From the Mind of MandoRon

Drumroll please…

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And the winners of the Ferocious Mary CDs are Jennifer Hudson and Jason Drumright.

Thanks to all of you who tweeted, facebooked, blogged, and commented. Thank to Carmen for donating the CDs and stickers.

(And by the way, I’m still trying to find out where the band got it’s name. I don’t know either…)

I have to say that I’m a little disturbed by number of people that have entered the Ferocious Mary CD Giveaway.

So I’d like to debunk the top excuses for not entering.

• Excuse #1: I don’t even know where they’re from! (Wichita, Kansas)
• Excuse #2: I don’t know what kind of music they play! (I’m not good at labels, but I’d say piano-driven, melodic hard rock. I told you I wasn’t good with labels.)
• Excuse #3: My dog at my laptop. (Go to the public library and use their computers. You can tweet from your phone.)
• Excuse #4: I forgot my email address and can’t leave a comment. (Liar!)
• Excuse #5: I’m not sure that I can spell “Ferocious”. (Just cut and paste from somewhere that I’ve already typed it.)
• Excuse #6: I already have the CD. (Awesome! You can still enter and win one to give as a Father’s Day present. Much better gift than a tie.)
• Excuse #7: I only download music off itunes. (Don’t forget that you can rip the CD into your itunes library.)
• Excuse #8: I don’t like bubble-gum pop. (Neither do I, and this ain’t it.)
• Excuse #9: I don’t twitter. (That’s okay.  There are three other methods to win.)
• Excuse #10: I think mandoron.com is a stupid name for a website. (Don’t hold that against the band…)

No more excuses!!!

So go back to the giveaway and enter.  Now!

I love this commercial!

As I left work today, I updated my Facebook status to read: “I’m feeling especially opinionated today. Feel free to ask me for advice. You may get some unsolicited advice anyway…”  Suprisingly, several people actually asked for advice.

One of them was my Uncle Mark.  He asked for some advice on investing his 401k.  My response was to give it all away - investing in people yields a better return on investment.

A few minutes later, my wife handed me Monday’s Wichita Eagle and asked if I’d read the article about giving.  I had not…

Rant on!

The article summarized some analysis by The McClatchy Company on a recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey.  You can read the source article here.

This graph which I borrowed off their website says it all.

The poorest people in America are the most generous!  Seriously?  I have to say that this really blew me away.

Apparently, the rest of us are a bunch of schmucks.  The poor give twice as much, on average, as middle and upper class people.

Maybe the rest of us need to quit supersizing our #1 Value Meals, our cars, our houses, and our plasma T.V.’s, and focus instead on helping others and giving back to the community.

Start tithing to your church.  Buy food for the single mom working two jobs down the street.  Pledge money to NPR so they’ll end the pledge drive sooner.  Do something.

If you fail to invest in and support something bigger than yourself, you’re going to live a very, very small life…  Quit hoarding it all for yourself.  You can’t take it with you in the end…

Rant off…

Sadly, the giveaway is now over.  You can find out who the winners are here.  If you still want the CD, you can buy/download it from CDbaby.  I’m not sure if it’s up on itunes yet or not…

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It’s finally here! The Ferocious Mary CD giveaway!

I’m giving away a copy of Here.Me.Now by Ferocious Mary and a bonus Ferocious Mary sticker to two lucky people. Carmen Kamps (lead vocals/piano/songwriting) has been kind enough to donate them to the cause.

There are several ways to win, and you get one entry for each of the different methods. You can earn up to four entries! (FYI - I’m borrowing heavily from Jeff Miller on the giveaway format. Thanks!)

Giveaway Rules

1. Twitter - Tweet about the giveaway providing a link to this post and using the hashtag, #ferociousmarygiveaway. (My username is @mandoron…)
2. Blog - Create a post on your blog telling about the giveaway and linking back to this post. Just in case the pingback doesn’t work, come back and add a comment to this post telling me about it.
3. Comment - Add a comment to this post with your best guess on the origin of the band’s name, Ferocious Mary.
4. Facebook - Add a link to your FB profile telling all of your friends about the contest.  Send me a note that you’ve posted the link.  If we’re not already friends, come befriend me on Facebook.

The contest ends at noon (12:00 p.m. Central Standard Time) on Saturday, May 30, 2009. At that time, I’ll use random.org to pick two winners from all the entries. 

Be sure to check back Saturday evening to see if you’ve won.  In the meantime, go check out Ferocious Mary’s MySpace page to see what they’re all about.

Good luck!