Winning at life

I'm baaaaaack...

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 01:01:11 -0500

Okay. 2012 was not the year for me to be winning at life and doing my 365 day sweepstakes experiment.

2013 is. I’m starting from scratch. I haven’t entered since January of last year. BUT I start today. The winnings should start coming in within a month.

Stay tuned. I’m excited to be back at this weird hobby…

Love,

Robyn

Apartment Therapy win ...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:24:12 -0400

On March 6th at 4:02 AM I received this email: “Congratulations you’re an Apartment Therapy contest winner!”

I don’t know what Apartment Therapy is but it makes me think of my amazing apartment. Have I mentioned on this blog before how much I LOVE my apartment? Well, get ready because I’ll say it a lot. It’s the cutest and it brings me peace in the middle of a crazy year in a crazy city.

But, I digress!

What is Canvas Pop? Here’s the original entry page:

Basically I send them a photo and they turn it into an 8 x 10 canvas print. I love these kinds of wins because it’s something I would never buy but will look super cute in my AMAZING apartment! Yep. I love it that much. I do dances about how much I love my apartment. Not joking. So, next time you see me if you want me to look like a fool, mention my apartment and I will dance.

So the odds on this one were also pretty good. 1000 people won what I won. Which is great.

Value = $25.

I’ve been getting a lot of these random wins of small things with good odds lately because I’m still just now getting to the point where I have time to enter consistently. By April bigger prizes will be rolling in. But for now, the small ones are still fun.

Now I just have to choose my pictures for my apartment. Hmm …

The teeniest of wins must be reported.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:47:43 -0400

So I have a small win. Like really small. I don’t even want to bore you with it but for statistical purposes I have to report it. ALL WINS MUST BE DOCUMENTED!

Got this email today with the subject line, “Robyn Norris is a Sunsweet PlumSweets Winner”. I just like the way that sounds. It should be a song. Or an actor’s vocal/enunciation warmup. Finally, I have something to replace, “A Big Black Bug Bit a Big Black Bear and the Big Black Bear Bled Black Blood.” Am I right theatre nerds? RIGHT?!

Yeah … okay.

Here’s the email:

This is a small win but it’s cute and it makes me smile.

I had already received the postcards a few days ago.

This was a sweeps that I entered on Facebook. It’s no longer listed so I’m not sure what my odds were but I’m guessing there were a lot of winners. I also vaguely recall that since it says “Sweets for your Sweet” that I’m supposed to give this to someone I’m dating. Well … sorry PlumSweets. I’m single. But I’ll see what I can do. I’m sure me giving someone a bag of plums will TOTALLY make them want to be my boyfriend.

But I thank you for the win. :)

Total Value = $5.50

Tiny win. Fun win. I’ll add it to the tally that I will start in my next post. Oh, yes. A tally is coming.

Thanks for reading!

Robyn

Google Chrome

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:28:31 -0400

I enter so many sweeps that it is frustrating if my internet is slow. Because then I’m wasting time waiting for webpages to load.

This has been happening so much lately that it was taking away from my love of sweeps. So I spent a few hours the other day trying to figure out if I could use Roboform (my automatic form filler) on another browser.

It’s trickier since I have a Mac. But I’m pretty good at researching tech stuff and finding the answers on my own.

So I tried it on Firefox. No go. super frustrating and I didn’t like the browser.

Then I saw that RoboForm Lite was available for Google Chrome. I figured I’d try it. Wasn’t too optimistic since it had the word Lite in the title. But once I got on Chrome there was no going back. I can’t even explain how much faster it is than Safari. And it’s worth the trade off using the Roboform Lite version which isn’t that much different.

I’m SO happy. Is it sad that fast internet can make me so happy? I don’t care.

GOOGLE CHROME!

See you guys tomorrow. :)

Robyn

An Instant Win

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:20:09 -0500

An instant win sweeps is exactly what it sounds like. You find out if you won instantly.

There are several small prizes given away in instant win sweeps which makes it more fun because you could win something right then and there. Your odds are pretty good because the advertisers want you to come back daily.

Instant win sweeps are often in the form of a game. “Spin the wheel” or “Use this key to unlock a prize” … stuff like that.

Because I enter so many sweeps I often don’t have time to play these games if they’re complicated. If that’s the case there is usually an option that says, “If you can’t see the game, click here”. So I click that to find out if I won and save myself the time.

But if it’s a fast game I’ll play it. Yesterday I decided to play a Culver’s Instant win game on Facebook. Basically you get a fishing pole and fish for … Fish. It’s Culver’s.

