The brass ring

[pecunium]

Microsoft and Lenovo are having a contest.

I want to win. No, really. Not would be happy. Not think winning would be swell.

I Want it. With that hunger which is a quiet fire in the belly. The kind of thing which ferments in the mind and makes one think of what one could do with it.

It's a really simple contest, one which is tailor made for me. More to the point it's tailor made for me right now. Right now I can afford to win this thing, and in two years it might be much harder.

It's a photo contest, sort of. It's a contest in which the winning lets one take photos. All one needs to do is come up with an idea and get people to vote for it. The top twenty vote getters will be evaluated (idea, the ability to take a photo and... the ability to blog).

The winner gets 50,000 USD to make it happen. The winner has to pay taxes on it, so the working budget is more like 35,000 (state and feds). Knock out 5,000 for a new camera body, and I have a pretty good working budget.

I don't know that this links to:


The most original idea, but it's one I can do well. It's one where I can strech the budget some. pindar I will have time to drop in on you. I'll have other people to look up too.

But I can live out of my rucksack with a camp stove, and something from Tesco. I can use Hostels. I will rent a barge, and travel the canals. I can, in short, be a tinker, and a gypsy.

Think of Toad, and Mole and Ratty; without, one hopes, the pitfalls and disasters.

I can write descriptive travel writing, even when there is a lot going on.

I can take photos

I can write about taking photos

I can do this.

So, please, vote for me. Link to this. Tell your friends to vote for me. Send e-mails to anyone whom you can beg a favor from to vote for me, if you can, make a comment explaining that you like the idea, my photos, my writing, what have you.

If I win, you get the trip reports (I'll be pubbing my ish as I go). You'll get to see the photos.

I can have three projects. I think they can all be voted for. If you have any ideas, for an alternate project, let me know.

(addendum: It has come to my attention that actually voting for My Dream Photo Assignment is a bit of a trial.

The problem, so it seems is figuring out how to register, and then refinding the project for which one want's to vote. Since I wasn't trying to vote on something, but rather write one, this wasn't plain to me.

The easiest way to negotiate the process seems to be:

1: Go to the link above. After the page loads, copy the URL from the address bar.

2: Click on the button which says, "Submit your idea now"

3: Fill out the registration form (the ticky box about wanting e-mail is optional; if you aren't planning to submit a proposal, feel free to fake the phone number).

4: Follow the link in the registration e-mail.

5: Load the copied url into the address bar.

6: Vote (a button marked, "Pic").

Comments

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

I registered and voted for you and will post this to my journal sometime tomorrow (editing now).

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I signed up. I voted. :) Good luck! It sounds like a wonderful trip and I'd sure love to be able to read about your adventures and see the images.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Signed up. Voted. Posted. Good luck!

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Signed up and voted.

[starwatcher]

.
Registered, voted, posted. Good luck.

If you win, I'd dearly love to see some pictures of thatched roofs and, if you can manage it, a thatcher at work. The whole roof-made-of-straw idea has always fascinated me.
.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'll add it to the list. It's not actually straw, but it's still interesting.

I ought to go to the Chumash display near El Chorro, and take some photos. I really ought to do it in the rain, but they frown on fires, and it might be dry, but still pretty cold.

They did a weaving with leaves.

[starwatcher]

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*Googles* Cool! I'd never heard of the Chumash before. Thanks for stimulating my curiosity.
.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

It depends on the part of the country. Some thatches are straw, some are Norfolk Reed. The colour and texture and aging of the finished roof are different.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Learn something new every day.

I thought they were all reed.

[paulakate.livejournal.com]

Done deal.

[speakertomgrs.livejournal.com]

Registered and voted for you. Good luck, I hope you get it.

[janetl.livejournal.com]

voted!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I've voted!

A couple of details which would have made voting easier for me. That Pic it! icon is a link-- not obvious. I didn't already have an account, and it took some guessing to discover that the link which says that it's a way to post a dream is also the only way to dreate a new account.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'll work on it. I didn't choose one of the flash icons, because I don't think that's fair to people reading my page.

Thanks for the feedback

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

RIck Foss, Daniel Spector and I spent four days on the canals of warwickshire ring, working the locks, mooring at sunset wherever we found ourselves, walking into town for dinner at a random pub and meeting total strangers (or cooking on the boat) and enjoying four miles per hour on the water through the beautiful british countryside. Someone needs to do that justice. And part of your walkabout could include that.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I was planning to use canals, it's why the title includes barges.

