This game can be played with any objects, not just a stuffed duck and stress balls. We have added a stuffed linux penguin to our game so that I get to throw stress balls at something (since I can’t throw them at the duck).

The penguin is fair game for anyone to practice on. Anyone can put it up or take it down, and no points are awarded or tracked.

The duck however goes like this:

1) For every week the duck has been up or down, that’s five more throws per day. So the first week you get 5 throws to put the duck up per day, the second week you get 10 throws to put the duck up per day, third week 15, etc. until you get it up (same applies for getting it down).

2) Each day you fail to get it up is one point to the other team (that’s what she said, and the same applies for getting it down).

3) There are absolutely NO practice throws.

4) If you are on the putting it up team, and you accidently knock it down, it counts. You have just screwed your team. Good job. Yes this has actually happened… Same applies for the team trying to get it down, if they accidently put it up, it counts, although this is a lot less likely to happen, because how do you “accidently” put a duck in some rafters…

5) If a non-player participates in the game, and changes the status of the duck, the action is reversed for free. So if the duck gets knocked down, the “putting it up” team gets to put it back up for free. This is the only time “practice” is given, they are not limited to 5 tries, they must keep trying as long as they are able until they get it so that the other team’s tries are not disrupted.

6) Throws do not roll over. You must use the throws on the days they belong to. Only in RARE circumstances can exceptions be made, such as if a non-player knocks the duck down and you can’t get it back up in time for throws to be made for the day. The other team did not take their throws for yesterday because one member was on vacation, one was out sick, and one just “didn’t have time”. That’s poor sportsmanship! They let their team down! Use it or lose it!

7) If the object falls, and no one is around to witness it, it does not count. It get’s put back up for free.

The actual mechanics of the game work like this:

Take an object and (by throwing) put it somewhere out of reach. This could be a tree outside your office, or some rafters (if you work at a warehouse/best-buy/my office), or even just a tall fence (this could be tricky). Not that it has to be placed in a location that it could, by hitting it with another object, be knocked out of said location.

Now, once you have it up, the other team tries to knock it down with a different object. This could be a tennis ball, a bouncy ball, or a stress ball. Best if it is round, somewhat soft, but throwable (at high speeds), but will not hurt whatever/whomever it hits (it WILL hit people and things).

That’s it. Keep track of days using hash marks so you know how many throws you get. Each five days (one week) you get five throws added. Keep track of points through normal numbers since those will need to be easily readable for taunting purposes. Here is our scoreboard:

The “world” team is the team trying to put the object up, the “duck” team is the one trying to get it down. If you are using a teddy bear, it would be “bear vs. world”. Just name the game after whatever the loved/hated object is and then tag “vs. world” onto it. It is usually best if the object is one that makes a noise when squeezed. So “elmo vs. world” would be awesome, because then when you get it down, you can make it taunt the other team with tons of elmoish sayings. Also, it is much more satisfying for the world team to kick the object when they get frustrated at not being able to put it up. You feel a nice solid “THUD” followed by the object flying across the room “screaming” as it goes.

Also, using a large whiteboard such as ours encourages extra written taunts. Like “bad-sportsmanship” points you can give to the other team that mean nothing, which they then change the title to “awesome people” points to make it look like you are saying they are awesome. Then you change their names to your names to make it look like you are the awesome ones, and then they change it to “stupid people” and so on and so forth. Get creative…

After a vicious stand-off yesterday, Tiffany relented and allowed the duck to be placed back in the rafters.

Jason threw about 10~15 times, and I threw for a solid 30 minutes, and we couldn’t get him back up. Frustrated, I threw him up on a ledge for the night, and when I got back to work this morning, I got him up on my fourth try.

My best placement so far too. Strategically positioned so that he can only be thrown at from two inconvenient angles, one of which will only wedge him in further. Note the bar running perpendicular to the ducks position. Good blockage…

So when I got to work this morning and looked up in the rafters, this is what I saw:

If you said, “Looks normal to me” you’d be DEAD WRONG.

