e on Video: The November Contest Winner & the December Contest Prize Revealed

Hello my dear friends -

I thought I would take advantage of my beautiful Island-like vacation surroundings and conduct the drawing for the November contest winner on video. (Something about doing it from my condo once I'm back to cold, dreary Chicago didn't seem quite as fun.) I didn't venture too close to the camera because I'm giving Kate a running for the nickname of "Freckles" right about now. Actually, Sawyer would probably call me something like "Bugbites" or "Weird Sunburn Pattern Chick" instead, but I digress.

I announce what's up for grabs in the December contest (which I will post on December 1) as well, so press play below for the details. It's a very large file, so it might take a while to load.

I'll be back soon with the details for the next contest. Congrats again to the latest winner!

- e

The November Contest: "Thanks to Lost for..."

11/26: THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED... WINNER ANNOUNCED SHORTLY!

I vowed to post the November contest in the month of November (unlike, say, what happened with the October contest), and I'm stickin' to it!

This time, we're going back to a luck-based format, but I'm still going to make you work just a teeny bit. Since Thanksgiving is around the corner, let me know what you're most thankful for in regard to Lost. It can be funny or serious... like, "I'm thankful for Shirtless Sawyer" or "I'm thankful to have met other Lost fans" or whatever. I'm just going to draw the winner out of a hat (though I might feature a few of my favorite entries in my next post)... so all you have to do to qualify is write what aspect of the show you appreciate most. There is no specific format I'm looking for, sentence-wise.

Since the September contest winner, DWTenent, picked the Shannon action figure (he already had the Kate figure), Kate is back up for grabs in this contest.

If you do not want the Kate action figure but still want to submit a comment, PLEASE write: "DO NOT WANT TO WIN" in your entry.

I will close this contest the night before Thanksgiving at 6 PM Central Time, November 25.

I'll accept just one entry per person. Even though Thanksgiving is a U.S. holiday, ALL Lost fans obviously have something to be thankful for about the show, so I'll leave this contest open for anyone, though I reserve the right to negotiate with the winner if he/she is internationally based and the shipping costs end up being outrageous.

So there you have it... good luck!

I will announce the winner at some point between November 26 and 30th.

In the meantime -- to all of my American peeps -- Happy Thanksgiving!

*** And heads up... one of the next contests I run will be Twitter-based, so if you are on Twitter you can follow me at @erikaolson to get the details next month. (And don't worry, I'll still have blog-based contests going at the same time.)

- e

11/26 THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED... WINNER ANNOUNCED SHORTLY!

"2010: The Year Of..." October Contest Winner

Hello my dear friends -

I have to admit that I'm starting to regret running these contests because it is SO hard for me to pick a winner. Last month it was easy since that one was completely luck-based. The month prior (for the caption contest), my trusty board of advisors was able to come to the same conclusion, thankfully. But this time everyone had a different favorite, which left the final decision up to me.

So before I announce who won, let me encourage you to scroll through all of the entries -- there were some extremely creative and funny submissions -- proving once again that Lost fans are the smartest and wittiest people on the the planet.

To refresh your memory, I asked people to submit a Lost-related ending to this sentence:

2010: The Year _____________ .

And the winner is... DIRTE, who said:

"2010: The Year Someone Finally Tells Locke Something That He Actually CAN'T Do."

When I read this, I laughed out loud because I immediately had this vision of Locke throwing one of his, "Don't tell me what I can't do... EVER!!!!" fits and then suddenly pausing, looking all sheepish and adding, "Crap, you're right. I can't do that. My bad."


So congrats, Dirte, please send me a message through the site or email (my address is linked from my blogger profile page) and we'll go from there in order to get you your 2010 Lost Calendar.

To everyone else who played -- thank you so much for your submissions, I had a ball reading them. You made this decision very hard for me, but I can't say I'm surprised!

I will be posting the November contest shortly, and it will be luck-based once again so that I don't get all stressed out about choosing a winner. So stay tuned...

- e

The October Contest is Here! (But Maybe I'M the One Who Needs a LOST Calendar?)

AS OF 4:15 PM CENTRAL TIME ON 11/5/09, THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. ANY ENTRIES SUBMITTED FROM THIS POINT FORWARD WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED, I HAVE MY WORK CUT OUT FOR ME DECIDING A WINNER...

Yep, I know it's November 5th. But I'm still calling this the October Contest. Because it's my site and I can do whatever I want, so there.

The hiatus has been flying by, hasn't it? Before we know it it's going to be January 2010, the month of Lost's return. So I figured that this might be a good time to give away a 2010 Lost calendar -- either the wall-hanging kind or the page-a-day kind -- it will be the winner's choice.

What do you have to do to get it? Give me a high-level, tongue-in-cheek prediction about the show's final season. TO BE CLEAR: I'm not looking for something that might actually happen on the show, nor will I publish anything that's spoilery. I'm thinking along the lines of,
"2010: The Year Vincent Finally Decides He's Had It with All the Drama and Takes a Bite Outta Someone's Ass."

You know, just silly.

Uninspired entries like "2010: The Year Lost Ends" (duh) ain't gonna cut it, my dear friends. Don't make me publicly shame you!

I want to get the November Contest up sooner rather than later, so I'm going to limit this contest to somewhere between 30 and 50 entries, assuming I even get that many. I'll add a note at the top of this post, and in the comments section, when the contest closes.

I hope to have a winner announced within a week, and then get the next contest up before I leave for a tropical island that is unfortunately not THE Island on November 20th. (On a semi-related note, last Thursday was the one-year anniversary of my Oahu encounter with Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson. Ah, the memories.)

I better repeat the rules, lest someone yell at me because they didn't understand the deal:

- If you don't want a 2010 Lost calendar, please don't enter. There will be no other prizes offered for this contest.

- This contest is open to anyone in any country as long as it's a country Amazon.com ships to for less than the value of the calendar itself. Otherwise, it's just kinda silly.

- Only one submission per person. Anonymous commenters obviously cannot win, so please put enter in a name for yourself if you want to be considered.

- Only entries on this blog via the comments section below this post (before I announce the contest is closed) will be considered -- Tweets or Facebook comments will not. There will be Facebook and Twitter-based contests in the future. I think. I hope?


Are you ready to help me fill in the blank?

"2010: THE YEAR _____________________"

GO!

UPDATE: AS OF 4:15 PM CENTRAL TIME ON 11/5/09, THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. ANY ENTRIES SUBMITTED FROM THIS POINT FORWARD WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED, I HAVE MY WORK CUT OUT FOR ME DECIDING A WINNER...

- e