I love this groovy time of the year, man!
It’s time to get out your thinking caps and dust the cobwebs off your grey matter, because today marks the beginning of the 2018 edition of The Contest of Whatever! The CoW was first held in 2014, and has been a February tradition at The Nest. This is the contest that challenges you to bring out the best in your fucked up creative juices… and year in and year out, my readers always impress me with what they are able to come up with based on whatever silly prompt I come up with that year…
It was all about unicorns, possums and squirrels in the first CoW…
Like such.
Animals playing games in 2015…
Maybe playing just a bit too hard…
Killing off Buster in CoW III…
Always a crowd pleaser…
And making your own episode of Shelf Critter Theatre last year…
Easy, and fun!
And each year, I’ve awarded two lucky participants a chance to select an item from my Cafepress shop to be able to show off the merits of having such a bountiful imagination to everyone they meet. The results and winners of each past contest can be found here, and it should be noted that nobody has ever managed to snag a prize twice… so if you’ve never won the CoW before, this could very well be your year!
Must think very deeply….. I probably shouldn’t sing my entry.
So first of all, the basic rule… what am I looking for? Well, your entry can be anything…. literally anything you can dream up in whatever media and creative genre you feel comfortable using. Writing, drawing, photography, interpretive dance, ice sculpture, etc… and any combination or variation thereof. If it is something you can create and post on your blog, it’s a worthy entry for the CoW!
Yeah, I created that shit. I’m Albert Fucking Einstein, bitch!
Now…. it’s not quite that simple. There is always the stipulation I throw in each year to keep the entries somewhat themed so it doesn’t look like an episode of Short Attention Span Theater. The idea of the photo prompts that some writing challenges feature for inspiration was something I wanted to use… and I wanted my source material to be as random as possible. So here’s what I did….
I decided to have three official prompt images for the contest this year… and your entry needs to include some distinct element from ALL THREE pictures. So whatever it is you decide to come up with will need to include at least one thing in it that can be traced back to each picture.
To find my three images, I picked the numbers 13, 42 and 69 totally not at random. I went to my Reader and pulled up the three most recent posts that appeared in it, and found the 13th word in the first one, the 42nd word in the second post, and 69th word in the third post. Those words wound up being the totally common “of,” “very,” and “I” respectively. I put each word individually into Google Images and picked the search result that came up 13th, 42nd and 69th, again respectively.
CoW Image #1:
CoW Image #2:
CoW Image #3:
And so again…. your challenge this year is to come up with some creative thing to post on your blog that somehow incorporates at least one element from EACH of the three contest images above. You will have until midnight on the night of Thursday March 1st to post your entry. All contest entries will be recapped and linked to by me in a post on March 2nd, and the winners will be announced on Sunday March 4th…
And just what might those fabulous prizes be?
Absolute junk!!!
Two lucky winners will be allowed to choose any item they wish from my Cafepress shop valued at $20 USD or less. The first winner will be the entry that, based solely on my own criteria, is the one I believe to be the best overall entry. The second winner will be a random drawing among everyone else who submitted an entry…. meaning that you can win even if you think your idea is a huge piece of shit!
Unicorn shit, at that!
Just post your contest entry on your blog by March 1, 2018, and be sure to include a link in it back to this post to make sure that I see it. You can also post a link to your entry in the comments to make sure you get my attention…
Quit ignoring my brilliant creation, you stupid squirrel!!!
So there you have it! Are you up to snuff to make something inspired by three completely random CGI images? You have four and a half weeks to find out. Let those imaginations run wild and be as brilliant and fucked up as you want to be! Good luck to everyone who plays this year, and get creating!!!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
Not sure if effed up and creative are simultaneously residing in my brain, bu I’ll see what I can come up with but it will be hard to compete with the likes of your cleverness.☺️
Well, it doesn’t have to be effed up… as I am capable of appreciating more straightforward attempts at creating things. I do hope you are able to come up with something though, because I love seeing what people can do with my silly projects!
Intriguing…
I’m sure we all know what the chap in the first image is sitting on. That’s right, the soap.
Is that what they call it these days?
You can call it whatever you want if you enter…
It may be one of those fizzy bath bombs, which would explain the expression. What else could it possibly be….?
Alright………….we’re UP for the challenge…………I think the three images are great – I can almost “hear” captions for each of them even though that’s NOT what this contest is all about. Especially that first one…..it’s a doozy. This oughta be a blast…………
Pam
I hope so! There’s a wide variety of things going on up there, and having to somehow combine them should bring some interesting results. My readers rarely disappoint me!
