Final results of Super Bowl Scramble 2015

As promised, here are the complete results of Super Bowl Scramble: The Road to Santa Clara, which ended last week when brothers Buddy Wayne and Bobby Ray Barefoot agreed to be co-champions.

Arizona - Billie Barefoot, chiropractor (eliminated Oct. 11 - 38-10 loss to ARIZ when he was redrawn to DET)
Atlanta - Rhett Jeffers, pro wrestling/auto racing commentator (eliminated Oct. 4 - 27-23 loss to WSH when he was redrawn to PHI)
Baltimore - Brooke Liptrap, BMN Superfan/The Call (eliminated Sep. 13 - 19-13 loss to DEN)
Buffalo - +Harvey Barefoot, linebacker/amateur wrestler (eliminated Sep. 20 - 40-32 loss to NE)
Carolina - Bobby Ray Barefoot, Gone Barefoot (co-champion)
Chicago - *Doug Scherer, BMN Superfan (eliminated Sep. 13 - 31-16 loss to GB)
Cincinnati - Brittany Raylene, bluegrass singer (eliminated Oct. 11 - 30-17 loss to NE when she was redrawn to DAL)
Cleveland - *Dustin Fox, ESPN college football analyst (eliminated Sep. 13 - 24-6 loss to NYJ)
Dallas - Billy Bob Ribble, bull rider/football linebacker (eliminated Sep. 27 - 32-28 loss to ATL)
Denver - Buddy Wayne Barefoot, Gone Barefoot star/racing champion/best-selling musician (co-champion)
Detroit - *Trevor Thompson, Fox Sports Detroit (eliminated Sep. 13 - 26-21 loss to SD)
Green Bay - *Katie von Hinz, captain of the "Meerbusch Five" basketball team (eliminated Oct. 11 - 14-13 loss to BUF when she was redrawn to TENN)
Houston - LaBundrick "Bamm Bamm" Plumpkin, The Plumpkins (eliminated Sep. 13 - 27-13 to KC)
Indianapolis - Beanblossom twins, actresses (eliminated Sep. 13 - 26-6 to BUF)
Jacksonville - Barbie Blank, director of international operations, Barefoot Media Networks (eliminated Sep. 13 - 20-9 loss to CAR)
Kansas City - *Brendon Bump, BMN Superfan/The Call (eliminated Sep. 17 - 31-24 loss to DEN)
Miami - Brittany Ramos, BMN Superfan (eliminated Sep. 20 - 23-20 loss to JAC)
Minnesota - Luke Muellerleile, actuary assistant (eliminated Sep. 14 - 27-3 loss to SF)
New England - +Beth Barefoot, baker (eliminated Oct. 4 - 28-14 loss to DEN when she was redrawn to MINN)
New Orleans - *Reed Robertson, singer/minor cast member on Duck Dynasty (eliminated Sep. 13 - 31-19 loss to ARIZ)
NY Giants - *Ron Barnes, business affairs columnist for Lifeway.com (eliminated Sep. 13 - 27-26 loss to DAL)
NY Jets - Melanie MacMelville, pop singer (eliminated Sep. 27 - 27-20 loss to PHI)
Oakland - Bobbington Brandt, BMN Superfan (eliminated Sep. 13 - 33-13 loss to CIN)
Philadelphia - *Harold "Bud" Strickland, homesteader/high school quarterback (eliminated Sep. 14 - 26-24 loss to ATL)
Pittsburgh - Josh LoMonico, BMN Superfan (eliminated Sep. 10 - 28-21 loss to NE)
San Diego - Blinky Blink, rapper/dancer/actor (eliminated Sep. 20 - 24-19 loss to CIN)
San Francisco - MacMoose brothers, action athletes (eliminated Sep. 20 - 43-18 loss to PIT)
Seattle - Brian Warner, director of Gone Barefoot (eliminated Sep. 13 - 34-31 loss to STL)
St. Louis - Shandi Finnessey, Miss USA 2004 (eliminated Sep. 20 - 24-10 loss to WSH)
Tampa Bay - *Jimmy Delach, fast-food employee/reference hobbyist (eliminated Sep. 13 - 42-14 loss to TENN)
Tennessee - *Kim Strickland, singer/songwriter (eliminated Sep. 20 - 28-14 loss to CLE)
Washington - Alonzo "Popeye" Barefoot, Gone Barefoot (eliminated Sep. 13 - 16-10 loss to MIA)

Bunky's new "album cover"; Buddy Wayne and Bobby Ray share grand prize

A lot went on this week with some of my characters.

