Competition Notification: Random House

Whatever else I may be, I am consistent. I didn't win the recent mega-lottery ($35 million), nor any other major prize. Or minor one for that matter; although I did once win ten bucks in a game of chance. As far as I know that wasn't declarable on my income tax, but I guess I should have notified the Tax Office anyway, just in case.

Anyways, for those who like a dabble, Random House is offering chances in a prize. I can't give you the URL, coz The Usual Parties may well consider that I might be benefiting in some way - which past experience confirms that even one cretin with such a belief is sufficient to generate a complaint; two cretins sharing such an erroneous belief got me into huge pooh. Or poop, if you prefer.

And no, offering proof makes no difference to the determination; a review is apparently not an option. Nor does making an official complaint about the determination, the lack of investigation, and the clear denial of Natural Justice or even just a fair and unbiased investigation make one scrap of difference ...

I may have digressed there for a minute. Good luck with Random House's offering.

Valentine's Day: Display and Competition

Amazing what you can do with a ten dollar budget, a "free" hour (OK, laugh here - I did) and a box of bits left over from previous years.

The competition this year involved getting teachers to nominate their favorite "romance" story, film, poem, song, TV show, etc - then printing the teachers' name and their favs all mixed up so the kids could "guess" which teacher nominated what.

Fun for all, particularly the small child who walked away with a big box of chocolates at the end.

Win an author visit?

OK folks ... no-one knows everything, right? And there's so many authors in the world, that no one librarian can have heard of all of them, right again?

So there should be no shame in a secondary Teacher Librarian not knowing about "a beloved children's author illustrator with more than 36 million books in print". You still with me here?

The way I figure it, I may not have heard of Jan Brett, but then again there's a good chance she won't have heard of me. Sounds fair and reasonable, at least to me. I may not do "reasonable" very well - from some folk's perspective - but "fair" is mandatory.

Anyways, there's currently a competition to win a "school or library" visit from Jan Brett. I almost entered into the competition, until it came to the part about entering personal information. I'm still more than a little wary of that, since my personal bank account got hacked. (Luckily the bank stepped in after a mere one-cent transaction had been detected. Well done, St George Bank!)

So, being in the situation I am currently in, I paused to reflect on any possible negative ramifications my winning may produce. I couldn't find anything in the competition rules that precluded the author from travelling to Australia (return airfares currently being around USD$1400 LAX to Sydney); at least a few days hotel expenses (excluding The Y, around AUD$300 per night), meals, etc. Oh-oo ... Code of Conduct, Clause 26.5 et al.

So technically, the Author Visit would be the property of my employer. Which I guess would mean that Jan Brett may have found herself in Head Office reading her Hedgehog stories to folk in suits and/or "up" hairstyles, complete with note takers, observers, members of the press, and a disgruntled Teacher Librarian writing indignant blog entries.

Probably lucky for everyone that I closed the competition page before I finalised the competition entry details.

An exercise in futility?

Having spent months trying to decide if, then what, eBook reader I might purchase, I've just come across one on Summer Sale at a local purveyor of such electronic devices. Even better, they were running a competition to actually win one! "In 25 words or less, tell us why you want ..."

I wish I had an eBook,
Like all my librarian friends;
Then I'd read a thousand tomes
And other odds and ends.

I did try for something in Iambic Pentamiter, but it was a little too difficult to stay under the word limit, get some rhyme happening, and make any sense. But still, this isn't too bad, is it? And only 22 words. Bet there's more than a few recipients of my more formal correspondence that wish I could be as brief and to the point with them.

Anyways, the downside of it is that if I should happen to win the competition, the prize - according to my employer's Code of Conduct - goes to my employer, as we are only allowed to "accept" prizes up to the value of $50.

Ah well, maybe they'll let me use it over the holidays or visit it or something. The CofC doesn't say who would actually get to hold the eBook reader in protective custody, in order to save me from being open to possible allegations of corruption. I must check into this, in the unlikely event that I win.

So much to do, so much of it most probably pointless. Sigh.