misha collins

T-minus 9 Hours – Getting Ready for GishWhes

Standard

T-minus 9 hours, 8 minutes and counting.

The item list goes live Saturday morning. After we crash the site a few times, we can sign in and see this year’s items. I’m told to expect over 200 items to choose from. Even with fifteen people on a team, no one group has ever completed every item. Fortunately, that’s not the objective.

I expect to talk more about how this week will be going, and I’ll try to post some pictures of some items-in-progress. We can’t share submissions (or finished items to be on the safe side) until after the hunt is over next Saturday.

I thought I’d share how to get ready for GishWhes and what to expect, at least in my little corner of the world.

For starters, I try not to panic. This is my third year, and what I’ve discovered in the last two hunts was that I’m gung-ho, planning, organizing, plotting, and then on Tuesday I’m wiped out. Like wiped out to the point that I wish everyone a good weekend, not realizing that the weekend is a long way from Tuesday.

Each year the hunt is different. As I said, this is my third year, and my third team. This is the first year that my team kind of knows each other. We can thank our teammate, D for that. She wanted to get a group together early, so we’ve been getting to know each other since registration opened. I really like my team. We’re a good group of people. Our teammates are based in CA, CO, TX, NJ, NY, GA, and Denmark. We have two sets of husbands & wives. I think we have a total of 12 kids between us to help us out. Usually, I’m the only one with kids, so this is kind of novel to me.

There were some problems last year (in general, not with my team) with the Shatnerhate, bullying sci-fi writers, and a more competitive streak than I think is intended. Some people spend a ton of money, some don’t sleep.

Personally, I don’t go that far. I’m in it for the fun, the stepping outside of my comfort zone, new experiences, and the new friends I’ll meet. That doesn’t mean that I’m not competitive. Once I get started, I want to keep going and take on more items than my original choices. My average is about ten items each year.

I don’t have a lot of money to spend, and at almost fifty (that really hurt to type), I need my sleep. I have high blood pressure and depression and three kids that pop in and out of the hunt with their needs. Don’t they understand that Misha needs me this week?!

Last year, I spent $14 and the year before I spent $28. I don’t think that’s too much to contribute. I also conscripted my kids into helping where I thought they could. Whether they wanted to or not.

This year, I’ve already spent $30 for my team t-shirt and a team pin. My shirt was a little more expensive than my teammates because I didn’t want white and I needed a larger size. I’m also a pinaholic. I got t-shirts for my two youngest kids as well, but that doesn’t count as part of my gishwhes budget.

I was informed that the gishbot (the computer that assigns teams and stuff) marked me with a star which means I’m the team captain. I have no idea how they arrived at this decision or what it means. Like most things GishWhes related, there is no rhyme or reason. My teammate declared that I needed to make a captain’s hat, which I spent today doing:

image

image

image

I’ve already told my husband and kids that tomorrow morning right before 9am, I will need my actual computer to access the team documents, my Facebook, and the item list.

Every year, the item list is full of surprises. However, there are some things that you will always need, and they will always be on the item list:

1. Kale

2. Sanitary napkins

3. Children and/or Old People

4. A Twitter item

5. A Stormtrooper item. Yes, from Star Wars. The 501st Legion has contacts to help out any teams that ask, and that they are able to help. They are very generous with their time, and do  help when they can.

6. Sock Monkeys

7. A Hair Item. It’s actually time for me to get my haircut but I’m going to wait until after the hunt in case I need to do something for my team. (NOTE: I will NOT shave my head)

8. There is a messy item – like death by chocolate and the elderly mud wrestling. See item #3. They might be related.

9. Some kind of Supernatural co-star harassment.
10. Other CW show involvement and/or harassment.

11. And of course, acts of kindness

Other useful items to have on hand include:

1. Chargers in a handy place for my phone, Kindle, and camera

2. 1st Aid supplies. If I have them, no one will need them, and the reverse is also true.

3. About $10-15 in cash

4. Granola bars and water bottles

5. Duct tape

6. Ziploc bags. Quart is the most universal size, freezer is the sturdiest. Use the zipper ones, not the slide; they are more secure.

7. Wet wipes, and whatever I have prepared won’t be enough

8. Make a list of local people and their skills/connections. Meet people and network.

9. Imgur, YouTube accounts for the Team. This year having a Tumblr is a good idea but not required

10. Internet Access

11. A Group Facebook and a Group Google Docs is an extremely helpful way to communicate and keep track of your submissions. (Make sure everyone on the team knows all the user names and passwords.)

12. Some way to take videos and photos. Last year, I used my cell phone for everything when I couldn’t find my camera. This year, I’m planning on using my camera – a Nikon Coolpix. Depending on what i”m photographing, I might also use my Kindle.

You’re never prepared enough, but it’s a good way to see how you work (and play) under pressure.

I think I’m ready. No, no, really, I think I’m ready, but we’ll find out tomorrow at 9am!

