Feeding the ducks

Dian emailed me photos and video of the ducks outside of her house in Texas on Tuesday morning. Let's see how much of it I can upload here.

The view from Dian's waterfront home. She's living large! 

Third place is far better than fourth!

I'll continue to use this blog if it is convenient to do so for contest info. Otherwise I think it has served its purpose.

We're less than two hours from the completion of Family Feast 2. Last I checked our lead over 4th place had grown to nearly 5,000. Could that be right? Wow, just the other day it was down to about 2,500. Amazing.

And we've closed the gap on second place to about 2,000, but aren't going to overcome it. That's OK. We still get the picnic basket icon for third place, and we've "medaled" in both Feasts. (Notice how the team icons you win are gold, silver and bronze?)

We didn't win a second time, but I earned about 1,200 less points, and those points would translate into more than 6,000 team points when you count bonuses for completing each dish. But we had a very balanced attack at the leader board, and family members old and new put in a lot of effort. I'm impressed, humbled and appreciative. I don't expect to win these Feasts, my mental health doesn't depend upon the outcome, but you all put a smile on my face, so thanks.

So, about that prize: As noted previously, the winner gets a choice of Betty Boop, Prince or Scooby-Doo, as well as other prizes. I said there'd be a second prize if we finish in third place or better. We're going to. So we'll have a second prize.

And a third.

And a fourth.

And a fifth.

And a sixth.

And a seventh.

And an eighth.

And a ninth.

And a tenth.

Yes, I'm sending out 10 prizes. Now before you slap me on the back, keep in mind that the consolation prizes have a value of no more than $1. But perhaps they'll put a smile on your face. And if not, perhaps you can use them to put a smile on somebody else's face.

There will be a bit of a process to sending them out, but they'll get out to you all soon enough.

I already know how we will pick the winners, one through 10, and unless there's a late rally, we'll end up with 15 qualifiers. That means five of you will not win a consolation prize, unless one of the 10 winners declines his or her prize. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks everyone.

Self-serving announcement: A new episode of my podcast is now available at cantturnitoff.com.

Good luck, and thanks

Good luck to all of you who have qualified for our latest Family Feast contest by learning 100 individual points. There are 10 as of tonight, and probably a couple of more joining the ranks before it's over. And if our team finished in the top 3 of our bracket, there will be a second prize.

Remember, the winner gets to choose from Betty Boop, Prince and Scooby-Doo. Weird choice, I know, and even weirder since it's anybody's guess what the choice is about. But if I told you what the significance is, what fun would that be?

Most of all, thanks to all of you for contributing to our total. There was no reason to think our team would finish in the top 3 of our bracket, despite the fact our team dominated during the final days of the last Feast. I had already said I would't be as active in the next feast if it was held any time soon, so I didn't expect our effort to be as impressive this time around. You all have amazed me.

Here's a random picture or three, just because I can share them. You're welcome to email me pictures to share with our group, or anything else that might interest you. There's no obligation to do so, naturally, and I won't nag you all about it. If nobody is interested, that's OK. I have other blogs that need my attention. Yes, I have more than one.

This old bridge in Bloomington, Minn., is about 100 years old. It was restored a few years ago and is for pedestrian use only. When things start to flood, this bridge can get a little damp on the surface. Lots of snow in February means high water and flooding here in Minnesota this spring. Nebraska has it far worse. 

Sometimes I end up taking photos of the most amazing things for my newspaper. [/sarcasm]

Taken behind glass, these caiman are small alligators, essentially. You can see them for yourself at Mall of America's Sea Life aquarium.

If you'd like to share your story....

Have something you want to share with our group? Interested in sharing your biography with the group, or a photo from your vacation? Have a blog, podcast or Etsy shop you'd like to promote? This is the place to do it.

Send MikeVegas72 a private message if you have something to share, and he'll make sure it gets posted here for the group to see.

Here's a tidbit from Mike, about a part of his life he has mentioned once or twice:

As somebody who always loved the creative, creepy fun of a haunted house at Halloween, I realized as a young college graduate that it might be a lot of fun to work at such an establishment.

That nearly happened 20 years ago. I had applied to be an actor at a haunted attraction by mailing in an application. I was hired sight unseen. I thought that was a bit odd. I was a bit concerned about the commitment I had to make to the job, so I opted not to accept the position. The dream was not realized that year. I sometimes wonder how my life would have been different had I went through with working that season.

I didn't give much thought to working at a haunted attraction again for several years. I had a modest surgery in January 2006, and as a result I told myself I needed to make a point to try a few things that I had neglected to do, to experience things I might have otherwise dismissed.

Late that summer I saw an add for a new haunted attraction opening up that fall at our big corporate amusement park. The amusement park is named Valleyfair, and they were going to offer haunted attractions during the fall, called ValleyScare. I was a bit hesitant to apply for a job working weekends at the amusement park, but I figured if not now, then probably never. So I applied to be an actor and worked four weekends in October as a pirate in Carnage at Crimson Isle. All these years later I still have fond memories of some of those nights.

What I thought was going to be a one-season gig turned into something more. I didn't make many friends that first year, but I enjoyed it enough to return. But I opted to move to a different attraction. I saw great potential in working as a member of the Mangler Asylum. I became a mad doctor, and I had a lot of fun with that for four seasons.

I lost my lust for acting after five years. I didn't hate the job, I was still good at it, but some nights felt too much like work. On your best nights, the adrenaline rush carries you through, and you have a lot of fun. That wasn't always the case in 2010, and I decided to walk away, with no long-term plan in the haunt industry.

I was curious, however, about what it might be like to work in a non-corporate environment, and in 2011 I worked a handful of nights at another area attraction, Screamtown. They had an asylum themed attraction, as well, so I worked a handful of nights there. I enjoyed it, overall, and under other circumstances might have worked there for multiple seasons.

I didn't make many friends at Screamtown, as I wasn't a regular part of their crew. But more than that, I missed working with my ValleyScare friends. By 2012 the amusement park had stretched its schedule out, and for the past several years the park has been open for six or seven weekends leading up to Halloween. I didn't want to act for seven weekends, but I went back to ValleyScare in 2012 as a blackout.

Blackouts are basically maze babysitters. I am not a park security officer, but I pretend I have authority. I am in and around the maze to provide assistance in a variety of ways. I refill water bottles for actors, I escort guests out of the maze if they're too scared to continue, I yell at guests who can't keep their hands to themselves, I pick up garbage and cell phones off the floor and occasionally I call the park security office if there's a significant issue.

As an actor, I learned how valuable it was to have competent assistance while working. You're not supposed to break character, after all. I didn't want to be an actor every weekend, but a job that allowed me to work with, and help, my friends? I welcomed the opportunity.

Being a blackout is most definitely a job. I am not part of the entertainment, but I get to watch my friends do their job, and that's a great perk of the job. I walk laps through the maze most of the night, sometimes not sitting down for six hours, but it's worth it at the end of the night.

I didn't have any grand plans for my return to ValleyScare. I was an actor for five years. I never would have guessed my career as a blackout would last longer than my career as an actor. But at the end of the 2018 season I had logged seven seasons as a blackout. And I'll likely go back this fall for another season.

I have a few friends that have been there since the early days, like me, but most people don't last more than five seasons. I didn't plan to work two seasons, and at the start of year 2, I was pretty sure there would be no year 3. Funny how life works.

I spent four years as a blackout at the asylum. Those of us who worked there over the years consider it a family. Unfortunately the asylum was retired after the 2016 season. For the two years following I was a blackout in the butcher shop.

Last fall I ended up being assigned to an outdoor scare zone, a different kind of environment, to be sure. (When you're essentially exposed to those walking through an outdoor area, it takes a different level of talent as an actor each night. I'm not sure I could have done it, even in my prime.) I enjoyed working for what I affectionately referred to as "Clown Town," but due to staffing shortages I wound up spending half of the season working at Zombie High, a traditional maze. I enjoyed working at both attractions last season.

I still love the work, but a part of me still misses the asylum, and always will.

Regardless of when it all ends, my life has been connected to Valleyscare for the past 13 years, and I have lifelong friendships as a result. That's an incredible gift I never expected, even after completing my second season at ValleyScare, as you can read below, if  you wish.

I ran out of things to write about, and interest, a few years ago, but I wrote about my adventures as an actor, and other things, for the first several years of my employment. I go back and look at them now and again. They remind me of tidbits I have forgotten, and help me better remember some of my fondest memories. You can read a short note I wrote four weeks after Halloween 2007, if you want to see how much blogging I did. (According to the blog account, there are 131 entries from 2006 through 2015.)

If you took a few minutes to read this, I hope it was worth your time. By the way, I don't blog about working at a haunted house any more, but I have a blog I do try to keep fresh, although not as often as I'd like.

Onward and upward

Yes, I was puzzled, and disappointed, on Tuesday to find out a former member of our team had bailed on all of us without saying goodbye, after telling us for weeks how much she loved our group. According to one of our teammates whom she had the decency to acknowledge after the fact, she will not give the reason for bailing on us. That's weak. We're a group of game players who all appreciate and support each other. There's no reason to treat us like that.

It's hard to remain upset about somebody who treats us that way. I've never cared about whether or not we win a group competition, or cared if everybody in our group is highly active. We've found some active, fun new people in the past week, and our group is better off than it was a week ago. I said in the group chat earlier today that it's time to move on, and it is. Onward and upward!

Last week I was able to take it easy during the final days of the Family Feast. I wasn't logging four hour a day of game play early in the contest, and I wasn't our scoreboard leader during most of the contest, including at the end. But I played a lot, usually while watching mindless late night TV. And I loved it. I hardly played the normal tournaments during the Feast, I ignored the prize climb and the dice master challenges. I bypassed some of my active games in order to head straight to the Feast. It was a lot of fun, even if 10 days seemed like it was a little long.

I don't remember when Yahtzee allowed us to create families, but it has been going on since sometime late last year. Like many of you, I spend too much time using computers and/or digital devices. I'm on a computer right now, typing a note five of you will read. And with no regrets.

But I knew last week I was going to make some changes in my life, short term changes. And now is the time to begin. I'm going to take a step back, so to speak, but you might not notice.

I will continue to request tournament passes and free rolls each day, and I will offer help whenever I get the chance. My help score might go down a little bit, but I'm not going away.

I might not contribute to the day-to-day chat very often, but I'll be around, and will certainly chime in whenever necessary.

There will still be contests, but I can't say how frequently they'll occur.

I will be reducing the number of games I'm playing simultaneously. That might be for a period of weeks, or it might be for months.

I won't be as visible, but I'll be around. Of that there is no doubt.

And it's time to change my screen name. I named both the group and myself after my podcast website. I don't detest being referred to as "Can't," but I'd rather be referred to by something else. So in a minute, I'll have a new player name. But the icon should remain the same. It's still me.

Spring is here, and after two hard months of winter here in Minnesota, things are much better, and I'm looking forward to big personal challenges in the months to come. I look forward to sharing my accomplishments with all of you, and eventually I'll churn out another podcast episode for your listening enjoyment.

Enjoy the spring, everyone, I know I will!

In memory of the Flamingo

While we have a Yahtzee “family,” we’re simply a loose-knit collection of players.

I didn’t create the family with any great purpose. I did it simply because I could. I named it after my podcast because I do little things like that to promote a fledgling podcast I record 10-13 times a year. I invited people I had played against to join the family, and waited for random people to fill the slots. As I’ve learned how the families benefit us as players, I’ve taken advantage of that, like many of you have. I have removed players who haven’t been active, but I never wanted the group to be militant. I never wanted a high bar for participation. It’s a game, not a lifestyle.

Our Flamingo friend, whose name is Cathy, has been an active player. Our most active player. She’s been a cheerleader for the group. And as we know, she was our most prolific Family Feast player. I don’t remember how she ended up in our group, but she did. We were all fortunate for that.

She won one of our contests, and I sent her the prize. She seemed to appreciate it. So much so that she collected souvenirs from Route 66 and sent them to me recently. I never expected anything in return, she simply did that out of the kindness of her heart.

We chatted periodically by email. I hate writing long messages on my cellphone. Sometimes our notes were about Yahtzee, sometimes they were about anything else.

She made a reference in the group chat last week about trading in iTunes gift cards to get more free rolls on Yahtzee for the Family Feast. That surprised me. I didn’t realize she was that committed to playing. I assumed her significant contribution to our team score was fueled by hundreds of free rolls, just as mine was.

Cathy really enjoyed the game, and seemed more motivated to win than I was. When we were in fourth place, my hope was we could finish in the top 3 and earn the special “chef hat” family emblem. I would have been tickled with that. She dreamed bigger, and accounted for about 30 percent of our total points. Without her, there’s no way we would have finished in first place.

She never asked to have any role in the “leadership” of the team, but offered an occasional suggestion, and provided a second opinion, when I asked. When I asked for simple help, she went beyond my request.

I figured that if I couldn’t be available for a period of time in the future, she would be a good team leader, which doesn’t actually require you to do much if you don’t want to. I never asked her to be a co-leader, I just anointed her as the co-leader, and she seemed quite honored.

Late last week I thought about how to recognize her contribution to our team. I wondered if I should initiate a small “charity” fundraiser in celebration of our accomplishment after the Family Feast, and use that to provide an iTunes gift card to her as thanks, unbeknownst to everyone. I don’t know her financial situation. For all I know she is independently wealthy. I decided that giving her a gift card didn’t seem quite right, but I wanted to find a way to put together a small gift from a bunch of us in recognition of her effort. Perhaps we still can. I have her address.

I also have a small prize in my collection for the next time she wins a contest. The prizes I award are cheap, and not specific to any one person. I have one that I picked up especially for the next contest she wins, which will be never. 