I wish that I knew how to draw, but I’m gonna try to be the first person to win twice!
You can do whatever you want! And somebody’s gotta be the first one to win twice eventually…
If I win, I want a coffee mug of me slapping you!
That can be arranged…… the mug, not the actual slapping.
Of course not. I’d never slap you.
I won’t stand a chance, but I can already feel something brewing in my brain – double, double …
Well, you stand as much a chance in the random drawing, unless you believe Mitzi rigs it. I hope you come up with something fabulous!
Uhm – no … a dark tale of greed, violating social norms and the dire consequences ..
This is such a bad month for me. I still have 85 more hours of reading to complete before the 28th of February. Did I mention I also have a blog? Despite the ridiculousness of my schedule, I will actually give this some thought. I haven’t a single thought at the moment, but I will try, between the pages of writing, reading, and thinking, to figure out what to do with those three images …. OH MY GAWD I CAN’T DO IT. Never mind. Forget that. Deep breaths. Deep. Breaths.
I’m not pressuring anyone! If you don’t have time for it, you can sit on the sidelines and cheer everyone on. Totally up to you! I understand…
Oh my, this looks difficult! Gawd! My thinking cap is a bit rusty I’m glad you gave us till March cause my brain hurts already! ….. should be interesting 🙂
Yep! Plenty of time to procrastinate and then come up with something at the last minute! I think once an idea comes, working the necessary parts in will be easy….
Thank you! Thank you for being such a generous patron of the *ahem* “arts”. My mind is already spinning with anticipation of what I could do with items worth USD 20/- or less. It could change my life! Watch this space as I apply my tiny mind to this task.
Tiny minds can sometimes do big things. Or do tiny minds mean large….. um…. something else?
Wow, you’ve really set the requirement of creativity high this year. On contemplating those three photos, my mind is blanker than it’s ever been. Which is saying a lot because lately I’ve been having some scary moments of blankness where I can’t remember the last few seconds at all. I blame the lack of sun. I really think my brain is solar powered and we just haven’t had enough sun in the last three months to keep it going. One question, do the photos have to be addressed in the order presented here?
Nope! The only requirement is that whatever you submit contains something that was drawn from each picture. It doesn’t even have to be anything major, just as long as I’ll be able to find where each photo played a part in adding to your work…
I’m in. I love the Contest of Whatever. I have so much fun with it. Thanks ES.
Hmmm… thinking… will be in touch…
Love the bumper sticker. 😁 I also brake for squirrels; I want no part of any sort of gruesome demise of any living thing. Bleh
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This one is HARD. I had a big plan to recreate the photos using my two cats, and my dog. The cats hate each other and won’t work together (imagine two Hollywood stars with giant egos.) Anytime I tell the huge Hell Hound to sit still she looks guilty and puts her ears back. I’m on to Plan B now.
I know how difficult it is to get feline actors to do anything you want them to do. Hopefully you will come up with something… and even moreso, I hope there will be a rash of last minute entries because right now there’s still none! I think people are psyching themselves out on this one… thinking they have to come up with something convoluted. I think this one can be successfully done with something simple…
Here you go! The first entry! Coffee and Swine: A tale of weird romance
https://vampiremaman.com/2018/02/23/18481/
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I didn’t think my brain was going to come up with anything for this one but it finally did! Here it is
https://scatteredwithsquirrels.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/rub-a-dub-dub-trouble-starts-in-the-tub/
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I have created something UTTERLY MEANINGLESS. It’s just a muck of stuff. It’s really AWFUL, but I’ll send it to you if you promise to attribute it to Anony Mouse.
Anony Mouse! LOL! The CoW’s first Unknown Comic. Sure, why not? And if Anony wins, you’ll still get their prize….
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wait..we’re doing what exactly? picking one thing from each picture and creating something from it in the form of a post? did I get close? well, that sorta makes sense..what ARE those things in the pitures anyway? Are you sure they are even pictures? okay, fine…a post. dang.
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oh gawd…okay so I have an entry. I forget where I put it…maybe this is it. I hope. https://suziland.site/2018/02/26/cow-challenge-like-moo-contest-of-whatever/
yep, that’s it.
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Oops! I almost forgot to add the link! Done:
https://authormandywhite.wordpress.com/2018/02/27/of-peach-and-pigs/
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