A Runner Up Worth Reading

by Crazy Ivan


We ended our back to school writing contest on Monday and from the feedback I've gotten, I think it's safe to say that we chose the right winner.  Still, there were a lot of really solid submissions and I wanted to share a few of them with you as well.  I might add a few more later in the week, but this one made me laugh out loud so I couldn't help but kick off with it.

Sorry, no prize for first runner up, except to know that your hard work will be appreciated by all of the Myachi Blog's loyal readers:

The Long Lunch Toss

            “Aaaahh,” I whispered to myself, as I finally put down my backpack full of what seemed like bricks.  It was made heavier still by all my Myachies. The first thing I heard from my teacher after unpacking is, “What do I not want to see until recess?”

            The class responded, “Myachies!”  This answer was a mix of my-achies (incorrect pronunciation) and me-achies (correct pronunciation.) Taking all this into account, I felt a little silly wearing a black shirt with jumping yellow letters that screamed, “MYACHI!”

            Classes that day were how they always were… painfully boring.  I did what I always do during banal classes… desk jam!  I wasn’t about to stand up and start hopping around to foot jam.  Myachi movements at my desk entertained me until lunch.

            At lunch, I finished early, so I got a tiny bit antsy.  One of my really good friends is also a Myachi fanatic.  I had a jammer with me, so the urge to play Myachi was unbearable. 

            I whispered to my fellow Myachi Maniac, “We should play long-toss across the lunchroom.”  To us, the oblivious plan sounded “insane,” as some people in the world of Myachi would say.  I ran over to the complete other side of the lunchroom, took my Myachi out of the patented Myachi pocket, and did a quick Osis to make sure I was ready.  I was.

            “Huuaaggh!” I heaved Patchwork Blue across the entire lunchroom.  My buddy stuck it with some difficulty. The next thing I knew, my Patchwork was returning.  With a quick tug on my shirt, I trampolined the Myachi and caught it (on the back of my hand, of course.) My second throw was my last.  When I cocked my hand back, it slipped a little bit.  When I actually released the Myachi, it was on the side of my hand, so it slipped off and hit the most serious teacher in the school. (Just my luck!) That did it.

            Every teacher in the school knows from previous experience that my friend and I are a bad combination.  This woman had an absolute ZERO tolerance for us.  I knew we were busted.  She angrily bent over and picked the yummy jammer off the floor, trying to barely touch it in the process.  I was positive she was going to keep the Myachi, at least until the end of the year.

            The lunchroom fell silent.  Even with all this in mind, I couldn’t help but crack up… completely.  That definitely didn’t help my situation.  She stormed over actually sounding like a storm.  Her wide-heeled boots pounded on the tile echoing around the still lunchroom like thunder.  Her eyes burned like lightning.  Ironically enough, her name was Mrs. Storm.  It completely captured her appearance. 

            I was tearing in my eyes, trying to restrain myself from laughing too hard.  The next thing I knew, Mrs. Storm was screaming her head off at me.  She was loud in the first place, but now screaming?  I couldn’t even pay attention to what she was saying.  Something about responsibility and what was I thinking.  As if her fifteen minute lecture wasn’t enough, she sent me and my friend (who was laughing when I was) to the principal’s office, AND gave us a week of no recess. 

            After a visit to the principal (my pal, because I visit him at least twice a year), my friend and I had no recess for five extra days, making a total of ten recess days never to be recaptured.  I also know that the school’s policy is that if something is taken away from you, you don’t get it back until the end of the year.  I love my Patchwork, and didn’t want to have it taken away for months.  Even though I was in big trouble, I could only think about what I was losing.

            Ten days later, I decided long-toss wasn’t right for the lunchroom.  “Too bad the classrooms aren’t bigger,” I thought.  The next day for the hour long lunch, I got a little antsy again.  The urge to play Myachi was unbearable (again), but there was NO WAY that I was going to play long-toss.  I thought about my somewhat stolen Myachi.  I won’t do that again.  Ever.  It tarnished my reputation, and even though I did get a minute of fun and a good laugh, I had learned my lesson.  While I was thinking all of these serious thoughts, I caught the gaze of my fellow Myachi Maniac...

            "High-toss?" I whispered.

            "Insane!"

Essay Contest Winner!

by Crazy Ivan


Before we get to the winner, a quick explanation.  My intention had been to release several of the essays that we got throughout the day on Friday and announce the winner at 6 that evening.  But because of the holiday we extended the deadline through the weekend.  I could, of course, just do the same thing today and release a couple of the runner ups first, but since all the entrants have already had to wait an extra 66 hours or so, I've decided to end the suspense mercifully and declare the winner.

Normally it is really hard to pick a winner in these contests because we always get so many good entries and they're usually all prize-worthy.  This time around was no exception and there were quite a few touching stories that certainly could have competed for the grand prize here.  Before I announce the winner, I feel like I should take the time to thank all the participants for their effort and their imaginations.  Reading through these essays was one of the most fun things I've ever done as a Myachi Master.

Normally I fret over picking the winner.  I usually spend a while whittling it down, rereading several entries and getting the opinions of as many Myachi Masters as I can.  I'll take their conflicting opinions and weigh them with my own until we reach a consensus and then I'll usually waffle about that for a while and declare two or three winners instead of one.

But I must say that this contest was one of the easiest to decide of all time.  All the judges agreed completely on which one deserved the prize.  It wasn't that there was a lack of good entries; on the contrary I was amazed by the level of writing talent that our loyal readers displayed.  Many of the stories made me smile and a few of them made me laugh out loud, but only one of them literally brought a tear to my eye.

It was a few words over the 1250 word limit and the writer asked if that would be okay.  He went over by less than 100 words so we forgave him and I think you'll all see why:

Myachi Essay Contest

Grand Prize Winner:

Before I start my story, I want to say that this story is truly an amazing one and has touched my life in so many ways. This story has been a blessing to not only my life and the people who witnessed it, but the very gentle life it involves.

            

I am a member at a Baptist Church in my city. I have been a member of this church for about 8 years. About 2 years ago, we had a family move to our church (which is hard to notice because of the size of our church, but this family was easily noticeable). In this family, we will call them the Jones family (I am keeping their last name safe just in case), there was a kid named Matthew, yes his name is really Matthew. Matthew was adopted by the Jones family and it was obvious he had been sheltered due to his disabilities. You see, Matthew is autistic. He has the academic mental capacity of a 5^th grader, has very little understanding of right and wrong (such as when to talk and when to listen), but has a memory like I have never seen before. For example, it is a thing at our school to say, “Booiii,” like boy, but a lot more country and a lot louder.  I said it one night during youth and now he asks me to say it at least 20 times within the hour that we see each other at church.

I have slowly become Matthew’s best friend, which I am proud of because he is so much fun to be around. I jam just about wherever I go, so I was bound to pull out my myachi around Matthew at some point. When he saw this interesting little sack I had, he was instantly intrigued.  About a month ago, I found out that Matthew is one of the special-education students at our school, which was surprising because I had never seen him before around school, as I always make sure to say hello to “those kinds” of kids. I know how much it means to them to get a hug or a high five, so taking 2 minutes out of my day to make them smile makes me feel better. Turns out, Matthew is really shy at school, so he avoids going to lunch to escape the crowd. My youth pastor, Scott, told me about this and asked me to go visit him one day when I got a chance, so of course I jumped at the chance.

I have Journalism 3^rd block, which is basically a relaxation class, as we usually leave campus for lunch, write one article a week, and just hang out during the day. When I went to his classroom, I sat down with him and talked, and I put the Myachi on the table right in front of me. Usually if I am not jamming, I am holding a sack in my hand and rubbing it in a way to break it in, so when he got the sack he started rubbing it like I did. Suddenly, an idea stuck in my head that would change our lives. I stood up and said, “Matthew, do you want to play?” and he started smiling, “Play what?” I replied and said, “Stand up; I want to show you how to play with this.” So he stood up and I slowly began to teach him the cold fusion. Sadly, he wasn’t quite getting the fact that you can’t just slap the Myachi, but it is a catch and toss kind of thing, so the cold fusion was off, but I wouldn’t dare let this stand in my way. I got the feeling he was getting frustrated, so I decided to let him have some fun. I told him to toss me the sack, so he did. Once the Myachi was within reach, I did a Trampoline, Instep Stall, Outstep Stall, Instep Kick combo. As I finished the trick, Matthew’s face lit up with excitement. He said, “Do it again!” so I repeated the combo, but skipped the trampoline. Suddenly, his face wasn’t as amazed, which then he said, “No Huntur, off your shirt!” I chuckled and did a trampoline. When I stuck it, he laughed so much that he fell on the floor. Just as I was getting into showing him fun tricks like the Trampoline, Flying Fish, Faceplant, etc, the bell rang and class was over, so I told him goodbye and went to my next class.

Several days passed, and I visited him more days than not.  Every day I visited him, I incorporated him more and more into my jams. One day I would do a trampoline off of his shirt and catch it, sometimes he would throw it and I would do a kick and then catch it, and some days he just wanted to watch. One day, I decided it was time for him to learn. Days and days went by of me skipping lunch just to spend that extra 30 minutes teaching him, seeing him laugh, and seeing him truly enjoy himself. Today, he can do a Cold Fusion, the Flow, Trampoline, and the Neo.

The thing that hit the most was the day he completely changed. When I went to his room, he wasn’t there. I asked his teacher where he was and she told me that today he was eating in the lunchroom. When I finally found him in the mix of the hundreds of kids in the lunchroom, I went and sat with him. When I sat next to him, he said, “I wanted to show my friends!” as he held out the sack I had given to him. He stood up and began (clumsily) doing all the tricks he knew. Then something crazy happened. Over the intercom in the lunchroom I heard, “Matthew, please come to the stage.” So I walked Matthew up to the stage to see what the principles wanted. They were amazed that he was standing up in lunch playing with everyone. He was showing off his skills when everyone started looking. Everyone started watching this kid, who was obviously challenged in life, do things that they couldn’t do. Sure, plenty of people in my school have asked to hold the Myachi and have slapped it for about 3 seconds only for it to fall, but he was actually doing it. Everyone in the lunchroom looked in awe at him, and began to clap.

It was at this moment that I realized just what Myachi can do. Myachi isn’t just a game, it isn’t just a hobby, but it is a tool. It is a tool to open doors to where no one imagined they would go. Myachi brings people together. It gives them a sense of excitement and success. This day, Myachi was a tool to overcome a challenge, one that Matthew has had since birth. Autism, shyness, and an enormous amount of doubt were all overcome by the willingness of someone to teach, the desire to learn, and the excitement of the game. This day, everyone gazed upon the truth that nothing is impossible, no matter what stands in their way. This day, people realized the potential of everyone, even the disabled.

I don’t know the best part about this story, whether it is teaching someone about Myachi, or the life lessons learned through the person. Whether you choose to see the some 250 people in the lunch who saw what myachi is, or those who chose to see a kid overcoming his challenges, Matthew had some purpose that day, and I believe his purpose was fulfilled.

