I Won Big on Swagbucks.com. So can You!

So this is a perfect opportunity to tell everybody about an awesome site called swagbucks.com. This site is a search engine where you randomly win online money called "swag-bucks". Just to be clear, the search results are derived from google and ask.com, so it finds what you're looking for and on top of that you can constantly win. All you have to do is sign up. When you collect enough "swagbucks" you can go to their online store and redeem them for anything you want. And they have everything ranging from music, trading cards, comics, electronics, etc... They also have online sweepstakes for which you can "buy" entries and most of them are only 1 swag dollar.

Which brings me to my point. I entered a recent sweepstakes on swagbucks.com where the prize was two tickets to a Yanni concert plus two backstage passes. And guess what? I WON!!!! I couldn't believe it that I won something so awesome. My girlfriend and I attended the concert at the Nokia theater on tuesday jun 23.WOW. First off my seats were amazing they were center orchestra seats. I saw everything that happened on stage without the need for binoculars. The show was amazing without a doubt. I am a HUGE Yanni fan and it was so great to watch him live along with the new singers. The orchestra played quite a few

of his original pieces without singers and that was such a treat. The audience was %80 Armenian so there was a lot of cheering for Yanni's violinist, Samvel Yervinyan. After the show, it was time to go backstage. And little did we know that our passes were the highest lev

el of VIP.

WE and four other people were escorted by Yanni's Public Relations person to the Upper level of the Wachovia VIP lounge. And what made it better? We got to meet the singers before everyone else. All of the other backstage pass holders were downstairs and they had to wait. Plus there were 60 of them. The six of us upstairs waited and finally all of the singers came up and we met them. It was surreal. I, of course, acted completely dork-like and couldn't stop smiling, but hey who cares. For once, I was VIP. We only

got about ten minutes or so to talk and take pictures, because the PR people kept moving them along to meet time deadlines. Anyways here are my thoughts on each singer.

I'm the guy with curly hair, just incase you thought I wasn't

In order from left to right:

Chloe: What a voice on this girl. She can sing,dance and dominate the stage. Not only that, but she is very beautiful in person. More than you see in pictures. She seemed to be very relaxed when meeting everyone and doesn't mind talking to a fan.

Nathan Pacheco: Can you say one in a million. Yea! because that's who this is. Nathan has a phenomenal voice that will give you chills. I guarantee it. The best part is, he is a great person to match. He was so genuine and kind it's ridiculous. Both my girlfriend and I couldn't stop talking about just how great he was. I wish I could better describe it, but just trust me on this one.

Leslie Mills: Leslie is the delicate flower of the bunch. Her voice has a subtle sensuality that makes you want to keep listening to her. She was a little nervous when talking to us, but hey who wouldn't be. meeting random strangers who smile at you can make one nervous. She was great. She mentioned her favorite part of the tour was working with talented musicians.

Ender Thomas: The Latin firecracker. This guy can grab and hold the audience' attention. He is a showstopper. When he performs, you can't look away. Plus he has the cool accent. Very friendly person and is having fun on the tour. He loves performing and it really shows.

Overall. Amazing experience. Unforgettable. If any of the Yanni performers happen to read this, bravo! and feel free to contact me. ( I know it's a long-shot, but why not). Thanks to SwagBucks for the prize. And make sure to sign up for swagbucks.com. It's free and you can win stuff so why not. please use the link from this blog as it helps me out. Let me know if you win anything!

This has been your daily find from the search whiz! Have a very Yanni day and sign up for the blog while you're at it.

Search Engine Alternatives

Recently you may have seen commercials for Microsoft's version of a search engine called Bing.com. This supposedly is different and not just a search engine, but please check it out and search something and you will realize it IS just a search engine. I will admit maybe it has a cleaner look and nicely organized, but its just like google in every other sense. You can put a dress on a horse, but it's still a horse in the end, right?   

So being a devoted searcher myself, I have come across two very different methods of searching that very few people know about. These two search sites I am posting are completely different and will change the way you search. Trust me on this one. The first is EYEPLORER and works like the brain does. Whatever you search for brings up a bunch of branches related to the topic and leads you down different pathways. These groups of paths are divided into a colorful pie-chart with slices in categories such as : people, society, science, work, organization, etc.   From this chart of options you can continually drag your findings under your original search to deepen your search. You have to try it out to understand cause it gets quite intricate. 

Moving on

The second search method is something completely different and never before seen. In fact it was only released a month ago. Presenting WOLFRAM ALPHA (computational knowledge engine). This is like having an instant encyclopedia with a mind of its own. I know the name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but hey it works. You can type in practically anything from any category and it finds information about it from every angle possible. In a sense it creates an automatic "wikipedia" page for your search. Examples include: people, city, stock, dates, size, etc...  to take things to the next level it makes it possible for you to enter in mathematical and chemical formulas.  Being a biology major myself, I can't tell you how helpful this can be. I have a feeling this site is going to be HUGE once it catches on. I would bet money on it. 

So there you go. You are no longer confined to Google and Yahoo and there are plenty more out there. Check them out and let me know your opinions.

This has been your random daily find from the Search Whiz. Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe!