I don't game. At all. I do sometimes enjoy watching other people game. When I'm really bored and I happen to be hanging out with someone into gaming.

No real interest.

But for some reason I've been finding myself continually sucked into the rabbit hole that is "#GamerGate", especially now with more death threats coming toward people who have spoke up against the shitty way women are treated in the gaming community.

What interests me is that every time you peel back a layer, and think you have a good understanding of what is happening - someone says something and throws you into an entirely different area. Maybe *this* is the game that I can get into: Following complete meltdowns of fandom groups.

I'm pretty much convinced that half of the gamer community are horrible human beings and the other half are horrible Canadians (or something called a "Canadian-American")

Which did remind me of the sheer number of "social justice" bloggers that I know, out there, who are Canadian - and once again have the urge to tell them to get off my lawn! No one asked you Canuck!! :P

(or maybe it's the long-standing stereotype that Canadians are "extra nice" that is just coming out to the forefront and ruining the quality of meanness and inequality that the rest of the world cherishes for everyone!)

***

Those were the things that I was concentrated on for most of the day yesterday. Until the news hit.

Those of you who know shay_writes know how awesome she is, and how she has been a member and supporter of this community for years. (I think Season 3 was her first. It may have been 2 though) Even when she doesn't play, she's usually out there cheering from the sideline.

Life has been rough lately, but it just got even worse.

I don't have many details - and I'm probably saying too much already, but her 3 year old grand daughter Naomi died today after falling down stairs a few hours earlier. (yesterday by the time I post this)

If you are religious - prayers would be appreciated. If you are not - good thoughts toward those left behind in the devastation never hurt.

Shay is one of us. I'm not sure what, if anything, we can do for her. But if anyone hears anything - other than just keeping the family in our hearts, please let me know.

That, and hug the people you love, and let them know how much they matter to you. No matter how old or young they are. Because you never know just how much time you are going to have left with them. Cherish it.

***

All of that said - I'm still trying to run this thing that Shay loves. And I would be remiss if I didn't post a link to the poll: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/792692.html

That said, I can't eliminate anyone this week. My heart just went out of me. We are still giving people the chance to advance. But no one is leaving us from that "Last Chance" poll.

I'll make up for it a little later. Just not today. I just can't do it today.

***
I forgot to link these things. So here they are: A new topic: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/793590.html
and a Work Room: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/793644.html

The new topic is up. Or rather, the new topic choices are up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/793590.html

Once again, you have choices to make, that will end up impacting choices you will have further down the road.

How does it differ - having more than one topic idea in front of you instead of just one thing?

Is it easier? Because you can pick and choose? More difficult? Because you need to make a decision?

Different folks react in different ways to that sort of thing - would you rather have the structure of YOU MUST WRITE THIS or the freedom to pick and choose?

When you get right down to it, all topics are a form of "Open Topic", in that the only one that you are answerable to is yourself, and the votes of the readership. But sometimes that can be enough to sabotage your brain, and trip you up.

What techniques have you developed that have proven successful in approaching a new writing situation?

In terms of eliminations and the personal impact - this one is a doozy.

There is a sacrifice by a very supportive and talented newbie dblicher who needed to bow out for personal reasons. That's never a good thing, but hopefully it will be for her actual life. Or "life" as we call it around here, because everyone knows that Idol > everything else! ;)

We are also saying goodbye to a team - in this case, it was close, but ultimately we are saying goodbye to two veterans, and fan favorites, who were involved in Second Chance. One of them is a 100 Weeks member, and the other is someone who is beyond a doubt one of the biggest cult favorites in Idol.

Goodbye to marjory and theafaye and thank you to you both. I hope we will continue to see you in the Home Game!

This post is about you.

Completely and utterly about you.

Because that’s how it “should” be, right?

Not that you would ever ask for it, or imply that you deserved people talking about you. It’s less about that, and more that they shouldn’t be talking about anyone else! ;)

***

There was an article yesterday on Yahoo news about some kid who was approaching 13 years of perfect attendance in school. Which – OK. Good for them if that is something that they value. Especially given that it was apparently in an area with a high rate of truancy. So, nice human interest story.

You always hear that people should be concentrating on GOOD news after all. So, here’s a bit of good news.

Granted, it was on yahoo – and yahoo commenters are notoriously awful people/trolls getting their LOLs by pretending to be awful people (and where is that particular line anyway? But I digress…)

But one of the very first comments was something along the lines of “My friend did the same thing – where is his Yahoo article?”

