Acetio | Blogma

I entered NPR's 5^th three-minute fiction contest, where you have to write a "flash fiction" story in 600 words or less. The constraints were that the stories had to begin with the line, "Some people swore that the house was haunted," and end with the line, "Nothing was ever the same again after that."

I didn't win, or even get into the final round, which is fine because the winning story was quite good. The winning stories in these contests tend to be more "literature" and less "popular", which is more my style.

Regardless, here's mine.

The Fun Theory is a Volkswagen-supported contest that ends December 15, 2009. Come up with an idea that uses fun to encourage positive behavior. Their examples include wiring a public staircase like a piano keyboard to encourage walking instead of riding the escalator; each stair triggers a different note to play.

This is a charming and brilliant idea: public art + social consciousness + gaming as something more than just gaming.

Below is a video showing how to encourage non-littering behavior: have the trash sound like it's falling down a deep well.