7/10/2007: Todd fails to complete "Harry Potter and the Two Towers"

Sorry guys, my wife had surgery today and I will not get this task done. Too much other stuff going on and not enough time to play. I think I want to go back to being 9 years old again! Can't we have a task to build a time machine and travel back to our childhood?! That would be a great task!

Go ahead and choose a task from the the refusal pool and give me a point. All is going well here, but will be taking care of the missus for a few weeks. I should be back for next week, so don't count me out!

5/29/2007: Stephen Accepts "Penny For Your Food"

Wow, that's a mean task! I will give it a shot though. Forgive me for not being more timely or eloquent, as I just spent the last 7 hours dancing with photoshop.

5/26/2007: Marianne Has Completed "On Safari!"

It sure was an interesting day to say the least. If the people in my town don’t think I’m nuts than they’re nuts! I started off trying to observe people in regular places like gas stations and grocery stores but it didn’t work because people weren’t standing around long enough for me to capture them on film. I ended up filming at a park next to the zoo.
I dressed in my finest safari clothes and set off to watch an interesting mix of people. You can’t tell by the video but people stopped to watch at each location. You can hear them in the background and you can see me trying to get out of each location pretty fast, since I don’t know all the technicalities on stalking laws.
Filming five people was harder than I thought it would be. People move way too fast for me to be able to comment on their behaviors. In most pictures I just let their actions speak for themselves.
Here is the video:
On Safari! (High: 21.3 MB)
On Safari! (Low: 6.4 MB)

5/17/2007: Todd Has Completed "Star Wars Parody Song"

This is to the tune of "Pirates who don't do anything" by Veggietales!
Here is the song if you've never heard it.

Ok, now the change up:
Jedi who don't do anything

We are the Jedi Who Don't Do Anything
We just stay in the temple and lie around
And if you ask us to do anything
We'll just tell you, we don't do anything

Well, I've never been Yavin and I've never been to Endor
And I've never used a mind trick on Sullust or on Drall
And I've never been to Kamino and I've never been to Geonosis
And I've never been to Bespin in the fall

'Cause we're... {Refrain}

And I never did my training and I never use the force
And I never light my saber 'cause I never fight at all
And I've never walked on sand dunes and I've never owned a droid
And I've never been to Bespin in the fall

'Cause we're... {Refrain}

Well, I've never whacked a bantha and I'm not too good at nuna ball
And I've never thrown my blue milk up against the wall
And I've never kissed a gundark and I've never gotten mynocks
And I've never been to Bespin in the fall

{Refrain}

And I've never licked a binder and I've never sniffed a dewback
And I've never painted daisies on the back of General Tarful
And I've never bathed in bacta and I don't look good in leggings
And we've never been to Bespin in the fall

Thank you, Thank you very much!

5/10/2007: Stephen Accepts "Pee-Wee's Playhouse"

Ok, I will do it, though I can't say I will put full effort into the screams in the middle of the office, but people will hear them anyways.
The word will be ROOM.

5/10/07: Allison Has Completed "Office Olympics"

Well I had a lot of fun with this one. It was a trial getting people to help me out. Since I work in an office that's usually pretty slack, I thought everyone would jump at the chance to be a part of the office olympics. Unfortunately for me, today a lot of people were actually busy. Eventually I got John M, John K, and Chris to help me out by promising them fame and fortune. I lied about the fortune part, but maybe by appearing on Rutless.com they will achieve fame. Maybe not.

I broke it down into 3 events.

Longshot: A contest to see who could shoot a rubberband the furthest down the hall. Each contestant stands behind a tape line on the carpet and shoots as far as he/she can. Whoever shoots the furthest wins the gold.

Basketball: A contest to see who could shoot the most paperballs (out of 10) into a wastebasket. Each contestant stands behind a tape line in the carpet and shoots all 10 paperballs at the wastebasket. Whoever gets the most out of 10 into the basket wins the gold.

Chair Spin: A contest to see who could spin the longest off of one kick on the floor or desk. A stopwatch is used to measure the time from kicking until the chair comes to a complete stop.

Overall, I suck. The boys killed me at office olympics.

In the Longshot, John M shot the furthest, getting the gold. Chris got the silver, and John K got the bronze.

(click on pics to see full size)

In the basketball, John M got 8 out of 10, winning the gold again. John K, Chris and I each got 3 out of 10. Since there was a three way tie, we each shot again and John K got 3 again, Chris got 4, taking the silver, and I got 2.


In the chair spin event, Chris slaughtered everyone with an outstanding 1 minute and 14 second spin, winning him the gold. John M took his only silver with 27.3 seconds. I actually took the bronze here with 25.3 seconds. John K showed his age (old) by only spinning a measely 22.6 seconds.