GISHWHES 2014 Wrap Up

Standard

For those who don’t know, GISHWHES is the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen with money going to the non-profit, Random Acts. My next project with them is Endure4Kindness, which I will post about separately.

In my opinion Gishwhes 2014 was a huge success. I had a great time! I had a great team. We got a lot done. I am definitely happy with my individual items. The ones I picked but then didn’t do were picked up and done so much better than I would have done them it makes me glad I gave up on those rather than doing something sucky.

When all was said and done, I completed ten items for a total of 396 points and a cost of $14.11, which is 61 points more and $14 less than last year’s hunt. Definitely a good thing.

I did video, which I hate, but I did it anyway. I did another Twitter. It seems as though I am the twitter expert despite not using it very much anymore. And now I have an alarm clock and I am Orlando Jones.

My teammates hailed from California, New Jersey, Georgia, New York, Utah, New Zealand, Israel, and Ireland. Of the six people I already knew, the newest friend I had known for five years and the oldest friend on the team I’ve known for thirty-three years give or take a couple (honestly, can’t remember if it was middle school or high school but either way a shit ton of years).

I made business sized cards for this year to explain Gishwhes but let’s be frank; there really is no explaining it. Maybe next year, I’ll have a better 30 second commercial and do a double sided card. Shrug. I have about a year to think about it.

The items I completed were

  • to request a FOIA about my parents
  • take video of myself in front of a local landmark (I used the state capitol)
  • a photo montage of when I grow up, guest starring my daughter
  • my photo with a black and white sign for the team
  • an homage and tribute to the rubber glove inventor
  • share a true act of kindness story done for me for the Random Acts website
  • the species hybridization of Jared Mooselecki (of course! Who else?!)
  • Jam Stand with the kids
  • Cajole a published sci-fi author to write a 140 word story
  • and the Orlando Jones Twitter.

I would really love it if the Jam Stand gets into the Coffee Table Book. I went to great lengths to kiss up to Misha in it, including making our Jam Stand a West Collins franchise complete with West’s picture and offering free popcorn with every plate of pasta and jam sauce. Of course the popcorn was the West Collins special variety made by Jet Puff! My kids, without any prompting from me, donned mustaches. They are definitely good sports. Last year, they worked for the post office. This year pasta and jam sauce. Who knows what Misha will ask of them next year?!

I’m still kind of in that Gishwhes frame of mind despite it ending more than a month ago. In fact, I’m about to make a sock monkey hat for almost no reason at all.

I’ve been reviewing items for the Coffee Table Book. So far, I’ve completed four, which is three more than I did last year. It’s so awesome to see how other people interpreted the prompts/items.

I’ve reviewed: Elopus vs. Wooster, Popcorn Monster, Five Headed Monster doing yard work, and Museum Quality Display of Dishware, which I have to say that some of them were truly museum quality.

However, Misha, I am not a Gisher and I am not sorry. I am a Gishwhesian and if that makes me an outlaw, I’m sure there’s a country song written about it. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I came into this hunt a Gishwhesian and I will leave it the same way, wearing a magnificent costume in front of a landmark with a rainbow farting unicorn and my hand up an elopus puppet’s something or other.

Gishwhesian.

Gisher is just a fad anyway. It’ll be gone in less than a year. You mark my words.

It is impossible to calculate the amount of absonome that goes on during Gishwhes week. It’s like a giant family reunion when your family is half committed to an insane asylum and the other half should be. I signed up for a group doing a two week version of Gishwhes-lite, but I’m not motivated. It’s a great idea, but there’s something special about THE WEEK. The stress. The insomnia. The insanity. The together that we are all at the same time doing variations on the same things. It is unique and glorious and brilliant.

Not to mention that when Grandma is mud wrestling and Dad is wearing a French maid’s outfit, it is time to rethink your life choices.

For many of us, it is a time to step out of our comfort zones, think outside of the box we put ourselves into the rest of the year, even outside of the atmosphere of our planet Earth; one day perhaps outside of the solar system, but for now, if each year brings us a little further out, the better it is for the world and the people of that world.

Most importantly, there can never be too much kindness and compassion and Gishwhes and its parents, Misha and Random Acts remind us how little it takes out of our day to make someone else’s better.

With that in mind, it makes me a little sad but I would like to touch on my disappointment with some people; not anyone on my team or anyone I know directly. I’ve been in a couple of different groups where they talk about Gishwhes and help each other as much as is allowed. They’re good networking groups.

I did feel, however, that a lot of people have lost the true meaning of Gishwhes and it’s certainly not to meet Misha Collins (although that would be a bonus). I saw a lot of complaining, a lot of whining about not understanding an item when that item was mostly about interpretation. It’s less about the skill and more about artistic vision. I saw some shortcuts. For example, people used their bone marrow cards from prior to Gishwhes and other items that were already made when the purpose of that particular item is to get more people on the list. (ETA: After posting this, I received a message from someone whose team used existing bone marrow donor cards. Scroll down to the end to read their perspective. It was something that I hadn’t considered.)

