The futility of participation trophies.
22One thing which has been discussed from time to time is how nowadays kids get participation trophies for trying, even if they did dreadful.
I feel like this comic from 2012 does a good point in illustrating this viewpoint.
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Thoughts? Questions? Snippy remarks?
- 10 comments, 123 replies
- Comment
I agree.
Where’s my Meh participation trophy?
@nolrak
Become goat, then in a few years, maybe you’ll get a goat trophy.
@PlacidPenguin I assume the goat trophy is of the rear end and not the front
@nolrak
Both ends.
Thinking about the pushmi-pullyu now.
@nolrak Here you go.
It’s a cat-ass trophy.
@nolrak @PlacidPenguin
Become an at, and in a few years you’ll get an atrophy
@hachover @nolrak @PlacidPenguin
or an at-at trophy…
/giphy at-at
I think most kids understand it’s more of a keepsake than a trophy for being good at something. Like getting to keep you team soccer shirt at the end of the season. Something to remember the experience by.
@medz Yes, because failing to succeed is an experience we all cherish remembering.
@mike808 yup. Lots of fun can be had while failing. 'member that time Tommy inhaled the grasshopper and puked on the ref? Classic.
@medz thats how I view my kids. A keepsake from something I did one night. Not a trophy for doing it well.
@medz I can’t say I agree with ya there, Chief. But, I readily admit my opinion is based solely on my own somewhat limited experience.
My ex’s kids, close friends and some classmates (well, it seems like several classmates) had a sense of entitlement which puzzles me.
Examples: Science fair project was a pop bottle rocket competition with contests for most attractive rocket, highest flight, smoothest landing, etc. 10 yr old son and 2 friends asked for help building their rockets (because “Hot Rod Dad knows how to build or fix anything!”) I tried in vain to motivate them to build excellent rockets. They didn’t see the point in any extra effort since everyone would receive an award for entering the competition.
Or Father/Daughter dance with a dance contest. I tell 8 yr old “Let’s practice a routine!” She didn’t want to bother since everyone would get a prize anyway.
I have seen the same apathy in summer interns, and among younger job applicants in the office.
I constantly challenge my team to seek continuous improvement. A concept which causes interns and younger employees to look at me like I’m from another planet. “But it’s good enough”. Yes, it’s good, but let’s examine it for opportunities to make it better. They truly do not understand. I believe this is an effect imparted by a participation award educational system.
@medz @ruouttaurmind I have seen the opposite problem. In general the older the coworker the less likely they are to want to improve the processes we use.
We can string together failure after failure, but the newer and younger employees are the only ones interested in changing anything.
I don’t think this is a generational thing. I think it is a side effect of experience. When you spend the first 10ish years of employment having all of your suggestions rejected, then you give up, put your head down and just do what you are told.
@fibrs86 @ruouttaurmind Agreed. The attitude of doing the bare minimum doesn’t seem to be age-specific.
@fibrs86 @medz I agree to a point.
Younger team members are unlikely to tell me “But this is how we’ve always done it.”
Also, I do not condone fixing an error; I preach “Don’t correct the symptom, correct the process which permitted that symptom.” Older team members are more resistant to address a flawed process. They would rather just patch the error, suggesting “It usually works fine this way.” or “This is faster.” Younger folks are generally willing to examine and evolve the process which permitted a flaw to enter the system. Unfortunately without the experience of more seasoned contributors, it’s difficult for new people to see the big picture and best solutions. (As a humorous aside, the younger team members tend to look to Google to solve all their problems and want to take that as gospel. Google has value, but is cluttered with noise that must be closely evaluated.)
@medz @ruouttaurmind I totally agree. My husband is a manager at a home improvement store. He says trying to hire a younger person these days with even just a decent, not even great, work ethic, is incredibly hard. His employees don’t have any motivation to improve or advance. He gets the what planet are you from look quite often himself. They constantly call him about issues they are empowered to handle. It’s just crazy. I had no idea that the milennials were as bad as the jokes I would hear/read because I’m surrounded by some pretty great young people. However after the Presidential election, when I heard therapists and emotional support animals were having to be employed at colleges to help the students cope, I was flabbergasted. Someone needed to teach our kids how to put on their big kid panties and deal rather than how making them feel special for just showing up.
