Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Month of MAYhem Residential Neighborhood Blogging challenge™

we are very proud to announce the flagship product of this year's Month of MAYhem Blogging Challenge™: the Month of MAYhem Residential Neighborhood Blogging challenge™!

if you have chosen this particular challenge for the Month of MAYhem™,  congratulations!

here's how it works:

on each day of the month of may you will find a residential property whose street number matches the day of the month. then you will choose and perform any activity from the list for that home. you may not use the same activity more than once, nor may you use more than one house from any given street.

any residential building is acceptable for use.

the list has 40 choices, so you should pick the 31 that best suit you.

it's sort of like a bingo card.

if you are arrested in the process of executing the challenge, you may show your "it's ok, i'm a blogger" credential as if that will explain everything. on any day you are arrested, your account of that story may replace the day's activities for the purposes of the challenge.

if you are en route to perform today's blogging challenge and an opportunity arises for something even MORE bizarre, you may substitute the more bizarre thing, but only if it is really more bizarre. if your cousin from out of town calls and you go out for coffee, that is not more bizarre.

you may report your results to your blog in any form you like, but you should report all of your results.


  1. find the house on google earth and take screenshots of it.
  2. go to the house and take a picture clearly showing the house number.
  3. go to the house at dawn and dusk on the same day and take lovely bookend pictures of the day.
  4. sit and make a detailed sketch of the house in pencil, charcoal, or pen and ink.
  5. make a painting of the house.
  6. stand quietly in the street outside the house until someone asks you what you are doing. record how much time passes. explain that you are standing there to see how long it will take before someone asks why you are there.
  7. if it is trash day, go through their garbage can and make a list of everything in there. take pictures.
  8. record five uninterrupted minutes of video of the house. if you are interrupted, start over.
  9. find two houses with the same street address, but in different states. drive from one to the other.
  10. find a house in every state with the same street address. put them on a map.
  11. find out where the closest pizza place that will deliver is to the house. if it is not close enough to any pizza place for delivery, measure the distance between the house and the pizza place.
  12. sit outside the house all day and take notes of everything that happens.
  13. call the people in the house at or just before dinner time and ask if you can buy them a pizza. if they say yes, buy them a pizza.
  14. make a time-lapse video of the house every five minutes for twelve hours.
  15. have a picnic in their front yard. 
  16. ask if they will take a picture of you standing in front of their house.
  17. knock on their door. explain what you are doing and ask if you can conduct a short interview with them about their house. you should have a few questions prepared.
  18. make a sketchup model or any other computer assisted model of the house.
  19. make a small sculpture out of items you find in the street outside the house. 
  20. lie down at the end of the driveway until someone asks you to move.
  21. tape a $20 bill to their front door. do not leave a note explaining why.
  22. ask if they have any yard chores you can do for them. if they say yes, do them. do a good job. you are a classy person.
  23. if the house is for sale, ask a realtor to show it to you.
  24. look up all the public records associated with the house. report its tax assessment and any other information you can find.
  25. search the archives of a local newspaper to see if the house has ever been mentioned in a news story.
  26. if you can see anything edible growing in the yard, ask if you can have some. bonus points if the thing is mushrooms.
  27. make a sound recording of a day at the house.
  28. bake something nice and bring it to the people at the house. bonus points if you drive over a half hour to get there.
  29. make a sculpture of the house in any medium you please. bonus points if that medium is marble or bronze.
  30. write and perform a short opera about the house. bonus points if you can get the homeowners and neighbors involved.
  31. describe the house by way of interpretive dance.
  32. identify five aspects of the house that can be expressed properly by some kind of graph. bring this to a logical conclusion by making the graph.
  33. make a hand drawn map of the neighborhood that includes local landmarks such as the nearest bodega, elementary school, golf course, and public park.
  34. arrange to be dropped off at an unknown location approximately two miles from the house. have an accomplice give you directions to get there without using any street names.
  35. figure out how long it would take you to get to the house by foot travel from the nearest public transit stop.
  36. find out the distance from the house to the nearest commemorated battle site. briefly explain the battle.
  37. list and explain the ten closest historical sites to the house.
  38. find out who built the house. find out as much as you can about the builder and report back.
  39. take a soil sample from the yard and have it analyzed. it's up to you whether you wish for this analysis to be geared toward gardening or public safety or just geological curiosity.
  40. plant a flower in the yard.

1 comment:

Nancy said...

Wait, for the month of May? So I have a little time to find someone else doing this?

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