Finally, all the time I spent collecting and entering coke rewards codes. Besides over 15000 in points collected and redeemed and entering countless free sweepstakes that take even more time, I have finally won something worth the gleam of others. I appreciate all the codes that my family and friends saved for me, but they also always mocked me when they saw me dumpster diving or rummaging through recycling bins for codes. Last July, I spent a lof of days entering sweepstakes on their site and had a very prosperous 2 days. First on Friday I won 4 free tickets to any Six Flags amusement park. Those were instant win and I took my family a month later. Then on Saturday morning, I was notified that I won the daily $1000 Best Buy Giftcard Sweepstakes. After filling out an affidavit confirming that I did not enter the contest by means of anything illegal activities, everyone thing was mailed off. Now I hold in my hand a Best Buy giftcard that I verified had a $1000 balance. I'll have to pay taxes on this sweepstakes winning.

People have always asked me when I was going to get a new TV. I have been using an 26 in CRT TV that is over 10 years old. The picture quality is fine, but the picture has expanded. I think for the last 2 years, it has expanded 2 inches on the top, bottom, left, and right, which is great because everything is bigger, without lost in picture quality. The only thing is that when you watch sports, news, or movies with subtitles, there is something lost because the edges are pushed off the viewable screen area. I never see sports and news tickers and never see the logo that stations put in the lower right hand corner. If I step away from the TV during a sporting event, I don't know the score until the announcer tells me. This tends to bug a lot of people that watch TV at my place, but I got used to it. The cost to repair the TV wouldn't be worth it. In the past year, I have had 3 TV's of comparable size given to me to replace my old TV, but I when I place them side by side, the picture quality of the old TV always beats out the free replacement given to me. Those TV always end up on craigslist free section so they will be gone quicker. Then the person who gave me the TV comes for a visits and sees I am still using my old TV and always comment that they just gave me a replacement, and I return well there was a reason you replaced your TV and that was the reason why it didnt' replace mine. TV studios don't put very much information on the edges of the viewing screen so I am not sacrificing a couple of inches for quality.

So guess what I am going to get with my gift card. Time to do some reseach and I am considering of being part of the Black Friday crowd.

So I did another survey last weekend for Consumer Pulse. Apparently they were targeting men my age to try a new Spiced Rum. The taste test were blind but I had 2 samples to taste from. A lot of the survery questions were geared towards masculinity and if I would have a problem ordering this specialty drink at a club or bar. I had no problems ordering but wouldn't based on the taste. Abstaining from alcohol for the last 2 months has really brought my tolerance level to a couple of drinks. I had to walk around the mall a bit before I could drive to the bank and deposit the $25 check.

So the results are in and for the 10 million votes cast for Prop 8 in CA, there was $74M spend on both sides for their cause. At $7.40 a vote is a record ever spent on any election initiative. Was that really necessary? I wonder how else that money could have been spent.