Got my Zaggora HotPants!

Today I finally got the Zaggora HotPants that I won a couple of weeks ago.

Not sure when I'll actually wear these. Sooner than later, I hope.

Zaggora's Design Your Own HotPants

A friend sent me the link to Zaggora's Facebook contest app where they were giving away a pair of Nude HotPants every hour (and I mean, every hour) when you design your own Zaggora item (you choose from not just the bottoms, but also the tops).

From the Facebook Page... 

Create your own Zaggora product design to win a free pair of Hotpants every hour! 

Every hour we choose a random lucky winner of a free pair - you'll get an email if you win! Every month we choose the most voted design and we'll make it and send it to you and your friends so don't forget to share with friends! 

You'll get a email from them whether you win or not; when you don't, you get a coupon code for free shipping; when you win you get an email with a redemption code that you put in when you check out. Winners are also randomly selected, so you never really know.

After submitting half a dozen designs over several days, I finally won a pair of Zaggora Nude HotPants yesterday myself. After hemming and hawwing about the size, I went on the website, picked a size and paid the 10 pound shipping with Paypal. I heard that it takes several weeks for shipping, which is normal.

Cheeky me tried to combine the two coupon codes so that it would be totally free, but that didn't fly :P Oh well - shipping's cheaper than the actual thing, anyway... 

I don't know how long the contest is running for, so what are you waiting for?

I’m a Pirate, Take Me To Stranger Tides!

What is it about the pirate life that people like to think that it's better than their own lives? I've got a few theories:

1. Being able to travel to far, exotic lands without having to pay budget airlines and their crazy, superfluous fees for that privilege :P

2. No need to pay income tax on the looted booty, so long as you're not caught by the authorities :P

3. Personal hygiene is an option, especially if you don't like being clean, HAHAHA...! Save money on toiletries and everyone loves a dirty pirate :D

Because I'm talking about pirates, it goes without saying that the FOURTH Pirates of the Caribbean movie (On Stranger Tides) is coming soon! If you want to see Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow one more time, here's your chance! 

Skechers voucher - yay!

Ventured to Midvalley yesterday to collect my prize from a JUICE magazine contest that I entered last month - a RM200 Skechers gift voucher.

Now I am a step closer to getting myself a pair of Shape Ups... :D

(It's more like I refuse to pay RM400 for a pair of sneakers, but that's just me).

Season of the Witch tickets - yay

Got these in the post today - four passes to see Season of the Witch from Time Out KL. Them spending RM2 on postage is waaay cheaper than me spending train fare/petrol money to go downtown to collect these.

The T&Cs are a little crazy... particularly the third one :P

GoUniqlo.com

To celebrate the opening of Malaysia's first UNIQLO store next week, there's already a lot of hype and buzz about the opening promotions and the contest where the grand prize is an all-expenses trip to Tokyo for 4 nights for two people.

Apparently, you don't really have to be in line on store opening day to try for the trip - if you go to the local Uniqlo site and click on GO UNIQLO! mini-site and play the game, you can also try your luck at the trip and you get cash vouchers (RM20, RM50 and RM100; that you print out when you sign up) as consolation prizes that you can use if you ever get to the store yourself.

The game itself is not too hard - just plug in a location (preferably as far as possible from the KL Uniqlo store) and click on the clothing items that show up in the trail to see if you've won anything. You get three tries everyday. I think I had beginner's luck on my side when I got two RM20 vouchers with my first set of three tries. I was kinda hoping for a higher denomination voucher at least. But hey, the trip would be nice too.

Be Part of ChurpChurp Today!

Not everyone can get $5,000 like Kim Kardashian (allegedly) just to mention some company's product in their twitter stream for their legion of fans. The rest of us can only be so lucky, famous or have so many Twitter followers.

So for the rest of us ordinary Joes especially in Malaysia or Singapore who want to make SOME money from their tweeting habit, there's Churp Churp. If you didn't already know, Churp Churp is a sister company (why is it "sister" company and not "brother" or "sibling" companies? Just wondering) of Nuffnang, the blog advertising network/community. I guess it's only a natural progression to advertise on blogging platforms to doing it on the micro-blogging platform.

Anyway, you sign up (authorise your Twitter account, etc) and wait for for them to assign campaigns to you. You write the tweet in your own voice (as best as you can) with the keywords, hashtags and URLs given that you submit via the website. You'll be credited after the tweet is published in your Twitter stream. Yes, you can adjust how many tweets you're assigned, but why would you if you don't have thousands of followers?

In so many words: you're getting paid to tweet.

