Neptune Festival, Teams Division, 9/02

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Event: North American Championship

Location: Virginia Beach, VA

Dates: Sept. 26-28, 2002

Place: Second - Teams Division

Particulars: So Fred and I are trying to come up with an idea to hang a sculpture on, and I said "Hey - we're both geeks - let's do a geek sculpture!" Here is the story that evolved... There was this lonely geek who decided to create his ideal woman. He has connected his wired computer desk to the very latest Acme Transmogrifier, which is connected to an Acme Bio- Tank. His love emerges - perfect in every way but one: a simple programming error has resulted in an arm that looks way too much like a crab claw.

It's a complex tale and we give the judges a lot of credit for "getting it." We give ourselves a lot of credit for pulling this off through wind, rain and multiple collapses. And we give the contest organizers credit for making us feel greatly appreciated.

Event website: click here
More Pictures at Fred's Site: click here

At right, you can see what the sculpture looked like mid-way through the second day. (Check out the use of the new SandStacker forms - NINE in one poundup!) She was a big girl-- about 1.5 life-sized. Shortly after this photo was shot, the girl - and the biggest monitor on the desk - were toast.

We really appreciated that some of the contest volunteers took "in progress shots" throughout the event, printed them up and made them available to us. Below: this was right about when we first discovered the crack; Right: I start on face # 2 using the sand still standing

Scroll down to see a comparison of the two girls - pre and post collapse. I think the first was far superior, but the second was carved a lot quicker.

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Lucinda "sandy feet" Wierenga and Fred Mallett - South Padre Island, TX

"Frankengeek: One Byte Shy"