[Hi, readers -- awgeez here. Well, my co-judging duties began in Week 11, but birdhead did the writing on that one. This is the first time that your original hosts have handed me the keys (the ones on the keyboard, that is). So, everyone: Get in, buckle up, and let's see if I can figure out what all these buttons do...]
Birdhead and I did the judging for Week 12, and we're in agreement: It was a tasty week indeed. Full of lip-smacking Chokaty goodness. (Thanks in no small part to some very welcome bribery -- but more on that later.)
Where to start... Where to start... Okay, here:
Deborah / alphaduck
To Be In Darkness No More,
The Bright White Screen God
better a bright white screen god
than blue screen of death
You see, there was this nice series of couplets going on, mostly by folks previously unseen in these parts. People were gingerly poking (mostly, I think, with knitting needles and crochet hooks) at the idea that we computer users constantly grapple with two very different worlds at the same time -- the "real" and the "cyber". They're always side-by-side, vying for our attention. Yup, that's definitely how things work. "Great observation," I thought.
Then along came Deborah, who blew that notion out of the water. I must admit, birdhead pretty much had to reach through the phone and grab the back of my head and force me to look in the right direction. (Now I see what that's like, b1!) Okay, birdhead, I think I get it now. Deborah noted that in a darkened room, the computer is all there is. It's got our full attention. We worship its room-filling white glow. Perhaps we'd even be lost in the darkness without it. I'm not nearly as spiritual as birdhead, but I can certainly appreciate why he was so taken with this metaphor.
And then a nice twist by alphaduck: When you're completely cradled in cyberland's soothing embrace, there's nothing worse than seeing your entire world suddenly go blue. Without warning, you're slammed back into the real world, and you really don't want to be there. Not like that, anyway. The fact that it's called the Blue Screen of Death just makes it all the more interesting.
Nicely done by the Deborah/duck duo. And speaking of ducks:
alphaduck
present web identity
smoke mirrors & lies
This is an interesting little couplet from an interesting little ducklet. This is one of a long series of peek-a-boo posts. She's always giving little clues to her identity, yet protecting her offline self at the same time (as well she should these days). I often wonder about people who play identity games on the web. (Here's who I am. No, wait. I'm lying. Or am I? Just kidding. No, I'm not... And on and on and on, ad nauseum.) What's the deal? Are they lying when they recast their previous truths as lies? Or are they honestly telling the truth about lying in the first place? (Norman, coordinate...)
But no matter. If you ask me (or even if you don't), I think that a web persona (or even a webbed persona) is just as real as any everyday Joe walking down the street. What we truly are -- at least in part -- is made up of the perceptions of the people we interact with. I think that holds online or off.
So, even though this is pretty standard stuff for alphaduck, it's still profound in the general sense. Whether or not the urban legend is true -- this duck's quacks certainly do echo. And, on the topic of echoes...
katrina grace
you in the ether, me here
this is where we stand
This one has echoes of some of that existential stuff I was just spouting above. As we communicate on the net, we get the sense that everyone else is just a bit ethereal. Yes, we know deep inside that we're talking to some sort of real flesh-and-blood being, somehow, somewhere. But in our limited reality view, they're just a bunch of words on a screen, aren't they? Cool, sometimes scary stuff.
But what's really cool is the double meaning here: "this is where we stand" Does katrina mean this in the physical shopping mall directory sense ("you are here")? Or in the figurative Walter Cronkite sense ("that's the way it is")? To a punster like me, the answer is obvious: "both". Welcome to Choka, and to Choka Fame, katrina.
Which brings us to...
Mock Turtle
Day time, night time, the right time
for me to choka
Sorta wrappy, but if I tilt my head and squint just right, it kinda looks like two separate lines. But that's not the point (this time). After all, if you get a great gift, it's easy to ignore the fact that it's messily wrapped.
This couplet is just so lyrical and so simple. It walks in, says what it wants to say, and lets me get back to reading my comic book. Plus, it's always good to remind us that Choka-ing is quick, fun, easy, and accessible from just about any old IHOP these days. In other words, c'mon in, the water's fine!
MT is definitely a valued Choka veteran now. And now, a collaboration by some other valued veterans:
Frank Zappai / alphaduck / suttonhoo
never too many Pop-Tarts
poor man's Power Bar
fluorescent pink post-it pads:
poor man's blackberry
I'll take poor; push paper, pens
with my soul intact
Here, Frank Zappai wows the Choka faithful with yet another example of what he does best. He grabs someone else's basic workable design (a previous couplet on internet pop-ups), takes it back to the drawing board for a few minutes, and slaps on some tailfins, baby moons, and a hood scoop. Moments later he puts his new concept car on display. Sure, it may look a little strange and run a little loud, but it sure is fast and powerful.
Then along comes (who else?) alphaduck. She knows a good design when she sees it. So she wisely stays with the same theme, adds eye-catching colors and modern technology, and parks her creation right next to its predecessor on the convention center floor.
That's all well and good -- until suttonhoo casts her practical eye on these flights of fancy. Ms. Hoo realizes that concept cars just won't make it in the real world. So she removes the James Bondian gadgets, scales back some of the audacious styling, and tones down the colors just a bit. The result, far from pedestrian, is still something that won't have time to collect dust on the showroom floor. Plenty of people will line up to buy this one.
Okay, all the Car and Driver nonsense aside, birdhead and I thought this was a particularly nice series of couplets. I was hoping it would go on a little longer, because it seemed rich with possibilities. (But of course, it would have quickly devolved into odiferous lower extremities and/or inappropriate nasal contents. So, perhaps it's good that it ended where it did.)
Also... awesome alliteration! Additional accolades all around.
A bunch of good stuff, but of course, good coupletizing just can't hold a candle to shameless cross-promotion and old-fashioned bribery...
Aija and friends (from sockpr0n.blogspot.com)
Aija (a.k.a. quikeye?) took a quick break from sock-making, and instead constructed a huge sign that said, "YO! CHOKA THIS WAY!" (Well, kinda... Actually, she held a contest. To sum it up, "add a Choka couplet to qualify to win some nifty sock yarn!" Though she said it better here.)
Suddenly, our close-knit group was joined by a bunch of fine folks spinning many multi-colored yarns. There were quite a few interesting threads, along with some couplets that had me in stitches. Sure, some of the posts were just sew-sew, but I still became entangled in the sheer quantity. It would have been pretty easy for the whole contest to come unraveled, but darn it, I looked for holes and just couldn't find any. You really socked it to us! Now I can dye happy.
As we all know, the Choka is, above all, about volume. And thanks to the contest, Week 12 had a lot more volume than we've seen for some time. We were proud to host the 2006 Chokatown Knitters Convention. Welcome to the Wall of Fame. Come back and visit any time.
(Who won the contest? Check out the results.)