A Quite Reasonable Delay

by Crazy Ivan


Alright, so I feel like I have a pretty good excuse for delaying the announcement of the winner of the essay contest, but I have no legitimate excuse for being a day late explaining it.

When I first announced the contest, it didn't really occur to me that it I'd scheduled it to end on Rosh Hashanah.  All I was looking at when I scheduled the contest was Pinky's birthday (the 28th) and I wanted to make sure that I would be done with all the birthday stuff before I had to finish up the contest.

But I've gotten a few emails requesting that I back up the final entry date from a lot of our loyal readers who are out of town, have relatives in town and are otherwise occupied with holiday festivities.  I guess it was a bit unfair to pick that date to begin with, so as per request, I'll be allowing for a few extra days for everybody to get their entries in order.

The new deadline for entry is midnight on Sunday night so there's a whole extra day (and an evening) to work on your entries.  The theme is pretty wide open so get creative, have fun, but also, get to work!!!  There's not much time left.

And, of course, to all of you who got your entries in on time, thanks and sorry for the delay.  I'll announce the winner (and the final decision on the prize) on Monday afternoon so the suspense will have to carry over for the rest of the weekend.

Good luck to all and thanks for all the submissions so far.  They've been a lot of fun to read (which I'll prove on Monday).

Contest Quickie

by Crazy Ivan

I announced a new Back to School contest the other day, but it seems that I wasn't the only person thinking about back to school contests.  Our boy Kickstand (reigning NY area Myachi Champion) had a similar idea.  He's hosting a You Tube contest on the Myachi forum that has a back to school theme.  Click here for the details.

I've mentioned it before, but there are always a few maniac-sponsored contests going on through the "contests&records" section of the forum.  If you aren't a member yet, click here or go to Myachi.com and click on "Forum" (it's under the "Think" heading) and sign up.  There are Myachi players from all over the country there and pretty much every afternoon and evening there are a few people on the video chat throwing down games of MYACH and making a few trades.

Still waiting on the first entry in our Back to School creative writing contest, so get to work on those over the weekend.  I'm looking for a Member Solutions for the grand prize, but even if I can't find that, there will be a sick Pakisack in it for the winner.

A Back to School Give Away

by Crazy Ivan

I can only speak for myself, but it seems to be like it's been too long since we gave away some free stuff.  We had a great response to the puzzle contest we did earlier in the month so there's no doubt that we'll do something like that again in the near future, but I wanted to shift gears a bit for this next contest.

In the last few weeks, virtually all of Myachidom has gone back to school and I wanted to do something "Back to School" related.  I figured the most appropriate thing would be to give everyone some homework.  But don't worry... this is voluntary homework.  Not only that, but you're not shooting for an A on this assignment; you're shooting for a free Pakisack.

This will be a contest for our creative writers and I know from past contests that we have quite a few talented ones amongst our regular readers.  What we're looking for in this contest is a short piece about Myachi and school.  It can be a true story about you playing Myachi in school, or maybe about spreading the word in school.  It can be about a Myachi club you started in school or about getting in trouble for jamming in math class.  Heck, it doesn't even have to be a true story.  It could be a story about the time that ninjas took your school hostage and you had to save the day using nothing but your cunning and your Red Shredder.

So here are the rules for the contest:

• All entries must be between 250 and 1250 words.
• All entries must be received before Midnight on September 28th (Pinky's Birthday!)
• A small panel of Myachi masters will select the overall winner.  All judges decisions are final.
• By submitting your entry, you are granting Myachi permission to publish it on this blog and reprint it in the future.
• Entries should be e-mailed to crazyivan@myachi.com and should be included as the text of the e-mail, not as an attachment.  For security purposes, entries received as attachments may not be opened.
• You can enter as many stories as you'd like.  If you plan to submit multiple stories, please send each one in a separate email.

So go crazy, get creative and have fun.  True stories are preferred, but any story that is fun and captures the essence of the Myachi movement will have a really good chance of winning.  I'll have the submissions in by the end of the 28th (a Wednesday) so I will announce the winner the following Friday.  I'll also be printing a few of the best entries that didn't win throughout the day on Friday.  The winning entry will be published at (or about at) 6:00 pm on Friday the 30th.

Good luck to everyone!

Tournament Prize Announcement

by Crazy Ivan

I haven't talked about it yet on this blog, but I'm willing to bet many/most of you have already heard that we've got a big tournament coming up this week.  Any Myachi fans that are in the NYC area are strongly encouraged to come out to the Funky Monkey (in Greenvale, LI) and test their skills at Myachi Golf, Big Air, Long Toss and Freestyle.  How strongly encouraged?  How about this strongly encouraged:

Yeah, that's right.  That means exactly what you think it does.  The overall champion at this tournament will be walking away with the most valuable Myachi ever offered as a prize in any contest in the history of Myachi.  The Clear.

This one will be coming from Myachi Man's personal collection and he's in the proccess of driving it up right now.  I'd like to think that he's got a caravan of unmarked SWAT trucks around him, a helicopter flying overhead and Batman patiently observing from a remote location, but in reality he probably just has it in a box in his trunk.

For those of you who aren't familiar with exactly how rare this thing is, it has a trade value of 305 (for comparison, that's about 61 times as valuable as a common).  There are only 30 in circulation in the world, it was made over 12 years ago and I once turned down an offer to buy my Clear for $2000.  Seriously.

Anyway, if you were on the fence about coming to the tournament, get off the fence and come to the tournament.  Sorry to all the people who are too far away (no way to Skype in on a Big Air contest), but for those of you who are close enough, you owe it to the people who aren't to show up and win this Myachi for them.

