LJ Idol Presents:

 The best thing about 2024 has been Idol, and even that had its own failures. 

What hasn't disappointed though is actual writing that has happened  -  make sure to check out the finalists and vote.  https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1181037.html

I really can't wait for this year to be over. But I don't have a lot of faith in 2025 to do anything for my mental health.  :) 

Hopefully I am wrong.  Yeah I know, dark post.  :) It's OK though, Just wanted to check in and say hello. 

And of course to thank all of you for being that bright spot on a horrible year. 

I hope you are doing something fun tonight. 

Good morning from the bus!

How is your week going so far? The Governor gave us off from Monday until Christmas next week. Which some people are seeing as generous and others are wondering just what anyone is going to get accomplished on Thursday and Friday. :D

***
To answer some questions/comments from the last Green Room:

- Yes. It’s true that there was a mini season where there were two winners. If you recall though the THEME of that mini season centered around “intersections” where people would partner up. So that result got the theme AND they went quite a few rounds of tie breakers that went nowhere. In other words, very specific situation that, to me, does not fit into this mini season theme or foreseen circumstances. I mean never say never. But it’s not something I’d count on either as we approach the finale.

- There’s a theme to this mini season? Yes. I never said it outloud but it’s “back to basics”/old school. The few twists there have been are all things that appeared in the first 3 seasons. (Or are slight variations on them )

- Woukd I move the competition to Facebook? I allowed writers to compete FROM their Facebook before. Back when “Notes” was a thing. LJ allowed people to vote FROM their Facebook and other social media which boosted our visibility and IMO was a very good thing to get that exposure. But as others have stated, FB doesn’t have the basic capacity to function the way Idol would need it to function. Groups have polls, but as someone who runs other groups on FB, they don’t allow for links in the poll which is very important. So - would I consider FB as an alternative’s answer is “Yes” IF it was something completely different than it actually is. 😝. (In other words, no. It’s not viable even before you get to the privacy issues.)

***
Here’s a poll. Make with the clicks! https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=32372

I keep forgetting to post this - just wanted to give a special shout out to my friend Luigi who has been working hard filling in for me over the past several weeks.   He’s been working nonstop from my home office and hasn’t really had time to leave the house.  

I really appreciate you Luigi!   

 The results are in from the Write Off, which means we now have our TOP 5!! 

Congratulations to 

chasing_silver 
flipflop_diva 
inkstainedfingertips 
littlebitofearth 
xeena 


Just a short sprint from here to the finish line. Who has what it takes to make it there? 

***
I did see the question asking if we had this topic before. No, but there was a term that is closely related to it, Kintsugi, which was used in the 3 Strikes mini season. 

There are differences between the two, but I can see why someone might think "this sounds familiar"... (I have a master list of topics that I crosscheck to avoid the same one coming up, unless I specifically do it deliberately.) 


Reminder:  The deadline is tomorrow!!  therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1176122.html

***

Sorry that I'm not posting more.  Honestly it's part "seasonal depression" and part reflecting on where I was last year around this time, mental health wise. I hope YOU are doing well.  I'm thankful for everyone who has taken the time to participate in this little thing we call LJ Idol. 

 The deadline for the prompt is TUESDAY the 26th at 7pm ET. therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1174967.html

I'm mentioning this because there are currently only 2 of the 6 contestants who have posted. So unless you WANT these to be the final two, if you are one of the others, I'd highly suggest getting your entries in tomorrow/today/time is an illusion and also depends on when you see this post!

How is your week going so far? 

 The poll closes Thursday night, and it's really close. So if you've been holding off making your voice heard, now is definitely the time to do it!!
therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1173701.html

***
Funny coworker story. Well "funny"... 

Of course there is one who irritates me now. Because that's how it works.  :) 

This morning she was talking about all of the problems with the country, and how she loves her son "unconditionally" but she just has a problem with him being gay.  She was also angry that one of his friends called her "cis-gender", which she said with an over the top shocked voice that obviously expected everyone within earshot to ALSO be amazed that "the kids" were using words like that. 

But those weren't the things that *really* shook me.  Those things I'm used to from her. 

No, it was later in the day when she was talking about how bad music was these days, and talked about how when she was young that she loved all kinds of music. For instance she LOVED when Mick Jagger and Run DMC recorded "Walk This Way"... sort of puts the rest of her opinions in context...

 I kept meaning to post a Green Room, but honestly right now I'm not really sure what to say to people. 