So you got three chances and on the second chance I caught a fish! And I saw this:

Hooray! What did I win?

Sweet! So I’m not a big coupon person. I always forget to use them. But I like the idea of them. And this is totally free, so that’s cool.

Also, I’m pretty sure there’s not a Culver’s in LA. So if anyone far away wants this, let me know and I’ll drop it in the mail real quick.

It’s still fun to win. :)

What were my odds?

Yeah. Lots of winners for these.

Total Win = $4.89

Hey, I’m a starving actor. I’ll take it.

Have a great Saturday! :)

Robyn

Biggest win this year ... a Glow Session?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:38:45 -0500

I won something today. It’s intangible. Sort of. But I think it will be pretty cool. And, technically speaking, it’s my biggest win this year, dollar wise.

Here’s the email I received at 5:25 AM this morning:

I clicked on the link and here’s what I found:

Umm … this is amazing. I won a GLOW SESSION. What is that?! Oh, this is what it is …

WHAT?! $397. Well, I would certainly never spend that much money on making myself feel better … aside from therapy, but that’s built up over time.

Okay. So it would be SUPER easy for me to make fun of this. And, trust me, I want to. Except that I kind of love self help stuff. AND this is exactly what I’ve been trying to work on for myself the past two years as I tend to lose myself and give everything to other people and not take care of myself.

And given how this year has started off (rough) I think I may actually get something out of this. And if not, then I’ll at least have a funny story. Which is another reason why I love entering sweeps. This is not something I would ever seek out but I love it when things find me.

Aisa already called me and left me a very nice (and soothing) message this morning. So I’ve emailed her some dates and times for my GLOW SESSION!!

Oh, yes. This is awesome. Biggest win yet.

Value = $397

Only 28 people entered, so my odds were amazing.

Yeah, let’s do this. It’s Glow Time!

Have a great weekend, everyone. :)

Laptop Mag Win ...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:34:16 -0500

On January 31st I received this email.

I was pretty excited about this because when I Googled the giveaway I found this:

Lots of possible prizes and I wasn’t sure which one I was getting. I knew I wasn’t getting one of the grand prizes but was hopeful for one of the higher end weekly prizes.

The package arrived last week. I opened with anticipation only to find I had won one of the smallest prizes. The Customized 1GB USB (ARV: $5.98).

Oh well. It’s still a win even if it’s tiny.

As you can see the odds for winning any prize were pretty high on this one. And I like that I got it as a second chance win since several people got second chance wins for the stuff I didn’t claim in January.

Tiny wins are still wins. Hooray for small things! :)

Back on track

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:54:19 -0500

So I had really wanted this to be a year long experiment. And the year got off to such a rocky start that this blog didn’t go as planned.

But starting March 1st I’ve been back on track.

I want to be mathematical about it and all … like how much can I really win each month when I enter daily and consistently? With tallies at the end of the month tracking my results. Like real nerdy. That’s what I want. And I’m finally being consistent about it.

So the posts from January and February were fun but I’m considering March the start of the year of the experiment. Because, to be honest, there was so much going on, I couldn’t enter sweepstakes regularly.

I’ve had a couple of small wins but more to come! Thanks for your patience with this.

See you tomorrow! :)

I won at Settlers of Catan. Only my second time playing. I know...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:47:04 -0500

I won at Settlers of Catan. Only my second time playing. I know it’s not a sweeps or contest. But still. I’m a winner.

I was green. Check out that longest road and all the cities. Woot.

And ... I'm back!

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:11:16 -0500

Okay. I was told last night that I’d been slacking on this blog. It’s true. But I’m back!

2012 has been a year of losses and it just won’t let up. Last week was a tough one with the breakup of my improv team, Hot Toddy, that I love so much as well as another lesson for me about letting go of the negative forces that keep popping up and focusing on the people and things that are just good. (And there are a lot of them when you open your eyes). So I’m trying to do just that. Despite several hardships I’ve always been able to bounce back and be positive but I have to be very honest and say it’s been tough to do this year.

It’s funny that everything is happening during the year I decided to write a blog about winning at life. Because I certainly don’t feel like I am right now. But I will continue to press on. Like Destiny’s Child, “I”m a Survivor!” And I’m also a winner. Deal with it world. And stop throwing S#*t at me please. Pretty please?

Also, it’s not all bad. There are some exciting prospects on the horizon that you’ll find out about as soon as I’m allowed to discuss. But cross your fingers for me and forgive my vagueness!

