GISHWHES 2016: Aftermath

So the week of GISHWHES which I told you about previously is finally over and I can finally relax go back to my normal level of stress and lack of sleep (yeah I didn't really think through how much I'd need to do) but not before I tell you a bit about what I got up to.

This was my first GISHWHES and it was certainly memorable, stressful, fun, crazy and totally right up my alley. I'll probably end up doing it again next year!

The tasks this year didn't quite reach 200 but were approximately 179 with some being taken out due to being too crazy or to be sensitive to certain incidents. The majority of the tasks can be seen below and as you can see were more than a little bit impossible...or so you'd think.

I recommend skim reading tasks...seriously it will take a while.

1. 32 POINTS There’s something you used to do for your significant other when you first met them. Something that made them smile… It’s been years since you did this. Do it now.

2. 123 POINTS A freight train engine pulling a tiny flatcar (a utility flatcar, not a big cargo flatcar) with a woman dressed in Victorian attire, sitting at a writing desk with a vase of flowers on it, writing a letter to her beloved.
3. 21 POINTS “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.
4. 57 POINTS Dentist's offices are notorious for playing dreary elevator music. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Get dental work done while a string quartet plays live music in the room.
5. 37 POINTS In the middle of a mall food court, you and a friend (one or more) play a nice game of badminton - we must see the tennis whites, the net, rackets, etc.
6. 54 POINTS Submit two images, side-by-side. If you have or know a child under 6, have them draw a family portrait. Now, get your family to pose EXACTLY as they drew you all in the drawing. Try to replicate the clothing, individual heights and anything you need to do or add to your bodies to contort them to what the child drew.
7. 44 POINTS 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.
8. 87 POINTS Get "This week, GISHWHES is making the world measurably weirder…” or similar text on the news ticker at the bottom of the screen of a major network or cable news channel.
9. 27 POINTS Care homes, rehab facilities, and hospitals have many patients and clients who can't read for themselves. Contact a local center and offer your services to read for an hour or two (or more) during the Hunt Week. If photo evidence with the patient is a sensitive issue, ask the care staff for a photo or documentary evidence of your contribution. - Monica Duff
10. 26 POINTS Find the coupon section from your most recent newspaper. Cut out at least five coupons. Go to the store and leave the coupons on the shelf taped next to the relevant items with a note “From the Coupon Fairy!”. - Elizabeth Fiedler
11. 47 POINTS You (a human) must re-enact this photo (not pets allowed): http://markobbie.com/wordpress1/wp-...
12. 58 POINTS I have to travel a lot for work, so I’ve learned a thing or two about working the system. It turns out, if you package yourself properly you can send yourself by mail for a fraction of the cost of an airline ticket. Transform your appearance into a first-class parcel and have a friend deliver you to the post office for shipping. Don’t actually ship yourself— just get a photo of your packaged self being weighed at the post office, in a bin at a post office with other packages, or being loaded into a mail truck.
13. 32 POINTS It’s a well-known fact that Pablo Picasso was a huge “Supernatural” fan. He painted portraits of Mark Sheppard, Jensen Ackles, Ruth Connell, Sam Smith, Richard Speight Jr., Matt Cohen, Jared Padalecki, Andrew Dabb, Rob Benedict, Misha Collins, Bob Singer, and many of the other cast and crew members. Sadly, until now, these great works have been lost to the world. Fortunately, your team has unearthed one of these priceless works.
14. 38 POINTS Live your dream. You know, the one you had while you were sleeping last night. - Julie Reynolds
15. 105 POINTS PHOTO or VIDEO. (slow-mo or real-time). This is the final showdown between the Haves and the Have-nots. Show up Monday afternoon at NO LATER than 12 PM at Dolores Park in San Francisco (the flat side of the park at Dolores Park entrance). If your team name has an odd number of letters in it, you are an executive and you must dress business-snazzy. If your team name has an even number of letters in it, you are a member of the proletariate and you must dress in over-alls or blue-collar apparel. Bring at least 12 water balloons (pre-filled with water). At exactly 12:10 PM, the ultimate water balloon battle will ensue. It will last exactly 7 minutes! After this time has expired, the battle will be over and BOTH teams MUST clean up the water-balloon shrapnel (see below). You must have a friend capture the event with a video or photo (don’t get your phones wet) or, if you don’t have a photographer attending with you, you may get a photo with the gishwhes representative at the event—they will be wearing a royal blue beanie. You must circle "you" or your representative (if you don't live near SF) in the image that you submit so we can identify that you were there. IMPORTANT! Participants must collect and dispose of ALL balloon shrapnel at the end of the battle. Otherwise, seagulls will eat them and they will die a horribly painful and drawn-out death. Have you ever read the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”? Why not? What’s wrong with you? Let’s just say killing an albatross (which, although from a completely different family (Diomedeidae) than the seagull (Charadriiformes), they do both have wings, and think the ocean is a good place to poop - so they are pretty much brothers) is not good karma and it shall haunt you for life. So be a responsible Gisher and don’t leave until the debris is gone.
16. 56 POINTS Your yard needs an upgrade. It's too expensive to do proper landscaping, so let's just dress it up nicely... with every item of clothing you own displayed in a beautiful, artistic manner on the trees, bushes, cars, patio furniture, fountain, etc. Have your neighbors over in the middle of it for a yard-warming party if you wish.
17. 39 POINTS Give your dog a slow, massaging soap bath in a kiddie pool in a crowded pedestrian area. If it's cold out, use a large stuffed animal instead. Relaxing spa music should be playing in the background. - Tracy Liu
18. 67 POINTS Recreate a painting by Goya in candy.
19. 58 POINTS It’s such a strange feeling lying in a coffin almost completely buried in popcorn with only your face showing. Trust me. I know.
20. 29 POINTS Handcraft at least 3 birthday cards and send them to this young man: "Boy from Big Bear with severe autism wishes for birthday cards" http://abc7.com/society/boy-from-bi... - Elizabeth Madsen
21. 41 POINTS 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.
22. REMOVED
23. 79 POINTS The versatility of corn is amazing— it has so many uses! However, there's no better use for corn than this year's must-have fashion statement: the Corn Husk Bikini or Corn Husk Evening Wear! Feel free to color the husks, as well as to accent and accessorize with kernels.
