Green Room - Week 14 - Weekend Edition

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

We have a poll going on - http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/689432.html - maybe you heard something about it!

Maybe you didn't though, in which case get yourself over there to read those entries and see what the fuss is all about!

***

Speaking of fuss, I want to thank everyone who sent me supportive emails. It meant a lot.

I also want to thank the people who told me to f-off and die. Notice that they *said it* but they didn't take their ball and go home? They stayed. Because they love Idol even if a twist is rough on their heart. More people should pay attention to that lesson!

***

It's Labor Day weekend, what are you laboring away at? What has your Union done for you? Will they be helping you cook out???

Comments

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I also want to thank the people who told me to f-off and die. Notice that they *said it* but they didn't take their ball and go home? They stayed. Because they love Idol even if a twist is rough on their heart. More people should pay attention to that lesson!

Aww hell. How else would you know these theoretical people gave a damn? I mean, it's when ::cough:: those kinds of people are all quiet that you really have to worry.

(and I don't think anyone said to die, because nobody wants that.)

Edit: Also FIRST! (Is there a "the first will be last" twist?)

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Heehee. Yes. "Those kinds of people." *whistles innocently*

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

SECOND!

...and I'm on my way to bed just as soon as I put ointment goop in Max's eye. This is going to be interesting.

CUPCAKES ARE FINALLY DONE AND BOXED!

And I work on Sunday :p

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the ointment. I'm very relieved to be done with ear drops for Luke.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

What if we're supportive of you fucking off and dying? Does that count?

J\K. Only way I'm gonna be voting with my feet around here is giving you the occasional boot to the head.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Or you could hit the poll button with your toes! That would work too!

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

DUDE. As if you could chase me off with something like this. As IF. :P

Did I ever tell you how many stories I had finished before I signed up for second chance Idol in s8? A grand spanking total of.... wait for it... Two.

I now have a portfolio of more than a hundred stories (and goddammit most of them are good) and I'm submitting them regularly for publication. I may call you names and tell you I'm not thrilled with this latest rollercoaster twisty thing, but I'm not flouncing off anywhere. I like what Idol helps me to accomplish.

But I'm still gonna call you a jerk. :P

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Two?

I would never have guessed. This IS amazing.

And again, a whole different bit of stretching with the non-fiction this season, too. :)

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

Wow, really? That's awesome.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Before Idol, I wasn't writing regularly at all. Now I feel like the day's been wasted if I don't hit 750 words at the very least. ;) So I'm right there with you!

I'm sure if I were still in I'd be calling Gary a jerk right about now, too. :D But this sort of evil is a thing in Idol and I would have cursed it and then gotten over it. Mostly because I would have known I was doomed. ;) I don't poll well.

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

I only read the drama this morning, although when I saw the poll announcement, I figured there would be fall out :D

I remember this happening a while back when we were in a threesome. I was the one who got voted out *sniff* STILL BITTER (not really)

Today is baby B's (aka baby Jesus) birthday! He turns one :D So a year ago, I really was labouring away. Today, though, I'm going to be labouring at making lots of food for the birthday tea tonight.

It's a windy day here today, which makes for a nice change. Now, I'm going to go and bake sausage rolls and pumpkin scones. Happy weekend, everyone!

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday Baby B! Enjoy your tea and scones!

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday to baby B!

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

Happy Labor Day weekend. I'm kind of relieved to be out at this point, judging by what happened with the top 8. The pieces I've read so far are very good too.

My union doesn't do much, unfortunately. Then again, it's not one of the big time unions like the AFL-CIO.

ETA: I'm asking everywhere, but if anyone has any experience dealing with Air BNB, I'm wondering if it's worth checking out or not. Any travel anecdotes are welcome, even if you haven't used the service.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

I've used AirBnB in Germany, New Orleans, India and a few other places. Had excellent luck--clean, pleasant places and good deals. I've done one with the hosts in the apartment, one with the host as a neighbor, and one with no host interaction and all were fine.

