LJ Idol Presents:

The wheel keeps spinning, but for the moment, it stops for one contestant.

The poll results are in, and leaving us this round is  autumn_wind  

Thank you so much for coming out for this wild ride, and I hope you will keep Home Gaming, and jump back in when the wheel lands on something that allows it!


***

On her way out, she kicks something that was dropped on the floor.... it rolls across the room before hitting the wall and shattering.... it's an empty vial.  The Killer(s) have taken their revenge!  But who did they poison? 

xeena  had an antidote - who will be receiving it? Will she thwart their evil plans, or just drink a refreshing potion? 

 For 8 Weeks now, we have assembled in this room to try to end the threat of the Killer(s) once and for all. 

And every time, you have been told that when you find a Killer, you will be told... and weeks have gone on, your numbers have dwindled... 

Would you ever find a Killer or will the murders just continue until there is no one left? 

***

This week there was actually decent participation. Thank you for that... and the vast majority of votes fell on a single person. 

This week you accuse bleodswean of being a Killer!!

***

There is a scream, and it doesn't take you very long to realize who it is... it's bleodswean and she's twitching like something out of the Exocrist. She collapses on the floor, grasping on to a small medallion that it clutched tightly in her hand.  It starts to glow, and the glow overtakes her entire body, filling the room with light. 

The light intensifies until it hurts to look at her, when it fades, the medallion is gone... and she is herself again.  A Killer no more. Finally free. 

Congratulations!!!

 It came down to 1 vote. 

Which was shocking, because there was one person at the top of the majority of time, and then another name joined her... and the two of them had a sizable lead until earlier today, when a third person showed up and started gaining...

then it became a "what is going to happen"... with one person gaining a vote here, and the other gaining another... and then it sat as a tie. For awhile. Until one vote came in.... and did not vote for either of them!  :D 

Two minutes after that though... a miracle happened... and the tie was finally broken and there was much rejoicing... 

So, congratulations to  inkstainedfingertips !

This immunity can be used to save yourself, or someone else, between now and the Top 10.  (you just need to email me and let me know you will be using it BEFORE the poll closes. 

When it rains, it pours. 

In this case, it poured enough to flood the streets and turn my commute home into a 4-hour drudge. 

I'll be candid, there was supposed to be a poll this week. I do not have the time to finish putting it together - especially since there are 2 sacrifices this week. I had scheduled 2 people to leave, so that was going to be a (pardon the rain pun) a wash. 

But before we get to that, we have to say goodbye to someone who missed the deadline and was out of byes:  The man, the myth, the slacker: talonkarrde 
I know you won't home game, but you will be checking in to support your favorites. Maybe comment in the Green Room now that you have more time!  ;) 

***

So, no official poll. No one is going home. but from what I saw there are 14 entries (those numbers may be off, 14 entries and 2 sacrifices/placeholders) I literally just skimmed. I'm sure someone will post a full list below.  :) 

So what about those people? They put in an effort. No Act of God should stop them from being read and appreciated. Right? Right! 
Here is the link to their entries - https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1159092.html

Here is my email: clauderainsrm@gmail.com 

What you are going to do between now and Friday September 6th at 7pm ET is read, comment and then EMAIL ME your votes.  This is open to anyone reading this. Send me an email!!! 

"I want to vote for x,y.z..." (it's easier if they are alphabetical). 

I will count those votes, whoever has the MOST votes wins immunity.  

Yes. Immunity. With how crazy this mini season has been, there is nothing more valuable.  It can save you from elimination if you are on the bottom between now and the Top 10!!!  

Good luck to everyone! 

 

I just had one of those "wait - did I post that to my personal account?" moments. Yes. Yes I did. :)

***




Week 8 has started   therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1159092.html

But Week 7 still has some serious unfinished business that needs to be resolved.   therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1158893.html

***
The closer we get to the end, the more it's going to hurt to lose people. But honestly, that's how it is for me every single week of these things. I never want to see people go, but it's the entire point of the exercise.  It's what keeps us moving forward. 

***

Speaking of moving forward - let's look back on a couple questions I received today about the voting. It echoes something I thought about a few weeks ago about the votes, so I figured I'd touch on both topics. 

(1) This is the one from my own head:  Just to remind people that encouraging your friends and family to show up to support you is fantastic. Not a single problem with it. BUT if you know that your Uncle Joe set up a DW account to vote, LET ME KNOW so when I see that account I will know "Oh, that's Uncle Joe and not flag it as a potential problem" (someone setting up fake accounts) That's something that hasn't been an issue in a very long time - and this mini season has only had a couple "Uncle Joe" accounts and none of them (thus far) has impacted the results. But I haven't said anything in a really long time either and some people weren't here the last time I said it. So just as a reminder of the existing rule- LET ME KNOW. 

(2) This is the one I've been asked a couple different times, both today and a few weeks back - Why are votes disappearing? "I had 11 votes a few minutes ago and now I have 10!"   I have not seen anything from DW support about a potential issue with polls. So I did the next step and checked it myself.  I was able to click "Edit your votes" and it listed ALL of the votes that I had cast.  Which answers the number one suspect - "The LJ Glitch", which is something that happened on Livejournal (which, DW code is the same, so that was definitely a potential culprit)  where if you hit 'edit my votes" it took you back to the voting screen but deleted all of your previous votes. You had to remember everyone you had supported the first time and hope you got it right. But in the meantime, those old votes were gone. 

So that didn't seem to be an issue. 

