LJ Idol Presents:

The votes are in. Honestly, I was expecting a last minute push that didn't come this time around. Maybe the world is a little too distracted at the moment. :(

But the polls go on regardless of what other voting might be occurring, this being the most important chance to make your voice heard after all.

After a tie in Week 13, two absolute Idol legends went toe to toe, and unfortunately we are losing the always great  reidharriscooper 

I said it in the actual poll comments that regardless of who left, it would be a huge loss to the competition and that's definitely true. 

It's also a huge gain to keep the other one! 

Reid - thank you so much for coming out this mini season. I feel like this time around, because of the "mini" nature of this event, you were able to get (proportionally of course) more attention for your work. Maybe that's just me... but it feels that way. Hopefully it's true, because you definitely deserve it! 

I hope that we will see you Home Game the remainder of the season, and hanging out to cheer on your favorites with wherever this thing is going next!!!

We all know that the sacrifice this week was  muchtooarrogant 

But what we didn't know was who that second elimination was going to be. As it turns out, we still don't know.

There was a tie between two favorites littlebitofearth     and reidharriscooper 

Which means that we have a Sudden Death Write Off. It's an Open Topic, so you both need to bring your A-game to get to the next stage.

The deadline to link your entry in the thread (below) is Saturday November 2nd at 6pm ET.

Good luck to both of you!

As for the rest of you, I will be posting the new prompt later.

 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!! 

The results are in...

There was a 3-way tie for that second spot. Which means that 4 writers ended up with a strike.

static_abyss
adoptedwriter
favoritebean
proceedcyclone

Unfortunately, that means that we are losing 3 of them...favoritebean , proceedcyclone  and static_abyss 

Thank you so much for coming out for this mini season! I hope that you will continue to Home Game, and support your favorites!

 The results have been posted -  https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1122236.html
A new prompt is up -  https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1122539.html

and I owe everyone some general updates (and a clarification or two):

Hi. I'm Gary. You might remember me from such hits as LJ Idol.  ;) You don't see me as often as I'd like because I'm working nonstop. Actually so much that I recently "hit the wall" which is around the same time that I got in trouble with the new boss for working too many hours late at night... the same new boss who also wants me to "come up with a plan" to get everything done that needs to be done... you know, running at half staff for 6 months, during a transition that took place at the busiest time of year - with technical issues including lack of email for about a week, and even when we got access to that we lost access to all kinds of stuff. Oh, and of course Accounting not being able to send out checks to the people we need to pay. But yes, I will come up with a plan right away to do everything. It's a really good plan. It's called "hire people". HR doesn't even have our job vacancies posted yet - but I worked out a work-around with them and thanks to word odf mouth have two interviews scheduled. One of them today and the other on Monday!!

Based on evcerything we need to do this month, and how long it takes to get someone hired, even if both of them are fantastic applicants who would be perfect for the job and are willing to accept the offer and start right away, they won't be here in time to save us from this Hell Month. But they will make things better going forward. 

Working for this new boss though is going to be "interesting"... the former boss was way too hands off. This one is way too hands on, in the worst way possible. An example - the Director of another department needed us to look into making some corrections for her. So she our boss and said she knew we were swamped BUT was there anyway SHE could do those corrections for her instead... My Director responded that she would be glad to help out - and immediately called me to tell me to "make it a priority"... :O  I was at lunch at the time, and had a meeting immediately following. I told her that I would get to it "this afternoon" and was told "it's already afternoon, I need this done as soon as possible"... Mind you, WE weren't asked to do it, SHE was...  The only good thing to come from that is that I got to mention it to that Director who needed help. (who I'm on really good terms with) She was absolutely horrified that trying to *help us* by not putting one more thing on our plate had backfired so spectacularly...  Well, I guess *two* good things, because my Director's co-workers and boss also got to see her trying to foist it off on one of her coworkers as well by explaining that she was "rusty" on doing a task she's never actually done. 


***
Cynthia is feeling MUCH better. She still has the fatigue that hits her in waves and hasn't fully recovered her sense of smell yet. She's working on that by doing the "connect a smell to a memory" trick that apparently is what they tell you to do. 

***
re: my old boss Kim.  I mentioned going to her Celebration of Life because I honestly thought that I'd posted about her. Apparently I had not. I mentioned it on Facebook, not here. She wasn't my most recent boss. She was my old boss's boss... a couple bosses ago.  :) (She had the job which is now MY supervisor if that makes any sense.)   Anyway, this is the article about what happened: https://www.wftv.com/news/local/orange-county/deputies-identify-couple-found-dead-apparent-murder-suicide-international-drive/

Her husband had a history of mental health issues, and a gun... and well, that's what ended up happening.  "Not All Guns" "Not All People With a History of Mental Health Issues"... I know.... I know... it's fair to say "Yes All Men" though. Because there's definitely a toxic element that fuels both of those other things into violence that isn't often seen without it. But I digress.... losing Kim was a loss to the entire community.