@ruouttaurmind
Up to a point at least; apparently too young and they don’t get it at all. When I tried to go lean and hold a kaizen event regarding the state of my kid’s room and toy storage, I got absolutely zero support from him. Trying to have a root cause/corrective action on his response didn’t get anywhere either.
(Also on that, I’ve found that the best way to ensure participation in a kaizen is to supply lunch. I theorize that people are not truly interested in process improvement and are really just in it for the sandwich.)
@nolrak When I call a staff meeting it can take 15 minutes or more to get everyone together. When I put out muffins or cookies they’re all there in a minute or two. Just exactly as long as it takes for word to spread that there is food involved.
@nolrak PS: bonus points for kaizen.
Maybe if I start calling it that instead of “quest for continuous improvement” staff will think it’s a dynamic and edgy movement.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tim Allen did a good segment on that on Last Man Standing too (An award for being mediocre).
The only thing I’ve seen the schools do that didn’t include everyone around here is the top 4 money raisers (when they sell stuff) get a prize and pizza party. No one else gets anything for ‘participation’ regardless. And that’s probably the one they should include all in. ugh.
I had a rude awakening about this in middle school. My band teacher one year gave out awards to a lot of people, including me. The next year, I didn’t get anything. I made a complaint of some sort, don’t really remember what I did. I ended up getting a letter from my teacher about why he doesn’t give every student an award for band. He also said something along the lines of he could give an award to the nicest and most helpful people, I’d get it. I learned a lesson that day.
It’s not the end of the world for me if I don’t get an award as long as I actually tried my best.
When I used to ride horses I competed in the local horse shows. There was a lot of politics involved and I never placed first. My horse was a type of horse that would do competitions in jumping and dressage. He was terrifying to jump (and older) so I rode him in competitions on the flat ground. Most of the other horses were Western horses that they put English saddles on. Well, the judges in that arena also judged the Western competitions, so they favored the look of the horses that drug their noses on the ground. My horse looked like he was floating around the arena.
In one competition where you do a pattern individually, the judge commented that she didn’t think he could do the tiny circles. I just said to her, “He’s trained in dressage.” Which is where they do nothing but patterns and fancy stuff. She just looked at me. I placed second.
There was one class that I enjoyed that was a Simon says type thing. Everyone joined the arena at the same time, and you had to do whatever the judge said within a few seconds. Normally this class is over in only a couple of minutes. I felt like this time it was taking forever. There was one move the judge asked for and it seemed that 1/2 or more of the class got out at the same time, so they pulled them to the middle. The rest of us are still doing whatever it was, and then all of a sudden, the people that are out are told to go back in the competition. I was so confused, but I continued to do the moves the judge asked for. People were called to the middle and then when there was a few of us left, all trying to stop our horses without reins, we were all called in. They started calling the winners, and I ended up being first. That was the only time I ever got a first place ribbon. I was insanely proud that I beat the giant group of people and I feel like I truly earned the win.
No honorable mention could ever replace the feeling of that actual victory.
@RiotDemon I would agree. In kid soccer (well that evolved to competitive soccer, out of state tournaments…blah) my kid used to stomp off the filed in the middle of the game if her side was losing… At the same time, when her team won, she was pissed that everyone got a trophy because “everyone didn’t win” LOL. (mind you she wanted the trophy if they lost)
After much effort on my part she finally stayed put on the field and would tackle trying to fix why they were losing (she was goalie and forward, and eventually in 9th grade became good enough that they wanted her on the state team as goalie which I nixed - no way I was driving 7.5 miles each way through the mountains for 3 hours of soccer practice each weekend let alone pay insane hotel and airfare bills for games). This is when she became even more annoyed at the trophies for all business (even though at her age they didn’t do that. Her team earned enough of them that she still saw the trophies for all handouts).