March 1st seemed to be a good day to dive back in and enter sweeps so I’m back in! And I’ve already gotten encouragement from a small win today.

This morning I received this email:

What? I don’t even know what a Meisel Tuner is and I don’t remember entering this one. But here’s what I found through Google.

I don’t know what the odds were or how many people entered. But I think there were five winners.

I don’t play an instrument … I really wish I did. So this will either go to a friend or be up on eBay. Or I’ll take up the Ukulele.

Once I’ve caught up on my finances I won’t be selling anything on eBay. So if you’re friends with me I’ll be putting shoutouts here for things like this and the first person to respond gets it. Or they’ll be given away on a web series that I’m working on for later this year. That’s my dream. It’s a ways off, but it’s coming!

Retail value = $24.95

I love random wins. And despite tough goings, I love my life.

Have a great weekend, friends. I’ll write more tomorrow. :)

xoxoxo

Robyn

Another win from from the same blog!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:40:34 -0500

A lot of times on the blog sweeps you get better odds when you enter more than one giveaway on the site. For each giveaway you enter you get an additional entry. So if you enter all of the giveaways on one blog and that blog has twenty giveaways, that’s twenty extra entries for each sweep. It really does add up.

So last month I took the time to enter every sweepstakes on Jenniffer Powell’s blog “Born 2 Impress”.

If you recall on my birthday I won the Pong iPad 2 case. And then on January 30th, just four days later I received this email:

Another win from the same blog! Pretty sweet. So what did i win?

I won a laptop sleeve! There were lots to choose from but I went with this one because it’s funny. For real. Sometimes I make my choices based on that. I mean can you imagine me carrying around my laptop in this?

Yep. Posh Leopard.

Retail Value = $42.05

What were my odds?

Pretty good month so far. And remember, I only spent nine days entering in January. These are wins that are just coming in from that. It will be a lot more when I’m back up and entering every single day again.

Thanks for reading. Be kind to one another. (I’m stealing that from Ellen DeGeneres. Because I love her and my goal is to bring happiness and love to people every day. I’m trying to, at least!)

Much love,

Robyn

Why I'm getting a Los Angeles phone number ...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:05:35 -0500

So living in LA is like nowhere I’ve ever lived before. The days hardly ever go as planned. You wake up and get a phone call for an audition that sends you across town for four hours (which is great! I love those surprises). Or you have plans with people and they are cancelled last minute (which is not so great, but part of the deal out here). Happens all the time. I’ve learned never to expect anything or count on anything out here. And take the fun surprises as they come.

Today was one of those days I thought was going to be very productive. I had a really fun audition at 12:45 and then came home to grab lunch and saw the FedEx tag on the front door. Ugh. It was their third delivery attempt and whoever was shipping the package put a restriction on it that wouldn’t allow FedEx to hold it at the facility. So I was afraid it was going to be shipped back.

Third delivery attempt. And the third time I had actually been home when they attempted. (The tag said 10:49 AM). The problem is my building is old. And in order for the buzzer to work you have to have a 323 phone number. I still have my Chicago cell number and I am stubborn about changing it. I don’t want to confuse people or lose contacts.

So I called Fed Ex. They told me if I drove to Sun Valley before 7PM I could pick up the package. I got in the car, leaving half of my lunch uneaten behind, and drove to Sun Valley. They told me the driver wouldn’t be back UNTIL 7PM.

But the lady was nice and called the driver. He asked me to meet him at a FedEx location in Hollywood at 6PM. So I drove back home and then headed back to THAT Fed Ex location. At this point, I know my day is a wash. I’m not going to get anything done. And those days really do stress me out a bit. I’m happiest when I’m busy. But busy doing things I love and being productive. NOT driving around looking for a FedEx package. But it is what it is. And who knows what’s in that box, right?!

Well, I got the box and it turned out to be a bunch of jewel cases for a DVD project I’m working on to send to some friends in Chicago. Definitely something I needed and wanted. But I was hoping after that ordeal that it would be some fun surprise.

All I know is I don’t want to waste another day if I have any control over it. So I called Time Warner and they are coming Friday to install a landline. It’s only a few extra bucks a month. And it will be nice not to have to go downstairs every time I have people over, anyways. Plus, I’m doubling my internet speed for hardly any price increase and that lets me enter more sweeps!

In December I won a bike but the FedEx guy delivered it to my neighbor’s apartment and that made me feel bad. I don’t want to inconvenience anyone, ever. So this is good.

