Three Was A Charm (as chronicled by Tina)

They say three’s a charm and I could have no more evidence of its charmingness, than our third and final practice run of WIBIJ in all it's fledgling beauty! The day dawned bright and beautiful over the virtual big top, perfect for a hunt. This one, designed for us by Trapeze Artist and Stunt Man Extraordinaire, Jon, was promising to be exciting. Heather and I were ready, fingers poised and raring to go. And the gun sounded. We were off.

First clue cited Heather’s blog. Who? Heather, who? Thankfully, rarely for me is their another Heather so close to my mind and heart. And what Heather does Jon always talk about? THE Heather, our dazzling, daring and all around organized and professional Ring Leader. I went straight to her blog, right to the Friday Feature Alumni and picked the most likely. Just a hunch. I felt it in my gut: Casey McCormick, and I googled her name and flash fiction. Found Flashy Fiction. Only now, as I write this, do I realize that the post I found was a writing prompt and the comment was to be creatively inspired by the Alice in Wonderland quote! Needless to say, I didn't read the 411. Looking through I found picture inspiration and word salads. Fun to try later!

On to clue two. Found our way quickly to InkyGirl. Where the lovely Inky was reviewing a writerly app for her iPhone called Manuscript from Black Mana Studios. (My visit upon writing this recap revealed: 1. Black Mana studios has an update to the app that fixed Inky’s concerns and 2. According to WIBIJ rules, I MUST BE DISQUALIFIED DUE TO A LACK OF COMMENT). Whops, in the comotion that followed because, J had pulled a T and mistakenly left a clue comment on a blog with comment moderation, I neglected to leave a comment at InkyGirl. Second note to selves: remind participating blogs to disable comment moderation before the hunt!

We moved on to clue three which led us to Frankie Writes. We had stumbled into the middle of a blog war! Luckily there were no casualties. And luckily there was an opportunity for me to show my ninja skills and use Jon's comment to refer back to my own post of the day. ChatRoulette! Too bad I did not know I was DISQUALIFIED by my lack of commenting at InkyGirl.

Finally, clue three! The funny thing was at this moment Heather and I were clinging tooth and nail to the edges of our respective keyboards, the adrenaline rushing through our veins. We were trying to read the fastest, come up with the wittiest comment, and beat the other to submission (and not the querying kind either). Usually we're supportive and kind to the other but this game had brought out the UGLY and, to add insult to injury, Heather’s four-year-old lost her pony doll. Heather’s fingers are flying as fast as she can make them, her eyes are running across the words quicker than our pet Lion, Leo, can bite J’s head off, and she is yelling FIND THE BABY! But the blog world has no idea of her actual plight, the fates of babies’ babies are not a virtual concern, the game raged on. Leaving the baby as a casualty in its wake, we headed directly to Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers. Where Martha Alderson completes her series on emotion and plot. Just the kind of help I needed. Especially with the announcement that Heather typed in the phrase WHIP IT, WiP IT GOOD, and Jonathon announced that she won the race!!! Which actually happened much earlier in the game as I was DISQUALIFIED*, just as well.

And there you have it, another round of WIBIJ bites the dust.

*Ring Master's note: The circus leaders conferred and with their infinite wisdom, decided that since Tina's comment misfire happened on a blog with comment moderation (which was accidentally used), the disqualification cancelled out.  Two wrongs, you know, make a right.  Tina Laurel Lee is still officially in the running for W.I.B.I.J. hardware.

Thanks, Tina, for the thoroughly thorough recap!

Heather was indeed the first place finisher (even if Tina had submitted her phrase first, she would have pulled a me and submitted the incorrect answer, just like I did in the first practice round. Tina and I accidentally live vicariously through each other). Anyway, Heather submitted Whip it, WiP it good! and thereby became the winner of my practice run.

To the honorable and quick Heather goes the 1st Place Winner medal:

And now, for the equally prestigious (if not more so, shh, don't tell anybody I said that) Best Comment Award. Tina wins this medal of honor for her comment at Frankie Writes:

Award Podium:
Let's welcome out two winners to the award podium, and hear what they have to say.  Shhh.  Here come Heather and Tina up to the mic.


Heather:
I can't believe I won! I have to thank my kids, for looking for the baby pony themselves, and trying to help mommy when she was doing such Serious work on the computer. I also have to thank my parents for giving me the genes to notice seemingly unimportant details (like the WiP in wip it good). I have to thank my brothers for showing me time and time again how to recover from seemingly un-recoverable boneheaded acts (not recognizing a reference to MY OWN BLOG). I have to thank Jon and Tina for giving me several pushes and much support, without which I never would have won. Last, but never least, I have to thank my husband. Years of watching the Amazing Race with you have finally, finally paid off. I am truly humbled by my silver WIBIJ medal. I will love it for all of my blogging days.


Tina:
First of all I'd like to thank the academy and by the academy I mean Heather and Jon. You were really integral to the perfect storm of events that had to occur in order to make my comment possible. But first I must thank Danah Boyd at Apoprophenia for posting about ChatRoulet in the first place. For, without her, I would know nothing. And I have to thank Jon for being such a faithful commenter that he came back a second time to leave his fateful webcam comment. And only he (and time stamping) knows which webcam comment came first, mine or the one at Frankie Writes, but one clearly sparked the other, and then my own. But the thanks can't stop there, as much as you might want them too, I must thank Frankie for warring with vlog dares. And for vlog dares I must thank John Green and his brother Hank for making vlogging AND daring so darned popular and funny. And perhaps they helped with that spark in Jon's mind too. And last but never least, I have to thank Heather Kelly for her Burrito Post. Because if I had not read that this acceptance speech would not exist. Because that sparked the idea of what a perfect storm it takes to write a perfect comment.


Congrats to the winners!  Please check out their blogs and give 'em some love!