LJ Idol Presents:

I spent all day yesterday trying to flush something out of my eye. Which involved a lot of being in pain. (I thought you'd appreciate knowing that)

Then on the way home today there was a bus that never showed up - followed by another bus that took a *long* detour (really weird considering how easy their detour could have been... but I digress...) and a general grappy day at work.

I apparently decided to top it off with completely spacing that I said 8 instead of the usual 9. Why did I say "8" in the first place? Who knows. I don't! Had my eye still not been bothering me earlier, I probably would have took a closer look at it. Of course then I would have been flipping out trying to log on from my phone and figuring out how to close two polls in the span of a couple seconds...)

At any rate, thank you for the emails.

Because of them, I did get a screen shot of where things stood within 10 minutes after it ended. I know there were a couple last minute surges though that may have come after the poll would have been closed... it's one of those decisions that I'm probably going to get wrong regardless of what I do. That's why they pay me the big bucks though. ;)

I was going to add scores together or take the top few from each poll and give them something special - but I was looking at giving advantages to roughly half the field at that point. So since this week was unexpected with the dropouts, and unexpected with me missing a poll closing, I'm going to do something equally unexpected:

I'm giving the advantage to everyone!

That's right, it's an even playing field.

The 10 remaining contestants have each received ONE TOPIC BYE.

Not the usual bye, which covers a week. But one that covers an individual topic. (If there are two topics that you would need to write that week, you would only need to write one... if there are three, you only do two... and so on)

You can use them between now and before we hit the Top 4, and yes - you can give them away if you really want to do so.
Sorry to those on top of the polls. (Although you are getting what you would have received anyway!) But congratulations to those on the bottom.

What has surprised me over the last couple of months is how popular dabbin' seems to be with suburban white middle school kids. Almost every photo we take these days has a dab and non-dab version to it. ;)

I mention this because I was aware of the dab and a little bit of where it came from, so I wasn't *that* surprised to see it start happening in my every day life. Well, I was... but it does make sense. If the elbow goes up to show your confidence, who needs to be making a show of confidence more than middle school students?

There was one cultural phenomenon though that completely blindsided me yesterday, to the point that I had to look it up to see if it was a really a thing or just one person. It's nothing that has appeared in my own life, other than in a discussion of "stuff that happens".

Funeral selfies.

I looked it up. It's a thing. It's actually (apparently) fairly common among a section of the population. I'd never heard of it. Which made me wonder if funeral dabbin was a thing. I didn't find any links any "think pieces" on it, but I'm sure it is... if it's not, it will be soon.

And since I mentioned it online - that also means there is now funeral dabbin' porn available, possibly Hitler-related funeral dabbin porn.

You're welcome internet.

You're welcome.

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Also of note - this poll: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/926149.html Read, comment and vote for your favorites! It won't eliminate anyone, but it will give a couple people a leg up in these final weeks, that could help determine who is going to win this thing!

If you're sitting around and get the inspiration to write, but you're out of the competition - that's why we have the Home Game!

The Topics this week are:

Yes, Anastasia
Game night gone wrong
Creeping Meatballism
Immanentize the eschaton!


Post the link to your entries in this thread!

All the talk about the "transgender restroom issue" has been reminded me of the talk about how "gays shouldn't be able to use the same restrooms/changing rooms" because they "might do something".

Which reminded me of the struggles of homosexuals throughout the years.

Which reminded me of my neighbor in the mid-90's, Larry.

Which reminded me that AIDS stole my VCR!

I had a VCR. Larry loved to tape movies and TV shows. He had an entire room that was filled floor to ceiling with tapes. (He would have *loved* On Demand viewing/Netflix/etc) He needed an extra VCR in order to record, and I wasn't using mine. So I let him borrow it.

Larry had AIDS and ended up dying with my VCR still in his possession - and the charity that he had left all his belongings to swept in pretty quickly and took everything, including said VCR.

I may have told that story before, but it's not something that I think of often... and it reminds me that AIDS needs to be stopped, before it steals anything else.

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Btw - your deadline is tomorrow! http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/924359.html Hope you've been working!