As I mentioned before, I am one of the 50 blogs participating in the amazing HP Magic Giveaway. In case you forgot, you can win $6000.00 worth of HP & Microsoft gear. I’m serious. See it?
(More on the specs here.)
And I know I’ve taunted you with dates. And made you guess. And wonder. And wait. But I’ve been nice and continued to link to live giveaways. But guess what? It’s our turn! That’s right! Stop, Drop & Blog is now LIVE with our HP Magic Giveaway! Sound the alarm! Roll out the hose! It’s a four alarm giveaway, folks!
First and foremost, I need to tell you this: while our giveaway is based on a random chance, I want you guys to understand the reason our site decided to participate in such an amazing giveaway. I’ve been blogging all this week about the reasons we are so grateful this holiday season. I will continue to do so throughout the rest of this week. FireDad and I have recognized how truly blessed we have been in the past few years. We have two healthy, happy children. We have a house. We are having a Christmas of our own. We are in love with one another and with our family. We are so blessed. And as such, we want to share that feeling with your family. But we don’t want that feeling to stop there.
We know that we wouldn’t be as blessed as we are if people wouldn’t have taken time to share things with us along the way. The table my parents gave to us when we got our first apartment. The meals the ladies of the church brought to us after LittleBrother was born and I didn’t have enough time to shower let alone cook a healthy meal. The leads for freelancing jobs that others have shared with me because they felt that I would be best suited. The friendship others have extended to us over the years. Without those little bits of sharing, we wouldn’t quite be the family that we are today. And that’s why we believe so intently in the true meaning behind this contest: sharing the magic. While we can’t demand that our winner share the package with anyone, we’d really like to promote that idea. I won’t tell you who and how to share but I will delete all entries that say, “Gimme gimme.” I reserve the right to do so!
All that said: I’ll need you to visit the whole list of rules for the giveaway, of course, but here’s the rundown on how to enter!
1. Leave a comment on this post explaining what winning this package would mean to you and your family in these tough economic times and how your sharing of this package would contribute to the true meaning of the season. This counts as one entry. You may only leave one entry in this fashion. IP addresses are recorded. Obvious spoof IPs will be disqualified.
2. Tweet this contest with this tinyurl ( http://tinyurl.com/sdbgiveaway1 ) and the hashtag #SDBGiveaway. You may tweet up to twice per day. Come back to this post and paste the URL of each individual tweet you post. (I will check every single one at the end of the contest so do not delete.) Each tweet, up to two per day, will count as one entry. (How to get the URL of each individual tweet? Click on the “time” that your tweet was entered. It follows your actual tweet. “3 minutes ago” is an example.) And, not necessary, but feel free to add me on twitter. I’m FireMom!
3. Digg, Stumble or otherwise promote this contest via some form of social media (other than the twitter entry above). Come back to this post and paste the URL of each individual promotion along with your username in case things get confusing. Each promotion will count as one entry. One promotion per social media site.
4. Blog about this contest on your public blog telling your readers a longer version of the comment you left in entry option #1. Meaning: Blog about what this contest means to you and your family this year and how sharing it would impact friends and family. Include a link back to this post. Please come back this post to post the link to your permalinked post just in case my blog doesn’t pick up your track back. You are allowed to do this once and it will count as one entry.
All entries will be entered into a Google Documents spreadsheet. Your name, email, method of entry, date, time and IP address will be recorded. Upon close of the giveaway, I will double check the list for any blatant errors. I will then pick a winner via random.org. Winner will first be contacted via email on the evening of December 16, 2008. Winner has 12 hours to contact me by email reply before the giveaway moves on to the next random winner. Winner will need to provide me with full name, shipping address and telephone number but can choose whatever name they wish to use for announcement on the blog. No personal information will be shared with my readers. I will announce the confirmed winner (hopefully!) by noon here on Stop, Drop & Blog. Winner will be provided with a form for tax purposes so that HP may reimburse you via check for the taxes on this $6000.00 prize package.
Now that we’ve got the entry methods out of the way, I must insist you read the Official Rules of our giveaway. Your participation in any one of those entry methods is an acceptance of the Official Rules. And, let me tell you, #5 is quite possibly the biggest rule.
I am looking forward to meeting some new readers, reading your tweets and blogs and otherwise helping you get in the spirit of giving this holiday season. I encourage you to keep reading this week as I continue to blog about the reasons we are so very grateful this holiday season. In fact, I encourage you to swear of whining for a week and blog about the positives in your life, too! It’s quite refreshing!
Ready? Set! WIN!
ETA: Contest is closed as of 6pm on December 16, 2008. Winner will be announced on the blog tomorrow! Thanks for all of the entries, stories and awesomeness that you have shared with me during this amazing opportunity.
1,276 Responses to “Stop, Drop & Spread That Holiday Magic”
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Okay, I put it in my status on Facebook
You are already my friend on there but let me know if you don’t see it!
Well everything that comes in the package is probably on the wishlist of not just me but everyone that i know of who is even remotely interested in technology.. having said that its probably out of the budget for most of us too.. so that probably is it… so winning the package actually means a lot.. it would fulfill my dream.. and it’s my birthday today and i figure, its my right to dream today… hoping for the best birthday present ever..
Here’s my entry:
Well, I’m not gonna make the crying story about me being Mother Teresa, but I will do my best, and I will write the truth. My redaction may be a little short, ’cause I don’t speak the english THAT well and fluid.
I will tell you what I wish to do with each one:
OK. The HP Mini1000, I have to say it, I will keep it. I mean, nobody who I know knows what the hell is that thing, and It may be useful to me.
