Its That Time of Year Again . . .

Its the time of year where various people gather at Sarah's mother's house in an attempt to create the ultimate gingerbread construction. the hours are long, the constructions difficult, and the voting harsh. this is a contest after all. what better way to entice people to push themselves to their creative construction limits than with the promise of voting by their peers with prizes to be awarded for First and Second place house (or, Best House and First Loser).

the trash talking was thick this year, as various teams, remembering their defeats of the past were rallying themselves for the ultimate battle. Chris and I had won the contest twice before with our superior constructions, but we had been defeated last year, as skewed and questionable voting rewarded simple cuteness over technical supremacy and conceptual awesomeness.
i was looking forward to this year. Chris and I were destined to regain the title - we are a superior team of creativeness and construction knowledge, after all. but Sarah and Amy had pulled off a coup last year, and Sarah was counting on Britney, her partner this year, to help her do it again.
Megan Showed up with Joseph, a first time team with a self proclaimed killer idea up their sleeves. And Dan and Ashley, a wild card team, having just returned to the bluster of UT from the fun and sun of Florida were any ones guess.
Jacob was meant to team with Sharon, but ended up flying solo, as she wandered throughout the house supervising the replacement of light bulbs and talking on the phone under the auspice of providing snacks. He was able to recruit the occasional help of Lauren and Ian, who sadly dropped out of the race due to a broken nose. (no, the nose was previously broken, but the pain relieving drugs were heavy). This turned out to be to Jacob's favor, as he constructed his most well designed, well made and complete house to date.
We started around noon, making the plans, baking, building, embellishing. Tensions were occasionally high, as people tried to scope out the plans of other teams, or steal their dough or building supplies. But by 6pm all of the houses were completed and the teams cast their votes.

The voting rules seemed fair enough: vote for the best house. You cant vote for your own.

and here is the field, team members followed by entry:

1.) sarah and britney
2.) mike and chris
3.) dan and ashley4.) megan and joseph
5.) jacob

well, how did you vote, dear reader?

and the winner was . . . team Sarah and Britney, with their Whoville inspired creation.

second place went to . . . Jacob's log cabin.

and we (mike and chris) came in third . . .

Chris and i felt confident that our house stood superior (our windmill vanes actually spun for crying out loud!), but the voting told us otherwise. now, not to discredit the creativity of the Who-house. it was excellent. a fantastic idea, and well executed. everyone did a fantastic job on their houses, in their own right. but still we placed 3rd. that's right, second loser. Once again, the spurious voting of the "judges" proved that our skills were far inferior to those of, say, the creator of the log cabin.

i couldn't help think of the sentiments echoed to me by others about the state of our nations voting lately, where those voting feel more inclined to vote against someone than for the "best" choice. indeed, after our loss, we received many consolations. "it's OK, you know your house is the best", "i couldn't vote for you, because your house was too awesome", "i felt bad for *name omitted* because i thought they wouldn't receive any votes . . .*

well, if they didn't receive the votes, you can tell the loser that they won all you want, but they still don't walk home with the prize.

i fear that this is the obvious result of the over liberalization of our public schools by those who want everyone to feel better except those who truly excel. like, letting kids spell things phonetically in elementary school, so that they don't have to feel bad that they can't live up to the exacting standards so harshly imposed upon them by the constructs of their native language. or letting everyone win, so that no one feels like a loser.

well, i'll tell you who loses in that case - the American people, that's who. if we crush the spirits of those who excel, but punishing them for their brilliance, we will eventually wallow in an eventual state of idiocy. Much like Southern California, or the film Idiocracy.

till next year. . .