The Christmas rush, yes, it was scary;
Crowds at the stores made it quite hairy;
Now because of the lot
Who’ll return what they got,
Avoid Wal-Mart until February.

Sasha commented about limerick contests in the Saturday Evening Post, and though I haven’t (yet) entered one, I decided to get practiced up.

If I ever got chosen to paint
The cover of The Post, I would faint.
My pictures don’t tell
A story themselves;
For a Rockwell I certainly ain’t.

You wonder if this new style will stay,
And I really don’t know what to say.
The messages here
Make it very clear
That my web site is better this way.

Sasha mentioned a limerick contest about Norman Rockwell, and it reminded me of the only poetry contest I have ever entered.

I few years ago, I entered (and won) a poetry contest in the Red Hat email newsletter “Under the Brim.” The challenge was to write a poem that used our name, where we lived, the flavor of Linux used, the reasons we use Linux, and the results of using Linux.

This was my winning entry:

There once was an Atlantan named Ron
Whose servers always had to be on.
For maximum uptime,
He found Red Hat sublime;
And soon all the Windows were gone.

All I won was a Red Hat t-shirt and bragging rights among geeks. I still wear the shirt, and with this post, I’m still bragging in geekland.

In the past 2 weeks I’ve had about 5 people tell me I’m a good writer, and 3 of them weren’t even related to me.  That, of course, means that the people who read my blog have no clue what they’re talking about. Nevertheless, I got inspired from all of the comments, so I decided to get a little creative for those times that I’ve got a busy day but still want to post something.

I am trying to find a new way
To update my blog every day.
A quick limerick
May just do the trick
When I’m booked but have something to say.

I am posting a limerick on
My web site because I am gone.
I am busy with things
for a Goodgame who sings.
Though I’m busy, you’ll still get more Ron.