D-Day B-Day Challenge

2008 Team Roster

2008-04-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

After how evil we were with team selection last year, we decided we'd be nice and throw you a bone. This year we're letting you choose your own team of four (4) for the 2008 DDBDC.

Assemble your group of four, give yourselves the perfect name and submit your team roster in the comments section below.

Will there be a super team chock full of Whedons? Will Semmel get together a crew to insure a three-peat? Will Joanne continue to dominate everyone? Will the all-time top four competitors form some type of super-team? Will there be bonus points and/or pole positioning awarded for the first teams assembled on the list (unlikely, but I wouldn't put it past us)? Time will tell the answers to these questions and more!

All are welcome to participate as long as they are only one friend removed from either Ollie, Mark, or myself. For example, you can come, your friends can come, but your friend's friends, well, they can suck it... exceptions will be made.

Las Vegas?

2008-04-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

The fifth annual D-Day B-Day Challenge is upon us and we decided in honor of this party being a half decade old, we'd do something a little special... we're gonna bring it to Vegas. Danger shall ensue.

As of right now it's looking like we're going to holding it on the evening of Saturday, June 28th. Plans are in the works, if you have any issues with the idea of going to Vegas and/or the selected date, please get back to myself, Mark, or Ollie.

-Greg

How You Stack Up

2008-04-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Here are the over-all rankings for the past four years. I would love to get information on the second and third place teams for 2005 and 2006. I'm pretty sure there was no 2nd or 3rd place for the 2004 challenge. Hit me back if you know & with corrections.

I scored as follows: 3 points for a first place finish, 2 points for a second, and 1 point for coming in third.

The Grand Totals:
Joanne: 8
Semmel: 6
Richard: 5
Emily O: 4
Brooke: 3
Justin S: 3
Emily R: 3
Julie: 3
Jed: 3
Erin Sef: 3
Ken: 3
James: 3
Cristina C: 3
Marc P: 3
Rachel G: 3
Val O: 3
Sage: 3
Bran: 3
Keith: 3
Jesse: 3
Shannon: 3
Nick T: 2
Laurence: 2
Josh Mac: 2
Neal: 2
Josh J: 2
Chook: 1
Tara: 1
Andrea: 1
Chelsea: 1
Cheryl: 1

Yearly Breakdown:
2007:
1st: Semmel, Julie, Jed, Erin S, Ken
2nd: Richard, Joanne, Neal, Josh Mac, Emily O
3rd: Chook, Tara, Andrea, Chelsea, Cheryl

2006:
1st: Journey’s Journeys: Brooke, Joanne, Semmel, Justin, Richard, Emily R
2nd: Hannah Barbara: Nick T, Emily O, Laurence, Josh J, who else?
3rd: ?

2005:
1st: Team Green: James, Cristina, Joanne, Marc, Rachel G, Val Oved
2nd: ?
3rd: ?

2004:
1st: Team Blue: Sage, Bran, Keith, Jesse, Shannon

Winners! Official DDBDC 4 Scorecard

2007-06-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

FIRST PLACE:

Semmel
Jed
Julie
Ken
Erin

SECOND PLACE:

Richard
JoAnne
Neal
Josh M.
Emily O.

THIRD PLACE:

Chook
Tara
Andrea
Chelsea
Cheryl

2007 DDBDC 4 Pictures!

2007-06-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who has been sharing pictures. There are some really spectacular shots in here. If you have some you want to share, send me an email, and I will share the link with everyone here.

Marc's

Semmel's (if they make you sign up, i find that just typing in spammer@spammer.com with the password spammer usually works on these sites)

Shannon's

JoAnne's

Chris K's

2007 Answer Key and DDBDC 4 Explained

2007-06-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

Wow. What a year right? Best ever for some... maybe less than that for others. We were very sneaky with how we planned it this year. This would be the first year that the winners of the DDBDC would be chosen on speed alone. The first team to the end would be the winners; however, in no way could they make it to the end without solving 99% of their clues. In years past we would decide first through third place via a point system, where you still get a hefty amount of points for finishing fastest, but an equal, if not larger, amount for picking up extra challenge clues along the way. This would end up with the people who sprinted through the course, not picking up any clues, yet finishing it fastest, being beaten out by teams who would complete all their clues and arrive later.

As always, we had to change it up a bit this year. A few teams didn't make it to the final stages. Some people had earlier commitments and had to bail for fathers day, some whimped out before it even really started because of partying too hard the night before, and some teams just got eaten up by some of the clues. First off, let me say, if you didn't make it to the finish, that's alright, you are still loved and there is always next year to redeem yourself. For those of you who want a complete overview of the race, start to finish, to see what you may have missed, here it is:

To begin with, the DDBDC has, in part, always been about getting our different groups of friends to all hang out with eachother and co-mingle. Everyone shares the same common bond of either knowing Ollie or myself. We love you all, and want you all to get to know each other a little better. This year, when Mark and I were planning out the race, we decided to throw in the false hope that people could somewhat avoid hanging out with semi-strangers and stay in their comfort zone by choosing their own teams via a "pinata scramble."

Pinata Scramble? WTF? Well, if you weren't there, we filled a pinata with five different colors of buttons, numbered 1 through 9. We told everyone that there would be five teams of nine players: the red team, the orange, the blue, the green, and the purple. Once the pinata split open, they would then scramble to complete their team by choosing their button. The first team fully assembled would be the first team down the elevator and out onto the streets where they would recieve their packet of clues... Of course, when the pinata split, people went crazy and tried to get a team full of their friends, one group tried to assemble an all-star team of past winners which worked out great for what Mark and I had planned.

What Mark and I had planned for them was something we had talked about doing all the way back at DDBDC 2. We would force them to switch teams in a completely random way. When they got downstairs, each member of the first team was handed an envelope with the following message in it:

Chaos ensued and the new teams formed via the numbers on their buttons. Also in their packet, teams were given the means to get three pieces to decode a cryptogram of our making and a map of the areas they would be searching for clues in.

Here's a pic of the map, with some easily identifiable lank marks for them (Charlie-O's, Warung (chosen because there were no clues at either of these spots), and my place/LA Cafe):

There were three zones for each piece of the cryptogram. In Zone A they had to assemble a list of three digit numbers via a clue sheet. In Zone B they had to take charcoal rubbings of stickers we planted around town. In Zone C they had to complete a photo hunt and show their completed photos to the awesome staff at LA Cafe (thanks again guys!).

Here is the completed Zone A sheet:

Zone B, where they had to take the charcoal rubbings, turned out to be a roadblock for some teams. Mark and I were worried that some of the stickers would be taken down after the partial failure of DDBDC3 in Hollywood, but what really seemed to be the problem was that people were overlooking the little phone icon on the bottom of their rub sheet. What the rubbings actually revealed was a phone number to Mark's dad who graciously waited by the phone for 2 hours on Father's Day just so we could make this clue happen. When a team would call them, he would tell them to first complete their Zone A sheet then go to the Old Bank District Market, buy their favorite King Henry's treat, show their completed sheet, and Ray (nicest shop owner ever!) would hand over the Zone B key. The Zone B key was the actual cryptogram that teams must crack.

Zone B Rub Sheet:

Zone B Key/Cryptogram:

Zone C was a digital photo hunt along Broadway, where they had to collect three simple pictures. One on the top floor of Clifton's in the flag room, one with an ice-cream pushcart while eating ice-cream with the vendor, and one with a orange metro bus in the background. They would then take all of their photos to LA Cafe where they would be checked. If they had the right ones, their team would get the Zone C Key which was how to crack the font code.

Zone C Key:

Once they had all three pieces, they could begin to unravel the code in the cryptogram from Zone B. Here is the cryptogram solved:

THRDLVLPRSHINGSQRTRAFFICCONE = Third Level Pershing Square Traffic Cone. (Notice, there was no U used in the cryptogram. We just wanted to get teams into Bar 107 and have them pound a tall-boy of PBR.) Many teams assumed that the race would be over just by getting all three keys. Not so. Now they had to hoof it down to Pershing Square, find the third level (which confusingly is three levels down into the parking structure) and locate one of the traffic cones where we had stashed a whole new map.

On this new piece of paper, found under cones on the third level of the Pershing Square garage, was a detailed map of the square along with several points they must seek out, mark, and triangulate the location of a hidden key with. There were three keys hidden, one for first, second, and third place. Each key would unlock a prize box. Prizes included stenciled winners shirts (for first place), special buttons designating first, second, and third, DVDs, a weird Jesus clock (for second), and other assorted silly things we stuffed them with. When solving the map, you had to be fairly precise with your triangulation, or you would be searching in the wrong spot. This, hopefully, would prevent people from sneaking peeks at other maps and trying to cheat off of them. I really really wanted to convey this feeling somehow:

Indy, still holding the date, exchanges a long look with Sallah.

