Win 500,000 Delta SkyMiles

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TravelPro for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

What if you had the ability to go almost anywhere in the world?  Europe, Asia, South America, all around the U.S. - where would you go?  It's fun to think about, isn't it?  I'm not sure where I'd go, but there are a lot of places I haven't visited, so I could have some fun planning!  And I'm definitely entering this contest, because if I win, I'll actually be able to make those dreams a reality.  I'm sure you'll want to enter, too.

The winner of the TravelPro sweepstakes will win 500,000 miles from the Delta SkyMiles program and two Travelpro® Rollaboard® bags!  Travelpro is known for its durability and great styling, and it's the luggage choice of flight crews and frequent travelers.  It's built tough to go the distance - even those 500,000 miles!  Won't it be fun to test that claim?

All you have to do is go to http://travelpro.com/sweepstakes/ and enter!  You must be 21 years old and a legal resident of the United States to enter.  You can enter once per day per email address through 11:59 p.m. E.S.T. on Dec 2, 2011.  Good luck!  If I don't win, I hope it's one of you!!

Free Word Counter

My usual word count tool didn't want to load for me tonight, so I went searching for another one.  I found this super-simple word counter.  Just paste your text into the box, and it automatically counts words and characters.  It's really handy when you're writing a blog post and need to know how many words you've used.  And, it's free.

Pinterest - So Addictive!

I signed up for Pinterest a while back, but I hadn't really spent too much time there -until last night.  Oh my!  This site is so addictive!!

What is Pinterest?  It's a site that makes it easy for you to collect, save, and share all your interests from across the web.  You organize all your beautiful finds from across the internet on 'pinboards' - kinda like virtual bulletin boards that you pin photos and recipes and ideas to.  You can have as many pinboards as you want and pin as many things to them as you want.  People use Pinterest to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, organize their favorite recipes, collect craft ideas, and so much more.  You can save gift lists, wish lists, inspirational words, fashion ideas, menu ideas, whatever you want.

The addictive part is when you start looking at other people's pins.  Browse pins and pinboards created by other people, discover new things, get inspiration, re-pin the ones you like, and it goes on and on and on.  It's really hard to stop!  You can follow your friends to see what they pin as well as finding new friends who share your interests.

I'm loving it.  I'm collecting recipes I want to try, handy household tips, craft ideas that I might actually try one of these days or at least have one of my friends make for me, household decoration ideas, and all kinds of other things. Check out my boards.  It's one of the easiest ways ever to save everything that catches my eye and all the stuff I want to try or look at more closely later.  I added the button to my toolbar so I can quickly pin from anywhere.  What's great about it is that it's very visual - you end up with a whole board/page of pictures - NOT just a list of words and links - and it's easy to see what caught your eye in the first place.

Pinterest is free to join, but you will have to request an invite first.  Trust me, you want to!

Related articles

• The Rise Of Pinterest And The Shift From Search To Discovery (techcrunch.com)
• Have you heard about Pinterest? (onecoolsitebloggingtips.com)
• Pinterest: An Online Pinboard (go2web20.net)
• Do YOU Pinterest?! (ambercapone.wordpress.com)

Please Support The Edwin Booth Company Presents...

My son is in a play, and they are trying to raise funds to hopefully take the play to the American College Theatre Festival in January or to support any students from their department at that festival. Please consider donating. Even the smallest donation will help to extend the educational and artistic horizons of UW-Whitewater students.  If you can't donate, please spread the word to all your theatre and arts-loving friends.  Thanks!

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More information:

“The Edwin Booth Company Presents…” provides a unique opportunity for the students in University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Theatre/Dance Department like nothing that this department has done before during the academic season. It is an original script and the students will be presenting the world premiere performance opening on November 29, 2011. The next step in this educational experience is to take our show on the road and share this accomplishment with the theatre community. This is where you can help!

All donations go to the UW-Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department to start a fund that will help students to extend their education to a national level. This fund will allow students to take their art and their talent on the road to share with the theatre community outside of Whitewater.

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This is your opportunity to support a lot of talented young people.  Anyone who donates at least $20 can receive an autographed program from the world premier of this play.  This could be a real collector's item because someday this play will be really big, and these kids will be famous!  You can thank me later.

Or, just donate a dollar or two or five - every little bit helps, and it all adds up.  If we could get enough people to just donate a dollar, they could reach their goal and more.  Think about it.

Free Music Honoring our Veterans

Amazon is offering a free MP3 album now through Veterans Day.  It includes 12 tracks performed by musical ensembles from all branches of our military. 

1. To The Colors - US Navy Band     
2. Star Spangled Banner (The National Anthem) - US Coast Guard Band     
3. Man Behind the Gun - US Marine Band 
4. American Pageant (America, Yankee Doodle, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Dixie, America the Beautiful, Columbia the Gem of the Ocean) - US Air Force Band of Flight
5. Garry Owen - US Army Strings 
6. When Johnny Comes Marching Home - US Air Force Airmen Of Note     
7. Here's to America - US Army Band
8. Eternal Father, Strong to Save (The U.S. Navy Hymn) - US Navy and Sea Chanters Chorus
9. Lord, Guard and Guide (The U.S. Air Force Hymn) - US Air Force Band & Singing Sergeants
10. Holding the Flag for America - US Air Force Band, Steve Ward     
11. Retreat - US Marine Band
12. Taps (with Orchestration) - US Marine Band

Get Veterans Day Honor at Amazon now. It's free at least through Veterans Day, which is Friday November 11.