Luck Is Where You Find It

Why do you comp? That’s the question I like to ask my fellow compers. Me? I enjoy the validation.

My eldest child has reached that phase of confrontational belligerence that I was led to believe started at puberty (he’s seven), while my youngest continues to scream in my face when I put him on the toilet; so much for the life-affirming nature of parenting. As for the vocational side of things, I’m self-employed, so the best praise I can hope for is that the decision to offshore my work is postponed for another few months. So, if I’ve found a hobby where folks I’ve never met tell me I’m a winner or congratulate me on my creative endeavours, then yup, you bet I appreciate the love.

In truth, it’s the creative comps that keep me in the game, as the sport itself is half the fun. The recent #NationalPoetryDay (much like #WorldPoetryDay and #NationalLimerickDay) is a case in point. Such hashtag days are a gift to promoters looking for something a little different from another mindless follow-RT comp.

As challenges go, it’s easy enough to quote a line of poetry or write a little (usually tweetable) poem - yet, bizarrely, the comping community at large seems to swerve such competitions, meaning that there’s the additional bonus of really low odds.

With this in mind, I was feeling pretty hopeful on last week’s #NationalPoetryDay, but sadly it passed without a prize. But that’s not to say I didn’t get lucky…

Bloomsbury Publishing was one of the promoters running a poetry competition, and while I might not have been a winner per se, my entry got a retweet from none other than one-time Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen. Now that’s what I call validation!

Have any of your near misses been as good as a win? Let me know in the comments below!

My Lucky Patch

How many daily lotteries do you play? I’m down to two - any more than that and I get all panicky if I forget to check in each day.

The main one I play, however, is My Lucky Patch, which is like the Free Postcode Lottery inasmuch as the winner is pretty much selected by sticking a pin in a map, but broadly speaking, the similarities end there.

As with the other free lotteries, the size of your potential win increases by a nominal amount every day you check in. Unlike the other lotteries, daily check-in also rewards you with additional lucky patches (ie entries into the daily draw), theoretically improving the odds of you winning. In this way, regulars are rewarded with additional entries into the daily draw (unlike with other lotteries, where your odds diminish as more people join the game).

I’ve now checked into the site sufficiently often to have a potential prize pot of £250, so you can imagine how excited I got a couple of weeks back when I saw that the day’s lucky patch was in Norwich. Check out my near miss - two squares closer and I’d have hit paydirt! I've had the Free Postcode Lottery miss me by a couple of streets before, but this was a couple of car-lengths!

If another free lottery sounds like your cup of tea, sign up here [disclosure, I get a 15 patch bonus!]

Be lucky!

Do you play the free lotteries? How are they working out for you?

Everyone Loves a Selfie

I don't. I hate them. I hate taking pictures of myself. Unless it’s documenting the progression of my facial hair, it’s just vain. As for selfie competitions … Really?! It was 2013 when the OED decided “selfie” was word of the year. And we haven’t moved on from here?

On the plus side, at least a selfie competition is neither as tedious as, nor open to the same level of bot abuse as a Twitter follow/RT comp; likewise, it doesn’t spam your social network like a Facebook like-share comp (which despite contravening Facebook’s T&Cs are still ten a penny). But still, as far as effort comps go, it’d be nice to see promoters come up with something a little more original.

That’s not to say I refuse to enter selfie comps. That would imply I had some kind of dignity I wanted to preserve. In fact, I’ve even won a couple. But mostly the experience has been about as productive as banging my head against a wall. Here are some head shots that failed to make the grade.

"The Mirror Selfie"

A bit too self-referential, perhaps.

"The Fakecation"

Wish you were here?

"The Iceland Freezer Selfie"

I was trying to channel the Shamen. It didn't work.

"The Toad"

Obviously.

"The Perfume Selfie"

Probably not what the promoter had in mind.

Have you got a rogues' gallery of selfies or do you bin them as soon as you can? What was the most interesting selfie comp you entered?