Sigh, I could have been at the Grammys this weekend…

Sigh, it would have been great…

You wouldn’t believe it but today I won 2 tickets to the Grammys this weekend. YES. I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING. I FREAKIN’ WON 2 TICKETS TO THE GRAMMYS!!!!!!!!!

But SAAAAAAAD TIMES, after winning them I had to pass it on to the next person cos this contest win could only be claimed in the US. SAAAAAAAAD TIMES. Oh, it hurt. It would have been SO flippin’ awesome to be there.

This is how it went. The Grammys have been doing Twitter contests. They tweet out trivia questions and first one to reply with the correct answer wins. Simple. They asked:

1st correct reply @TheGRAMMYs wins two Bronze tickets to the 52nd GRAMMY’s.  Name the five artists with six or more current GRAMMY Nominations

I read the question and replied in less than a minute of them tweeting it.  “I know the answerrrrrrr!”  Click click click away and SEND!

Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, Maxwell

I get a Direct Message from @TheGRAMMYs to find out i’m the first one to reply correctly.  WAAAAAAWWWWWEEESOMME!!  This is a million times better than the free 2010 Grammys Nominations CD i just won last week.

But it was short lived.  After messaging back and forth with @TheGRAMMYs, turns out i can’t claim the prize as the contest is within the US.  Massive excitement plummeted from 100million to zero.  I was at work on campus at the time and it was a sad, upsetting hour.  Oh dear, if only you were there to witness my pathetic whimpering and dramatic disappointment.  Just ask my staff team.  They absolutely pitied me– in a sympathetic way.  Oh, it hurt.  Imagine… I could’ve been in L.A. this weekend, AT THE GRAMMYs, seeing Taylor Swift take home some serious hardware.

@TheGRAMMYs was sympathetic towards me, too.  They messaged me saying they were sorry it couldn’t be mine.  That was nice knowing they were appreciative for me participating (slight, ever so slight comfort)

I’m so sorry! Great job answering fast & correctly – thanks for playing!

I know, I know.  It’s not the end of the world; life moves on.  But it would have been tres awesome to be there, live at the 52nd annual Grammys.

I’m liking Twitter more..

.. because I just won a contest on Twitter.com/TheGRAMMYs!  They did a contest to give away the 2010 Grammy Nominees CD that just released a few days ago.  There were 10 copies to be won and I managed to snag one! It’s not a huge prize but I love free stuff and I love music… bada bing, bada boom.

The tweet went out: “First reply @TheGRAMMYs with a twitpic of yourself and one of @TheFray’s CDs wins a 2010 GRAMMY Nominees CD!”

Conveniently, I was picking up something at the mall when this went out and HMV was 4 stores away so i walked in, grabbed The Fray’s self-titled (but not debut) album and a click of the camera, voila.

Notice how the plastic is still on the CD.  Well, soon enough TheGRAMMYs tweeted out the winner and c’est moi! I LOVE FREE STUFF!

Twitter Phenomenon: Join in?

In my opinion, one of the biggest things that has happened in 2009: Twitter.

Though Twitter has been around for while, it wasn’t until this year that it really exploded into what it is.  I have a few thoughts as to why…

(1) The proliferation of smartphones.  The public is increasingly becoming owners of iPhones, Blackberries and the like, so the instantaneous nature of Twitter updating in real-time complements our accelerated pace in technology.  If you’re not already using Twitter in a mobile fashion on a smartphone, the appeal of Twitter is one factor that compels many to start.  Ka-ching for Apple, RIM and competitors.

(2) Twitter is effective in advertising and as a news source.  As if marketing online wasn’t accessible enough, it just got more… accessible.  You don’t even need to be sitting down in front of your computer and surfing the net to come across a company’s ad.  No, now it’s just, “Bam” sent to your phone like a text message. But how did they get permission to send their cleverly-worded marketing to you?  Well, because Ellen Degeneres or Shaq or Demi Moore liked it and tweeted it, and then your own personal friends re-tweeted it.  Brilliant.

(3) Which leads me to my next thought: Twitter has skyrocketed due to celebrity.  We live in an unprecedented time where we can actually hear (not literally, well for the most part anyway) directly from celebrities.  Who needs to write into a PO Box Fanmail site when it’s now just a few clicks away? And who needs to read People Magazine to get the latest dish on Hollywood when People itself will write many articles based on recent celebrity tweets?

It’s so fascinating.  I myself started a Twitter account in the summer not for a personal social network but to follow a few select celebrities, sort-of-celebrities, musicians, etc.  I had no desire to use Twitter on a personal level- no one’s interested in what i’m doing.  But, what is Ashton Kutcher doing?  “I’m interested!”  Actually, I’M not interested but over 4.1 million people are.

Those who i am interested in?  Well, unashamedly i think one of the most interesting people i follow is Hailey Glassman.  Laugh all you want but i’m telling you, it’s intriguing!  She’s very honest in her tweets, maybe too much, but she’s not very good at spelling (at least on the go).  And, I still pray for the Gosselins so i follow Jon, too (though he hasn’t tweeted in a while).

Jim Carrey updates often and is pretty funny and random.  Taylor Swift is probably who i enjoy following most.  She’s so flippin’ endearing and wholesome, I’m honestly very happy for her in all her success this year.  Scott Harrison, president of charity: water, gives great and concise updates on the immense impact they’re having. I’m thrilled at how much influence they’ve gained over the last 2 years since I first heard about charity: water.  And, Brooke Fraser, still my favorite.  Those are a few people i enjoy having a little peek at every now and again.

So, after about 6 months of fiddling with Twitter on and off, I’m considering possibly using it for personal updates now.  One of the main reasons is my recently founded accessibility.  Back to my first reasoning of smartphones, I am now mobile with a Blackberry (I’ll have to get around to sharing my steal-of-a-deal story surrounding my Blackberry and phone plan).  Even before the hype of Twitter, I’ve always had random thoughts on the go.  Now that I can digitally jot them down, maybe I will.  I’ve thought about whether this is going to turn into something about numbers, but I don’t think so.  I can’t imagine having very many followers anyway.  I think i’d still mostly stick to following people i don’t know as I feel decently connected with people i do know already since i’m a faithful Facebook-er.  But we’ll see, i’ll fiddle some more.  If you are an active Twitter-er, feel free to try to convince me with reasons to cross the line…