It wasn’t even the usual yahoo brand of turning things nasty – there was just this entitlement that came in, instead of “well, good for her”, there was an instant “I know someone who did this too - and they were never praised by Yahoo!” There were people who jumped on from there – the basics being that if they (or their friends) weren’t being praised, that no one should be.

It’s nothing new. You see it all the time – From I’m not praising myself, so no one should to “I made this sacrifice – so everyone should make it”.

It’s an interest attempt of influencing group think, trying to use guilt to make people not feel good about themselves – because the person talking doesn’t think much of themselves when push comes to shove… OR they do, they just don’t think that anyone else is really as good as they are! ;)

What’s even more of a WTF, is when it actually WORKS! (using a Survivor: One World example is Christina starting to repeat that she is, indeed, a cockroach!!)

Maybe there are just some people who don’t like to see other people feeling good about themselves. Just like there are people who enjoy taking public stands against stuff they end up doing anyway. (My favorite example is the person I know who railed against adultery and Clinton and how awful he was as a human being, and then posted of picture of herself with her arm around Newt Gingrich at an event!)

People are interesting, interesting creatures – and a good number of them don’t want to see you build yourself up. You should be using your energy to build them up instead!! ;)

So, this post is for you! Use it to build yourself up by saying “I don’t do that!!!” or wonder if you do… or pretend that you don’t read every single word before revealing elsewhere that you do! Or build a spaceship to take these words to your alien masters, who are coming to destroy all of humanity by the end of the year. Oh yes, I know about YOU and your “secret” plans !!

I know what this poll http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/562742.html means to those plans – so you had better make sure you survive it!!

A few words from clauderainsrm:

It's Week 25 time!! Grab your party hats, because reading through these entries, there is a literary party going on, and you are invited!

So stop just sitting around your place looking at funny cat pictures! It's time to read some incredible entries!

Then, you can comment on them, and giving them another form of feedback - your vote!

(NOTE: Remember, if LJ decides to be LJ - and it probably will, if you need to go back in and edit/add votes - you need to CHECK ALL OF THEM AGAIN. It's a charming little bug that apparently LJ is aware of and is working on, but hasn't fixed yet)

We were scheduled to lose the bottom two teams this week - but I'll spare you the speculation, there has already been a sacrifice of one contestant. So, technically, we will only be losing three people this round. (the team with the lowest collective score and the sacrifice). Which is good news for at least one person. Although it's sad to see Real Life kicking someone's ass. Hopefully, it will improve in the very near future.

The poll will close Thursday, May 3rd, at 9pm EDT

Good luck to everyone!

( Click here to Vote! )

Last night was fairly busy.

We had results: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/561560.html
New Topics: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/561685.html
And a Work Room http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/561985.html filled with people trying to snag a partner for the new round of Intersections and a Top 50 icon, for those who made it, and want one: http://ljidol.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/lji.s8.50.icon_.gif

Make sure to let people know if you are still on the market! There is no use in waiting until the last possible moment and hoping for the best!

It’s probably not going to be a surprise, but the drops over the last couple of weeks have been fairly disturbing to me. We have hit the TOP 50. I know real life has a way of getting in people’s way, but I’ve seen just as many people hit a bad week or two, over the course of 8 seasons, make the decision that they need to drop, and end up regretting it a week later, when things straighten themselves out.

After all, the “well, there’s always next season” only has one more shot to work out for you! I fully expect people, next time around, to be dragging themselves half-dead to the finish line! After all, it’s Idol> Everything else in life. Or at least, it should be! Right? Right!! ;)

Sometimes, life gets in the way. When that happens though – it’s especially rough on the people who ended up going just before you did. So, if you are at the end of the poll and you know “I’m going to have to drop next week”, you should sacrifice during that poll and let people who want to survive another day have that one more shot! Unless you just don’t want to do it. I’m not in your heads, controlling your every thought…. Or am I???

***

There were two more things that popped up on the radar, courtesy questions people have asked me over the last week:
What is my opinion of all the anonymous posts?
I assume we are talking about the act of anonymous posts themselves and not the content of them. Because, obviously, some anonymous posts have content that are better than others.
I’m not a fan of anonymous posts in general. It’s rare when they are anything other than an excuse for cowardice, for not just coming out and saying what you want to say. But suddenly, when you have no accountability, you feel like you can speak up and say it. If you can’t say it to someone’s face – you probably shouldn’t be saying it all. Especially since it’s usually easy to tell who is who, given that personal styles of writing tend to shine through. ;)

That’s why I can say that I hate you all and that you are a bunch of smelly hippies in need of a good kicking! :P You would know that was me even if I didn’t sign my name to it!

