Just a reminder - the entries will be posted tomorrow.
Two entries - Judging anonymously by members - one member one vote - closing time/date is 5.00pm Wednesday.
Thanks
Rob
Edited by Pugugly on 09/11/2009 at 18:53
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?Time
Is on my side ? it really is?? (The Rolling Stones)
It isn?t really though. It degrades all things as well as healing them. Not least the automobile, or what passes for it these days. Although it is useful, as an idea, in the form of a crude theoretical calibration, for the rough estimation of a relative phenomenon that we call ?speed?: miles per hour, kilometres per second. Primitive stuff by Einsteinian standards, that would have our cars becoming shorter the faster they went until, on reaching the speed of light, not all that fast really at 186,000 miles/sec, they would become infinitely vast.
Yeah, right. Einsteinian physics has the speed of light as an absolute rather than relative phenomenon. Making apparent nonsense of Doppler shift and even the disappearance of theoretical outer edges of the universe, deemed to be moving away too fast to be visible. Does that say absolute to you? No, nor me neither. Modern physics is another matter of course, theorising the clumped, haphazard nature of the matter created along with time itself and already scattering in a primal splat just after the big bang.
Where did the matter come from? Nowhere, because there is no time before the big bang. Yeah, right. In that slowed-down Hollywood vision of something, like ketchup perhaps, splattering in empty space a couple of nanoseconds later, can the automobile, can humanity, can protoplasm itself be seen as a gleam in something?s eye?
I don?t see why not really.
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Time
Memories of bitter and yet sweet moments echo, through the neural synapses, like pin-balls in a game of bagatelle.
The days of youth, the days of responsibility and the freedom of the ageing mind - no longer fettered by the morning rush hour. Steel marbles constrained by roads - faster slower - a boost of power - back and forth, back and forth....
Pistons of the mind. Rings of steel, so tempered and yet so constrained - yet, cast in the longer throw, free from the bores, the roads - the bagatelle of human frailty. The need to hold, to preserve, to freeze the moment.
All cast in the linear flow of time. The steel, the balls on tracks from pin to pin, to get the highest score.
The apple withers on the tree. The human body feels the flow - and yet....memories so sweet of moments past hold true in transient wisps of flesh.
Yet time moves on. The cars are gone, long gone and mountain chains under a weaker sun hold atoms of the memory of our earthly motoring games.
Until the stars themselves run through. Consuming, re-birthing, recreating,but, perhaps, perhaps - a flickering of random atoms in a Universe far away - a brief flash, an awareness of a life long gone. The Earth, the roads, the steel marbles of a time once loved, lost now these ages gone, in times game of bagatelle.
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My vote is for the second entry.
Rob (too)
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I thought the 1st was relatively better.
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Sorry, found both unreadable. My eyes just glazed over.
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Me as well. Both caused me to have terminal boredom.
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If you want my honest opinion, both entries were incomprehensible.
;-)
Edited by L'escargot on 12/11/2009 at 05:39
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Come on now Gentlemen ;-)
(the above four posts)
You had the opportunity to contribute a Essay yourselves, but chose not to. It`s easy to have a go at the work of others - but we are Human Beings with feelings who have been attempting to provide interest and entertainment from a different angle.
I suspect that you are lighthearted about this and not meaning to depress our `spirits` in these endevours.. But could you please reflect on how such comments may put people off contributing in future.
I will be doing more Essay Competitions and hope to meet wider expectations - as well as providing a set of rules which excludes negativity. We get enough of the latter in `real life`but have the opportunity of creating something warmer here.
All the best to you all and apologies to have not met your expectations.
oilrag
Edited by oilrag on 12/11/2009 at 07:51
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Well said oilrag.
Both times I would have loved to have contributed to the essay competition simply because I love a challenge. Both times I worried that my 'take' on the subject may be ridiculed and decided not to.
I realise too it may well be humour, but a bland piece of typed text doesn't come over as that.
Now you can see why my lorry driving colleagues always knew me as The Flying Witch:)
Pat
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I will be doing more Essay Competitions and hope to meet wider expectations - as well as providing a set of rules which excludes negativity.
I can't remember what the subject was supposed to be. What was it?
There's a little negativity here, true - however, it's still positive in a way, if you think about it - at least a couple of comments were thrown into this vast ocean of absolute nullity.
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I voted for the essay that appealed to me and i enjoyed reading.
I'm in no way qualified to offer any sort of criticism or comment about contributor's efforts, in all cases they have done far better than i could have and i appreciate the work and rewrites that must have gone into their pieces.
I assumed that either HJ (the guvnor) would be judging or it would be a simple vote, with literary criticisms not really asked for at this stage, and certainly most unwelcome from the likes of me no doubt and with good reason.
I look forward to further essays, doubt if i'll feel able to compete, but we'll see.
Carry on Oily.
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HJ has agreed to the competition and was roped in to judge - but the democratic process seemed to work the last time - I thing the detractors spoilt the whole thing personally. As I said to one of the contributors (who actually bothered to contribute) Pearls before Swine.
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I have to side with FT and the Melting Snowman that both essays were unreadable. They made my eyes itch. Contributors should accept and indeed welcome criticism.
If they can't then this thread seems pointless and doomed to go no futher.
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Don't let it get to you oilrag. Quite a lot of people have reading difficulties. You can't blame them for confusing conjunctivitis with literary criticism either.
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Well if my maths are any good, all those who have sought to criticise certainly didn't submit an essay of their own:)
Pat
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Maybe, in the next comp, there could be the Title option of "How do you write a good Essay?" ;-)
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"at least a couple of comments were thrown into this vast ocean of absolute nullity."
There is that too...
I will write an intro next time to welcome none members, who may be passing through - to sign up and vote - even if not wishing to write an Essay. (All those hundreds of views though..)
Enough anyway. I suggest we close this thread off shortly and I will go away and formulate something that is hopefully better.
All the best, to you all!
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Thread Locked at Oily's request.
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