LJI Decathlon!

[aggienaut]

   Good morning LJ Idol, and welcome to another episode of Meta-BBQ on the Fourth Wall Patio (sponsored by Acme Paperclip Co).

   It's nice to see you are all commenting that you and your partners are just finishing up and posting your entries. Especially since I STILL DON'T HAVE A PARTNER. I hope you all have horribly awkward slow speed pedestrian collisions caused by you and a stranger botht trying to pass eachother on the same side of a hallway!!!

   I kid I kid, I would never wish that on anyone some of you.


   I've had a lovely day so far. Called Australia around 5am my time to get her just past midnight Valentine's day there, and then this afternoon while I was out on the bowsprit of the Pilgrim furling the foresail I got a text from Belgium (well via twitter) advising me of a potential LJI partner.
   And incidentally then I went up to the top of the mast and stood on the royals yardarm (90 ft up or so) without holding on to anything, which I probably wouldn't have done if I'd known that my harness wasn't properly rigged on right at the time. Oops. (:


   But on with your weekly dose of meta:


LJ IDOL DECATHLON!!!
   In the spirit of the olympics, I am declaring an LJ Idol Decathlon!! This is of course not an "official" element of the game and is not sponsored by Gary or otherwise to be confused with the sanctity of official business, but it WAS cleared with him so you can be relatively confident participating won't get you burned at the stake for blasphemy.

   The idea is this. I'm a big fan trying to submit a wide variety of different entries, and want to encourage everyone else to try out different things as well. So it's a decatholon of different techniques!
   What I mean by this is, in order to complete the decathalon, one is to have at least one (and no extra points for more than one) entry in ten of the following categories. A single entry can count in multiple, and any official LJI entry previous to or after this is valid for consideration. The categories:

1. Non-fiction
2. Fiction
3. Serious
4. Humorous
5. Narrative
6. Essay
7. Verse
8. Prose
9. creepy - I'm talking twilight zone creepy
10. sci fi
11. drawn (2)
12. phone post (2)
13. vlog (3)
Edited-to-add:
15. Script (Screenplay / play / etc)
16. Historical Fiction

Edited-to-add: when going through past entries to see what qualifies, please keep in mind the purpose of this: to encourage you to write entries that may be significantly different from your existing entries. You may have an entry that is a little bit funny, but is it, you know, "a humorous entry?" You know what I'm talking about, those ones with something hilarious (or at least attempting to be) every few lines, humour running throughout -- a humorous entry. And the same goes for other categories. If you haven't done one that clearly would be identified as "a ______ entry," count it as something you still need to do!

   The categories with a 2 or 3 count as 2 or 3 categories, respectively, because it takes a lot more effort to draw and edit something together. And phone posts, I don't know about you but I find it strangely difficult to get a phone post to sound like a well composed entry. And video, I don't have the faintest idea how to edit together and/or they're always a monster to upload and host somewhere so good luck with that.
   If you can think of a category I forgot I'll take suggestions for additional categories. No there will not be a slash fic category.

   I really hope some of you are up for this extra challenge, I know I can never resist an extra challenge personally. There will be no one winner so much as I'll make a list of those who successfully qualify as idol decathletes, and those who make the list can, you know, bask in the glory.

   To officially* participate in the Decathlon, please comment to the comment, noting which of your entries fulfill which categories.

(*officially only under the authority of the Echidna Media Organization)


The LJI Luge has been cancelled.

Next season we'll have LJI Rhythmic Dance

Comments

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

You do know that you're partnered with Jack Batelin by default, right?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I heard a rumour he's the only other person left?

I'm still going to reserve the right to whine about being a pariah up until it is official (that the laft available person was forced to partner with me)! :D

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Note: You still might be burned at the stake for blasphemy. I never guaranteed that one way or the other.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

oh I actually had originally typed "you can rest assured that..." and then I quickly deleted that and wrote "relatively confident" instead. :D


(true story)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

LJI posts. You gotta do it with the risk it'll get you shot airborne out of the flume!