24. 53 POINTS Paint a watermelon to look like the head of a famous dictator (past or present) and place it at the base of one of the cannons at Dawes Point under the Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia. You will likely see other watermelons there. To make sure your photo submission is different from any other team’s, you must stack or display the watermelons artistically. If they are already stacked or displayed in an artistic manner, you must thoughtfully re-stack and rearrange them.
25. 48 POINTS Let’s see a bad lip reading of a Supernatural episode in this style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w8... - Julie Reynolds
26. 61 POINTS Drones are just the first step in machines’ efforts to take over the world. Let's end this battle before it starts! Let's see an epic picture of you squaring off against a flying drone in your mightiest battle pose. You must be geared for battle though... Use anything from your kitchen or pantry to create your armour and weaponry.
27. 94 POINTS Dress up your pet as a well-known public figure (actor, politician, musician, etc.) and get a photo of your pet with the ACTUAL public figure it is dressed up as. Make sure the pet looks as much like the public figure as possible (wardrobe, hair, etc.).
28. 48 POINTS Submit your video in slow motion.You are throwing an elegant party. Show us your sophistication by decanting red wine directly into your guests’ mouths. Properly aerate the wine by pouring it from at least 2 stories above the guests. The guests, of course, must be wearing white.
29. 36 POINTS Recently there has been a lot of news about bottled water and how much of it is just urban tap water sold in a bottle with a fancy label. It’s an unregulated sham. That said, it seems like a pretty good way to make a buck, but at this point the bottled water market is pretty saturated. Set up a stand on a public walkway to sell “fresh air” from your city in bottles with compelling labels.
30. 43 POINTS Dub a “Beavis and Butthead” cartoon with actual audio clips from Barack Obama and Donald Trump as the voices for Beavis and Butthead respectively.
31. 46 POINTS Personify the name of a street sign. - Erin Atkinson
32. 39 POINTS We all learned from the movie “The Secret” that vision boards and positive affirmations have the power to help you manifest really important things in your life like sports cars and boundless riches. Now I’m sure everyone probably wants a red sports car and immeasurable wealth, but we want to see your vision board that depicts aspects of your life that transcend the trappings of material status. Make a collage from magazines of the things which cannot be bought or sold that you would like more of in your life.
33. 33 POINTS Rainbow teeth.
34. 31 POINTS We’ve seen Jensen Ackles portraits in Skittles. What about Jensen Ackles on Skittles? Draw a tiny Ackles on a single Skittle. Post a photo of the Skittle portrait in the palm of your hand.
35. 44 POINTS In support of the documentary “Alive Inside,” find one person with Alzheimer's or some form of dementia and learn what their favorite tunes were when they were young. Make them a playlist of those songs and play it for them.
36. 67 POINTS Item will be provided during the Hunt.
37. 37 POINTS I believe that children are our future. Show us your futuristic robot baby.
38. REMOVED
39. 67 POINTS There's a lot of talk about how undocumented immigrants or "illegal aliens" are taking away our jobs and using public services such as hospitals and schools. But I think the real thing to worry about is actual aliens from other planets. Prove that aliens are a drain on our civic infrastructure by showing an alien from space (this costuming has to be impeccable) displacing a citizen's job or clogging up our hospitals or prisons. Caption the image with a message about the dangers of aliens draining our civic infrastructure.
40. 81 POINTS We all know about "Transformers" - the cars and trucks that turn into super-robots. But what the movies and toy manufacturers have overlooked are all of the other less-celebrated, more mundane Transformers. For example, what about Burgertron? He transforms from a burger into a robot. Or Desktopatron? She is a desktop computer who transforms into a robot. Or Fiddletron? He’s a violin one minute, a robot the next. Show us a human in a Transformer costume that goes from household object to a bad-ass robot.
41. 84 POINTS Free range, grass-fed, small farm dairy cows in Northern Vermont have it rougher than most cows: the rolling hills, the verdant pastures, the way the flickering lights of summer’s fireflies mingle with the starlight, the smell of ripening raspberries wafting into their barns. Help a heifer in these dire circumstances forget her suffering. Treat a dairy cow to the most pampered milking session in human/bovine history. A minimum of three attendants must milk the cow. One person must be feeding her clover by hand as another gently milks her wearing satin gloves as another massages her gently. The attendants must be dressed in semi-formal attire. The milking must take place in a well-appointed living room.
42. 45 POINTS Let’s see a picture of you and a friend, dressed as Jedi knights, enjoying a root beer float at the White Turkey Drive-In in Conneaut, Ohio, or at another 1950s-style dining facility. Bonus points for being served by a Sith. - L.S.
43. 52 POINTS This video may be 25 seconds or less. Create the world’s first human piano. Get multiple people to stand in one line dressed in black and white as piano keys, with each leg a different key (two keys per person). Then “play” them: have them lift their heels several inches off the ground, and when you press down their leg they sing, hum or grunt the corresponding note (pitch perfect, please). When you remove your hand, their leg goes back up. Two or more legs down at the same time makes a chord. Play chopsticks (or another familiar ditty) more or less in tune.
44. 61 POINTS Two elderly men playing chess by candlelight in front of the front row of a crowded movie theater while the film plays in the background.
45. 46 POINTS Isn’t it great to get your friends and family together for the holidays?! But it’s so hard! Sometimes all you can manage is getting everyone together for one holiday a year. But then you have to choose a holiday, and that’s so hard, too! Wait a minute... not if you decide to celebrate ALL holidays in that one night! Let’s see that night. - Inspired by Nicole Bowman
46. 66 POINTS This video may be up to 20-seconds. Everyone knows how important specific diets are in developing a chiseled physique. Find a bona fide, professional, competitive bodybuilder or ultimate fighter in peak condition and have them create a 20-second infomercial touting the muscle-building, fat-burning, nutrient-loaded virtues of aerosol spray cheese (like Cheeze Whiz). We must hear the athlete’s name, credentials and see their glistening, oiled, body as they “sell” us (however they best can do that) on the benefits and delicious taste of the aerosol spray cheese. This should probably include ravenously squirting the cheese directly into their mouth. Bonus points if you get a former World Champion.
