posted
Blammo is a game that a kid in my grade recently started -- it's a game that involves the whole high school.
The way it works is this: He walks around for a couple days, getting people to sign up. After the sign up is over, everyone on the list is given a red plastic spoon. The person below you on the list is the person you stalk, and the person above you is your stalker. You must carry your spoon with you at all times -- it must ALWAYS be either in your hand or in your mouth. If you see the person you're stalking without his or her spoon, you tap them with your spoon and say "Blammo!" and they are out. The last person left wins, of course. You are told who you are stalking, obviously, but no one is allowed to see the list, so you don't know who is stalking you, unless you find out in some way. When you blammo somebody, you stalk the person they'd been stalking. There are many other complicated rules, as I'm sure you can imagine.
This has turned into quite an amazing thing. When he started the first round -- in the second week of school -- only about fifty people signed up. Everyone thought it was kind of weird, so only people from his end of the social spectrum signed up. In about two weeks, only two people were left in the game, and the battle was quite intense. In the end, a kid named Danny won by being very tricky.
By the end of the first round, everyone wanted to play. In the second round, about two hundred people signed up. I go to a very small school, so two hundred people is nearly two thirds of the entire high school. Moreover, these people were spread throughout EVERY grade -- even the freshman-- and every "clique."
This game, I think, is really beginning to bring the high school together. I don't think there has been a year at my school yet with so much mingling and friendliness between grades. It forces you to get to know the names of people who normally you'd NEVER talk to. I've had more conversations with new people in the past four weeks that most of freshman and sophomore years combined. Mostly it's friendly but heated arguments over the rules. Blammo has gotten so popular that most of the teachers have signed up as well. It's also being fully indorced by the student government. It's amazing to have the teachers playing along, because it turns them from just teachers into friends, which really improves the way you learn from them.
I'm not exactly sure where Peter got the original idea for this, but I was wondering if anyone else has ever heard of it, or participated in it. I would also suggest this for anyone dealing with a large group of people who may not know each other well.
Here are some more detailed rules for anyone interested: -you MUST have your spoon either in your hand or your mouth at all times -SAFE ZONES are in class when it's in session, in the bathroom, or sports practices and games. -you cannot take a spoon from somebody by force -the list of who is stalking whom is kept secret -any disputes are taken to the High Council, whose decisions are final. The High Council is made of up five or so people, who were champions of former rounds -when the game is down to 2 people, all members of the High Council become God Blammo-ers, and they carry soup ladels. Any of them can Blammo either finalist. -when the game has gone on for multiple weeks with only 2 people left, EVERYONE in the high school becomes a god blammo-er (you don't need a soup ladel) -your spoon must be visible in your hand or mouth from at least one reasonable angle -if your spoons breaks, you must keep every NOTICEABLE part. (some people weld their spoons together, or melt them down into cubes, so obviously SOME of it is lost in that process, but if it's not noticeably smaller, it's okay) -you can never hold more than one Blammo spoon at the same time (normal spoons are ok).
More rules are created as problems come up, by the High Council, as I said.
At my school, we're in the second round, which started two days ago. I'm in an interesting posistion, because I've lost my spoon, but I haven't been blammoed yet. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes my stalker to notice.
I've also gotten into another interesting situation, because I have to find this freshman kid that I don't know and talk to him about language tutoring, but he's currently in the same position I'm in -- lost his spoon, but hasn't been blammoed. So every time I start walking toward him, he thinks I'm his stalker and runs away into the crowded hallway. It's funny. I'll get him eventually.
The point is, it's really amazing to see freshman arguing with seniors about Blammo rules, and teachers participating in this game with all the kids. This year's freshman are probably the least-alienated freshman class in a long, long time. It's also amazing to see people who'd normally be considered too cool for ANYTHING, walking around with a red spoon.
For now, the High Council is deciding whether stuck to your nose is also an acceptable way to carry your spoon.
wow, lost post.
Posts: 464 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Sound like fun. I've never heard of anyone playing this game with the spoon rule before, but it adds an interesting twist to the whole thing.
quote:Originally posted by Soara: I'm in an interesting posistion, because I've lost my spoon, but I haven't been blammoed yet. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes my stalker to notice.
Could you carry a fake spoon that looks like it is your spoon. If your stalker got you, you'd still be out, but maybe they wouldn't bother if they thought you were safe.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by ricree101: Sound like fun. I've never heard of anyone playing this game with the spoon rule before, but it adds an interesting twist to the whole thing.
quote:Originally posted by Soara: I'm in an interesting posistion, because I've lost my spoon, but I haven't been blammoed yet. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes my stalker to notice.
Could you carry a fake spoon that looks like it is your spoon. If your stalker got you, you'd still be out, but maybe they wouldn't bother if they thought you were safe.
Yes, if I find another red spoon, I can use it. But they're hoarded pretty well.
Posts: 464 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
You were wondering the inspiration for this game?
Well I've got a good guess, I've seen people play a game very similar to this. I think around here we call it 'splash'.
The rules are pretty much the same. People sign up, the person under them is their 'stalkee' the one above is the stalker. The difference is in this version you don't use spoons. The goal is to get the person wet.
You can use a squirt gun, water bottle, cup of water, whatever, you just need to get them wet.
It's a game the seniors at my school play and there are many churches here that play it too.