Damn I really ought to stop joking about that. (And for the record my heart goes out to him, I have a deep respect for such athletes)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh I almost forgot to add this comment. The official sign ups!

Please comment noting your interest in participating and which entries you already have that fit categories (& what categories)

[poppetawoppet.livejournal.com]

even though I'm home-gaming it up let's go!

1. Non-fiction http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/8143.html and http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/11613.html

2. Fiction he every entry? here's one: http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/10281.html
(pretty much all my entries are fic)

3. Serious http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/8143.html and http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/11613.html

4. Comedic http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/10281.html (maybe)

5. Narrative this is the one I
m most confused on. I think I might have some, but could you specify?

6. Essay http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/27195.html
7. Verse

8. Prose well prose is just non poetry so: http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/11824.html

9. creepy http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/11824.html or http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/15196.html

10. sci fi http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/16159.html

AND MULTIMEDIA: http://poppetawoppet.livejournal.com/12831.html

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

1. Non-fiction
2. Fiction
3. Serious
4. Humorous
5. Narrative
6. Essay
7. Verse
8. Prose
13. Vlog (3)
15. Script

OK, I updated this week because my entry covers Humorous, Verse and Vlog - we are allowed the same entry for multiple categories, right?

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

1. Non-fiction: Uphill Both Ways and Barefoot (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/63271.html)
2. Fiction: The Better Half (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/76025.html)
3. Serious: What I Should Care About But Don't (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/67237.html)
4. Humorous: Bearing False Witness (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/68995.html)
5. Narrative: Smile! (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/64525.html)
6. Essay: One Touch (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/73215.html)
8. Prose: Sexual Ethics (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/84633.html)
9. creepy: Open Subject (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/76630.html)
10. sci fi: Reprobate (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/74866.html)
16. Historical Fiction: Sunrise (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/71404.html)... this one I am not sure of. Is old norse mythology considered historical fiction?

... Hmm that is possibly ten... even if the historical fiction is a stretch. Still, it pays off trying to write in different ways and on different subjects I suppose...

[sra33.livejournal.com]

Hopefully I interpreted these correctly...

1. Non-fiction (http://sra33.livejournal.com/685033.html)
2. Fiction (http://sra33.livejournal.com/711565.html)
3. Serious (http://sra33.livejournal.com/706965.html)
4. Humorous (http://sra33.livejournal.com/691228.html)
5. Narrative (http://sra33.livejournal.com/696346.html) - yes?
6. Essay
7. Verse
8. Prose - iffy about the definition :(
9. creepy (http://sra33.livejournal.com/739212.html) - I think this counts?
10. sci fi
11. drawn (2)
12. phone post (2)
13. vlog (3)
15. Script (Screenplay / play / etc)
16. Historical Fiction

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

I am in. OH I am so in. Honestly, I'm doing it already.

Just a few questions about definitions:

Prose: The ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse... (that means pretty much any post that is not verse, ennit?)

Essay: An essay is usually a short piece of writing which is quite often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. (Also a superbroad category, just wanted to make sure I understand the term)

Verse: Is it rhymed, or just poetry in general?

Narrative: A story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious. (Also really broad definition)


-- Just curious about what the definitions will be, since I am not a native speaker not an expert in literary terms.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Basically it was my intention that Essay would consist of all that is not Narrative and Narrative shall consist of all that is not Essay, and similarly, Prose is everything that is not Verse and verse is anything with metrical, rhyming or other such structure (haikus for example are always popular)

I suppose something that only consists of drawings might manage to be neither prose nor verse but I think you get the idea?

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

Does just having a photo in a post count as "other multimedia"? (If not, there should be a category for posts with photos)

I think my post this week should deserve its own category, but I'll wait until I post it before I say what the category is. ;)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Is it... a picture that just consists of a photo??


