Preface. For those coming into this thread blank-slated, here's the low-down. Last year's winners of the Superman Compendium tournament, and facilitators involved, came up with a grand scheme to have players from the winning team autograph a mug, and send me said mug. There was a slight obstacle in accomplishing this ambitious task - these players are spread over two continents and three countries.

The journey began in Canada last summer. 16500 miles or 26500 km, and 9 months later, I received the mug. Complete surprise. That cat died trapped in the bag never seeing the light of day.


Received Compendium Mug: 3/7/2013

Here I am, trying to catch up. It’s been a tough week. Suddenly it all turned around. Based on a quick conversation with DankRider last week, I suspected he may be shipping me a Compendium mug. Ok, cool, I was on the losing team though! lol But I never expected the dedication and TLC that went into THIS mug. I'm blown away. Unreal. Surreal!

I read through the FSK405 forum thread detailing the mug's travels... inline comments:


“ I was not on the champion team and still took it upon myself to sign the mug.” -EZ

That’s called taking initiative! You were the chief facilitator. Unquestionably, you should have signed the mug. I might have had to send it back to you just to get your sig!

“Might as well blame John Carmack for creating Q3” -acetone

I do. Oh, I do. I’m sure every mapper in the QuakeSphere will concur.

“Thanks again for all the efforts Winners!! - Wily may get the mug before next season.” -dankrider

Butterflies. Burning stomach. I'm feeling total nervousness like getting ready to meet some hot girl on a first date. That’s all I’ve felt all evening. Tingly. Yep, got it before next season! Close one though.

“man the street value on this mug is going to be like $300.00
I think th Duk is going to be besides himself..” -dankrider

I’m a speechless idiot atm. Pure nonsensical banter. Called drider, left him some incomprehensible babble on his vm, he calls back, and I can’t even think straight, let alone talk coherently.

IM’d acetone next:
me: team acetone, for the win
acetone: FTW!
Thursday's are good days for packages, aren't they?
me: wow
I'm speechless, really have nothing intelligible to say
acetone: don't speak - just take it in
me: lol
thanks
acetone: good times! We've kept this under wraps for so looooong. Happy it finally made it to you
enjoy the moment
me: thank you for the mug, the thought and the effort that went into getting this to me
acetone: Dank's brainchild
EZ's idea for the mugs

It seems that smudging was quite an issue. When I opened the box, pulled out the mug, I’d thought it was -me- that smudged it all up. Whoa, that’s not going to fly. All these markers included … well I’m quite good at freehand retraces, and markers as an artists’ medium, so, let the repair work begin! Ah. Good as new! The forum pics helped too.

“The harder and longer it takes to get this mug signed and done, the more special a present to wily it will be.” -sheiladivine

To think it’s going to take over 3 more months. If only you knew, past selves! BWHUAHAHAHAH wait past me has to wait 3 more months?

“Thank you Wily and thanks everyone for working towards this!” -fu daddy

Com’n. All I did was receive the package. In fact it was my wife that got it from the mailbox. I’ll await my Least Effort Expended As Part Of A Large Project, Ever! award!

“It was tough not to drop a hint of a gift.” - dankrider

This must have been eating you all ALIVE. Two things. First, massive props for keeping the secret until the end. Second, I’m going to keep a much closer eye on this community. You’re sneaky. I need to be more careful.

“I'm going to the post office tomorrow, I'll send it again.” -jetdry

Double props to Jetdry. Now I understand the two colored sig. :)

“I'm guessing Wily will shed a tear or two when he opens it up.” -EZ

Oh, yea, that’d be just perfect. Rinse away the sigs with tears. Alright so I did get wet-eyed reading dank’s letter. It’s not every day a real-world Achievement shows up in the mail. I’m a man, dammit! Don’t admit nuthin! But really, it was hard not to roll some tearballs out. This is pretty damn special.

I haven't called EZ yet. I'm scrrd! Heck I didn't even want to call dankrider because I just couldn't pull myself together. Pretty emotional day and I'm stretched a bit thin. It's all incredibly amazing. Babbling again. Sometimes, it's easier to express in form rather than words. I think that may be the best approach to show how I really feel about this gift.

Another thing. How rude of me. I didn't even thank Dankrider on the phone. Thank you Dankrider! I owe you a verbal on that!

I'll get a pic of the resting mug soon and post it. I intend to get a nice show container to store it in (avoiding further smudges!).

K I'm done on this tonight. Thank you everyone involved! This means a lot to me!

:V

On what will you spend the hundred dollar bill that was taped to the inside of the mug?

On what will you spend the hundred dollar bill that was taped to the inside of the mug?

el kabong

An epic UrT Duck farm?

that's a really cool gesture

That is so awesome, gotta admit I welled up in the eyes reading that =) ... I am so very proud to be part of such an awesome generous group of people.. You Guys ROCK.. and Thank you Wily for the awesome map we all so very much enjoy... lets see how far the mug can go this year =)

Few things I found special about this project,

- SheilaDivine's sig under the mug - Much like WilyDuck's homage paid in the map

- JetDry - 2 Color / Shaded signature - JetDry sent the Mug to ChinaGirl certified mail. China was unavailable to receive the mug thus it was reshipped back to JetDry only to have to resend it. = 2 Deliveries = multi sig's / shading!

- Folks respected the available signing space

- Couple folks took the time to meet up in person to exchange the mug

- 9 Months with the only folks knowing about the project being the Acetone's / no leaks -

- Financial and time sacrifice /

- Lastly - 9 Months!! who can keep a secret that long