megatronix

alierak posting in

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

I've been updating some stuff in the background, and I have a couple answers for you based on questions I've received.

The Links section is now updated with Winners, In Memoriam and the Donate section.

The new Prompt is up therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1206077.html

The twist is up: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1205941.html

***

The question came up on what the difference was between the twists for Week 11 and Week 13. I couldn't recall what the Week 11 twist had been, so I went back and looked. They are very, very different. So different that it's so obvious that you should be embarrassed by not seeing it right immediately. Can't you just take a look and.... sorry, couldn't help it. :)

It's the same twist. I didn't move it off the Wheel because it's not something that is removed. But more importantly, the reason why no results for Week 11 were announced was that it was my birthday weekend and I didn't post that result - and the person who won it never reached out!

There's a 3 way tie for who will receive those extra 2 byes to give away:

flipflop_diva

hafnia

legalpad819

I gave the Wheel several options on what to do - and it came back with that we are giving all 3 of them those two byes each TO GIVE AWAY!! So please let me know who you want to give the byes to!!

***
What is Chekov's Gun? It is THE MOST DANGEROUS and sheer chaotic force ever introduced into the game, You want cries of "OMG!!!" and "But that's not fair!" and "Where are my pants???" this is where you are going to hear those things.

It is a gun that is put into the game - one that HAS to be fired. (Hence the name). There was one in Pandora's Box *and there is one on the Wheel*!!

How powerful Is it? You can kill ANYTHING with it. What do I mean by that? There are 3 exceptions of things that can not be killed - why are there exceptions? Because this thing is so powerful that if I didn't put them in place, and someone was creative enough, they could do these things!!

- You can not shoot LJ Idol itself. You can't end the competition
- You can not shoot the Wheel of Chaos mini season/event
- You can not shoot ME (even if I ask you to)

Everything else within these walls is fair game. Contestants. Results. Prompts. Twists. If you can name it, and it's not on the list of "you can't shoot that", you CAN shoot that!

It's one of the most interesting concepts I've ever introduced and the one that will immediately become the most hated!!

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

I'm updating Links and realized the Donate page was extremely out of date and most of the old links were no longer functional.

Idol is of course open to anyone. If you want to "give back" though, here are some ways to do that:

Venmo: @Gary-Dreslinski
Paypal: garydreslinski@gmail.com (obviously the same for Google Pay)
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/u70027

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

The prompt for the week is

Happiness pump

The deadline to link your entries back to this post is Tuesday October 21st at 8pm ET.

Have fun!

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

*spins the wheel*

There's another twist!

And it's *spins the wheel again*

Bye necklaces (good to give two other people - not yourself.

The person with the *spins the wheel* FEWEST votes without being eliminated wins this.

At this stage it's definitely the chance to make some friends!

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

It's that time again. Saying goodbye is never fun or easy, But fortunately there are still 4 options on the Wheel for people to come back into the game. So "goodbye" might not be what it usually is!

So maybe it's a "so long and hope to see you soon!" If nothing else, I hope you will be Home Gaming to

marjorica

and legal... wait, what's this

legalpad819 pulls out a medallion from her pocket. "I'd like to play this!"

*takes it and examines it* I can confirm this IS an immunity idol! She is safe from elimination! Unlike most immunity idols though, no one else will be taking her place.

Technically speaking, since I said whoever receives the "
FEWEST number of votes, without being eliminated will receive the right to pick something out of Pandora's box!!! "

That means legalpad819 will get to pick something from Pandora's box! I will let you know what has been chosen.

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

I know a don't post a lot lately. It's not that I don't have a lot of say. It's just that it's a lot of the same. I'm really grateful though that people seem to be enjoying/tolerating this Wheel concept. :D

The new poll is happening right now - https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1205156.html

Definitely go check it out if you haven't. The one thing that hasn't changed is that there is a lot of really good writing happening here.

***

How have you been?

halfshellvenus

I'm sure we all do, but it takes me at least a day of the weekend to get into that weekend mindset. And despite all things I need to do, it's like my mind goes blank that whole first day.

