Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts

Saturday, September 11, 2010

First Annual RANTWICK Autumn Tree Smackdown

Autumn, what I consider the best cycling season of all, is almost upon us. This post, however, isn't about cycling. Last year in October I did a post about a remarkable tree here in London Ontario that I dubbed "The King of Autumn". Some comments on that post prompted me to promise a competition next year. Well, next year is here, and with it the First Annual RANTWICK Autumn Tree Smackdown! I have no idea if The King will be as brilliant as last year, but I'm putting him up against all comers. He is not tipping his hand at all yet:


Please send me your pictures of Autumn trees giving us a show. I would prefer shots of one or just a few trees, since even The King can't reasonably defeat a whole mountainside of fall colour. That said, all pictures of fall foliage are welcome. Submissions will be accepted until Dec 15, 2010. I'll post the pictures here and then we can all vote on the winner over the Christmas season, with votes being collected until Jan 1, 2011. I haven't come up with a prize yet, but I can promise you it will be something of dubious value.

Yer Pal,


R A N T W I C K

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Hey, Don't Forget...

The obstructionist art comment contest is still open and awaiting your stunning submission! Do you want to win $5 in Canadian Tire money? Huh? Click Here.


Yer Pal,
R A N T W I C K

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Captcha Results: A Surprise Ending

I will begin the way I planned to begin, by celebrating the deeply cool and truly moving spectacle that is $5 of Canadian Tire money displayed with style. For your information, $5 Canadian Tire (CT) money is not "cheap": the amount of it you get back varies from franchise to franchise, but let's say you are getting the maximum, 2% of purchases. My family spent at least $250 at CT to generate this prize!




If that view wasn't doing anything for you (as if!), how about that same money rolled up?




I know you're probably already freaking out with joy-joy madness after seeing that CT money in such alluring and attractive ways, but what if I threw in a beer in a freezer-coolie mug thing? What happens to your brain then, huh? Can you stand so much goodness in one photo?


If you thought that was just stupid, you should know that I was seriously considering taking pictures of the CT money with all kinds of different "Canadian" items, and was only stopped by the soothing, calming influence of my sweet wife. You should thank her.

Now, I naturally figured that the winner of this contest would be elated and as happy as Sandy McTire (yes, that's his name):




Instead, upon receiving e-mail about an imminent contest win, the "winner" decided to fess up to captcha contest "doping"! I am not in the business of character assassination, so I am going to make no effort to identify this person for you or get into the specifics of his performance enhancing technological drug choice. I have even scrubbed their contest entry out of the comments, for fear they might enjoy even negative attention. I thought I made it pretty clear in the contest "rules" that, and I quote, "If you are lame enough to cheat on a potentially very boring contest that has no prize other than something stupid and of no monetary value that I will dream up later, I and every other participant thinks you just plain suck. Go away; you're not welcome on RANTWICK." I wrote that before I came up with the prize, and in hindsight I am not surprised that the sexy visage of Sandy McTire pushed a contestant over to the dark side. I mean, look at that Scottish charmer again:


Since I should have known that the prize would have that kind of soul-twisting and ethics-bending power, I am not prepared to excommunicate this visitor altogether. They did, after all, confess what they had done and didn't blame a trainer, a doctor, or the other competitors in the process. I do not condone such behaviour, however, and should I run any more contests on this blog, this individual will be prohibited from participating. There is a zero tolerance doping policy on the Tour de RANTWICK.


Since our doper is disqualified, the entrant with the second most votes, and the winner of RANTWICK's first and last CAPTCHA contest is Rollz, with the most excellent captcha "spipbra"! Although we have never met in person, I happen to know that Rollz is a local London bike commuter, and owner of the blog Bike Commuting London Ontario. I'm hoping you are still reading this blog Rollz, because I don't see an email address attached to your profile... comment please so I can hand over or mail out your prize!

Camping was kinda wet but big fun, and I did some singletrack riding in deep forest for the first time in years. Now, I'm glad to be back and look forward to making little sense again on Friday! Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Monday, July 20, 2009

CAPTCHA Contest: Cast Your Vote!

As promised, I have collected and assembled the CAPTCHAs received from the entrants in my first (and last, I think) CAPTCHA contest. I have put them in alphabetical order, and left out who they belong to in the hopes that we will all vote for the CAPTCHA, not the person. Of course, if you must know who owns what, you can check the comments on the entry page.

Please vote only once, whether you are an entrant or not. Please also note that voting will conclude in about 8 days, so get your vote in now!

Here are the contenders. Vote for one!


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The entrant with the winning CAPTCHA will receive $5 in Canadian Tire money! In the event of a tie, I will have to split up the jackpot! There are two entrants that got the same CAPTCHA. If it win, they will each receive $5 in Canadian Tire money. FYI, Canadian Tire is a long established store chain in Canada. It is much like a Wal Mart, without the evil. I will post on who won when the poll has closed, even though you'll be able to tell by visiting this page.

Have a fun week. I'll be back on Wednesday, barring incident or laziness or incident of laziness!

R A N T W I C K

Friday, July 10, 2009

Yeehaw! It's a CAPTCHA Contest!




Has anybody else found the security "word verification" words funny or strangely well suited to your comment or the post's content sometimes? I certainly have, and it has inspired me to try something...


Some of my more regular commenters may have noticed that I have turned CAPTCHAs back on. It's not for security reasons, it's so that I can run a CAPTCHA contest! I don't know if somebody else has done this before, so I am going to assume this is my very own invention until proven otherwise. Unless it sucks. Then somebody else thought it up.


Please comment on this post, but before hitting the "Publish" button, type the CAPTCHA you have been presented with in the comment box, enclosed in square brackets (eg: [monkey]) and then the appropriate word verification space. The brackets are just to clearly identify your captcha for me, since people somtimes just type weird things for no reason at all.


I will collect comment CAPTCHAs (on this post only) until midnight (Pacific Time) on Wednesday, July 15. Then, I will assemble the entries into an online poll that will go up on Monday, July 20, and we can all vote for the one we think is funniest. The poll will remain open for ten days, and the winner will be formally announced soon after the poll has closed.


Obviously, this whole thing will have to be based on the honour system. Every visitor to the poll, entrant or not, is permitted one vote only. Every entrant is permitted only one [CAPTCHA] comment on this post. Don't make up fake captchas; you have to live with the captcha you were dealt. If you are lame enough to cheat on a potentially very boring contest that has no prize other than something stupid and of no monetary value that I will dream up later, I and every other participant thinks you just plain suck. Go away; you're not welcome on RANTWICK.



Blog Authors are not presented with comment captchas on their own blogs, so I won't be one of the entrants.


If I have just confused the hell out of you, please ask for clarifications with a comment that does not contain a [square bracketed] contest entry...


Good luck to us all, this may be fun but may also be an utter failure! Yeehaw! I can't wait to see which!
Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K


PS - Wait! I just thought of the prize! If you win, I will send you $5 in assorted Canadian Tire money! How cool is that?