Overall, John M was the big winner with 2 gold and 1 silver.


Chris came in second with 2 silver and 1 gold.


John K brought 3rd place with 2 bronze.


I didn't place since all I could win was one measely bronze.


I still had fun though. Next year I plan to train a little longer.

5/9/2007: Allison Accepts "Office Olympics"

Oh Boy! This is going to be great! I need to start coming up with ideas now, I guess. I hope you'll be in the office tomorrow Stephen! If not it looks like I'll have to get some of the old people to participate. I will be having fun with this. Unfortunately, I still don't have the videotaping capability as I don't know how to get my video camera to successfully hook up to my computer (Brad!). I will surely post pictures though! Fun!

5/9/2007: Stephen Assigns "Office Olympics" To Allison

You must host an impromptu office olympics, which has to consist of three or more events.
Requirements: Since you are going to be stuck at work all day tomorrow, let's try to make it a bit more interesting. This task is inspired by an episode of The Office, my current favorite show on TV. You must come up with 3 or more events that people could compete in, but they must be office themed. It could be throwing paper clips in a cup from long distance, or yardstick pole vaulting (probably not a good idea to do that one). You need to get at least two other people to compete in the events along with you and you should award homemade gold, silver, and bronze medals for each event. As for what you need to post. Obviously, describe the office olympics thoroughly: What were the events, who participated, who won, etc. You should also make your absolute best effort to post video of the events. If not, then at least post a lot of photos. Have fun and literally break a leg!

5/9/2007: Stephen Has Completed "Van Gohn"

Ok, I did this one during my lunch break. I basically took a picture of myself on my cell phone, sent it to the computer, and then went photoshop crazy on it, Vincent Van Gogh style, until I had created a "digital painting". Once I was done, I was ready to sell it. Until today, I have never listed an item on ebay, so I had to go through the entire seller sign up process and then I had to create the auction listing for my "digital painting". I set it up as a 5 day auction. I figure, let's wait and see if it gets any press. I have two sets of links here, ones to the actual ebay pages and ones to local copies of the ebay pages stored on the rutless website (simply for backup purposes). Hope you enjoy! And please bid! ;P

Ebay Links:
The Actual Auction
Actual Search Result Showing The Auction

Backup Links:
The Auction
Search Result Showing The Auction
Search Result Showing The Auction Among Other Auctions

5/8/2007: Stephen Accepts "Van Gohn"

Well, this is a great task! I will try to do it justice. Maybe it will make it on one of those websites that posts weird ebay auctions. :)

5/8/2007: Todd Assigns "Van Gohn" To Stephen

Knowing your creative side, Stephen, this task should fit you to a tee. Your task, should you choose to accept it, will be to open an eBay auction that will last 1 day (if you do not have the 1 day listing option, then a 3 day listing is OK but will not end before the task is over). You will be auctioning off your very own digital creation, your interpretation of a Van Gogh painting. You may select any painting by Van Gogh and do your best to create something with the same style. You may spend no more than 30 minutes creating your “masterpiece”, we don’t want it to look too good.

In your listing, you must gush about your love for Van Gogh and how you’d like to one day be just like him. Allude to the fact that you are even willing to cut off your ear for inspiration if you must (especially if your masterpiece doesn’t sell).

At the end of the auction, you will send the winning bidder the full-sized JPEG of your
creation (which happens to be the exact image that you are using in the listing).
You should take a screenshot of your initial listing and any other relevant emails, bid
questions, etc. Describe why you chose the painting you chose to “copy” and give a brief
summary of the acivities on the listing by end of the day.

5/8/2007: Todd Has Completed "Old McDonald"

This being my first task and all, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I went into work with the full intention of getting a lot of laughs and a lot of strange looks. I got the day started on a pretty good note, but as the day progressed I found little time to get away to be an animal. When I was filming the first shot outside, I had told a few of the guys in the office what I was doing and when I started filming that part, they just happened to walk up and start harassing me. If you listen closely, you can hear them in the background “bocking” along with me. There were a few people off-camera that chuckled as they went by. In the shot with “guy in cube #39” (where I was making dog noises), he seemed like he was a little scared of me from that point on. He's a great guy, but I don't think he'll ever look at me the same again.

I had to leave from work and go straight to my son’s baseball game that’s where the last two shots were filmed. I had told the kids that we were going to make animal noises and they were so funny, I couldn’t help but include them in my submission.