First, the second annual Super Bowl Scramble is over, with an unexpected result: Brothers Buddy Wayne and Bobby Ray have agreed to be co-champions of the competition.  After losses by teams assigned to Katie vonHinz and Billie Barefoot in the previous week, both were given back their original teams.  It wasn't easy, but the Broncos (which was B.W.'s original team) and the Panthers (which was Bobby's) pulled out

wins in the sixth week of the NFL season.  However, rather than continue into Week 7 - and, it turns out, into another redraw - both agreed to share the overall title and both will be accommodated into the VIP trip to Super Bowl 50 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.

"We both had the same idea as to who to send to Santa Clara anyway," Buddy Wayne said in a statement on Monday.  "We want to send our mom Brenda, our brother Bryson, and also send a Bluebird Fund client from every market which has an NFL team - 31 in all."  (The Bluebird Fund is a non-profit organization I made up on Brenda's behalf.  As mentioned two weeks ago, it would combine grief counseling and funeral payment assistant for those who are suddenly deceased.)

Had the Fund existed, nominations for potential guests of the Barefoot brothers at Super Bowl 50 would have begun Thursday.  Nominees could be either themselves or someone else they know, and the deadline would be November 20.  Forms would have been available only at the fund's website.

Complete results will be revised and posted next time.


Now, as promised, here is the photo montage which converts the original picture of Marc Dobson that I displayed last week to the album cover of Bunky's recorded debut as a one-man band.  Before I continue, I must add that this is not the "B.O.M.B." publicity photo I posted two years ago, and shown to the right. That was a good picture, but not a realistic one.  This one (below) is much better.

First, I took Bunky's face and placed it on top of Dobson's.  I then used adjustment layers so that his neck and arms shared the same color as the face.  I then made a selection of everything but Bunky/Dobson and used the backspace on my keyboard to remove all other items.  After erasing some extra parts of the selection, I created a new blank layer and filled it with blue to be the backdrop of the "album cover."

With that, a unique musical career is born!

Virtual trip to North Carolina State Fair is fruitful

Today, I took my weekly trip to the public library in Cerritos.  It is a large and impressive facility, complete with an aquarium near the entrance, several themed rooms, a third-level meeting and party room, and a huge lab with over 80 Internet-connected computers for public use.

After my regular visit to the Field of Schemes site, which tracks the use of taxpayer money to build professional and major-college sports venues in the U.S., I go to other sites which are either newsworthy or for which I am interested somehow.

Because I have a storyline for an upcoming season of Gone Barefoot in which Miss Hambone is crowned the "redneck queen," I decided to visit the website of the North Carolina State Fair, at which said event
would be held.  The fair opened with a preview on Thursday and officially on Friday; it will continue until Oct. 25.  What I found was more than I bargained for, as I got relevant news and ideas of all kinds.



First, I learned about a real one-man band that will perform throughout the fair.  His name is Marc Dobson; he is pictured on the right and is the subject of a blog post on the official site of the state department of agriculture, which organizes the state fair.  I had seen other one-man band photos before, but they didn't capture an actual performer in all his glory like that one.  Believe me, I have plans to superimpose Bunky's face above Dobson's for a future Photoshop project, and I'll bring it to you here.  Matter of fact, I'll have Bunky say that Dobson is the biggest influence in his own career.  It makes sense, as the state fair is in Bunky's hometown of Raleigh.



Then there's the Village of Yesteryear.  This part of the fair features dozens of artisans make clothes, pottery, musical instruments, and other items in the old-fashioned way.  It is my hope that some of the visitors to the fair are inspired to learn these crafts and pass them down to future generations, so these methods are not lost in a world of automation and mass production.  The village has its own year-round website.

