LJ Idol Presents:

 There was a poll with 3 people leaving.  Due to a tie, only 1 person ended up being eliminated and the other 4 were sent to a Sudden Death Write Off. 

Which ended with 1 person being eliminated and 2 people in a tie. 

So, let's do this in order. First we are saying goodbye to someone who definitely is proving how unpredictable this mini season has been - the only contestant to survive 200 Weeks - roina_arwen  

I would say "I hope you will home game" and "hang around and support your favorites", but let's be honest, I can't imagine a world where that would happen. 

***
For the other two in the tie, alycewilson  and  tonithegreat you now have the Black Mark on you.  If you are in another tie, for the duration of this competition, you will be eliminated. 

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?

 There is a poll that is opened until Friday. therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1158072.html

So if you haven't voted yet, you definitely should do that!

***

A couple RL updates - Thursday night I'll be spending time with a former co-worker for the first time since I was fired.  He still works there. Will it be awkward? Maybe. I'll let you know.  It's not like he worked in the same department, but we used to be in the same area (my former team was moved back to the old building.... apparently when they said they "needed them near the CFO", they meant they needed ME there. :D  I wish they had made that decision before they added an hour to my commute everyday... but I'm happy for the old team. Well, those who live closer to that building at least. It's not as nice, but it's far less underfoot with drama-filled as the corporate office.) 

Anyway, I'll be hanging out with the former co-worker - quite possibly playing some skee-ball. There's a nearby West African restaurant, so I'm considering doing that too. Who knows though! 

What has YOUR experience been with socializing with someone you worked with - at a place where things ended "in a not-ideal fashion"?

***

Present job drama. Not really 'drama" as much as it is - "that was unexpected"
We had our first Support Services meeting today. Which was nice. Big group all together, played some games, they gave out some recognition awards, one of those "team bonding" experiences. Very welcoming. Nice change of pace.  However - this is the "weird" part (for me at least), they started the meeting with a video... the message popped up "Please Stand for the National Anthem: and then they started playing Lady Gaga signing at the Super Bowl. 

Everyone in the room stood and faced the screen and/or the flag near the screen.  I've never had a job that involved standing for the National Anthem before... have you? 

Not sure if this is the "our Big boss" thing (ex-military), if this is a DeSantis thing? If it's government work thing in general? Anyone ever encounter this in the wild before? 

A few words from clauderainsrm:

We are losing 2 contestants before we get to the actual poll. hafnia knew she would not be able to make the deadline this week due to illness, and decided to drop. strryeyedgrrl missed the deadline and is out of byes, and has been eliminated.

Two major competitors are gone and we haven’t even had the poll yet! That means all of you are one step closer to the finish line.

Or, to be more accurate - you are one more step closer to the Top 20, when Byes expire. Which is where we should be next week, given that we will be losing the 3 contestants with the fewest votes this week!

Once we hit the Top 20, the number of eliminations will drop again, but the stakes are higher so the numbers should be too!

Now is the time to stop hiding away from society and start spreading the word about what we have going on here! Read, comment and vote for your favorites! Then let the world know that they should do the same!!!


The poll closes Friday August 30th at 8pm ET.

Good luck to everyone!

The deadline is on Monday. So make sure you are working on your entries sometime between now and then. (preferably not Monday with a half hour to go. :D You know if I'm talking about you... yes, you do.  ;)  ) 

***

How has your weekend been going so far? 

***

I was in the breakroom at lunch on Friday when I see my boss come in looking for me.  She let me know that I had dropped my badge, and it had been placed on my chair.  She just didn't want me to leave the building without realizing that the badge had fallen out of the holder and not be able to get back in.  I had been warned that this wasn't uncommon for the "side badge holders" and you just needed to keep an eye on it. And I had been... apparently right up until I didn't.  

I thought that was really nice of her, went back to my desk after lunch and grabbed my badge. Then we found one of the top loading pouches, which are more secure and now I have a better way of displaying my badge. 

None of this is very interesting. But the punchline is that later I found out that the person who found my badge *wasn't* my boss. It was HERS.  The guy who initially didn't want to hire me.  :O  (He's fine with me now... or at least he was until I became the clueless guy who goes around dropping his access badge. I haven't ran into him since then, apparently he was cool about it. But now I have that in my head!  :D 

(Like I said though, apparently this is something that happens with those types of badge holders. No idea why they still issue them instead of the better ones. Unless it's all an elaborate hazing ritual.  :D) 

 it's time for another cool word as a prompt.  :) 

One that you basement dwellers might be familiar with.  (I'm only assuming you dwell in a basement. It's not like a have a camera in there.) 

But if I did, it would be clear why this is the prompt for the week: 


hikikomori


The deadline to link your entries back to this thread is Monday at 7pm ET. 

Have fun!

A few words from clauderainsrm:

When I wrote down the words ““Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" on the potential topic list about 6 months ago, I didn’t know that I would be living them. I didn’t know that Idol itself would be living in that sort of reality.

But we are. So we’re going to do what we can, with the people who are investing their time and themselves in this endeavor, here in the depths of Dreamwidth. :)

There’s another batch of strike-outs that are leaving us this week. But, taking a look at who is remaining, it’s going to be awhile until we run into this situation again.

Goodbye to estelle
joyfulfeather
liminaltraveler
oxymoron67
pixiebelle
quiltingdragon
R3ckless_blues
simplyn2deep

Thank you for coming out and for sharing your stories with us. I hope that you will continue to root for your favorites and home game when you have the time!

As for the rest of you, here is the new poll!
The 2 entries with the fewest votes will receive a strike for their writer. So make sure to read, comment and vote for your favorites! And of course keep spreading the word!

The poll will close Monday, May 16th at 7pm ET. Good luck to everyone!

 The new topic is up: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1114737.html

My work situation just took a new twist - they want us to come into the office for "1 day a week", but I've also been told that this is part of the plan to bring people back in full time. 

I have let my bosses know over the last couple months that this will be the death kneel of the team, that I have one person, and maybe two, that will quit if this happens. Between us - and since this is Dreamwidth, it's almost as good as putting it in a personal journal, Cynthia has said in no uncertain terms that if they call us back full time I need to look for another job.  There is literally no way of working the 60-70s hours I've been doing to keep this team afloat in the office, and I can't transport my entire system back and forth. (monitors, keyboard, docking station)... we'd definitely have to get a second set to even make this work for one day a week. 

Which, maybe that's the point - to make it difficult enough that people just say "I should just keep this stuff in the office full time...save myself the hassle." But I don't think this one is going to play out the way the people sitting in their comfy offices think it will. 

Then again, maybe they WANT to kill what they've been calling "the heart beat" of the organization. Put the new organization at a major disadvantage coming in. They certainly made it difficult for the last company that took over their other contract. 

When I brought up my initial reaction, I was told that we "should have expected that the plan was always to go back to normal"... to which I have to say - No. We shouldn't have.  There are plenty of companies out there who, having adapted to the 21st Century, realized that it's actually better for their employees. The people in office jobs, who want "to go back to the office" are the ones with their own offices, with doors they can close.  They are the ones "suffering" by having to work out of spare bedrooms and in the corner of the living rooms. The people actually doing the work are the ones who got the upgrade from the shared tight quarters and bad office chairs.  :) 

*shrug* if nothing else, either way, that will mean fewer hours that I have to work.  :D 
***
How is YOUR life going right now? 

 The final prompt is 

"Going Home" 

The deadline to link your entry back to this post is Thursday, Dec 16th at 1pm ET. 

Have fun!

The one good thing about having posted about Second Chances starting this month is that I can hope that the eliminations aren't "goodbye", just "see you a little later".

We are losing two figures who have definitely made an impression this mini season with their fellow contestants, who ended up coming up a single vote away from forcing a tie and 2 from an even bigger tie... and so on...

I know of them definitely have their fans, so please join me in saying a "I hope to see you in Second Chance" to

moretta  and  (removed)  (due to a poll SNAFU, the second elimination will not count)  

Thank you both for coming out this season. I've definitely been enjoying your entries, and I know others have as well.