Our family is a simple group of game players. I didn’t expect that the group would be interacting 10 or 20 years from now. We’ll move on for one reason or another, or the game will cease one day, and life will go on without a “family.” I can’t imagine why Cathy went from cheerleading for us in the final hours of the Family Feast on Monday afternoon and celebrating with us in the hours after to leaving the family suddenly, without a word to any of us, and then joining another family. 

Understanding people we don’t really know is a challenge, and sometimes we will never understand why they decide to do the things they do.

I was tired last night when I typed up my Family Feast recollections and posted them. I had planned to invite Cathy to share her own recollections on this blog page, as I thought it would be fun to read some of her thoughts about the hours she spent helping us win. I guess we can forget about that.  

Cathy sent me a collection of Route 66 gifts last week, did more than anyone else in our group to help us win the Family Feast and then left us without a word. I can’t explain it, and I may never understand why. And that’s the way she wants it, evidently.

We did it!

I don't remember all the details, but I was continuously surprised by the performance of our Family Feast team.

I'm impatient, I don't always seek out the information when playing an online game. I prefer to learn by playing.

When I first learned the basics of the Family Feast game, and saw the leaderboard, I didn't have any expectations. I had no idea who would play, or how often. I had no idea how many teams would chase the lead.

Once I learned the nuances of the game, we were among the early leaders. I didn't expect that to last.

With a couple of days we were in the top 3, but clearly not the top team. I had no reason to expect we could maintain that pace.

Then a fourth team charged up the leaderboard, passing us, and turning the Feast into a four-team scramble. We were in fourth. I wondered if that was the best we could hope for.

It seemed that the top team (Animal Lovers) had a modest lead it wasn't going to give up. We bounced a bit between second and fourth. And then one night, about a week ago, I watched my mindless TV show, which I never watch without doing something else, and played Yahtzee. And played and played and played. We inched into first place. Barely.

I knew it wouldn't last, but I thought it was a moral victory, and would have been happy with that, even if we never regained the lead. I knew the Animal Lovers would bounce back. They were the toughest team out there for the first half of the Feast.

After trading the lead a couple of times, something weird happened. We built a small lead, and the Animal Lovers couldn't catch us. And the lead grew bigger. And bigger. And every time they'd cut into it by 500 points, I assumed they were going to rally. But then we'd build a bigger lead. By the final weekend we were up about 8000 points. I couldn't believe it.

And the other teams? Dicelicious was the first to fall off the pace, and they really ran out of gas. A League of our Own eventually fell off, as well, but managed to stay far ahead of fourth place. Dicelicious was passed on the final weekend and finished fifth, despite being a contender in the opening days.

Instead of having to sweat the final weekend, we could have sat on our hands. So many of you helped build that cushy lead. Thank you. It was fun to be part of a winning team.

So why did we outpace the other teams? I have a theory.

Both Flamingo and I invested a ton of rolls into games, a luxury not everybody has. And we dedicated time to converting those rolls into points. Too much time, but we did. Lots of you made a meaningful contribution. Without all of you, Flamingo and I wouldn't have done enough to crack the top 3.

I can't speak for Flamingo, but I didn't spend a dime to play the game. I had more than 2,400 free rolls at the start of the feast, and earned a bunch along the way. I estimate that between my starting total and earnings during the feast I had a bank of 2600 rolls. And when it was over I had 950. I spent over 1600 rolls, one way or another, trying to fill bags and earn points. Given how infrequent I use free rolls otherwise, the feast seemed like a perfect use of that ridiculous stash of free rolls I had accumulated. It's as if I had been saving them for months just for this occasion, which, of course, I couldn't have known.

My assumption is that the major players of other teams didn't have as many free rolls as I did, and couldn't keep up their pace of play for 10 days. And perhaps there was some burnout, as well. Some folks might have quit trying when they efforts were failing to keep them in contention for the top spot. It's all speculation on my part, but I suspect the combination of reasons I listed resulted in the downfall of every team. We were in a position to outlast them all, and we did it. Congrats to you all.

I'll have more info to share in the next few days. There won't be regular blog posts here, but it's fun to be able to write a short essay for our group now and again. (It comes easy for me, if you didn't know. I'm a newspaper reporter.) And if this blog has no purpose after this week, that's OK.

One last thing for now, I have vowed I will not go nuts if they start a new feast any time soon. And I mean it. For now, I don't have the 1500+ free rolls to carry me through a 10-day tournament at the same pace. And I won't spend money to play any Yahtzee games.  Additionally, winter might be over here in Minnesota, and while I'm not outside until midnight every night, summertime is always busier for me than the winter, and I will stay busy through Halloween. Coupled with the fatigue of the inaugural feast, I'm not in a hurry to dedicate hours to another feast, as much fun as the challenges were.

That's enough for tonight. More to come in the near future.