We Have A Winner!

Yes folks, we have a winner to the first Stunnerific Giveaway (Revised)! Mr. Gordon Swaby of gordonswaby.com walked away with the Manhattan keyring by being the first to reply with the correct answer to the contest question.

Question: What major item did Stunner purchase during his trip to New York?

Answer: A Nikon D60 DSLR

Congratulations to Gordon Swaby and thanks to all who participated in the first Stunnerific Giveaway.

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Stunnerific Giveaway!... REVISED

Ok, due to many complaints about the giveaway, I have made some changes to make it more friendly for you. You only need to answer one question:

What major item did Stunner purchase during his trip to New York?

The first person to answer the question correctly will claim the prize. Email your answers to stunnerj@gmail.com with subject "Stunnerific Giveaway 1". Please remember to include your blog name in your email. You will be contacted by email if you are the winner and your blog name announced in the following post.

The previous list of contest rules were just for post enhancement purposes, so don;t worry about the long list.

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Stunnerific Giveaway!

As you all know, I went to New York for a few weeks recently and I still had to think about all of you my friends in Blogland! So, despite the hard times and bruck pocket due to my purchase of the Nikon D60, I couldn't go to foreign and nuh bring back nuttin fi yuh. Also,I have been wanting to do what I call my Stunnerific Giveaway for some time now, so I have decided to make this the first of such. Just my little way of showing my appreciation for your support of my blog. I am not sure of how often and when I will be having these Stunnerific Giveaways, or what the prizes will be, so you just have to stay tuned!

So here is the first giveaway, a genuine Manhattan Key Ring that I bought from a little souvenir store I stumbled on while on my second trip to Manhattan.

Stunnerific Giveaway 1 A Manhattan Key Ring

As I have several visitors to my blog, it would take a small fortune to buy everyone a keyring, and I could only afford to buy one. So, I will have to ask just a few questions relating to my recent trip to New York and the first person to email me the correct answers will get the above giveaway. Check out the contest rules below and all the best!

Questions:

1. Which restaurant did Stunner eat at for the first time, during his trip to New York?
2. What major item did Stunner purchase during his trip to New York?
3. Which attraction (place of interest) did Stunner visit on his second visit to Manhattan?

The first person to answer all three questions correctly will claim the prize. Email your answers to stunnerj@gmail.com with subject "Stunnerific Giveaway 1". Please remember to include your blog name and/or real name in your email. You will be contacted by email if you are the winner and your name announced in the following post. You will be required to provide a shipping address and a name for prize delivery once you have been advised by email (from Stunner's Afflictions) that you are the winner. Please ensure that your shipping address is correct as I may not put a return address on the parcel and your prize will be claimed by the respective post office.

By participating in this contest you have agreed to the Contest Rules outlined below:

1. The contest is open to all Bloggers and readers of Stunner's Afflictions as well as anyone currently subscribing Stunner's Afflictions. Identification must be produced on request.

2. The prize is not redeemable in cash and must be accepted as awarded.

3. Decisions of the contest judges (in this case me) are final - no substitutions will be available.

4. By claiming the prize, the winner authorizes the use, without additional compensation of his or her Blog Name for promotion and/or advertising purposes in any manner and in any medium (including without limitation, radio broadcasts, newspapers and other publications and in television or film releases, slides, videotape, distribution over the Internet and picture data storage) which Stunner's Afflictions may deem appropriate.

5. In accepting the prize, the winner, and any guest(s), acknowledges that Stunner's Afflictions may not be held liable for any loss, damages or injury associated with accepting or using this prize(s).

6. The person(s) whose name(s) is drawn as being the winner(s) of the specific prize will be the first to answer the skill-testing questions before the prize is awarded to them.

7. Detailed contest rules applicable to this contest, including contest entry dates, how to enter, and prize value, number and any restrictions applicable to these prizes are available upon request from Stunner's Afflictions.

8. Winners and any guests at the age of majority has already proved their acceptance and understanding of the complete contest rules by participating in the contest.

9. Stunner's Afflictions retains the rights, in its absolute and sole discretion, to make substitutions of equivalent kind or approximate value in the event of the unavailability of any prize or component of the prize for any reason whatsoever.

10. This contest is not approved by the Betting and Lottery Commission and a private contest between Stunner's Afflictions and those who enter.

11. Stunner's Afflictions reserves the right to withdraw or terminate this contest at any time without prior notice.

12. Approximate value of prizes vary.

13. Contest open to all readers if Stunner's Afflictions.

15. One entry per person.

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Crossed the Finish Line at Sigma 2K9

Crowd at Emancipation Park after the race.

