Is it just me, or are these things truly getting harder to judge? As the teams become more experienced and more creative, I'm finding it more difficult to stick to the posted criteria when evaluating challenges. Sometimes a team's submission is so darn good, I'm tempted to throw the criteria out altogether & go with my gut instinct.

Tempted yes; succumbed; no.  

I think it was a great idea to strongly promote audience engagement in this last challenge, & I certainly enjoyed following & participating in some of the discussion. Didn't quite become bilingual with 'pirate talk' but did pick up a few lines. However, now we judges have to pay for that by more strictly estimating & assessing the 'generation of dialogue.'  

I've done the best I can & now I'm ready to start the formal judging. After making my list & checking it twice, I came up with a tie for first place! I'll enter my comments, starting with my Top Two, & work my way down. 

Last weekend a friend of mine died and this afternoon I attended his funeral/memorial service.

Leonard was a clinical psychologist and practitioner of transactional analysis.

At todays memorial a small pamphlet on Leonard was available for all of us to take and keep as part of our memory of him.

One thing in the pamphlet jumped out at me - Leonard's List of the Senses, which were listed as:

- Movement

- Hearing

- Touch

- Smell

- Taste

- Sight

- Balance

- Time

- Direction

- Humour

- Discovery

I couldn't help but reflect on how this list of senses compared to the four abilities associated with this weeks challenge (vision, hearing, mobility, dexterity). I thought it was so wonderful, and so Leonard, to add time, direction, humour, and discovery to our traditional concept of the senses. A sense of humour or no sense of time are common expressions, yet we don't usually consider them as true senses. To Leonard they were and I can't help but wonder how inclusion of them would factor in to principles of universal design and the continuum of functioning. For example, what would the continuum of functioning be for the sense of humour? And where am I on that continuum? Or time, or direction, or, best of all, discovery? This is a conversation Leonard would have loved to take part in and so in memory of him I thought I'd add it to the discussion.

Paul

Er, are there any?

Also, regarding our forum discussion, is it entirely self-led? We're kind of big on discussing things in real life, because there's sun and coffee shops in real life. Using the forum really isn't something we'd be productive doing on our own.

Is there going to be a wrap-up party for D2BD? It would be cool to meet everyone in real life although I'm sure not everyone would be able to make it because of location.