Play the Biotrue™ “Match-To-Win” game now through September 16th, for your shot at star treatment! One weekly winner will get the same celebrity gift bag shared by Bausch + Lomb at the Music Lounge during the 20th Lollapalooza Festival. But that’s not all: one lucky grand prize winner will receive a $1,000 Ticketmaster gift card to see their favorite musician live in concert! You get a new chance to win every day, so don’t forget to exercise your matching skills daily.
In addition, Bausch + Lomb is a proud sponsor of the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. The core mission of the foundation is to restore instrumental music education programs, ensuring that every child has access to a complete education that includes the benefits of music instruction.
Earlier in the week I saw on my radio station contest sites that you could enter to have lunch with Siobhan Magnus from American Idol and also win tickets to her show at Summerwinds in Windsor, CT. The tickets were a bit on the expensive side so I decided I might as well enter if I wanted to go!
Tuesday at noon the contest was supposed to end. Entries were 1,000 points each and I cleared out my account on the website and put in 125 entries. (125,000 points!) However at noon it said “Pending Notification of Winner” and I never win when it says that! But a little later in the day I got the call that I won!
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I thought there would be at least 2 winners because 2 radio stations had the item up for their contests. I figured there’d probably be more fans that there too and Siobhan would probably hang out for a few minutes but we would eat before she got there.
Boy was I wrong.
Turns out I was the only fan there and I got to spend 2 hours with her (and 4 others). It was a really cool experience and she talked about how life is during Idol, after Idol, and some “secrets” of Idol. We of course chatted about Hanson since we are both fans. (She spotted my necklace and said “good we’ll have something to talk about!”) There was talks about pets, Nashville, the music business, etcetc.
This was unlike anything I have ever done before and was so awesome. Tonight I have 3rd row tickets to see her perform and I am really looking forward to it!
I am proud to announce I have been chosen to cover the Women of Faith event in Hartford, CT this fall!
Escape from the everyday at a Women of Faith weekend and be refreshed, encouraged and inspired. Because the God who loves you can do far more than you can ever Imagine.
Speakers at the event include: Sheila Walsh, Luci Swindoll, Lisa Harper & Angie Smith
Musical Guests for my event are: Mary Mary & Natalie Grant (For you American Idol fans – check out your local event because Mandisa is doing some of the events!)
Drama by Nicole Johnson and Special Guest Henry Cloud
I am looking forward to bringing you full coverage from the event. If you are looking to see if this event will be in your neck of the woods, you can visit womenoffaith.com and check out the “events” tab. The website is full of other great information too, I definitely recommend you spend some time on it and check it out 🙂
Paperless ticketing is something that has started becoming more popular lately in the world of concerts. In theory, you can’t scalp the tickets because the person who purchased the tickets must be present with credit card and ID to pick them up at the door to the venue. However, this article at TicketNews says that you can give them to friends or sell them in the event that you can not make it to the show.
So really, if that is possible, how can this combat against scalpers? If the tickets are transferable – what is the point? I also don’t like the idea of tickets NOT being transferable. Things happen and sometimes by the time a show rolls around that you got tickets to well in advance, something comes up. Unless the outlet you bought the tickets from has a return policy (and as of right now the only return policy I know of is Live Nation’s and it is for select venues and returns must be made within 3 days of purchasing the tickets) you would be stuck with these tickets. If you had e-tickets or physical paper tickets you could stick them on stub hub or craigslist or hand them over to a friend.
Apparently this works out fine in the sports world – but I just don’t like the idea for concerts. And as a scrapbooker, I also am not a huge fan of e-tickets. (The paper tickets printed by ticketmaster/livenation just look so much better on a layout! And they cost you less to have them mailed than it does to print them yourself with your own paper and ink!)
I have yet to go to a show that has used paperless ticketing. John Mayer’s show was going to a couple years back but then I got mailed the actual tickets instead. So somewhere along the line someone in Mayer’s camp decided it was pointless to use paperless tickets as well.
Has anyone gone to a show with paperless tickets? How did it work out for you?