The first priority was finishing my Idol story (ah, that's where a lot of the weekends go!). You can find it via the poll here. Please read the entries and vote for your favorites if you can! We need all the help you can give. :)

The second priority was getting to the plant nursery and buying some replacements for things that died due to the house fire, the rebuild, and/or our 3-year absence. Mainly, I wanted to buy replacements in specific colors for the two rose trees that died along our walkway. Found a purple one (not the same as what we lost), passed on a red one because I need a 30" tree there instead of a 40" tree. Got a yellow rose bush to replace a white one (bleh) we lost that I never liked. We still have about... 46-50 roses of various kinds on this property? Yeah. \o? I'll be meeting with a landscaper on Thursday about re-planting dead spots, and it's already a little late in the year for it.

I planted 4 other perennials that died for lack of water, and THAT went badly. Holy s#!t. Three of those are in an area where we've lost azaleas over time, and the ground was rock hard there. So that took about 90 minutes longer than I'd planned. The other stuff should be done by the landscaper, but that was on us. I just thought it would be refreshingly simple, plus I had some plants to remove that reseeded themselves and got out of control while we were gone. That never happened. :(

We watched a movie on Saturday night that I can recommend: R.I.P.D., which starts Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges and is pretty much cracktastic. It's on Netflix. At some point, we will watch Ice Road: Vengeance starring Liam Neeson, which is a sequel to The Ice Road (both also on Netflix). The idea of a snow-plow driver on a rampage to avenge his murdered son is a thin idea for a set-up, but the off-beat humor totally made the first movie. If you like irony/absurdity/satire, you might enjoy it.

And now back to work, never-ending and still in the stress zone for what I hope will be only a couple more weeks. \o?

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

A few words from

clauderainsrm:

The Killer(s) may have tried to cut my power, but the forces of Good and Light banded together with their friends at the power company and restored it fairly quickly!

Unfortunately, they apparently demanded a sacrifice, and that is why eeyore_grrl is leaving us. (or she missed a second deadline after returning to the game with one bye. It was one of those two things!!)

For the rest of us though, the game moves forward. The person with the fewest votes who does NOT get eliminated this round has the opportunity to open Pandora’s Box and see what is inside of it, to unleash into the game!!

There will be *spins the wheel* 2 contestants leaving us this week!

So it’s more important than ever to get the word out. Read, comment and vote for your favorites! And then tell your friends about all the cool stuff you are reading here!!

The poll will close Thursday October 16th at 8pm ET.

Good luck to everyone!

Poll #33719 ’WheelofChaos-Week12’

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 43

Vote For Your Favorites!

alycewilson's entry
15 (34.9%)

bleodswean's entry
24 (55.8%)

drippedonpaper's entry
13 (30.2%)

flipflop_diva's entry
23 (53.5%)

hafnia's entry
14 (32.6%)

halfshellvenus's entry
19 (44.2%)

inkstainedfingertips's entry
19 (44.2%)

legalpad819's entry
11 (25.6%)

l0lita's entry
19 (44.2%)

marjorica's entry
6 (14.0%)

muchtooarrogant's entry
17 (39.5%)

roina_arwen's entry
17 (39.5%)

unicornfartz's entry
20 (46.5%)

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

We have once again gathered here for two sacred duties, to undermine the Killer(s) by dispensing the antidote and ending their reign of terror by exposing them!

*waits for the last few people to wander in from out of the hallways* Nice of you to make it.

Now we can begin.

I'll start with handing out the antidote. Last week was the first time the group as a whole was given the responsibility of who should receive it, and in true beginners luck fashion, you were able to save a life! Let's see if you are that lucky this time!

The majority vote for who should receive the antidote was extremely close. It came down to a single vote.

Receiving the antidote this week is

inkstainedfingertips

*hands the vial over and watches as they drink it* It's very refreshing and has a nice lemon and mint aftertaste. But other than that, nothing.

With the Accusation though it wasn't even close. The majority mostly piled on one person, with a few stray votes here and there.

