GinaFish.com

The big event is concluded and P.K. Gillock broke the Guiness Book World Record for continuous karaoke singing for a charity by singing 44 hours!! Add in five minute breaks and the event lasted two hours shy of 48 hours. Add in the fact that the event didn’t start until 7 pm. Thai time and he apparently woke up at 9:30 a.m. add 9 something hours and Kirk was awake for 57 hours straight!!

I sure do hope he’s asleep right now!!

The event started at 7 a.m. central standard time and of course I was up at 6 as usual. Here are my thoughts… as I can best recall them…

Friday morning

6:45 a.m. So relieved that kids are at Nana’s house so I can begin the event totally focused. Brew coffee and get laptop situated.

7:00 a.m. the event begins! Love, love, love by the Beatles. Kirk is looking nervous, sitting on a stool, hand in his pocket. And no wonder he’s nervous! There are large speakers outside broadcasting the event, he has been interviewed by numerous publications in the last couple of days, and about 20 people are milling around in person.

10 a.m. I remember to eat. Popcorn. I’m grooving

5 p.m. Hubby comes home, kids are still at nana’s. This is the first time I have taken my attention away from karaoke. Thanks to a laptop, karaoke even went to the bathroom with me. Multiple times. It was that darn coffee.

6:30 p.m. the kids arrive home so I take a break. Eat my first meal of the day and hurry the kids to bed.

8:15 p.m. back to karaoke! Kirk is doing an awesome job of pacing himself, refusing even to dance. Throughout the day, Ming or Terri is bringing him warm water with honey and cold towels. He didn’t take his first break till 8 hours in, and during the breaks is when he eats, uses the restroom, etc.

Stay online till 11:30 p.m. with my eyes starting to blur and my head hurts from wearing earphones all day.

Up again at 6, and sign on at 6:20 a.m. I’m thrilled to see him still singing after a 7 hour absence. It’s hard to comprehend that he has been in the same spot singing while the world keeps spinning and doing it’s thing. It’s listed at digg as an extreme sport. And the extreme part is starting to show.

I have it on good authority that his eyes are red beyond belief and that his legs are going numb this morning.

Once again, my husband is being absolutely wonderful about my isara addiction and takes the kids with him to church for an errand, leaving the house at 7 a.m.

7 a.m. till noon soley concentrating on the karaoke record and how it really is beginning to look like it will be broken!

I log off for about 30 minutes while getting the kids situated with videos and helping husband get ready for a pastoral emergency (which turned out okay later)

11:30 a.m. sit back down to ‘plug’ in. I amazed at the amount of endurance he is showing and awed by all the love he is getting from around the world. Canada, Sweden, Australia, UK, Thailand, Puerto Rico, and others. The highest number of viewers I witnessed at one time was 54, and I only had to kick out 3 people the entire time. That is impressive to me.

Then 4 p.m. rolls around and I turn off the computer for a bit to actually leave the house. While I’m gone, I think of inspirational things to say to Kirk, and in fact, even call his mom to ask her to post something. He was dragging a bit off and on, and I wanted to remind him that if he broke the record,  he would make international news! After all, that’s how he learned about the record! Watching the news! And if someone could learn about isara that way, it’d be great and well worth 40 plus hours of singing!

I get back online earlier than expected and it’s 7:15 p.m. Lord knows how long I’ve been watching this thing now. I have NO idea! But once again, Kirk is pushing through, keeping on keeping on. He has finally let go of some of the responsibilities and is letting Terri dj the song flow. Now HIS eyes are going out and he is really having to concentrate on the lyrics screen. He mentions that earlier the witness saw him almost fall asleep with his head on the microphone and he is catching his second wind. Or fifth. He is getting postively loopy by now. But his voice is there and so are his supporters online.

When I logged on this time at, I knew it was getting toward the final push and that he had been getting exhausted off and on, I’m scared when I log in, he’ll have quit so close to the end, and I’m a nervous wreck for the first two hours logged back in.

I log off for 15 minutes around 9 to snuggle with the kids who have been enjoying Shrek 2 in the bedroom (and staying up late) while Josh and I both watched karaoke. (Have I mentioned yet that I’m having karaoke withdrawls?)

So they go to bed… then at 11, Josh goes to bed… and I still haven’t yawned. And I keep on, keeping on. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, my comments in the chat area don’t make any sense, and they are far from witty. I think. I can’t remember. It’s funny, because I rarely got to really WATCH karaoke because I was focused on the chat screen. Ay yi yi. People start asking over and over when it’s going to be over. It’s 4 hours away, then it’s 3, then it’s 45 minutes, and then *what!* it happened 20 minutes ago! During the classic song, “My lady Hump”.

Hope that song title gets in the guiness book too!

So most people start signing off, and I try to do the same… really! I know it’s 1:30 a.m. and that I have to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for church, but … it’s addicting. I just couldn’t. So I log out and watch as an anonymous ustreamer for a while. Then I notice there isn’t a moderator for the chatroom so I have to come out from hiding and give moderator status to someone trustworthy. Then Kirk is singing a good song, so I can’t quite leave yet. After ten minutes of being logged in, I manage to sneak away again. And watch as an anonymous user. Till my husband comes out of the bedroom at 3 a.m. asking if I’m coming to bed. *sheepishily grinning*

So I finally hit the hay. And when I check online this morning, I discover Kirk is FINALLY OFFLINE!! and I missed the last song only by 20 minutes. Oh well. Que Sera, Sera.

Now, go check out http://www.isara.org and see what kind of charity could inspire such karaoke records, and sleeplessness. and 30 hours compulsive insanity on my part.