 (0 comments) | Far AwayTake a picture of your octopus as far as possible from its registered addressTaken on a family trip to California in 2006
Rank: 21 out of 22 |
 (0 comments) | Movie PosterRecreate a famous movie poster using multiple octopodesOne is tall, the other is short, neither of them look anything like Schwarzenegger and Devito... but they're wearing sunglasses. Tako Yaki and Tudo Azul are "Twins".
Additional references: Rank: 3 out of 6 |
 (0 comments) | Famous FriendTake a picture of your octopus with a famous person. The more famous, the better.Now bert and bert, AND evidence of their shared birthday, are all in the same room as Tako. (Look really closely at the circled areas to read the fine print.)
Additional references: Rank: 13 out of 19 |
 (0 comments) | Master of EightDemonstrate your mastery of Eightness.Teacher Tako demonstrates his mastery of eight at the blackboard to the young grasshopper who has not yet mastered this concept.
Rank: 9 out of 15 |
 (0 comments) | Altitude I(Flying Split) Take a picture of your Octopus at the highest possible altitude, while flying.What's with all this measly 35,000 foot cruising altitude stuff? Tako is airborne at 38839.53 MILES above (Google) Earth (according to the "eye altitude" in the lower right corner - zoom in!), looking cheerfully at the view. Tako cannot confirm nor deny that he jumped out of the airlock during a beta test flight of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two spacecraft to achieve this altitude.
Rank: 13 out of 13 |
 (0 comments) | FriendsFit as many registered octopodes as possible into the same picture. (The more the better.)Eleven octopodes, six sidekicks, and three artifacts. Artifact Bonus: 3
Rank: 1 out of 18 |
 (2 comments) | FriendsFit as many registered octopodes as possible into the same picture. (The more the better.)Many eight legged friends! Unnamed octopus with glasses, Tako, Octavia (with napping eyes), Captain Cephalopod, Crazy Eight, Oct (front row, with :D face) corral 3 small kids: Kick, Superlass, and Danger Girl. Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 3 out of 18 |
 (2 comments) | FriendsFit as many registered octopodes as possible into the same picture. (The more the better.)Tako Yaki, Tudo Azul, Clone IV, An Angry Octopus Is Me, Octopus Prime, 3 hexapod sidekicks plus Squirt. 3 artifacts: Mantle, Crown, Torc.
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Rank: 5 out of 18 |
 (0 comments) | FriendsFit as many registered octopodes as possible into the same picture. (The more the better.)Tako and Tudo Azul visit with another friend (not a registered octopus.)
Rank: 14 out of 18 |
 (0 comments) | PedigreeDocument your octopus' suitability to be king.Tako poses atop a large fortress with which he can help defend, wearing a crown and a purple mantle with jeweled clasp, and with a princess friend (identifiable by her pink princess crown.) In this picture, Tako demonstrates that he can dress the part, hold court in an appropriately fortified location, and provide appropriate royal alliances. In case you are wondering, this is not just any fortress but a fortress of knowledge (see additional establishing shot). A detail of his costume, as he peers through the ramparts of his fortress, is also provided as it's a bit hard to see while he's atop the fortress being photographed from below.
Additional references: Rank: 5 out of 19 |
 (0 comments) | Hunting ProwessDemonstrate your octopus' hunting ability.Tako *tried* to tell the judges before that he is also an internet video star who had demonstrated chicken hunting on his show. But that pesky stage makeup is just so good at making him look orange. And animated. And perhaps nobody had ever seen his show until now? That's got to be fixed. Here is a video of Tako hunting a chicken with a very sharp chef's knife and exciting injuries on his hilarious flash video.
A shot of Tako rehearsing without the stage makeup has been previously submitted as Tako's glamor shot. And, he's managed to chase some chickens on other occasions without some injury, as you may know:
Rank: 14 out of 17 |
 (2 comments) | AddressTake a picture of your octopus with the largest house/building street number available.Tako initially interpreted this content as font size, anyway, but then he thought he would take advantage of the letter he was preparing to send to Great Grandma Maxine where the number itself was large. Here, he has found a building address whose font size is estimated at 1.25m tall: 185 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge. (He estimated based on seeing how big the people in the elevator on the right were, taking another photo from another angle while they were on the top floor of the elevator.
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Rank: 9 out of 15 |
 (0 comments) | AquaticDemonstrate that your octopus is at home in an aquatic environment.Tako went for a wild swim to demonstrate that he is at home in an aquatic environment.
in 00, Tako enters the Extreme Swimming Drum and prepares for his ride, peeking out the window bravely. After that Tako seems to have gotten buried by the inanimate objects joining him on the Extreme Swimming Drum ride. =)
Additional references: Rank: 7 out of 20 |
 (2 comments) | EnnuiThe octopus most mired in ennuiHaving that cheerful grin painted on his face has finally become too much for Tako Yaki to bear. In a fit of ennui, he turns to the bottle of absinthe. Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 5 out of 14 |
 (0 comments) | CostumeThe octopus with the best Halloween costumeTako can dress up as a menacing spider much better than a human kid can, since he already has 8 legs! Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 10 out of 11 |
 (0 comments) | Altitude II(Ground Split) Take a picture of your octopus at rest (on the ground or on top of a structure), at the highest possible altitude.Tako's fortress (aka Tufts University's Tisch Library) is also the highest point he's been to so far that we have photographic evidence of. Tisch Library is atop Walnut Hill, the highest point in Medford. (You'd think that the highest point in Medford would have its altitude noted somewhere on the interwebs as geographical trivia, but no.) Here, he poses next to a sign describing the Tisch Library rooftop gardens.
Additional documentation includes A URL describing those gardens, so you know they're on the Tisch
Library rooftop, and a screenshot from Google Earth, which we consulted to find the
elevation, 131 feet measured at the foot of the short set of stairs we
climbed to the rooftop, and approximately 4 feet to the
railing/turrets from there.
Additional references: Rank: 13 out of 17 |
 (4 comments) | CooperationMultiple octopodes cooperate together to accomplish something no single octopus could do alone!From Wikipedia: A minyan מנין (Hebrew: plural minyanim) in Judaism is a quorum of ten or more adult Jews assembled for purposes of fulfilling a public religious obligation requiring a quorum. In contemporary Judaism, the most common activity involved is public prayer.
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Rank: 4 out of 10 |
 (0 comments) | CooperationMultiple octopodes cooperate together to accomplish something no single octopus could do alone!You can't cure disease with only one person! Pandemic is a 2-4 player cooperative game. Additonally, each of the four players slots are occupied by two octopodes helping one another - 3 sidekicks who are just learning how to play, and Tako graciously sharing his turn with a buddy. Also, they note that there are a total of eight octopodes in this picture. Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 5 out of 10 |
 (0 comments) | CooperationMultiple octopodes cooperate together to accomplish something no single octopus could do alone!Tako Yaki and Tudo Azul realize that you can't play a game with only one octopus.
Additional references: Rank: 8 out of 10 |
 (0 comments) | CamouflageOctopodes are masters of color-changing and camouflage to perfectly blend in with their backgrounds. Or maybe they just choose their backgrounds very carefully.Tako hides among a bunch of brightly colored toys with googly eyes, carefully placing at least one well-matched decoy with the same skin color and googly eyes elsewhere in the toybox to throw off anyone who is looking for him. Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 4 out of 18 |
 (0 comments) | StackThe tallest stack of octopodesEleven Octopodes, six sidekicks, three artifacts, and Indy's hat Artifact Bonus: 3
Rank: 2 out of 14 |
 (0 comments) | StackThe tallest stack of octopodesStack (bottom to top): Tako Yaki, Tudo Azul, Clone IV, An Angry Octopus Is Me, Octopus Prime, 2 sidekicks (plus Squirt, at side). 3 artifacts: Mantle, Crown, Torc. No walls, no hidden wires! Artifact Bonus: 3
Rank: 5 out of 14 |
 (0 comments) | StackThe tallest stack of octopodesFrom top to bottom: superlass (sidekick), dangergirl (sidekick), kick (sidekick), Tako Yaki, Octavia, Captain Cephalopod, Crazy Eight, Oct, and Cephegerae. The line of trim is about 6' high, for reference, so this stack is both tall and contains many octopodes.