The community apparently feels really strongly about this. Let's see if you are right, or if once again you will accuse an innocent.

The assembled contestants hereby accuse

flipflop_diva of being a KIller!

She deeply sighs, this having been one of many, many times that she's been accused... and then screams as the black smoke bursts from her mouth. She grabs her immunity amulet, that starts to glow, protecting her from the evil as it is displaced back into the walls of the castle. She falls to the ground, exhausted, relieved and a Killer no more.

bleodswean

She is three years old. Toddling and running. Falling and tumbling. At the bottom of the garden. It is October. She is dressed in woolen tights and a corduroy dress. She wants these togs off, she wants to roll down the lawn and into the pile of leaves, bury herself beneath the musty damp of mold. She is content jumping in and out of a long, narrow puddle of rainy mud until her mother isn’t looking, then she sits and pulls off the rubber boots, and runs and jumps and lands in the leaf pile.

She listens to the roly poly bugs tell her they will see her in the spring.

) O (

She is nine years old. A magical number a fox has whispered to her. It is October and she is squatting in the dirt at the bottom of the garden, barefooted and wearing a pair of red leather lederhosen she found in the attic. And her favorite t-shirt with a smiling sunflower. She isn’t cold but she knows her mother would tell her to put on warm clothes if she saw her. But she’s not home. The garden is her world, the limits explained to her by adults, and she is a dutiful child so she does not wander over the wall. Very often.

She is digging a hole with a hand trowel. To talk to the earthworms. Hello, how are you, goodbye.

) O (

She is thirteen. A magical number the moon has whispered to her. It is October and she is cross legged in the loam at the bottom of the garden. She is troweling dirt into thrifted pottery, tea kettles and teacups, gently extracting the worms and letting them loose them back into the ground. She’s going to fill each one with fall-blooming flowers and line her windowsill with them. Her room has become a haven, the walls papered with art prints and cut up coffee table book illustrations. Her bed a sanctuary, her notebooks filling with poetry and sketches. She cannot draw but she can summon life out of the dirt and her bedroom is a hothouse of plants. One of her girls teaches her to macrame and this she takes to, knotting plant hangers.

A newt is uncovered, unblinking eyes, she gently pats him back into his early hibernation. Go back to sleep.

) O (

She is seventeen years old. On the cusp of everything. Her mother is in the house, angry and sad simultaneously, there is a distance between them. She is outside, sitting on the rock wall, facing outward. The wood is beckoning, there’s a brook there, if she crosses it there is a meadow just ahead. The moon is rising, a Harvest Moon, it is October. The world is lit in silver light. She shrugs out of her coat, toes out of her sneakers. Leaps down from the wall and into the wilds. She shimmies out of her jeans and pulls the sweater over her head. She begins to run.

An owl calls. Another answers. She runs into the forest, straight through the creek, splashing water, jumping over mossy rocks. She stops and listens, closes her eyes and strains her ears. A flute and laughter. A crackling bonfire. An invitation. I'm here! she calls out loud. I'm here! I'm here! I'm here!

) O (

She is ageless now. It is October. She has been working in the garden since dawn. Raking all the fallen leaves into a pile. Shoveling composted fertilizer over the beds, mulching beneath the greenery, singing a lullaby to all the sleepy insects and animals, birds and bats, tree, shrub, flower, bulb. She ate her lunch leaning on the wall at the bottom of the yard, looking out at the inch fill housing built where the wood once stood. So much dirt had to be hauled in to soak up the creek water and fill in the holes where the trees had been pulled out. There is no more owl call at dusk. At dusk, she sets a match to the leaf pile and squints her eye, imagining it a bonfire. The neighbors will most probably report the smoke. She doesn’t care. She thinks of her mother and how fiercely she didn’t care either. Threatening to burn it all down, to lay waste to springtime, decimate all plants and crops. She remembers promising her mother she would return. And she did. She waits for the immensity of the moon rising and casting her shadow long before she undresses. A moon bath, a cleansing. It’s time for change. A time to be wrapped in the embrace of overwintering.