All-in-all this was a fun task. Even though I don’t think I did it justice (didn't get to do an animal every hour), I do get extra points for adding in some cute kids, don’t I?!

Thanks Nathan for the laughs! Oh, and if you get a strange package at your door that smells of 3 year old pork rinds, I don't know anything about it. :)

Old McDonald Video (Medium: 2.9 Mb)

5/7/2007: Todd Accepts "Old McDonald"

This should be interesting for my first task! I'll be at WORK tomorrow from 9am to 5pm, so I'm going to have some interesting looks from my coworkers!

Ok, bring on the farm animals... Bock Bock... Moooo..

5/7/2007: Nathan Assigns "Old McDonald" to Todd

From 9:00am to 5:00pm tomorrow you must act like a different animal on the hour every hour.Requirements: You must physically act and make noises like a different animal every hour on the hour and film yourself doing the act. Post both the movies and your experience of the events. If you can get peoples reaction to your gestures that will help us know how good of an actor you really are. A couple of examples of animals might be a chicken, cow, or monkey. Have fun doing this and remember that the more creative you get the more comments the you will see.

5/7/2007: Nathan Has Completed "Chalk Body Outlines"

This task was awesome to see how many different places in public that you can find to draw chalk people. I went with Stephen to find all different places to do this since we were together. He used his cell phone to take the shots, since I left my camera at home. The one on the tennis court was done and right after a couple of kids just played on the court without noticing it. The one on the railroad tracks got a lot of looks by people passing by, wandering what was going on. We had one old couple slow down to take a better look. I know that the other three will be seen at some point and will be asked who or what did them. The ones that I did were in places that tons of people and animals can see them. I wanted to see the looks on all the faces, but really didn't get to stick around since it was getting a little dark. I hope that the rest of the tasks will be this fun to do.
You can view the pictures here:

5/6/2007: Nathan Accepts "Chalk Body Outlines"

This is going to be crazy. I am going to have fun with this one, knowing how Stephen thinks. If this is a start I am waiting what will come up in the end. Also,if I end up in jail, give me a visit to let me know how things are going. Watch for the local hillbilly Mon. to see how it went.

Cast Order For The Week Of 5/7/2007

Here is the order for the first week of Season 2 of Rutless. Brandon has dropped out, so I will be filling in for him until we fill the spot:
Monday: Nathan
Tuesday: Todd
Wednesday: Stephen
Thursday: Allison
Friday: Stephen (Filling In For Brandon's Spot)
Saturday: Brad

5/5/2007: Stephen Assigns "Chalk Body Outlines" To ?

You must draw 5 chalk body outlines in unusual places in public.
Requirements: You need to go buy some large white chalk (like kids play with in the driveway) and go out in public and draw 5 chalk body outlines (like police draw around dead people) in various, unusual spots. And when I say unusual, that can mean an unlikely place for someone to die or an impossible place for a body to be laying, such as on a wall. At a minimum you need to take 5 photos of the 5 outlines, which need to prove they were drawn in public and in unusual spots. Preferably, take additional photos to document the entire experience. If possible, get photos of people's reactions. Optionally, you can also use white spray paint so that you can make use of more locations where chalk won't stick. Describe the experience, reactions, etc. and include the photos in your post.
Example of a chalk body outline:

Additional Discussion: This is the first task for Rutless Season 2. It is not yet known who will perform this task. This will be decided when the random drawing is done on Sunday to determine the order of the cast members for Monday thru Saturday. The person who draws Monday will have to do this task or take a task from The Refusal Pool, but at a Penalty.

5/3/2007: Rutless Season 2 To Begin Next Week

It has been almost a year since the end of Season 1 of Rutless, so it's about time we brought it back for another go. A task will be posted Saturday and the order for next week will be drawn and posted on Sunday and then we will be back in action. What will this season bring? Embarrassment? Humiliation? Rough housing? Snakebites? Decapitation?
Hopefully.
But only time will tell. Stay tuned!

10/12/2006: Rutless.com Moves To Billtvshow.com

Rutless.com has now moved to Billtvshow.com as one of its content sections. A large portion on the website has been updated to have correct urls for images, videos, etc, but some still remains, so you may experience some dead links for awhile.

7/17/2006: Two News Updates

1. My Dan Marino postcard from the Postsecret Task made it onto Postsecret.com!
2. Rutless.com may be moving over to Billtvshow.com as one of the sections there, though it's not decided yet. No word on Season 2 yet.

