Yesterday I announced that I would give away a number of gift cards to lucky blog commenters.  After running the magic random generator, the winners are…

• Sears $50 gift card
• The winner is… veeRob with comment 3: “Would love the Sears GC so I can buy some storage bins! Would be happy to leave the other GC’s for another lucky reader. Thanks!”
• Walmart $50 gift card
• The winner is… Alde M with comment 28: “me, me and only me………”
• $20 Mio Prepaid card
• The winner is… Denise with comment 565: “Happy Holidays! Please pick me!”
• $25 Michael’s gift card
• The winner is… Sherry M with comment 525: “Merry Christmas! Pick me!”
• $25 Sony gift card
• The winner is… Randy with comment 132: “Any prize is fine. Thanks for all the great info throughout the year. Merry Christmas!”
• $10.17 Sony e-gift card
• The winner is…  Ian with comment 62: “Yeehaw!”
• $5 Toys R Us gift card
• The winner is…  KJ with comment 493: “Merry Christmas! Pick me, please.”

Congratulations winners!  I will contact you shortly via email in order to work out delivery of your gift card!

Well, the interminable fun “Write a Book, Win a Nook” contest has come to a close.  Here are the results:

• 1,697 lines were added to the story.  Almost all qualified as legitimate contest entries.
• 462,512 people died in the story.  Most exploded.
• Gary Steiger, who runs the FreeFrequentFlyerMiles website was eaten.  Apparently he was yummy.
• Everyone who died was reincarnated… several times.
• Everyone is now a flesh eating zombie.  Alas.
• Frequent Miler finally returned home from glob trotting in order to spend Valentine’s day with his wife and son.
• The cat said “The End”
• Then Frequent Miler announced the winner.  Read comments 1699 to 1706 to see who won.  You’ll find the comments here.

Thanks everyone who played!  Congratulations to the winner! 

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

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Hotel Award Nights Oops

This morning’s post about when to use points for hotel award nights has some kinks I’m trying to work out.  Ric of Loyalty Traveler pointed out that I had initially set the bar too high for Hilton HHonors.  I agreed with him and went ahead and adjusted the Hilton formula.  Since then I’ve also looked deeper into Club Carlson and found that it’s quite rare to get the Fair Trading Price of .7 cents when redeeming points.  I looked at 12 hotel rooms in Chicago, London, and Paris and calculated the value per point one would get for hotel awards on a random day.  I found that for properties costing more than $200 per night, Club Carlson points were worth, on average, .78 cents each.  For less expensive rooms, the points were worth, on average, only .33 cents each.  Therefore, I split the difference and set a target of .6 cents for Club Carlson redemptions.  I plan to look deeper into each program to evaluate the formulas and I’ll adjust them as necessary.  Of course, I’ll let you know anytime the formula changes.

Nordstrom

The 36 miles per dollar promotion has ended early.  Most likely someone at Nordstrom figured out that they were giving away the farm and put and end to it.  My points are still showing as pending.  Hopefully they won’t try to renege on the deal! 

My first shipment of Nordstrom junk arrived today.  Now to start selling…

Win a Nook Contest

The Write a Book, Win a Nook contest is almost over!  Tomorrow (Feb 14th) at noon I’ll randomly pick a winner from the comments people have posted.  Good luck everyone!

The contest to Win a Nook is now in the home stretch. Until Tuesday (Feb 14th), all you have to do to enter is add a single line to the ever growing story and become one its many authors. 

Since I last gave an update, here is what has gone on in the Nook story contest:

There has been an uprising – a mighty clash between authors!  A few, on the dark side, have taken it upon themselves to quickly kill each and every character that appears in the story. Opposing the dark forces are numerous authors who have formed an alliance.  The alliance has taken on the job of defending story characters from early, un-storied deaths.  Frequent Miler, Granny, and a mysterious cat all owe their lives to these forces of good.

Sadly, though, the clash between dark and light was so powerful that it pulled some of the authors right into the story.  As a result, some authors met untimely deaths themselves.  And some have come dangerously close to joining the dark side.

So tune in, and join the fight!  Pick a side and help move the story forward.  Help decide the fate of Frequent Miler, Granny, and the cat.  What will become of the giant Silly Putty ball?  Where did the talking dolphins go?  Why is Gilligan missing his second “g”?  Will Jean-Claude Van Damme ever put on clothes?  These are the questions you can help answer as you help craft the story! 

Final Interim Contest with two prizes!

On Sunday (2/12/12), I will randomly pick a story author to win a $25 Kiva.org e-gift certificate. With the gift certificate you can give a micro-loan to your choice of borrowers across the world. Once the loan is repaid (and they almost all do fully repay), you can choose to withdraw the money for yourself or make more loans. If you’d like to learn more, please visit the Milepoint Lending Team.

But wait, that’s not all!  Generous folks on the Milepoint Lending Team have offered to match this prize!  So, I will pick not just one, but two winners!

