Conundrum - Abulafia Random Generators

I made a random generator tonight to help jumpstart fictional situations like short stories or imaginary TV pilots I make up in my head. It poses the main question facing a protagonist.

Conundrum - Abulafia Random Generators:

"When it comes down to it, the choice is between preserving a shred of dignity and keeping your family together, isn't it?

Is it possible to overcome mental illness and still end up forgiving someone?

When a family secret interferes with a solemn promise, which will you follow?"

Work in progress, but I like it so far

Rituals

I had an excellent Thanksgiving. Other than sick kiddos, everything about this trip was just as I would have liked it - I got to spend a whole week someplace instead of just a few days, had good food and lots of great family around, got to go to Jiffycon and play some games and meet new people, and generally have an excellent time.

While I was on vacation, I decided to actually start on an idea I've had for a long time. I make lots of random generators, for gaming and just because I like to see how little bits of creativity each contributed atomically can add up to interesting and unexpected results. The idea I'd been nurturing but not starting on was to make a random generator that could come up with new cultural rituals. Societies are filled with ritual, and imagining interesting fictional societies means imagining the rituals that might fill their lives. So I started listing all the occasions on which rituals, ceremonies, or rites are performed in one column, and the substance of the rite in another column. I enlisted the help of one of my sisters and a couple of my nephews, and we ended up with quite a list.

Then last night, I made it: Rituals Generator

warning: not all of the rituals it will generate are 'child-safe'. As with real rituals, sex is sometimes involved.

meme: Random TV Show Pilot

Ok, so mine's below, and I'm counting on Davey and those of you without blogs to do this in comments here, but those of you who have blogopresence do this in your own space & link to this post. Here are the rules:

1) Go to the tvtropes Story Generator and get your random elements. Copy these into your blog post (or comments). If you get a totally sucky set, you can refresh and get another one, but try to do it with whatever you get the first time.

2) Write an outline for the pilot of a TV show using as many of the elements as possible. Post it on your blog or here. If you do this on your own blog, please post a link to it in comments here so we can all enjoy it. Try not to get fired from work for nonproductivity.

3) Go!

Edit: This meme will take more time than you anticipate; it is not for the weak. Bonus points if you cast your main roles.

The Violent Glaswegian next door

In comments on the xkcd post, amid accusations I am ruining his life/costing him his job, Davey reminded me of an excellent site: tvtropes.

In particular, I'm a sucker for random generators (whence my work with Abulafia), and tvtropes does not disappoint. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you tvtropes' Story Generator, which will most amusingly outline an episode of an imaginary TV show for you. The result I just got was:
Setting: Cyberspace
Plot: Jumping Off The Slippery Slope
Mandatory Narrative Device: Cursed With Awesome
Hero: Genius Bruiser
Villain: The Libby

Mandatory Character As Device: Violent Glaswegian
Mandatory Trope 1: Dressing As The Enemy
Mandatory Trope 2: Acceptable Targets
(Optional) Stock Phrase: I Heard You Were The Best
(Optional) Genre: Science Show


Which is totally a show I would watch!You had me at Genius Bruiser vs. The Libby, but throw in a Violent Glaswegian and set it in cyberspace and I'm there! It's going to be all Mean Girls meets the Matrix meets Macbeth! Heathers meets Hackers meets Highlander! Here's my quick plot outline based on the above:

Beat 1: Our hero, Gordon [genius bruiser], is big, strong, and a talented hacker, but not good looking. He hosts a [science show] (within a show) on public access tv/Youtube [cyberspace] where the format is lessons in computer security punctuated by backyard Mexican-style wrestling matches between Gordon and his crew (show name: Linux Lucha Libre!). Megan McFadden, the morbid red-haired goth chick recently moved next door from Scotland [violent glaswegian], watches the wrestling from her window; develops crush on Gordon. Gordon's sister Julie [the libby] also has an ongoing video podcast series entitled "Jules & the Gang" and its her and her popular friends dishing gossip and being catty about the losers at their school, which to Julie definitely includes Gordon & his loser friends [acceptable targets]. Their show is wildly popular, all the wannabees at school watch Jules & the Gang hoping to be favorably mentioned or looking for who to pick on. Everybody loves and hates Jules & the Gang. Until one of the nerdy kids they've been ripping apart on the show kills himself [jumping off the slippery slope]. That's all just setup, the first 15 minutes of our hour-long pilot.

Beat 2: The first day of school. Megan decides the only way to stop Julie and get with Gordon is to infiltrate Jules & the Gang, and so hides away the leather & eyeshadow in favor of cool kid clothes [dressing as the enemy]. She hates them all with a violent Scottish passion, but it turns out she's actually really good at being popular even though she's all conflicted about it [cursed with awesome]. Meanwhile she and Gordon start to flirt a little. Climax of this beat comes when Jules & the Gang make fun of Gordon and Megan has to join in or risk the whole operation. She does - Gordon is devestated.

Beat 3: Megan's plan hits stage 2 - she's going to sabotage the Jules & the Gang videocast, inserting scenes of (gasp!) Jules and the other girls without makeup, or showing them as the insecure girls they really are (she's been sneaking footage of them with this weeks product placement - a small videocamera). But in order to make that happen, she has to get Gordon's help computerwise ['I heard you were the best']. Gordon and her get together, sabotage videocast. Day after the new Jules & the Gang hits the web, Julie and the other girls come to school furious and looking for a fight. Megan, now back in her goth garb, gets into a catfight with several of the Gang in a hallway, kicks ass, pulls hair, claws faces, shouts awesome Scottishisms at them. All looks resolved, except for the teaser for next week where we see Julie plotting sweet revenge.

That's my random show - thank you tvtropes and thank you Davey - you've had your revenge while I thought about all this instead of work.

Edit: Now with casting!
*Gordon: I'm thinking Jesse Plemons of Friday Night Lights fame might be sufficiently big but nerdy.
*Julie: Emilie de Ravin (sans Aussie Accent as in 'Brick') or even Heroes' Hayden Panettiere would be good.
*Megan: This one's tricky, but maybe with proper dialect training, Bonnie Wright (whom you know as Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter films) might do the trick.