But I only had so many words to work with. If you wanted to add a comment about that, I think it helps. I'm doing a follow on post to this one, because I've been looking at this thing a little more; trying to figure out what is needed to make the idea more appealing to the sponsors. I can do it, I just need to convince them.

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Voted, and pimped on my own journal.

Just so you know, though, your photography site seems to be down at the moment (not the Flickr account, the http://www.terrrencekarneyphotography.com/ one).

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it went down sometime last night. Grmmble. Server is having problems, I'm not the only site so affected.

Back soon, one hopes.

[iclysdale.livejournal.com]

Server's been fixed for a while - I only just noticed, it's also mis-typed in the link. :)

Sorry about the server problems, though.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

Signed up. Voted for you.

[greenmother.livejournal.com]

Registered and voted. I would love to be able to follow this journey!

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good dream, but might I suggest another?

I'd really like to give a photographer the assignment of taking pictures of reasons to hope for our future: pictures of people working on alternative energy sources and fuel-efficient ways of living (geothermal, earth-sheltered, solar-powered housing), people whose lives are being improved through projects like Kiva, projects to improve medical care and farming techniques in poor countries, people working to help themselves and each other through things like the barter network, etc.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Forgive me, I am not trying to denigrate the idea, but it's not really workable for something like this.

That's either a "Day in 'x'" sort of project (with lots of photographers, working a really short piece of time), or just too big for one person to get a handle on. It's also just too expensive. When taxes are factored in, I'l have about $30,000 USD. Travel has to come out of that, food comes out of it.

Internet access comes out of it (because part of the deal is to blog it). I am not capable of making all the needed contacts, figuring out the route-path, (because I suspect a lot of that would be time dependant. Getting shots of someone famous working on a Habitat for Humanity project means being there that day, etc.).

Maybe my writing could make up for the other failings I have in trying to do something like that, but I don't think so. For me, I need something a bit more concrete than that.

Comes from years as a newspaper guy. I want a story, something coherent. Following a Habitat for Humanity team, showing the trials and tribulations they go through to get a batch of houses built. I might be able to do that, but it would, I think, not be the best thing for this sort of project. Such things would have a lot of down time. Periods where the report would be more on the repetitive order of a ship's log, "Plain sailing, hands variously employed."

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I think National Trust Working Holidays (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-trust/w-volunteering/w-workingholidays.htm) might make a good part of this trip. We did one, wished we'd done more. I predict good company, good fun, good value, and good pictures, plus a chance to stay in one place and catch your breath a bit occasionally.

Also, I predict that this page (http://www.yha.org.uk/) will be featuring largely in your planning.

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

I found your journal through janetmiles. I signed into the contest account and chose you as a "PIC." Is that all I need to do?

If you win, please keep a blog of your travels. I'd love to see it!

I hope there will be some good character descriptions. I love to find out how people live in different areas. Best of luck with your dream!

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Yes, that's all one "needs" to do. I think it would help if you said what you just told me in a comment on the contest site.

Regardless, thanks.

I will be blogging the trip.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Of course I'll support you, but you need to think ahead to beating the competition, not just getting our support.

If you're going to be judged on ability to blog -- judged by strangers -- you will need to buckle down and work on your proofreading and editing skills. In the writing piece you point to there's a comma splice in the very first paragraph. In this post right here there's at least one missing word which makes the sentence it's in incomprehensible without interpolation and some puzzling. Your friends will take the time to puzzle and interpolate. Judges will be looking for an excuse to eliminate candidates -- there will be too many to evaluate each one carefully. Chances are, if the judges hit a snag, they will simply note it, and move on to the next candidate.

And you need to work on photo presentation. You take some excellent photos. Some of them are just okay. When you're trying to sell your ability to take photos, not one of the "just okay" pictures should be on display. The face that you present to the judges needs to be a small, very carefully culled selection of nothing but your very best work: best in terms of clarity, composition, and interest. Side by side sets of one B&W and one color photo of the same snow bank will not sell you as a rock star. You're going to need to be a rock star if you mean to win.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose you can edit the entry? The title needs to have serial commas rather than a colon. England *has* a wealth of history, it is not identical with a wealth of history. England is not the same as Great Britain, and the two terms should therefore not be used interchangeably, especially when you're naming Cardiff as a destination. For the non-polymath audience, you really ought to explain, very briefly, what the nature and appeal of being a tinker is. Too much is elided in the transition as it stands.