As a 12th grader at a big tournament (which 1/2 the parents hoped they’d lose early on as some of us wanted to go up the road to Glacier National Park that we could see in the distance) they made it to the finals (and lost). In the semi finals, her team won and after the game the goalie of the other team was crying. My kid said to me, “Why is she crying? It’s just a game. You play it for fun”. I never would have believed she would have come that far based on her starting point. And the trophies for all had nothing to do with it. She eventually recognized that they had to be earned. I think if everyone got a t-shirt or arm band or hat or something for participation she wouldn’t have objected… but in her option trophies were off limits for that as they were supposed to mean something.
Are high school diplomas really that much different than participation trophies? Students are ranked and finishing first is considered a big deal, but you get one even if you finish 279th out of 279. You are essentially guaranteed one if you show up most days, and give a minimal amount of effort. The only way to not get your participation trophy is to not participate.
One might argue the difference is that to “earn” a diploma, you have to satisfy some sort of minimum measurement, but I think that is usually fudged as long as you met the aforementioned requirement of “show up most days, and give a minimal amount of effort”.
@DrWorm
Try telling that to NY and their Regents.
Also, I wasn’t in the public school system, so it wasn’t like they would have automatically given a diploma to everyone just for showing up.
@PlacidPenguin
I’m not suggesting that just “showing up” earns the diploma (or the participation trophy). A minimal amount of effort has to be involved. While NY may be more strenuous in its vetting then other parts of the country, I would still argue that its almost impossible for a student who gives a minimal amount of effort to not be equipped to pass the exam. Similarly, whether its a dance academy or a little league team, a kid can’t just “show up” and refuse to participate.
A little leaguer can earn his participation trophy even while striking out every time up. By showing up for most practices and being a willing participant, it is almost impossible for him to not learn some basics of the sport: a batter gets three strikes, each team gets three outs per inning, etc.
He is getting the trophy for learning something, not for besting the other participants.
A student gets a diploma for learning something, not for besting the other participants.
@DrWorm @PlacidPenguin Going to school these days takes way more than minimal participation. Just the homework they bring home is beyond minimal. Yes, you receive a diploma if you make passing grades and get all your credits, but that is just the grade part. Lots of these students have made it to the end after battling bullying, going to schools with hardly any resources, they’ve overcome learning disabilities, gone to school hungry with no coats in the winter and I could go on. Receiving that diploma means they passed and yes, they showed up, despite the challenges thrown at them. It’s nothing like a participation award.
@DrWorm @PlacidPenguin That’s why the feds mandated standardized testing. I’m all for it. And I grew up in New York. It has probably changed but back in the day Regent exams were optional.
@mehbee I get what you’re saying but a high school diploma is supposed to say that a student has a certain proficiency in reading, writing, and basic math. It you give them to people without those skills they are worthless to everyone that earned one.
@mehbee @sammydog01
Grade inflation and passing kids on for, essentially, showing up, isn’t limited to high school.In some colleges you are essentially “buying” your degree by showing up. This cheapens the worth of a particular degree overall (eg high school diploma, BA…), and from a specific school/college even more since standards vary across schools and colleges/universities.
The pressure to pass most students at the university level is pretty strong in much of the for profit sector and at some state and non-profit schools. This is made worse by some state funding formulas. The state of Arkansas, for example, has implemented a funding formula that pretty much guarantees grade inflation at a level, depending on the school, approaching 30%. The state’s new funding rule is for a state funded university to get full funding they need to have 90% of their students graduate in exactly 4 years with exactly 120 credits. Umm the national average is something like 59% in 6 years. Relatively few universities nationwide would meet Arkansas’s requirement. Fail and your budget can be cut as much as 25%. An open admission university, required to accept everyone with a high school/GED diploma, will never, ever meet that. Ever. And yet these schools need more money than average to run the remedial programs needed to try to bring students like this up to college level. Now they will have the least and all programs will suffer.