From my personal experience, I got to the minimum cashout (RM100) in about half the time (14 months, give or take) compared to Nuffnang (over 2 years). Of course I would've gotten there sooner had I had a huge number of followers, but I don't. I also don't exactly follow everyone that follows me; if only I was so lucky if so many people/companies I follow actually do the same, but I know they don't, so there :P But I've yet to click on the "Cash Out" button...

I just realised that I also haven't been to any of the activities that Churp Churp had organised, which I'm sure a few has come and gone in the year that they've been around. It's just that unlike Nuffnang's front page, they don't have blog post highlights, and I don't read the company blog regularly to find out what's happening to participate. There haven't been any movie screenings that I'm dying to watch. (Although the new Harry Potter movie would be nice ;) *hint hint*)

Why Vampires Suck?

Generally, vampires as mythical creatures don't suck (I don't mind them as long as I'm not a target, haha).

But vampires reimagined by Stephenie Meyer for the Twilight series suck BALLS, so I'm just gonna stick to that.

First of all, what kinda lame ass vampires SPARKLE in sunlight like a mirror disco ball? Vampire mythology states that they burst into flames and ashes when exposed to sunlight, not SPARKLE like some blinged out *insert generic object here*. They're even bigger fairies than fairies - no insult to fairies, in general.

Actually, I think the disco ball is a better actor than the Twilight leads, BWAHAHA..!!

See? No difference, what - HAHA

And thanks to Ms. Meyer and her kanasai Twilight series, we now have to suffer through the surge of vampire related TV programming like True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, etc etc. And I was a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer too, man.

Vamps were cool in the 90s and now a joke in the new millennium, no thanks to Ms Meyer -WTF.

I rather see Rhona Mitra suck blood any day.

Better World Books sweepstakes - woo hoo!

Who knew it took a couple rounds of tweeting and joining the sweepstakes on Facebook to be one of the 18 second place winners in the Better World Books "Year of Books" sweepstakes contest?

Got the DM from them not a few minutes ago telling me I was one of the 18 second place winners. Can't remember for the life of me what the prize was, but apparently it's...

"one $10 Better World Books gift certificate, the snazzy BWB shirt and the fab BWB tote"

which is not bad, but still can't beat having $20 gift vouchers every month for a year, tee shirt AND tote.

Oh well, beggars can't be choosers.

Thanks, Better World Books! :)

My Favourite Surfing Spot

Unlike some people who have the luxury of surfing at work, I don't really have that option. So you imagine the ways I kill my free time in the office (which is also plenty, for reasons I won't get into).

Since I am not one of those people who lug their laptops to the "free" WiFi spots (or lug my laptop around for security reasons anyway), I would have to say that my favourite surfing spot is on my desk, in my bedroom.

I also usually do have my laptop on my person in front of the TV in the living room when there's a show I want to watch, like say award shows and the late night talk shows like The Tonight Show on CNBC during the weekends. But it has to be the "quiet" surfing, which means no YouTube or streaming video.

So my bedroom can't be beat because once I close the door, I can make all the noise I want and there's not much anyone can say about it – I can watch YouTube videos and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart online, no worries. That, and I also got nice leather office chair in there that I "helped myself to" from my dad's office, haha... :D

Some more no need to buy food and drink – if hungry or thirsty, just make your own snacks at home lah.

Project Alpha Season 2 is presented by Adidas Action 3 and supported by P1 and MAS.

I’m a Sherlock Holmes in the Making

Vouchers from mySimplifieds - yay!

Got a call from mySimplifieds yesterday afternoon at work, to tell me that my prize is ready to be collected. Unfortunately their working hours is the same as mine, and I told the guy so. He told me I could send someone to get it for me, the thing is that they need to show a photocopy of my IC.

Also fortunate that the sibling doesn't have class until late afternoon today, so I got him to go in my stead. Going through these, they're not too shabby lah... (You can click on the images to see larger versions) Got free mani/pedis, manicures, massages, cash vouchers for treatments, etc etc. I'm definitely going to try using some of these before the year is up (because that's when they're expiring :P)

Mum's definitely interested, but doesn't believe they're really free until she calls them up.

All the vouchers

I won a spa package?

I had supposedly won a spa package from mySimplifieds in a re-tweet contest, consisting of 15 vouchers worth around RM1,000 (allegedly). Will update more when I actually get them.

Saw this blog post on their Facebook fan page when I got home yesterday (or while I was still in the office, I can't remember which). Basically you had to be one of 10 people to retweet (RT) one of two predetermined messages promoting their Bargain Tuesday (today was limited number of 100 ml bottles of Chanel No. 5). Decided to tweet both messages out to cover my tracks, not really expecting to win anything and didn't dwell too much about it.