Will she return again? She cannot answer.

She wanders purposefully to the bottom of the garden, the far boundary of the yard. She played here as a child. She wrote bad poetry here as a girl. She scaled the wall and ran away as a teenager. And her love found her as a maiden. The dirt is cold under the soles of her bare feet. The air is cool breezing around her naked flesh. She has forgotten more than she could ever remember. But that’s okay, it slips off her like an old skin. Dormancy appeals. It’s been a long day of chores and tasks. Her back aches, her palms blistered, her knees complaining. She kneels in the organic rubble of decades, the leavings of the living, the remains of the dead. Pets buried here, wild animals hit by cars in the road, all of her milk teeth. Where are you, she whispers. She must be very, very quiet now to hear the answer. Where are you, my love? she asks, leaning forward, scooping handfuls of the graveolent dirt up and feeding it to herself. She is so hungry.

halfshellvenus

Little Metal Hearts
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 12 | 1930 words
Happy Detritus

x-x-x-x-x

Jerry's Repairs sat in the middle of Second street, between an antique store and the Orbit Cafe. It was the oldest business on the block, although no one was sure when it had first appeared.

Jerry was a spry old man in his eighties, undaunted by time, technology, or the sheer quantity of stuff on display in the shop's front room. The back room was the workshop, where all his projects lay. There were toys, gadgets, appliances, and robots. Each waited for replacement parts or dedicated repair time, or even just inspiration to guide the way.

At heart, Jerry was a tinkerer. He didn't always know why his solutions worked. Sometimes they just felt "right" to him, with everything falling into place as if by magic. But some projects were more difficult than others. He'd been stuck for months waiting on discontinued arm pieces for a couple of his robots, and several of his projects required firmware upgrades that might never be forthcoming.

That sort of thing was an anathema to Jerry. He hated "planned obsolescence" with a passion–things should be built to last. It was at the heart of what he did. Why throw away something that could be fixed? Jerry's whole business was based on giving second chances to the stuff other people threw away. Where others saw junk, he saw possibility. Everything he put up for sale in the front half of the shop spoke to the truth of Jerry's mission.

The shop was open Tuesday through Saturday. Today was Wednesday, not quite the beginning of the week, and Jerry was in the back room, taking stock of what needed to be done. He had already moved a bunch of things outside, to let their solar batteries charge. Now he was staring at two one-armed robots, a temperamental vacuum cleaner, and a broken toaster. He had been in this situation before.

Why was it so often the right arm that got broken? Did humans program robot behavior in their own image? In any case, he'd waited eight weeks already and he still didn't have any leads on new arms. Jerry figured he was about two weeks away from 3-D printing some replacements on his own. In the meantime, he cut and bent some scrap metal into the right shape for a forearm, and then used rubber bands to attach the metal to the newer robot's wrist and elbow. Not too bad–the cobbled-together arm worked almost as well as the original. As for the software upgrade, Jerry was familiar enough with the model to know that there was no benefit to updating the robot's current version, unless speculative financial modeling was a "must have" feature.

The vacuum cleaner was trickier. It offered almost no suction on bare floors, but went into overdrive on carpets, in a seemingly suicidal attempt to burn out the motor. Jerry ignored it, and picked up the toaster instead. He plugged it in to confirm that the problem was with the heating element. Then he used a soldering iron to reattach it more firmly. Did everything work now? He was just in time to test it out by making some toast for lunch.

At the end of the day, Jerry closed the till, pulled down the shades, and locked the store up for the night. He headed down Second street to Warner, and walked six more blocks to his house.

Inside the shop, the back room slowly came to life.

( Read more... )

If you enjoyed this story, please vote for it along with any of your other favorites here.

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

Here's the links you need:

Prompt:therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1204288.html
Twist Reveal:https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1204015.html
Results from Week 11: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1203940.htm

***

For those who might not remember how this goes - NOW is the time that you send me your votes for who you want to receive the antidote as well as the vote for your top choice of being a Killer!!