In my opinion this is actually it is just an excuse to cut the budget and blame the victim. Well there there is a great article from years ago that is titled something like “The folly of rewarding A while expecting B”. Yup. Make rules like AR did and you get grade inflation, students not flunked out who should be, lowered expectations, pressure on faculty to pass almost everyone, etc. as schools try to figure out how to meet unrealistic expectations - thus people passing who shouldn’t as they don’t know the material. Well students then realize they don’t have to do much to pass since failing work will get 30% curves (true at least one school in the system) and you you have a downward spiral. Cheapens the degree for everyone and means lower standards. Even the flagship state university didn’t come close (64% - not sure if that is 4 year or 6 year rate).
In my opinion grades, diplomas, degrees, trophies, etc. need to mean something other than persistence (in some cases in the face of significant hardship). We are all worse off if they do not. Throwing resources to help those struggling improve rather than lowering standards makes more sense to me.
@sammydog01 Now that I can completely agree with, but I still say the majority of the blame sits on the education system, not the student “just showing up”. Granted there are some who just want to make it through and get out of there, but the majority do want to learn. To pass a child to just get them out of your classroom or give a diploma just to get them out of your school is such a horrible failure to that child. My issue was more comparing school to little league. Little league is a group of like-minded kids to have fun and play sports, school has become a battleground. It just felt a tad disrespectful, even though I know that was not intended.
@DrWorm When my daughter graduated both High School and University, she also had several different colored bands and cords that she earned that others didn’t get. Only students that met higher criteria got those.
@Kidsandliz @sammydog01 Well said, kids!
@mehbee @sammydog01 The fun part I think gets removed from sports at some point for, at least, some coaches, some parents and some kids. Winning becomes the sole focus. At soccer (maybe 11th grade, traveling soccer) we were at a big deal tournament (lots of college scouts there) and I happened to walk past the opposing team at half time. They were discussing how to try to hurt my kid (goalie) to take her out of the game without being caught by a referee and being more subtle about it than in the last game (they apparently had kicked a forward in the back of the knee when the ball was controlled by another player and that took her out for the rest of the game).
I butted into their team meeting, gave them a piece of my mind, threatened to sue the coach and the kid who did that to my kid if my kid got hurt like this. I told them I’d be watching my kid 100% of the time in the second half and my first phone call would be to the cops for assault. I then found the referees and told them what the other team planned to do, and reported them to the tournament director and to the league. Needless to say if looks would kill I would have been skewered but they did not try to hurt my kid.
No stupid kid sport is worth this kind of crap and coaches, parents and players who behave like this should be banned from the sport. It is fine to be competitive. It is not fine to cheat, purposely injure others, etc. to win. Somewhere along the line kids sports stopped being done for fun and recreation and got way too serious. Yes I can understand the competitiveness - especially on traveling teams, but it seems to me a line has been crossed. And in my opinion that is not a good thing.
@lseeber
Exactly. Another reason I equate participation trophies to diplomas.
In youth sports, the winners (typically) still get a larger trophy to acknowledge their success.
I acknowledge it isn’t the exactly the same, but I just want to demonstrate that , IMHO, the outrage against participation trophies is misguided.
For any extra-curricular activity, the emphasis for young age children should be learning to the best of his/her ability, not being better than the next kid (just like school). It doesn’t preclude you from recognizing the top performers. The idea that kids get some sort “sense of entitlement” from having a memento to put on the shelf is hogwash. Trophy or not, kids who are mediocre (or even awful) at soccer know it even before seeing that the winners got a trophy 4 times bigger than theirs.
@DrWorm
The thing is, the baseball league which I participated in as a kid, gave the same size trophy to everybody who made it to the championship game.
Thus, regardless of win or lose, nobody had a bigger trophy than anybody else.
@Kidsandliz @mehbee @sammydog01
One of my former neighbors did adjunct at a university. He’s been named in lawsuits before over why he’s failed a student.
