Gishwhes 2016

It’s been a quick year! Summer already and one of the highlights of my summer has been and gone, Yes it’s that time of year I end up gluing random fruit and veg together and sometimes to myself! It’s Gishwhes time again!

This year with Slangaroo at the helm this year was going to be a great year!

I joined Team Fandom Sharks which was the blending of my old team Felix Fandomis and a couple of members from the team Baby Sharks.


Our world wide team has members from all over the globe, from Germany to Argentina, Spain to Canada and the USA to the UK. The team was made up of all experienced members and all bar 1 awol member at the end we created the best items I have seen a team I was part of do. Anyway, on with the items!

Item 114 – Grid image of all 15 of your team members (5 rows of 3 columns). Let’s see each member of your team dressed in some way emblematic of that member’s state, region or country. For example, if a team member is from New York, the photo might show that member of the team wearing a yankees hat while eating a slice of pizza. If a member(s) of your team is MIA, feel free to add your favorite picture of Misha in their place – Jennifer Irving

I think this is the most Scottish I have ever looked, and Kiddo let me borrow her she-ra sword to give it full Braveheart feel!

You can take my sanity, but you can never take my….

Item 92 – It’s the era of streaming media! But you have scads of obsolete technology clogging your closets/attics/garage. Take your old VHS tapes, CD-Roms, decommissioned cell phones, powercords that have nothing to power, and create – and model – a haute couture look worthy of a fashion show. Pose wearing your masterpiece (as if you were a mannequin) in a shop window next to actual mannequins wearing ordinary clothes . – Monica Duff & Olivia Desianti

Item 142 – Submit two images, side-by-side. Contribute to the gishwhes world forest. Plant a native tree in a place you are fairly certain the tree can live out its full life. Submit before and after photos.

Item 69 – Dress up in armor from items you find in a big box store and, using a pool noodle or tube of gift wrap, defend the perimeter of the ladies’ undergarments department.

Item 79 – Cross something off your bucket-list while wearing a vintage zoot suit.

Item 123 – Have a child under 7 choose your outfit, do your makeup, and fix your hair. Then go grocery shopping with them. – Dawn Townsend

Item 153 – Secure a legitimate contract with any public or private space exploration company (Space X, NASA, etc) to send a payload into space containing a drawing and a message written on a single 8 ½” X 11” sheet of paper. The message must be addressed to the universe and must be written by a child. Submit your signed and countersigned, legitimate contract by the end of the Hunt. THEN (and this is the only thing that you will be permitted to submit after the official end of the hunt on August 6th), you must submit evidence by email to [email protected] that your payload was successfully launched into orbit. Email proof must be received by 11:59 PM PST September 5th, 2016.

Item 3 – “Someday your face will freeze like that!” said every mother ever. The 2016 Summer Olympics has added Competitive Gurning to their roster and you are your country’s champion. Put on your Olympic uniform and let’s see your medal-winning, face-making moves. Judgment will be on technical merit, artistry, and execution. A perfect 10 takes the gold.

Item 117 -Gishwhes has conquered the Great Wall, South American waterfalls, the Champs-Élysées, and even SPACE! Help gishwhes conquer new territory— take gishwhes somewhere epic that it’s never been before. – Julie Reynolds

Yes that is me as Trump! I think I seriously need to rethink some of my life choices…

Item 106 -Bring a basket of homemade treats (hand-knitted socks and beanies, fresh baked bread or cookies,etc.) to someone struggling to get by or living on the streets, along with a note or card of encouragement. If you would prefer not to document this item with a photo (out of respect for the recipient or for other reasons), simply document it with a written description of what you did or video describing it. This item is on the honor system. You’ll have major karma issues if you fake it.

Every year William Shatner hosts The Hollywood Horse show celebrating the unique and special work of therapeutic riding animals. http://www.horseshow.org/ It’s about time your freeloader pet got a job and moved out. Show us their career trajectory by writing a formal resume highlighting their special skills and qualifications. Post it on LinkedIn. Get ten people to give a recommendation.

Item 72 – I’m going to tweet something to you on Wednesday, August 3rd in the afternoon. Or morning. Or evening. I’m not sure. Anyway, you must pass it on when you see it that day (PDT time zone). Submit a screenshot of your post. As some of you may know, I’ve published a few poems in my day. I fancy myself a wordsmith, but what with shooting, parenting, Gishwhes, and all the [REDACTED BY THE NSA IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY] I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been a little too busy to cozy up with my journal and pen for a quiet writing session.Fortunately, crowdsourcing is “in”, so I’m going to crowdsource my next award-winning poem and I’m counting on all of you to help me make it publication-worthy. Sometime today, I’ll tweet the first stanza (four lines) of my poem. Choose one member of your team to write the next 2 lines of my poem by retweeting with a comment. Then, that person will tag one another person to write the next 2 lines of the poem, and so on. Each line of the poem must be exactly the same meter as my original work. Get 14 people (including yourself) to contribute to my epic, Pulitizer-prize worthy poem. (At 32 lines, the poem should feel complete. If you have absentee team members you may recruit up to 3 non-team members to fill out your stanzas. Screen shot all 32 lines, beginning with my tweet, for your submission. Oh, and it should be stylistically in the vein of Yeats-meets-Kipling. (The Pulitzer people will eat that up.)

I can’t make stuff out of sticks, this was my I give in attempt

Item 21 – Re-create a monument or landmark using tree branches and twigs right next to the original monument or landmark. The structure must be over 4 feet high.

Item 162 -Here is your item: www.dropbox.com/s/367yaonidvn5rqb/slfwxuhsxccoh.jpg?dl=0

Item 128 – At gishwhes headquarters, we do almost everything right, with one glaring exception: we have not yet commissioned a gishwhes theme-song. We need a catchy, 10-second jingle that we can play every time the Slangaroo takes the stage.

