!!Absolute-Wood Patriotic Vaping Contest!!

[renderwerks]

ohhhh I want to hear the story. pweeeeeeze

OK- a warning to others, it's kinda graphic - body parts and such...

A couple stories stick out for me - my Dad was a gunner on the USS Saint Louis (nicknamed the Lucky Lou after Pearl Harbor). His guns were the Quad 40's, you may have seen them in a number of Naval movies. They are an anti-aircraft gun and were recognizable by the four barrels that would fire both left, then both right, alternately. My Dads buddy was a gunner on the opposite side of the ship on another gun - I'm not sure of the type any more. They had talked about wanting to trade guns for the day sometime, just to experience the difference. They talked to the person in charge of those things, and got the OK to trade for the day. They had a kamikaze attack that day, and one of the Japanese Zeros impacted my Dads gun and destroyed it and his buddy that he had changed guns for the day. Strange and sad coincidence.

The scary or creepy one:

After a rather bad attack, my Dad had lost another close friend during the attack. Dad said that the next day, several sailors had formed a human chain from a below deck sleeping area to above deck as they were passing water soaked mattresses out after having removed the deceased sailors whom were in there when the bomb exploded and killed several sailors. My Dad was one of the first two of the chain, in the sleeping area. He said there were piles of mattresses all over, and about a foot of sloshing seawater. The lights were flickering off and on, and my Dad and the other sailor in the sleep area were a bit freaked out. They said they would pick up a mattress off a pile, and there would be a head, or arm or other body part sometimes between the mattresses. As my Dad and the other sailor picked up a mattress and turned towards the hatch to hand it to another couple sailors just outside the hatch - both my Dad and the sailor helping him saw a semi-transparent aberration of my Dad's buddy he had lost the day prior floating in the hatch way. It was from the waist up only (how his body was found) and just shaking it's head as if to say "No, no, no". It disappeared, and they nearly ran over the two sailors on the other side of the hatch to get out. Stranger was that the other two sailors could be seen through the aberration, yet they did not see it.

Sleep well everyone! jk...

Rick

 

[charmed412]

Creepy Story!!!!

Patriotism means a lot to me. It always has. I have been an avid student of this country's story since I was a small child. I love our flag so much that my room is decorated in a patriotic theme so finding things for the picture was very easy. The hard part was picking the things to include in the picture. I collect flags and Naval uniforms.

I was an Air Force Brat. My father did 3 tours in Vietnam as a door gunner. He doesn't talk about it much.
My great uncle Roy, I never had the pleasure of meeting but I have heard lots of stories and I really think he and I would have gotten along great. He was in the Navy during WWII, last stationed on the USS Shangri La. I have recently inherited his uniforms (left side of the picture), his dog tags, some uniform buttons, and his paperwork, including letters that he wrote home. I have spent many hours reading his letters and things.
But here is my photo. I meant to put in my "My hero" Air Force snowglobe with my daddy's picture but I forgot and I don't feel like taking another picture right now. Sorry for the bad photo quality. It's from my phone. My daughter broke yet ANOTHER camera

 

[morri]

very scarey and cool story! THank you for sharing.

 

[renderwerks]

Creepy Story!!!!

Patriotism means a lot to me. It always has. I have been an avid student of this country's story since I was a small child. I love our flag so much that my room is decorated in a patriotic theme so finding things for the picture was very easy. The hard part was picking the things to include in the picture. I collect flags and Naval uniforms.

I was an Air Force Brat. My father did 3 tours in Vietnam as a door gunner. He doesn't talk about it much.
My great uncle Roy, I never had the pleasure of meeting but I have heard lots of stories and I really think he and I would have gotten along great. He was in the Navy during WWII, last stationed on the USS Shangri La. I have recently inherited his uniforms (left side of the picture), his dog tags, some uniform buttons, and his paperwork, including letters that he wrote home. I have spent many hours reading his letters and things.
But here is my photo. I meant to put in my "My hero" Air Force snowglobe with my daddy's picture but I forgot and I don't feel like taking another picture right now. Sorry for the bad photo quality. It's from my phone. My daughter broke yet ANOTHER camera

Very nice entry Charmed - the pic tells a story (along with the verbiage).

Camera/photo quality is not an issue; not a lot of people have $1000 camera bodies and even more expensive lenses - but it really does look OK - didn't look like a phone photo at all. I appreciate the effort you put into it.

 

[renderwerks]

Things are looking good everyone - we're at 19 entries, so I'm just going to call it 20 for the record...

Still plenty of hours to get an entry in - you might just win!

I'll close the thread sometime tomorrow, the 15th, after Midnight, Cali time.

I'll make a new voting thread with all the entries in it - I was going to pick 10, but just can't pick only 10! I think it's better if the community gets to choose from all the great entries we have.

Good job everyone - Good vaping - Good Patriots one and all!

 

[spacekitty]

Things are looking good everyone - we're at 19 entries, so I'm just going to call it 20 for the record...

Still plenty of hours to get an entry in - you might just win!

I'll close the thread sometime tomorrow, the 15th, after Midnight, Cali time.

I'll make a new voting thread with all the entries in it - I was going to pick 10, but just can't pick only 10! I think it's better if the community gets to choose from all the great entries we have.

Good job everyone - Good vaping - Good Patriots one and all!

I'm not really sure, but I think there is a limit of 10 for a Poll, because I know of one that had to be split into 2 parts... which meant people actually got to vote twice...

And you kept saying how it didn't matter if the photo was good quality or not... but people aren't going to be judging them by your criteria...

Personally, I would rather take my chances with the Random Number Generator!!


But either way, I would like to submit this as my final entry: (Please ignore this!!)

Thanks... and Good luck everyone!!

 

[renderwerks]

I'm not really sure, but I think there is a limit of 10 for a Poll, because I know of one that had to be split into 2 parts... which meant people actually got to vote twice...

And, I'm not allowed to make the poll where they want all the polls?!? They've disabled the poll option most everywhere; I've asked, and they said I have to code it myself as I'm not allowed to mention my business where they want the polls placed. This is a huge place, and they do a really good job of policing it, but sometimes I feel there should be circus music playing in the background. I will make a custom BB coded pole to vote in. I made one a while back asking about battery use.

And you kept saying how it didn't matter if the photo was good quality or not... but people aren't going to be judging them by your criteria...

Personally, I would rather take my chances with the Random Number Generator!!

Yea, I hear you there, I'm going to put some LARGE text at the top of the pole explaining what to judge on. Hopefully, folks will keep that in mind.

But either way, I would like to submit this as my final entry:

Thanks... and Good luck everyone!!

Wow, that is one HUGE PV! A GroVari?

Someone climb the arm to push the button, then a brave one amongst us needs to crawl to the mouthpiece...

 

[spacekitty]

Purr-sonally, it seems like a lot of trouble to go through... and one of the reasons I dislike Contests that are judged by the # of "Likes" an entry/person gets (especially on Facebook!) because they just end up being nothing more than a popularity contest...

Wouldn't it be much easier to just put all of the names into a 'Hat' and draw the winners that way??

http://www.harmonyhollow.net/hat.shtml



I'd like to hear what the other members think of all this...

 

[NancyR]

I'd like to hear what the other members think of all this...

I don't want it to be by number of likes either, simply because then pictures like yours that have been photoshopped or people with tons of friends are the only ones gonna win, people like the person that had the flag (think it was their fathers) don't stand a chance and to me those pics are what this was about, not being able to use photoshop

 

[charmed412]

Things are looking good everyone - we're at 19 entries, so I'm just going to call it 20 for the record...

Still plenty of hours to get an entry in - you might just win!

I'll close the thread sometime tomorrow, the 15th, after Midnight, Cali time.

I'll make a new voting thread with all the entries in it - I was going to pick 10, but just can't pick only 10! I think it's better if the community gets to choose from all the great entries we have.

Good job everyone - Good vaping - Good Patriots one and all!

Not a fan of likes either but only because those with tons of friends, as PP said, ask them to vote and it becomes less about the intention of the contest as more about who has more friends.

You know what the intention and the spirit of the contest best. Why don't you just pick a winner?

I understand the random drawing thing too but some of us worked really hard on our pictures and the words that went with them and while it was fun, random drawing kind of makes me feel like I could have just taken a picture of my flag skinned evic and left it at that. Ya know? I don't know.. Your contest, your choice. *goes back into hiding*

 

[spacekitty]

I don't want it to be by number of likes either, simply because then pictures like yours that have been photoshopped or people with tons of friends are the only ones gonna win, people like the person that had the flag (think it was their fathers) don't stand a chance and to me those pics are what this was about, not being able to use photoshop

Not a fan of likes either but only because those with tons of friends, as PP said, ask them to vote and it becomes less about the intention of the contest as more about who has more friends.

You know what the intention and the spirit of the contest best. Why don't you just pick a winner?

I understand the random drawing thing too but some of us worked really hard on our pictures and the words that went with them and while it was fun, random drawing kind of makes me feel like I could have just taken a picture of my flag skinned evic and left it at that. Ya know? I don't know.. Your contest, your choice. *goes back into hiding*

I can totally understand BOTH of your points, too... and that last pic I entered was more out of protest than anything!!
If you have been following the progression of this contest, I only asked if I could Photoshop mine because the original had come out so blurry... and even offered to withdraw it when other people started 'shopping theirs, too.

My offer still stands, but if he DQ'd all of the 'shopped ones now, we wouldn't have a contest...

 

[NancyR]

I can totally understand BOTH of your points, too... and that last pic I entered was more out of protest than anything!!
If you have been following the progression of this contest, I only asked if I could Photoshop mine because the original had come out so blurry... and even offered to withdraw it when other people started 'shopping theirs, too.

My offer still stands, but if he DQ'd all of the 'shopped ones now, we wouldn't have a contest...

I am not saying they should be DQ'ed, what I am saying tho is if it is by likes MOST people will like the photoshopped ones over the others, because they won't be looking at it like Renderwerks will

 

[ARMYVAPR]

wow I did not see this earlier... If I had i would have posted a pic of me Vaping beside my Army aquipment..... and yes been deployed serving our nation with my PV always in a pocket of my gear.

 

[Lauralie]

I am not saying they should be DQ'ed, what I am saying tho is if it is by likes MOST people will like the photoshopped ones over the others, because they won't be looking at it like Renderwerks will

Can't speak for others but I would, I LOVE the ones that were put together by hand, almost as though I can see history in some of them!

 

[Lauralie]

Yea, I hear you there, I'm going to put some LARGE text at the top of the pole explaining what to judge on. Hopefully, folks will keep that in mind.

Just my opinion but no matter how LARGE you put that it won't work. IMO it is YOUR contest and you should pick the one YOU like, you have that right and we are all adults here. I am going to go remove mine now because there are too many well put together entries that are awesome. To me random generator takes away from the hard work and thought put into this contest and the meaning of it.

 

[spacekitty]

wow I did not see this earlier... If I had i would have posted a pic of me Vaping beside my Army aquipment..... and yes been deployed serving our nation with my PV always in a pocket of my gear.

I would go ahead and enter it, since he was one shy of the 20 that he wanted, and technically the contest doesn't end until today...

 

[spacekitty]

Just my opinion but no matter how LARGE you put that it won't work. IMO it is YOUR contest and you should pick the one YOU like, you have that right and we are all adults here. I am going to go remove mine now because there are too many well put together entries that are awesome. To me random generator takes away from the hard work and thought put into this contest and the meaning of it.

Please don't remove yours ... at least not until we see what Renderwerks has to say...
(the same goes for me and my entry(s))

 

[charmed412]

Just my opinion but no matter how LARGE you put that it won't work. IMO it is YOUR contest and you should pick the one YOU like, you have that right and we are all adults here. I am going to go remove mine now because there are too many well put together entries that are awesome. To me random generator takes away from the hard work and thought put into this contest and the meaning of it.

Please don't remove yours.

 

[renderwerks]

Well, yes, I see the point. We are visual creatures, and I think the voting would lean towards what looks "prettiest", even with BIG INSTRUCTIONS on how to vote. Also, I see it's too easy to "rig" the votes based on how many people a person can talk into voting for them.

I wanted the community to pick the winners, but I think the earlier points made make sense. And because people have worked hard on these entries, I don't think a random drawing would be fair to the entrants. So, I will concede the poll idea, and will personally pick the winners based on the original criteria for the contest.

As some of you may know, I used to be a professional photographer (well, I still am - still get paid for taking pics). Many of you have seen my photography on altsmoke, electronicstix, truesmoker, etc... I can easily disregard technical aspects of photography, and pick the winners on the criteria I originally specified.

I'll close the contest at the earliest tonight at Midnight, my time here in California. I'll reopen this same thread to announce the winners sometime tomorrow.

Thoughts on ending the contest this way?

Thanks my friends,

Rick

 

[l_strider_l]

Sounds objective to me, I'll try to get an entry in before then

love this thread