Also, the Barefoot last name shows up at least twice, based on the sites I went to.  The first listing I encountered was when I browsed a map showing vendors of food and merchandise, as well as rides and shows.  One of the food vendors is listed as "Barefoot," which presumably is the seller's last name.  According to the map, he (or she) sells "Hot Dogs, Italian Sausage, Fries, Chili Cheese Fries, Steak & Cheese & Drinks."  To find this vendor, click on the food and ride finder on the fair webpage and type up "barefoot" in the search box.

The second time was I went to the page with the press releases.  The first food judging contest of the year was for the best recipe using peanut butter and jelly.  And guess what?  Samuel Barefoot of Benson was the third-place winner and took home $100!  See his recipe as well as that of the other prize winners (Gretchen van de Carr of Durham won the top honor) at this address.

Congratulations to all the Barefoots at the North Carolina State Fair, real and imagined.

My comeback on Photoshop and survivor update

I hadn't used Photoshop CC in quite a while, and I had gotten bored with the near-completion of my family reunion program, so it was back to Photoshop earlier this week.

Over a two-day period (Tuesday and Wednesday), I created a publicity poster linking the 32 National Football League teams to the Bluebird Fund.  I imagined a league-wide campaign to raise awareness of Brenda Barefoot's charity, which would have two major functions:

• Help pay funeral costs if a loved one died unexpectedly under significant financial hardship that cannot be made up through insurance or other means;
• Provide grief counseling to individuals and communities suffering tragic events of great significance (recent examples would include the massive flooding in South Carolina or the shootings at a community college in Oregon).

Of course, the web address at the bottom of the ad is fictitious, but the need is real.  Organizations like the American Red Cross and some insurance agencies perform many of the same functions that the Bluebird Fund would do.

Now for the ad.  I went to NFLShop.com and accessed the pages on which customized NFL jerseys are sold.  On each page, I used the preview function to match the Barefoot surname to the numbers of current and former players from each of the league's teams.  Each was saved as a separate JPEG file, then transferred to a blank 20-by-16 canvas.  One by one, the right-hand side of each JPEG was cut away, leaving only the back of each jersey.  The resulting layers were then selected together and resized to make room for the text at the bottom.

The Bluebird Fund "logo" was created using the dry brush filter picked from Filter Gallery, applied to a personal file containing the bird.  (That's the same one that is on Buddy Wayne's shirt in the "official family photograph.")

While I'm on the subject of the NFL, my survivor pool has five contestants left: Rhett Jeffers was eliminated with the Eagles' loss to the Redskins (23-20), and "Baker Beth" was burnt by the Vikings' 23-7 loss to the Broncos.

Five contestants are left, and due to Bobby Ray's original Panthers having one of the week's byes, a redraw had to be conducted with the following results: Bobby was assigned to the Bears (Sunday at Kansas City), B.W. will now have the Steelers (Monday at San Diego), Billie now has the Lions (Sunday home to the Cardinals, his original team), Brittany Raylene was given the Cowboys (home to the Patriots on Sunday), and Katie von Hinz has been assigned the Titans (another home game, Sunday vs. Buffalo).

For a reminder of the complete list of contestants, see this post.

NFL "survivor" league third repost

I am reposting the field for Super Bowl Scramble: The Road to Santa Clara.  This includes an update of the elimination process through last Monday's game, and the results of a random draw for new teams.  The team lineups have to be changed because one of the seven contestants is associated with a team that has a bye week, and for fairness she can't take the week off.



