(no subject)

Best costume award went to Skippy, who turned up wearing a Molodovan hat nearly as tall as he was.

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In the sweepstake, Hannah was the overall winner with Sweden.
(We had less people than countries at the end, so people had the option of trading in the country they'd drawn for an unclaimed one, and NOBODY wanted Azerbaijan...)

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In the 'justify why the country you've drawn in the sweepstake should win' contest, the winners were:

Overall winner - Sarah H, 'supporting' Austria
'Because 40 year old transexuals need love too. I mean, you guys are all desperate and none of you would do her!'

Runner up - Angie, 'supporting' Germany
'It's the best song title. It makes me think of Sheryl Cole being taken roughly in an alley behind a Newcastle nightclub.'

Honorable mention - Kris, supporting Ireland
'It's important to show our support for back to work schemes for the mentally disabled.'

The other 'supporting' arguments were:
Finland (Al)
'Come on, he's only 12 and he's on Eurovision...'

Bosnia & Herzegovina (Tim)
'It's the only country with an 'and' in its name.'

Denmark (Jacqui)
'They're like a mini gothic Jedward!'

Lithuania (Eddie)
'At least it was over quickly.'

Hungary (Tamara)
'Um... she had big hair?'

Sweden (Hannah)
'He will be popular' and then kept quoting the song at people until they gave in.

Estonia (Kez)
'She was perfectly co-ordinated with the back-up dancer with the pink bib.'

France (me)
'He's very shaggable. And he has a deep voice which makes him even more shaggable.'

Switzerland (Violets)
'They're neutral and so perfectly represent us in their utter apathy.'

United Kingdom (Jo)
'We've managed to get them out the country - if they win, maybe Europe will keep them.'

Moldova (Skippy)
'Their hats are cosmic antennae!!!' (He never even mentioned the fairy on the unicycle...)

Iceland (James)
'Proof that there is something out there worse than Chas and Dave.'

Georgia (Michelle)
'Be nice to them - they bankrupted the entire country buying those cyberdog outfits.'

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And finally, from Siobhan's magnificent scorecards, the winners in each category are:

Creative use of dwarves, fetishwear, S&M accessories, or heaven help us all 'national costume'
Winner: Germany (Runner-up: Sweden) (Loser: Finland, Iceland)

Hair height, heel height, hem height, and amount of elective Frankenstein-like surgical intervention
Winner: Ireland (Runner-up: Austria) (Loser: Iceland)

Paedo potential: use of just about pubescent singers to ensure the Belgian and Austrian votes
Winner: Ireland (Runner-up: Sweden, Estonia) (Loser: Romania, Austria, Iceland, Italy)

Use of key-change, power chords, nonsensical choruses, use of 'ooh baby' and other musical cliches
Winner: Ireland (Runner-up: Estonia) (Loser: Germany, Italy)

Costumes: bought from proper shop or made by colour-blind family members in a bad mood after losing all of their savings in a bank crash?
Winner: Ireland, Moldova (Runner-up: Estonia) (Loser: Italy, Finland)

Nil point potential: does it have X-crement factor? Or is it No Talent At All and got the gig through sexual favours?
Winner: UK (Runner-up: Germany) (Loser: Denmark)


Grand total
Winner: Ireland (Runner-up: Estonia, Moldova) (loser: Italy)

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Thank you to everyone that came and joined in with the silliness - it was great fun :-)

It's not over until Veldron sees Big Bird...

Day 05. A song that reminds you of someone.
Disturbed - 10,000 fists
Will always remind me of DJ Veldron, GSP's Deacon of Doom. He was the one who set the bar for marathon DJ sets, with his longest topping 50 hours (and yes, I was there for every minute of that one.) He often used to play this song near the end of big events, to kick up the energy and keep things going just a few more hours. And because of that, it also reminds me of the rest of GSP - all the DJs, and Dancers, and party regulars - and all the silliness and injokes and running gags and plots and schemes and good friends and bad behaviour and even worse puns and epic faceplants. And the ARKs, in game volunteer advisors, who were supposed to be completely anonymous but turned out to be everyone I knew with different faces on. And the guys from Funcom who genuinely loved the game and wanted to make it great (and drank as only Norwegians can.) And meeting so many in the flesh at Dragon*Con, and all of the madness, and the room parties, and drunken invasions, and the party bus, and the good morning people, and the original creation of Rule One. Miss them all so much...