Not a Patgame

[essentialsaltes]

Equipment: 1 Internet
Players: everyone

LJConnect provides links between LJ's through chains of friends...



What is the shortest (longest) chain between a journal (LJ1) and the journal-whose-name-is-the-same-as-the-first-name-as-the-person-whose-journal-is-LJ1.

Examples:
essentialsaltes -> britgeekgrrl -> pollytrance -> burhenne -> mike (4 hops)
popepat -> bonniedelight -> dorwrath -> ergie -> pat (4 hops)
aaronjv -> bellwethr -> brad -> skamp -> aaron (4 hops)
britgeekgrrl -> dragongrl -> valacious -> emptycountry -> johanna (4 hops)

Is the score always 4? Is this a law of the universe? Surely not. Clever peoples of Earth, I ask you for your high and low scores.

In my brief search, I found a 5 and a 6.

No fair friending your namesake!

Comments

[caprine.livejournal.com]

Normal mode, 3:
caprine -> final_girl -> insafemode -> allison (3 hops)

Mutual friends only, 3:
caprine -> sclerotic_rings -> jasonwert -> allison (3 hops)

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Congrats on being the first to produce a sub-4 hop connection!
You win an imaginary saxophone.

Further research has uncovered a one-hopper: bonnie_odonnell -> bonnie (1 hop)

hippity hop

[notjenschiz.livejournal.com]

notjenschiz -> essentialsaltes -> stevenkaye -> nihilistic_kid -> penguinboy -> jason (5 hops)

[zorker.livejournal.com]

zorker -> aaronjv -> perforation -> fugged -> mobylovr -> photo_gurl -> lesley (6 hops)

[wheninbudapest.livejournal.com]

OK So I played the game, and when I got to Lourdes (6 hops), I checked out the profile...

http://lourdes.livejournal.com/profile

User Name: Lourdes
Name: Leigh Ann (my cousin's name, same spelling)
Website: Bon Jovi (my SN)

WAS THIS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN??? Or did I walk into a joke?

?

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's just eerie.

[rsheslin.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'd bother for myself, since I know that the wife of one of my mutually friended people is named Rachel.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but she's not rachel

Oh, I get it

[rsheslin.livejournal.com]

rsheslin -> jlundberg -> jlassen -> stayquietluv -> 24roxygirl24 -> rachel (5 hops)

What a rip. Rachel may have been an Early Adopter (since 7/15/00) but she doesn't have any journal entries and she's only posted 5 comments. What a waste of a good name.

[randbot.livejournal.com]

randbot -> aaronjv -> perforation -> weev -> riotlounge -> randy (5 hops)

randolph has no friends, so no link there. (Ha! I am cooler than randolph!)

out of curiosity I also checked for the LJ names I would have selected had it not been taken:

randbot -> aaronjv -> perforation -> puremeow -> deronde -> randyman (5 hops)
randbot -> kingofbreakfast -> mean_salley -> pauvre_maltea -> zeromonk -> robotmonkey (5 hops)

Apparently I live in a slightly different universe from you, where the Universal LJConnect Constant is 5 instead of 4.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

I guess so, since randyman is also 5 steps away from robotmonkey:
randyman -> el_beets -> czircon -> n2cole -> zeromonk -> robotmonkey (5 hops)

In other news....

bonnie_odonnell -> bonnie (1 hop)
Since one is in the UK, and the other in TN, I assume they are distinct people.
WINNER!