***
and speaking of "loss to the entire community"... Karla.  I actually had to go back to see if she had ever actually played Idol, but as far as I can tell, she didn't. But I know she was a long time voter/supporter. We had quite a few mutual friends from back in the LJ days. She passed away from cancer a few days ago.  A few months ago (seems like a lifetime) when my family visited Santa Fe, she was one of the people that I had reached out to for advice on stuff to do and see... she was a lifetime member of Meow Wolf, and hooked us up with tickets! She said that she wasn't able to meet up and now I have a better understanding of "why"...

***
Anyway - make sure that the people who matter to you KNOW it. *looks around the room* Yeah, I have nothing more to say.  ;)   

Seriously though... thank you for helping to keep this place alive and still so much fun! I hope to be on the other side of this personal nightmare at work (that I volunteered for by staying to keep things going... what was I thinking????) in a few months. Thanks for your patience and understanding. 

You may have been expecting a poll. Instead, you get results!

Three of the four contestants took a bye. Which means only one person turned in an entry. Here it is: https://zedmanauk.dreamwidth.org/3526.html Read it. Comment on it! Vote for it, in your heart at least because there's no actual poll.

I don't eliminate anyone by default, so all four contestants are moving on to Week 13!

Congratulations!

The poll closes tonight: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1036867.html

So make sure YOUR voice is being heard when it comes to determining the results!

***

I've been seeing a lot of people sharing articles about Livejournal lately, with the usual "I wish it was still around" (despite it, you know, still being around)

In reading the comments though, I get the sense that it's more "I wish things were the way they were back then". Which is a common enough part of getting older.

Also noted - how many of the "downfall of Livejournal" articles seem to revolve around how much people like porn. :D

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/01/the-linux-of-social-media-how-livejournal-pioneered-then-lost-web-blogging/

https://boingboing.net/2019/01/22/nipplegate-legacy.html

https://mashable.com/2018/05/13/was-livejournal-ever-good/

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/6/18127869/tumblr-livejournal-porn-ban-strikethrough

OK, the porn is really only a part of what people are talking about. A big part though seems to revolve around the idea of giving people what they want/the dangers of doing that. I have enough problems with that with Idol. I can't imagine the pressures facing LJ in it's infancy and growing into it's teen years. It's no wonder that they brought in help, and eventually just sold it.

The anonymous communities alone would have made me want to bail and call the experiment an morally bankrupt failure. (interestingly enough, that seems to be one of the biggest groups of "I miss those days". If being assholes to people was one of the best times of your life, you may want to reevaluate just what you were doing with the rest of your life. :) )

A few words from Gary:

The gang’s all here!

It’s the first week post-Second Chance. Which means, your winner is here. Your Top 4 is here. Your Top 10. Top 20. Each of those goal posts are within reach of every single one of you.

As the ranks dwindle, your chances are getting there increase.

One thing I know without a doubt - it’s going to be one of you who wins this thing. :)

But which one? That is going to be decided week after week until there is only a single person left standing.

Until then though, here are some sandwiches. Enjoy!

The topic this week was the Warren Zevon quote “Enjoy every sandwich”. So it’s appropriate for me to say that I hope you enjoy every entry! I think you will.

Vote for as many as you want to support. Everyone with a DW or open access account can vote in the poll.

Read the entries. Comment on them. Vote to keep your favorites around for another week.

We will be losing the bottom 3.

The poll closes Monday Jan 28th at 9pm EST.

Good luck to everyone!

The deadline is tomorrow night, and it's still a bit of a ghost town over in Topic thread land - https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1035740.html

So, if you are a current contestant, make sure to get over there and show it some love. And by "love" I mean "post your entry".

and by "post your entry" I mean "get to work you damn hippies!"

***

How has your week been treating you?

I asked Buzzfeed what I should post about this morning, and they told me that this week's LJ Idol was the most controversial yet, and gave me all kinds of information about what was going to be in the report about it.

They also told me what Game of Thrones House I was in.

So clearly these guys know their stuff.

But I didn't want to just ask them, so I consulted the House of Israel, who had quite a few things to yell at me, but none of it was about what to write.

I consulted some of my friends who work for the US Government, thinking they might have some extra time on their hands. But apparently they wanted to get paid for their feedback. Or for anything at all. Their yard sales seem to be going well though.

Since none of those people were overly helpful, I'll just post last night's results https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1035358.html

and the link to the new topic https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1035740.html

and leave it at that.

Oh wait, someone's returning my call... hopefully they will have some ideas for what I can post about. Oh wait, it's R Kelly. Nevermind.