Obviously, anonymous has its place – but that place is as far from Idol as possible. That said, people are going to do whatever they want to do in their own spaces and with their own time. But the more I see of this sort of stuff, associated with Idol, the less I want to put out in ACTUAL Idol content. So, people can sit around and discuss Idol anonymously, with not much actually happening to talk about, or they can actually interact IN Idol and talk about the Idol stuff that is actually happening.

Alts – are there still any left in the game?
This is kind of a subset of something that actually came out of an anonymous question in one of those threads. Which sparked an interest in people to ask me if there was still anyone with more than one account in the competition.

My knee-jerk reaction, as usual, is to turn it around and ask if people think there is anyone else left in the competition with more than one account? ;)
Because you have been reading each other for 25 weeks now – surely you have picked up individual styles! ;)

Just to clarify though– if there are, they only have until the Top 30. After that, if they are still around – they will need to make a decision on which one to keep. Also – they only get one vote. Even in contestant only votes – they can only vote with one of the accounts. So, basically, they are doing twice the amount of work for the same amount of “power” as any one individual in the competition.

It’s interesting though, seeing people’s responses to the idea. No one seemed to overally mind them in the beginning, but as things get closer and closer, and spots become more precious – there seems to be a shift toward my own original feeling on the subject, of not wanting them to take up the spot of someone else who wants to play! Finding that balance, where people get to flex their creative muscles, while giving everyone a fair shot, has long been a puzzle to be figured out. Hopefully, we get it right more than we get it wrong.

*lights fuse attached to a hand grenade and drops it into the Green Room*

I’ll be having a busy weekend –hopefully one that is as amazing as I think it is going to be (hanging out with my niece!) but if you have other questions for me, don’t hesitate in sending them. If you ask them here though, make sure to let me know, so that I don’t miss them! ;)

Hope your weekend will be rewarding! Or at least that someone will kick you, and make my weekend better! :D

***
Happy Birthday to our own bonnie_rocks!

It's time to pair up again, and go into another round of INTERSECTIONS!

There are two topics. You write on one of them, and your partner writes the other.

The only criteria being that you can not pick someone that you have already partnered with this season! We have an even number of contestants, so no one should be left out this time!

The topics are:

cesspool
and
closer

You have until Monday, April 30th at 8pm EDT to link your entry back to this thread. Please indicate which entry you are writing and who your partner is, to make it easier on everyone. Thanks!

Good luck to everyone!

A few words from clauderainsrm:

Let us try this one more time:

Here we are, at the Final Round Two.


The first grouping were the victims of circumstance. The second were the brave, people who stepped into the danger knowing what was awaiting them.

This final group - the ones who were hanging back, who are here because they had to be here. :)

There have been people with theories about what was going to happen to this final grouping, and I'll confirm it now - the exact same fate as the people who walked into it willingly. :)

Which means we will still be losing four contestants from this particular poll.

The poll will be closing tomorrow, Thursday May 19th at 10pm EDT. It's a small window and huge stakes. Hopefully you already started reading ahead. If not, fortunately there aren't very many entries in the mix this time. Well, fortunately for readers.

Read. Comment. Vote to keep your favorites in the running.

Good luck to everyone!

( Click here to Vote! )

Before we get to the results - there is a matter of the Jury. They have been charged to, collectively, make the decision who will receive immunity each week. The only catch being, no one can receive it more than once. With so many quality entries this week, and the unpredictability of polls, it's always a challenge to reach a collective decision. How much of a challenge?

This week the contestant who won did so by 1 vote. There were 7 other contestants one vote down from winning!!!

In the end though, the first person to be granted immunity by our Jury was applespicy! Congratulations!!

That was the good news. Unfortunately, we also have the bad news to deliver. Granted, getting to this point in the competition has got to be "good news" as well. But I know that doesn't stop leaving from sucking.
I know this week is going to upset a lot of people's predictions for the season. On the other hand, the curse of being labeled the "front runner" is pretty much intact.
Today we are saying goodbye to

beeker121
joyfulfeather
tamaraland
and
team_jessie

Thank you to all of you. I know that we will not be seeing the last of you, because you are now joining the Jury, to help determine how the rest of this season is going to play out!

A few words from clauderainsrm:

This week is a block that is about to find its shape.

We are at the Top 25. At this point, I think people should know what to do. Read the entries. Comment on them, and vote for your favorites!

We will be losing the four with the fewest votes. Yes, I said four.

The Jury has also been assembled. There will be an immunity to hand out before the close of business this week. That should make things even more interesting!

"Interesting" - that's the word for it, right? ;)

The poll will close Monday May 16th at 9pm EDT. Good luck to everyone!

( Click here to Vote! )