, Gary. Might have to do that, go take a slog through my ancient terrible writing... :D

I appreciate all that you do!

[halfshellvenus]

Season 8 was when I started! Though I think I mostly just read my own tribe's entries until we started to come down to a more reasonable number. I mean, there were about 334 people at the start of S8, and the tribes were about 80 people each!!

Hmmm, wonder who you were back then?

[clauderainsrm]

I would love for those numbers to be accurate. But I don't think we crossed 300 until after Second Chance was added to the total.

There were a lot of people though. :)

[halfshellvenus]

Are you sure? I remember it being horrifying...

I could swear that when Second Chance people come in, we normally never make it back to the number of people who started at the begining. It's almost always some lesser amount-- maybe (current + ((peak - current)/2)).

[clauderainsrm]

I meant that our overall numbers of "How many people showed up to write in Season 8 didn't top 300" until we add those who came for Second Chance. Sorry for the confusion!

[clauderainsrm]

Just looked 292. And I seem to recall that LJ's cut off for vote size capped the tribes at around 60 each.

That said, I DID make you walk uphill, both ways, in the snow.

[sonreir]

I have zero idea how you manage to do what you do. Excellent organizational skills? Good gravy, Gary!

[murielle]

Do not use the "S" word!

;-)

[sonreir]

I emailed Gary, and he told me. :D

Looking at the journal, though, the results are too embarrassing to share. I'm going to hang out here and pretend that I never once started an entry with, "This is a bad prompt, but..."

(I absolutely did, and I'm glad I took writing classes through the community center, because goldang they seem to have paid off! Reading old stuff is PAINFUL. :( )

[flipflop_diva]

On my very first season in Idol, like right in the beginning, someone commented in a Green Room that they hate when people talk about the prompts in their pieces and they never vote for those, and other people commented to agree — so I took that as one of my first pieces of advice and tried not to do that, but otherwise, I probably would have done something like you! xD

ETA: I'm really glad you're in the finale! You've been one of my favorites this whole season, so you've definitely come a long way since your old season :)