retroblog.net

Thanks again to all those that participated in my two recent giveaways here on retroblog. I wanted to test out the new rafflecopter widget to see if it’d make running giveaways a bit easier and I have to say that it definitely helped the whole process – especially listing out all the eligible entries and randomly picking out a winner. I also like the facebook/twitter integration. All in all, the widget worked out great and I will continue to use it for future giveaways.

As for the winners – here they are:

The winner of the BONES season 6 DVD is: Jeremy B.

The winner of Paul McCartney’s The Love We Make DVD is: Barbara W.

Congrats!

Stay tuned for more! and have a great weekend!

While over on Dragon Blogger, I noticed that Justin was using LiveFyre as his commenting platform. I liked what I saw in terms of what it can do especially the inclusion of Facebook and Twitter conversations.

Plus, the folks behind livefyre has made it pretty dead simple to add it onto an existing blog so I thought I’d give it a-go.

Hell, I’ll try anything to help spark some conversations here on this ol’ blog. anyway, let me know your thoughts about the new way of commenting. Hopefully it’s a positive.

Thanks again to all those that participated in the Gary Moore CD/DVD giveaway.

all the entries were compiled into a spreadsheet and numbered sequentially. I then used random.org to generate three random numbers.

and the three winners are –

Ed N., Peter G. and Ronald O.

Congratulations!

The winners should have received an email from me by now so check your inbox!!

and for the rest of y’all, keep an eye out for more giveaways coming up soon…

stay connected via twitter, facebook and RSS.

like a lot of other music blogs, I receive promo DVDs and CDs from various companies for me to review. And over time, the retroblog promo bag has gotten quite full. So, I thought I’d do another giveaway so that I share some of these cool titles with my retroblog readers.

here’s what you do. take a look at this photo of DVDs and CDs.

all you have to do is identify as many CDs/DVDs as you can that’s featured in this photo. I’ll need artist AND title of each item. The person that identifies the most items in this photo correctly will be sent the CD or DVD of their choice (from this pile of promos of course). Simple as that.

submit your answers at this link. (via surveymonkey)

Since this is a contest the requires correct answers please refrain from posting any of the answers in the comment section of this post. I’m only accepting answers through THIS LINK.

As always, when submitting your answers, please include your correct mailing address and email address so that, if you win, the prize will be sent to the right address. I know, I know, it’s common sense but still, from past experience, I HAVE to mention it.

Oh and bonus points for those that follow me on twitter and facebook. be sure to mention it when you submit your answers in order to get credit.

Thanks for participating! have fun!

this contest ends at 11:59pm November 18, 2011.

please note: only open to those in the U.S.

what the hell? I just updated some of the plugins here on wordpress and now my dashboard is taking forever to load. damn. not sure what’s causing this. I went ahead and restored all the files from the previous backup on the server. but the WP dashboard is still taking f-o-e-v-e-r to load. shit. the other elements in wordpress seem to work fine like adding posts and accessing other WP settings but the damn dashboard is hanging up. what’s the deal???

Thanks again to all those that participated in Doctor Faith CD giveaway.

all the entries were compiled into a spreadsheet and numbered sequentially. I then used random.org to generate three random numbers.

and here are the winners –

The grand prize winner (Doctor Faith CD autographed by Christopher Cross) is Todd N.

the two runners up (regular unsigned Doctor Faith CDs) are: Victoria K. and Sara S.

Congratulations!

The winners should have received an email from me by now so check your inbox!!

Keep an eye out for more giveaways coming up soon…

Hey, guess what? Staples is offering a great deal on a laptop this week and since my defective HP Pavilion Dv7 is no longer any use to me, I quickly snagged one before it went out of stock. Actually it was “out of stock” online all day yesterday but surprisingly the laptop became available first thing this morning. I’m not that familiar with the way the Staples website inventory works but I’m glad I got in on the deal.

Here’s what I got:

it’s the Acer® Aspire AS5741Z-5433 for $399 (sale ending 8/28).
it features -
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core P6000 Processor (1.86GHz)
4GB installed memory
320GB hard drive
8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
15.6″ HD Widescreen CineCrystal™ LCD Display (1366 x 768)
Built-in HD Webcam (1.3 megapixel)
Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
1 – HDMI™ Port
6-cell Li-ion Battery (4400 mAh)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
1 year warranty

So what do you think? yeah, I know it’s on the low end in terms of tech but after what happened to my 17″ HP, I’m a bit gun-shy about spending more money than I should on a laptop that may or may not last two years. Hopefully this little Acer won’t let me down. At the least, it’s a bit reassuring to know that the Acer is PC Magazine’s Editors’ Choice for budget laptops.

(more…)

well, I finally got a call from the local PC repair shop about my laptop. They simply confirmed what I already knew. It’s the motherboard and there’s no cheap fix for it. The motherboard can be replaced for $400 but as all of us know, you can easily get a new laptop for that price.

So, does anyone want my HP Pavilion DV7 for parts? I might as well put it up on ebay to get something out of this piece of crap. It’s only a year and a half old and now it’s just a paper weight. lovely.

Thanks for nothing HP.

hey all!

I’ve got lots of updates for the blog including a review of last night’s Asia concert but my personal laptop died on me. Well, I’m still hoping and praying that it’ll come back to life so we’ll see. There’s tons of important stuff on the hard drive that I don’t want to lose so hopefully I’ll be able to get it back up on running.

Anyway, just thought I’d post this notice for those waiting for new posts here.

stay tuned…

Look, I see that you’re old and wanted to hurry to show your granddaughter the beach and all but that doesn’t entitle you to forcefully swing your door into my car.

First of all, you’re the one that parked extremely close to me. You should have either corrected your shitty parking job or just parked somewhere else if you found the space too tight.

Also, you should have known that those large Venza doors swing out wide and parked your car accordingly. But NO. you just HAD to park in that space next to mine. It’s not like the parking lot was full. it wasn’t. There were plenty of spaces in the parking lot. You probably could taken up TWO spaces elsewhere and no one would have cared. BUT YOU STILL CHOSE to park in that narrow space next to mine! And then you give ME the attitude that it was somehow MY FAULT that my car got dinged??? the nerve of some people.
(more…)