LJ Idol Presents:

I should just go ahead and call this "Thanksgiving Week weekend".  :D 

Anyone have any plans? Getting together with any family? Friends?  Enemies?  A little of all of the above?

I will be here, in my lair, plotting your eventual destruction. So, you know, pretty much a regular day.  :)

***
There are 6 contestants left in the competition. 1 of them is going to win this mini season. So if you haven't already called your shot and put your money on your favorite, now would be a good time to do it.  I've been hearing quite a bit of chatter out of Vegas on the relative odds of each of them winning. 

There is one person left who came right out of the gates swinging with consistently higher numbers.  Pretty sure that is the one someone in a comment (not here, but on an Idol related post) recently declared as "the obvious winner"... which, is definitely possible. However, it's only happened once where someone came out as a the early favorite in Week 1 and ended up winning the whole thing. So the odds are against them being able to carry it out.  Also, the numbers "at the top" have been a lot more competitive these days. So really who knows if they can pull it off. 

There is one person left that I don't know.  I was just thinking about it and they did ask "What am I getting myself into" during the sign up, which made me think they were a newbie. Granted, if there weren't a newbie and were a veteran using a new account without telling me, then that would be a far bigger issue. So let's assume they are a newbie. Which means I don't know what they might have up their sleeves for this last stretch. 

There is one person that I know way too much about.  :)  So I won't say any more about her, so I can enjoy the rest of my day!  ;) 


There is a delightful surprise. Someone who has managed to get better every week, and hang in longer than I would have expected when I set out on this mini season. Which is part of the fun. Who will step up and exceed all expectations? Who will take that step from being really good to being great?  I think there's a really good shot of that happening here. 

Speaking of, there is another person who was In this role a couple seasons back and has never looked back or been underappreciated since then. Hopefully the person just before this follows in those footsteps. But for this individual, there really is only one step left on the rung, actually winning. Could this be the time? 

There is one person who should never, ever, ever, ever be underestimated and I'm pretty sure people are. Yeah, there are only 6 people left, but leaving her on the board at this point seems a recipe to hand her a win under most circumstances. With how unpredictable this mini season has been though, I guess you could say that about pretty much anyone.  Maybe it's a "if everyone is a threat, then no one is a threat" sort of thing.  :D 

***
Not sure if any of that is going to help the odds makers in Vegas. 

Who do YOU think is going to take it all???

 The results are in from last week resulting in another Write Off: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1170999.html

and the new prompt is up: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1171200.html

I suppose it's time for an update. Although *tap tap tap* is this thing even on??? 

I went to FEST in Gainesville last week, the 3 day punk music festival. Although we went to Pre-FEST as well, so it was a 4 day adventure.  We checked Cynthia's Fitbit afterward and saw that we "walked" (some of it was dancing, but I'm sure most of it was walking in between venues) over 30 miles during those 4 days. 

I have spend the last several days completed exhausted, to the point that I'm not feeling great today and took the day off. Pretty sure it's not COVID. It might be "FEST flu" but even then I'm suspecting it's just sheer exhaustion and being dehydrated. 

***

It's a really tense time right now in the US and around the world. How are YOU doing?

 This is the last Idol post I will be making as a 52 year old. 

The results/Sudden Death Write Off thread was posted last night: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1165241.html

and the new Prompt was posted this morning  https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1165556.html

I'm starting to think that we should stop the regular polls and just have a rotating Sudden Death Write Off between randomly selected people!  :D 
Might save some time!!!  ;) 

***

What are you doing to celebrate my birthday this weekend???   I wasn't planning on being off today but thanks to the hurricane my office is closed!  So no real damage (other than a little bit of clean up and putting everything back where it goes) but a free day to relax!  I wish everyone could be as lucky. (since there ARE people without power/significant damage) and those who are still in the path of the storm. 

Happy Cynthia's Birthday to all who celebrate it! Which *checks* Is EVERYONE!!! Most important holiday EVER!!!

You also have one more day to get in votes. Which, if the current amount of votes and the amounts from the last few weeks are any indication that means that a ton of people are going to be voting today and tomorrow!!!  therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1162278.html

Considering that no one has a ton of votes right now, everyone "isn't safe", so the answer could really be anyone... so who are YOUR favorites this week that haven't been getting the attention they deserve? 

***
How has YOUR weekend been going? 

We were supposed to go to our niece's 16th party yesterday, but it was billed as an all-day event with a lot of the stuff happening later in the day. So we planned on getting there later. In the meantime, her friends were bored so they all decided to go out skating instead, which scrapped all of the other plans for the day!  :O  Teenagers, amirite?  ;) 

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?

 Good Morning.  

The results from the Write Off are here: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1155402.html

The deadline for the new prompt is TODAY, earlier than usual and here is the link: therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1154191.html

We are still missing the majority of entries.  :O 

***

But for those who have already submitted, and for those reading this after you've done your work. There was a question asked in that Write Off results thread that deserves more attention. So I'm copying and pasting it here.  It's from our own emo_naut/aggisnal :

"Idollists!! I'd like your opinion on a professional writing thing!! I know many of you work in writing or writing-adjacent industries and even those of you who don't will have valuable perspectives here.

