One year…

Edit: For today’s post, please, scroll down, as this post is set up as a “sticky” post until the end of the month.

Update: Secondary prizes listed! Please click here to “jump” into that section.

Update: Thread has been closed. “Winners” will be selected soon!

Update: Winners have been selected. Check here!

I almost can’t believe it myself but… This blog celebrates its one year anniversary by the end of this month! Well, that is both true and false. Technically, I started food blogging by mid September; but, the domain imonlyhereforthefood.com went live at the end of October so, I think it is safe to around this date would be a nice “compromise”. But that is a good thing, as we are celebrating Thanksgiving in Canada! Since this blog exists thanks for readers, commenters and fellow bloggers, I thought it was a good idea to “celebrate” with all of you…

Before I continue, I will also like to announce some changes you will see in the coming weeks/months, the major one being the frequency by which I write posts. So far, I try my best to post five times a week plus a random post on the Sundays (and, depending on circumstances, even Saturday). While that is all good, this means I tend to eat out a lot. However, in the last year, I have gained ~4.5Kg (~10 pounds) which is not necessarily good for my health. I won’t blame eating out for it, still, I think it has an impact. After all, I tend to finish what I am served and given the ridiculous serving portions in some places… But enough of this!

I was thinking for ways to “share” the joy and the best idea I could think of was to do a draw. And the prizes I have thought of so far are three CDN $50 gift certificates of a shop of your choice (not necessarily a restaurant, it can be, say, Indigo/Chapters/Amazon/B&N), plus some to-be-determined random prizes. Notice that I did not specify where are these gift certificates are from, after all, some of you might not be in Vancouver, BC, or Canada! And how you enter the draw? Well, since this blog is far from perfect, I thought it would be a good idea to ask for feedback. So, tell me what I should do to improve this blog, what restaurants I should visit, things I should do differently or any feedback in general. Once your comment is visible/up, you are in! (This is important, specially if this is your first time commenting, as it will require my approval first). And, if you are a fellow blogger, I will set up a different prize pool just for you, after all, it is thanks to you linking back that has helped me establish myself. So, if you are a food blogger, just link back to this post (if the pingback link is not generated in 24 hours, please drop me an email to take you into consideration for the draw).

Now, some considerations:

1) Please, do NOT tell me to set up a Twitter account. There are personal reasons I would rather not…
2) While I will really appreciate if you come back with additional comments/feedback, I would also like to keep things fair for everybody. So, one “ballot” per person. (The exception being food bloggers as, again, there is there is a separate draw).
3) This post will be open for comments until October 30th, 2009. Sometime on the 31st, I will take all the names entered, sort it in alphabetical order and submit it to random.org. Once a name has been selected, it will be removed and the process will be repeated enough winners have been selected. Winners will be announced on November 1st, 2009.
4) The “prizes” are all out of my pocket. There are no sponsors.
5) CYA statement: I am doing this on good faith. Given the nature of Internet and because I know there are a lot of people out there not in BC, it is close to impossible to register this legally in any of the local gaming corporations. Translation: you will have to trust me I will deliver on this one.

Other than that, thanks for your support on the last year!

October 25th, 2009 update!

As mentioned above, here are the two additional random prizes!

• One bottle of Deutsches Weintor Gewürztraminer (2007).
• One bottle of Thornhaven Gewürztraminer (2008).

In the first case, it was a bottle given to me by a friend on her trip to Germany so I have absolutely no idea of how it tastes. In the second case, Thornhaven is a winery in the Okanagan Valley, here in BC, and really love the scenery and their wine! To quote a friend “that Gewürztraminer went down really smooth!” Now, why Gewürztraminer? I think that this grape along with Riesling are among the most undervalued wines. And this is coming from somebody who seldom drinks!

Now, there are some limitations for these prizes: (1) Since they are alcohol, the recipient MUST be 19 years or older. (2) Canada Post will not ship this – as a result, only people here in Metro Vancouver can receive these. If he/she does not meet these two criterias, well, I haven’t thought that far but will promise to make up for it!

Finally, so far only Chris of Eating is the Hard Part has set up a pingback (technically not a pingback but I am aware the link exists back to this post). So, had it been drawn today, he would have “won” the blogger’s prize by default!

Tagged under: Random