You may recall that back in June I asked for you help in deciding which sketches to use for a competition. If you don't know, you probably aren't interested in the original post that resides here. Nor will you be interested in the results that other readers such as yourselves helped decide.

In case you don't know where this is heading, I did a Mundane Monday post about sending off the entry for the script competition that this post relates to.

Well, I'm writing to tell you that I won't be going to New York. (At least not in September, with travel paid for to attend the finals of the competition.) It isn't that I wasn't willing to go. No, it was more akin to Newsjack failures that they didn't want what I was trying to sell them.

As part of the competition, the name of which escapes me (or rather it doesn't but I'm too bitter to type it out again), I was told that I'd get feedback about my entry form from a professional reader. (As a way that they justify the entry fee I suppose.)

At the end of last week I received my feedback in an email. Actually, it was in a PDF attached to the email. But you get my point that an email was sent and somehow feedback was attached, don't you?

Good.

So I've read the feedback, and without reprinting it here (because it would give too much of the whole concept away) I'm pleased with part of it. It seems that the only part they weren't keen on was the amount of character detail I submitted and the sketches themselves, which were voted on by you! So I hold you solely responsible.

Nah, I'm just kidding.

92.8% responsible.

It's at this point that I should say that I did need to develop some wrap arounds to make the submission not just a generic sketch show. It's a good job that I did because at least there was something that they liked.

But it isn't all bad news. I'm going to work on my sketch writing some more. I'm taking a Sketch writing course with CSz at the moment (the same one I did last year) and I've signed up for an online writing course in September, which should give me a little more one-on-one feedback (hopefully). September looks to be the start of a new series of Newsjack. So I'll be trying to write material for that, too.

So all in all, the next few months look to be a fairly busy writing time for me. (Especially with my fifth NaNoWriMo coming up in November.)

But that's not all, I'm not going to junk what I submitted for the New York competition, I'm going to take the central idea of the wrap arounds and develop it further. Hopefully I'll be able to write some new sketches, too. If all goes well, it will form the basis of my firswt submission to the BBC Writers Room.

Catch you next time,

Matt.

PS. I realise this should have been a weight loss post week, being the third Wednesday of the month and all that, but I wasn't weighed last Friday (as far as I'm aware, no one was). If I'm weighed this Friday, I'll be posting about it next week.

It's a bonus post on what I have creatively called "Think About It Thursday." Because, if you really think about it, it is actually Thursday.

But that's really besides the point. Most of the time I write stuff here that I expect no one to read, and you have surprised me recently by actually reading this thing. So today I call upon you to help me out a little. It'll only take a few minutes of your time.

So what do I want you to do?

I want you to read some sketches. And then vote on which you think is funniest. Or least objectionable. Or not crappest. Anyway you look at it, I'd like you to put the sketches below in order of preference.

I suppose I should tell you why. I want to enter a writing competition where the winner could win a trip to NYC in September. (You can find more details here.)

To do that I need to submit 10 pages of sitcom or script. I haven't written a sitcom, so I'm going with sketches. Below are a selection that I can't decide on. There are others that I am definitely submitting so I have excluded them from this poll.

So all that's left is for you to read them and comment. You can do that either in the comments below. On Facebook (if we're Facebook friends), or on Twitter.

Because of the deadline, and because this is a postal competition, I'm setting a deadline of Saturday 25th June at Noon. This way I have time to do all the other stuff I have to fill out for the competition.

So here are the sketches:

Douglas Adams Interview. (New - uploaded 9.56pm on 23 June 2011).

Bear Grylls.

Death Takes A Holiday.

Harry Potter Sleepover.

Money For Nothing.

First Date.

Murder Appeal.

I look forward to your feedback,

Cheers,

Matt.

Basically it is a plastic trophy with a little bit of kudos attached (if you are thinking money, imagine the change that you have in your pocket right now, being removed from your pocket, lest your pants also be part of the award, and superglued on to the trophy, and you would be no where near close). It's meaningless to the outside world, but to those within the company, it gives an indication as to how well liked that person is where they work.

In the run up to the actual presenting of the award, everyone in the company has the chance to nominate one individual who they think has done a great job that year to the Office Manager. After all the nominations have been received, the long list is then distributed and everyone in the company can then vote for one from the finalists. At the end of vting, a winner is crowned.

So why am I writing about this now? Well, it may be a shock to you, given how popular and likeable I am, but I wasn't nominated for this award last year. So this year, I decided to be more proactive in getting a nomination.

For Plan A, I decided to do the decent thing, and nominate myself with the following:

I will stand for Employee of the Month myself this year, as due to what can only described as a gigantic oversight, I lacked a nomination last year.

I should be nominated Employee of the Year as I’m a triple threat: I know the front door code, the alarm code and I know how to work the dishwasher. There is no one who is more beloved by me in this company than the person that I have nominated.

Apparently, this isn't the done thing and my nomination was not accepted by the Office Manager. I had an inkling that this plan would run into problems, so I decided to move to plan B. Plan B was a little more crafty, and didn't necessarily involve me being nominated. Its better if you just read the reasons that I sent:

Despite my canvassing I am unsure if I will be nominated for employee of the year, since it is apparently “not the done thing” to nominate oneself.

In that case it is time for plan B. To nominate someone else who will promise me a 1% cut if they win. And 1% is better than nothing at this point.

To that end, I would like to nominate Parisa, as her formidable marketing skills have me believing that she will honour this agreement.

Now surprisingly, this wasn't an acceptable reason, even though the Parisa reneged on the verbal contract shortly after the email was submitted.

So after my two quite brilliant schemes to get the prize money or at least a percentage of the prize money, I was all out of ideas until my campaign manager helped me draft a heatfelt plea:

I believe I should be employee of the year because of my unique problem solving skills, as demonstrated by my previous nomination (for myself).

Many people would like to be nominated for employee of the year but no one, until now, has had the initiative or been brave enough to nominate themselves. I believe that by offering myself for nomination I am providing evidence of the creative thinking that makes me such an asset to the team. It also shows I am proactive at finding solutions to problems and driven towards success.

While everybody else is taking the long and hard traditional route to this esteemed prize by working diligently I have shown that I do not simply follow the herd by composing this email instead. This approach is far more time economical than the traditional approach, showing that my fresh take on problem solving saves the company both time and money.

A vote for Matt Fishwick is a vote for the future!

Now all I had to do was wait. But that night I got hungry (and not just for results) so I decided to order a pizza. The pizza was good and once I had slaked my thirst for doughy goodness I was in possession of several uneaten slices.

In an act of pure altruism, well as altruistic as I am capable, I decided to leave the remaining slices for the denizens of the office. Now in order dissuade them from the existence of pizza faeries, I decided to let them know how had supplied this cold feast.

Thus my first campaign poster was born.

Click here to see the Poster in PDF format.

So if that quality bit of electioneering doesn't work, I don't know what will.

But we shall have to wait until May 4th before the shortlist is revealed, and then I can put that pizza on expenses.