7/2/2006: Bonus Task: Stephen & Tyson Have Completed "Stephen & Tyson Go To White Castle"

On the first weekend of July, Tyson and I left for Seymour, Tennessee, where I would record an album in a professional studio. After that was complete, our next goal was to go to the first White Castle we came to, as a tribute to one of our favorite movies: Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. On the day of the recording, we ate a very small lunch and it was not until 10 hours and about 200 miles later that we reached the promised land. The meal was just as great as we ever imagined. We each had 10 hamburgers, also called "White Castles" or "Slyders". We also had 2 orders of fries each, a Big Red drink each, and split an order of chicken rings. You can check out all of the madness by clicking the picture:

The Cast Of Rutless.com Has Completed "Season 1"

Yes, after 12 straight weeks, Season 1 of Rutless.com has been completed. At some point, in the somewhat near future, I should be posting a full recap of Season 1. As of now, we have no idea when Season 2 will occur. We hope you have enjoyed this first season of Rutless.com and make sure to look for possible bonus tasks or material on Rutless during the offseason.

6/10/2006: Stephen And Seth Have Completed "Wal-Mart Games"

We went today about 3:00pm, right before Seth's work shift started at Wal-Mart. I was at a decided disavantage, as he already knows where most everything is in the store. We both chose twenty items and he finished putting mine back when I had about 9 items of his left. The items that I had to put up included aquarium solution, a grill, children's underware, a saturn shaped pillow, and so forth. Seth's items included a scooter, a folding chair, a desk clock, and a bunch more small items. Here are two photos of us holding the buggies of items that we had to replace:

Seth With The Items He Had To Put Up
Stephen With The Items He Had To Put Up

6/8/2006: Stephen And Seth Have Chosen "Wal-Mart Games" From The Refusal Pool

Here are the details of the task we chose: 1. "Wal-Mart Games"
Your task is to get together and go to Wal-Mart (or Target, or wherever). Once there, you are to each get a cart. You must seperate and go around filling up the cart with as many obscure objects as possible. Once the carts are full, you must them come together and switch carts. Then, you must put back, in the right place, all of your partner's obscure items.
Requirements: Post either video and/or pictures showing you did this task.

6/8/2006: Brandon And Tyson Cannot Complete "Hide And Seek"

Brandon and Tyson did not complete their task, Stephen and Seth can pick from the two person team tasks in the Refusal Pool.

6/6/2006: Allison and Brad Assign "Hide and Seek" to Brandon and Tyson

Brandon and Tyson, your task is simple. You are assigned to go to a local store, preferably a Wal*Mart, but a grocery store will do, and play a game of good old fashioned Hide and Seek. Make a game out of it. Have the person with the fastest time be the winner. Get someone to time you, or do it yourself.
Requirements: If possible get video, but if not, we'll go ahead and trust you. You must be TOGETHER at the place of business and tell us all about your hiding spots, and who had the best time, and the best place to hide. Good Luck.

6/6/2006: Brad and Allison Have Completed "Racecar"

Brad came out to visit last night from Durham, and together we worked for about an hour coming up with 30 palindromes. Now, our words are mostly 3 letter words. This is just the way it is. We promise we didn't use the internet. We did, however, watch Golden Girls and pay attention to every word that was said to try and come up with these. Let me just tell you, those Golden Girls need to use more palindromes. Ah well.

Here's our glorious list: (and can I just add that there are an uncanny amount of naughty words that are palindromes?):
1. racecar
2. dad
3. mom
4. did
5. dud
6. bib
7. bob
8. tat
9. gag
10. tit
11. pup
12. mum
13. eve
14. tot
15. pop
16. noon
17. poop
18. toot
19. boob
20. ewe
21. peep
22. tut
23. wow
24. gig
25. madam
26. nun
27. deed
28. sees
29. level
30. eye

We had a few more, but upon closer inspection (i.e. looking in the dictionary), we realized they weren't really words!
So there ya go!

6/5/2006: Allison And Brad Accept "Race Car"

Well it's a good thing Brad is coming to see me tonight, we can work on this together. I had no idea til this morning that we would be doing partner tasks again! ooops! We'll get it done!

Cast Order For The Week Of 6/5/2006

This is the 12th and final week of Season 1 of Rutless.com and after this week we will be taking a lengthy break. Hopefully we can go out with a bang by doing another week of two-person teams. Here are the teams:
Monday/Tuesday: Allison & Brad
Wednesday/Thursday: Brandon & Tyson
Friday/Saturday: Seth & Stephen

6/3/2006: Seth Assigns "Race Car" To ? And ?

This task in fact has nothing to do with a race car but everything to do with words. Palindrome: A word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. Person and Person, your task is to find 30 palindromes, and post them. This work can be split up however you like, be it 15 a piece or not. And please don't just get palindromes off the net, try to come up with some creative ones yourselves.
Requirements: Post all of the palindromes that you come up with.

