Discussion 75 Word Challenge -- MARCH

[Ursa major]

As this is the weekend when the second season of Game of Thrones begins (at least in the US and UK), I'd like to state that I hope HBO doesn't take over the Doctor Who franchise (if only because of the risk that HBO's Daleks might go around saying, "Sexterminate! Sexterminate!").

​

 

[Bowler1]

Ouch! - That was a close tie break, well done both of you. Pyan that would have been a great come back if you had made it - but not this time - you were my choice all along.

Cul, well done for the 2nd time it seems, you must be chuffed.

My first time tracking the results and it was far from dull.

 

[Warren_Paul]

As this is the weekend when the second season of Game of Thrones begins (at least in the US and UK), I'd like to state that I hope HBO doesn't take over the Doctor Who franchise (if only because of the risk that HBO's Daleks might go around saying, "Sexterminate! Sexterminate!").

Game of Thrones!!!




So excited.

 

[Vertigo]

Congrats Cul! And very well done Pyan!

 

[hopewrites]

Announcing a new record in voting, if not in submitted stories. Oh, yes, we have had more - but that was the Christmas when we were given three votes each, so it's not really comparable (and anyway, we got less than twice the votes of this time).

A resounding congratulation to the two winners!

And Hope, thank you for the vote. I didn't know you were into that sort of music, where the mundane magic can slip into the uncanny without the players noticing the transition. I do know that I didn't describe it very well, wanting to get the story as well as the ambiance.

trance isnt at the top of my list (but it is on it), and till you said something wasnt what I read into your story. for me the magic in music is the ability to transcend my body with song (an odd statement when I look at it logically because it is my body that is making the transcendence possible) into an existence where pure emotive qualities can easily communicate themselves from one entity to another.
I would have to say that singing madrigals is the most magical thing I have done with my voice, wrapping and interlacing my essence with the essence of other dedicated musicians is pure joy, but the music we created, the tight skipping laughing interconnected delight... that is the joy I envisioned captivating the audience to their peril, the ability of song to steal the soul for just that moment the beautiful danger the elves were protecting against.

so of course I had to vote for it.

 

[Aaron Stone]

Congratulation, Cul, touching story, masterfully done.

Loved the graphs, Moonbat.

 

[choccoweeble]

Congrats Culhwch. A great story is one that makes people feel and you certainly created that.

Also loving the graphs as I'm a bit of a spreadsheet geek

 

[Bob Senior]

CONGRATS, CUL

CONGRATS, PY

Good work, Well done

Bob

 

[Starbeast]

Congradulations Culhwch! That was a close race.

Way to go Pyan. Your tale is also excellent.

Both of you were on my "Long List".

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Sorry.

I was going to, but I was fighting the HMRC software to submit my CT600** online*** - sorry for the UK-specific company tax jargon - and lost track of time and all else.

Actually, I was hoping to drop in around the time, just in case something prevented you, but I was sleeping off a huge dose of Valium necessary to face an MRI earlier in the day.

***

And a great job on the graphs, Moonbat!

 

[Mouse]

Congrats to Cul!

Liking the graphs, Moonbat. I don't understand the scatter one, but I seem to be in a nice little group with Perp and Hoopy. Can't see who that is next to me though.

 

[alchemist]

I think that's me, Mouse; the further you are to the right, away from the curve, the better (I think). So Harebrain has the best average. Good work, Moonbat (although I was sure I was a runner-up twice. Must have dreamed it, whew!)

 

[Mouse]

I'm definitely in good company then, alc. I thought I was runner-up twice too, but now I'm thinking maybe that was just a tie-break.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Yeah, I think that is the way the runner-up works. When I was looking at the graphs something did not feel right and it was when I noticed that there were less runners up than winners. It seems to fit that runners-up refers to tie break, not literally coming second in a given month.

 

[Moonbat]

Yes, sorry if I failed to explain things.

When there was a tie break the person who came second was a runner-up, otherwise there was only a winner. It sort of works because it shows that, if you were a runner up, you got the same votes (in the initial voting) as the winner. As we can see Teresa has been runner up twice and won once, so that has added to her high vote count (the 2nd highest after HB)

The scatter graph, which I think shows things best, shows that the further right you are the more votes you have got through the entire comp, but the higher up you are the more times you have entered. So some people like Digs, haven't entered as many times as others but has got a good amount of votes. That's why the bottom left of the graph is just a mess of names, because lots of people have entered once, twice or thrice, and picked up a few votes along the way.

The other scatter graph is trying to show more detail in the mid range because, as Mouse pointed out, names overlap and you can't read some of them.

The curved line is my attempt at a best fit, there was a straight line that intersected the Y-axis at just below 3, which meant that (on average) you have to enter 3 times to get a vote, but I felt the curve worked slightly better.

There is another graph that shows the entrants per month, the votes, the votees (the amount of people that received votes that month) and the % of votes that the winner received. It is interesting as it shows that some months there were fewer votes spread between more people. December 2010 will always be a bit of an outlier as we had 3 votes each.

I have the stats in spreadsheet form (but I use open office so it is a .ods file) and it shows that Mosaix had 25.58% of the votes in June 2011 which was the highest anybody got. If anyone wants a copy of my stats spreadsheet just let me know and I'll e-mail it over, one of you might be better at graphs and stats than I and be able to show more detailed info.

 

[Culhwch]

I think the obvious trend here is that HareBrain is killing it and should be barred from entering.

 

[Ursa major]

Won't that make him mad? (And it's still March here, just.)

 

[mosaix]

I have the stats in spreadsheet form (but I use open office so it is a .ods file) and it shows that Mosaix had 25.58% of the votes in June 2011 which was the highest anybody got.

And strangely enough that was the month, after seeing Chris's 'Kipling' challenge, that I almost gave up on the spot and decided not to enter.

I suppose that's the strength of the format challenges - they force you into areas that you wouldn't normally dream of entering.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

DEO: Rather intense visuals with this one. I'm glad I read through it before breakfast, could make a man hurl, haha. I wonder if any of the students tried to animate the narrator's "creation," however. Blech.

Okay, now that the voting is over, I can comment without influencing the voters. The rabbit was supposed to already be animated.* My fault if I didn't make that clear enough.

Next time, instead of "the rabbit shifted slightly", I'll use words that convey a definite sense of an unliving thing moving about - "the rabbit sat up", or "the rabbit tried to hop, and fell in a steaming puddle of its own intestines".

Must work on those intense visuals, too. Just not intense enough.

*No backyard burial in a shoebox for the beloved pet of a necromancer's child. At least, not for long...

 

[Mouse]

Moonbat, it all makes sense now. Thanks!