Today we depart from our usual commentary to bring you the following news: the second annual GREAT STORAGE HAIKU CONTEST, 2006 edition is ALMOST HERE!!!

This year's contest has been scheduled for the last half of April. Start planning now if you want to participate.

Entrants are invited to submit original haikus - storage-related of course - to me during the two-week period beginning April 17 and ending April 30, 2006. Prize-winning submissions will be printed in this newsletter in May.

For the 2006 contest, in addition to being identified in this column as one of the great IT literati of our times, and in addition to the public adulation that quite naturally accompanies an award of this stature, the grand prize winner will also receive a special award. This year's special prize: a picture of my canine companion, Furry Elise, enjoying your poem.

The dog is always present when storage vendors come by to brief me; furthermore, during these meetings she has in almost every case shown a clear dislike for the senior management at these firms. She may well have growled at or even threatened senior management at some firm whose management software, or switch, or array is directly responsible for a failure in your IT room. What goes around, comes around.

Contest rules are simple:

1. Entrants may submit as many haiku (the plural form of "haiku" is, apparently, "haiku") as they want.

2. All submissions must be original.

3. All submissions must follow the accepted haiku format: a poem consisting of three lines, the lines having approximately five, seven and five syllables. Poems may have a maximum of 17 syllables. Many excellent guides to writing haiku are available on the Web.

4. All haiku must be, in some way, storage-related.

5. Authors should indicate with each submission whether they want their name (or initials) and company affiliation to appear in this newsletter in the unlikely event that they actually win.

6. The judge (that's me, Mike Karp) will not entertain whiney notes from non-winners.

7. Preference will be given to haiku written in a language I understand.

8. Preference will be given to haiku that demonstrably were written on company time.

9. Invective will not be tolerated, except when justified.

Last year's contest received over 100 entries from three continents, and apparently provided much needed therapy for many of our colleagues (see 2005 contest winners part 1 and part 2). Consider this the Storage In The Enterprise newsletter's contribution to corporate mental health.

Deni Connor is principal analyst for Storage Strategies NOW.