47. 41 POINTS Submit two images, side-by-side. Recreate a famous, iconic photo from junk food. For example, you could submit the black and white photo of Einstein sticking out his tongue, next to another photo of your best attempt to recreate that photo using various junk foods as your paints. I hope that makes sense. For some reason it sounds confusing as I type it. But you have to somehow figure out what I mean here and then do it. Best of luck.
48. 38 POINTS Let’s stop sugar-coating our grievances and complaints! Actually, strike that— let’s actually sugar coat them. Confront your boss or employee about an issue in the workplace that has been irking you. While doing so, you must be entirely coated in powdered sugar. Your body language must convey your frustration.
49. 47 POINTS Cosplay a thunderstorm, in public, complete with sound effects, lighting and rain. - Karen Hutchinson
50. 63 POINTS 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.
51. 174 POINTS Time-lapse this submission to 20 seconds or less. Get permission from a museum to temporarily replace a painting worth more than $100,000 with a forgery of the same painting. The forgery must be painted by an 8-year old and we must see time-lapse showing ALL OF THE following 3 occurrences for you to receive points: (1) removal of the original painting (caption with the name of the painting and estimated value), (2) installation of the child’s painting, and (3) patrons viewing the child’s painting.
52. 26 POINTS Submit a screenshot. Using the satellite function on Google Maps, find a geological feature that looks like one of our Gishwhes mascots (Fograt, Wooster, Elopus, etc.). Screenshot the image and then caption it appropriately (i.e. Fograt Valley, Mount Slangaroo, etc.).
53. REMOVED
54. 56 POINTS Item will be provided during the Hunt.
55. 14 POINTS Gishwhes has broken 7 Guinness World Records. Let’s see how many records you can break in 10 seconds. (Hint: record=LP)
56. 81 POINTS Green Eggs and Ham. Sam does not like green eggs and ham. Not on a boat, not with a goat. Show us yourself enjoying green eggs and ham (sunny-side up) on a boat with a goat.
57. 102 POINTS A Hell's Angel (or other bona fide member of a known motorcycle club) in a fruit leather jacket sitting astride their bike.
58. 47 POINTS Garnet from “Steven Universe” popularized the phrase, “I am made of love.” Turn yourself into a collage (you are the pasteboard on which the collage is affixed), comprised of all the things you love that, combined, help make you uniquely you.
59. 102 POINTS Time-lapse this submission to 20 seconds or less. Create an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that ultimately serves an an incredibly simple function. For example, you could set up a Rube Goldberg machine at a deli counter in a grocery store that, upon completion of its entire elaborate multi-step process, issues a single numbered ticket to a patron waiting for their turn. The machine MUST be set up in a public place.
60. 35 POINTS Let's save 'em! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/... 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.
61. 93 POINTS Gymnasts around the world are gearing up for the Olympics. Show a gymnast in action on a balance beam, vault, floor exercises, etc. proudly wearing their “pizzatard" (unitard made from pizza). If that sounds too challenging, you have the option of putting them in a fishtard, a fruittard or a friestard. Any of these options garner the same point value.
62. 62 POINTS There’s one thing everyone has always agreed on: you have mad artichoke-repurposing skills.
63. 48 POINTS Wallpaper an entire wall of your bedroom with photos of your nose. You must cover every inch of the wall and must have AT LEAST 100 pictures of your nose. Pose in front of it with your finger up your nose.
64. 51 POINTS This submission may be 30 seconds or less (or time-lapsed). Celebrate the Olympic Summer games by running a 40-meter, 30-legged dash.
65. 37 POINTS This submission may be 25 seconds or less. A commercial for your new 80 SPF Sinscreen (this is not a typo).
66. 76 POINTS In corporate-speak, we often hear, “Thanks for jumping in the sandbox with us!” It means, “Thanks for embarking on this joint venture together.” At Gishwhes we take these types of comments literally. Let’s see people in business attire playing with sand toys, holding a corporate meeting in a sandbox in the middle of an indoor, upscale corporate lobby.
67. 44 POINTS The morning commute can be such a drag! Let’s help commuters get the day off to a good start. Distribute free coffee at a bus stop dressed as a chic butler, waiter or waitress during morning rush hour. - Jessica Carla Marques
68. 33 POINTS Create a portrait of your favorite Supernatural actor on an Etch-A-Sketch in the style of a famous painting. http://chicagoist.com/2016/05/09/_j...
69. 42 POINTS 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.
70. 55 POINTS Item will be provided during the Hunt.
71. REMOVED.
72. 29 POINTS 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.
73. 64 POINTS Provide evidence of having helped at least 10 eligible United States citizens to register to vote. (Please redact any sensitive identifying personal information from your submitted evidence.) Whether they are changing address, changing party, changing to eligible voting age, or just plain changing their mind to get up off their butt and participate in democracy after years of sideline apathy, the first step to actually voting begins with registration. Submit images of the 10 (or more!) registrants side-by-side or as a grid. - L Tank Conner.
74. 74 POINTS Houston, we have a problem... a math problem! We're planning our gishwhes winners’ trip and need to calculate the travel time from NYC to Reykjavik (the capital of Iceland) if our average speed is 400 miles/hour. Oh, one more thing, this needs to be calculated on a working pre-1970 supercomputer.
75. 46 POINTS The tiny kitchen trend is all the rage, but what about tiny bathrooms? Give a full spa experience to a hedgehog, hamster, or mouse, all using tiny spa implements in your tiny spa. (Remember, the customer is always right— so don’t make them do anything they aren’t happy to do.)
76. 97 POINTS Nobody ever talks about the fact that 250 years ago, stormtroopers who had been abandoned on planet Earth were forced to assimilate into pre-Industrial culture. Dramatically re-enact this difficult time. Show a stormtrooper getting back to basics using a spinning wheel, butter churn, or other old-fashioned tool or machine in a rural setting. Feel free to add accessories to the stormtrooper’s outfit to make their assimilation more complete—a Shaker-style hat, a musket slung over the shoulder, etc.
77. 77 POINTS Oil and water don’t mix, but in this case we’ll make an exception. Paint a portrait of a live model while both you and the model are scuba diving. Your subject(s) must be wearing formal attire and you must be wearing a beret while at your easel.
78. 46 POINTS A working, playable lute made from lutefisk.
79. 79 POINTS Cross something off your bucket-list while wearing a vintage zoot suit.
