What I did today

Well, it would help if I started a few days back. I was at work, it was slow, and I was doodling around online. I decided to go visit the Mad Men site and see what fun stuff they'd put up lately. And wouldn't you know it, they've decided to hold a contest! The winner gets to be a walk-on extra on one episode of Mad Men!

I spent several minutes perusing the photo entries that have been made so far, and then I breeped over to the rules and regulations page to see what one had to do to qualify for an entry in said contest.

As it turns out, this contest could have been better organized and run by a herd of wildebeest than by the morons that put it together. You see, they are purporting to base the winners on a "popularity vote". But they have completely screwed the pooch by stretching the entry time out for three months - and allowing people to start voting before all the entrants are on the website!

I have always been a horror at math. If I had been born in England, I would have been a horror at maths. But still. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if THE PERFECT "Mad Men" entrant put their picture on the website the last day of the contest, they have no chance of garnering anywhere near the number of votes that a completely average to non-perfect entrant collected, since they put their entry in during the first week of the contest.

Now, if the contest rules said, "The first person to enter, or the person who has the most family and friends to vote for them will win.", then I'd have no beef with this contest. BUT the rules state that the contest judges are looking for someone with "Mad Men Style" - thus the sponsoring by Banana (Hammocks) Re-pub-lick. However they have just completely blown that whole idea by not first collecting all the entrants and THEN letting people vote on them.

Idiots.

Well, according to the website, you cannot get your secret entrance code online. No, you have to track down a local Banana (Hammocks) Re-pub-lick store and get the entry form there. I have not set foot inside a mall in over twenty years, people. But for Mad Men, I went. I called up the location at the mall closest to my house, but they said they had no more entry forms. So I ended up having to drive all the way to the north shore - about an hour there and back - to get an entry form.

Once I got home, I got some Mad Men style going, grabbed my tripod and Bear's camera, and headed out to the yard for some solo posing. It was only 98 degrees, and within a few minutes my hair was plastered to my head under the hat band, and sweat was rolling down my face. Thank the gods for the "blur" tool in Photoshop. That's all I'm sayin'.

Here are the photos that I considered "in the running" for entry:





And this is the one that I finally decided on:


I was all happy that I'd finally chosen a picture, and I set about filling out the online entry form. I had my little secret code at the ready, and then I uploaded my photo.... without re-sizing it. DAMN. The rules of entry specifically stated that if the photo was larger than 3MB, the entry would be disqualified. Damn, damn, damn.

So I called up the Banana (Hammocks) Re-pub-lick store and explained my little dilemma. I told them that I had driven all the way from the south shore to get an entry form, and begged the nice sales girl to just meander over to the stack of entry forms, grab one, read the code to me over the phone, and throw that form away. What a sweet girl!

Now I'm nervous that they will disqualify my entry because I entered twice, which is also against the rules. Nothing is ever simple for me. You may have figured that out by now. And so I will sweat and wonder for the next 24 hours whether they are going to post my entry on the website or not.

Not that I have any chance of winning, of course... as there are entrants who already have over twenty thousand votes (some of them didn't even dress up as instructed)... but I gave it my best shot.

If my photo gets posted, will any of you vote for me?