The 12 Days of Blogmas: Day one

Hey, it's Christmas! This means I got no sleep last night, and I've spent an entire day stuffing my face with delicious yet unhealthy food (when I wasn't drinking). It's therefore a miracle that I have the energy to start anything, let alone my annual 12-days-of-Christmas guessing game. But I do.

I have so much energy that I've decided to make this a contest. With prizes!

See, last summer I threw a party for the entire internet, and like any good hostess, I provided goodies for my guests. Only since the entire internet didn't show up, I wound up with leftovers.

So here's the deal. Guess the name of this popular Christmas song and you'll win yourself a super-fine Mamarazzi t-shirt. They're white with dark red lettering and say

in red ink. If you know Kristen of Mommy Needs a Cocktail, you know how nice these t-shirts are.

OK, here are the rules:

1. Look at the pictures. In previous years I've gotten my pictures from Google Images. Now I'm using Google or Amazon.com. Amazon has nice clear images. And after doing the majority of my Christmas shopping on Amazon, I figure they owe me.
   


2. Try to figure out what Christmas song the pictures represent. (Usually I show the first line of the first verse, i.e., "Silent night, holy night" because just "Silent Night" would be too short.)


3. Leave a comment with your well-reasoned and thoughtful solution. Or take the opportunity to make fun of me.


4. If you're right, you win a Mamarazzi t-shirt.
   


5. And here's a hint: most of the time, the phrase I'm using includes little words--basic verbs, articles, pronouns, and prepositions--that produce pretty strange results in Google Images. After all, it's THE first Noel and WE three kings OF orient ARE. And when you do a search for the, we, of, and are, you come up with pretty random images.
   
   So look for the nouns. Christmas carol-y nouns like angels, mangers, stars, nights, oxen, and asses.

Ready? Here goes:

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 12

Here's your last chance to win a gift card! You remember what to do, right?

1. Look at the pictures.

2. Try to figure out what Christmas carol they represent. Today it's the carol's title.

3. Leave a comment with your brilliant solution. Or be all funny and sarcastic and forfeit the Starbucks gift card, even though you have a four-latte-a-day-habit, and I'm looking at you, Susie Sunshine.

4. If you're right, you win a $15 Starbucks gift card. (Or an iTunes gift card, if you think Starbucks coffee tastes burnt.)

5. Remember, the phrase probably includes little words--basic verbs, articles, pronouns, and prepositions--that produce pretty strange results in Google Images. After all, it's Deck THE halls WITH boughs OF holly, and when you do a search for the, with, and of, you come up with pretty random images.

So look for the nouns. Christmas carol-y nouns like angels, mangers, stars, nights, oxen, and asses.

7. OK! I'm done! And so is Christmas. Gloria in excelsis deo, not to mention alleluia.

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 11

OK, here we are at the second-to-last day of Christmas. Which means it's the second-to-last chance for you to enter my contest.

You remember what to do, right?

1. Look at the pictures.


2. Try to figure out what Christmas carol they represent. (Usually I show the first line of the first verse, i.e., "Silent night, holy night" because just "Silent Night" would be too short.)


3. Leave a comment with your well-reasoned and thoughtful solution. Or take the opportunity to make fun of me.


4. If you're right, you win a $15 Starbucks gift card. (Or iTunes, if you prefer Dunkin Donuts coffee--and who doesn't?)


5. And here's a hint, because honestly, the emails are getting to me.
   
   Most of the time, the phrase I'm using includes little words--basic verbs, articles, pronouns, and prepositions--that produce pretty strange results in Google Images. After all, it's THE first Noel and WE three kings OF orient ARE. And when you do a search for the, we, of, and are, you come up with pretty random images.
   
   So look for the nouns. Christmas carol-y nouns like angels, mangers, stars, nights, oxen, and asses.



6. Also, in today's contest, I repeated a preposition from one of my previous days. And Manet was not painting an angel.



7. OK, angels little birds. It's out of the manger nest with you.

Ready?

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 10

Hey internet! Sing along with Poppy!

"We're on the road to nowhere ..."