If there is only one photo, accompanying an otherwise narrative or essay entry, I don't think that bounces it into "other multimedia." Frankly I think all essays / narratives really could benefit from an addition of some multimedia. But certainly an entry that consists entirely (/primarily) of a photo essay would count as "other multimedia," and if they were ballsy enough just to post a single picture, well damn that would be ballsy. :D

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, if we have multiple entries that fit into one of the categories, does it matter which one we choose to link? (I just went through and found all my Idol posts to link them in the same post so I can work out which ones I can "enter")

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I'd imagine not. Just, you know, I suppose make a vague effort to link the one that BEST fits the category. (:

I'm kind of thinking maybe it would be fun when all is said and done if I were to post a list of all the entries submitted from the decathlon sorted by category, so if someone is really into essays or verse or sci fi, or what have you, it'll (probably be the only) place they can find a cross section of contestants entries organized in such a manner.

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

OK, another category, now I've posted my entry for this week. Screenplays (and plays, since I notice poppetawoppet gave that a go for the tie-breaker)! Are there any other specific writing formats (you know, besides the general prose and poetry type options) that people might consider doing? You could lump them together as "alternative written formats" maybe.

Screenplays / Plays

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hmmm yeah I'd probably give a category point for screenplays / plays.

[joeymichaels.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I may have hit 10 already through no fault of my own.

Will check after my shows tonight.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hmm hopefully not too many people are going to be able to just look at this and say "I got em all already!" ..I was hoping it would actually involve people having to do something about. (:

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

So a humorous narrative knocks down 4 and 5, I get that.

What about verse? Would an entry merely have to include verse (some minimum amount, say 12 lines, or recognized form, say a sonnet), or be entirely in verse? If the latter, I think it should rate a "2" or maybe even a "3".

Cheers...

Verse

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hmmm I would say the entry would need to be significantly in verse, or at least focus entirely on an original set of verse. I'm trying to hash a line here between not making these too easy to check off but not extremely stringent either. Mainly, I don't want people to be able to check it off just because they put a stanza of a poem at the bottom of an entry that wasn't otherwise focusing on verse, but if clearly they are riding on the quality of their versification...

[fsk8ing-judge.livejournal.com]

"The LJI Luge has been cancelled. Next season we'll have LJI Rhythmic Dance."

I literally burst out laughing at those lines and spit my tea all over my keyboard. Worth every damn drop for the chuckle!

[drippedonpaper.livejournal.com]

I want to see a video of someone's rythmic dance, LOL. Chris, I nominate you. Post a video of the LJI dance. PLEASE?!?!?!?!?

[onda-bianca.livejournal.com]

I don't always know how to categorize my entries...;)

Boxs!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

What! EVERYTHING can fit into a box!!! :D :D

Well I can tell you right now you probably have prose, so that's a point. :D

[sharya.livejournal.com]

This is something I think I might need to try - I'm trying to do some Home Game entries, so this looks like a great challenge for me :)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Do it! (:

[beautyofgrey.livejournal.com]

I just stumbled on this...but I'm going to consider it. I've definitely felt stuck and want to branch out to something fun. :)

But verse? Seriously? You want us to commit Idol Suicide?

Verse Suicide

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

:D actually maybe I should make "an entry entirely in verse" more of a two or three point accomplishment, considering how daring that would be.


And of course one will note there's significantly more than ten things on the list so one only has to do the ten they prefer (:

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

1. Non-fiction
2. Fiction
3. Serious
4. Humorous
5. Narrative
6. Essay
7. Verse
8. Prose
9. Creepy
10. Sci Fi
11. Drawn (2) All of them-- do I get 30 points for that?
12. Phone Post (2) (I have one other)
13. vlog (3)
15. Script (Screenplay / play / etc)
16. Historical Fiction

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

:D

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

I am too lazy to do links, but:

Non-fiction: Weeks 6, 7, 9, and 14
Fiction: Weeks 12 and 13
Serious: Weeks 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, and 15
Humorous: The infamous week 4
Narrative: Weeks 2, 7, 12, 13, and 14
Essay: Weeks 2 and 10
Verse: Weeks 3, 5, and 15
Prose: Weeks 7, 12, and 13
Creepy: Week 13
Script: Week 7