After listening to the recordings we made of our first and second workshops and reading the annotations on ‘s hard copy, I consolidated the notes and I’m ready to start in on the third draft. I’ve already crossed out everything that has to be cut.
For those of you who have read the second draft that means I’m losing any reference to the Half-Way World/Purgatory, most of the scene in the meatworks (including the Cowboy and the ladder-in-the-pit), the entire water dream will be replaced and the scene with Iku in the church will be completely rewritten. And there will be far fewer semi-colons.
I will be adding: More of the supporting cast in the second half, especially Cinque’s family. The importance of Cinque’s interactions with the supernatural characters will be more explicit. More emoting during conversations. More St Jude in the second half. More of the bad guy in the first half. More race and father issues throughout both halves.
The workshoper thought that I had drawn on The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn for influence so I decided to finaly read it to see what they were talking about. Both stories take place along the Mississippi and I have a Mark Twain quote in the first chapter. Strangest of all, Tom Sawyer briefly uses the alias “William Thompson” which is the name of one of my main characters.
Again:
The Rules
- If you’re taking a picture inside a place of business ask permission first.
- TM stands for Team Member, a member of your team, not one of the other teams.
- “Stranger” is a non-player. You can’t use the same stranger more than once. And you can’t use a Stranger named Andrew.
- The values of items listed {in curly brackets} will be judged by me.
- One item per picture.
- Teams can only get credit of items once per item and require a clear depiction of a TM in every shot.
The List
- 10 pts – TM lifting or being lifted by a Stranger
- {5,10,15} pts – TM furious at an inanimate object, the less appropriate the better
- {10,15,20} pts – TM having sexual thoughts about an inanimate object, the less appropriate the better
- 10 pts – TM with their hand on the butt of a Stranger
- 20 pts – Stranger with their hand on the crotch of a TM
/lis
- 10 pts – A book that makes them think of Tone (No comics, that’s too easy)
- {5,10,15} A flavor of ice cream Tone likes
- 10 pts – A DVD Tone should have been in
- 20 pts – TM in a “face vase” with a Stranger
- 10 pts – TM eating off the plate of a Stranger
- 30 pts – TM perched like a gargoyle on a mailbox
- 20 pts – TM in Warrior Three (or Warrior One for 10 pts) [nobody got this, but we did see some Warrior Two's]
- 20 pts – TM caught in a compromising picture with Stranger of their non–preferred gender
- 20 pts – TM riding invisible bicycle
- 15 pts – TM crying over spilt milk
- 10 pts – TM endorsing a “Thera Cane” at the Healthy Back Store
- 10 pts – A foreign voltage converter [Nobody wanted to go into radio Shack]
- 5x pts – Strangers giving the finger to a TM (5pts. Per Stranger)
- 5x pts – “Everybody was Kung fu Fighting” One TM and any number of Strangers (5 pts. Per fighter.)
- 15 pts – Three headless children [Nobody got this, but Team Shameless got close]
- 30 pts – TM touching the elusive Major Meteor
- 15 pts – Green Lantern
- 10 pts – TM eating something at McDonalds and reacting honestly
- 25 pts – TM using their psychic powers to cause a Stranger great pain
- 15 pts – TM giving the finger to On Comic Ground, the worst comic book store in San Diego
- 20 pts – TM being beaten by a child
- 10 pts – TM endorsing their favorite brand of condom
- 10 pts – 20% Grade
- 15 pts – Ganesh
- 25 pts – TM reacting appreciatively to being flashed by a Stranger (Stranger doesn’t actually have to be flashing, it just has to look like it)
- 10 pts – TM artistically backlit
- 50 pts – A TM being paddled by the staff at The Crypt at Park and University
- 10 pts – An English Bulldog, real or statue
- 30 pts – Another team taking a picture, once per team. Other team loses 30pts (you don’t need your own TM in the shot)
- 100 pts –Rob Halford of Judas Priest [Once again, no Rob]
These are only the pictures I scored. Check out the whole set for dups and no-scores.
The Scores
- The Britney Bitches – 480 pts
- The Stinky Cracker Experience – 430 pts
- Awesome Sauce – 385 pts
- Team Shameless – 365 pts
- Bo Bo the Sea Cow & Haterville – 335 pts
- Snarky McGee – 255 pts
- Team Disgruntled – 235 pts
The award for “Most Photogenic” goes to Team Disgruntled. Who could have tied for second but allowed themselves to get caught taking a picture
six times costing them 180 points.
The “Casual Stroll” award goes to Snarky McGee and Haterville. Who while stumbling upon Major Meteor while he was tying his boots let him get away without a chase.
The “Know your Strengths” award goes to Beth of Team Shameless for handing the camera over to Mat because she wasn’t was willing to chase down Major Meteor.
The “Rules? what Rules?” award goes to The Stinky Cracker Experience for taking four pictures without a team member and still coming in second, they could have tied for first.
The “
Most Valuable Pic in the Game” went to The Britney Bitches for catching two teams while they were taking pictures.
The “Dude, It’s not Worth 30 Points” award goes to
who almost killed himself trying to catch Major Meteor.
The “Ohhhhhh…” award goes to Awesome Sauce for being the only team to figure out what I meant by “face vase”.
I think everyone had fun and I think we all learned something. I learned that when my friends read “having sexual thoughts about” they interpret that as “fuck the shit out of”.
I also learned that men prefer extra large condoms and women prefer lubricated condoms, except who is a size queen.
What’s worse than not being able to get to sleep?
Not being able to get to sleep and having Ice Ice Baby stuck in your head for the last hour.
Pseudopod has been a very good horror fiction podcast but the latest story Tales of the White Street Society was exquisite. If you think you might enjoy Victorian bigotry against the Irish as much as you enjoy contemporary bigotry against the Irish you owe it to your self to check it out.
I’ve had recurring problems with my neck since I’ve started starting at a computer for twelve hours a day. When it goes out I can’t turn to the left or down until I get a few visits with the activator.
When I remember to do rotation exercises I do ok but remembering to get up and move is the problem. When I’m working I usually take my breaks in the same position that I’m working in.
So I tossed together a little of the hated VBScript:
do
WScript.Sleep(1000*60*60)
loop while msgbox ("Get up! Move around!", 1) = 1
And tossed it into my Start folder.
Nagging’s ok when it’s done by a cold, impersonal machine.