(Actually, at the moment, after 12 hours of driving, we're at a Hampton Inn outside of Cleveland, Ohio. So I have NO IDEA why I have that Talking Heads ear worm. Because we're not actually still on the road--and we won't be on the road again until tomorrow. Also, Ohio isn't nowhere. Or is it? Heh.)

But! I'm still giving away $15 Starbucks (or iTunes) gift cards. Because it's still Christmas. I say so, and so does tradition.

So here's what you do: look at the Google images, figure out which Christmas carol they illustrate, and leave your answer in a comment. The first person to get it right wins.

Have fun!

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 9

The contest continues! Here are the rules. It's a rebus made of Google images. Each image is one word. The words are either the first line of a Christmas carol OR its title--probably both.

Guess the first line and/or title and win your choice of a $15 Starbucks or iTunes gift card. (Which I'll be buying and sending when I'm no longer on the road. Because you can't see it from here, but I'm in Rhode Island. And any minute now I'll be getting in the car and driving to Chicago.)

And I felt all merciful, what with all the WHINING. So seriously, this one is child's play. And today it's the FIRST LINE because the title would be really short.

Ready? Here goes:

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 8

Happy New Year, internet!

We're driving to Boston to have lunch with my brother HENRY and then traveling to Rhode Island to visit my in-laws, so this is going to have to be fast.

Here's todays' contest: figure out which Christmas Carol is illustrated by the following uncredited Google images at the rate of one image per word. Leave a guess in a comment. The first person to guess right wins his or her choice of a $15 Starbucks or iTunes card.

Maybe it's my new year's resolution to be merciful and cut the internet some slack, but internet, I have heard your whining. So I've decided to make things a little bit easier for you. I've recycled an image from a previous day, and it's a repeated word, so it appears twice. So don't say I've never done anything for you. Even with your hangover, this shouldn't be all that hard.

Here goes:

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 7

It's snowing and I have to head out to Blockbuster's to get lots of DVDs so the Buxoms can ring in the New Year with our traditional New Year's Eve celebration: spaghetti carbonara washed down with lots of champagne, followed by a DVD-fest.

And so, without further ado, here is your seventh chance to win a $15 Starbucks or iTunes gift card by correctly identifying the first line of the Christmas carol illustrated below with Google Images.

Ready? Get to it.







And Happy New Year, internet.

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 6

On the sixth day of Christmas, your true Poppy gave to you ... another chance to win a $15 iTunes or Starbucks gift card by figuring out which carol is represented by these Googly images--where each image represents a word of the first line.






Good luck!

The 12 Days of Blogmas Contest, Day 5

It's a contest! The first person to correctly identify the following well-known Christmas carol wins either a Starbucks or iTunes gift card. Each word of the well-known song is represented by an image found on a Google search.

Leave a comment to enter.

The 12 Days of Blogmas Contest, Day 4

Today we drove for about six hours, winched ourselves out of the van, hauled our crap inside, had a quick drink, and then fed cocktails and take-out Chinese food to some of my brothers and sisters, and opened Christmas presents, and laughed.

And then of course, I had to show them how I can find them a picture of Mormon Temple Garments by using voice-activated Google search on my new iPhone.^TM

By the way, did you notice something about my use of the phrase my new iPhone^TM ? That's right. I have copyrighted it. Not only that, I plan to devote my next Blog365 to blogging about my new iPhone^TM every day. And no, I'm not getting paid to blog about my new iPhone^TM every day. I'm doing it because I'm Apple's bitch.

Anyway. I do have other things to tell you about. Like new bathrooms. That's right! Stick around for the new bathrooms. The new nautical-style bathrooms! They're almost as nice as my new iPhone.^TM And tomorrow, I might even take pictures. With my new iPhone.^TM

I know. I'm acting like an iHole.

And now I leave you with the latest installment in my Uncredited Google Images Win a Starbucks or iPhone Gift Card Christmas Carol Contest. Here's the deal for those who are new: the images below represent one word of the first line of a Christmas carol. If you guess the carol, you will win a prize of your choice of a $15 Starbucks or iPhones gift card. Here goes: