There Are 8 Million Stories Being Submitted in the Big City, But None of Them Are Val's

Huh. I had good intentions. Really. I thought I'd check out some writing opportunities. A contest or two, perhaps, that I'm not already working on. "Val," I told myself, "you know there's a writing conference in the big city nearby, come springtime. Not that you'd attend, of course. But they might have some kind of contest you'd like to enter. Might as well check out the entry fee and specifics."

So I listened to myself, and hollered for my BFF Google. Hmpf! Seems that ol' Val has been shunned. Sidelined. Refused entry. Pointedly omitted. I found the conference website all right. But every time I tried to open a link for submissions, or membership info, or just the home page in general, I was denied. Sometimes with a page saying that no such website exists. And sometimes with an Error 403. Access denied! Forbidden! Of course I was sure it was just me. Because everything is all about Val. I tried to remedy the situation. Maybe it WAS me. Not them. Perhaps I was configured wrong. eHow knows a lot, doesn't it?

Well. After going through those five steps, I got to the page to fix it, and found that the problem I needed to fix did not exist. I called for my temporary resident computer expert. I'll think of him as HeHow. He said the problem was NOT me. It was them. That the linky was not stinky, but most likely correct, with the page itself having some error that needed fixing by an administrator.

Don't that just beat all?

Even Steven doesn't have to slap me in the face with karma until I see the light. I will put my efforts into other writing ventures. Like I should have this afternoon. Instead of fiddling with those dead links.