I'll have more details about the contest later on in the week, so keep checking in.  We're getting started at 12 noon so you probably want to get there early and make sure you're signed up and everything before we get going.  There will be a bunch more prizes (including gift cards redeemable at Myachi HQ) and plenty of impromptu games of Fu and MYACH.  Winners will be featured on the blog on Monday along with a full recap of the day's events.

If you have any questions about the tournament, feel free to direct them to my inbox: crazyivan@myachi.com

Word Search Winner!

by Crazy Ivan

First of all, let me just say sorry that it took so long to get this announcement up.  I meant to put it up Saturday evening at 8, but I'd forgotten that this was Kore's last weekend in the city before he went home to Florida once more.  I wound up out with him, Pinky and his girlfriend until late Saturday.  Then, to no great surprise, I had trouble with my email yesterday and couldn't check it until I got into the office today.

We wound up with a bunch of last minute entries and we almost had a surprise winner sneak in at the last minute, but in the end the person who has been leading the pack pretty much the whole time won.  He did it pretty clever, too, managing to find exactly one more trick in the puzzle than I intentionally put there.  More on that in a second, but by popular request, here's a list of all the words in the puzzle.  Below that (Spoiler Alert!) is a pretty shoddy picture that shows where all those various words are:

1. Aqueduct
2. Armageddon
3. Atlas
4. A-Train
5. Backoline
6. Bandit
7. Batman
8. Behind the Back
9. Bodyguard
10. Brainfreeze
11. Brontosaurus
12. Brooksie
13. Bruce Lee
14. Butterfly
15. Casper
16. Cellphone
17. Centrifuge
18. Chicken Wing
19. Clipper Delay
20. Clipper Kick
21. Cold Fusion
22. Columns Juggle
23. Cradle
24. Crazy Ivan
25. Crypto
26. Cyclops
27. Daredevil
28. Darkslide
29. Drop of Death
30. Duck
31. Electron
32. Enigma
33. Faceplant
34. Flow
35. Flying Clipper
36. Flying Fish
37. Gemini
38. Gui
39. Heart Beat
40. Helix
41. Hop Over
42. Hulk
43. Illusion
44. Impossible
45. Infusion
46. In Spin
47. In Wing
48. Jedi
49. Jim Carrey
50. Jump Rope
51. Lotus
52. Mantis
53. Matrix
54. Mind Grind
55. Mirage
56. Mojo Rising
57. Musketeer
58. Neo
59. Ninja
60. Osis
61. Pendulum
62. Piano
63. Pistons
64. Popper
65. Pteradon
66. Punisher
67. Raven
68. Samurai
69. Scorpion Strike
70. Sidekick
71. Slingshot
72. Snake
73. Sole Stall
74. Spider Man
75. Spidey Sense
76. Split
77. Standing Rock
78. Step Over
79. Stiff Arm
80. Stutter
81. Swordfish
82. Tail Grab
83. Tail Whip
84. Thinker
85. Toe Stall
86. Trampoline
87. Transformer
88. T-Rex
89. Tripod
90. Tunnel
91. Turbine
92. Under the Leg
93. Venus Fly Trap
94. Vert
95. Wave
96. Wavy Gravy
97. Wolverine
98. Yoga

So those are all the words that I put in there intentionally.  There were a few other words that others managed to locate that accidentally slipped into the chaos, but none of them were tricks so that's the complete list.  Interestingly enough, nobody managed to find all of them, though 3 people found all but one of them.  This would have left me picking randomly from the tie but for one unforeseen variable.

See, one of the guys actually found a trick in there that I missed.  The trick "Raven" contains the word "Rave", which is also a trick, of course.  Only one of the three noticed that and managed to get a word ahead of everyone else.  And thus our winner (by a nose) cemented his victory.

I don't want to announce his name because all I have is his real name and I'm not 100% sure what his name is on the forum (I'm 99.6% sure but I don't want to get it wrong and then horribly disappoint the person I thought it was by not giving them a Dodge), but I can say that his initials are JR.

So congrats on the last minute win.  I'll email you with instructions on how to claim your prize and everything.  For those that are curious, the solution to the puzzle is below.  To be honest, it's probably just as confusing as just trying to find the answers in the puzzle, if not more so, but it seemed only fair to present it now that the contest is over:

Hope you all enjoyed the contest.  I'm guessing from the overwhelming response that many of you did.  So keep an eye on the blog.  I'll be announcing the next giveaway soon so if you didn't win this time, don't worry, there'll always be another chance coming.

The Governor Grants You 20 Hours

by Crazy Ivan

I was so fired up when I posted this new contest.  Thought it was a pretty fun idea and judging from the response so far I wasn't the only one.  But more than that, I was fired up because I was finally back in NYC where I can properly monitor the contest, keep everybody updated, end it on schedule and send the prizes out on time.

The last thing I wanted to do was delay the end of the contest.

But then I started getting these requests.  If it had just been one, perhaps I would've shrugged it off, but there were several.  A lot of people just went back to school this week and with all the homework and afterschool practices (not to mention the hanging out with friends they haven't seen all summer), they've not had time to take a serious crack at the puzzle.

So I hesitantly grant them another 20 hours.  Instead of announcing the winners and ending the contest at midnight tonight, I'll be doing it at 8 o'clock tomorrow night.  That'll give everybody an extra morning, afternoon and evening to work on it.

I should mention, too, that though there have been a couple of people really duking it out on the contest, it is still definitely anybody's game.  A lot of people have submitted lists, but so far nobody has found all the tricks.