To learn more about Kiva, and for 3 more chances to win a Kiva gift certificate, please checkout Mommy Point’s post here.

Win a Nook!

Reminder: Until Feb 14th, you can win a Barnes & Noble Nook Color simply by adding a comment to our ever growing story. Visit this page to participate!

The contest to Win a Nook continues! Until Feb 14th, all you have to do to enter is add a single line to the ever growing story. Over the weekend, though, I announced an interim prize: a $25 Kiva Gift Card.

So, at 6:41 PM EST, I found a total of 1,079 comments had been posted so far. I then generated a random number from 1 to 1079:

And, the winner is… Mike, who wrote entry 436! In that comment he wrote “Only if Gary would stop giving it to her” referring, I believe, to a character named Daisy who could fly when taking certain drugs.

Mike, congratulations!  Look for an email soon with your $25 Kiva e-gift card!

Win a Nook!

Reminder: Until Feb 14th, you can win a Barnes & Noble Nook Color simply by adding a comment to our ever growing story. Visit this page to participate!

The contest to Win a Nook continues! Until Feb 14th, all you have to do to enter is add a single line to the ever growing story. Even better, you can enter the contest as many times as you’d like!

At the time of my writing this post, there are 907 lines to the ongoing Nook story! Since I last gave an update, here is what has gone on:

• Many more people have died, usually through violent explosions (including Frequent Miler himself!)
• Many more people have been kicked in the groin.
• The story briefly turned into a poem about a mighty squid (see line 807 or so).
• A mysterious cat has made its way in and out of the story.

If you would like to enter the contest, you don’t really need to read the whole thing to catch up.  Just read the last few lines and try to add something that makes at least a little bit of sense .

New Interim Contest!

This coming Tuesday (Feb 7) I will randomly pick a story author to win a $25 Kiva.org e-gift certificate!  With the gift certificate you can give a micro-loan to your choice of borrowers across the world.  Once the loan is repaid (and they almost all do fully repay), you can choose to withdraw the money for yourself or make more loans.  If you’d like to learn more, please visit the Milepoint Lending Team. 

Win a Nook!

Reminder: Until Feb 14th, you can win a Barnes & Noble Nook Color simply by adding a comment to our ever growing story. Visit this page to participate!

The contest to Win a Nook continues! Until Feb 14th, all you have to do to enter is add a single line to the ever growing story. Yesterday, though, I announced an interim prize: a $20 Barnes & Noble gift card.

So, at 1:45 EST this afternoon, I found a total of 615 comments had been posted so far.  I then generated a random number from 1 to 615:

Entry 404, was written by Steelsnow who also happens to be the contributor of the Slow, but viable Perpetual Point Machine that I wrote about back in November!  Congratulations Steelsnow!  Look for an email soon with your $20 e-gift card!

More to come

To keep things interesting, I’ll do more interim contests as we slog along race towards Feb 14th.  In that way, every one of your contest entries will have multiple chances to win a prize!

Win a Nook!

Reminder: Until Feb 14th, you can win a Barnes & Noble Nook Color simply by adding a comment to our ever growing story. Visit this page to participate!

The contest to Win a Nook continues! Until Feb 14th, all you have to do to enter is add a single line to the ever growing story. Even better, you can enter the contest as many times as you’d like!

At the time of my writing this post, there are 520 lines to the ongoing Nook story!  In the previous update I summarized the adventures of TSA Special Operative Scott Scanner.  Since then, the story has continued to get crazier than before.  It’s so zany, I won’t even try to summarize it this time.  I will say, though, that there are many hilarious one liners and plot twists.  I‘ve found myself literally laughing out loud many times.  My favorite has to be the flying Hyatt that repeatedly circles the international date line to get more points (and, presumably, credit towards hotel elite status).  I know.. It doesn’t sound funny when I re-tell it… 

Interim Contest!

OK, yes, I’ll admit it: running a contest like this for 3 weeks is a bit long.  Too long.  Agonizingly long.  So, to break things up a bit, I’ll occasionally hold an interim contest!  Sometime tomorrow (Sunday) I’ll roll a 600 sided die to pick an interim winner who will receive, via email, a $20 Barnes & Noble Gift Card!  If the winner of the gift card happens to also win the Nook on Feb 14, then they can use it to buy e-books for their new Nook!  Otherwise, the winner of the gift card, can use the gift card to buy old fashioned books made out of trees (remember those?).

Win a Nook!

Reminder: Until Feb 14th, you can win a Barnes & Noble Nook Color simply by adding a comment to our ever growing story. Visit this page to participate!

The contest to Win a Nook is in full swing!  Until Feb 14th, all you have to do to enter is add a single line to the ever growing story.  Even better, you can enter the contest as many times as you’d like!

