I'm not sure what you mean by rubber band, but he's wild-caught and pretty beaten-up:
A part of his tail is missing on the end, and it appears that some of his ribs were broken. I think that when the ribs healed they grew inward or something, because he's a little crooked. I've had him for two years and that's the way I found him, it doesn't seem to bother him at all. Could that be what you're looking at?
I guess so. Looks like he had a rubber band tied around him at some point.
"You must immerse yourself in an unfamiliar world in order to truly understand your own "
Yeah, the contests have been running basically middle of the month, the middle of the following month so any day now, June will be locked for voting.
We've tried catching up a number of times, but it usually ends in me having to wait another week or so before the winner A. notices that the contest is over, or B. comes up with a theme. It's starting to become hard for me to give a crap about sticking to a schedule.
Of course, we could do another attempt at catching up, with the contests always starting on the 1st, with or without a theme. How does that sound?
How about if each participant chooses a new theme and posts that choice with his/her photo.... then the winning pic already has the theme attached? Or how about a whole new vote, where we all get to put an idea forward and the forum gets to choose? I don't know. Maybe the timing doesn't even matter.