StudentsParents expected that just because they’re paying $$$$$ that theirkidslacker is allowed to pass. Thankfully it didn’t work that way, but it’s still fucked up that such happens in the first place.@Kidsandliz @narfcake @sammydog01 yes, that’s completely ridiculous. Let the teachers teach, get out of their way and we might be surprised with what happens
@Kidsandliz @mehbee @narfcake I took my kid for a college visit- it’s that time. The tour guide was a grad student and had TAd classes. He told the parents- don’t contact a professor about your kid’s grades. What? He said that he had gotten emails from irate parents and that the professors did too. How sad is that?
@DrWorm @lseeber I went to my niece’s graduation. Fully half of the students graduated cum laude. Most of them wore colorful crap around their necks. The list of award recipients was twice as long as the list of graduates. So an award at that school is given for mediocre performance. Nope, that is ridiculuous.
@mehbee @narfcake @sammydog01 Faculty aren’t allowed to discuss a kid’s grades with a parent unless the kid has signed the appropriate form. In fact even if they pay the bills a kid has to sign that parents can have access to this kind of information. If they are over 18 that includes anything medical even if they are on your health insurance. If you have a kid headed off to college get them to sign their rights away before you leave campus after dropping them off. Or get the forms ahead of time to have them sign when they are doing all the stuff you need to do prior to being a first term student.
@DrWorm @sammydog01 There were only 4 of them at my daughter’s. But she’s 37 now so it’s been a while.
@DrWorm @lseeber @sammydog01
Back in college, I opted to skip graduation.
I’m not one for big affairs like that.
This, of course, was my second college, since after 2 years, I transferred out of my first one.
@DrWorm @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 Skipped my own also. Can’t get out of skipping your kid’s tho!!
@DrWorm @lseeber @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 I never went to any commencement, including my PhD (which pissed off my advisor who then didn’t get to “hood” me), did go to my undergrad department diploma part of the thing only because my parents said they’d not pick me up from graduation if I didn’t. Of course the joke is on me because now I have to sit through the entire boring mess when I am faculty.
Side note - the master’s gowns are better than the PhD ones because the long tail things hanging off the sleeves. They can hold all sorts of stuff. I have seen people put drinks in there, someone sat next to me and had poured M&M’s in there and had picked open the seam at the bottom and squeezed them out one by one…
@DrWorm @Kidsandliz @lseeber @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 What is “hooding” you?
That sounds a little invasive to me. Was that an accepted practice? Was it normal for folks to get “hooded” upon graduation?
@therealjrn At graduation when with your PhD your advisor gets to place the “hood” (that colorful thing around your neck) on you when you get handed your diploma. It is “points” for them as proof they had a student finish since around 1/2 (overall - varies by school and department) the PhD students do not.
/image PhD hood
@Kidsandliz Huh. I did not know that.
@Kidsandliz You never cease to elucidate us. May I thank you?
@Kidsandliz I suppose if I had gone to more than two years of undergraduate work I might have known this. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But by gosh I can cut, if need be.
There’s a thunderstorm overhead here in Tulsa. I need to lay it down. Good rest, Liz.
You want to hear the absolute stupidest
and most ridiculous of this?
You know how at the end of the school year there is usually a presentation for the kids and parents to come to? Like where they give out awards for the top 10 students, or outstanding grade in English or math, or most improved, or athletic related stuff, etc?
Yeah, my daughter’s school (she’ll be in 9th grade this year - so not little kids) changed the policy: they no longer announce ANY of the awards/achievements the kids got. They just call each child up and give them a folder with all their awards inside of it to look at later on their own. They don’t want to announce any of the achievements, because they don’t want the kids that didn’t receive them to “feel bad.” It makes me fuming mad, especially as a parent of a child that does outstanding work! STUPID!!!
@LemonTheCat While my kid never got any academic awards that should not be used as an excuse not to recognize those who legitimately do well!!
@LemonTheCat So the ones who won, their feelings are not important? What about that makes our children want to improve and excel?