When I checked later this afternoon, someone I know RT-ed the following:

RT: @mySimplifieds: Winners of the Bargain Tuesday Retweet competition: @wind_goddess @islapyou @alvintey @monast @synical - COngtras!!!!!"

Then I had to check the primary source for myself (from what's left of my academic research skillz) and I found (and favourite-d it, just in case)...

Winners of the Bargain Tuesday Retweet competition: @wind_goddess @islapyou @alvintey @monast @synical

But until I actually get the vouchers, I'm just gonna remain cautiously optimistic, because I certainly need a back massage soon.

Thanks, mySimplifieds.

My Top 5 Treat List

If I had the means (or the good fortune), here's what I like to have...

1. Free sightseeing and shopping trip to England
   
   ... as it will be my personal Mecca trip as an anglophile - I've a list of places to check out like London town, Liverpool (my Beatles Mecca trip), West End...
   
   
2. Watch Radiohead in concert. One of the bands I have yet to cross off my list of live acts to catch. I hear they're freaking excellent live performers.
   
   
   
3. The new wallet that I bought recently from Anya Hindmarch last weekend. It's so hard to find a wallet that's not long, zipped around, etc. Other women have their shoe and bag fetishes, I have one for wallets.
   
   
4. Iceland during the summer. Because I wouldn't fancy going there in the winter, aurora borealis be damned.
   
   
   Sight to be seen, you can't believe this is in Iceland...
   
   
   
   
   
5. A colourful, powerful laptop that comes preloaded with Windows 7, like the Dell Inspiron 13, because who doesn't want a brand new, shiny gadget? I want to make my friends puke blood out of spite, hahahaha....!!! I also wouldn't mind having something small and powerful to carry when I travel (rare that it is).
   
   
   Ain't it purty?
   

Oh yeah, and if you decide to get the Inspiron 13 (S510701MY), type in (or copy and paste lah) the code 7ZQVQF2RLZRKW3 when you check out to get a RM100 Instant Cash Redemption (or in plain-speak: get RM100 off the thing). The coupon code expires on the 10th of this month, so hurry!

Find out more about this blog contest here (contest also ends on the 10th, just so you know).

Da Vinci - The Genius exhibition

I admit that I was a little excited when I read on the KLue blog (first) that the Da Vinci - The Genius exhibition is finally in Malaysia (I had thought about going to see it when it was in Singapore back in the day - procrastination and laziness pays off, sometimes :P). At the National Science Centre. From now until early next year. If I was you, I wouldn't put it off too long.

If I do get to go see this (more like: if I remember to), it'll be a kill-two-bird-with-one-stone thing: One, I've never been to our National Science Centre (ever) and, two - I would get to see Leonardo's creations up close.

A fellow blogger has 100 tickets (or 50 pairs) to give away and all you have to do is write about it, post that link and also link back to his post about it here. Don't mind me for trying my luck, might bring the sibling if all goes well.

Malaysian Dreamgirl is BACK.

After the fan furore over Season 1's outcome, Malaysian Dreamgirl is back. Again.

You know how in other reality shows, the auditions are usually the best part because of the delusional people who believe they can win when they seriously CANNOT (?!). Not this show; I found it seriously painful to hear some of these girls speak as they obviously CANNOT "speaking" also. Urgh. Can't totally blame them for that.

The first two episodes were the "nationwide" auditions in Penang, Ipoh, JB and KL (naturally). The production value this time was slightly better now that the judges are miked up and I can make out what everyone is saying. Besides, Elaine and Jimmy, there were also new judges this round - Julie Wong from local cosmetic brand Beautilicious and Andrew from Andrewsmodels. Kenny Sia's absence from the actual auditions also helped, it should be interesting to see how he and kinkybluefairy are gonna be "Online Judges".

The funniest bits was the sound of crickets as the judges waited for one girl to remove all the hair clips in her hair so that they could see what she looks like with her hair down and this really plus sized one auditioning in KL. How delusional was she.

Personally, I can't wait to see how the season turns out.

There are plenty of contests going on at the site - for bloggers, texters, camwhores... Nuffnang's Blog Buzz contest's pretty good weekly and seasonal prizes - perfume, cosmetics, makeover packages, and the grand prize of a HP Mini netbook. I was a little excited about the netbook until I realised it was not the (latest) 1001TU :P Cannot have such high hopes lah.

Eh Poh Nim contest

Lydia Teh's running another contest in conjunction with the release of her latest book, Do You Wear Suspenders? The Wordy Tales of Eh Poh Nim on her blog. Well, here's my entry... and the rest of you got until the 20 of next month to enter yourselves.