The opposite of FTW is WTF.

This is the explanation Chuvaness gives regarding the no-score:

"i've judged a few contests. I also give zero when I don't like something. Something I learned from Tina O. That's life dear."

Apparently it IS a bad photograph.

But following that logic, when the shortlist was announced she mentioned "after looking at more than 200 entries, these were the top five scorers in no particular order." You mean to say other entries earned more zeroes than mine?!? So only three entries got all five marks from the five judges??

I know I should just let this go but it's so depressing. I was so looking forward to winning this. Or at the very least having a close competition. But getting no points at all absolutely fucking disturbs me.

Is it possible they think my photograph was PhotoShopped?!? Then why da hell did it made the shortlist in the first place? Just had an awful thought: does it mean the rest of the entries were that bad, and that could only explain why mine made it into the shortlist?

My imagination. So full of wonderment.

I just had a good cry over this. I know, parang ang babaw ko. But like I've said before, it would've been nice to end a crappy year with something to be proud of.

But the way Ms C explains it... aray naman po. Apparently it's not enough to bring somebody down, you have to kick them hard, too. In the guts. Twice.

Still dismayed.

This is bad. I did get some sleep last night but it feels like I haven't. I think to make up for it, my subconscious let me have a boyfriend in my dreams, although of course it happened in an unusual way with odd circumstances. And there's no double entendre there, just strange in an Alice-In-Wonderland kind of way.

Am I just being a sore loser? Should I just let it go? Sorry, but I still can't get my head wrapped around that skewered scoring system. Did that judge really think my photo was that bad??

I looked at the scores again, and my photo was scored the highest by three judges. And I must have really been confused last night, don't know how I arrived at the scores using that gymnastics thing because I still would've ended with two scores and not three. So I did some more computations, even if you threw out the highest or lowest scores so the entries would equally have four scores... guess what?

Wow, I just can't let it go, huh? Do I demand a recount, or better scoring system? (Heto o...)

And that's how the cookie crumbles. Crumbled?

Zero point zero.

So the results were posted and my photograph didn't win :( It's probably not that good because it ranked 4 out of the 5 entries.

Story of my life.

What I really don't understand is the scoring system. Two photos only had 4 scores, the rest had complete scores from 5 judges. And the points were merely added up. So doesn't that automatically make mine and the other photo have a lower score than the rest? I do think it's unfair. It would have been better if the points were averaged. (Because I did some computations and I would have won on averages. If I only got another 3, it would've been close. If it was another 4 -- which was my lowest score, compared to the winner which was 3.85 -- I still would've won. Even if it was scored the way they do in gymnastics/figure-skating where the lowest & highest scores are disregarded then the rest averaged, it would've still come on top. And my photo was the only one with two 5.00s...)

*buntong-hininga*

I wish there was an explanation why one judge had no score for the two photos. If the judge thought the photos were really awful to merit no points, I'd understand. But there's no clarification or anything.

I admit I do feel bad. This would have been a nice consuelo de bobo to an otherwise depressing year. Yes, I did say the recognition was good enough, but I didn't expect the scoring system to be like this.

I'm so tempted to make a comment about it, problem is my inner b!tch is dying to get a word in and I don't know how to word it without sounding like I'm bitter.

Heh heh, bitter. Like the muse.

...

Somebody already made a comment about it, why the zero scores for the two photos and the scores should have been averaged because of that. I just hope there's a really good explanation for it.

What you've missed.

Just so I do not renege on my own promise of updates, I'll post the list of topics here on what my future entries will be about. Note these are just what I consider the major ones:

• Ma. And Da.
  
• My Lumix, the acquistion of. Project 365, and consequently what I call "15 Minutes."
  
• Coron.
  
• Hospitalization.
  
• Work, returning and leaving.
  
• Cats. Meow!
  
• And I see I haven't fully disclosed about those "stalkers" yet, hahaha.
  

And I've just mentally drafted this debate I have in my head about FarmVille vs FarmTown. HAHAHA. It'll be funny. Seriously.

The question now is when will I start, and how long will it take for me to finish??

Oi.

So how long was it since my last entry? Six months? Well.

I feel bad not updating about the major upheavals that had happened, but then there's my alibi: I was depressed -- who wouldn't be? But I'll get around to it (uh huh).

This is just too exciting for me to put off for later. Ms Chuvaness has a promo for the Sony Ericsson Greenheart phone. Wicked cool phone, and haven't I been saying for the longest time I need a good camphone (so I can use TwitPic more often)? And it's a photography contest to boot!

Actually I did get discouraged right away. I assumed I had to go out and take a new photo when I couldn't even think of what subject or how to approach the theme, which is "Green." Then I realized -- duh -- I could just use my earlier photos! Right aways I knew it had to be my favorite Coron photo. As Ms Chuvaness herself would say on her blog: lahvettt!!! You were allowed up to 5 entries, so I also included this close-up photo of leaves -- nothing special, but I also like that photo and it literally fits with the theme.

I've been waiting anxiously for the update since the deadline about two weeks ago. So when I see on RSS it's already up... and that my photograph is shortlisted!!! Yay!!! *tumbling muna*

Ta-da, I'm back. And of course I'm flattered to read some comments that say they like my photo. But the first and last photographs posted I find good, too. Well... actually, the first one could slightly have had a better composition, just a teensy-tiny-teeny little bit. But the last one, I have to echo one of the comments: I'm torn between my own photo and that one! Because it is surreal!

I'm just happy for the recognition. And the judges were from the Camera Club of the Philippines ha!

But winning that phone would be sweeeet.... ;)

Results on Monday. Keep yer fingers crossed.