I liked this last CUP and all of the different guesses that everyone gave. I’m giving the big Kahuna Burger prize to Jeremy. He was the first with a somewhat vague but absolutely accurate comment about “some kind of boat fin”. Jeremy gets 100 points. Plus an extra 5 points for throwing a Sarkozy joke in at my implied request from contest #19. However, I’m also giving 50 points to newcomer Steve P. for his later, but dead on accurate answer “keel of a poly kayak”.

Steve P. also gets 25 points for being a newcomer. Welcome Steve P.!

Noelle, Carly, Jude, Vicki and Erin all get 15 points for playing, but no points for their guesses.

Ellie, Whitney and Michelle  all get 30 points for various acceptable answers (upside down canoe, kayak).

I’ll have new rankings tallied up later today.

Thanks for playing, everyone! Who’s ready to start a fresh week of CUPs?

CUP #21

What is this?

Let’s find out who’s still playing on the weekend, shall we?

The winner of yesterday’s CUP is CARLY, with her answer of “pepsi sign on abeverage cooler!”

I very specifically was looking for a Pepsi logo on a vending machine. The dots in the close-up image are specific to that type of printing and surface. But I’m giving it to everyone who guessed anything to do with the pepsi logo/soda can.

Carly gets 100 points for posting the first completely correct answer, plus 5 points for being fricking adorable in her commentary on her typing error.

Steve (from Facebook), Vicki, Jeremy, GroundlessPossibilities, Noelle, Ellie, Michelle, Whitney and Erin all get 25 points for correctly identifying the pepsi logo.

GroundlessPossibilities and Michelle get an extra 10 points for siding with the beverage dispenser/vending machine crowd.

Jeremy gets +5 points for being silly. Jeremy you would have gotten more points if you had made a joke about Sarkozy’s height and something about how this is what a regular pepsi can looks like to him. 😀

Well done, all!

There will be NO CUP on Sunday! The answer for CUP #20 will be posted on Monday.

CUP #20 – What is this crazy thing?

The winner of yesterday’s CUP is Lance Finney with his very speedy answer of Scissors!

Lance wins 100 points. Congratulations, Lance!

Here’s the rest of the points:

Erin gets 30 points for also guessing scissors.

Carly, Vicki, Jeremy, Judi, GroundlessPossibilities and Ellie all get 15 points for playing, but no points for their guesses.

Jude gets 20 points for making me have to google “The top of a Mr. Potato Head mask”.

And I’ve tabulated all of the results from the past two CUPs (not counting today’s points for scissors; I’ll put those in tonight). You can always visit the CUP Winners page for full rankings and all-time points. Below are our current Top 5 Ranking Players:

And now for CUP #19!

What are we looking at here?

In the final hours of the contest, Ben Zvan, first time player nails the answer to yesterday’s CUP:

The back of a waverunner/personal watercraft/jet ski, specifically the steering nozzle. It’s what makes the jet ski “go”. From e-how.com (bolding is mine):

When the engine begins to run, it turns what is called an impeller, located inside and to the rear of the jet ski. The impeller is composed of curved blades, much like a propeller, only they take water into the jet ski rather than push it out. The blades of the impeller turn at a rapid speed and suck in water through a whole in the bottom of the jet ski. This water is then propelled out of the rear of the craft through a movable steering nozzle. The water comes out with such force that it puts pressure on the water outside the craft. Equal pressure is then exerted on the water craft, and it is pushed forward. In most jet skis, the impeller can be reversed in order to slowly move the jet ski in a backwards direction.

Okay, here’s how the points are going to work out:

Ben gets 100 points for his correct answer plus 50 points for being a new player. Welcome, Ben!

Everyone else (Judi, Vicki, Ellie, Doug and Erin) gets 25 points for playing and additional points go out to:

Noelle – 5 points for noting that the “motor part” seemed awfully clean. I thought that was a heck of a clue!

Carly – 5 points for randomly saying “jet” in her answer.

I will update the CUP Winners page with the new points later tonight and post the rankings tomorrow.

And now for CUP #17!

What is this?

Are you ready for the crazy week of Close Up Photos?

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I will be posting a new CUP contest every day until someone wins this damned thing! If you’re new to the CUP Contest, here’s the general premise: I post a photo, you guess what it is. Scoring is kind of complicated and arbitrary, but the winner is shooting for 1000 points. Visit the CUP Winners page for more information and feel free to jump into the game.

All guesses submitted via the comments or by Facebook will be accepted.  The first person to guess correctly wins 100 internet points.  Anyone who also guesses correctly after that will get some amount of points. As always, extra points may or may not be awarded for amusing answers. The contest is over when I post the answer and announce points, which will be with 24 hours after the contest goes up. I am the ultimate decider of all answers and points. I’ll guarantee an attempt at fairness, but all bets are off when it comes to the logic behind how I hand out points.

Here are the current rankings:

So that’s it! You all remember how this works, so…

What is this:

The original CUP #15 submission was this:

Congratulations to NOELLE (graysintheshade) for another win with  her guess “a brick”

I thought this was a toughie, but apparently I haven’t looked at a lot of bricks up close! You guys absolutely TROUNCED me on this week’s CUP, so I’m going to give everyone who participated an extra 10 points.

So!

Noelle gets 100 points for being the first to correctly guess.

Heidi, Vicki, Ellie, Erin and Madeline each get 25 points for also guessing bricks. I’m awarding Vicki an extra 20 POINTS for correctly guessing that these particular bricks are from the side of my apartment building. Well done!

Judi and Cate! get 10 points for participation but no points for their guesses.

And remember – everyone gets 10 additional points on top of their base score.

Well played, everyone! Here’s the updated rankings, but stop on by the CUP Winners page for detailed scoring and lame-o prize information. Also, next week’s CUP is going to have to be much, much trickier. Y’all are just too good at this!

Top 5 Ranking Players

Here we go again – the fifteenth Close-Up Photo contest!

Guess what this is:

Fame! Fortune! Fake internet points! When you play the CUP contest you could win any one of these! Okay, really you’ll only win one of these. Unless you have an improbability drive in your back pocket. And you might.

All guesses submitted via the comments or by Facebook will be accepted.  The first person to guess correctly wins 100 internet points.  Anyone who also guesses correctly after that will get some amount of points. As always, extra points may or may not be awarded for amusing answers. The contest is over when I post the answer and announce points, which usually 24-36 hours after the contest goes up. You can see who’s in the lead over at the CUP Winners page.

Enjoy, good luck, see you soon.

The next Close Up Photo Contest submission will be up TOMORROW at 8pm CST. If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about but wish you were part of the hip in-crowd that does, visit the CUP Winners page for contest guidelines, scoring, current rankings and examples of past CUPs. See you tomorrow!

We have a new first-time winner for CUP #14!

The original photo was this:

Congratulations to JUDI who nailed it with her speedy answer of “head and fin on a motorcycle engine”.

It was, specifically, MY motorcycle engine’s cooling fins. It’s riding weather again, baby!

In addition to 100 points for being the first to post the correct answer, I award Judi another 20 points for being a new player. Welcome, Judi!

Cate and Heidi each get 30 points for also guessing fins.

Carly and Erin get 20 points for playing, but no additional points for their incorrect answers.

Thanks for playing, everyone!  Stop by the CUP Winners page for the current rankings, as well as past contests, winners and a description of the lame prize that I have chosen for the first player to reach 1000 points!

Gratuitous shot of my sexy bike: