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The hunt ended Saturday night. I survived! I do have some thoughts on GISH that might/might not spur a few of you on to do the thing.
First, the inevitable question of what is GISH? It's part be the weird you want to see in the world, part random acts of kindness, part make good art, part personal challenge. How this breaks down for you depends ON YOU. I won't lie, though; it is fun and creative, yes, but also stressful and overwhelming, too.
I participated in the ultimate GISHWHES last year and the inaugural GISH this year. This year, I knew what to expect, so had a much easier time judging my own capabilities and time constraints. That said, I did overdo it this year and did more than I probably should have done. Whoops. :)
Am I proud of what I did this year? Heck yeah! Did I exceed my expectations and do more than last year? Heck yeah! Will I repeat this crazysauce experience and do it next year? *crickets*
GISH is 8 frenetic days and 7 sleepless nights. You are pushed out of your comfort zone more than once. Hell, you PAY to be pushed out of your comfort zone (there's a nominal fee of $21.08USD to take part). It's part of the creative wacky weirdness to change not just your life, but the lives of others, too. GISH has a pretty big inclusive component and pretty strict zero tolerance policy for harassment and bullies. They don't have Rules and Regulations, but Commandments. And while they might be amusingly written, the intent behind them is pretty damned clear: do the thing as written or risk disqualification.
So, you have 8 days to collaborate with your team or whomever else you can rope into your shenanigans. Or not. A lot of the items can be done alone. You do what you can and don't worry about how much someone else on your team is doing. You can play for fun or play to win. Top prize is a trip with Misha Collins (aka Castiel, aka The Head Sock Monkey) somewhere in the world. This year, the trip is to New Zealand, hence the fee. Can't afford it? There are people who donate the entrance so that more people can play. It's called a GISHScholarship, and I think that's pretty damned nifty.
Now that you have some background on GISH and maybe a few reasons WHY you might want to play, I need to reason out why I am giving serious thought to giving GISH a pass next year.
I pushed myself this year. Really pushed myself. Normally, that's not a bad thing, but I started to have a depressive downswing in the middle of GISH because I was stressed out and starting to feel overwhelmed. So yeah, I overdid it.
About halfway through the hunt, I started passing out on the couch in the middle of the day. Not falling asleep for a cat nap, actual passing out from exhaustion. Creativity is tiring, yo. It's one thing to participate in NaNoWriMo, and another to get GISHed. The former is a month-long race to the 50 000 words, where you stay in your lane. The latter is about a week of sprinting in different directions at the same time. Whilst the creativity is amazing in both cases, one is a hell of a lot more draining because you are giving more of yourself in a lot less time.
I also found my team to be a lot less...supportive this time around. I'm not blaming anyone for fucking up my GISHy experience because it was awesome, but the other members seemed a little distant compared to last year. It might just be a combination of their circumstances and my perceptions of it, so take that with as much salt as you need.
I know it sounds like I'm complaining a bit here, but I'm really not. These are observations of my own experiences. The creativity and the process and the putting yourself out there is both terrifying and exhilarating and silly, and the things that you do and make are weird and wonderful. GISH is not dull, not by any stretch, but I think I've had my fill for a while.
(And for the curious, you can see what I did this year in Part 1 and Part 2.)
First, the inevitable question of what is GISH? It's part be the weird you want to see in the world, part random acts of kindness, part make good art, part personal challenge. How this breaks down for you depends ON YOU. I won't lie, though; it is fun and creative, yes, but also stressful and overwhelming, too.
I participated in the ultimate GISHWHES last year and the inaugural GISH this year. This year, I knew what to expect, so had a much easier time judging my own capabilities and time constraints. That said, I did overdo it this year and did more than I probably should have done. Whoops. :)
Am I proud of what I did this year? Heck yeah! Did I exceed my expectations and do more than last year? Heck yeah! Will I repeat this crazysauce experience and do it next year? *crickets*
GISH is 8 frenetic days and 7 sleepless nights. You are pushed out of your comfort zone more than once. Hell, you PAY to be pushed out of your comfort zone (there's a nominal fee of $21.08USD to take part). It's part of the creative wacky weirdness to change not just your life, but the lives of others, too. GISH has a pretty big inclusive component and pretty strict zero tolerance policy for harassment and bullies. They don't have Rules and Regulations, but Commandments. And while they might be amusingly written, the intent behind them is pretty damned clear: do the thing as written or risk disqualification.
So, you have 8 days to collaborate with your team or whomever else you can rope into your shenanigans. Or not. A lot of the items can be done alone. You do what you can and don't worry about how much someone else on your team is doing. You can play for fun or play to win. Top prize is a trip with Misha Collins (aka Castiel, aka The Head Sock Monkey) somewhere in the world. This year, the trip is to New Zealand, hence the fee. Can't afford it? There are people who donate the entrance so that more people can play. It's called a GISHScholarship, and I think that's pretty damned nifty.
Now that you have some background on GISH and maybe a few reasons WHY you might want to play, I need to reason out why I am giving serious thought to giving GISH a pass next year.
I pushed myself this year. Really pushed myself. Normally, that's not a bad thing, but I started to have a depressive downswing in the middle of GISH because I was stressed out and starting to feel overwhelmed. So yeah, I overdid it.
About halfway through the hunt, I started passing out on the couch in the middle of the day. Not falling asleep for a cat nap, actual passing out from exhaustion. Creativity is tiring, yo. It's one thing to participate in NaNoWriMo, and another to get GISHed. The former is a month-long race to the 50 000 words, where you stay in your lane. The latter is about a week of sprinting in different directions at the same time. Whilst the creativity is amazing in both cases, one is a hell of a lot more draining because you are giving more of yourself in a lot less time.
I also found my team to be a lot less...supportive this time around. I'm not blaming anyone for fucking up my GISHy experience because it was awesome, but the other members seemed a little distant compared to last year. It might just be a combination of their circumstances and my perceptions of it, so take that with as much salt as you need.
I know it sounds like I'm complaining a bit here, but I'm really not. These are observations of my own experiences. The creativity and the process and the putting yourself out there is both terrifying and exhilarating and silly, and the things that you do and make are weird and wonderful. GISH is not dull, not by any stretch, but I think I've had my fill for a while.
(And for the curious, you can see what I did this year in Part 1 and Part 2.)
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