Straight No Chaser

Hhh

you guys are turning my hair gray.

i mean, i'm having the most fun i've ever had on writing.com (island not included), but jeez.

having only done the contest thing once, and long ago, and without much effort, i had forgotten what an undertaking it is, how rewarding and how challenging.

because enough people have asked, i think i'm going to do this again, if not regularly than once more. there are people following this contest (i'm sure you've seen them hiding in your elevated view counts) who wanted to join but didn't, want to play but can't, et cetera, and so, because we seem to be having fun, i can totally do it again. some of you want to play again too. i was thinking, same twenty available slots, but i'd reserve ten of them for first-time players, and then the last ten could go to anyone who wanted to.

that's how you know i'm having fun, because i've got growing piles of gray hair on the floor all around me, and i'm still volunteering myself for this again.

it is frustrating for me to see people fighting, even if it's just in that inconsequential blogly way, because all the contestants are people i like and/or see value in, nobody i think deserves that kind of adversity in a contest setting, for goodness' sake--because it's really less of a contest, anyway, than it is a something-else-whose-name-i-can't-call--

but then, at the same time, i don't care about the fighting or the sniping or the negativity in a practical way; if that's how people want to use each other's inspiration, fine! whatever! i just say, find some balance.

i'm about to try an exquisite corpse, next entry. balance, harmony. om.

and also, should i be resentful that everyone who took my little me-quiz guessed i was the lame late-blooming fifteen-year-old who got her period after everyone else? i mean, come on, guys. size doesn't really matter, that much.

and also, the pairs? i really did flip a coin. i really did. i tried it by systems a few times, came up with some problematic pairings, and out of respect for--well, myself, primarily, as the person who has to listen to every bit of the griping and negativity, i undid them and did it again, randomly. end of story, it's a bonus, free points! no necessity or guarantee attached, do what you want. make a new friend. feed the goslings.

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