On Sunday I once again participated in the annual Sigma Corporate Run, a full five kilometer of rubber hitting hard tar in the heat of the morning sun. I wasn't as confident as I was a few weeks ago, as my training had been derailed by my recent winter vacation in New York. However, backing down was not an option. I would rather fall flat on my face and get hospitalised than not to show up and attempt the race. So at 5:30 am the alarm went off and I geared up in my shorts and running shoes to the song "Eye of the Tiger" resonating in my mind.

This year had a registration of approximately nine thousand people, even though only some of that number actually participated in the race. However, judging from the huge crowd it was hard to tell that it wasn't the full number of people. Knutsford Boulevard was crammed at the beginning of the race and immediately I had to mentally prepare myself to make my way through the huge throng of people covering the pavement with the soles of their running shoes. The race started as usual. a huge mas of people running out some at their top speed, then one by one they start slowing down to a laboured walk. But even then it was still hard to navigate my way around these sometimes mindless zombies drunk of exhaustion and the piercing morning sun. I persisted at a steady pace and kept on going using my breathing techniques.

By the time I reached over to Waterloo Road I had found myself a running partner, one of my coworkers who was steadily making her way along the route. As I ran she kept up with me and so I continued to keep my pace so I don't fall back. The sun was piercing and the pavement was hard, I felt breathless and my muscles cried out in pain but I persisted. The pressure finally got to me after running up Suthermiere Road and started the slight incline of Hope Road when my steady pace was interrupted by my body feeling like it was about to give way. At this point I slowed to a brisk walk, but this was short-lived, as I heard the call of another coworker and I began to run again trying to block out the agony my body was feeling. I guess that 2 weeks break was much more harmful than I thought!

Souvenirs from the race.

I persevered and found the energy to make a sprint... well kind of sprinted my way to the finish-line to make my photo finish in a spanking 34 minutes and 11 seconds. This placed me at position 385 out of a total of 1594 runners. Not too bad eh? Obviously I didn't medal, but I did get two souvenirs from the race. Well, I wanted to do better and would have if I had done more training, but if I am still employed to the company, I will do it again the next time around and even better my record.

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JPS Again!

Yes my friends, I am back at Yard! I have been busy since I came back, not with work, but enjoying the local leg of my vacation. My flight down wasn't too bad at all, it actually left only a half hour late and I only experienced two incidents of turbulence during the entire flight. But I couldn't go to foreign and nuh bring back something fi mi friend dem who read my useless rambles about my life! I will let you know more about that in my next post, so stay tuned.

I just got a light bill a few days ago and my light bill went up, again! Now this is just crazy, considering the fact that I have been putting out even more effort to conserve. This evil utility company is seriously on a mission to rob people! I even just read an article in The Gleaner, saying that the Jamaica Public Service, JPS is now complaining that electricity theft is driving up the light bills! This could be true, but I'm just tired of hearing JPS complain and make excuses; if it's not oil prices it's the Jamaican Dollar, even hurricanes and now it's electricity theft. Yet I don't hear them trying to correct the over twenty percent loss they have in their inefficient and outdated transmission and generating systems. I think the picture above, that I found on The Gleaner's website sums up JPS' attitude. They are really changing lives with their energy... making us poorer!

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D60 in the City

Time Square New York (taken with the Nikon D60)

Wow, it's amazing how quickly two weeks can go by when you are on vacation! It seems as if it was just a few days ago I stepped on American soil, and look I'm about to shake off the dust from my feet and head to my country of citizenship. But such is life, I guess the saying is true, "time really flies when you are having fun"... or not at work! However, this is not the end of my vacation as I don't go back to work until another week and a half. So I will still have time to relax and enjoy my new Nikon D60. The GF will be on vacation too so I will have company to go on my excursions, and I have noticed that she is slowly getting used to... or should I say tolerate my insatiable desire to take photographs of every and anything I see.

Exhibit at the Metropolitan of Art (taken with the Nikon D60 - no flash!)

I gave my camera a test run in the city and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday and it certainly lived up to my expectations! The camera even took great photos in low light conditions without the use of the flash. I took photos like crazy! I was snapping away like an excited little child with a brand new toy! But aren't we all like that when we get something we have been wanting? The camera has a lot of features, settings and controls, so I have a lot to learn. I have been reading the manual to familiarize myself with all these new, somewhat overwhelming features. But I guess it takes time, so as I learn I will experiment. I still haven't gotten myself the zoom lens as yet so I am still confined to closeup photos and portraits. Until I get the zoom lens my nature photography which involve animals will have to be put on hold as wild animals don't know how to just relax and pose for a picture! I am still hoping I will get it though... almost US$200 which is a lot of money in these hard times! Now I hope I'll get random people to pose for me so I can practice my portrait skills... better yet, any volunteers?

Now I need to get to the worse park of travelling, packing. It shouldn't be hard this time I didn't do much shopping, even though I do have several food items complements of my mother, sister and a family friend. So I will just have to ensure that none of the suitcases are overweight... this time!

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