Mental Magma

The winner of Photo Contest #2 is Jakutz.  The macabre yet poignant yet funny photo that won him the contest is featured here.  He pockets a $31 Amazon.com gift certificate and adds another win to his impressive MM history.  This brings up a difficult question.  Should Jakutz drop out of school and become a professional contest-enterer?  Some will say he should stay and finish his education.  Others will say he would be foolish to turn down such a promising opportunity.

Whatever he decides, we’re happy that Jakutz made his way to this website (way back during Contest #7) and continues to improve the community with his inspired entries.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest.  Start sending us your ideas for the next photo contest.

I wouldn’t call this contest a resounding success in terms of number of entries.  With only 6 fully-rules-compliant users, the prize money only got up to a $31 gift certificate.  Maybe it was having a long contest that spanned the holidays, maybe it was the subject matter, and maybe everyone was posting photos in a rival photo contest.  :)  No matter, the entries we did get were good and now it’s your job to decide between them.  Here are your four photo finalists: Spumoni, Jakutz (2 pics), Bunny Slippers, and kjw2009.  The poll will be open until 5pm EST on Thursday.

"Sister as javelin" by kjw2009	"Life as suicide step stool" by Jakutz
"Sanitary pads as adhesive devices" by Bunny Slippers	"Laptop as toilet" by Jakutz
"Ironed cheese" by Spumoni

Vote for your favorite entry to Photo Contest #2

• Jakutz's Life as suicide stool photo (40%, 12 Votes)
• kjw2009's sister as javelin photo (27%, 8 Votes)
• Spumoni's Ironed cheese photo (13%, 4 Votes)
• Bunny Slipper's Pads as adhesives photo (13%, 4 Votes)
• Jakutz's laptop as toilet photo (7%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 30

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2009 has been declared as “The Year of Mental Magma” by the Pope, the leaders of the free countries of the Earth, and 99% of the leaders of oppressive regimes (China’s leader, Hu Jintao, said it would be the “The Year of the Ox”). As such, we have decided to combine two things that we at Mental Magma love: video games and Venn diagrams.

This week’s contest is to make a Venn diagram. The subject of the diagram should involve video games or video game culture in some way. Your diagram should use two circles or three (as I’ve used in my example to the left). If you have a really good idea that uses more than 3, I guess that’s okay, but 2 or 3 is my preference.

You can create your entry in multiple ways. The easiest way would be to simply describe in words the multiple circles and intersections. If you’re more adventurous, you can make your diagram in a drawing program like Microsoft Paint or Photoshop and upload the picture. Lastly, you could do what I did and draw the diagram on paper and take a picture or scan it and then upload that pic.

Standard contest timeline and contest rules apply this week. By leaving an entry you are agreeing to those rules. The entry voted the favorite by MM users will earn its author their choice of a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate OR a $60 gift certificate to the MM Online Store.

Contest Summary
Assignment: Create a Venn Diagram using video games as your subject.
How to enter: Write your entry in the Contest Entries section.
Deadline: Friday, January 9th at 5pm EST
Prize: Your choice of a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate OR a $60 gift certificate to the MM Online Store.

Announcement: This contest is closed. Feel free to continue to leave your answers here, but you'll be doing so strictly for our edification. Why don't you see what's going on in the forum or check out the latest update or contest?

Our last winner of a 2008 contest is user Iaoai, our only user that has a palindrome for a name. The entry that did it was this monster resolution:

"This year I am going to get my diabetes under control." -Cookie Monster

For his labors, Iaoai gets his pick of gift certificates. The MM participation reward this week goes to SesameStreetgang. He wins a $10 MM Store gift certificate.

I want to remind everyone again that the deadline for our photo contest is Tuesday, January 6th. We’d had very few users enter this one, so if you enter now, you’re almost guaranteed to make the finals (please read the rules before snapping your photo).

It’s really amazing that we’ve assembled a cast of users here at MM that can, week after week, invent really clever and/or humorous entries to whatever contest we (or some user) comes up with.  Maybe we should turn MM into a think-tank to solve serious problems that need creative solutions.  Actually, I have such a problem that I will be posting as next week’s game.

As usual, I want to mention a few users that were either user or staff favorites: Barnaby Hayes’ Cyclops, Etmoose’s Elmo, Greg’s Smaug, Fyrtgyr’s Jabberwocky, SesameStreetgang’s The Blob, drewbert’s predator, jlbsauce’s Chancellor Palpatine, vlad’s Vlad, and Big Momma’s Joker.

The five finalists this week are Fuzz on the concept, Erumpeltin, What, Iaoai, and Jakutz.  The poll will be up until 5pm EST on Sunday.

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For anyone not familiar with the monster pictured or why I gave him the resolution I did, check out Wikipedia’s page on the Flying Spaghetti Monster.