80. 33 POINTS Sealand has a population of 4 and holds the Guinness World Record for “the smallest area to lay claim to nation status.” Get Sealand or one of the world’s 20 smallest nations (by population) to grant you citizenship or legal status on an expedited timeline (by the end of the Hunt). Caveat, you can’t pay for it. They have to do it just because they want to see the spike in population growth (or they like the idea of gishwhes).
81. 46 POINTS This submission may be 25 seconds or less. Jason Manns is well known for his rendition of "Crazy Love." Show the Crazy Love you have for your fellow humans by surprising your favorite barista, convenience store clerk, or other underappreciated worker with a serenade. Don't forget to bring an instrument of your own creation.
82. 66 POINTS Submit an illustration for the fairy tale “Trumpunzel.”
83. 116 POINTS This submission may be 25 seconds or less. Recently a former NASA engineer created the world’s largest NERF gun (http://nerdist.com/former-nasa-engi...). We think he didn’t try hard enough. Show the world that you can out-do his efforts. Your submission must clearly surpass his effort or you will receive no points. - Dave Lavery
84. 83 POINTS “Death 2 Normalcy”, written in “Highway Braille” (Botts Dots) on a city street. The message must be at least 20 feet long.
85. 42 POINTS It's summer (for those of us above the equator)! Time to go the beach! But sand castles are so dated, so gauche, so elitist, so medieval. Catch up with the times and build a sand trailer park.
86. 56 POINTS As you all know, Saturday the 6th of August is International Find Another Gisher Day. Meet up (reach out over social media to find gishers in your area) with AT LEAST 5 other Gishers that aren’t on your team at a bus stop and, together, decorate the bus stop with post-it notes inscribed with a mix of delightful, surreal, and uplifting messages. One must read, “Be the unicorn you want to see in the world.” Submit one image of all 5+ people standing in, on, or around the decorated bus stop. The submission description must include the gishwhes usernames of each Gisher in the photo. Each team can submit the same image if a team member was there representing the team.
87. 38 POINTS Dress up as a prospector and pan for gold in a public fountain. - Trish Burdick
88. 87 POINTS You know those giant teacups at amusement parks that spin? Go for a ride with a friend or two. Of course, you all should be dressed appropriately for the tea party… as a spoon, a tea bag, a sugar cube or something else that one would find in a teacup.
89. 45 POINTS Submit two images, side by side: The first photo is a close up of just your face and head with a garland of fresh flowers on your head. The second photo takes advantage of your talents as a highly skilled hair and makeup artist: it is the same person, wardrobe, framing, and lighting as the first photo, but this time you have aged. You are 95 years old and the garland of flowers have long-since wilted and died.
90. 44 POINTS Many people think superheroes have a great life of running around saving people with lots of public recognition for their grand deeds. But we know the truth. They have to do the same domestic chores in their off time that we do. Let’s see a superhero performing a tedious domestic chore. -Monica M.
91. 36 POINTS Find a little-known, but widely problematic social injustice and come up with a funny analogy for it. Use Photoshop to create an illustration of the analogy. The more ridiculous the better. Bonus points if John Oliver appears in your Photoshopped image. Tweet the image and a brief explanation of the problem to @iamjohnoliver and @gishwhes. Submit a screenshot of your tweet. - Tracy Liu
92. 108 POINTS 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
93. 92 POINTS You know those Chinese festival dragons where several people are hidden under the cloth of the body and tail? Make one of those, but have it be the largest Castiel ever seen: there should be one “head” and then everyone else must be under a massively long, large, and brown home-made looking trench coat behind the head (there must be at least 7 people under the "coat"). Make sure your Castiel New Year’s Festival is celebrated in public in a crowded venue.
94. 11 POINTS It's time to connect the freckles! Find a willing human that's a good freckle pallet and “connect” their real freckles to create a new freckle constellation. - Katrina McGarrah
95. 45 POINTS Item will be provided during the Hunt.
96. 96 POINTS Make a cheerleader outfit entirely out of vegetables, including pom-poms, and cheer for a garden or for the produce in the produce section of a supermarket. - Dean K.
97. 61 POINTS While we can never completely repay veterans for their service, we can do our best to show how thankful we are. Take a photo of a team member volunteering at your local veteran’s hospital, clinic, or non-profit dedicated to veteran affairs. - Katrina Cuddy
98. 49 POINTS Your choice! Either a panda made of sanitary pads - a “Padna,” if you will, or a likeness of a totalitarian world leader made entirely of feminine hygiene products. - Inspired by Sarah Davison
99. 72 POINTS The bees are disappearing from our planet. This is particularly tragic for gishers, given our reliance on honey for getting things to stick to our skin (oh yeah, and also because we kind of need them to pollinate the flowering plants on Earth, which we depend on for food). Help save the bees by establishing a milkweed garden, creating a painting or mural honoring bees, helping out at your local apiary, protesting the use of glysophates, supporting an organization dedicated to bee preservation, or in any other way you see fit.
    100.60 POINTS 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=2aT.... Tweet this link from 15 different twitter feeds and put links to all 15 twitter posts into a single screenshot that you submit.
    101.59 POINTS It's been a very hot summer! Help out the first responders in your area by bringing ice-cream to your local police, fire, or EMS department while dressed as the world famous Dessert Fairy. - Danielle D.
    102.47 POINTS Don't you hate that feeling when you walk out to your car and you see the dreaded ticket under your windshield wiper? Let's change that. Find small envelopes and stamp them in red ink with an ominous: “PARKING SALUTATIONS BUREAU!” Then find a row of cars and put positive messages in your envelopes under their windshield wipers.
    103.64 POINTS Everyone thinks Zombies are slow and stupid. This is not at all true! In fact, you recently lost your job to a zombie because they demonstrated a willingness to work long hours without food, sleep, pay, or encouragement. Let’s see the zombie who replaced you at your place of employment, doing whatever you used to do to make a living. The image must show your former boss or coworkers proudly watching the zombie perform your old job better than you used to do.
    104.42 POINTS Dress up as a Bellossom or other grass-type Pokemon and plant some beautiful blossoms at a nearby Pokestop.
    105.42 POINTS There's one small thing in your community that needs to be addressed or repaired... Something you always think, "Someone really should do something about that" when you see it. Be the “someone” and fix it.
    106.23 POINTS 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.
    107.36 POINTS Did you see the startling news on the front page of the newspaper today? Of course you did. Using Photoshop, replace the front-page photo with a photo you’ve taken of a play-dough re-enactment of the original photo. Did that make sense? No? Figure it out. You are not allowed to email support for ANY clarification on this item. (What I lack in eloquence, I make up for with capriciousness.)
    108.15 POINTS 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.
    109.43 POINTS Make a sock monkey hat from orphaned socks - Amber Stifle
    110.72 POINTS This submission may be 25 seconds or less. Employ a modern dance company to explain what really happened to the dinosaurs. - Sheri Smyth
    111.49 POINTS Magazines get a lot of flak for airbrushing models, promoting unrealistic expectations and contributing to body image issues. Take a photo from a magazine that depicts a body that is an unrealistic ideal (and likely heavily Photoshopped to remove wrinkles, blemishes, and curves) and, using Photoshop, recreate what you believe to be the original, unretouched photo. Your Photoshopped image must include all of the following: additional limbs, machinery, tentacles, and at least one additional enhancement. Then caption the two photos side-by-side and post to social media. Under the original commercial image you must caption, “#makeup” and under your photoshopped image caption, “#nomakeup.” Tag the post with #MakeupNoMakeup. Submit a screenshot of your post.
    112.68 POINTS Get a news anchor or on-air reporter (and this has to be an actual, on-air broadcast, not a staging of a broadcast), to explain, very succinctly, the profound impact that gishwhes has had on his or her life. For example, the anchor or host or reporter could say, “gishwhes saved my marriage,” or “gishwhes taught me to read,” or “gishwhes helped me get over my fear of mice,” or “gishwhes gave me an incurable rash.” They must also mention your team’s name in the broadcast.
    113.83 POINTS U.S. Vice Presidential candidate, Mike Pence, said “smoking doesn’t kill.” Of course, it not only kills smokers but those around them. Let’s give him a wake-up call for the health of ourselves, our loved ones and our children. Take a picture of yourself in front of the tombstone of someone who died from a smoking-related disease. Tweet the image with, "Hey @Mike_Pence #quitblowingsmokeabouttobacco. Screenshot the post. - Hilary Swank
    114.102 POINTS 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
    115.35 POINTS We all have failures and regrets. Bury one of yours and provide a tombstone with copy. - Christina Brayton
    116.19 POINTS Submit two images, side-by-side: let's see what existential angst looks like next to what the meaning of life is. - Stephanie Magnolia
    117.47 POINTS 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
    118.62 POINTS Time-lapse this submission to 30 seconds or less. Paint a Bob Ross painting. We must see both the painter replicating the Bob Ross painting and the playback of the Bob Ross video the painter is replicating. You must paint in real-time while he is painting. The video should end with a side-by-side comparison of your masterpiece and Bob Ross’s.
    119.28 POINTS Your pet has just released their first, much anticipated, heavy metal rock album. Show us the cover art. - Jessica Hicks
    120.46 POINTS Beauty is on the inside. Photoshop a revised version of your reflection in a mirror. Show us a photo of you standing in front of a mirror. But the reflection we see is what you look like on the inside. Interpret this however you like with the caption on the image: “Beauty is on the inside.” - Inspired by Abi Perry
    121.33 POINTS This submission may be 1 minute or less. Go to one of these places and have a local tell you the story of how the place got its name. https://www.instagram.com/sadtopogr... The video must start with you next to a sign that identifies the location. -Tracy Liu
    122.63 POINTS We The People… are confused. Let’s update a dusty document and modernize it so everyone can understand the language. Grab some chalk, head outside and rewrite the US Constitution as street art. As Richard Dobbs Speight once said. “Bigger is better.”
    123.29 POINTS Have a child under 7 choose your outfit, do your makeup, and fix your hair. Then go grocery shopping with them. - Dawn Townsend
    124.16 POINTS Submit a screenshot. Create a website, blogpost, or in-depth social media post explaining an aspect of the elusive Miss Jean Louis’ biography. - Inspired by Holli DeWees
    125.83 POINTS This year was HRH's 90th birthday, but more importantly, it is the 7th anniversary of Misha Collins and The Queen’s torrid on-again, off-again relationship. I’d like to see a commemorative coin displayed in a fitting setting. Its value is one haypenny and this is not a drawing or a computer generated graphic. It’s a real, metal alloy coin commemorating this auspicious anniversary. - Inspired by Monica Duff
    126.126 POINTS On a desolate, dusty prairie, a ranch hand rescues the local school marm from a runaway horse. Create a drawing of Misha & the Queen of England in the Wild West. (You pick who plays the school marm and who plays the ranch hand.)
    127.81 POINTS Do the “airplane” with an astronaut— you know, like your parent used to? Lay on your back with your feet in the air while an astronaut lays face-down, with his or her hips on your feet, and with their hands in yours, pretending to be flying. This must be a real, official astronaut or cosmonaut, wearing appropriate flight garb. Caption the image with the astronaut’s name and number of hours in space. If you cannot find a qualified astronaut to perform this item, you may substitute Flava-Flav, Kanye West or any of the Kardashians. - Inspired by Dave Lavery
    128.45 POINTS 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.
    129.23 POINTS Welcome to Slangatoilegami. You don’t see the phrases “Slangaroo”, “bathroom tissue”, and “origami” together nearly often enough. Let’s fix that. - Dave Lavery
    130.64 POINTS How do you plan to spend your extra second? http://news.nationalgeographic.com/... Because you are an efficient person who treasures every moment you are blessed to be on this planet, you need to plan your extra second carefully to maximize its impact. Write a 250-word Op-Ed piece explaining exactly what you plan to do with your extra second and get it published in a newspaper. The piece must seamlessly include a mention of your team name and gishwhes without mentioning that the piece was written as an item for gishwhes.
    131.75 POINTS Time-lapse this submission to 20 seconds or less. 3-D printers are really cool. But who really needs another little keychain printed out of plastic? It is time to get creative with the materials used to print your next copy of the head of a Balrog. Show us a 3-D printer that prints with cheese (or Silly String, or toothpaste, or Play-Doh, etc…) - Dave Lavery
    132.21 POINTS Seven days of happiness! Each day of gishwhes, do one thing to make someone else happy and document it. Each photo must be taken and submitted on a different day. On day one, you must submit a photo of what you have done on day one of the hunt to make someone else happy. For the item after this, you must submit on day two the image from day two, etc. This item and the 6 following items must be submitted on the corresponding day of the hunt to garner the points from that day... Submit for this item for Happiness DAY 1 (which must be submitted on day 1 of the hunt). What have you done today to make someone else happy? (Each day you must do something different for a different person, and it cannot be your teammates.)
    133.21 POINTS Happiness DAY 2 (must be submitted on day 2 of the hunt). What have you done today to make someone else happy?
    134.21 POINTS Happiness DAY 3 (must be submitted on day 3 of the hunt). What have you done today to make someone else happy?
    135.21 POINTS Happiness DAY 4 (must be submitted on day 4 of the hunt). What have you done today to make someone else happy?
    136.21 POINTS Happiness DAY 5 (must be submitted on day 5 of the hunt). What have you done today to make someone else happy?
    137.21 POINTS Happiness DAY 6 (must be submitted on day 6 of the hunt). What have you done today to make someone else happy?
    138.21 POINTS Happiness DAY 7 (must be submitted on day 7 of the hunt). What have you done today to make someone else happy?
    139.25 POINTS We’re writing an e-book and we want you to do our work for us. There’s a habit that was hard for you to change, but you changed it anyway. What is the habit, and what is your number one piece of advice for making that change? Please submit an image of one paragraph of text.
    140.97 POINTS A functioning vending machine that dispenses emotions and memories. Show a customer making a purchase.
    141.39 POINTS This submission can be 45 seconds or less. Our music can change the world. Be part of the Gishwhes choir! Record a video selfie of yourself singing “Carry on my Wayward Son” a capella in the key of C at 80 bpm. Your submitted recording must have “Once” starting precisely at the 1 second mark. The recording must also be in tune and on beat. (The submissions will be collected and edited into monstrous chorus.) Sing only the following portion of the song: “Once I rose above the noise and confusion Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion I was soaring ever higher But I flew too high Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man Though my mind could think I still was a mad man I hear the voices when I'm dreaming I can hear them say... Carry on my wayward son There'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry no more.”
    142.51 POINTS 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.
    143.29 POINTS As you may know, Rob Benedict & Richard Speight are currently in production on their new series, "Kings of Con", where they play MC's on the sci-fi convention circuit as the eponymous kings of conventions. What you may not know is that their agent messed up and booked King Kong and the Kings of Con to MC the same convention. Draw or paint these three giants of the con circuit trying to share the stage or green room. Either Rob or Rich should probably be the lithe damsel in distress.
    144.27 POINTS Submit two images, side-by-side. They say you regress to your childhood as you get older. Show us a photo from a part your childhood you’d most like to return to, and a photo of your current progress toward that regression.
    145.18 POINTS You hate finishing other people’s sentences, so doesn’t it make you laugh so hard your squirt milk out of your nose when you…
    146.24 POINTS Be the town crier for the day and shout what you think people should know about the day’s events in a public square.
    147.31 POINTS As we all know Matt Cohen is legendary for taking off his shirt to raise money for charity. His 6-pack abs have single-abdominally raised thousands of dollars for great organizations like www.randomacts.org. Let’s thank his abs for their altruistic humanitarian work by using Photoshop to digitally remove his abs and then place them on a vacation around the world. (Unfortunately Matt can’t make this trip himself as he’s busy shooting his TV show.) His abs can visit anywhere on the planet that you can capture in an image. Let’s make sure they have the proper tourist accessories, too.
    148.57 POINTS Art changes lives. Contribute to the gishwhes art gallery by submitting an image taken by you or of you that captures the notion of identity in the 21st century.
    149.43 POINTS Someone near you doesn’t have access to clean drinking water. Provide that person with the means to access clean water without purchasing bottled water (this might be by giving the person a filter, or a solar tea kettle, or something like that). If no one near you needs clean drinking water, we have something called the all-powerful Interwebs. You can buy a family clean drinking water for a year: http://lifestraw.eartheasy.com/prod.... If no one lives near you and/or you don’t have funds to buy clean drinking water for someone, find another way to promote access to clean, safe water.
    150.43 POINTS Those moving sidewalks at the airport are treadmills, and you never exercise without your ipod, short shorts, a tank top and matching head and wristbands.
    151.17 POINTS Generate an application form for the job of “Director of Imagined Realities.”
    152.36 POINTS Write a poem in binary so that the zeros and ones also form a beautiful pattern.
    153.314 POINTS 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 gishpayload@gishwhes.com that your payload was successfully launched into orbit. Email proof must be received by 11:59 PM PST September 5th, 2016.
    154.93 POINTS You’re on the 2016 Summer Olympics Trash Scull Crew Team! Build your scull out of trash. Your team of 3 rowers is led by a coxswain who bangs two pieces of trash together to keep the time. Row for the gold!
    155.133 POINTS Get a 2016 candidate for high-ranking national office (or someone currently in office) to say that they think preserving the habitat of the endangered Slangaroo is a top legislative priority. In the US, this person would need to be either running for President, VP, Senate or the House, or someone currently in office in one of those positions. In other countries it could be a prime minister (or a current head of state) or members of Parliament, etc. They must be candidates or elected officials on the national stage.
    156.107 POINTS gishwhes transcends the space-time continuum, bringing old technology to life in modern times to create cutting edge graphics! To demonstrate gishwhes’s ability to bridge time, create a program to display an animation of a gishwhes mascot using a TRS-80, Apple II, Commodore PET, or Commodore 64. ( You may not use an emulator. You must use the actual hardware, and the video must show the graphics playing on the screen of the computer in question.)
