Continuing from yesterday, Merit Badges.

[featherynscale]

[Poll #921821]

Badges suggested so far:

• Forward Thinker: Planning for retirement, 401k
  
• Homeowner: Having a Mortgage
  
• Overlord: Having at least three minions
  
• Work Ethics: Having time off left at the end of the year
  
• Parent: Birthing and raising a child through age five.
  
• Parent Success: All of your children have moved out of the house. (Either into a college dorm, or elsewhere.)
  
• Grandparent: Your child having a child of their own.
  
• Totaled: Surviving a car accident.
  
• Survivor: Surviving major surgery/life threatening illness
  
• Jailbird: Spending time in jail
  
• Conversion: Changing your religion
  
• Faithful: Avoiding changing your religion for some period of time
  
• Hitched: Getting married
  
• Available Again: Getting divorced
  
• Adults Can Play Too: Carrying over childhood games in an adult form
  
• Bedroom Superstar: (Several suggestions on this one)
  
• Pub Crawler: Knowing your wine, whisky, or beer
  
• Form Filler: Doing your own taxes
  
• Real Job: Holding a job where you earn more than $X, for more than Y length of time
  
• Meet the Parents: Surviving a holiday with your partner's family and not killing anyone
  
• Auto Owner: Paying off a car
  
• World Traveler: Visiting other continents (Maybe a badge for each continent?)
  
• Hangover Helper: Learning to drink without suffering for it later

Comments

perhaps, also

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

Trying or succeeding at something new?

[zylch.livejournal.com]

To clarify, I checked "lame" because I don't need no stinkin' virtual badge. I want a real merit badge that I can sew on my clothing!

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

See, that was the original concept. Except that that requires somebody to do a whole buttload of embroidery. And embroidery sucks.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

I love embroidery. Do I get a merit badge?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

You can get the "sews the badges" badge. :)

[zylch.livejournal.com]

But would she have to make her own badge for that?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Probably.

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

Or somebody running off several copies onto iron-on transfer paper, ironing it onto some canvas, cutting them into circles, and using fabric glue to seal the edges with bias tape.

Or - better yet - we publish the designs for the badges as an open source template. Then, people can make their own, with whatever they want to use - embroidery, beading, felting, sculpey, heat-transfers, keep 'em digital, etc. People can publish their methods on places like Crafster and CRAFT or their own journals.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Sure. We start with the piccies, and then if you want to make your own badge, you can do that. There probably is a badge for that.

Oh the possibilities

[teross50.livejournal.com]

The fun part will be in creating the merit badge categories.
1. The how to survive CaCatholicism, merit badge.
Or the How not to kill your inlaws merit badge.
Ow could also have a what to order for drinks, in an irish pub merit badge,
Yes indeed, I have given this some thought, why do you ask?

Maybe, if...

[niveus-tigris.livejournal.com]

...there was a way of displaying said merit badges on my journal profile page and have them in the 100 x 100 pixel format to be used as user pics. That would be fun.

Of course, this opens the field for a number of very terrible badges to be awarded. All stories supporting claims for having earned a badge should be backed up by someone who was there, pictures taken or perhaps a link that can be posted to the 'Life Merit Badges' community. That way, everyone can get a good laugh, ridicule as necessary and generally poke at it with a sharp stick. For fun, of course.

Ideas for badges:
Serious Relationships - Longer than 6 months, longer than 1 year, longer than 2 years, meeting the parents, engaged, married, divorced, spent the holidays with partner's family, did not axe-murder soon to be in-laws, family reunion

Financial - Getting a loan, paying off a loan, buying a new car, paying off a car, buying a house, independent living, making $15 per hour, making $20 per hour, making $25 per hour, doing your own taxes

Re: Maybe, if...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Oh, there would absolutely have to be a story in order to get a badge. And yeah, awful badges would be part of the game. I'm not sure if it would be a deal where some person (or team) would award badges, or if you'd just post your claim and then anybody in the group could give you a badge, or what. The second sounds like more fun, but could get messy. I dunno.

Re: Maybe, if...

[lexpendragon.livejournal.com]

How about the community is closed to post, and the official badges are awarded by the community Mods. To apply for a badge, you post your story. If you are awarded one, The mod posts the badge (in 100x100 format), in a special post, announcing the awarding, linking to the LJ entry of the story, or retelling it (with pictures and what not) behind a cut if it isn't already on the web someplace.

Then, when the Badge winner gets the badge, they can either make it an LJ icon (and link to the community's entry where it was awarded) or they can put it in their profile, again with a link.

I can write up a bit of basic HTML for a table that looks vaguely like a sash, and the mods can include a snippet of cut-and-paste HTML for the badge winner to put it into their sash-table on the profile page.

Also, the Mods can keep the profile for the community updated with the currently available merit badges.

Re: Maybe, if...

[leiandra.livejournal.com]

Again, you win.