Arizona - Billie Barefoot, chiropractor
Atlanta - Rhett Jeffers, pro wrestling/auto racing commentator
Baltimore - Brooke Liptrap, BMN Superfan/The Call (eliminated Sep. 13 - 19-13 loss to DEN)
Buffalo - +Harvey Barefoot, linebacker/amateur wrestler (eliminated Sep. 20 - 40-32 loss to NE)
Carolina - Bobby Ray Barefoot, Gone Barefoot
Chicago - *Doug Scherer, BMN Superfan (eliminated Sep. 13 - 31-16 loss to GB)
Cincinnati - Brittany Raylene, bluegrass singer
Cleveland - *Dustin Fox, ESPN college football analyst (eliminated Sep. 13 - 24-6 loss to NYJ)
Dallas - Billy Bob Ribble, bull rider/football linebacker (eliminated Sep. 27 - 32-28 loss to ATL)
Denver - Buddy Wayne Barefoot, Gone Barefoot star/racing champion/best-selling musician
Detroit - *Trevor Thompson, Fox Sports Detroit (eliminated Sep. 13 - 26-21 loss to SD)
Green Bay - *Katie von Hinz, captain of the "Meerbusch Five" basketball team
Houston - LaBundrick "Bamm Bamm" Plumpkin, The Plumpkins (eliminated Sep. 13 - 27-13 to KC)
Indianapolis - Beanblossom twins, actresses (eliminated Sep. 13 - 26-6 to BUF)
Jacksonville - Barbie Blank, director of international operations, Barefoot Media Networks (eliminated Sep. 13 - 20-9 loss to CAR)
Kansas City - *Brendon Bump, BMN Superfan/The Call (eliminated Sep. 17 - 31-24 loss to DEN)
Miami - Brittany Ramos, BMN Superfan (eliminated Sep. 20 - 23-20 loss to JAC)
Minnesota - Luke Muellerleile, actuary assistant (eliminated Sep. 14 - 27-3 loss to SF)
New England - +Beth Barefoot, baker
New Orleans - *Reed Robertson, singer/minor cast member on Duck Dynasty (eliminated Sep. 13 - 31-19 loss to ARIZ)
NY Giants - *Ron Barnes, business affairs columnist for Lifeway.com (eliminated Sep. 13 - 27-26 loss to DAL)
NY Jets - Melanie MacMelville, pop singer (eliminated Sep. 27 - 27-20 loss to PHI)
Oakland - Bobbington Brandt, BMN Superfan (eliminated Sep. 13 - 33-13 loss to CIN)
Philadelphia - *Harold "Bud" Strickland, homesteader/high school quarterback (eliminated Sep. 14 - 26-24 loss to ATL)
Pittsburgh - Josh LoMonico, BMN Superfan (eliminated Sep. 10 - 28-21 loss to NE)
San Diego - Blinky Blink, rapper/dancer/actor (eliminated Sep. 20 - 24-19 loss to CIN)
San Francisco - MacMoose brothers, action athletes (eliminated Sep. 20 - 43-18 loss to PIT)
Seattle - Brian Warner, director of Gone Barefoot (eliminated Sep. 13 - 34-31 loss to STL)
St. Louis - Shandi Finnessey, Miss USA 2004 (eliminated Sep. 20 - 24-10 loss to WSH)
Tampa Bay - *Jimmy Delach, fast-food employee/reference hobbyist (eliminated Sep. 13 - 42-14 loss to TENN)
Tennessee - *Kim Strickland, singer/songwriter (eliminated Sep. 20 - 28-14 loss to CLE)
Washington - Alonzo "Popeye" Barefoot, Gone Barefoot (eliminated Sep. 13 - 16-10 loss to MIA)
(*)New entrant; (+)Entrant who has changed teams

Redraw results:

• Dr. Billie - Arizona to Baltimore
• Jeffers - Atlanta to Philadelphia
• B.R. Barefoot - Carolina to Seattle
• Brittany - Cincinnati to NY Jets
• B.W. Barefoot - Denver to Washington
• von Hinz - Green Bay to Indianapolis 
• Beth Barefoot - New England to Minnesota

Now for the contestants face in Week 4 with their new teams:

• Oct. 1 - Baltimore (Dr. Billie) at Pittsburgh
• Oct. 4 - Philadelphia (Jeffers) at Washington (B.W. Barefoot) in a knockout game
• Oct. 4 - NY Jets (Brittany) vs. Miami, game in London
• Oct. 4 - Jacksonville (von Hinz) at Indianapolis
• Oct. 4 - Minnesota (Beth Barefoot) at Denver
• Oct. 5 - Detroit at Seattle (B.R. Barefoot)