STILL HAMMERING THE PAVEMENT FOR VOTES!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Well, folks, I promise this campaign does have an end... sometime next month, I believe. I have been spending every spare minute pounding the virtual pavement, trying to scare up votes. In the process, I have been learning some very interesting lessons about our society.

For every 100 invitations to vote that I have sent out, about 90 of them had very positive responses. I have received over a thousand emails from people who said things like "Way to go!", "Hope you win!", "You got my vote!" and the like.

Out of all the positive responses I got, a few people asked me to go to a website and vote for their kid's entry in a competition, or their own - which I happily did. A few people asked me questions about the contest, or about other things - and I replied to them. Also, any positive response I received was answered with a thank-you.

The small percentage of negative feedback I receive is surprisingly hateful. I've had people telling me with glee that they voted for other people who had more votes than I did already, people that belittled my photo, people that spilled all sorts of venom because I was asking "complete strangers" to vote for me.

For the record, I did not reply to the negative folks. That would be time wasted that I could be spending getting votes from nice folks who don't think it an imposition to take two seconds (literally) to click a button and do something kind.

But what made me chuckle was the fact that the negative folks would write me acid paragraphs, ending with an accusation that I was wasting their time. It would have taken two seconds to either delete me or vote for me, but they just took exponentially longer to write nasty things to me... how concerned can they really be with their time, I ask you?

And back to that "complete strangers" comment... I only have a limited number of family and friends. I don't know anyone (except maybe the Sopranos - ha) who have a "family" big enough to cover an entire competition and win. In a contest like this one, if one doesn't get strangers to vote, what hope does ANYONE have to win? That's just silly.

If you are in the grocery store and a shorter person asks you to reach something for them on the top shelf, do you scream at them, "HOW DARE YOU ASK A FAVOR FROM A COMPLETE STRANGER?!?!?!" Of course not. At least, I hope you don't. I just say, "Sure, no problem!" and help them out. I don't see any difference here. I am trying to reach a goal that I can't possibly reach unless I ask for the kindness of strangers. I'm not asking for money, I'm not asking for anyone's firstborn, I'm just asking for the click of a mouse, really.

And I don't think that's too much to ask. And I'm going to keep on asking until this contest is over. Bear with me, folks - I'm really tenacious when I've got a cause. As soon as this contest ends, I promise this blog will return to its regularly scheduled nonsense.

P.S. Keep voting! You can place one vote a day, did you know that? 8-)