HOWEVER, there is a button right next to it that says "Clear Vote" (paraphrased, but let's go with that) which deliberately does what that glitch did - takes away all of your votes and gives you a clean slate.  If someone were to accidentally hit that button, that would eliminate 1 vote from everyone they voted for... it would also impact the list of voters (and when they voted) that DW keeps for admins. So if I saw a name originally and then didn't see it again, that would be my best guess.  However, to the best of my knowledge, I don't see that has occurred, at least not in the last couple of weeks. (it is something to watch out for when you vote in the future)
Which leads  me into the more straightforward reasons why your vote might change - someone liked your entry, but your votes are pretty close to someone else's and they liked their entry better. You see that shifting toward the end, I know at least one person who LIKES ties, and some who hate them.  If you and I are about to go into a tie-breaker, I'm probably not going to want to give you my vote any more.  Especially if another person might decide to break the tie by giving you an extra vote... all of a sudden I've just voted myself out of the game!!

(Hint: No one ever wants to vote themselves out of the game) 

There's the school of thought that votes early and for everyone they like all at once and doesn't edit a single vote. There are the people who come late and votes for everyone they like all of once and doesn't even have the time to edit their votes even if they want to.. and then there is the majority of people in between those.  Some will only vote for themselves early on - but then add votes as they read other people's entries, one or two at a time. And yeah, there will be a time when someone has put a "I usually like their work" vote and then decides that this week didn't quite live up to it.  (Note: I haven't had that conversation with a voter THIS week, or even this mini season. But I have had it before, where they just couldn't vote for that person that week and it was weird  but they wanted to make sure it was OK to edit their vote.) 

My answer to them - and anyone else - is YES. You can edit your vote, for any reason you want to edit your vote.  This is a function of a poll, it's not locked down to a "final answer"... regardless of where it is located, most polls have an edit function where your responses can evolve right up until they close. DW is no different. 

It can be confusing, and more than a little emotional at times to think you have more votes and then suddenly you have less. It can be easy to take it personally. The *most* personal thing about it though, is the scenario of where they want to support keeping someone else.  And even that isn't about you, it's about that other writer. (easier said than internally processed. I definitely understand that!! But I wanted to put it out there.) 

***
There's my soapbox and/or answers for the weekend. Any more questions? 

***
Oh, my hanging out with a former coworker....yeah, it was weird. Not him. He was fine. ME. I was being weird about it. It really did feel like he was friends with my abusive ex. I want to hang out more, but probably not anytime in the near future. I need more space to continue to grow and process.  (I'm sure it's nothing that getting my unemployment check wouldn't heal... IF that ever happens!) 

***

Who has ideas for bycatch already? Who is having difficulties?

 The prompt for this week is another interesting word that I came across. It's pretty funny given that we are involved in a competition.  :D

What is that word?   Oubaitori


The deadline to link your entry back to this thread is Thursday August 8th at 7pm ET. 

Have fun!

therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1116914.htmlThe poll is up until Saturday. So make sure you are reading, commenting, and voting!! https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1116914.html

and of course, spreading the word!!! That's especially important now that we are here at the end of the internet.

***

For those wanting an update on the work situation - we had the meeting with the COO.  It was originally going to be just me, but was changed to a group conversation.  (the department heads were having meetings with each team, we just got a much bigger fish to head ours)

The upshot: 

- We ARE going to have a hybrid model and they don't know how much we will be in the office. But he acknowledged that I was correct about the lack of space issue  (DCF is taking back several offices and we will have to combine into a much smaller footprint) and that it might be worth looking at either having a rotating office schedule or allowing certain teams to work from home until they can get a new space.  So that's up in the air, but he heard us. He understood us. He may not agree with us. But he's willing to consider it. 

- Pay is absolutely going to be increased. He seemed a little surprised that HR was "playing it close to the vest" but said without a doubt that their minimum wage of $15 that had been set for their original circuit would be coming over. 

- I asked for volunteers from his circuit to come over and help my team for some extra OT. He seemed surprised that I thought it ask the question and said that was absolutely something we could do. 

- We will be answering to a new Director.  One that already knows, and likes us. 

- Work loads will be shifting. He asked for "things you are currently doing that are a better fit somewhere else" and I had a list for him.  :)

I asked for some confirmation on a couple different long range plans, which did seem to shift him a little that I knew about them and he confirmed they were being discussed but that no decisions had been made. 

So, it wasn't everything I'd hoped it could be, but it was a lot better than I feared.  We have our faces and what we do right out front and center with the new company. Which is something we've never had before. 

Will I stay? TBD.  Will anyone else stay? I think most of them will. ("most" meaning there is still one who might leave, and if I leave I think everyone else will. The team was quite vocal to him that they had ONLY stayed and were working like this because I stayed and was working even harder. Which is always a good thing for a Chief Operating Officer to hear. On the way out I got that "pat on the shoulder, 'You're a really good leader. The team is lucky to have you." moment.   Which felt nice, but I also realize is total manipulation.  

***

How is YOUR week going? 

 I don't know how many of you are Canadians who are obsessed with Twitter, but for those who are - I'm not sure if I ever reminded you that OUR Jason Kenney is the "The Good Jason Kenney"... (that's what they call him on Twitter) 

and recently things reached their natural conclusion with the two of them meeting: calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/jason-kenney-meets-jason-kenney-while-in-washington-d-c

OUR Jason was in the proto-Idol "Fanfic Survivor" and has come back a few times as a Gatekeeper! 

With all of the bad news is the world, it's nice to see some Idol-adjacent news out there as well! 

***
Speaking of bad news, just wanted to remind you that the prompt deadline is later today!  therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1115986.html

 This wasn't the prompt I'd originally selected for this week. It wasn't even on my list of potential prompts. But I heard the line in a song this week, remembered how much I liked it - checked to make sure I'd never used it before... and am now unleashing it on you!!

"You are an opossum living in the trashcan of my heart" 

The deadline to link an entry back to this post is Sunday, May 22nd at 7pm ET. 

Have fun!!