There should be a DUCK up there. When I left Friday the duck was in the rafters and the world was at 102 points (to duck’s 65 points). Looking down from the rafters revealed a duck lying on the floor. I immediately set up a crime scene:

Tiffany (who is the duck’s owner) is on the Duck’s team and admits to being the last one to leave on Friday, and to being in all alone on Sunday. She claims the duck was on the floor Sunday when she got here. She claims the storms shook him down.

Personally I believe her. But I think that we should get to put the duck back up for free. The duck team says that the duck was not properly placed, and therefor it should count as coming down since it has been hit by a ball legally since we placed it, and that it should count as a ball hit it down.

I think that is BS because the duck can’t “accidentally” fall up, but it can fall down. I proposed that if the duck came down within five minutes of being hit, it counts as a legal downing of the duck, and that if it stays up for five minutes after being placed in the rafters, it counts as a legal placing of the duck. Any falls outside of this five minute window result in the duck being re-placed for free, and no points awarded.

Ryan refuses to agree to this claiming that if it were to fall in the middle of the day in view of everyone it would count as a mis-placement, or a late fall as the result of a ball hit. However, since no one witnessed it’s descent we will never truly know what happened. He says we put the duck back up, or he quits the game for good (which is poor sportsmanship in my opinion, but whatever. He will be missed).

Further updates will be forth-coming…

Imagine if you will a stuffed aflac duck. Very ordinary… usual… white with yellow feet. Imagine if you squeeze this duck, it will utter the word “aflac” in an annoying voice.

Now imagine that perhaps your co-worker, whom you are comfortable with, brings this menace to work. Imagine further that she enjoys giving this duck a squeeze knowing full well the annoyance it inflicts upon you.

Perhaps you could stand it for a while… perhaps it’s even funny at first. Maybe it reminds you of the easy button from staples… But eventually, you hate this duck. The mere thought that her gentle grip upon it’s odious body could encite it’s issuing of this onerous meaningless phrase causes your left lower eyelid to flutter ever so slightly. The vein in your temple pulses with the rage it causes you. The outburst from this fowl foul causes your muscles to convulse as you jolt from your chair.

“Damn that infernal duck!!!!” you cry out as you grab the beast and launch it into the air… where it catches in the rafters twenty feet above.

“nooo!!!!” cries your co-worker, and runs over to a box of squeezy stress-balls and begins pelting the ceiling with them in an attempt to dislodge the poor hideous nuisance.

And thus… Duckball is born.

Two teams. Duck team and World team. Every time the duck is knocked down from the rafters Duck team gets a point. Every time duck team fails, World team gets a point. When Duck team succeeds, World team attempts to re-lodge the duck upon it’s lofty perch once more. If World team prevails, World team receives a point, if World team does not, then Duck team gets a point. Each day the duck or world team receive five tries to accomplish their goal (if you fail, the other team only gets one point per day, not per try). The number of tries your team receives per day increases by five for each week your team does not succeed.

This trail was one of the first tasks revealed to me upon my arrival at my new job. I am on the World team (trying to keep the duck in the rafters). So far, we are winning. Something like 78 to 56…

My new job looks like it is going to be fun.

Object chomperStomper = new FlashGame;
chomperStomper.sourceOpen = true;
chomperStomper.license = “MIT”;
chomperStomper.sourceLocation = “http://www.chomperstomp.com/littleGame.zip“;

chomperStomper.submitToGoogle = true;

And for those of you who don’t read fake Object Oriented Programming Code, I open sourced my chomperstomper game code today under the MIT open source license, and submitted it to google for consideration to be included on their gadgets page.

I think whether or not they include it might have something to do with how many people have added it already, so if you want to, click the link below to add the gadget to your google home page.

Working on a google gadget where you can be chomper (the little guy in the log of chomperstomp.com) and stomp around and do random things.

Right now it’s just a flag and a bug that you drag around to influence his movements. But if you think it’s cute, and want to keep up with my progress, you can add this as a google gadget to your desktop or google homepage. Here is the gadget URL: http://www.chomperstomp.com/chomperStomper.xml

Just put that in the search box in the “add gadget” page for google desktop or enter this in when you click “add gadget by url” for your google homepage.