[Writing Contest] - THE ARENA

Yes it has - He accepted yesterday at 11am.

bluewolf wrote: »

Leave it til tomorrow if you like, if not, the other person can write a story on same theme against yours?

I like your thinking.

Ah sure I'll wait and see if Slavetothegrind shows the face.

Hi hcass,

I feel bad that your Elvis story's competitor(s) has (have) seemingly left the building, and this thread is comin' like a ghost thread, except for tons of views . . . mostly guests (wink) . . . I haven't read your Elvis story; I just scanned it like it was a piece of abstract art at the time . . . probably as good or better than your dress too small story . . . and . . . dare I say it . . . I challenge you . . . OMG . . . Judgement? . . . 600 words? . . that's like the 1st couple of sentences for me . . . gulp . . . me have an ending? . . . that doesn't make sense . . . I have an ending? . . . never mind . . . waddaya say, hcass . . . do you accept? . . . dang, why did I say all that . . . I don't have time for this right now . . . I'll have to OD on oxytocins to beat you . . . er, why did I say that . . . does anyone here know I'm Ziggy Stardust* yet . . . oh no, I hope you say no . . . I feel . . .overpowered by it all . . .

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Jernal wrote: »

^ ^ ^
OMG! The Ellipses. . .!:eek: My Eyes, they are on FIRE!!

Freaky deaky, Jernal. If I do get the honour to let hcass possibly continue in her winning streak across this thread, the story I was pondering was a chance meeting with a most interesting General Contractor who called me in to move a fire alarm panel 40' to a new exit . . . finally, some straight fiction from me..

hcass wrote: »

I accept the challenge, thanks Weebley.

Great! [Gulp] You can count on me . . . is the time stamp deadline 12:46 tomorrow, or do we wait for pickarooney to give the blessing? I'm ready to roll with my concept. I'll let you know when I begin writing it, which will be later tonight, as that is when I am most tired and on Otto Pilot.

hcass wrote: »

I don't know - you wanna wait? Or will it be mutiny in the arena and we'll just take matters into our own hands?

Rebellion!

No no . . . I'll write it tonight

I tromped on it and made a quick left into the parking lot at 50 kmph right after the bumper for the last car going the other way had past, whipping over the curb with a major undercarriage clunk clunk, everything in the back of the van heaving once again; probably a ground up mess of parts and tools by now. I slammed on the brakes into a parking spot in the tiny parking lot, and turned off the van.

I had had a phone call from Pat at 12:15pm asking where I was. It was now 12:45pm.

Shoot! Sidetracked again! I'll be there in 20 to 30 minutes," I said.

As I madly drove to the now screwed up Noon meeting, weaving from lane to lane to keep the 20 to 30 minute commitment, I was thinking about Pat calling me out of the blue the day before. I floored it to get in front of a Hat driving slow in the fast lane on Highway 427. Scared the living Bejesus out of me he did. Gained 10 seconds there, I chuckled, as I looked at the diminishing Hat behind me.

“Hi, this is Pat from the Army, Navy , Airforce . . “ I didn’t let him finish; my mind was whirling. My Son in the Gulf is dead. My heart was in my throat, freaking out for that split second as he continued:

“Remember the fire alarm system at the Veteran’s Club, at 1649 Weston Rd?”

After we got my jumped conclusion out of the way, having had a good laugh about it, he proceeded to tell me they were fixing up the lobby, and had no information on who originally installed the fire alarm system, but finally got our name and number.

I walked in the now new, moved and improved front door to the club, I asked the only guy in this tiny club with a tiny parking lot if he was Pat.

“No, Pat’s the big guy. I’m Reg, the contractor. Pat’s gone to pick up someone for the drive to Belleville.”

Man. I remember now. “Meet early so he can miss the rush hour on the 401 through Toronto.” I felt even worse about my screw up, now.

Reg was the General Contractor. He was pissed about the stupid prices he had been getting for the fire alarm panel move. I explained it wasn’t rocket science. About 40’ of multi, a bit of neurosurgery at either end. We could do it, but these new Electrical Safety Authority Empire builders had pushed us out of installing fire alarms now. It now had to be done by an electrician under a permit. “Your Sparky and our technician could do it in 1 day. $688 and maybe $40 of wire.”

