Southwestern States
November Challenge: Peanut Gallery
One force that shaped much of my comedic sensibilities, and of course, the sensibilities of anyone else absorbed by the show, is Mystery Science Theater 3000. A show about a man in space, watching movies and cracking jokes with the help of his robot friends, MST3K ran for over 10 years, amassing a fan base of insane devotees. For example, did you know there is not one but two places on the internet where people are streaming, 24/7, uninterrupted broadcasts of every episode of the series?
You are now aware.
MST3K helped to codify what a lot of people already did with their friends when suffering through a terrible movie. We’ve all been there at some point: it’s late, but you don’t want to go to bed. A local station is playing some movie you’ve never heard of and it is terrible. But you can’t look away. It’s awfulness compels you to watch. And crack jokes. Or “riff,” which is what fans call it.
Not to be confused with “yiff,” by the way. You are now aware of that, too.
Eventually, the show ended and the cast went their separate ways, mostly to two different projects: Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic. Both groups still crack jokes over terrible movies, with Rifftrax focusing more on releasing files via the internet and Cinemeatic Titanic focusing on performing live shows.
So, for this month’s challenge, I will create a riffed video and upload it to the internet. The video will need to be of a standard “short” length, between 10 and 15 minutes. The video must be uploaded before the end of the month.
November Charities:
Good Charity: Heifer International. A repeat charity. Heifer tasks itself with providing livestock to impoverished communities all across the world to give them the means to sustainably raise themselves out of poverty.
Bad Charity: Herman Cain for President. I have discovered secret video of Herman Cain’s reaction here:
This gif is over 2MB, but god-damn is it worth every bit.
- Rob.
The deal with October.
It’s my birthday this month, so, like, I’m taking the month off and stuff.
Actually, it has more to do with a few other factors.
1) Last month’s challenge was supposed to be a lot better, but my plans fell through. I had originally intended to take part in the East Coast Grill’s Hell Night, but after an hour of attempting to get through to their phones on the day reservations began, they had completely filled up all slots available for all 4 nights. Suffice to say, I trudged onward with the challenge anyway because I couldn’t think of anything else to do for the month. So, much like you, I’m unhappy with the quality of last month’s challenge, too. This leads to an additional problem:
2) I’m running out of steam. I’ve actually done a lot of the challenges I had initially planned when I conceived the website. But the problem is that, when I began, I thought I would think of plenty more fun things to try as the year progressed. That hasn’t really come to pass. I have a few more ideas planned, but we’ll get to the future of Projbet in a minute.
3) It is hard to remain motivated. I actually have trouble continuing long projects as it is, but in this case it has become really hard to keep pushing forward. I’m mainly doing this website for myself, even if I write as if I have an actual audience. So when I’m unhappy or uninterested, it can be hard putting in the grunt work of updating the website or starting a new challenge.
Now, on to the future of the site:
I plan on continuing the site until at least February of next year, making it to the 1 year anniversary. At this rate, that means at least 4 more challenges. I do have plans for these months, but it’ll require doing something that I didn’t think I would initially do: repeat challenges. I got the most amount of feedback from friends and family on three challenges: Teafilter, The My Mixtape Mixtape, and the music videos for the mixtape. Those are ones I definitely want to continue on in some capacity, as I had the most fun working on those projects anyway. The only difficulty that continuing these challenges will present is that, if I’m going to revisit previous months, I absolutely want to step my game up. This means buying better equipment, including better microphones for the mixtape and better video recording equipment for Teafilter episode 2 and the additional music videos. This will take time, to research the kind of equipment that will be needed for the projects, and money, to, you know, actually procure the equipment. I’ll use the remainder of this month to do just that.
I haven’t decided on the order I’ll tackle the repeat challenges, but I have decided that I will complete one more, entirely unique challenge for the month of November. I’ll announce it in the not too distant future.
- Rob.
September Wrap-Up.
$50 has been donated to Robin Hood.
- Rob.
Challenge 2: Rick’s Roadhouse’s Wings from Hell
So the first challenge was a little disappointing, but thankfully I found another restaurant offering up a challenge replete with the traditional award: a place on their wall of fame. I drove to Rick’s Roadhouse in Providence to make their spicy wing challenge a quick lunch.