So click here, print out the puzzle if you have to and get to work.  The clock is ticking...

The Dark Side of Myachi

by Crazy Ivan

Far be it from me to tempt you toward the dark side, but there might be something pretty rewarding for you over there.

I've mentioned before on this blog that there's a great resource for additional Myachi give aways over on the Myachi forum.  These aren't "officially sanctioned" Myachi contests, but rather they are contests that Myachi Maniacs and collectors sponsor using their own Myachis as prizes.  There's usually something pretty cool going on there, but at the moment there's a contest that was so cool I felt like I had to share it.

Blue Samurai, long time Myachi fanatic and forum regular, came up with the idea and announced the contest a little while ago, but he's extending it while he awaits more entries.  It's a video contest so you'll have to submit a shred video, but there's a twist.  You've got to do it blind.

I could explain it further, but since it's Samurai's contest, I'll let him do the explaining.  Here's what he had to say about it on the forum:

Here's the Rules:
You must submit a jam session video..length is unimportant..video must not be edited, it has to be raw film straight to you tube. You can have as many submissions as you want, but separate videos per submission. You can only win in one category

Here's the Catch:

YOU MUST BE BLINDFOLDED! Use a very dark pillow case, black shirt, bandanna, or if you have sleep mask, that would be the best..you have to put it on in the start of the video get the blindfold on very tight(or have someone put it on for you, on the video..NO CHEATING!) and jam! 

There will be FOUR Forum Sacks (MINT/DIAPER) Given out.
1 For Best Move
1 For Funniest (or a "Nice Try" award)
1 For Longest Jam Session without dropping

A MISMADE Forum Sack for Best In Show (could be any of the 3 winners..That will be voted on by Forum Leaders)

So that everyone knows, I'll be posting the winning videos on the blog as well so I hope to see some sick entries.  But I should make it really clear to everyone that I won't be picking the winner and neither will anyone else that works for Myachi.  This is Samurai's contest so it will be up to him how the winner is chosen.  I also won't be sending out the prizes.  That's on Samurai as well.  So if you win, please don't email me about your prize.

There's a flip side to that of course.  Since it isn't an "officially sanctioned" Myachi contest, I can enter.  I'll be putting together my entry video this weekend but don't let that dissuade you.  If I win, I'll insist that my prize go to the next runner-up.

If you have any questions, you can direct them to Samurai via the Myachi Forum.  Here's the thread where he announced the contest so just by reading through the responses to that you might find the answer to your question.  Any unanswered queries can be posted there.  And if you don't have an account on our forum and are unwilling/unable to set one up, let me know what you want to know and I'll pass it along.

Good luck!

Tracking the Contest Lead

by Crazy Ivan

Sometimes I wonder which end of these contests is more fun, mine or yours.

Last week I put up a new contest on the blog in which I asked our loyal readers to find as many Myachi tricks as possible in a word search puzzle.  To make things extra tough I didn't tell anybody how many there were or what tricks they were looking for.

So for the last 7 days I've been watching e-mails and FB messages rolling in while contenders shuffle for the lead.  I promised an update to several of them 3 days before the contest ended.  Well, we're keeping it open until Friday at midnight, so this is the 3 day mark.

Up to this point, there are 2 major contenders, though there have been at least 16 entrants.  The lead has actually changed hands several times just in the last 48 hours as these two keep finding new tricks and emailing me updated lists.

At the moment, the lead stands at 84 tricks, but I can assure you that there are still more to be found so there's a chance to jump into the lead.  Keep in mind that if 2 or more people are tied (or find all the tricks), I'll be choosing the winner at random, so even if you can't best this total, just catching up with it might be worth your while.

I'll update everyone again on Friday morning and see if there's a mad dash to the finish line.  Until then have fun with it.  And remember, Cwexmiib isn't a word.

An Important Contest Correction!

by Crazy Ivan

Thanks to the intrepid Jackalope, a mistake was brought to my attention on our wordsearch puzzle contest.  Somehow when I was copying and pasting the puzzle, I managed to delete an entire line from the thing.  That meant that a few moves were missing and a few moves were one letter away from being correct.

Anyway, it's fixed now.  If you look back on the original post it's been updated with the other line added.  The missing line was 4th from the bottom so if you've already found a bunch of words, focus on that area to find a few new ones.

Thanks to Jackalope for pointing that out and sorry to everyone who were left scratching their heads when they read something like "Sleeve-O-Lint".

Contest Update

by Crazy Ivan

Just a brief reminder about the Word Search contest we've got going on.  In this contest, you were asked to find as many common Myachi tricks as possible in the jumble of letters.  To keep it nice and challenging, I didn't bother to tell anybody how many tricks were hidden.

As we enter the second week of the contest (and start the 5 day countdown until it ends), I though it would only be fair to give everyone an idea where things stand.

Of all the e-mails, pms and Facebook messages I've gotten on it, the leader at the moment found 72 tricks.  As Herculean as that effort was, there are still plenty more yet to find.  That means that if you found less than 72, it's time to go back to the puzzle.

Another quick note.  I've been getting a few e-mails from people who find 30 words, e-mail those to me, find 12 more, e-mail those to me, find 6 more, e-mail those to me...  That's not going to work in the long run.  I can't really keep track of what everybody's found in that manner.  If you've already sent me an email with words you found and then find more, send me the list of all the words you've found in the follow up email, not just the 5 or 6 more you've located.

This is just to ensure that the we get the correct winner.  I don't want to miss an e-mail or accidentally count the same trick twice for someone.