So, I am the editor of a beekeeping magazine in Australia. We run, with permissions, articles from American and UK beekeeping magazines. While laying out one of these articles I stumbled upon the realization that this article, by a prominent professor run regularly in a prominent magazine, appears to be entirely plagiarized. 🤯🤯 Its blowing my mind 🤯🤯🤯🤯. Anyone who might be willing to read my entry summarizing the situation and proposed email to the editor of that magazine I'd really greatly appreciate it! I want to make sure I'm absolutely right about this and handling it in the absolute best way so I really want some other opinions!

Most of you should have access on my original LiveJournal

It's mirrored on my Dreamwidth journal, but for obvious reasons it must be friends-only and it seems my 1000 access tokens are already distributed -- but if you're having trouble getting access let me know I'm sure I can easily find someone inactive to take a token from and give to you! Thanks!!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏"

You can obviously answer his questions in detail over on those journals, but for a more general question, I remember when even the accusation of plagiarism was enough to derail a career. I think a big cultural shift happened with sampling and remixing when the idea that you could take something and make it into your own.  Then of course you started seeing more and more general acceptance of taking larger passages... and of course AI is just one big plagiarist device on a massive scale.  :D  (which none of these are directly related to the question at hand, but since when did I let THAT stop me!!! :D) 

 The Week 4 Sudden Death Write Off is happening right now. therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1150733.html

But so is the new prompt for Week 5 therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1151017.html

I'm hesitant to go into details to avoid jinxing it. But this has the potential to be a HUGE week in Idol history. If it happens, don't worry, I'll definitely be posting about it.  :) 

***

The rain just started here. Right now it looks like Debby is just going to be a tropical storm as it comes by us. But it's going to be a hurricane much sooner than original projected. So who knows.  Either way it's not expected to be too bad... there is definitely a LOT more coverage than usual about it. Which makes me wonder if it's just for the newbies in the area (there are a LOT of them). But honestly I have to think that if you keep hyping up how serious a storm is and it's not much of anything, if you are just making it harder for them to take the REAL threats seriously when it's a 4 or 5 hurricane. 

***

Speaking of taking things seriously. It's time for me to ask a few more questions, calling out specific people.  :) 

gunwithoutmusic  -      Poetry has always been risky in Idol. There have been times with it's done really well, but that has been very specific people writing at very specific times. For this mini season you've been only writing poetry so far. Was that a conscious choice coming into the mini season or just how it has worked out so far?  (on a side note penumbra  was actually on the list of prompts. But I moved it back to the reserve list after your list entry this week. So for once someone else looked over my shoulder rather than me looking over theirs) 

chasing_silver  - Your work has always been strongly tied to a sense of  time and "place". So seeing an entry about moving into your new home made a lot of sense to me.  I know you mentioned in the footnote about how you came to connect uncanny valley with seeing the remnants of the former owner's lives, but I'm curious about other ideas you might have played with in the process to come up with that.  Was there an "eureka" moment of when your brain made that jump or has that moment just been sitting in your brain waiting for the right opportunity to emerge? 

off_fleek_geek - Is podcast fanfic a thing now? It makes sense that it would exist, but honestly this is my first experience with it. I suppose it's more for genre podcasts than it is "current events" or interview based podcasts though. (That would be "interesting") But I digress, this was a fun entry. What was it about the prompt that made you think that the podcast would be the perfect vehicle for this story?  It could have existed on it's own, but the framing format really seemed to add to it, so I think that was a good call. Just wondering about your process coming to that conclusion. 

Let's see, what has been going on this weekend... *scans the news* Doesn't look like much of anything.

Just a normal everyday weekend here in the US.

Oh, Richard Simmons died. That was sad... Dr Ruth, Shannon Doherty...

Hmmm... what else...

OH! Yeah, the news that everyone is talking about, the Week 2 poll just went up!   therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1144477.html

That's pretty big news, all around the world!

***

For real though - i am glad that former President is OK. I can't say "this isn't Amercia", because anyone who remembers the 60s, 70s, and into the early 80s knows better than that. But it's certainly not who we ASPIRE to be. 

Let's be who we say we are. 
 
(especially those of you who say they aree damn foreigners. Be that instead!!!  ;) ) 

 The sign up sheet is still open until the 1st. therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1138078.html

It's nice to see so many familiar faces, but encourage your friends who might not have played before to join in on the fun. Or at very least "fun"... 

Of course there is a part of me that wants the safety net of sentimentally considering that I am getting on the bicycle myself after a longer than usual break. But new voices keep everyone on their toes as well. Both are awesome, and appreciated though. Let's never lose sight of that both of those thoughts can coexist. 


***
I've been watching a lot of movies lately thanks to the library and free streaming sites, some of which are actually legit. ;) 

I've also been getting back into reading. Which has been a treat.  

Mind you most of my day has been taken up with refreshing various job sites and submitting applications.  But those things have been a nice break. 

What are some movies and/or books that have caught your attention lately? 

 The longest week ever has another twist to it!  When I extended the deadline, I forgot that it was running into Daylight Savings Time.  So I've changed the EST to EDT and adjusted the deadline by an hour so that I'm giving you the exact same amount of time that I was before. 

Your topics are over here:   https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1044767.html


I'm still recovering from Day 1 of the music festival.  Not sure what I have left for Day 2! But I'm going to find out!

What are YOU doing this weekend?