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Rank: 4 out of 14 |
 (0 comments) | StackThe tallest stack of octopodesWhen Tudo came over to play board games with Tako on April 28th, they also thought it would be fun to take some stacked shots. Handy, that. :)
Rank: 13 out of 14 |
 (0 comments) | Scrabble I(Original Split) Photograph your octopus with a commercial sign with the highest-Scrabble-scoring word of eight letters or less. (Proper names ok. Scoring site here.)Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 18 out of 19 |
 (0 comments) | lolctopusBest lolctopus (see lolcat)oh noes! the horror, humans think octopodes are tasty as sushi?! Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 9 out of 16 |
 (0 comments) | MazeBecause of their intelligence and flexibility, octopodes are very good at solving mazes.Tako successfully navigates a maze of twisty passages (all alike) with his octopus wit and excellent mapping skills, collecting the treasure and exiting the maze. Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 1 out of 11 |
 (0 comments) | Ballistic I(Safe split) Safely send your octopus on the longest possible ballistic trajectory. Clearly document the distances involved.Neither particularly safe nor particularly death-defying, Tako is willing to see what the judges think of his ballistic trajectory in both splits of the ballistic event. Tako got into the athletic spirit after his relay race with Tudo Azul was over, and decided to score a goal, too. Safe split: he was going to land on either grass, or on that soft padded rubber track material, neither of which would hurt much for a stuffed octopode. In both cases, he traveled 28 ft 7" from the point where he was launched to the point where he landed, measuring with a measuring tape.
Additional references: Rank: 5 out of 6 |
 (0 comments) | Video GameOctopus with the highest score in a video game.TakoYaki created an account on the Kingdom Of Loathing (beware! another fun and silly and addictive way to entertain yourself on the web!). He has already amassed 265,524 Meat, which is the currency of the Kingdom of Loathing. (Meat is a better metric of score than character level because level resets every time you "ascend" (which you can currently do after level 13.)
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Rank: 4 out of 10 |
 (0 comments) | QueposkivingSend a picture of your octopus with the best example of a queposkyTako found some delicious queposkies today!
What, you may be wondering, is a queposky?
"Que" - from the Quebrada baking company
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Rank: 3 out of 10 |
 (0 comments) | TeachingOne octopus teaches interesting lessons to other octopodes.1. Professor Octopus Prime with three octopodes helping demonstrate, 2. Taking notes, 3. The sidekick section (with chaperones), 4. The octopus student
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Rank: 1 out of 7 |
 (0 comments) | TeachingOne octopus teaches interesting lessons to other octopodes.Captain Cephalopod teaches Danger Girl how to fight disease while Crazy Eight teaches Super Lass. Super Lass is learning about the Special Actions, while Danger Girl is still working on the Basic Actions, but she isn't chewing on the card anymore. Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 7 out of 7 |
 (0 comments) | TeachingOne octopus teaches interesting lessons to other octopodes.After an unfortunate accident, Tako Yaki shows Tudo Azul how to (re)assemble an Apple Puzzle. "The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces. The second rule is to *find* all the pieces. Good thing we octopodes know a thing or two about camouflage..."
Rank: 6 out of 7 |
(0 comments) | Ballistic II(Death-defying split) Send your octopus on the longest possible ballistic trajectory. Clearly document the distances involved.Neither particularly safe nor particularly death-defying, Tako is willing to see what the judges think of his ballistic trajectory in both splits of the ballistic event. Tako got into the athletic spirit after his relay race with Tudo Azul was over, and decided to score a goal, too. Death-defying split: look ma, no extra protection! In both cases, he traveled 28 ft 7" from the point where he was launched to the point where he landed, measuring with a measuring tape.
Additional references: Rank: 7 out of 8 |
 (0 comments) | StoryUse a group of octopodes to re-enact a classic story (or a good scene from one)00 : There's a juicy apple in this tree. 01 : And a serpent. (And oh yeah, that was the tree we weren't supposed to eat anything from.) 02 : "Hey Eve, want to taste the apple?" 03 : "Well, I wasn't supposed to." ... "Sure, Yum!" 04 : "Adam, you should have some too!" 05 : Oops, now we know about Good. And Evil. (Like that Evil Vizier!) Time to get out of the garden! 06: the cast of characters - Adam, Eve, Tree, Serpent, Apple.
Additional references: Rank: 1 out of 4 |
 (0 comments) | Head SittingStatistically, it appears that sitting on the heads of people and other octopodes is part of the Octopus Nature. Keep your octopus on your head for the greatest length of time, without the aid of string, hats, fancy hair tricks, or other fasteners.Tako's still practicing balancing - a fidgety human and a convex sort
of bottom with stubby legs make this contest difficult for him and his
human.
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Rank: 8 out of 9 |
 (0 comments) | Scrabble II(Strict Split) Photograph your octopus with a commercial sign with the highest *valid* Scrabble scoring word. (Scoring site here)Squeezed Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 1 out of 19 |
 (0 comments) | EnteringDue to their squishability and flexibility, octopodes are very good at getting into small, hard-to-get-into places. Document your octopus in the best example of somewhere hard to get into.Tako rides in a hard-to-get-into space - 3 CD cases tall and a little more than one wide - on his way home from a fun weekend of camping.