[acalculatedname.livejournal.com]

Actually, dude, you know what? I'm gonna give it to you straight.

The reasons some of us haven't "taken our ball and gone home" may have more to do with not wanting to screw our intersection partners out of a sense of having won the round fair and square... or as fair / square as is possible under the current circumstances. I did in fact seriously consider withdrawing my entry in protest when the poll entry dropped, but I knew it wouldn't "teach" you anything and might have unwanted negative impact of some kind on round-pardner AGNL going forward.

I hope you know full well by now that I like you, Gary, but this move of yours was utter and complete bullshit. No matter what you may think, it wasn't a Clever, Oh-So-Ghoooulish Twist. It wasn't a reminder-lesson in how aaaanything can happen when that zaaaaany Gary's at the Idol helm and/or his mythic all-encompassing Tough Love or something. No, it was simply straight-up bullshit of the purest, flattest, roundest, brownest grade... and extraordinarily poorly scheduled bullshit at that.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I said it yesterday and I'll say it again: People are butthurt over this because suddenly they're competing for a final 4 against a friend, or somebody they like.

It's no different from any other twist Gary would have thrown out at this point in ANY season.

It's basically him poking everybody with a WAKE UP THIS IS A COMPETITION stick because, up until now, things have been very quiet and almost dead around here. We could go into all the reasons for that (dearth of LJ, the season itself, how everyone is tired because both exhibits were back-to-back, etc.) But the fact remains -- if he doesn't throw twists out there to garner interest/encourage interaction, Idol will be just as dead as every other writing community out there.

I don't see why everyone is making such a big issue out of this:

Nothing is fair in a competition, no matter how much you like your fellow contestant/partner. That's just the nature of the beast.

AND

I think a lot of people forgot the whole "competition" factor, so this twist caught everyone unawares :points to the official Exhibit B icon: so, yeah, it's understandable why people are upset. If you're going to be upset, be upset at the fact that you haven't been paying attention lately to anything except your writing. Writing is only part of the game.

One thing this game has taught me is not to take everything personally. If I were still playing, I would have been hurt at the outset, but I would have shrugged it off because...hey, it's a game. And it took me a few seasons to realize that.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

The only thing I'm laboring away at is finding my way between and through four different (mostly nearby) convention hotels in downtown Atlanta in this humidity, along with maybe 50,000 other conventioners. At least I've located the nearest Starbucks now. Lol!

Went to several panels yesterday, changed a few from option A to option B (out of like a bajillion and three options) because some were too far away from each other (ie: 3:00 panel at the Sheraton, 4:30 at the Hyatt, then 7:00 back at the Sheraton? No thank you - I'd rather just stay at one or the other!) but I'm getting ready to have breakfast then hopefully make it to a 10:00 panel on YA literature, after that we will see!

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Which convention?

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

A'ight, fuck it, I'm in the mood to not give a shit about pissing people off because fuck this poll and everything to do with it, so here goes.

I don't think there's anyone here who likes every single twist (spoiler: I hate this one), but speaking for myself anyways, twists are a love-hate relationship and despite the initial fist shaking at a lot of them, it's way more love than hate. It's kinda like going through a haunted house at a carnival. Part of it might be exhilarating, part of it might legit scare the shit out of you, part of it may be campy and hilarious, part of it may startle you and make you scream at first and then you burst out laughing instead, and even if you come out of the haunted house all pissed off that "OMG why'd there have to be a goddamn [spider, clown, other thing you're personally phobic of] in there?!?" or you say to yourself as you go in "if there's a fucking [insert phobia here] in there, I am *so* leaving" - you can leave or not or get mad or not and debate about whether the room full of [insert something super scary or gross here] went too far but you're the one who went into a haunted house so you don't get to bitch too much that it didn't turn out to be the Tunnel of Love. The answer isn't that the haunted house would be great if only there was nothing scary in it, because then it would just be one more of a billion boring empty buildings, and honestly, if that's what you're in the market for, then it makes no sense to line up at a haunted house.