@LemonTheCat @mehbee I won some fukos a few weeks ago during the Meh fourth anniversary. It felt great.
Then I found out that almost everyone who tried the challenges won one. Then I didn’t feel special anymore.
@Limewater Well you can feel special compared to me then as the cut off was, at least once, the person before my post to win them. I didn’t win in 3 things I tried.
@LemonTheCat @mehbee And when kids see others who do better than they do win something that serves to motivate some of them to try harder. It can also give a signal to parents that their kids need help in areas to do better as well.
@Limewater @mike808
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I took the birthday fukos more like Mardi Gras beads: Sometimes you need to show 'em something; sometimes everybody gets them. All should be happy with the beads they get.
YMMV
@Kidsandliz @LemonTheCat Exactly!
@compunaut @mike808 I see it more like, when you go to a Mardi Gras parade somewhere other than New Orleans, and they throw candy.
You might have to body slam twenty little brats to get that candy.
And then, all those hand-wringing parents get mad about their weak children not getting any. And all the crying.
And then some jerk tackles you and the stupid cops make you have a time-out in the back of the car, even thought I beat ALL those kids for that candy fair and square.
Man, society has fallen so far. But I’m not bitter or anything.
@Limewater @mike808
What? That is not a thing
/image not a thing
@compunaut Mobile, AL has a Carnival tradition going back to before New Orleans was founded.
It’s just a lot more family-friendly, and some fraction of the participants actually intend to observe Lent.
@LemonTheCat It seems like this is how we’re ending up with ever increasing proportions of “eh, that’s good enough” vs “we can and should do better” types of people in the working population. I fear that eventually, hopefully well after my lifetime, the movie Idiocracy might become viewed as more of a classic documentary than science fiction.
KuoH
@Limewater Moon Pies!
@kuoh @LemonTheCat As a nation we’re splitting the difference between Idiocracy and Network. Wait, no, we’re combining the best of both. I mean, “best.”
@LemonTheCat Ugh!
@kuoh @LemonTheCat @mossygreen Oh, you guys. Quit getting your panties all twirled up.
We’ll be just fine, just like we have always been.
Bill the Damn Hippie over at penseys.com seems to have a positive outlook on things. Perhaps we need to follow his lead.
@kuoh @LemonTheCat @therealjrn Sir, I think you underestimate my love of Network.
I mean, I’d watch the news if they had a psychic.
@kuoh @LemonTheCat @mossygreen
:rick & morty.jpg:
@kuoh @mossygreen @therealjrn @mehbee
Meh selected the tags, sorry
it is definitely infuriating. I mean, if they were like 5 year olds it would still be stupid but understandable somewhat? But these are 14-15 year olds…
I’m worried next they’ll yank away the valedictorian/salutarian speeches at senior graduation (my daughter does great, but she’s not in the running for those) for the top 2 kids. Because OMG they would make soooo many kids cry from that!! Vomit.
oh and I won one fuko! I don’t think anyone knew who I was at that juncture however and I just seemed like some mystery weirdo, so I was pretty stoked to even be acknowledged!!!
The only trophy I ever got was for participation. It’s on the cable box, proudly displayed. It’s a goat.
@lisaviolet Most of us will never get our participation trophies for that. Waaaahhhhhhhhh. Stomps feet. Sends spy to meh to get sneak a phone number off a phone to call to complain. There is that a good enough imitation? Oh wait. Forgot to then pass on phone number to mom to call and complain. Now I am done.
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet What? Do former goats get a trophy?
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @therealjrn Only special ones.
@therealjrn They used to… now (choose one) just broken promises or a really, really long wait, until you are dead of old age. It can be spun both ways.
Actually they never actually said they were discontinuing doing so…
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @sammydog01
Crap. I’m never special enough. But by gosh I’m worth it!
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @sammydog01 @therealjrn @moose
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @Moose @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 Who is this JonT person and when exactly may I expect my trophy?
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @Moose @sammydog01 @therealjrn
@JonT left in 2015.
