STO – Del Taco Cup Code Caption Contest

Cup code caption contest.  How is that for alliteration?  But I digress.

Yea brethren! (And cistern!)

I have been to Del Taco and I have seen the promised cups!

And mighty were those cups in size, each holding a veritable bladder-stressing lake of the fountain drink of your choice!

Truly they were macho sized.

Affixed to the side of each, like a nicotine patch on a 2-pack a day smoker trying to kick his habit, there was a sticker.  And visible on each of those stickers, when peeled off these mammoth drinking vessels, was a code.

A code of mystery!

It is something of a mystery as to exactly what you get when you enter this code after logging into the Star Trek Online and then heading to the promotion redemption page.

You might get a Type-8 shuttle in game!

You might get 2 days of play time.

You might get nothing at all.

By Grabthar’s hammer, the promotion FAQ is open to considerable interpretation on the subject of who can get what and when!

Still, judging by the comments on the wall of Del Taco’s Facebook page, these codes are in demand.  On eBay you can find people offering up the codes for sale.

But here at TAGN, I am going to give away two codes!  All you have to do is emerge victorious from the trail by comedy!

Below you will see two pictures.  Unless, of course, you are reading this on your iPhone or other mobile device, in which case you may have to go to the bottom of the blog and turn off the mobile viewing mode.

But back to the pictures.  They are screen shots from the game Star Trek Online.

You will need to click on them to see the full size versions.

Picture One

Picture Two

They are not that funny in and of themselves.  But with the right caption, they could be hilarious.

To win one of those two codes, you must submit a caption for either or both of the pictures in the comments to this post

THE RULES – Read Them

1. All entries must be submitted by 12:00 Noon 15:00/3pmPacific Standard Time on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 Monday, February 1st, 2010.  That is 18:00/6pm Eastern Standard Time or 23:00/11pm UTC.
2. Codes will be sent to winning entries by 15:59/3:59pm Pacific Standard Time on Monday, February 1st Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010.  That is 18:59/6pm Eastern Standard Time or 23:59/11:59pm UTC.
3. Winners will be announced in a blog post after the codes have been sent out.
4. You may enter a single caption for both pictures.  If you enter multiple captions for a single picture, only the first caption for that picture in your comment will be considered, the rest will be deleted.  If you change your mind about your entry, you can enter again as long as you make it clear in your entry that you wish me to delete your initial entry.
5. Only a single code will be awarded per person.  So if you enter two captions, and they are considered by the judging panel to be the two most hilarious entries over all, you will still only get a single code.  The remaining code will be awarded to the third most hilarious caption.
6. All entries must be submitted as comments to this post.
7. If you win, you will receive a single code via email.  That is the only prize.  You will not receive the actual code sticker nor the cup to which it was once attached.
8. The email address to which the code will be sent is the email address you enter as part of the comment form.  The comment form has a field your email address, you do not need to put your email address in the body of the comment itself.  No email, no code.  If your email bounces back, the next person on the list will be awarded the code.  Make sure your email address is correct.
9. You may still enter even if you do not want/need/plan to use a code.  Please state this in your entry.  Should you win, your entry will be acknowledged, but the next runner-up will receive the code in your place.
10. You must clearly indicate for which screen shot your caption is meant.  The screen shots are clearly labeled Picture One and Picture Two.
11. Any caption submitted in a language other than English (e.g. Spanish, German, Latin, Klingon, etc.) must be translated into English as part of the submission.  It is no fair letting Babel Fish create a hilarious caption for you via bad translation after the fact.  You may use Babel Fish to create captions as long as you only submit the final English version.
12. While I will be the final authority in picking the winner, I may seek advice from my wife, my daughter, my mother, members of the permanent floating instance group, co-workers, the kids next door, the mailman, a Ouija board, readers of rec.arts.books.tolkien, the guy who runs that pawn shop in Los Altos, random people in Dalaran, the pizza delivery guy, or Kibo.
13. Andy Ihnatko can enter, but he will not be allowed to win.  It wouldn’t be fair to the rest of us.
14. The codes are assumed to only be good for people logging into the North American release of Star Trek Online and are not expected to be worth anything or be of any use in the EU.
15. All codes are currently attached to the Klingon Defense Forces Bird of Prey cups.  If for some reason I lose those cups before the end of the contest, they will be replaced by which ever cup is currently available at my local Del Taco.
16. Codes are not guaranteed to be valid or get you any prize or promotion whatsoever.  Codes will remain on their cups until it is time to email them to the winners.  However, I cannot validate them in any way.  If your code fails to work for whatever reason, I apologize, but I will not provide an additional code.
17. In the unlikely event of an unbreakable tie, I will go buy another drink and award an additional code.  Anything that funny will be worth it.
18. Any issues, ambiguity, errors, or questions will be resolved by me and all decisions are final.  There is no arbitration or appeals process and whining doesn’t work, ask my daughter.
19. Void where prohibited, contest may be rescinded at any time for any (or no) reason, your mileage may vary, and if it all blows up in our faces remember I told you so.

TIPS

• Don’t rush to enter
• Brevity is the soul of wit
• If you do a multi-part dialog, make sure it is clear who is saying what
• Captions that seem derivative of previous entries are less likely to be judged well
• With puns, the worse they are, the better they are
• Outside of church and the maternity ward, obscenities rarely impress me
• Movie and TV references are great, but tread lightly on the cliches
• If your comment does not show up immediately, it is probably in the moderation or spam queue and I’ll fish it out and approve it soon enough