So the number to beat is currently 72 tricks and like I said, there are plenty more that have yet to be found.  If you want to see all the tricks that could be on the list, check out Myachi's You-Tube channel and my personal You-Tube channel.  All the tricks that are in the puzzle have either (a) been featured as tricks of the day or (b) were already on Myachi's You-Tube channel when I started doing the trick of the day.

A Puzzling Contest

by Crazy Ivan

And now for something completely different...

So I hear a rumor that you want to win a free Dodge Myachi.  I also heard that you wanted a completely different type of Myachi contest; something unlike anything we've done on the blog before.  I understand.  It's been a while since the last contest and you're ready to reboot with something crazy and fun.

Well, you know how we are about doing whatever it is that you want, so here it is.  A chance to win a free Myachi.  And all you have to do is hunt for some hidden treasure.

I'm sure you know how this works.  Hidden in the puzzle below are a bunch of Myachi tricks.  They can appear up, down, backwards, forwards or diagonally.  Your job is to find as many of them as you can.  I'm not going to tell you how many there are, but there are quite a few.

MYACHI TRICK SEARCH:

E L G G U J S N M U L O C E L L P H O N E V A R K B J G A G

C K C A B E H T D N I H E B S Q K S F Y U N O D A R E T P B

H S I F G N I Y L F U B N P C L I P P E R K I C K E X L T I

L E Q R E P P I L C G N I Y L F L X P J C Q K L N V L Y B V

H I M T T B X V M I N D G R I N D F L O W O U O O O B R A M

E T R A N S F O R M E R M Y P H A U R G L H S T E P O V E R

J L B G T U N U Q Y T H A A P C S G N I S I R O J O M G N N

C R B N X R V O S Y G Z Z Y E D N I N S P I N H K H V A O Q

C L Z I M U I E I X K J W P R I W E F H N O I S U F N I R S

W I D W S A N X R P H B L O D N S O H D G K I G T D S P T T

O V E N U S F L Y T R A P N E A Q T R A R E C N L U G R C I

G U K I E O O P I A N O A K L V L B H J J O E I L N T U E F

R P N D R T E P I T F T C T A I L W H I P N W L K I D T L F

J N T D E N P N M D S I A S Y Y Y L M A N T I S E E X T E A

J B Q J E O F M E I H E Y I B Z V C I G J K H N U C D J N R

Y Z M X T R Y A K C U D N N I A A K R O M O E Q U L U I I M

N V U E E B T I D N A B E I R R R P A Y E G A R I M I R S P

J C E E K H Y H M R S E W M R C G G J N P R E P P O P K B I

R E Z M S A T A E B T R A E H E Y Y L T X T U R B I N E S W

T E D S U Y N D O L D G Y G H M V C P I S T O N S T W Z D T

R U E I M P E S P A E T O E S T A L L A A P U N I S H E R S

O E E B L V I B O D Y G U A R D W E O O E T H L V V I C Z Z

I Y N O I S U F D L O C U Z O O H C T W P A P R P K V N P E

O Q S L T I K O F E E L T F V P W O U Y B S A M U R A I R Q

L Q Y B E B N R F Y A S E A I I G R S C U E C M O N T F P V

Z C L W A V E E A B G Q T N E R I N R Y D Z A L M V J A J P

R C A G J T S P I D E R M A N T T A M U H I L R I V U I O P

D M Q D T I M S U N A K M U L U D N E P B E H D L R I Q N C

N B G U W I F A X I Q O T W N L T R E X R T U I R A I Y K E

V V B S N B J C N V K A A O E N G S M C Z K C W E X M I I B

So before you get to searching, let me explain the rules.  If you want in on this contest, find as many tricks as you can.  Write down a list of all the moves that you find and email them to me at aaron@myachi.com.  If you find a bunch of them, email me and then realize that you've found a couple more, go ahead and send me another email.

The contest ends in 10 days (Friday, September 2nd at midnight).  Whoever finds the most Myachi tricks in the puzzle is going to be the winner.  If more than one person ties for the most tricks found, I'll select the winner randomly between them.

As a quick hint, all the tricks hidden in the puzzle either appeared as Trick of the Day videos or appear on the Myachi Instructional DVD.  No fair making up a new trick, calling it the "Vvbsbsj" and saying you found another trick.  Only established moves count.

Couple other important points.  Keep in mind that I'm not going to see where you found the words, but rather I'll see only which words that you find.  Don't tell anybody which words you found or you'll be giving them an unfair advantage.  Also, I'm aware that some people might just guess at which tricks are there.  That means that if you include a Trick that isn't actually in the puzzle, I won't count your entry at all.  That way you can't win just by sending me a list of all 193 tricks that might be in the puzzle.

Have fun and let me know how you like the contest concept.  This is a bit different so I want to know whether we should do more puzzle based contests like this in the future.

Contest Winners

by Crazy Ivan

It's kind of sad looking back over the original posts on these contests where I laid out the rules and dates and everything... just to change them repeatedly over the next few weeks and months.  I hope that everyone understands the incredible difficulty I had trying to keep up with the blog and the Trick of the Day while I was at Dollywood for the summer, but I'm back now so there are no more excuses for delay.

We had two contests that needed to be wrapped up, so I'm going to start with the photo contest and move on to the Follower contest.

Originally I promised 3 prizes for the photo contest, but given the incredibly small response we saw (even after the contest was extended for 6 weeks), I'm only going to be giving out two prizes.  Sorry to all the other entrants, but there were so few photos it would seem silly to pick a top 3 and if I truly randomized one of the pics, I would likely be sending multiple prizes to a single entrant.

