Saturday Morning Post: GISHWHES

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m kind of a latecomer when it comes to most things. I also don’t bother to pay for cable or satellite (after all, I have Netflix and Amazon Prime), so I end up pretty behind on my TV viewing. That being said, I’ve tried Supernatural. I like it quite a bit, but I’ve never made it past the Bloody Mary episode (well, before life catches me and ruins my attempts to be integrated into the fandom). With horrible confession out there, let me say this: I am super late to the Misha Collins show.

This year will be my first year participating in GISHWHES. Before last Tuesday, I hadn’t even HEARD of it. I’d seen some crazy pictures I now know to associate with it, but I didn’t have any clue about the event in general. So, if you’re like I was, you’re probably asking “what on Earth is GISHWHES? and why did you babble about Misha Collins and Supernatural earlier?” As a matter of fact, that’s very nearly the same way I posed the question to my friend Carolyn last week. Well, prepare yourselves for a whole new world of epic.

GISHWHES stands for The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen and it’s currently in its third year of existence. Now, unless your childhood was miserable, I’m sure I don’t have to explain the point of a scavenger hunt (or what it is, for that matter). The problem with understanding GISHWHES is in two parts. How is it an “international” scavenger hunt and what makes it the “greatest” one “the world has ever seen?”

[youtube=http://youtu.be/88DaqclmHjQ]

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An International Sensation

GISH teams are put together through one of two ways. Either you network it yourself and invite fifteen people to your team or you’re randomly pushed together at the end of registration. Most of the time, the teammates are made up of people who have never even met prior to the event and it ends up being a mish-mash of various social groups. Participants are from here in the states, the United Kingdom, Canada, and 91 other countries and the event has officially been recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Worlds Biggest Digital Scavenger Hunt.” Does this mean one has to travel to a central location for team members to participate? No! Because, instead of finding actual items, you have to somehow coordinate to create photographic or video-graphic evidence of the tasks. Plus, having team members in another time zone means you’ll have people working when you’re resting… in the odd chance you get to rest.

This poses another question, “how do they make sure you don’t cheat?” First off, shame on you! Cheating is bad, even if awesome prizes are involved. Second off, well, let’s be honest, how often are you going to find a picture of “a Stormtrooper in full costume including leggings (not just the mask!) cleaning a pool,” even on the internet? A good majority of the tasks are super unique and oddball for the two-fold reason of discouraging cheating and making the event more fun (and more questionable to those not participating). Other tasks involved last year?

• Get a tour of a sauerkraut factory. Photo must depict at least 50 gallons of uncanned sauerkraut and a team member wearing a single sequined glove.
• Build an abacus from human beings. Use it to calculate something for a passerby.
• Paint a large unicorn on a military transport truck. You MUST have permission to do so.

So, aside from being insane, the contest is also super nice, which leads me to its greatness.

Random Acts of Kindness

Though not directly a part Misha’s other pet project, the charity Random Acts of Kindness, GISHWHES “collaborate[s] to help create some items that advance Random Acts’ mission of conquering the world one act of kindness at a time” (according to the website). In addition, the scavenger hunt is the single largest donor to the cause (donating over $40,000 to the charity during the 2012 event) .  Some acts of kindness from GISHWHES 2012?

• Help someone who has been injured or whose home has been damaged by hurricane Sandy.
• Hug a uniformed Veteran. (My personal favorite and one I hope is repeated this year)
• Film a Random Act of Kindness and set it to music.

So, in the end, the event is all about being awesome and making the world a better place through kindness, goofiness, and creativity. If you’d like to register for this year’s scavenger hunt, you have less than two days from when this is published. The hunt starts in a week. The “Meat on the Bones” (basic) level to participate is $19. If you’ve got more money to spend, there are other levels with bonus perks ranging from an autographed holiday card from the man himself to a GISHWHES flag. If you’re a bit short on cash right now, they also are willing to take a loss with a special $10 level.

If you’re interested, we’re still looking for more on Team Nephilim (it’s a pretty awesome team, if I do say so myself). In addition, if you can’t participate this year (or simply just want to follow the craziness), be sure to follow both SciFi4Me and AJtheLush over on Twitter. I’ll be live-tweeting to my account for the duration of the hunt (and you’ll catch the tweets on the main account, plus the bonus of being a #Formie!). Also, be sure to check back here after the mayhem is over for a wrap up of the experience.

Team Nephilim FTW!

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