pecunium

The Microsft/Lenovo contest is still running. There’s a bit less than a month left. I’ve not been flogging it, because I don’t want to abuse you all with pleas for help. Especially for those who have already voted for me. One of the things most annoying about pledge drives and the like is being one of those who make a contribution, and then having to listen to pleas for money until the drive is over.

This, regrettably, is just such a pledge break in the regularly scheduled programming.

I’m holding pretty steady at where I was right after I made the initial announcements. They’ve clarified the voting some (with a big arrow saying, “vote here”, in case the “Pic this” button is unclear.”

Holding steady in 40-50 rankings isn’t going to do it. I’m not sure if they are going to take the top 20 ranks, or the top 20 votes (there are ties). It’s a funny thing this. I have to believe I can do it, and I have to make you believe, at least enough to be willing to spend a couple of minutes registering/voting (if they didn’t have a registration system, they couldn’t be sure the voting was tolerably honest. A couple of the top-ten projects have been pulled; I suppose for vote frauds).

I’m not looking to change the world. I don’t think I can do that. There are some really interesting ideas out there, but I think they need suites of photographers, and lots of logistical efforts to co-ordinate. Maybe I could take the money and make a, “day in the life” sort of thing.

It’s not me. I can’t write fiction, but I can tell stories. I studied journalism. I can take a decent photo. I like to think I can tell stories with the camera. What I’m doing, really, is asking you all to help me get a job.

The job is to show you something. Like the story which this picture hints at:

Unter den Kampfor Strasse

Or the one this one tells:

My Dad has a Barn

Or the one this one ends:

Past It

What I want to do make it possible for those of you who don’t have the time, or the inclination or perhaps, the skill, to make such a trip; and share it, to share in it. It's not going to be easy. It's going to involve roughing it some, and wandering about lost in a foreign country (even though I, basically, speak the language). It's going to be, for all the joys and thrills, a long time away from home, family and friends. What contact I keep with them will be done by way of the net.

I am afraid I have to ask for help too, in addition to votes. Right now there are 176 people who have voted for me. If you have, I thank you. If you haven’t, there’s still time.

But the top slots are in the 700s, I need help. I need to have people I don’t really know decide to vote for this, so if you can persuade them to do it, the odds of my getting this gig go up.

If anyone knows how to make Digg work, I'd be grateful to find out. I made one A Photographer's Dream, but I've not managed to figure out how to post it/get it "dugg", etc.

My proposal, (Great Britain on foot, Bridle Path and Barge) is doing well, esp. for just one day's worth of listing.

If I understand what they want, it needs more. I feel guilty (well no, I feel like a beggar, which is different). They want someone who will be read, who can provide something which will have a following. So I'm actually asking for a little more than just a vote.

So if you could follow this link:

and, vote (if you've not already), and leave a comment. Give a suggestion, tell me what you'd like to read about, see pictures of.

When they say, "name your dream", this is one of mine. Toad and his gyspy wagon. The time on the canal.... following the mule. That was what I flashed on. The Wind in the Willows was one of the shaping books of my youth. When I was a kid in Ohio we had a wood behind the house, about four acres. That's a fair chunk of tangled deadfall and mysterious nooks and crannies. It was where I set Badger's House in my mind's eye (there was a patch of fallen branches which was covered in leaves and twigs and snow in the winter. Beneath it was a small bit of dark dryness. The wood-rats Ratty scared off with his brace of pistols and cudgel could have lived in it).

Those are some of the things I would love to catch.

And the morning light, Otter's, "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", which I've always tied into Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (why yes, my mind is a strange clutter of bizarre free association).

I've got the chops to do the trip. Now I need evidence to show there are people who want to share it with me.

Thanks.