****

People were asking what I did on my vacation and where I went.

To explain that, I need to take you back to 2002. My friend Gabe and I went to see a concert. MY favorite band at the time (Superdrag) was opening up for his favorite band (Guided by Voices) So - perfect night right? The kind of night you talk with your friend about forever.

Well, it DID end up being that kind of night, but not for the predicted version. What actually happened is that Superdrag got on stage and absolutely blew the doors off. They were just the purest form of rock-n-roll, and even my friend agreed that Guided by Voice got straight up embarrassed.

Superdrag never came back to play in my area again. They broke up a few years after that, and got back together in 2017 or so, but didn''t tour they just put out an album. That reunion fell part within a year or so. Over the years they became THE standard for the two of us of shows, ranked from RanaRock (OMG they are bad) to Superdrag.

Fast forward to 2024, Superdrag announces they are doing a show in Knoxville (their hometown) and one in Chicago. I get really excited. But I'm also really broke, so I can't do either of those shows. But then they announce they are working on a new album - so maybe they will tour again, and come back!!

There was definitely some drama around that album's release, and it ended up being released as a solo album from the lead singer (backed with other musicians) , :( Which made a lot of people assume that Chicago was the last huzzah.

About a year and a half ago I had a show in NYC that I was SUPPOSED to go to with Cynthia. We had everything bought and paid for... but had to cancel because I lost my job. Good thing we did too, because then unemployment took forever!! Our plane tickets were the one thing we couldn't get a refund on - we got a credit. One that was expiring.

Just before it expired, Superdrag announced "Destination: Super drag" two sets of shows in 2 cities. Which is apparently what a lot of bands are doing these days to cut down on the cost of touring, just having destination events. Los Angeles was in June but Cynthia said that we should use our plane tickets for a NYC trip for the second set of dates, and so we booked it!!

Then, of course, months later, she let me know she wanted a divorce. I was worried this trip wasn't going to happen, but she kept ensuring me that it was. And it did. And it lived up to every single memory I had of the band, even 20 years later.

I''ll probably comment below about other things we saw in NYC. (Including Book of Mormon) But THAT's how I spend my extended weekend. Living out a dream 20+ in the making!! How about YOU? What did YOU do on my vacation?

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

The Wheel has spoken and the prompt for this week is:

Happy Detritus

The deadline to link your entry back to this post is Sunday October 12th at 7pm ET.

Have fun!

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

*spins the Wheel*

TWIST!

*spins the Wheel again*

Oh. Oh my.

We have Pandora's Box. That hasn't been seen in Idol for quite some time! (Season 9/2014)

Inside it is all sorts of things, but you won't know what you can pick until it's opened.

Whoever has the

*spins wheel to determine most/fewest*

FEWEST number of votes, without being eliminated will receive the right to pick something out of Pandora's box!!!

clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

I posted in the comments section for the Voting, but for those who missed it, there was NO empty vial found this week. What does that mean? I guess that is, literally, for me to know and you to find out! ;)

But before we get on with that, we have to say goodbye to someone. Someone that we just said hello to recently!

Goodbye to

fausts_dreamAt this point I will point out that we are this far in and still have 4 other "back into the game" options on the Wheel. Which seems ridiculous to me. But hey, it's not like I'm the one in charge here. The Wheel is. ;) I just work for it this time around!! I hope you will stick around to see what opportunities it will spin next.

(and of course with all of the chaos at the end of voting this time around, we came within a single vote of a 4 way tie!! So every vote matters!)

AWS outage

The Wheelhouse - Week 13

Donate

Prompt - Week 13

Twist Reveal - Week 13

Results - Week 12

The Wheelhouse - Week 12

I need longer weekends!

Vote - Week 12

The Accusation - Week 12

The Real LJ Idol - Wheel of Chaos - Wk 12 - Happy Detritus

LJ Idol: Wheel of Chaos: "Little Metal Hearts"

The Wheelhouse - Week 12

Prompt - Week 12

Twist Reveal - Week 12

Results - Week 11

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