Acacia UK Giveaway Results!
Finally, the winner of last month's giveaway has been chosen! And elaborately chosen at that. My kids - in honor of the fact that we just moved and now have a pool! - proposed an aquatic component to the selection process. This'll take a minute to explain...
First off, Maya and Sage were kind enough to take the plunge...
We recruited some brave volunteers to assist us... We drew from races extending throughout the galaxy, accepting both human and alien recruits. We didn't discriminate on the basis of size, sex, appearance, number of limbs, flippers, tusks or anything else. There was but one condition: they had to sink. We were looking for dead weights that weren't afraid to risk everything in the deep blue. (This condition, by the way, excluded all Stormtroopers. We've found those guys to be unsinkable. It's why we've signed them up for the Stormtrooper Rafting Team, but that's a different story...)
There were a few last minute additions and replacements, but before long we had a company, each individual stepping forward to represent one of our contest competitors. Yes, they did it for you. What, exactly, did they do? They allowed Sage to toss them into the middle of the pool, where they promptly sunk...
Maya and Sage then dove in and (with complete objectivity) they each grabbed the first four figures they could. It's hard to measure how much the figures themselves affected the outcome, but I assure you the kids were objective participants simply grasping for whatever appeared in arms reach.
The result was a collection of eight semi-finalists. It was a hardy group, including humans like Padme and Shmi, the Jedi's Anakin and Kai Adi Mundi, the Gungans Jar Jar Binks and General Tarpals, some weird blue guy and the robust Tarful. They were tossed back into the water for another round, and this time only four came back...
The four finalists were cast into the pools once more. This time, though, they went in at the deep end. That's a thousand feet of water right there...
Both Maya and Sage made repeated dives, (And I mean repeated!) finding it difficult get down far enough. (Remember the Abyss and that funky liquid oxygen they breathed? My kids were starting to look like that rat by end of this, although lacking the oxygen...) And then... then...
Did you ever see the Luc Besson film Deep Blue (Le Grande Bleu)? I remember thinking that rocked. The guy was a dolphin in human trappings! Jean-Marc Barr, Rosanna Arquette, Jean Reno... Lots of blue water... It looked kinda like Maya rising with the winner.
And the winner is...
Jar Jar... Jar Jar? Oh, man... It's possible that he "accidentally" found some way to cheat, but I can't prove anything. His victory stands. Who, exactly, was Jar Jar representing? It's painful, but it's also obvious - Onebadgungan is our newest winner!
Just for the record, the contestant representation went like this (and was decided by Maya and Sage)...
Dirk - Dark Bounty Hunter Guy
Brian T Carroll - Warthog-looking Guy with tusks and robotic legs
Onebadgungan - Jar Jar Binks
Mike - Darth Sidious
GGallinThicke - Darth Maul
Bherstig - Newt Gunray
Inklings - Mas Ameda
Scott- Kai Adi Mundi
Borock - Blueface chubby guy
Gemini6toad - General Grievous
Talin - Padme
Ziggi - Yoda
Nblair - Shmi
Dynastic Queen - Wookie Warrior Tarful
Arkana - Obi Wan Kenobi
Erika Hamerquist - General Tarpals
Debbborra - Dexter Jetser
Mikejs - Ala Secura
Cal95757 - Anakin
PhoenixIce - Taun We
First off, Maya and Sage were kind enough to take the plunge...
We recruited some brave volunteers to assist us... We drew from races extending throughout the galaxy, accepting both human and alien recruits. We didn't discriminate on the basis of size, sex, appearance, number of limbs, flippers, tusks or anything else. There was but one condition: they had to sink. We were looking for dead weights that weren't afraid to risk everything in the deep blue. (This condition, by the way, excluded all Stormtroopers. We've found those guys to be unsinkable. It's why we've signed them up for the Stormtrooper Rafting Team, but that's a different story...)
There were a few last minute additions and replacements, but before long we had a company, each individual stepping forward to represent one of our contest competitors. Yes, they did it for you. What, exactly, did they do? They allowed Sage to toss them into the middle of the pool, where they promptly sunk...Maya and Sage then dove in and (with complete objectivity) they each grabbed the first four figures they could. It's hard to measure how much the figures themselves affected the outcome, but I assure you the kids were objective participants simply grasping for whatever appeared in arms reach.
