Avril music video contest--The complete story

Here's the whole story of entering my Avril music video, in the "Aftermix" contest on Brightcove.com

http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=1119221735

I posted the video on July 22, and emailed the link to about 400 people. I was proud of my work and wanted people to see it, but I was also trying to get lots of views because the first round of semi-finalists is based on the number of views the video gets.

I kept checking the site to see how many views it was getting, and it kept showing 0 views. I knew this couldn't be right, because I'd been getting responses from people who had watched it, and even comments on the website.

I emailed Brightcove about it, and they said, "Oh, the number of views is just a daily snap-shot--not a dynamic number." Fine, I thought, that's stupid, but I can deal. A few days later, it still showed 0, so I wrote them again. I also wrote to the person in Avril's camp who had invited me to the contest (through my membership on her website, I think). I never heard back from her, but a week later, Brightcove finally replied, saying that they were aware of the problem, and that the contest organizers were also aware, and were extending the contest another month.

A few more days went by, and it was still showing 0 views (I'd been watching it every day or so, from different computers, to make sure that there were views to count). Then finally today, it showed 2 views. Great, except that I estimate the number should be about 200. So, I emailed all of you again, explaining briefly about the contest and asking you to watch it again.

I'm still not happy with the situation, so I think I'll keep bugging them--maybe argue that I should be automatically included in the first semi-final round because it's not my fault they screwed up.

My December

There's been a lot of controversy around Kelly Clarkson's latest album, My December. The story goes that she dumped her producer and went off and did her own album, the way she wanted to do it, and ended up making a weird, depressing album that no one was supposed to like. I read the reviews and thought to myself that I would probably like the album anyways, and today I finally got to listen to it.

There were two specific elements that set it apart from her previous two albums.
1) A higher majority of the songs have the theme "You ruined my life" (which got a little annoying after five songs).
2) Two or three use weird sound effects that make it sound like your CD or web connection is screwing up.

Other than this, My December is similar to Thankful and Breakaway; loud power songs, and mellow ballads, with rock music accompaniment. If you like Kelly Clarkson, you will like this album.

Pivot Questionnaire

1. What is your favorite word? Yes.
   
2. What is your least favorite word? Fine.
   
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Natural beauty.
   
4. What turns you off? Blood.
   
5. What is your favorite curse word? Cursing is a sign of weakness. I hate them all.
   
6. What sound or noise do you love? Silence.
   
7. What sound or noise do you hate? Trains.
   
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Duh, film making.
   
9. What profession would you not like to do? Selling stuff people don't need.
   
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Hi Jeff, sorry about all the strife I caused you.