@JonT @Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @Moose @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 Where is he? Can we bring him back somehow? I need my participation trophy.
@therealjrn As I said in my earlier post you can likely expect it sometime after you are dead of old age.
@JonT @lisaviolet @Moose @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 @therealjrn
/image special snowflake participation award
@JonT @Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @Moose @sammydog01 @therealjrn
@Moose will possibly eventually deal with the goat trophies. He just needs people to send him beehives to motivate him to get somebody to engrave the plaques, as he’s not interested in doing them himself.
@Kidsandliz Old age? I reckon the drinking and the carousing with assorted Beckies are going to catch up with me first…death? Bah!
@JonT @Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @Moose @sammydog01 @therealjrn
@Kidsandliz @therealjrn
I’m young enough to still be alive by the time it happens.
@JonT @lisaviolet @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 @therealjrn My cousin’s family has beehives. One swarmed and is currently 50’ up a tree so they can’t get it back at the moment. Perhaps I can give the bees directions to @Moose’s house?
@JonT @Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @Moose @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01
Beehives you say? This is a motivational program I can get behind. I have a cellar full of humans we can begin testing on immediately.
@Kidsandliz
There are 3 digger wasp nests near me.
They’re technically on a neighbor’s property, so they’ll eventually call somebody to take care of the nests.
@Kidsandliz @Moose @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 @therealjrn Being of the crafty persuasion, I’m testing some ideas re: engraving. If you hit the second silhouette freebie thread and scroll through it, you can see one of my more recent projects. I’d link to it, but I’m on my tablet and typing sucks.
https://journal.lisaviolet.com/lv/article/did_a_little_testing_this_morning
@lisaviolet
I should have a penguin trophy sent to you then.
(And yes, I would pay for forwarding costs.)
Oh, and this was the post you were referencing.
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @Moose @PlacidPenguin @sammydog01
“crafty persuasion” you say do you Lisa? I might be persuaded to follow along this path with you.
I could perhaps monetarily reward you for your efforts.
Of course, I expect the results to be heirloom quality. I do have my image to uphold…
@PlacidPenguin yes, that was it. I posted a link to my weblog with more information. The process would be the same, just different media. I have the stuff to do the testing.
@lisaviolet I’m prepared to PayPal you what you need. I think what? 20 bucks will be sufficient? How much are solid gold goats going for on the market nowadays?
@therealjrn if I’m successful, I’m throwing this back at @moose!! He’s the one who makes the big bucks.
I don’t have any trophies. I looked on images, but the hunting trophies with dead animals were just to hard for me to see.
@lisaviolet We can make it 50–I want to buy that asshole @Sammydog01 her trophy. She’s such a dick. I can’t help but love her. Whisper me the deets please.
@lisaviolet @sammydog01 @therealjrn I saw @Barney’s trophy. That thing was written with marker. Why the holdup for engraving @Moose?
@Barney @lisaviolet @Moose @RiotDemon @sammydog01 @therealjrn
He doesn’t want to do 30 of them himself.
@therealjrn
What kind of trophy would you get for @sammydog01 though?
@Barney @lisaviolet @Moose @PlacidPenguin @RiotDemon @sammydog01 Fuck him. We want our trophies.
@Barney @Moose @RiotDemon @sammydog01 @therealjrn Mine is engraved.
@PlacidPenguin The swam I am talking about belongs to my cousin’s wife. She is a bee keeper.
@PlacidPenguin @sammydog01 I wish to get her a solidly built trophy of tightly packed shit.
Because we, of all people, keep our shit tightly packed.
/keep on trucking.
@PlacidPenguin How the heck do you find all this crap so easily (eg past posts)? I use the search function and I am still digging through pages of hits.
@Barney @lisaviolet @Moose @RiotDemon @sammydog01 @therealjrn
So is @Barney’s. She drew a picture of it for Meh.
You can thank @hollboll for taking pictures of the drawings.