The result was a collection of eight semi-finalists. It was a hardy group, including humans like Padme and Shmi, the Jedi's Anakin and Kai Adi Mundi, the Gungans Jar Jar Binks and General Tarpals, some weird blue guy and the robust Tarful. They were tossed back into the water for another round, and this time only four came back...
The four finalists were cast into the pools once more. This time, though, they went in at the deep end. That's a thousand feet of water right there...
Both Maya and Sage made repeated dives, (And I mean repeated!) finding it difficult get down far enough. (Remember the Abyss and that funky liquid oxygen they breathed? My kids were starting to look like that rat by end of this, although lacking the oxygen...) And then... then...Did you ever see the Luc Besson film Deep Blue (Le Grande Bleu)? I remember thinking that rocked. The guy was a dolphin in human trappings! Jean-Marc Barr, Rosanna Arquette, Jean Reno... Lots of blue water... It looked kinda like Maya rising with the winner.
And the winner is...
Jar Jar... Jar Jar? Oh, man... It's possible that he "accidentally" found some way to cheat, but I can't prove anything. His victory stands. Who, exactly, was Jar Jar representing? It's painful, but it's also obvious - Onebadgungan is our newest winner!
Just for the record, the contestant representation went like this (and was decided by Maya and Sage)...
Dirk - Dark Bounty Hunter Guy
Brian T Carroll - Warthog-looking Guy with tusks and robotic legs
Onebadgungan - Jar Jar Binks
Mike - Darth Sidious
GGallinThicke - Darth Maul
Bherstig - Newt Gunray
Inklings - Mas Ameda
Scott- Kai Adi Mundi
Borock - Blueface chubby guy
Gemini6toad - General Grievous
Talin - Padme
Ziggi - Yoda
Nblair - Shmi
Dynastic Queen - Wookie Warrior Tarful
Arkana - Obi Wan Kenobi
Erika Hamerquist - General Tarpals
Debbborra - Dexter Jetser
Mikejs - Ala Secura
Cal95757 - Anakin
PhoenixIce - Taun We
Labels: Contests
posted by David Anthony Durham at
10:42 PM
8 Comments:
Man, in the original version of this post, Dark Bounty Hunter Guy won, but then George Lucas edited it for re-release and changed it!
Grats to Onebadgungan.
Hilarious.
You know onebadgungan is me, right?
Hilarious, I say!
I had high hopes for Dark Bounty Hunter Guy. I thought he might want to win and garner some respect, force me to look up his name, get him the credit he deserves. Alas, George had other ideas...
Paranoyd... Oh, my. I just looked back at your Forum posts (which are mostly entering contests) and I did see that onebadgungan named himself as Corby (Paranoyd) once. I hadn't really paid attention to that recently, though, so, no, I didn't know. Perhaps this is just good Karma earned by your actually buying the book...
Wow! I made it to the semi-finals! That's pretty amazing considering I can't swim a stroke. On the other hand, I guess I can sink as well as the next guy and that's what counted.
I just bought Pride of Carthage and I'm loving it. I like historicals even better than fantasy. Rosemary Sutcliffe was one of my childhood faves. Ever read her?
Oh, and congratulations to Onebadgungan, drat it.
How about a giveaway of a Spanish edition?
I want to thank Warthog-looking Guy for his willingness to go into the drink for me.
Congratulations on the new house and pool.
Well, I do have a signed copy from The Man's hands from WisCon, so I bequeath my winnings to the Next Runner Up.
Enjoy!
Round of applause for Paranoyd, please! A generous, benevolent act that will surely increase his good karma. (Which makes it a win-win situation.)
OK, this means we go back to the remaining finalists: Tarful, General Tarpals, and Padme. I'll get them back in the water soon to wrap this up...
Erika, take note. You're back in the running! No, I don't recall having read Rosemary Sutcliffe. Sounds like I might have liked her, though.
And there's not yet a Spanish addition of Acacia. I hope there will be, but it's hard to figure out what makes what work in the foreign markets. The Spanish Pride of Carthage did quite well, even made bestseller lists in Chile and Mexico, but we didn't get Spanish publishers to bite on Acacia - yet. It's cool, though, we did break into French and German for the first time!
Brian, I'll pass on your comments the tusked one.
Haha, so cool.
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