I win!!!!

So I got this email today from Subterrain Magazine. The subject: Lush Triumphant Winners!

My first thought: Those bastards not only didn’t tell me I didn’t win, but now they’re going to rub it in my face about who did win? Grrrrrrrr!

But that was not the case. No, apparently my piece, A Case of Jeff, was selected by the judges as this year’s Creative Non-Fiction Winner for the contest! What?!

I wanted to scream ”FUCK YES!!” for several minutes but I was on the bus, so I fought hard to restrain myself. And then, the more I thought about the news, the more it really sank in that I, with something I worked hard on and wrote, won. I thought about how my father told me (multiple times) how I couldn’t make a living being a writer, and my mom asking me who would want to read my shit. And now I won. I showed them both. So there!

My piece, along with the other winners in the other categories, will appear in subTERRAIN’s last issue of the year, which I assume is coming out sometime this month. Super excited!!!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some shouting I need to do.

 

Non-winning

On Tuesday, the finalists in the CBC Canada Writes Creative Non-fiction contest were announced. I had been waiting for months to find out the results, and since I knew I probably wouldn’t be on the longlist with a piece that I had written and submitted days before the deadline that I wasn’t thrilled about, I wasn’t expecting to make it. Which as it turns out, is what happened.

I was pretty bummed, but the good thing about it is that I ended up with a piece that I now really like, and that I can submit elsewhere. And I’ll probably end up putting it in my book, so yay.

I’m a non-winner!

CBC Short Story Prize

The deadline for the CBC Short Story Prize was today and although I wrote it in my agenda, I didn’t get around to writing anything just because this damn research essay for Sociology class is consuming my life and my soul.  Also, I didn’t have any ideas for any short stories, so I suppose I wasn’t inspired much to write one either.  Still, it was a little disappointing to not write anything for the competition since my goal for the last few months was to write a lot more and send things out.  Oh well.  There’s always the next competition, which is Creative Non-fiction, which I always have ideas.

Discovery channel’s Film Snacks film contest

Last year, Discovery channel held a 2-minute maximum short film contest for all filmmakers, with the grand prize being a trip for 2 to Toronto to attend some conference (I think).  My sister, a friend, and I planned out some ideas to film and enter the contest but we never got it underway and we didn’t end up entering.

A few days ago, I saw an commerical on the Discovery channel for the contest this year, and though I’m not as determined or excited about it as I was last year — plus the deadline is on September 15, which is really soon — I think it would be interesting to try and make a film.  What do you think?

http://filmsnacks.discoveryworldhd.ca/details

Last run

I found out about a week or so ago that my short film/commercial, Last Text, had been shortlisted in the ICBC 180 contest, which was pretty awesome since my film was 1 out of 10 in the category of Distracted Driving, and subsequently, one out of 30 out of the three categories.  I have to say that though I consider myself to be quite the humble guy, some of the other entries didn’t really impress me.  Maybe it’s the fact that a lot of them had very similar messages and were filmed in a way that conveyed being safe in a different way.  So when I got the email that the film had been shortlisted I wasn’t terribly surprised.  Sure, I was definitely happy but I didn’t feel like we had a slim chance we weren’t going to get picked, let’s say.

So anyway, I got another email today from the folks at ICBC regarding the contest and unfortunately, the film didn’t get picked for the final round, which sucks.  Was I expecting to get into the final round?  Well, I didn’t think it was definite by any means; sure, I was hoping for it but from the feedback I got so far on youtube, it seemed like a fairly significant number of people didn’t like the film, not to mention the fact that other films which I didn’t consider very good were also shortlisted in my category.

It’s all good though.  It was fun making the film in a day, with a great crew (and our one, super duper adorable actor).  Also, the fact that I now have something more on my list of films is a bonus, so it’s not like this whole experience has been all bad. Still, it would be really useful to have a Mac with Final Cut on it so I don’t have to go to Langara and somehow find a computer that might have it.

Thanks to the crew and especially to Joe for letting us film at his place.  🙂  Here’s a link again to the film on the ICBC contest youtube page, if you’d like to have a look.

How should I spend $200 to change the world?

Before all two of you start harassing me about where I suddenly got $200 from, I shall explain.  Last month, there was a special day when students, teachers, and random people who were most likely drawn in by the abundance of orange balloons in the front of the building, all gathered to celebrate Langara’s 40th birthday.  There were contests, games, and booths everywhere on campus and I entered a whole bunch of contests, not thinking I would ever win anything because of course, well, I don’t.

About a week or so later, I get an email from someone at Langara who tells me I’ve won a $200 gift certificate to Oakridge mall and asks when I want to come pick it up.  Long story short, I now have $200 to spend and I’m not sure what to buy.

My first instinct was, as most people’s, what to buy for myself or for friends/family.  After all, Christmas is coming up and as a student, I don’t have that much to spend anyway, so this would be a good chance.  But it didn’t seem right — maybe it was the fact that I had been reading Gulliver’s Travels and was filled with hopelessness about the entire human race (likely) but I wanted to do something more.

I established that I wanted to do something for the homeless by buying them a whole bunch of blankets at Zellers or the Bay and giving them out to people on the street but I realized that it wasn’t enough.  Sure, it would be keeping them warm during the winter, but that, to me, isn’t the point.

I don’t want to make their lives more comfortable, only to have them face the same hardship next year.  Instead of trying to fix the problem, I want to eliminate it.  I want to stop poverty at the root, rather than provide a temporary solution.

This seems ambitious, even to me, and it’s not like I have $200 to spend on buying people a new life.  I also thought of, just today, helping out gay teens who may be thinking about taking their lives, what with all the publicity surrounding their suicides these past couple months.  But I also have no idea how to do that.  I realize i could very well start a campaign of some sort to make people aware — something like buying pink shirts and waving pamphlets in people’s faces on the street and then getting everyone to wear a pink shirt, much like Anti-bullying day — and it’s not that I don’t think these campaigns are effective, but that they do not seem effective enough.  I want to do more.  I want change now.  That is a lot to ask for, and I know that, but I want to do more than buy a whole truckload of pink shirts or buttons or something to combat a much bigger problem.

If anyone has any suggestions, I’d be more than open to hear them.  Keep in mind that the gift certificate is only valid at Oakridge (aka. Rich People’s Mall) so I am limited in the stores and consequently, what to buy.

PS.  I also secretly want publicity but I have come to realize (and accept… sort of) that anything surrounding me is never really publicized.  That being said, it would be nice though!