I won the 99X trip to Philadelphia, the tickets to the U2 concert, the U2 iPod and the Complete U2 Collection! I also have a one in twenty chance of going to Dublin, Ireland! I am so excited I cannot even think. I will tell the whole tale later tonight.

Updated, 9:07 PM – All day I had been thinking about the contest…what if I win, what if I don’t, what if I miss the call? I gave the radio station my cell phone number since I was not sure where I would be at 5:00. Then I got paranoid because I had been having problems sometimes not receiving calls, so I went to the SprintPCS store during lunch just to have my phone checked out.

I told a few people at work about the contest and they all wished me good luck. Chris (another lucky in iPod guy) joked about invoking the Prayer of Jabez, while another just had a feeling that I was going to win. For the most part I was able to focus and get my work done. However, around 4:30 I started getting antsy.

Cell phone rings at 4:55. Caller ID says “PRIVATE.”

I answer and say, “Hello, this is Scott?”

DJ says, “Scott Kennedy…you are going to Philadelphia…”, etc.

I said things like “sweet,” “awesome,” “cool,” and “99X rocks!” The word “stoked” was even uttered from my lips (where’d that come from?). I told them that I was taking my wife to Philly and that if I won the trip to Dublin that she would not let me go without her. If that happens, then maybe I might take someone else to Philly.

The station’s promotions office is supposed to call me by tomorrow to work out all the details on my prizes. I hope they call early and tell me that I can pick up the iPod at any time. I have the day off anyway. I would blow off the work I was planning here at the house and drive to Atlanta just for the iPod (that and a stop at Harry’s).

99X in Atlanta is having a huge U2 Vertigo Tour giveaway called I Will Follow U2 — twenty trips in twenty days. Each weekday they take between ten and eleven callers (number ten when a U2 song is played) and enter them in a drawing for a trip for two to see U2 in concert. The venues are all over the U.S. The lucky person also wins an Apple U2 iPod loaded with every song the band has ever recorded. The best part is that one of the twenty who win is going to win a trip to see U2 play in Dublin, Ireland.

I was listening to the station via the web last week when I first saw the contest details on their web site. Then when we were driving through Atlanta last week on our way to Clemson, I just had to listen to 99.7 so that I could try to qualify. Way up here in Chattanooga you can get the station on Lookout Mountain and other ridgetops. Last night we were coming home from Pamela’s brother’s house and I subjected her to static the whole way through the valley.

Tonight I was blogging and listening along to the internet stream. I started surfing at about 9:40PM and by 12:10AM was getting ready to head off to bed. For some reason I decided to do one last blog post. At around 12:30 my chance came. I hesitated for a second and then hit the speed button on my cell phone. It rang twice and the DJ answered. I WAS CALLER TEN!!!! Apparently the delay between the live broadcast and the web stream was the perfect timing.

I am qualified in today’s drawing, to be held at 5:00 PM, for a trip to see U2 in Philadelphia. I do not know what to be more excited about — the tickets, the iPod or the possibility of going to Ireland. Even though I have won stuff off of the radio before, and in this instance I have not actually won anything yet, I am still more excited than any of those previous times. I wish you could have heard the playback of my call. I tried to record it, but in the heat of it all I screwed up the settings on my PC’s recorder software.

Today’s Prickly City comic does a good job at summing up one of the ways that the left in the media and entertainment industry glorify evil. Click here to view the strip.

Carmen: Stop denying me food, Winslow

Winslow: I’m doing it to stop your suffering, Carmen. Besides, suicide and euthanasia are cool now. Hunter Thompson, “Million Dollar Baby.” It’s all the rage.

Carmen: But my parents want to take care of me. They love me and don’t want me starved to death!

Winslow: Well, don’t come whining to me because you’re not a cool dead person!!!

Just look at the coverage of Johnny Cochran, who recently passed from a brain tumor. He is being eulogized for sticking up for the common man, while in fact he made his living by obfuscating the truth.

Today the Good Morning America crew played the “What Kind of Dog Are You?” game at the Gone to the Dogs movie website. The “game is based on a computer called SUKA built in 1975 by Russian scientist Mikhail Volkonsky. SUKA is powered by CATS (Canine Algorithmic Transfer System) which is able to determine what kind of dog you are. Simply answer 10 questions, being as honest and accurate as possible and CATS will calculate which breed you resemble the most.” I am an Owczarek Podhalanski, which is commonly called a Tatra Mountain Sheepdog.

Dog Name
OWCZAREK PODHALANSKI (TATRA MOUNTAIN SHEEPDOG)

Origins
Poland. Originated in Podhale in the Tatra Mountains from the white guardians of the Eastern World. Outstanding mountain worker with the tail used as a handhold while following the dog through rough and steep terrain.

Personality
A solid grafter of a dog but like so many beasts of cold climates, seemingly aloof and humourless. But deep down this breed finds it all very amusing, in a dark and absurd way.

A friend of mine who works in the bicycle industry recently showed me the new Aero West saddle by Selle San Marco. It is definitey not for the faint of heart. You need some serious self confidence to saddle up and ride this seat into town. Not only is the relief cut-out lined with fur, but there is some sort of animal tail hanging off the back (of what species I am not sure).

I will skip the jokes for this product, but will tell you about another one nicknamed The Butt Pirate saddle. It was made by a different Italian company (Selle Italia). On the top of this brightly colored seat was an embroidered likeness of Marco Pantani — the last guy other than Lance Armstrong to win the Tour de France. Pantani’s nickname was Il Pirata (The Pirate) because he always wore a bandana on his bald head and sported a big earring. Sadly, his career bombed, he went into a deep depression and died of a drug overdose. I bet that those saddles are quite the collectors item today.