So without further ado, the top prize (and a 5.0 of his choice) will go to our dearest friend from across the pond, Europe's premiere Myachi Maniac and the pride of Switzerland, Myachi Max!  His pics win out for the overall "Best Picture" Prize:

Mad fun pic and definitely captures the whole "Summer with Myachi" concept of the contest.  So Max, we owe you a 5.0 or 5.1 of your choice.  Just pm me on Facebook and let me know what you want... it will take a minute to get it to you (obviously), but it'll be on its way soon.

The second prize goes out for the most artistic photo and that one certainly goes to Animal's friend (and Myachi's friend) Hetzer for his homage to "Son of Man".  And I'll be able to give him his prize in person so it will make up for the extra postage cost of sending one prize to Max:

Over all, a very cool concept pic, though I'm not sure that it looks like he's having as much fun as Max.  Either way, the prizes are equal so I owe Hetzer a 5.0 or 5.1 of his choice as well.

------

And of course, I've got that other contest to finish up as well.  This contest has been going for about 8 months now so it's long overdue for resolution.

When we first started the blog I announced a contest that would be eligible for the first 50 people who signed up to "follow" the Myachi Blog.  We got our 50th follower while I was in Tennessee so I extended it to being eligible for how ever many followers we had by the time I returned (57 as it turns out).

To select the winner I went to an online random number generator and punched in 1 through 57.  The first number I got wasn't going to work (it turned out that Pinky had won the contest...) so I tried again and got the number 29.  In my weird way of counting the followers, the 29th follower was/is Myth, so...

Congratulations, Myth, you're now the proud owner of a sick Pakisack... I just don't know exactly who you are, so you'll have to help me out there.  Leave a message here and/or send me a pm on Facebook and we'll work out how we're going to get your prize to you.  Because this might take a few days (or weeks depending on how soon you read this blog), I'm not going to say which Pakisack you'll get.  I'm afraid that if the communication bit takes too long I might not have the same one available, but I assure you, it will be an awesome and rare sack that you will love.

Anyway, that pretty much catches me up on contests, but that means we have to get another one going in the very near future.  Look for two contest announcements starting in the next few days.  One will be announced later this evening and the other will pop up over the weekend or on Monday.  And hopefully this time I won't have to delay anything!

An Update On The Other Contest

by Crazy Ivan

Just a quickie here before I head off to work.  I updated everyone yesterday on the Summer Photo contest, but I still have another contest that's in limbo as well.  When this blog first began, I announced a contest for followers.  The first 50 followers would be put in a drawing for a Pakisack and one would be randomly selected once we reached that 50 mark.

Well, as many of you have noted, we're over 50 followers now so it's high time for that drawing.

Unfortunately, until I get back to NYC, I'm cut off from my supply of groovy Pakisacks so it'll be the 2nd week of August before I'll have the chance to actually send out the prize.  For that reason, I'm going to delay the drawing itself until then.

There are a couple of good reasons.  The first is obvious; there's no reason to make the winner suffer through a month of knowing that they won but not having their prize.  The other is that I want to extend the eligibility to everyone who signs up to follow the blog between now and then.

See, one of the conditions of this contest is that Myachi employees are not eligible to win.  And since at least a few of the 52 current followers are Myachi employees, we don't actually have 50 eligible followers.  That doesn't really matter, of course.  We could still have the drawing and if I pull Bones or Pinky or someone as the winner, I can simply draw again.  That being said, more is better than less.

So look for that drawing on or about August 7th with the prize going out in the days immediately following it.  And sorry that I didn't get you this info a bit sooner.

Summer Photo Contest Update

by Crazy Ivan

I announced a contest back on the 8th of June that was originally scheduled to end on the 29th.  That date came and went with no announcement (for which I sincerely apologize) and now we're more than a week beyond it.  I'll admit that I totally dropped the ball on this one, but I haven't forgotten about you entirely.

The fact is that between my email being down and very few entries being posted on Facebook, we didn't have enough entries to make a full blown contest out of it.  I've been telling myself for days to write an entry updating everyone on what was going on, but with the mountain of work that faces me every day of the Dollywood assignment, I'm only now getting around to it.

So here's the deal.  The contest is still on.  I've extended the final date to July 21st so you have a couple of weeks yet to get entries in.  So if you want a chance to win a free Myachi, all you need to do is:

1. Snap a pic of yourself or a friend playing Myachi outdoors and
2. Post that pic on our Facebook page.

That's pretty much it.  Super simple contest.  We'll be choosing 3 winners and up to this point there are only a few entries so you have a really good chance of winning if you get in on it.  If you want more details, you can check the original post or you can leave any questions you might have in the comments section below.

And remember, if you submitted a pic to me by email, I didn't get it, so be sure to resubmit it on our FB page!

My E-Mail Situation

by Crazy Ivan

As you may know by now, I'm not particularly computer-friendly.  I love computers and the incredible changes they've made in the world.  I love having an infinite resource of information (some of which is accurate) at my finger tips at all times.  I love never having to suffer through the "what else have I seen that actor in?" headaches that plagued me as a youth.  I love being a quick Googling away from settling virtually any argument.

But I still find myself constantly grumbling "I hate computers..."

I'm not very technically inclined when it comes to these suckers.  I got my first computer when I was 11 years old, but all the training on a Commodore 64 doesn't come in handy very often on the computers of the day.

Somewhat primitive compared to Windows7

Which means that when I have problems with my e-mail, I lack the vocabulary and knowledge to even explain exactly what the problem is.  I've been unable to check my e-mail since I got to Tennessee and after talking to my tech-buddy in NYC it's sounding increasingly like I won't be able to check it until I get back.