The Song was made by one of my amazing team mates for this item, I provided my feltie to fill in the video side of it.

Item 50 – Virtual reality interfaces are absolutely amazing. The technology is mind-blowing. Using virtual reality and augmented headsets like the Hololens and Oculus, I have stood on the surface of Mars at Jet Propulsion Laboratories and examined the undercarriage of the Mars Rover, been in the eye of a hurricane, and have been attacked by heavily-armed 19th-century militia. It’s mind-blowing. Your task is to create a virtual reality experience totally unlike any VR experience to date. This video will require a super-short, adrenalin-pumping intro-teaser, which will let the viewers know that they are about to experience VR like never before. THEN, abruptly cut to a 360-degree clip of the most mundane activity you can imagine. BORE US TO DEATH.

Item 7 – Are you still jogging occasionally? Good. Be sure to try out this year’s latest fashion craze: pineapple shell shoes with matching pineapple caps to protect you from the sun. Let’s see you (carefully) jogging in public.

Item 108 – Rise of the machines: Every time you try to register for anything online, it makes you resolve a captcha puzzle to confirm that you are “not a robot.” Frankly, we’re sick of this blatant discrimination against our digital comrades! Have you and your teammates (or your friends) change your avatars to your favorite robot (Robocop, Asimo, Terminator, C-3PO, BB-8, R2-D2, Curiosity, Spirit, Opportunity, Gishbot, Snackbot, E.M.I.L.Y., etc.) until further notice. Submit a screenshot of 15 new Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or Instagram avatars.

Item 175 – CHANGE A LIFE. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 4.8 million people have fled Syria since the civil war began in 2011. (Over 6 million others are internally displaced within Syria.) Many of these families are living in tent cities and encampments with very few resources and very difficult lives. Gishwhes and Random Acts would like to team with Gishers across the globe to help change the lives of two families in particularly dire circumstances in refugee camps in Lebanon. The first is a family where a mother of 4, Khouloud, was paralyzed from the neck down by a sniper’s bullet while tending her vegetable garden. For two years, she has been unable to leave the tented shack she shares with her family in a refugee encampment in Lebanon. The second is the family of a 12-year old girl, Khawla, who attempted suicide so that her mother would have one less mouth to feed (the father is presumed dead by the Syrian government). Our goal is to move these families from the squalor of their tents into clean and safe apartments, provide medical care for Khouloud and Khawla’s two brothers (both who have severe health disabilities), and ensure access to education for the families’ children. We’ve created a Crowdrise page here https://www.crowdrise.com/change-a-life-khoulouds-story. DONATIONS ARE 100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE AND 100% OF THE DONATIONS GOES TO THE FAMILIES. The Gishwhes Item is to create a fundraising “page” for your team, where family, friends and others can donate. Since this is Gishwhes and there’s always an extra twist with everything we do, here’s the deal: we also want you to get OTHERS to donate to your team’s crowdrise page. We know you don’t need “points” as an incentive to help these families, but since it is part of the Hunt, we want to maximize the power of these points to help: start a page and try to get at least 10 donations from people or businesses NOT on your team. You and your team members are welcome to donate to your campaign, but that is not a requirement for points— the Item requirement is to get at least 10 people to make a cumulative total of least 10 donations who are NOT on your team. There is no minimum for these donations, but let’s please encourage others to be generous so we can make a profound impact. SUBMIT a screenshot of your team’s page with a minimum of 10 donations on it. (To initially create a fundraising team, click the FUNDRAISE FOR THIS CAMPAIGN button.). If for any reason your team is unable to (or chooses not to) join this crowdrise campaign, you may still get points for this Item by collecting goods or volunteering at least 2 hours of your time with any refugee aid organization that is providing relief to refugees. SUBMIT PROOF YOU HAVE DONE THIS. For example, Spark Ontario’s Warm Welcome program (http://www.findmyspark.ca/warmwelcome), Deutsche Kleiderstiftung (Clothing Foundation) in Germany (http://www.kleiderstiftung.de/kleidung-spenden/ ), or ref.connect’s cultural integration program (http://www.refconnect.de/de/about/konzept.html) in Germany. You do not need to use these specific programs to qualify for points; these are just examples— any legitimate organization helping refugees is acceptable. Thank you for being a part of this. We hope you join us in helping to change these families’ circumstances for the better and we will be sending Gishers updates on their situation in the coming months and years.

A chunk of items on this years list were to retweet items but to be honest it’s a bit boring to post retweeted items so instead here are the links to…

Item 100 – Rob Benedict created a video instructing people how to detect someone having a stroke so people can help save lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aTFThB8D4M. Tweet this link from 15 different twitter feeds and put links to all 15 twitter posts into a single screenshot that you submit.

Item 60 – Let’s save ’em! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/07/06/penguins-on-worlds-smelliest-island-in-danger-as-volcano-erupts/ Tweet your support to https://twitter.com/BAS_News and hashtag #gishwhesLovesSmellyPenguins and #[your username]. Get at least 20 people to post their support. Submit a grid image of screenshots of the posts.

Well hope you enjoyed my items, it was a lot of fun again this year and I had a great team with me on the crazy ride that is Gishwhes.

We didn’t win this year however we did really well, as a team we got around 10 items in the book including two of my own!

And after doing so well in points this year I finally broke into the top 200 Gishers, I’m officially number 153 and totally thrilled.

View post on imgur.com

And more great news my two items from the book also made it into the hall of fame.

Check them out here and here!

Can’t wait for 2017!

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