Hey, it’s that time (and only one week late). I asked you to write captions for the photos here. The responses were so poetic/profound that I found it very difficult to choose one. In fact, it was impossible. In the end I had to go this way.
Fu Da Wei, you will receive a free one month subscription to ChinesePod Premium and a t-shirt with stuff on it. Congratulations to you, sir. You will be hearing from Rian very shortly.
This has prompted a new idea and a new competition. Let’s hear from you Photoshop users. Why not put something else together for us? As long as it is ChinesePod related and makes me look good (you’re gonna need real expertise) it is eligible for the competition. The prize will be the same as the last one – a free months’s premium, plus a t-shirt.
Now get to work, you picassos.
Ken Carroll
pretzellogic on 
Andrew Cockerham on 
Dave on 
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Fu Da Man!
Hey Ken,
is the DVD on the street yet?
from today’s lesson 我要，謝謝
Mike in Jubei
Guys, guys … I deeply appreciate the gesture, but it’s not really fair of me to accept — the contest was for “captions”. I just tossed in a Photoshop job on a lark.
FDW,
I found it almost impossible to choose the, er, best one! So, let’s do it this way: If modesty doesn not permit you to accept the first prize, I nominate YOU to choose the winner?
Ken
Photoshop is a costly commercial product. The Gimp is the same kind of program and it’s free. I’m going to assume you don’t really mean it’s restricted to one program but that you’re using that well known program’s name to explain the kind of thing you want us to do. Ken, if I’m cutting you out of some software profits on the side you’d better tip me off and delete this comment before anyone sees it and cheats with the Gimp
Aunty,
No problem. Use whatever you like as long as its fun. Use a pen, or scratch it onto the bathroom walls with your fingernails. Be creative!
Ken
Congratulations Fu Da Wei.
Given the profiles I’ve developed of you all in my head I’m convinced you can come up with some really cool designs for this one. I bet 90% of us would call ourselves upper intermediate Photoshop users (regardless of whether we’ve all purchased the program or not) so now is the time to shine. I’m itching to get in there and do one up myself but I know every time I open Photoshop I get lost in there for days (plus I’ve already comped myself the premium subscription hahaha). I don’t know what Ken’s judging on, but I’m thinking front/back designs for a T-Shirt that would be cool enough to get yourself into an exclusive roller disco. I dont know though, could be wallpaper, beer coaster, framed portrate (Kramer style), tattoo design, bumper sticker, Half Life character skin… I can only imagin! If you need any graphics or anything send me an email at the chinesepod gmail address and I’ll fetch them. Feel free to use any of the ChinesePod photos on my flickr site. Good luck! Looking forward to seeing the first ones roll in. I guess as far as posting them goes, if you know how to do it then go for it, otherwise you can send them to me and I’ll make sure they get seen by the community.
At the risk of sounding like sour grapes but wasn’t that a caption competition we all entered (46 entries! – lots of verbal inventiveness) -
“Write your captions with the photo numbers and post them here on the comments section”
THe ‘winning’ ‘entry’ was very clever but should be re-entered in next week’s competition – it wasn’t a caption or linked with any of the photos.
I am usually the one who hates rules but some semblance of order might restore our confidence for future competitions.
Ed
Ed … I agree. And I’m extremely sorry for bulloxing things up. I submit that the best solution is to turn it over to Aric’s weekend show to award the prize; either by adding it to their usual giveaway, or (perhaps) they could figure out a clever way to select a winner from the legitimate captions.
Of course, needless to say … I will be back with a vengeance in this upcoming contest (and hope others will join in).
FDW, you are a good sport, but your entry will still have been a success – you got your very own competition!
This caption competition certainly proves the old adage about one picture beating a thousand words! I am looking forward to seeing the entries for Photoshop competition- it should be a great laugh.
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Switching gears …
If you do have a new contest and do it right, you really should:
1.) Announce it in a new thread. (Not everyone will look here.)
2.) Specific time-frame (probably 2 weeks minimum initially, shorten it later if the idea catches on).
3.) Give it a specific theme, instead of leaving it nebulous. Not too restrictive. Don’t wanna impede those creative juices. Something along the lines of: “Design a new CPOD ad.”, “Why it’s handy to know Chinese.”, “Great Moments in History”, “CPOD at the Movies”, “If I ran CPOD … “, “Aric in 20 Years”, “Ken’s Worst Nightmare”, “What you don’t know about CPOD behind the scenes.”, “What’s Jenny really thinking?”, etc.
4.) Either allow images on the page or EXPLAIN to people how to post links to offsite images (since mere users can’t display images directly).
5.) Tell people without webspace about free image-hosting services (like imageshack, Flickr, photobucket, etc.)
6.) Decide on a policy for winners (should they maybe be excluded for the next contest?)
7.) Add a new prize (my humble idea): Winner gets to choose a topic for a CPOD show. (They’ll be asked to submit 5 general ideas and Aric or Ken will choose the sanest. Judges reserve the right to keep asking until something useable is offered.)
8.) Have fun!
OOooppps — I forgot to note: that “add a new prize” suggestion was in lieu of the current prize — not in addition. An either/or thing. (Maybe someone already won a shirt or you’re runing low on’em or whatever).
Here is my first attempt using Paint Shop Pro. It’s Jenny as Elektra.
http://www.bazzanet.com/elektra.jpg
Here are my submissions:
http://www.slapmeister.com/hero1.jpg
http://www.slapmeister.com/hero2.jpg
Nice work there Tinu.
Here’s my first two submissions…
Ken broadcasting Cpod from space:
http://www.pandagator.info/images/moon.jpg
Emperor Ken with the Fifth Beauty of Ancient China:
http://www.pandagator.info/images/kenjenny1.jpg
Here is another one, it’s good fun doing these.
http://www.bazzanet.com/machines.jpg
I knew there were some experts out there. FDW, you’ve got some early competition. I think I like pandagator’s best so far, stepping out of the hollywood box a bit. These are all really good! I’ve laughed out loud for each one!
Are we doing captions too?
Pandagator’s moon: “That’s one first tone for man and one third tone for mankind!”
Tinu’s hero2: “You’ve seen him be gentle with the newbies… Butchering tones in the elementaries… DIrected by Quinten “Aric” Tarantino… Picking up where the tone police left off…”
Here’s another one before I go to bed.
John, Ken, Jenny, and Rian’s New Hot Pot:
http://www.pandagator.info/images/hotpot.jpg
The BigBrain has some ‘skills’! Wow. Cpod can now start marketing it’s own posters! I love ‘one man will challenge the tones’ and ‘mean teaching machines’! Cpod, you have to create a Cpod page for these images! I wonder if these DVD jackets will start popping up on Shanghai streetcorners soon.
Don’t you think Ken really suits the terminator image? hehe
I remembered a podcast about this:
http://www.pandagator.info/images/Ken-lee.jpg
*sigh* I know I can do better than these but all I’m using is stupid Digital Image Suite…Paint Shop Pro was so much better.
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