Also, the point, as I understand it is to create new art, do good things. In fact, at the end of the hunt, the Gish FB posted, “We create, therefore, we live.”

Everyone should be enjoying themselves above everything else that they are doing and every team won’t get every item, and that’s okay. F-U-N.

I was also disappointed with how much ShatnerHate there was and that bothered me a lot. People found William Shatner to be annoying, brash, braggadocios and having the ego the size of Texas (or the Northwest Territories if you want to go with his Canadian roots).

And water is wet.

He’s fucking William Shatner!

You don’t have to like him. Don’t pay any attention to him if that’s the case. He’s 80 years old; he’s been a celebrity since the 1960s, before many of those naysayers were born. He’s not going to change now. Love him or hate him, but stop hating on him publicly in the name of Gishwhes. That is the complete opposite of what Gishwhes is all about.

Misha is the messenger; not the message. Take the week of Gishwhes and continue all year. Donate blood. Visit the elderly. Mud wrestle Grandma. Pack boxes of food at food pantries and churches. Shovel your neighbor’s snow. Pull weeds. You can even wear a sock monkey on your head. Or a real monkey (**remember, do no harm, including to primates**). Zookeepers are welcome to make the world a better place, too.

Until next year, restock the kale; gather the plaid and figure out what rhymes with squirrel.

P.S. I just ran this through spell check and apparently Wooster is in my dictionary. What the hell, Misha?!

(ETA: As a member a team that submitted existing donor cards, I wanted to let you know there was a very good reason at least in our case Our team is mostly older folks that have various health problems/disabilities that keep us from donating marrow & the ONLY people on our team that could already had cards, so rather than waste the registry’s time with applications that weren’t going anywhere we submitted the existing cards to show that we support the cause but couldn’t actively apply.)

GISHWHES

Standard

Beginning on Sunday, August 11th and going through August 18th, I will be participating in GISHWHES, the acronym for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. (https://www.gishwhes.com/what_is_gishwhes.php). It has broken three Guinness Book of World Records and I would expect it to do so again.

The teams are comprised of 15 members from all around the world, although in my case it’s more transcontinental. We can’t talk about our members (so I’m told) and I can’t share our accomplishments/activities/crazy off the Gishwhes website (so I’m told) until it’s concluded on the 18th.

I may pop in here to share some of my feelings and thoughts on what I’m doing during the week, but not what I’m doing during the week. Make sense?

I’m excited to be participating; this is my first year. My son is on another team (after refusing to join me, but you know, peer pressure) and my best friend is on another team which had no room for me. *frowny face*

The Hunt is run by Misha Collins, one of the stars of Supernatural, who really tries to only use his power for good. In addition to GISHWHES, check out his charity Random Acts. They do great things for people who need great things done for them. They also promote the random act of kindness that anyone can do for free.

Random Acts for Misha

Standard

I’ve known about Random Acts for several months now when my friend told me that this coming Fall I’d be participating in GISHWHES (pronounced gish-weeze), which stands for The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. It was started by actor Misha Collins and holds the world’s record for largest scavenger hunt.

Random Acts is his non-profit that raises money to do random acts for people that need a little extra something, and encourages people to pledge to do random acts of kindness for strangers.

On April Fool’s Day, the online fans of Misha Collins held a Mishapocalypse where hundreds of people on Tumblr changed their avatars to a particular one of Mr. Collins and then it kind of escalated to every single post that passed by my dash was some kind of gifset of Misha Collins – the more ridiculous, the better for the next twenty-four hours.

For his birthday, it was suggested that his fans do another Mishapocalypse. Instead, however, because the entire Tumblr being taken over did actually bother some people, something different was suggested.

Random Acts 4 Misha was born and began to ask people to ‘donate’ random acts of kindness to take place on August 20th and somehow document it with a birthday wish for Mr. Collins.

This is the link to the Tumblr: http://randomacts4misha.tumblr.com/

This is a link to someone who came up with 50 brilliant, low-cost ideas for random acts: http://trulyexpendable.tumblr.com/post/49703352342/random-acts

This is the link to the Random Acts organization: http://www.therandomact.org/

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing but I know that I’ll be doing something. I am an ardent fan of Misha Collins (and his wife, the PhD and author) and I have had many random acts done for me in a variety of ways that I would like to pay it back, or forward really. It’s not a trade, one for one, but it’s been so nice for me to have received them that I want to share that joy with others, and I know that Mr. Collins would really love it being done in his name.

Anyone interested, please remember to coordinate with the above Tumblr I’ve provided the link for. They are in contact with the Random Acts people and there are restrictions about raising money, so since it’s an official activity, they want to know who is doing what, especially in the case of money.

This is where I love this fandom; coming together and supporting the things that are important to all of us as a member of the world. It reaffirms my faith in humanity and the goodness of people.