The wings were spicy, no doubt, but I easily handled them. (Note the perfectly preserved side of ranch dressing, untouched as if to mock God Himself.) I regularly cook spicier food for myself, so I was able to breeze through the plate within a few minutes. My waiter commented that I was the happiest person he’d ever seen eat the wings and I even got glances from the kitchen staff, who had a weird mix of enjoyment and amazement on their collective faces. After completing the wings, I had my photo taken and, hopefully, it currently resides on Rick’s Wall of Flame. The rest of my meal was also great, so I’ll definitely be back to make sure.
- Rob.
Challenge 1: Sol Toro’s Cinco Chiles Burrito
For the first challenge, I decided to go to a place that had been on my list for years now. I had first seen Sol Toro on an episode of Modern Marvels that focused on spicy foods. What caught my attention was that they offered a burrito, allegedly so spicy, they made you sign a waiver before consuming it. Suffice to say, my interest was piqued.
So a few years and two hours later, I found myself at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, ready to eat.
The burrito itself is made from 5 different kinds of hot peppers, including: poblanos, jalepenos, serranos, chipotles, and habaneros. I regularly eat habaneros, the hottest of the peppers listed, so after seeing the ingredients, I knew this wasn’t going too hard of a challenge. After a few minutes, I was done and the waitress cleared my plate.
But the waiver never came.
Apparently they don’t do the waiver anymore. Enough people have probably done the challenge, and the restaurant is old enough now, that the gimmick isn’t needed anymore. It’s still an accomplishment to finish it, as most people do struggle to eat it, but there is no public spectacle typically associated with winning a challenge. So, while I did complete the challenge, it didn’t feel like the grand win I had hoped for.
Thankfully, I had one more challenge to do to make it up.
- Rob.
September Challenge: Some Like It Hot
Since the first time I had a Buffalo Chicken sandwich, I’ve had a love of spicy food. Since that fateful day in a New York city sports bar, my tastes have expanded (and, I guess snobbishly, become more refined). Now I grow my own habaneros and eat them raw; I put Dave’s Insanity Sauce on my breakfast; I scoff at anything on a menu that calls itself spicy; Suffice to say, I am unbearable. But mostly, it’s just been my own food. The only “spicy food challenge” I’ve tried I lost because I couldn’t finish the portion given to me. So, for the month of September, I’d like to rectify that.
This month, I must complete two spicy food challenges to be announced at a later date. Adequate proof will be posted here as usual.
September Charities:
Good Charity: Robin Hood. Is an organization working to end poverty in New York City.
Bad Charity: Rick Perry for President. I’m not telling you who to vote for, but if this is your candidate go fuck yourself.
- Rob.
August Wrap-up.
Details for the September challenge will be added soon.
- Rob
August Challenge: Better Late Than Never?
Sometimes, things get away from you.
Sometimes, life catches up to you.
Neither of those things happened.
Anyway, I’ve been working on a challenge for this month, but have not updated the website about it. I’ve also been planning next month’s challenge, which requires reservations and the such. So next month will be great. It might even make up for this month. Maybe.
Nah.
This month is a bit of a late Spring cleaning kind of month. By the end of the month, I will have updated the Projbet website to run on slightly more advance software (who knew that open-source tumbler software that hasn’t been updated in years would have its own share of weird annoyances?). Secondly, I will also have started up another general-interest lifestyle blog and have updated it no less than 5 times with quality content.
So, to recap, before the end of the month:
1) Make plans for next month’s challenge.
2) Update the Projbet website.
3) Start new website and fill it with 5 quality posts.
To make up for this month’s boring challenge, I’m picking two hot-button charities as motivation.
August Charities:
Good Charity: Planned Parenthood is an organization tasked with providing health services to men, women, and families in need.
Bad Charity: The Republican National Committee is an organization that has tasked itself with destroying Planned Parenthood. Hey, have you guys gotten the clue that my politics are kind of left-leaning?
- Rob
The Southern Poverty Law Center received a donation of $50.00 (even if I was a little late doing it).