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
It is called ASSASSINS and it is much more fun when you are playing it in your blacked out sorority house (I mean you couldn't see your hand in front of your face) with a boy as your bodyguard and you have to locate on of your sisters and KILL her! My tackling her, usually, it's kind of an athletic house. And then you kill her person . . . etc. And no, we didn't drink, at least not before. Too competitive. Rarr.
Also the whole campus played it, but it was much more hands on than tapping. People couldn't get you in class, in the dining hall, or in your room. But they could lurk around outside . . . so great.
Posts: 471 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
These all sound like cab games, I think my brothers have their own version of it. I'll have to ask.
Posts: 1164 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote: I go to a very small school, so two hundred people is nearly two thirds of the entire high school.
Wow. We have totally different definitions of "very small school." For example, my sister-in-law graduated valedictorian of a graduating class of 13.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I would say that a graduating class of 75 or so qualifies as a pretty small school. 13 is more like "tiny."
Where I work, our graduating class is closer to 450.
All the research ever done shows that kids learn better not just in smaller classes, but in smaller schools as well, so, naturally, we build them bigger and bigger.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
I remember playing this my frosh week of uni. My eventual roommate won by default - I think she was the only person to tag anyone.
I think part of the trouble with it there was that we were separated into groups at rez orientation, and spent half our time doing faculty orientation, and didn't really get that much time to mingle. I learned almost no names during my frosh week. It was too chaotic.
But it's a good idea, in principle.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Icarus: All the research ever done shows that kids learn better not just in smaller classes, but in smaller schools as well, so, naturally, we build them bigger and bigger.
I'm so glad I'm not the only person who feels this way. One reason we moved where we did was that the schools were small, and we hoped it would stay that way. Unfortunately, too many people had the same idea and now the schools are growing huge. *sigh*
I suppose it's more cost effective to have one big school over two smaller ones, but I do long for the days when the principal knew every kid in our elementary school by name.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
My high school freshman class was over a thousand so two-hundred qualifies as small for me. I remember feeling out of sorts in my college of about two-hundred with only about 30 graduates at most per year. I like that all of the faculty and the Director know my name, but I wouldn't trade my high school experience. Being bigger meant we had more funds and resources.
The theatre department at my university is playing Assassins right now. They use squirt guns and the only rule is you can only shoot while outside. It gets pretty bad. People start sleeping in the theatre building, trading cars, hiding in bushes to catch someone coming or going from their house, etc.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I've played another variety of this with a small group. In this one, we not only had to get a specific person, but do it with a specific object in a specific place. For example, you might have to get someone in the bathroom with a banana. Thing is, you don't know what areas are 'hot' or what random objects are the weapons (except your own). I don't remember what we called it.
Posts: 2149 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
It's also fun when played with rubber bands. You actually have to hit the other person, so if you screw up, they get away and know who's after them as well.
Posts: 354 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
I am the type of teacher who will play this! I am going to try it with a small group of leadership students next week. If it catches on, maybe I will let it spread to the whole campus (although we have some whiny teachers who will likely shoot me down). I do have a question though. Is this just on campus or do people get Blammoed say if they run into each other at the grocery store?
*off to Dairy Queen to get some red spoons*
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
We played that in my dorm every year, 'cept it was called "Assassins." To "kill" them you have to throw a balled up sock at them. From what I heard, it was very fun and a good way to meet people.
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
The graduating class I was in at my junior high school was around 600 students. This was the only public school that fed into my high school, but there were several private schools in the area that ended at 8th grade, and we got many of those kids, too. My high school usually had about 3,500 students attending at any given time.
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posted
Frankly, I think you have to weigh the positive learning environment a small school provides against the potentially stifling social environment it imposes. It's much, much worse to be a misfit at a small school than at a large one. At least at large schools there's a lunch table for all of the misfits - whereas in a small one, you're usually all alone.
Posts: 1784 | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote: Is this just on campus or do people get Blammoed say if they run into each other at the grocery store?
You can get blammoed ANYWHERE, except specific safe zones. the campus is no limit.
Just my grade is about 80 people. That's pretty small. I agree that you learn better in small schools, but small schools have some disadvantages, too. For example, it's about three times harder to ask people out at small schools. Especially when you've also known them since kindergarten. Also, if you're bullied, it's much worse at a small school, because there's no place for you to go, and everybody knows you.
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posted
P.S. --one and a half days without my spoon and I haven't been blammoed. Peter assures me that my stalker knows who I am. I'm really getting curious about this.
Posts: 464 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I went to both small (less than a hundred per graduating class, or about 500 students total for grades 7-12) and fairly large (1700 students in my graduating class). I far preferred the latter.
There were more educational choices - ie, remedial and honors plus more languages, more maths, etc. - than the small school could ever hope to think about considering the possibility of offering. That there was much less bullying in the larger school was merely a bonus (although I did have one group of girls threaten to kill me and a boy tried to run me over one day, but still, far better than the smaller school.) Plus, with the larger population base, it was easier to find people who were more like me and more likely to be my friends based on commonalities.
I personally saw no benefit to a smaller school. But that's just me.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Tomorrow the entire eighth grade at my daughter's school is re-enacting the battle of Troy. They are using water balloons. The rules are 1. No white t-shirts and 2. No freezing your water balloons. The whole school gets to turn out and watch, it's kind of a rite of passage in the school system - something you can hear kindergarten students discussing "When I get to eighth grade, I hope I'm on the Trojan team".
That's the type of thing that would be impossible to do with an eighth grade of 500 or 700 or more students.
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