@PlacidPenguin Your real name is MEtHuselah. Right? (snicker)
@Kidsandliz
Well, in this particular case, I have the email of the post by @moose in my Meh folder in Inbox.
(Actually, the Meh folder is relatively recent. I created it in June or July. Until that point, I only had a few Meh emails saved. Now that I have the filter, I have more Meh emails saved.)
I have certain tricks though, but I cannot publicly or privately share them.
@Kidsandliz
No. I’m quite young compared to him.
@therealjrn
Umm do we need to call the police on you?
@Kidsandliz @PlacidPenguin Damn youth. wasted on the young.
@PlacidPenguin
It is breaking the rules if you count in geologic time rather than atomic time… just sayin’
@Kidsandliz No, no need, we’re just fine here. Don’t mind the screams, I think my house is settling.
@Kidsandliz @therealjrn
And I plan on keeping it that way. I have to, especially if I want to stay younger than the both of you.
@RiotDemon @sammydog01 @therealjrn
@Moose used a dremel engraver. He said it wasn’t easy doing the engraving.
And yes, I’m special
(so is @lisaviolet, @narfcake, and about a dozen others).
@therealjrn
Well if you’d stop digging graves in the basement the soil would remain compacted and your house wouldn’t settle as fast.
@Barney @lisaviolet even though you told me that was engraved, it still looks like a marker to me, lol. Oops.
@Barney @lisaviolet @Moose @narfcake @RiotDemon @sammydog01 It’s not my fucking concern if it was easy or not @Barney. What he should be concerned about is getting the job done. Right?
/just fucking around here folks. kidding/not kidding
@RiotDemon Hey, it’s a “Moose” orginal. One of these days it will be quite a collectible item.
@therealjrn If I were @Moose, I’d tell you to fuck off, but I’m sure that someday you will receive something.
@Barney @lisaviolet @Moose @narfcake @RiotDemon @sammydog01 No, kidding, definitely.
@Barney @lisaviolet @Moose @narfcake @RiotDemon @sammydog01 @therealjrn Well the herd of goats is getting bigger and bigger. We could always stampede his office threatening to eat everything in sight if we don’t get our trophies.
@Barney @Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @Moose @narfcake @RiotDemon @sammydog01 Yeah but then I’d have to go to Texas. I’m strictly North of the Red River baby.
@therealjrn I am sure some day meh, eventually, will sell a rubber raft. Or a life jacket. Or kayak or canoe or… an inner tube. You can cross over into TX then. We’ll wait.
@Kidsandliz Perhaps, but what to do with all those Texan douchbags? I’m just a simple Okie. You can’t expect me to manage all that. There’s only so much rope I can carry.
@therealjrn Hmm I just thought of this. I lived in OK at one point and nearly drove off the road laughing when I saw them using riding mowers to mow the river bed. You don’t need any boats. You can just drive your pickup truck across the river bed and throw all the rope in the back.
@Kidsandliz We’re a crafty bunch. I will not deny that…
@lisaviolet @therealjrn Assholes deserve trophies too!
@therealjrn Bummer you missed @JonT- he was our camp counselor. Want me to drive up to northern Virginia and slap him around until he sends you a trophy? I’ll look him up in the phone book under T.
@JonT @sammydog01 I missed out on a lot. I was totally clueless when our very own @snapster started this place. I got caught up with the whole meh thing fairly late in the game.
Fortunately the spammers necromance the old threads sometimes so I can look back upon what I have missed.
eh. Trophy, no trophy, I’m good either way. I won life’s lottery long, long ago. Sometimes I feel like I should feel guilty–but I’m at my core a “lake person” We do take care of our own though–sometimes to a fault.
I’ve never been to Virginia though…do they have good pancakes there? How’s the bacon?
@therealjrn The bacon and pancakes are fine but they cook the crap out of vegetables.
I figure if I really want a goat trophy I can always buy one for myself. I bought myself a fantasy football champion sweatshirt last year after all.
@Moose Did you get your snail mail yet? I sent you a package.
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@thismyusername I deserve one of those, dammit!