INDY
You said their top section was blank.
Are you absolutely sure?

Sallah nods.

INDY
Belloq's staff is seven and a half
inches short. They're digging in
the wrong spot!

Sallah and Indy begin to laugh. Amir gives them a glance
and returns to his wine. Sallah leans over and kisses the
old man.

Mark and I seriously discussed how f-ing awesome it would be if teams had to create some type of staff that would do the Raiders of the Lost Ark thing to reveal where your key was, but decided it would just be too time dependent because of the speed of the sun.

Anyway, here is the map with completed triangulation:

One key was tied in a tree, one was hanging from a twig down a drainage grate, the other was in a little pipe hole which was covered by a piece of metal on hinges. Two of the locations they were looking for were stickers we placed: the couch and the microphone.

After everything was said and done, and first through third had been decided, we sent the whole crew up to Charlie-O's for some drinks and blues.

Anyway, that's that. I'm sure this post is confusing as hell if you didn't run the race. At times it was confusing as hell just to wrap our brains around how we were going to do this whole thing, and I'm sure it was even more confusing to complete the course. For those who thought it was TOO confusing, I'll remind you, this is a "Challenge" not a "La-ti-da." As always, there were some hard parts, but they were meant to be. I only hope it didn't get you too frustrated, and I hope you all had fun with it, because that, honestly is the big payoff for putting this whole thing together.

That said, I can't wait for next year! ¿Habla Español?

with a love that can unleash chaos on downtown,
greg

Thanks guys

2007-06-19T08:48:00.001-07:00

Thank you to everyone, all of Ollie and my friends, and friends of friends for showing up. I hope you guys had as fun of a time playing as we had planning.

Thanks to everyone at some of my favorite neighborhood haunts: LA Cafe, Old Bank District Market, Old Bank DVD, Bar 107 and Lost Souls Cafe, for setting aside time in their busy workdays to cope with 50-some sweaty, semi-innebriated people running through their establishments searching for clues. Without you guys the race would not have happened.

And, big big thanks once again to Mark Eklund, who every single year has taken the time out of his life to help mastermind this shin-dig. Mark, your help is the best birthday gift possible.

Extra thanks to Mark's dad who took the time to sit by the phone on Father's Day waiting for someone else's kids to call.

And again HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLLIE!

Lots of love to you all, and thanks for participating!

-Mr. Gregory Jacobson

The 2007 Teams

2007-06-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

You've waited for this, sorry for the lagging. Anyway, without further ado, here it is [drum roll]... teams... this year... will be chosen by.... PINATA SCRAMBLE!

What? Pinata Scramble?

Yes. Pinata Scramble. It's not the newest combo meal at Taco Bell (although it should be), it's how you and fate shall pick your team.

... and buttons, there will be team buttons galore.

Let the assumptions begin!

See you all on Sunday!

with a love that can force feed a baby bald eagle,
greg

What To Bring

2007-06-12T01:11:00.000-07:00

Everyone, bring and don't forget:

• $11 dollars each (MANDATORY FOR COMPLETING RACE);
• Some method to covertly drink in public (highly recommend the old standby of margarita's in a green gatorade bottle);
• Good running/walking shoes;
• Working Digital Camera (if you said you could);
• Alcohol to add to the margarita jug, or bring your own tastey margaritas, or bring whatever you feel like drinking;
• Birthday Cheer
• Competitive Spirit

That's What It's all About or How You Lost Your Virginity Doing the Hokey Pokey

2007-06-12T00:38:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, it's hard to believe that it's already the 4th Annual D-Day B-Day Challenge. People often ask us, what is this so called DDBDC about? And, for that matter, what the hell is D-Day even about? Well, by now, we all know that D-Day is about honoring the brave men and women who selflessly gave their lives to the invention of the first inflatable mate, but what about this challenge thing? Is it a race? Is it a scavenger hunt? Both? Neither? The answer, undoubtedly, is yes.

