HGTV Dreamhome 2010

The Year of Contests has offically begun!!!! Actually it really began two days ago but a vicious hangover prevented me from documenting my first entry. I entered the drawing at the request of my mother and sister who most likely saw the advertisement for HGTV Dreamhome while watching a Lifetime full length feature motion picture, that presumably dealt with a rape or a murder.

Luckily for me, my mother and sister we able to pull themselves away from the gripping tale long enough to inform me of the HGTV Dreamhome 2010 Giveaway. Wow, my first Giveaway. Located between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the 2010 HGTV Dreamhome sports "360 degree views from the gorgeous hilltop lot, an open kitchen with an entire wall made from mosaic tile, a cozy home theater, adorable child's room, plenty of space for guests, and high ceilings throughout the home."

In addition to a "Dreamhome", the winner of the Giveaway will also receive $500,000 in cold hard Washingtons. Enough to fully appoint your new home, or buy off the local Mexican drug cartel that will be cooking meth and growing pot within miles of your residence.

To learn more about the HGTV Dreamhome; click here HGTV Dreamhome 2010

My Mission

Monday January 4th, 2010 - Since I am rather new to the blogging world and my current blog site is somewhat sparse, I thought I should take a moment to formally introduce myself and my blog aspirations. As you may have already noticed, I am a 23 year old dashingly handsome male currently employed as a management analyst at the United States Bankruptcy Court District of New Jersey. I enjoy fishing, swimming, bull baiting, paddle tennis, monster trucks, calico cats, Chinese egg rolls, hockey, quail hunting, Venetian blinds, George Washington, Great Lakes States, and Adirondack chairs.

Aside from the nine months I spent playing rugby league in Australia, my life since graduating from college in 2008 has been somewhat dull. Whether myself, the Credit Crunch, global warming, post-industrialization, or the general decline of the American family, explains my post-collegiate listlessness remains to be seen. Personally, I have a feeling that hanging out in my basement in a bath robe watching re runs of Dexter for days at a time hasn't helped much, but that's just conjecture.

So in an effort to bring some much needed excitement to my life I decided to embark on the tremendous personal undertaking, otherwise known at the the "Year of Contests". Beginning January 1st 2010 and ending December 31st 2010, the "Year of Contests" requires me to enter every sweepstakes, lottery, promotional drawing, or other game of chance that I encounter at least once. I have established some guidelines to provide structure to the undertaking and limit some of the potential situations that would make such an undertaking unfeasible.

This blog will help me document my contest endeavours and hopefully enable others to provide me with leads to interesting contest opportunities. Throughout this process I hope to discover and enter some of the interesting, funny, and most importantly absurd contest opportunities (as long as they are not professionally embarrassing and conform to rules set forth in my previous blog). I encourage anyone who may stumble across this blog to inform me of contest opportunities and any other leads to interesting games of chance that they may know of.

At the end of the year I will donate my (after tax and out of pocket expense) winnings to a charity voted on by my readers, friends, and anyone else interested enough to vote. Hopefully on January 1st 2011 I will be able to write a nice fat check to worthy cause. Thank you for viewing my blog please check back for details, and don't hesitate to send me contest ideas.

Hugs and Kisses,
Mully

Rules of the Game

My New Year's resolution is to enter every contest I come across in 2010 (on television, radio, print media, Internet, commercial advertisements, etc) and detail my wins (hopefully...) and losses here.

Merriam Webster defines "contest" as:

Main Entry: ²con·test
Pronunciation: \ˈkän-ˌtest\
Function: noun
Date: 1630
1 : a struggle for superiority or victory
2 : a competition in which each contestant performs without direct contact with or interference from his competitors.

Here are the rules of the game:

1. Each contest must have set rules and regulations (spur of the moment challenges i.e. "you have to eat 10 hot dogs right now" do not count)

2. Contests must be reasonably safe, e.g. Ultra Marathons, races across the Sahara Desert that require a great deal of "know how" and alligator wrestling are out of the picture.

3. I will not enter a contest that asks for my social security number or other personal information or will jeopardize my career

4. I must enter the lottery at least once a week

5. Just to clarify, I cannot simply just google contests and enter them. I must either stumble across them in my day to day life, or they must be recommended to me by a friend, family member, or blog follower.

6. I must have reasonable means and be within a reasonable distance of the contest. Since I am based in the New York Metropolitan Area lets try to keep it limited to Northeast, with reasonable exceptions in the Mid Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest. Think something I could feasibly do in a weekend or during my off hours from work. I work a standard 40 hour week.

7. The entrance fee for all contests must be under $150. Contests that have other prohibitively expensive fees may also be excluded on those grounds.