Personally, I think pimping is what ruins the game, because it means some people get bodyguards armed with flashlights and tasers to shield them from everything as they go through, so in effect, those people aren't even really going through the same haunted house as the people who sign up to actually go through the haunted house, and NGL if I had my way, the only people who'd be allowed to vote would be the people who'd actually competed in Idol at some point in the past season or two, or at least competed in Idol at some point at all. None of this twitter or Facebook bullshit. And I fully expect that a ton of people are reading this comment, rolling their eyes, and thinking I need to STFU because there are a million reasons why pimping is an important part of Idol... and that's exactly my point. I loathe pimping and I hate that it's not considered cheating. Other people hate certain twists, or hate all twists, or hate tribes, or hate no tribes, or hate gatekeepers, or hate that [insert type of post here] is allowed, or think that using a beta reader is cheating, or whatever the fuck else, but the bottom line is, if any of us like it bland and predictable, we shouldn't be lining up for the haunted house. Believe me, I'm saying this through a ton of anger at the current twist. But I'll take that twist, and the bullshit pimping too, over a dumbass Tunnel of Love any day of any week.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

*points to poll post*

*gives you gas mask and hazmat suit to protect you from the mounds of poo and accompanying methane gas*

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Painting, reconstruction, gardening, and inventing new cocktails.
Watching thunderstorms roll by.

I've mostly gotten over the twist (it's only a game, and it's never been a pure writing competition), though I'm watching the polls with some concern. For obvious reasons. ;-)

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping the rain holds off long enough so I can vacuum the Jeep. I return to work tomorrow and somehow I don't think dog hair is supposed to be part of my uniform :p

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

I'm wading into this late in the game, and I'm going to keep this short of less than epic proportions, because I need to get this week's Wild Violet (http://www.wildviolet.net) posts done before tomorrow.

What a lot of people forget is that Gary's inspiration for LJ Idol has always been more "Survivor" than a certain singing show. If you've watched as many of those competition reality shows as I have -- not just "Survivor" but also "Top Chef," "Project Runway," "Next Top Model," etc. -- the twists and turns not only make the show exciting but also heighten the challenge. And they happen so often viewers always wonder why the contestants are surprised...

No, LJI is not "just" about writing, but NOTHING in life is ever simple. Making it in the writing business is as much about marketing and building a following as it is about the quality of the writing. And you can argue all you want about whether that's fair or not, but you know what? What's popular isn't always what survives the test of time. It's always been more important to me what I get out of this competition than whether or not I win. The closer I get, of course, the more I want it, but I've gotten more out of participating (and learned more by occasionally getting my butt kicked) than I think I would have ever learned if I'd won the first season I played.

I know if I were playing I would have been irritated by the twist at first. But it's just as likely I would have laughed out loud, because that's what I usually do every time one of these twists is revealed. That's just my own sick sense of humor, I guess. Or maybe my gut instinct -- reinforced by years of experience -- that seeing the humor in a situation is ultimately the best way to get over it.

I'm not trying to dismiss anyone's genuine feelings of hurt, disappointment, unfairness or whatever, but part of me just wants to quote these lines from "Labyrinth."

Sarah: That's not fair!

Jareth: You say that so often, I wonder what your basis for comparison is?

As you were.

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Well said! AW

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

I'm maybe grilling today ( Sunday). Depends on weather. Reds game at 4:10 Ohio time. I'll watch that w kids and the Mothership. Made my uber-awesome potato salad. People who don't like potato salad say they like mine. : )
Played w grand puppy in a baby pool yesterday. What fun! AW

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

I am preparing to make sourdough pretzles.
Yep. I mixed yeast, egg, flour, sugar and water up and have it sitting out so that it ferments and I can use it to make bread product.
People may like the nice soft pretzles but the smell of the must is not so pleasant.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Hey, why is the poll closed? I thought we had another day...?

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Do those things happen on a timer, or are they done manually?