6/3/2006: Seth Has Completed "Use Heroin For Your First Time"

This goes to the tune of the Ducktales Theme Song

Life is a pain here in Morganton.
High fives, mustard, test drive
It's a rut blur
Might be buying Wendy’s
Or even hiding Cd’s
Rutless! Woo Hoo!
Everyday they're out there being
Rutless! Woo Hoo!
Tasks of daring, new, bad and good…
R-r-r Rut lurks behind you
There's the next task out to get you
What to do just get out and be
Rutless! Woo Hoo!
Everyday they're out there being
Rutless! Woo Hoo!
Tasks of daring, new, bad and good
Rutless! Woo Hoo!
Not pony tales, or cotton tales no
Rutless! Woo Hoo!

6/2/2006: Seth Accepts " Use Heroin For Your First Time"

Oh I have a feeling that my lack of creativity will only make for a theme slogan not so much song, but maybe I'll get something.

6/2/2006: Tyson Assigns "Use Heroin For Your First Time" To Seth

Ok, so this task has abolsutely nothing to do with heroin or drugs or anything like that. I just wanted to put that as the title. Honestly, I've been thinking on and off for the past hour trying to come up with something for you to do. I think I've finally come up with something. Hopefully, you feel up to doing this. Seth, your task should you choose to accept it, is to write the lyrics for a Rutless.com theme song. I'm not going to put a limit on how long or how short it has to be, but hopefully if you do it you will put a little thought into it and make it reasonable. You don't have to do anything over the top by any means. Just a little tune. Maybe, hopefully, sometime in the future we will have Stephen sing the song. hehe. Well, have fun!

6/2/2006: Tyson Has Completed "Options"

Well, this task pretty much ended up sucking. I picked task #3. Which was to shake a can of Sundrop or Moutain Dew up for 20 minutes and open it in the passengers seat of my car. Stephen and I both thought that maybe 20 minutes was a bit too much. As in, maybe it would kill all the pressure in that extended period of time. It did just that. It was a big disappointment as far as the explosion went. We probably should have done it for about 3-5 minutes. Anyway, here is the video if you wanna check it out:
Shaken Can Option (Medium: 3.1 MB)

6/1/2006: Tyson Accepts "Options"

This is one kick ass task! I will not give away which one I am picking, because I do not know myself. However, I will tell you it's not gonna be the wildlife, and most likely not the TV. Not the wildlife, because I am too lazy. Not the TV because I only have one good eye and I don't want to damage that any further. So it's gonna be something funny at this point. Haha. Anyway, this should be fun. Hopefully, Stephen can come during his lunch to help me film.

6/1/2006: Stephen Assigns "Options" To Tyson

I've been saving this task up for awhile now and it's time to unleash it.
You will be given 5 options. The most risky option will also be the least time consuming, while the least risky option will be the most time consuming.
When you complete one of the options, your task for the day is complete.
Option 1: High Risk / Very Quick
Film yourself hitting a real golf ball inside of your house. You must use a driver and must swing as hard as you would during a normal drive on the course. It must make impact with a hard object. Whatever happens, happens.
Option 2: Medium/High Risk / Quick
Film yourself riding a bicycle full speed into a pine tree that is at least 5 feet tall. You may use a ramp if you would like. You can't hold back on the speed though.
Option 3: Medium Risk / Average Speed
Shake up a canned mountain dew or sun drop for 20 minutes. Film yourself opening the can quickly, with the can suspended over the driver's seat of your car.
Option 4: Medium/Low Risk / Slow
Sit as close as you can to the TV and watch a home shopping channel for 40 minutes. Take pictures and post some.
Option 5: Low Risk / Very Slow
Go out with a camera and take pictures of wildlife for one hour. Make a flickr set of the ten best pics.
Requirements: Post your reactions to each option and then tell us which you chose and post the required elements of that option.

6/1/2006: Stephen Has Completed "Fake Black Eye"

Well, I got up this morning and read the task and went and fixed up the eye with some kind of eye shadow pen that mom had. It looked pretty darn good, but I noticed it wore away very easy. When I got to work, I noticed several strange looks from familiar people, but no one asked me about it. I even went to lunch with my brother, dad, and cousin and none of them mentioned it. It wasn't until after lunch that one person asked me, "What happened to your eye right there?" I used the elbowed playing basketball story as I mentioned in the acceptance. That was it. Some odd looks and one question. I repainted it when I got home for a quick photo session and I've posted the best photo below. Click on it to view the full size:

Stephen's Shiner