The Touchsmart PC is gonna be useful to my family. I have a notebook, and the “old” PC is for my family. A Windows 98 Hardware’ed with low RAM memory, and XP running pretty forced, I have to upgrade that. But, if I win it, I will give my PC to my local library. A 80GB Drive would be an “OMG” to them, they are through an economical crisis, and their computers are… well… old. I would give one laptop to them too.
HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO Printer: My mom will use this in her job (BTW, it’s a teacher in a charity school of the mos’t poor, actually, called “Mother Teresa School”).
The laptops: I already mentioned one in my third paragraph. The other notebook, I think I will give it to my father. He worked every hard to get ME a computer, so I am too grateful. It may be handy for him.
The HP MediaSmart Connect, I don’t really know who needs it. So, if I win, I will see. I can’t say anything now. Sorry.
Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 & Corel VideoStudio X2: I will share this with my school, and other school that may need this (like mom’s). The Corel VideoStudio is very helpful, so they will be grateful (that sound songy =P)
And, last, but not less important, the Kung Fu Panda DVD’s: I already mentioned the school where my mom works. There’s another organization, connected to the school, to take care of children who are poor, in their first years of life. I mean, it’s not a n orphan, it’s like a kindergarden for very poor, semi-homeless kids. I saw the movie, and it may bring joy to them. I’d like that. One of the DVD’s for them. The other, to the Mother Theresa School, again.
Almost no one has Blu-Ray player, so I don’t know what to do with that. If I sell it, the money goes to charity. Promessed.
Thats it. I’m sorry for my english, if something is wrong or repetitive. I would really like to win the prize, and share the magic.
Thank you very much for doing this. Regards.
Marcelo Lynch.
This package would mean so much to our family. Especially my mom. Right now we live about 5 hours from my family. We only get to visit my mom around 3-4 times. I used to email her photos of my daughter but the computer that she was using (my old one from college) finally died. She can’t afford to get another one so she is stuck relying on me to send her photos through snail mail. Unfortunately, I am really bad at remembering to send them out (oops.). I would love to be able to give her a laptop for Christmas, especially one with a webcam. That way she can get more photos of her grandaughter and also interact with her more through a webcam. (my daughter loves the webcam!) Just imagining the smile on my moms face if she got one makes me excited. Thanks!
What an amazing giveaway. It will be a fabulous blessing to whoever wins!! To be honest I can’t even imagine $6,000 worth of computer equipment. We have always made do with whatever computer a friend or family member was giving away when they updated. And to be honest we felt blessed to receive that!! We are currently using a computer with Windows 98, but I can tell it won’t be lasting much longer.
I use my computer for several things. My Home and Garden Party business which helps me to stay home with my young children, finding deals and printing coupons which helps to stretch the money a little further, and most importantly I visit and help with a fantastic Christian forum which shares the true meaning of Christmas!!
Each of these things is very dear to my heart and are becoming hard to do on a dilapidated computer causing them to take more time from my family.
I can’t really say how I would share the equipment offered as I can’t even comprehend the amount of items. But I would find someone who could put some of the items to good use that couldn’t otherwise afford it. Perhaps the youth at my church would be a good place to start.
And I love the No Whining rule!! I’ve listened to about as much whining as I can take. So win, lose or draw . . . no whining from this direction!!
God Bless You and everyone involved in this fabulous giveaway. I’m off to spread the word!!
Twitter entry:
http://twitter.com/marcelolynch/status/1051247457
we live in mexico…there is a computer in my office but not one at my home. my wife would LOVE to stay in contact with the rest of the world.
Tweeted! http://twitter.com/FreckledLemnade/status/1051250663
here is my twitter
http://twitter.com/jonalmanzar/status/1051256460
Here’s the link to where I posted about your giveaway on Christian Women Together!!
http://z11.invisionfree.com/Christian_Women/index.php?showtopic=8285
I’ve twittered: http://twitter.com/musingsfromme/status/1051224538
I would donate one of the laptops to a place that helps underpriveledged students with after school tutoring and events to keep them busy and off the street and promotes them to graduate high school. It is a married couple who took out a second mortgage on their house to open and renovate and old church into a facility for the students.
I also would give one to my wife who is a high school teacher and could use a much better laptop to do who work on.
FireMom,
This is a fantastic opportunity for all of your readers and then some! So amazing to think of all of the folks who will benefit from the contest!
Having said that – should I win, I plan to share the gift with my good friend Liz who, after 20 years of marriage and 13 years of staying at home with her daughter, has found herself divorced and living with her elderly parents without any marketable job skills and no PC to help in the efforts.
Liz and her daughter have been through a lot over the last year and if anyone deserves this gift, it’s them.
Brandy
Brandy Tweet: http://twitter.com/brandyhagz/statuses/1051270368
http://twitter.com/3amjosh/status/1051270548
THis would be a great prize for my family. Mt laptop is on its last legs and I need a new one especially since I am out of work and need a new comp to start freelancing. My old computer cannot handle the graphics program I need. I would shre the loot with my sister who does nothave a computer at home. THen I would donate a computer to a homeless shelter where I used to work. I know they are having hard times and need new computer so the clients can use to find work etc. THanks,
More about my comment entry on my blog: http://www.perpetualtomorrow.com/2008/12/11/hp-giveaway-at-the-firehouse/
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/carogonza/status/1051273276
http://digg.com/microsoft/HP_Magic_Giveaway_3
It had been submitted but I gave it a dugg and a comment to ensure you know I did digg the story!
Blogged
http://seekinggodknowswhat.com/2008/12/11/stop-drop-and-blogs-hp-magic-giveaway/