He explained he had been getting prices of $2400 and one guy was $7000! Reg looked at me, now trusting I was an honest guy, and explained he knew it wasn’t a very involved job.

“I was an apprentice electrician back when I was a kid,” he said, “but I had to get out of the trade because I was colour blind. I would have had problems with colour codes on wires.”

Intrigued, I found out he did a few different things for work afterwards, eventually becoming a contractor. I asked him about what it was like to see wrong colours. It was like living in another world, he told me. One time, he walked into his wife’s office that had been freshly painted and said: “wow, nice pink walls!!!" His wife laughed and told him they were green. He was probably seeing the pink undertone in the green.

When we were done, and I got the job on the usual handshake and gentleman’s agreement, I asked him for a business card. We walked out to the only other van in the parking lot, which happened to be his. It was green. He probably chuckles as he drives his pink car all over town; no-one ever giving him a second glance about his effeminate looking van.

And she got about 500 views in the no show period, by my reckoning. A hands down winner. Me? Just a wiener (or a pickle?). All I did was put in my dummy story. It took me 50 minutes to write and post. Then I fixed up my blunders. I have to go now. I feel I am entangling with Steve over this. That is not good. He says too little, and I feel too much.

PS: I seem to have maybe 200 views since yesterday, so . . . whoomp, there it is . . . hcass is the winner in my mind! I read it yesterday . . . it was really good!

Rubecula wrote: »

Hey Weebles,:)

Don't you ever put yourself down that way, you are talented and your story was very readable (this is the most important thing) I voted for hcass because the story is more my type of thing. BUT for a quick write, yours has nothing wrong with it.

Kindest regards.

Rubes

Hi Rubecula,

Well, thanks for the Kudos! Totally unexpected; I wasn't fishing for compliments, by the way. My self deprecation was a little heavy, I know, but I was just trying to wake everyone up to vote. I can't be a Tigger all the time.

This ARENA thread is really good and I really didn't want hcass' story to go to waste, but only bluewolf and das kitty had given their usual down vote, where normally there are lots of votes on these stories. It was beginning to tick me off that this most interesting thread was code blue.

My story was a simple moral: "just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it isn't there."

Nobody got it, because they can't see something that is invisible, I guess. Understandable. Everyone just has to believe me and go along with my delusions. I've been here showing everyone the "invisible" things I see, but, as I said to hcass (invisibly) everyone here is suspicious of my motives. My (our) motives are as pure as the driven snow . . . amanfromMars and I are trying to help the Irish, and diaspora, free ourselves from oppression . . . it will then ripple all over the world . . . especially Africa . . . invisibly.

You're going to laugh your head off when you hear how we're all going to do it.

We just need trust . . . and lots of views, so I can send an effective fireworks display to Curtis Brown.

PS: Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Weebley, I find your posts incomprehensible but I preferred your story

Thanks, for voting for me, but a landslide would have been super cool. Currently 5 to 1 . . . now I'm in 2nd place.

If explain any of my incomprehensibility here, it would be a thread derailleur. You are free to ask any questions on Mound Of Hostages . . . I will probably post the beginning of Chapter 4: A Plethora Of Friends, overnight tonight, as well as comment on the 10 stories on the VOAT . . . then place my votes.

You, or anyone else for that matter, could also quiz me here or here

pickarooney:
hcass has 5 votes to my 1 vote. Can you declare her a winner yet?

C:\Users\Admin>ping hcass.boards.ie /t

I can't really explain any details as to why I am challenging you to write a story, hcass, suffice to say that I have just found a strange request written on a Post-It note, while on my trip to Ireland this weekend.

[Since you haven't been around these parts lately, you may notice (above) that I am posting under my Dad's account. My Dad is in the future, so I am posting here at the moment, in his stead. I am his daughter, Nerfy - not to be confused with soft Hasbro play toys, I have evolved]