At the time of my writing this post, there are 317 lines to the ongoing Nook story!  While it looks like people are having a lot of fun with this, I realize that for newcomers it can be a bit daunting.  So, let’s catch you up on what has gone before:

On a dark and stormy night at the airport, a shot rang out. Fortunately, TSA Special Operative Scott Scanner was on the scene. An MD80 was found dead and thousands of people were left stranded due to 170 seats being no longer available. But that was just the beginning of the adventure! While Erin Foster wept for her dead tabby cat, Jack Bower joined the case! Leaving Jack and Erin behind, Scott boarded a plane for Zurich but mysteriously landed in Las Vegas instead!

While gagging on a bad apple, Scott ran to the nearest restroom. There he encountered a man with a cigar, who abruptly tipped over… dead! Scott noted that this would not have happened had the man signed up for free A Club platinum status, which apparently has the most valuable elite perk of all time: immortality!

Having a hard time with his latest assignment, Scott downed a few drinks before running into William Shatner who was now a zombie, having recently fallen to his death in a Priceline commercial. As improbable as this seems, William and Scott somehow transported to New York City in the blink of an eye. Scott realized that he had somehow broken the space-time continuum and had traveled through a parallel universe! Having had this revelation, it was not surprising when William Shatner disappeared to be replaced by Richard Branson and a glowing, levitating Randy Peterson! With their help, he made his way to the airport with the intention of joining the One World Mega DO, but then Richard Branson gave him a ticket to Necker Island.

Sure that this flight would lead him to solve the ongoing mystery, Scott boarded a plane headed to Necker Island. To his surprise, he was brought instead to Iceland! There, Jack Bower found him and  gave him a carnivorous Koala. Traveling through the space time continuum was clearly too much for Scott. Any tenuous hold on reality that he had before was now completely snapped! His mind imagined one strange inexplicable thing after another.  Repeatedly, he thought he had awoken from a dream, only to find himself in yet another dream…

What will happen next?  Will Scott regain his senses and continue the investigation?  Will Jack Bower ever be allowed back into Iceland?  Will the time-space continuum be repaired?  YOU can help decide!  Visit the contest page here: Write a Book, Win a Nook!

EARLY PRIZE: Many lines in the story so far have made me laugh.  My favorite, though, has to be the idea of A Club Platinum status conferring immortality.  See lines 68 and 69 in the story.  Steelsnow and Matt, as thanks for making me laugh, I’d like to give you each a free magazine subscription!  Go to magazines.com and find a non-auto-renewing magazine that you’d like and email me the info.

This contest is now closed.  The winner is revealed in the final comment below.  Thank you for visiting my blog!

If you have read my recent adventures on EBay, you know that I have an extra Nook Color and I’ve promised to give it away!  I have to admit I’ve never used a Nook, but I’ve been impressed with its great reviews.  Even more, I really like it’s unique design.  There’s just something about that little corner cutout that makes it super appealing! 

The Contest

For a chance to win this Nook, all you have to do is add a comment to the bottom of this blog post.  Don’t add just any comment, though.  Let’s have fun with this!  Let’s write a story together.  Each person can write one sentence at a time to contribute to the story.  The story can be about anything.  You can write truth or fiction.  It can be exciting, funny, sad, or uplifting.  It can be about travel, miles, and points, but it doesn’t have to be.  It can be almost anything.

Double Dip, Triple Dip, Quadruple Dip, etc.

You can enter this contest as many times as you like!  Each new story sentence you add below counts as another entry into the contest.  There is one BIG RULE about this: you may not enter twice in a row!  What I mean is that before you can add another sentence to the story, you must wait for another reader to add their sentence.  Each of your entries must have at least one contribution from another reader between them. 

Valentine’s Day Deadline

I will keep this contest open for new entries until noon EST on Valentine’s Day (Feb 14th 2012).  At that point I’ll use my trusty computer to generate a random number from 1 to however many entries exist.  The person who wrote the comment that corresponds with the resulting number will be the winner!

Nook Delivery

If you win, I’ll ship the Nook to you anywhere in the continental US.  If you need it delivered elsewhere, we’ll figure out the best shipping option and I’ll contribute up to $15 towards it.  Or, if any of our travels overlap (Kiva DO anyone?) I’ll hand deliver it to you.

The Rules

• Enter as many times as you like, but no two entries can be consecutive.  There must be at least one entry from another person between each of your entries.
• No explicit language is allowed.  Keep it rated G.
• Don’t be mean! 
• Your sentences can be long or short.  Very short sentences are fine.  Please avoid long run-sentences.
• Do not try to game the system (by entering the contest with multiple aliases, for example).  If I suspect you of anything like this, you will be disqualified.  I reserve the right to disqualify anyone at any time, but I really don’t want to!
• Frequent Miler, his wife, and son are not eligible to win, but they are allowed to contribute to the story.  If one happens to win, a new random number will be picked until a valid winner is found.
• Have fun!

Nook Side Chat

• To enter the contest, comment below
• To discuss the contest, please visit the Nook Side Chat.

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