That's gonna mess things up for me 100 different ways, of course, but for the purposes of the blog, it puts me in a pretty awkward position for anyone who e-mailed me pics for the outdoor photo contest.  Anything that was transmitted by e-mail will be condemned to float in the purgatory of cyberspace for the next month and a half while I'm down here in the mountains.

Which means that if you sent a pic, you'll have to find another way to get it to me.  Facebook is the first and best choice, but you could also send it to me on the forum (once we get the forum back up and running).  Barring that you can leave the photobucket of flickr (or whatever) link in the comments section below.  The contest isn't scheduled to end until the 29th, so there's still plenty of time to get your pics in. 

So far the field is pretty narrow, but if it's anything like the previous photo contests we've done, most of the entries will come in the next 48 hours.  Got my fingers crossed that there are some awesome ones yet to be seen.

Quick Reminder

by Crazy Ivan

Just wanted to remind everyone of a great chance to win a free Pakisack.  Many of you are already aware (and eligible), but it occurs to me that it's been a long time since I mentioned it.

When we first started this blog, I announced a contest for a free Pakisack.  The only thing you had to do to win is to sign up to follow this blog.  The first 50 followers are eligible to win and thus far we've only got 42 followers.

As big a fan of the number 42 as I am (read Douglas Adams if you don't know why), we still want to get to that 50.  Now, based on the number of daily views that the blog gets, there are a lot more than 42 people reading this on a daily basis, which means that there are still plenty of people who could be getting in on this opportunity who haven't.

So if you want your chance to win, just sign up to follow us.  You'll need a Google account, but then again, who doesn't need a Google account anyway?  You'll know you're in on the contest as soon as you see yourself listed on the right side of the page there under "followers".

Remember, some of the people who've signed up did this months and months ago, knowing that as soon as we hit 50 followers we'd be giving out a free Myachi, so if nothing else, do it for them!

Still Looking for Outdoors Pics

by Crazy Ivan

Just so everyone knows, I still haven't started seeing the entries rolling in for the summer photo contest.  We're looking for pics of you jamming with your Myachi outdoors with the beauty of mother nature in the background.

Obviously there's still plenty of time to get it done.  The contest runs through June 29th so there are still more than two weeks to go before the deadline.  That should give you plenty of time to take dozens of great pics.  Just remember, the more you enter, the better your chances to win.

It it's anything like the last few photo contests, the majority of the pics will come at the last minute and we'll get a gazillion pictures posted in the final 24 hours or so.  That being said, you still have a much better chance to win if you start getting your pics in early.  Okay, you don't, but at the very least people will have a lot more time to appreciate them.

And remember, the only rules for the pics are:

• They have to be outdoors,
• They have to show someone jamming with a Myachi.

It doesn't have to be you and it doesn't have to be just one person.  Get creative and try to think of something that nobody else will do.  In this contest, the clearest path to victory is a unique one.

Announcing Another Give-Away!

by Crazy Ivan

Sorry I didn't have this up earlier guys and gals.  Yesterday I was just so busy I could hardly blog.  Today it was an issue with my internet connection.

I promised another contest this afternoon so hope you don't mind that I'm getting it to you this evening instead.

Given the weather over the past few days (and I'm not just talking about the weather here in New York), I figured the next contest should be one that absolutely cannot be done from indoors.  So as a part of Myachi's ongoing effort to get people off the couch and moving, we're going to have a strictly outdoors contest.

So here's the deal.  It's a photography contest so you'll need a camera and you might just need a second person.  Why a second person?  Well, because you're going to be in the picture.

That's the contest.  We want to see you in the great outdoors, jamming with a Myachi.  If possible, we'd love to see some nature in the background, but for those of you stuck in the 5 boroughs it might be pretty tough to find any nature, so we'll accept the outside of a building if that's the best you can do.

We'll be giving out 3 prizes on this one with each winner getting a 5.0 of their choice.  One prize will be given for the best looking photograph (one with the coolest background, pose, etc.), one for the most creative picture (coolest concept for a picture) and one randomly selected (seriously... we'll just pick one out of a hat).  You can enter as many times as you'd like so the more pics you take, the more likely you are to win.  The more the better.

Remember, every picture has to show 3 things:

• The outdoors,
• A Myachi and
• Somebody jamming with that Myachi.

I understand that some people's parents won't let them put their face in a picture on the internet and that's fine.  If you need a neck down pic to keep mom and dad happy, that's cool.  If you have to, a picture just of a Myachi on your hand with the outdoors in the background would be acceptable.

So here's the nitty gritty rule stuff:

1. All Pics have to be in by June 29th at 11:59 pm.  That means you have three weeks and a few hours to get this done.  The deadline WILL NOT be extended on this one unless there are unforeseen problems like my email going down.
2. You can submit your pictures in three ways:
1. You can post them on our Facebook Page (preferred)
2. You can post them on Photobucket or Flickr and leave the link in the comments section of this blog entry
3. You can e-mail them to me at crazyivan@myachi.com
3. A panel of Myachi Masters will determine the winners.  Winners will be announced no later than July 1st at 10 pm Eastern Time (US).  All judges decisions are final.
4. All photos become property of Myachi
5. We will not accept any photos with obscene or offensive images.
6. Dates may be amended with or without cause by Myachi or Myachi's representatives.

So good luck, have fun and get outside and play!

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below.  You can also email me your questions at crazyivan@myachi.com, but if you have a question, odds are pretty good somebody else will have the same question and it might be easier to keep it all in one place so everyone can see the answers.