Our final 4 compete in this episode! Sonyae, Scotty, Nick and Jes all must write the hook for a POP song. This weeks guest judge is Perez Hilton. I am not a fan of his – but apparently he launched Lady Gaga and Katy Perry? really?
And then Perez Hilton had to say that he could hear Hanson singing Nick’s hook. Seriously? No. Get out of here, Perez. Nick’s song came in 4th because his lyrics failed to relay a complete thought. 3rd place went to Jes because her hook was not memorable enough for a pop song. Sonyae came in second and my boy Scotty came in first!
The songs were recorded and will be performed for high schoolers. Nick’s song went up first. I was not a fan of it. Jes’ song was up next. I think it made a lot of progress from the hook and the kids seemed more into it than Nick’s. Sonyae’s song Exit seemed to get a good response as well. Scotty’s song was pretty good too… I thought it will be between him and Sonyae’s as the winner.
The teenagers and judges agreed – Sonyae’s song won and she has secured herself a spot in the finale!
Then it was time for 2 more to go through to the finale. The second one going to the finale is Scotty! The final decision came down to Nick vs Jes.
Jes makes it through! FINALLY… Nick’s ass is going home!!!!!!! yahoooooo.
Jess denies God. In his infinite wisdom, he’s taken everyone she’s ever loved. Moving to the French Quarter was a ploy to erase the guilt she felt for rebuking her faith. Perhaps, if she hadn’t met Justin, an angel preoccupied with getting back into God’s good graces, and drowning in his hatred for humanity, her plan would have worked.
Justin’s general disdain for the human race makes him difficult to like, but some higher power has appointed him her keeper. Justin’s convinced he can mend her broken relationship with her maker, but in the process he learns a thing or two about his own humanity.
Never mind falling in love, that’s not supposed to happen. In fact, it may even be forbidden. Jess just wants Justin to understand her plight, and he wants to protect her from a world she doesn’t know.If neither are equipped to save the other, then whose soul will live and whose will perish?
Monique is the mother of two beautiful children and lives in a small community outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She currently works full time as an insurance agent, but her favorite jobs are mother, wife, and author. On her eighth
birthday, her mother bought her a journal and said “write whatever you want, just write”. And so, a love affair with words was born. She wrote poetry and short stories in high school and college, until 1993 when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Finally, in 2007, under the urging of friends, she sat down and pecked out her first novel. It was raw and unpolished, but the process had been unquestionably cathartic. The next three years were spent filling her hard drive with seven complete manuscripts.At the beginning of 2011, Monique decided it was time to edit the work and share it with the world. She hopes you enjoy the ramblings of a truly southern girl raised in a state rich with heritage and love.
My thoughts:
I have to say, this book was incredibly difficult for me to get in to. Once I pushed myself, I found a grammatical error of the use of “you’re” instead of “your”, which is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to grammar as that is one of the easiest ones to figure out! You’re = you are. “You’re brother is hot” would be “You are brother is hot” which makes no sense! That then turned me off again so I had to push myself again to continue on.
I also had a hard time picturing the scenes. I like to imagine that I am in these places with the characters. I know that everything was set in New Orleans, but as I have never been there (though I would love to visit one day) it was hard to picture it without there being some descriptions of where they were.
I did like the concept of the fallen angel though. I am not one for vampire stories, but I do love angels so this was a bit of a breath of fresh air in that aspect. And who isn’t a sucker for a young adult romance novel?
I would rate this book 3.5 / 5 stars. It is a quick read and would be great for a quick summer weekend if you want a bit of an escape from reality.
The giveaway starts August 1st 12 am EST and will run until August 15th 11:59 pm EST and is open worldwide.
$1,000 CASH prize will be delivered via Paypal after the winner has confirmed. The winner has 48 hours to confirm their winning notification. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours of receipt of the winning email a new winner will them be drawn and so on and so forth.
Boost Your Buzz $1,000 Summer Giveaway can be entered on Survey Junkie, Simply Stacie or Little Yaya’s (you only have to enter on one of the sites as the forms will be the same on each).
Katie 