Rank: 8 out of 13 |
 (0 comments) | CookingDemonstrate your octopus's ability to feed a hungry family, or the multitudes!Tako has been known to appear on an Internet cooking show as Tako the Octopus (here and here). He has already demonstrated that his hunting ability extends to cooking what he's captured Now, he would like to demonstrate the right way to make sushi.
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Rank: 1 out of 8 |
 (1 comment) | PagenumFind the word "octopus" printed on the highest-numbered page in a book.Tako looked up "octopus" in the dictionary. (American Heritage 2nd
College Edition.) Artifact Bonus: 1
Rank: 7 out of 8 |
 (0 comments) | CharadesUsing a word you generate here, get another octopus to guess it using only pictures of your octopus. (No writing, and don't reload excessively).Tako Yaki takes 4 rounds to guess that Tudo Azul is a "Headlight." (We were doing this in person, one image at a time, so we don't have written documentation of Tako's guesses, which went something like this: )
Pic 1: Handlebars? Bell? Steering? ...?
Additional references: Rank: 1 out of 5 |
 (0 comments) | GoodOctopodes being Good, use their powers only for good and never for evil. Demonstrate your octopus using their powers for Good, to Oppose Evil.Tako pitched in at a large camping trip to cook enough beans for 200 hungry people, because he is good and helpful. (The judge asked what exactly Tako is doing. His human wishes to report that she really did spend a few hours helping prep dinner for 200 people, and she did it all with Tako cheerfully clipped to her belt loop as she puttered around the kitchen, and didn't even realize he was there helping until just before she decided to make it a photo op. )
Rank: 6 out of 10 |
 (0 comments) | FunWhile the quest for Kingship is difficult, octopodes should enjoy themselves. Show off your octopus having the most fun.Tako participates in making some ice cream using liquid nitrogen.
Rank: 2 out of 10 |
 (1 comment) | Far Apart I(Physically Present) Show two octopodes in one picture, the farthest distance apart. Both must be physically present. Document the distances involved.Tako Yaki (at the starting mark) and Tudo Azul (in friendly human's arms, at the finish line) stand 100m apart in the same photo. (If you zoom in on the human you will see Tudo in his arms.) The 2nd photo just shows that the finish line (100 m away from the 100m starting mark) is in fact where they're standing.
Additional references: Rank: 2 out of 5 |
 (0 comments) | Meta EssenceThe octopus with the most glamorous glamour photo.Rank: 21 out of 34 |
(0 comments) | Meta PowerThe octopus scoring zero in the most contests.Rank: 3 out of 34 |
 (0 comments) | Meta MiscellanySubmit your own contest name and description, and a picture of your octopus being the best in it."O is for Octopus": Take a picture of your octopus with the largest example of the first letter of its name you can find.
Rank: 3 out of 9 |
(0 comments) | Meta FellowshipYour octopus's cultural diversity is measured with an arcane algorithm that rewards cooperation with octopodes who are less popular.Rank: 11 out of 34 |
 (0 comments) | NumismatismShow your octopus with the oldest legal coinTako has an Austro-Hungarian coin minted in 1915.
Additional references: Rank: 4 out of 9 |
 (0 comments) | RainbowWhy are there so many songs about rainbows? Demonstrate your octopus's rainbow connections.Tako gets stuck in traffic on his way to the rainbow connection up in front of him on the Mass Pike. Fortunately, he also brings his own rainbow everywhere he goes (the rainbow colored bits around his neck.)
Rank: 3 out of 8 |
 (0 comments) | SportsShow your octopodes's teamwork in a sporting event!Tako Yaki and Tudo Azul run a relay together, and beat a team of penguins to the finish line. (As octopode entrants, they are running in lane 8, of course.)
Additional references: Rank: 2 out of 2 |
 (0 comments) | StrengthOctopodes are quite strong for their size. Demonstrate your octopus's great strength!Tako shows off his weightlifting skills, octopode-style, balancing on his head while holding up a nicely scaled heavy iron dumbell. It is marked 3 lbs, which number is even more impressive considering that Tako himself only weighs 1.85oz (see additional photo.) So that's almost 26 times his weight!
Additional references: Rank: 1 out of 3 |