I’m grateful that even though today was annoying, it pushed me to get that done. Because this is the 365 Sweepstakes Experiment! I need to make it easy on the UPS, USPS, and FedEx. Because they’re going to be here often!! Me and the delivery guys and gals are going to be best friends by the end of all of this.

I’m still keeping my Chicago number for everything. This LA number is just for my buzzer.

I have no idea if these technical information type posts are interesting at all, but if they aren’t, just skip them and look for the posts with pictures and winnings!

Thanks for reading! :)

Much love,

Robyn

A snapshot of a bunch of small past winnings. :)

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:12:33 -0500

A snapshot of a bunch of small past winnings. :)

Restoration.

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:48:30 -0500

I forgot to mention a small win I had from January 17th.

Sweet! I really wasn’t sure what this was but I looked it up and it is a book. Here’s a pic.

Looks pretty. I love to read but I have very limited time so I often have about six books at once I’m going through on my iPad. It’s nice to have a hard copy sometimes. And books are fairly easy to win because companies want to distribute copies before they are released for people to review or to spread word of mouth.

The description on Amazon.com says this is “A searing novel of love and war, betrayal and redemption.” ooooooo …. tantalizing. I’m guessing I won’t get around to reading this for quite some time. But who knows? Maybe I could use a bit of escape.

Retail value = $14.99

Have a happy and safe weekend. And be kind to your friends (and strangers, too). You never know what they are going through.

Much love,

Robyn

Another birthday win!

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:58:20 -0500

I forgot that I won two sweeps on my birthday. And this one is better than Better Homes and Gardens. Yeah, I said it.

Thank YOU, Jennifer Powell from the Born 2 Impress blog! You made my night. I got online and discovered that this is a pretty good win.

What exactly is this? Here’s the official explanation:

Pong® Research Corporation (“Pong”) is an environmental health, safety, and wellness company that provides science-based solutions that protect users of cellular telephones from unnecessary exposure to electromagnetic radiation (“EMR”). EMR is a powerful form of microwave energy that phone antennae emit when they send data to, and receive it from, cell towers. Pong has created the world’s only device proven to dramatically reduce EMR exposure while protecting phone performance.

Sounds pretty great to me. I chose the iPad 2 case (even though I have the original iPad with a case). I figure I’ll be upgrading soon and if I don’t use the case I can sell it or give it to a friend.

Here is a pic:

Retail value = $99.99! Biggest win so far this year.

What were my odds?

Pretty sweet! I already got the case in the mail.

PONG!

Birthday wins ...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:14:27 -0500

On January 26th (my birthday!) I had a small win.

Now I don’t cook and I’m no Martha Stewart but maybe this will start me on some new hobbies. (doubtful … by maybe?) If any of my friends like this sort of thing let me know and I’ll give you the issues as they come. If not, I’ll try something new. :)

There were 20,000 winners. So it’s no miracle that I won. The sweeps that give away lots of smaller prizes, as opposed to (or in addition to) one big grand prize, have much better odds.

Value = $5.99

But the real win was the present I got in the mail on my birthday. I should preface that I have pretty bad luck on my birthday. Not something to feel sorry for me about. Just a series of unfortunate events that have surrounded that day and the month of January, in general. So I was trying to lay low this year. And the day did not get off to the best start. I had lunch plans that fell through and the day got turned upside down due to a last minute audition (which I am grateful for, but it took up the whole day).

But there were two great things about my birthday (in addition to all the nice Facebook messages and posts from friends). The first was that I got to have dinner with my good college friends Scott and Kate who always make me feel loved and cared for. They even decorated!

The second was that I got my book “Love by the Numbers” in the mail that day! This is the book I blogged about when I wrote about my friend Mike. I just love that it came on January 26th. It felt like Mike was with me on my birthday.

Here’s a pic of the book. It’s Super cheesy looking! But hey, maybe I actually will find love this year. Who knows? And if not, I’m just happy it came on my birthday.

I thought my birthday was going to be especially hard this year. But it’s the little things that make life bright. :)

More tomorrow!

Robyn

A Win from a Win!

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:19:04 -0500

On January 13th I won a contest because of a sweepstakes I entered two years ago.

This is definitely one of the coolest wins so far. But first I should explain the difference between a Sweepstakes and a Contest.