    157.21 POINTS William Shatner opted out of the Hunt this year due to “scheduling conflicts” (which we all know is code for “trouble in bromance paradise”). Help Shatner realize the egregious mistake he made by skipping the 2016 hunt by sending him 3 photo postcards featuring highlights of this year’s Hunt experience with “Having a wonderful time! Gish you were here, Bill!” Submit a photo of the 3 cards stamped and addressed to Bill. You can all ask him for his mailing address on twitter. He’d like that, I’m sure.
    158.86 POINTS If there’s one thing all of us over the age of 35 are nostalgic for it’s the rotary dial phone. We pine for that satisfaction of being able to insert our fingers in that hole and spin the dial. Help bring us back to those halcyon days: Make a smart-phone app that interfaces with a real, old-fashioned rotary phone. (Note: this must not be an app that renders a digital simulation of a rotary phone. It must be an app that somehow works in concert with an actual rotary phone.)
    159.56 POINTS Zachary Levi is one of a kind. But what would be better than Zachary Levi? A pair of Zachary Levis, naturally. Paint a portrait of Zachary Levi on a pair of jeans. (The jeans may be distressed, but the depiction of Zachary should not be.) Feel free to get Zachary to model the pants.
    160.84 POINTS http://gishwhes.tumblr.com/choosewi...
    161.127 POINTS Gishwhes is proud to premiere Amazon’s new shopping service, Amazon Reverse Super Prime Now On Demand Fresh™ (ARSPNODF™)! Forget the old business model of customers buying things from online megastores and having to wait for almost a whole day for delivery. With this new service, customers can now ship merchandise to any Amazon senior executive directly through our patented Swift Drone Delivery Service™. With Amazon Reverse Super Prime Now On Demand Fresh™, the Amazon executives can receive packages from customers conveniently just outside their own office buildings in under one hour. Get Jeff Bezos or any Amazon senior executive to send you a timestamped email ordering a small, lightweight, used item from your home to be delivered by ARSPNODF™. Using a drone as the delivery mechanism, deliver the item ordered to the executive (who must be waiting for their package outside their office building) office in less than one hour. Submit the original order along with a timestamped photo of your happy customer with their item delivered by drone. Amazon Reverse Super Prime Now On Demand Fresh™. It’s so easy!
    162.69 POINTS Here is your item: https://www.dropbox.com/s/367yaonid...
    163.114 POINTS Time-lapse this submission to 30 seconds or less. Set up a thin, flat, smooth, vertical surface that is at least 3’ high and 3’ wide, (it could be made from 1/8th inch plywood or a similar material that is very thin and very flat). Then, behind this thin, vertical surface, set up powerful electromagnets that spell a word or phrase (make sure to reverse or mirror the letters so that on the front side they are correctly positioned--this might make sense in a second). Then, take a mass of iron filings (a minimum of 1 cubic foot of filings) and pour them through a funnel that is positioned at least 20 inches horizontally in front of the vertical sheet so that when the filings fall through the funnel they are drawn to the magnets and adhere to the sheet. Film the time-lapse as the iron filings fall and cling to the vertical surface to gradually form the word or phrase that the magnets spell out. If that doesn’t make sense (and I know it doesn’t), here’s a little diagram for you: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bzfq2u32f...
    164.17 POINTS We have Declared August 1st to be a new international holiday: It’s Retro Twitter Day. Retweet something you posted 4 years ago today with a comment. Hashtag it #RetroTwitterDay.
    165.42 POINTS Few things are more wayward than dancing with wild abandon in public. You know who's super good at that? These guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elK... Find them. Join them. Let them inspire your choreography and costuming. Bonus points for inducting innocent bystander or use of an obscure 80s alternative dance tune soundtrack. Dance like nobody's watching. Except we all are -Kim Rhodes
    166.32 POINTS Being #WaywardAF sometimes means being #BadassAF. Take a picture of you doing something you have ALWAYS wanted to do but were afraid to try. Caption your photo with a short explanation and post it to Twitter tagging @OfficialBrianaB and @kimrhodes4real. - Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes
    167.46 POINTS Justin Guarini can be a "Lil Sweet" at times: http://www.dietdrpepper.com/?gclid=... Using nothing but forced perspective and a disproportionately large, “weird, unusual or scary” object that you wouldn’t want to be smaller than, make yourself look tiny.
    168.33 POINTS At Hope Chest they create butterflies and transform lives http://www.myhopechest.org/ Channeling your inner Monet, pen a message of hope with colored ink on a white bra. Then, channel your inner supermodel and stage a public photo shoot of someone wearing this “support undergarment." (You may wear a shirt underneath it if you prefer and you must adhere to local laws. Please note that Gishwhes does not provide bail money.) Once completed, submit your image on the gishwhes website and also tweet to @MyHopeChest your awesome results on the final day of the game. Extra points for incorporating butterflies into the design. - Ruth Connell
    169.28 POINTS Time-lapse this submission to 20 seconds or less. Join The Hunt, and wear sensible shoes. Grab a friend and go for a walk. A really, really long walk. Unlock the 2.0KM, 5.0KM and 10.KM Poke Eggs and show us what you've hatched. Capture the journey in a 20 second time-lapse video and submit to Gishwhes. Extra Points if you photo grab your hatchlings and ping @OsricChau with a map of your travels. - Osric Chau
    170.45 POINTS Everyone knows Gishers throw the most badass recycling parties. Invite ten of your rockstar friends to help you collect litter from a park, roadside location, or public space. You must EACH collect 20lbs of debris, and dispose of it appropriately. Show us a 15 second montage of the festivities. (Extra points for recycling— and don’t forget, it’s a party!). - Lana Parrilla
    171.44 POINTS Time to prove you are the person Mr. Rogers knew you were capable of becoming. Ask an overwhelmed mom or elderly neighbor for a list of five chores they could use some help with. Show us that list and you getting them all checked off.
    172.41 POINTS Misha loves to travel, but between filming, gishing, and that thing we never talk about in front of polite company, he hasn’t had much time lately. Help Misha out by cosplaying as him in front of one of the 7 modern wonders of the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New7W... No photo manipulation — you have to really be there.
    173.42 POINTS You may have heard about a little show called Hamilton. Lin Manuel Miranda lit up Broadway with his innovative style, combining traditional theater and rap to engage delighted theater goers with the story of history’s hippest President. But that was just a big “win all the 2016 Tonys” ploy. We want to hear and see– in full costume a rap song about another historical figure important to you. Upload a 15 second video on the site AND send it to @Lin_Manuel.