I've been posting a lot more of my thoughts on my Facebook, but it's mostly been about politics and I'm not even going to pretend that I don't know that there are some pretty "diverse" opinions on the subject here, the same way there are everywhere.  :)  So I really haven't wanted to wade into that here. 

I will say though that up until Friday night, even though I've been posting things pretty frequently, I hadn't had a single person unfriend me. Sure, maybe they "hid" me months ago. I don't do that with my feed... but I completely get why someone else would. I *might* need to do it at some point because one of my friend's husband tags her in *every single thing* he posts. Some of it is political (very right wing) and some is what he ate... the joke with his daughter (who I also know) is that he tags her when he goes to the bathroom.  It's become a running joke but it does mean there are a LOT of posts from someone that I *didn't* friend and I've never met. 

I say "until Friday night" because that's when my brother unfriended me. It wasn't over a political post, but he thought it was... and he was getting tired of the posts I was making. (One of his comments was that I should "concentrate on my life/career and I'd be more happy"... I should point out that he was CLEARLY drinking heavily, alone in his apartment, on a Friday night. Whereas I was sitting on the couch next to my wife. But that might be petty to point out. :D) 

The post?  "I wonder which rapist is going to win the fight tonight? The old rapist or the young rapist?" 

Which was a reference to the Mike Tyson - Jake Paul "fight" and about how both of them have multiple accusations against them, Tyson actually went to jail for it. (and *still* has more accusations since he got out) Which was an angle that I haven't seen a lot of people talking about in terms of the excitement leading up to what turned out to be (from people I've seen reacting to it after the fact) more of a marketing stunt than an actual boxing match. 

Clearly my brother thought at least one of these rapists I was referring to was a political figure that he admires. (I did point out In the comments to that post about how, being a Steelers fan, I *completely* understand. I ended up having a rapist on my favorite team, as one of the main figures/leaders and had to come to some sort of peace with the idea of if I could still root for the team, and had to decide - for myself - that it was bigger than one guy. So I "get" how you might try to separate those two thoughts into separate categories.) 

All of this got me thinking about what I found out about my brother from my Dad and Step Mom back in the '90s vs what I found out by hanging out with him for the first time as an adult about a decade ago. 

(For those who don't know, I moved away from Ohio as a pre-teen, pre-internet days and pretty much lost touch for the entire side of the family) 
My stepmom actually called me in the mid-90s to let me know that my brother had been discharged from the military because he threw a party, and someone underage showed up to the party, got drunk, fell off the balcony and died. There was an investigation and my brother was being kicked out of the Air Force as a result. 

Which seemed weird, even at the time. But saying "Your brother was responsible for some kid dying" is a lot to wrap your brain around. I felt sorry for him, but again, we weren't close so there was never really a time to talk to him about it. He had other people he would go to to talk about serious stuff. 

It wasn't until we were able to hang out a decade ago that the subject came up and he looked really confused. He literally didn't know what I was talking about.  When I explained, he got a disgusted looked on his face and told me, no, he was discharged because his commanding officer found out he was gay during Don't Ask, Don't Tell. 

My Dad and Step Mom would have rather me think that my brother had been responsible for a kid dying than the reality of him being gay. Think about that for a moment. Let it sink in. 

It's pretty much when I realized how grateful I was that I *had* moved away and wasn't close to that side of the family.  That sort of "love" and "acceptance" was what helped lead him to the point where he's sitting alone on a Friday night, drinking heavily, and defending the people THEY love, because he IS close with them,and he DOES want them to love him... I can't quite understand it. But I do know it makes me sad to think about. 

Anyway... how is YOUR week been going?  

I'm bad at these transitions.  So here's this week's poll: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1173701.html

 The results are in from the Sudden Death Write Off - therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1172144.html

and so far the new prompt is empty, with a few more days to go. therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1171200.html I'm sure people are paying attention to "some other vote" right now. Apparently it's "important for the future of the country".  Not sure which country people are talking about! There is only ONE country that matters, and that's 'Mercia, which extends to the end of my driveway. If you aren't a citizen of 'Merica then you are just damn dirty foreigners who need to be kicked!!! 

(It's still "funny" how my parody has become not far off from actual political discourse over the years. But I digress)

How are YOU doing right now? 

***

We are now at our Top 10.  (just realized that I didn't remove the two drops, and had to delete an entire couple paragraphs and start over again! :D) 

Was it the group you *thought* was going to be here at the beginning of this? 

Immunity has expired, which means literally any person could be going next depending on how things shake out over the next couple weeks.

Unless I'm mistaken, there is 1 Idol newbie vs 9 vets, 5 of them who I know without even looking have been in the Top 10 before. (1 I'm not entirely certain, but I know she's been knocking on that door), 1 of them a previous two-time winner. You'd think "Oh, so those are the people you *don't* want near the Top 5.  But then you also have those 3 (maybe 4) who we've haven't seen that "next level" of what they will do as they get close to winning it all! They could be gearing up to just blow everyone out of the water by kicking it up another 3 notches!!!!  From a "Gary looks at things from a Survivor strategy POV" it's pretty much all "threats" going into this Top 10, and there hasn't been "anywhere to hide" for quite some time!!!  I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this is going to play out.  (Unlike tomorrow, where I'm not looking forward to it) 

 It's strange to think that early voting has opened in some areas in the US in what feels like an election cycle that has been going on since 2015.  ;) 

The good thing though is that this may be the last time anyone has to vote ever again!  Imagine the luxury of just sitting back and not having to care anymore! This is why I've been advocating for years for people to just make ME the Dictator-for-Life!  Now that the Supreme Court is in the pocket and says things like "Any official action from a President is above prosecution" it is the best possible time to just install ME as your next leader!!! I don't have to co-opt the courts because the work has been done for me! I barely have to do anything to Congress because that place is a mess. Once installed I may have to do something about the conspiracy theorists because they could turn on me! But that's why you have the National Guard, to silence your political opponents!!!

Once all of that is sorted out, I will be free to pursue my true agenda - making the TRUE enemy within pay... and by "pay" I mean "write entries for Idol"... such as this week's prompt: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1170188.html

Anyone have any ideas yet? 

I will also eliminate people from the country, like I did in Idol last night: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1170020.html   But I will not allow anyone to sacrifice from THAT... I'll just keep you until we are done. And by "done" I mean when I have a true stranglehold on everything and by "you" I mean "you, personally. Yes, I'm talking about you!" 

So remember - Dreslinski 2024 Take America Back, and See What England's Exchange Policy is!! 

 I owe you an update, and a Green Room. So let's combine them. :) 

Business first - there were eliminations: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1168566.html  and a new prompt https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1168718.html

There are now 14 contestants left standing, within arm's reach of the Top 10.  So start looking around the room because 4 of you aren't going to fall short of that goal! So you had better be knocking our socks off every week!!! Not sure what no longer having socks has to do with you surviving longer. But apparently it must be related. 

Nor am I sure where these socks end up going.  When you knock them off do they just fly randomly through the air? Are they just knocked to the side? What if you are wearing shoes? If someone is barefoot is it because someone has already knocked their socks off???

***

Anyway - Milton update. I'm sure everyone has seen the news of the hurricane's devastation throughout Florida. 

It ended up making landfall south of us, which put us on the northern eye wall. Normally that's a good place to be, but of course Milton had to be different and that was where the worst winds were. 

We lost power for 3 days but the only damage to our property was the fence was destroyed. (The neighbor managed to prop it up so his dog could still go in his backyard,. But the first time they dog jumps on the fence or a strong wind and it's coming down again...) We found our mailbox in another neighbor's yard... only located one screw. So those are two things that need to be replaced. 

The large trees in the front and the back of the house got a severe trimming of branches, including several that were lodged near the boarded windows. If we hadn't put the plywood up, we would have had house guests. 

Our street had some flooding, on the other side... including coming into some of their homes. Fortunately, for us, our side of the street is on a tiny incline. But enough to keep us dry. (for now it's not going to be too much longer before we will be in the flood zone as well) 

There are more houses on our block with a tree on them (or a shed or fence) than there are not.  One of our neighbors actually has a tree poking into her house. 

Everyone currently has power - except the guy down at the end of the street, the original owner opted to be on a well system instead of the city water and he is on a different grid. So no power and no water for him.  (He's been filling 5 gallon jugs from our outside spigot) 

Neighbors came together to help with clean up and there are work crews from all over the country who have shown help to assist with the recovery (the crew who came by to pick up the debris on Sunday was from New Orleans) .

It could have been much, MUCH worse. But I won't lie, there were definitely moments when it was absolutely terrifying. 

We made it through though and are trying to get back to normal. And of course my job is a central part of the region's recovery. So at least I'm *involved* on some level. The federal and state government are finally working together - which they weren't after Helene (our Governor wouldn't speak to Biden) So that's a plus! It's nice when public servants actually do their jobs.  :)