According to the 1968 version of the official handbook, the DDBDC was started by the aboriginal tribes-people of southern Pershing Square as a way to honor the fallen members of seminal Spanish language boy-band Menudo (as deemed proper within their local neighborhood ordinances and zoning laws). Since then, the Challenge has grown to be a beast with it's own brain, heart and anatomically correct fun-spots. There may not be quite as much animal sacrifice and self-flagellation anymore, but there is easily as much nudity and firearms. This, coupled with a love of expectorating in public, is really what the D-Day B-Day Challenge is all about.

Ollie, Greg, Mark, Jesus Christ, Bjorn Borg, Steve Vai, that creepy guy who lives down the hall from you with the hairlip, the 14th Dalai Lama and Wario... all people who come to mind when you think of evil geniuses with magical powers born on the 6th of June. I know you're curious, and the answer is: no, these brave souls did not invent the month of June, but they should have, because it would be so fucking rad your face would melt right off of it's utterly stupefied skull. And we all know how much you love melted face on a warm summer day.

Anyway. That should pretty much clear up all your stupid questions. See you on Father's Day this year.

Con amour,

Sir Winston Churchill

Getting Here

2007-06-12T00:33:00.001-07:00

We will be meeting at mine and Brooke's place HERE. (I no longer live on Flower St.)

If you plan on out-drinking me, I recommend public transportation.

You can easily take the Metro Subway Red-Line and exit at Pershing Square, walk east a few blocks to Spring St, hang a right, and you're pretty much there.

Just about every bus line in Los Angeles will eventually deposit you right on our doorstep or a few blocks away.

Click HERE for a really confusing website on all the local bus lines and subway routes from metro.

As far as parking goes, our building is flanked with parking lots and ample parking meters (which are free on Sunday and failed most of the week anyway).

(pictured: 2006 DDBDC participant/exchange student, Bjorgen takes a ride through the big city)

Time to Buy a New Watch

2007-06-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

You already know it's gonna be on the 17th, and now you know the time:

Arrive at Brooke's and my pad at Spring Towers at 1:00pm

Teams leave at 2:30 sharp! If you are here at 2:31 you will be prompty executed via multiple paper cuts.

The race should run approximately 2 hours.

Problems? Click here

with a love that can turn goat milk to goat cheese,
greg

Who Has a Digi-Cam?

2007-06-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

We need to know who can show up on Sunday with a working digital camera. Let us know via our ddaybday gmail account.

with a love that breaks upon the shores of your nether-regions,
greg

Ourspace

2007-05-30T18:04:00.001-07:00

In case you didn't know, the DDBDC myspace page is now up and running thanks to Mark. Here's the link: www.myspace.com/ddaybdaychallenge. Befriend us to get our informative posts.

The 2007 DDBDC is upon us. PREPARE YO'SELVES BITCHES!

2007-05-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

This year's DDBD Challenge will tenatively be held on Sunday, the 17th of June even though D-Day (aka. Ollie and Greg's Birthday) is on the 6th. As always, RSVP is mandatory. An email address located at the bottom of this post has been set up for this purpose.

Currently we are getting everything ready for the Challenge and are in need of nailing down an exact head count. As always, all friends of Ollie and myself are welcome, so in the event that we don't have your email (which is highly likely), please hit us up at the email address below so you can recieve regular updates. If you would like to bring a friend, please check with us first (either Mark, Ollie or myself) as space is somewhat limited and we'd like to make sure that as many of our friends as possible can make it before we start inviting people we've never met, no matter how cool or shapely they are. As always, significant others are gladly welcome to join in on the mayhem.

As far as a kick-off point goes, we will be meeting at my lovely lady Brooke's and my loft on Spring St. between 6th and 7th downtown.
Here is the link to the Google Map. The building is called the Spring Tower Lofts. We're in Apartment 2B.

The exact location of the Challenge itself will be disclosed upon arival.

I guess there's not much else to say other than, save the date of the 17th for the usual mayhem/fun and don't forget to check back to this site for updates aplenty from Mark, Ollie and myself.

We will also have a myspace.com page up and running soon as well, so look for that in the coming week.

MANDATORY RSVP TO: our super special gmail address
Include your first and last names, shirt size, shoe size, eye color, and attach your current favorite mp3 (if possible).
RSVP by June 8th.

I am missing A LOT of friend's emails or have outdated email addresses, so don't feel bad if you are getting this info second hand. Trust me, you are still loved and absolutely invited. If you know for a fact that I forgot someone, please please make sure they get the link to this site and have them send us an RSVP to get added to our list.

with a love that will ring throughout the ages,
Greg