So for those of you who didn't take my advice, you experienced what it was like when I got the list on the Saturday afternoon at LFCC...an hour or so later I had said yes or no to the tasks that I could possibly do (truly did not remember what I said yes to) then one of our team sorted through those that multiple people had said yes to and started sending messages in the evening. It was organised but chaotic. My job involves having to deal with Facebook & twitter messages all day but fuck me did I want to smash my phone when this started...SO MANY MESSAGES!!

But I got through it (thanks Airplane mode) and sorted everything I was doing in the morning (or rather Sunday night when I was back home). It turned out I had said yes to way too much but could still do a large majority with a little lot of help from my friends.

If this week taught me anything it's that people will do a lot for you most of the time if you ask. Some won't but that's okay.

By the end of the week I found that it was possible to convince large groups of people to be your audience in a cinema or to run a 30 legged dash or to get a business to agree to a sandpit in the middle of the lobby. I had fun...a lot of fun. Stressful fun but fun nonetheless and this can be seen from some of the tasks I completed.

https://www.facebook.com/Trevor.Price9/media_set?set=a.10157208005185623.1073741899.888265622&type=3&pnref=story

My GISHWHESbestest however has to be the cinema task which came together by nothing short of a miracle as the two elderly men needed took pity on me.

Still can't believe I managed to get this done. #GISHWSHES #gishwhesbestest #gishwhes2016 #TheElectric #igersbirmingham #chess #candlelight #cinema

A photo posted by @trevorAKP (@tv_trev) on Aug 8, 2016 at 1:32pm PDT

I don't think I can wait the 45-60 days to find out if (BIG if) our team of 15 managed to win. I'm a realist and don't think we stand a chance purely because of the fact that some people truly have gone all out from what I've seen but you never know...I am pretty lucky after all ;)

Hope the rambling nonsense that is this post made sense, I'm still sleep deprived so...yeah I'm not proofreading.

Thanks for the GISH Mischa you crazy m0±h3rf^@3r. Trevor out.

If you want to get in touch contact me

Also is you want to keep up with all my latest posts and musing there's a load of widgets at the top of the page for my Twitter, Facebook and other social channels!

Leave a comment below! I love feedback...unless it's bad.

P.S.

Don't forget to share this if you like it!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin