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        ±²Û²° ÜÛ±Ûß °°²                                 the blender puis encore
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ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
°°ÛÛÛ°°ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛn e w s                      ÛÛÛÛ°° Û±±°°ÛÛÛ°°ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ°
ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ

Last time around, we had to break from our tradition of plundering IRC chat
logs for infofile fodder because our loggers shit the bed.  (Lumberjack
billeters: not even once.)  This time around, we have full logs, including from
last time around, and incorporating them into our infofiles is simply
incompatible with our getting the compo pack out in a timely fashion.
Something had to give.  This time, it's the log quotes.  If you really want to
know what people say on the IRC, I invite you to /join #blender on
irc.efnet.org.

We are also sunsetting some of the traditional infofiles that are part of the
Blender pageantry -- when we resumed the series, we thought it would be fun to
carry on as if we hadn't noticed that 15 years had gone by, but now those jokes
are themselves six years old!  I hope you all appreciated the joke, but now to
accommodate more and more frequent compos, we are streamlining the tremendously
labour-intensive infofiles.  Congrats to La Hacienda for being the last distro
site standing.  Now, on to the first Blender of 2021, held January 16-17.

ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
°°ÛÛÛ°°ÛÛk e e p i n g   i t   t o p i c a l      Û°° Û±±°°ÛÛÛ°°ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ
ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ

The compo topics this time lent themselves to visual mediums, with a touch of
pop culture referentiality demanded that not every participant was up to giving
up -- the main subject was CRYPTKEEPER, not just the proprietor of a graveyard,
but optionally the very specific rotted corpse hosting Tales from the Crypt.
What was this bag of bones doing?  SKATEBOARDING, naturally.  (Tony Hawk may be
getting up there in years, but it's unkind to refer to him as a bag of bones.)
And where?  CYBERCITY, of course... fire up your vaporwave skylines!

ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
°°ÛÛÛ°°Ûg e t   t o   t h e   p o i n t . . .    Û°°   ±°°ÛÛÛ°°ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ°
ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ

We must have picked good topics, because they yielded excellent artwork!
Judging this compo was very difficult!  HONORABLE MENTION goes once again to
SPINSANE for breaking every established Blender tradition and making the first
video submission we have ever received, a fully visualized curated playlist.
We couldn't include the video in this archive for technical reasons (did we
already use the phrase "shit the bed" in this infofile?  Better not repeat it
too often, it might think we're trying to manifest our intentions) but you
should be able to experience it by clicking or typing in the URL second from
the top of SP-DNSWJ2.NFO after going to the very bottom of the file display on
16colo.rs and clicking on "show text".

We wound up with a judging conundrum -- multiple splendid entries, all of which
used all of the requisite topics!  We had to enter into a weird world of
semiotics to determine just how well a given piece was using a topic relative
to the other entries!  That way madness lies.  But... here we are!  So in third
place, we congratulate Blender regulars MEL FARR SUPERSTAR and PINGUINO, who
both took home one point each for the LAZARUS crew, tying at the bottom of the
podium (and bumping off Odd, who was a contender!)

Second place went to SIMONKING, also representing LAZARUS, and netting it two
more points in the rankings.  Finally, there was never any doubt from the first
moment we saw it: the unassailable winner of this Blender, giving his three
point prize to his colleagues in PVM, is MR ROBOTO!  Domo arigato, my friend!
This was his first-ever Blender experience (Aelf also, from outside the scene)
but he clearly gets the idea!

ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
°°ÛÛÛ°°Ûp o s t   g a m e   a n a l y s i sÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ°°   ±°°ÛÛÛ°°ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ°
ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ

Hm, this streamlining is good for rapid pack release.  More streamlining might
yield still faster release.  Well worth considering.

It was observed at the start of the compo that an earlier start time might
accommodate more participation from Europeans, so if you look below you will
find that we have pushed back the hours of the next scheduled Blender, coming
up in April, quite a bit.  We'll see how that suits them, or if they will need
to come up with other excuses not to participate!

It didn't seem that providing a great deal of online infrastructure to support
Blender activities was really a warranted investment of labour when it only
occupied one day of each year, but as we're shifting to a provisionary schedule
on a quarterly basis, taking these steps may make more sense.  Please look us
up on social media -- if you have sold your soul to Facebook, you can find us
at facebook.com/blendercomp.  If you are on Instagram then... you have sold
your soul to Facebook, but we should be opening shop there also, and perhaps on
Twitter also.  Stay tuned!  Our website at mistigris.org/blender/ should be
receiving a facelift as well.  In the meantime, all of the actual entries can
still conveniently be found at 16colo.rs/group/blender

ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
°°ÛÛÛ°°ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛb y e                    ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ°°   ±°°ÛÛÛ°°ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ°
ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ

          if there ever is another blender, it will most likely be held:
                                (if not sooner!)

                saturday, april 17th - sunday, april 18th, 2021
                              2:00pm - 2:00pm (est)
                               #blender (on EFnet)

please join us.                                                     - hennifer
                                                                      & warpus
                                                                      & cthuluSAUCE00Blender 2021A infofile             Cthulu, Warpus & HenBlender!            20210121
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