Last night we were dining

Last night we were dining at Cafe Septieme, Jim's work, and I asked if anyone felt like betting against my completing NaNoWriMo. Sort of like getting sponsors for the jog-o-thon.

Nobody was interested, at first. Then, K said she would bet me a month's worth of taking care of the kitty litter (since monetary bets don't quite make sense when you share a bank account). Rick, not wanting to be left out, wanted to bet against K. He said he would do NaNoWriMo in December if K completed 3 panels in November. (K and Rick are currently working on 20 panel painting series, each panel about 4 feet by 3 feet, and they've got about 5 completed so far.) K accepted the bet, and we decided to replace our kitty litter bet with a bet that said if I finished NaNoWriMo (with some measure of quality), K would do an extra-large, self-indulgent, non-humiliating, 6 foot by 4 foot portrait of moi. Now we were talking.

To complete the circle of bets, I agree that should Rick do 3 panels in November, I'll draft up a fully functional artificial language in December. Yikes!

Jim, our waiter, learns about the bets and wants to join in. We reconfigure the bets so that Jim's November task (writing a 30 page children's story with 30 pages of pictures) will be the one that determines whether or not I have to do the artificial language. His penalty activity for December will be that he has to create a 20 minute soundtrack for the 20 panels that K and Rick are working on, and also write 15 minute theme songs for Rick, K, and myself.

So, the final deal came to look like this:

I'll do NaNoWriMo in November, and if I complete it, K will have to do a self-indulgent portrait of me.

K will do 3 panels in November, and if she completes them Rick will have to do NaNoWriMo in December.

Rick will do 3 paintings in November as well, and if he completes them Jim will have to do the 20-minute soundtrack and 3 15 minute theme songs for each of us.

Jim will do the children's story (30 pages of text, 30 pages of pictures), and if he completes it I'll have to create an artificial language.

Not completing your penalty activity in December is not an option.

Now it's the next day and I realize that starting this Thursday, I'm going to have quite a bit of work on my hands until the end of the year. New Years should be fun though, since we'll have earned it if all goes right.

Comments

[leanne]

Jim's soundtrack doesn't seem like a very fair punishment, compared to the others. I imagine he could just make some frightening-to-kitties noises for a long time on tape.

[Erik Benson]

Oh, but he has to include lyrics, so that makes it worth it for me. Also, there's certainly an unspoken quality element to these, if I get 15 minutes of background noise for my theme song, I'm going to be PISSED!

We did consider asking him to make a slideshow to go along with the soundtracks too--that would've been fun, to see all of our pictures projected on our wall as Jim narrated our lives. It seemed a little too fun for the penalty round though. If you want to get involved, we can make that your November task.

[leanne]

eek, then i would HAVE to be creative for a whole month (and learn how to use a camera)! i think i am too busy promoting other struggling artists (like the musicians of earshot) along with preparing myself to meet the boyfriend's parents (eek double eek) to be in the betting this month.