February Den Challenge

[Guest Lily Padfoot]

Are You Ready for the Olympics?

Good news Gryffindors: You're travelling with your dens to the Olympics!

I'll get to your pre-travel task in a moment, but first here is some info on the upcoming Olympics.

Copied from wiki as I'm too lazy to write an intro. >>

The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, will be held on February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the resort town of Whistler, British Columbia and in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games are being organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC). The 2010 Winter Olympics will be the third Olympics hosted by Canada, and the first by the province of British Columbia. Previously, Canada was home to the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.

Following Olympic tradition, then Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The flag was raised on February 28, 2006, in a special ceremony, and will be on display at Vancouver City Hall until the Olympic opening ceremony.

Some venues, including the Richmond Olympic Oval, are at sea level, a rarity for the Winter Games. The 2010 Games will also be the first—Winter or Summer—to have an Opening Ceremony held indoors. Vancouver, which will be the most populous city ever to hold the Winter Games, will also be the warmest: in February, when the Games will be held, Vancouver has an average temperature of 4.8 °C (40.6 °F).

Fifteen winter sports events have been announced as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The eight sports categorized as ice sports are: bobsled, luge, skeleton, ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, short track speed skating and curling. The three sports categorized as alpine skiing and snowboarding events are: alpine, freestyle and snowboarding. The four sports categorized as Nordic events are: biathlon, cross country skiing, ski jumping and nordic combined.

The 2010 Winter Olympics logo was unveiled on April 23, 2005, and is named Ilanaaq the Inunnguaq. Ilanaaq is the Inuktitut word for friend. The logo is based on the Inukshuk (stone landmark or cairn) built for the Northwest Territories Pavilion. (Did you get all that? Logo below!)

The mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were introduced on November 27, 2007. Inspired by traditional First Nations creatures, the mascots include:

* Miga — A mythical sea bear, part orca and part kermode bear.

* Quatchi — A sasquatch, who wears boots and earmuffs.

* Sumi — An animal guardian spirit who wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty Thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear.

* Mukmuk — A Vancouver Island marmot.

Miga and Quatchi are mascots for the Olympic Games, while Sumi is the mascot for the Paralympic Games.

On to the challenge!

Part One:

Your dens seemed to have misplaced their packing list. Not only that, but the items you think you were planning to take have wandered all over the Common Room. Never a good thing.

Your task is simple... to understand at least. Actually accomplishing it, well, that could be another story.

Search the Common Room (everywhere! trust me.) for your den's lost items. Since you will likely be surrounded by muggles during your trip, all the items (for the most part at least) are common to muggles so that you might have a chance of fitting in. Hopefully these items are winter-appropriate as well, but with witches and wizards, who knows?

As a den, find these many, many items to re-create your packing list. It's a good thing you have been allowed to charm your travel bag to have more space. You'll need it!

To make things easier, when sending in this part please use a numbered list:

1. item

2. another item

3. and another item

... etc.

To be sure you are actually searching and not just making up items that could be right, any incorrect items on the list will lose you 10 other items! So search carefully!

Points for this part will be determined by how many items are found (minus any penalties).

Part Two:

Tired of searching yet? Then perhaps you can put your mind to work a little here and give your scavenger skills a break.

Oh no! Avalanche! Run!

...too slow...

Your entire den has been trapped in a small, secluded, tree-filled section of the large mountain range. There is snow everywhere! Far too thick to simply walk through. And even worse, with all that empty area around it could take weeks for a rescue crew to find you.

As a den, brainstorm 5 things (no more, no less) your den members would have hidden somewhere in their jackets (or other clothing) that would help you survive this event. But remember, no magic of any kind!

Tell me what the 5 items are, why den members would possibly have those 5 items on them, and how just those 5 items will save you. You can describe these things in essay form, story form, point by point form... or any other way as long as it's written. This description should be at least 500 words long - about 100 per item. There is no maximum word limit, so have fun with this and go all out.

Points for this part will be determined by SPD vote based on imagination and creativity. We don't really do boring or practical here. Amuse us!

Rules:

-Be sure to follow all guidelines mentioned above.

-This should be a den effort. Meaning more than 1 person doing all the work.

-Only members of your own den may help with completing the challenge. No outside help.

-Your den's challenge entry should be sent only by the den prefect or JP. Please be sure to include a list of den members that participated in the challenge. The email should be sent to spd@gryff.net with the subject "February Den Challenge - Den Name".

Rubies:

The combined scores from part one and part two will determine the winner. I can't say how many points are possible or it may give away the number of items you need to find, but maximum points for each part are equal.

1st place - 25 rubies for den members that participate.

2nd place - 15 rubies for den members that participate.

3rd place - 10 rubies for den members that participate.

The deadline for this challenge is February 28th at 11:59 pm HOL time. Any questions you have about this challenge may be PMed to me.

[Guest Lily Padfoot]

A reminder that there are just 3 days left! Has your den started yet?

[Guest Lily Padfoot]

In 1st Place and earning 25 rubies for each participant...

Mischievous Warrior Monks - 99/100 points

Part 1 - 49 Points

49 items found!

Part 2 - 50 points

1. Lighter (Mikhail) - "We could try to melt away some of the snow or we could at least keep warm with it." - 10 points

2. Papers (Adam) - "They would come in handy with burning things." - 10 points

3. Poster of Alan Rickman as Snape (Molly) - "There really wasn't any use for this poster other than to occupy Molly but if worst came to worst that 'thing' would be getting burned." - 10 points... even if disturbing.

4. Muggle Sweets (Joel) - "At least this would stop them from dying faster." - 10 points

5. Spork (Jinxy) - "This spork could be used to start digging a hole out. It had worked in the Shawshank Redemption hadn't it? And that had been a wall. This should be easy compared to that!" - 10 points

Participants: Molly Grabau, Violet Rubert, Mikhail Suracuse, Jinxy Jo

In 2nd Place and earning 15 rubies for each participant...

Sassy Samurai - 90/100 points!

Part 1 - 50 points

50 items found!

Part 2 - 40 points

1. Lighter (Zenix) - "Time to melt some snow!" - 10 points

2. Snake Skin Boots (Eno) - "They are really warm inside and good looking

outside." - 10 points

3. Glow in the Dark Finger Nail Polish (Ardeliah) - "It would be helpful in making a help me sign that could be seen at night." - 10 points

4. Notebook (Amanda) - 5 points. So useful, yet so not explained for this situation.

5. Lint (Everyone) - 5 points. Clever, but not much use.

Participants: Zen McGregor, Zenix James, Ardeliah Longbottom, Eno Kule, Amanda P. X. Sim

In 3rd Place and earning 10 rubies for each participant...

Naughty Ninjas - 85/100 points

Part 1 - 50 points

50 items found!

Part 2 - 35 points

1. iPod - 5 points. More time than not you live in a castle where electronics don't work, yet you still have an ipod?

2. Laptop with wireless internet - 5 points. See above reasoning.

3. Matches - "Seeing we are somewhere cold and dark a tiny match can be a huge light." - 10 points

4. The 101 Ways To Survive Being Caught In An Avalanche Book - "Maybe, it’s the inner girl scout inside me that always needs to be prepared" - 10 points.

5. Picnic Basket - 5 points. Simply because it's a little big to just have on you.

Participants: Bere Lee, Serenity Thomas, Rowan Dream

Great job everyone! Very amusing!