Sweepstakes are games of chance. Anyone can enter just by filling out their contact information. But contests are games of skill. Meaning you actually have to submit something (a photograph, recipe, video, et cetera) that will be judged on certain criteria in order to win. Your odds of winning a contest, if you are good at the skill, are considerably higher than entering a sweeps because fewer people take the time to enter contests.

So let me go back to 2010. In 2010 I won a sweeps for a custom t-shirt quilt from Campus Quilts.

What is this? It was a $150 value for a quilt. Basically a company sends you a package to create your quilt from your old T-shirts. They give you color swatches and you design your own quilt. Not something I ever knew existed or that I would want, but, hey, I’ll take it.

Then I figured out what to use it for. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love Ben Folds. I’ve been going to his concerts for years. I always buy a T-shirt that I never wear because they don’t fit. So I took all of my old T-shirts out of my drawer and designed this:

Okay. Cool. Then in January I stumbled upon this:

The rules:

So I took a pictures of my quilt and submitted. Took all of 3 minutes.

And I won!

Here’s what I won!

A signed copy of The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective Collector’s Edition. Retail value = $19.99 without the signature. But let’s be real. I’m not selling this.

And a Limited Edition 12 x 12 Lithograph. Not sure what this is worth.

This is one of my favorite wins. I love that I won a contest from a sweepstakes win.

Thanks for reading and Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.

More tomorrow. xoxoxo

Robyn

A win or a scam?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:59:53 -0500

I’m going to post my second non-win. Meaning the second thing I missed out on because I didn’t respond in time. But this is the last one! After this it’s all wins that I actually will get. And there are several. :)

This is from January 19th.

First of all, they called me Alice. I’m not quite sure what that’s about. But I thought maybe there were multiple winners. I actually never found the winning email that I hadn’t replied to so it’s possible that this was all a mistake. I wrote to them but never heard anything back.

When I did my search to find the original sweeps I found a posting on the sweeps forum that said this:

So I’m guessing at this point that this was some sort of advertising scam. It happens sometimes. I think if it was legit they would have responded to the email I sent them.

But then I found this:

$200?! I guess I’ll never know. Oh well. I already have a toaster oven. It’s old but it works.

I’m not counting this as a win because it seems too fishy that they sent the same email to someone else and called her Alice.

Tomorrow I shall post an actual win! Hooray! :)

Hope your week is off to a great start.

Robyn

This Weekend

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:19:41 -0500

I won’t be posting about sweeps this weekend as I’ll be honoring my friend Mike at his Chicago memorial.

I’ll be back Monday.

Have a happy and safe weekend.

I love you, Mike.

Robyn

Second Win! Sort of ...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:54:41 -0500

On January 11th I received an email detailing my second win of the year.

So what do I do when I get an email like this? First of all, you need to respond right away. Most wins require that you respond within 48 hours or your prize is forfeited. They need you to write back and send your mailing address so they can get that information to the sponsor of the giveaway.

So normally I hit reply and send a quick thank you. I already have my name, address, phone number, et cetera in my email signature so that saves me some time. ‘Cause, I mean I plan on getting at least one of these winning emails a day this year, right? :) Yeah, you know it!

Once that is done I go online and see what I’ve won. I enter too many sweeps to keep track so I always just do a google search or click on whatever link they provided. Here’s what I found:

I cut out all of the review and text about the product, but you get the idea. So I won the Body Wash ($18), the Body Lotion ($20), and the Body Oil ($20). I’m assuming I won the smaller sizes as opposed to the larger, but sometimes you’re pleasantly surprised. So I won a skincare line valued at $58. Pretty fun for an actor girl who can’t afford nice things. :)

So how many people entered?

939! And I was the winner. Lucky me!

Except …

Melissa P?!?!? “Who the *#* is Melissa P?!?!? I thought you won, Robyn. Why are you lying to us?”

Well, I did. But remember that 48 hour reply thing I mentioned up top? I didn’t get back to them on time. This win came in earlier this month when I was in Chicago visiting my friend Mike. (See previous blog). Obviously it was not important for me to check email during that time so I have a few wins I didn’t claim in time. I don’t care at all that I don’t get the actual prize. Not even for a second. But I did technically win so I’m going to count it for the purposes of this 365 day experiment.

And now you have an idea of how it works when I win things. Sweet.

You’ll see actual wins that I did received coming up in future posts. And a couple I missed out on. But, again, I don’t care. I hope Melissa P enjoys her new skincare products! Freaking Melissa P. (just jokes, ya’ll!)

Thanks for reading. I like you guys.

xoxoxo

Robyn