Juan of Words

¡Tan, Tan! & the Winners Are…

Drum roll please!  First and foremost let me say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the first ever Juan of Words Online Halloween Costume Contest!!  I could have never imagined how big of a success you all were going to make it.  In all, 80 entries were received from everywhere in the United States… and even Mexico, ¡Guau!  And the number of people y’all rallied to vote, also amazing!  So yes, I am truly grateful to each and everyone of you who participated in this contest, in any way.  I’d also like to give a giant shout out and and ¡AJUUA! to my definite better half, Anjelica (my wife)… who always has the most creative concepts to share with me, and of course to Ford en Español who made this contest possible with their sponsorship.

Y’all know I’m one broke-a&$ Meskan, LOL!

So sin más borlote… here are the results, and more importantly, I know this is what everyone wants to see, the winners of the Juan of Words Online Halloween Costume Contest:

First Place – Shirley with the Evil Cat Entry

Evil Cat

Second Place – Joseph with the Zombified Entry

Zombified

Third Place – Brooke with the Punk Fairy Entry

Punk Fairy

Congratulations again ladies and gent!!  I hope you all had as much fun with this contest as I did.  As I had specified on the contest outline, the winners walk away with 1st Place – $300, 2nd Place – $125, 3rd Place – $75 Gift Cards!  Enjoy!!

For everyone else, your entries were so amazingly creative and fun that I couldn’t help myself.  I wanted to do something special for all of you, and have created the below Spooktacular video with all of your entries.  Hope you guys enjoy it!!

Thank you once again, and stay tuned for more fun hopefully in the near future.

Ghosts, Goblins, and an Online Costume Contest for Halloween – Submit your pictures!

Here are some of our favorite Halloween costumes to date

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday!! For one, you get to dress up in whatever kind of costume or alter ego you want to.  Then, you can actually walk or drive to complete strangers’ houses and expect them to give you candy just because you’re wearing a costume… or once you’re closer to my age, because you’re escorting a cute kid around.  At the Bali Hai apartments, when I was a boy, they actually used to drive all of us kids in one van to the more upscale parts of town to collect more and better candy.  It was so much fun and the decorations there bien elaboradas.

Now that we’re adults, it’s just not the same.  Costume parties are fun and all, but the candy in a bag just doesn’t have the same thrilling effect anymore.  That’s why I’m so excited to announce the Juan of Words – Online Halloween Contest! That’s right amigos y amigas, I’m hosting my own online costume contest sponsored by Ford en Español, a member of the Ford Motor Company familia… and the prizes for this photo contest are way better than candy.

I’m talking actual dinero!

So here are the basics.  Anyone can participate.  I mean anyone, so long as you are 18 years of age and can legally claim a prize in the United States.  All you have to do is visit my Juan of Words Facebook Page (LIKE the page if you don’t already), click on the ‘Halloween Contest’ button on the left hand side below my profile image (it has a star next to it), upload your costume picture with a description, and then ask your friends to vote for you!  Or you can click on the link above that says Halloween Contest!

The top three people with the most votes by Halloween Day will win one of three prizes:

First Place: a $300 Gift Card
Second Place: a $125 Gift Card
Third Place: a $75 Gift Card

That’s it!  No other strings attached.

Voting will close at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, October 31, 2011, and winners will be notified shortly thereafter.  Así es que ya saben, GO!  Get creative!  Snap a picture of your best Halloween outfit/costume and get your friends voting.

That extra money would be great for my Christmas shopping if I could actually compete!

¡Buena Suerte a todos!

El Paso, Dallas & Houston: Enter to Win Tickets to the Screenings of “Warrior” and “Contagion”

Warrior

I’ll get straight to the point on this one.  If you’re in El Paso, Dallas or Houston and would like to attend the film screenings of two new movies – which to me look pretty good, by the way – next week on Wednesday or Thursday evenings, keep reading and make sure to follow the instructions on how to enter this particular giveaway from yours truly, in partnership with Checa LA movie.

There is no cost involved to participate, of course, unless you are like me and have to have the biggest bucket of popcorn and a jumbo sized coke to watch a movie agusto in the theater.  In that case, you’re on your own with the snacks.  Sorri for you!

But seriously now, the two movies that are screening in these three Texas cities are ‘Contagion’ and ‘Warrior’, which are set to hit the box office for the masses in a couple of days, but you, desde luego, would be the first ones in your cities to watch them before all of your friends and everyone else (just thought I’d throw that in, in case that is a factor for you).  So here are the dates and times for each city:

EL PASO
Warrior                 Wednesday, September 7, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.
Contagion           Thursday, September 8, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.

DALLAS
Warrior                 Thursday, September 7, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.
*sorry no Contagion screening here

HOUSTON
Contagion           Wednesday, September 7, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.
Warrior                 Thursday, September 8, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.

The goal is to give away the tickets to you in pairs, so if you’re interested in attending, here is what you need to do.  You must enter by Sunday, Sep. 4, 2011, for a chance to win tickets.  I will let you know if you received tickets to the movie by Tuesday, Sep. 6th at the latest.  Sin más borlote, this is what you need to leave in the comments section of this blog post in order to enter the giveaway:

YOUR NAME
YOUR CITY
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS (or a link to your Facebook or Twitter profile so that I can notify you that you have won)
HOW MANY TICKETS YOU WOULD LIKE
WHICH MOVIE, DATE & TIME YOU’RE INTERESTED IN

If you’re not in Texas, and would like a chance to win movie tickets to the screenings of these two films, check out my friend Teresa’s blog at: www.checalamovie.net for more screening dates and times.

Mucha suerte and maybe nos vemos en las movies!

CONTAGION OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER

WARRIOR OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER

We Might Not Have Won, But We Certainly Didn’t Lose. Gracias!

Houston, you made a big difference!

Pues como quien dice, you win some, you lose some… y esta vez, me toco perder, but not entirely.  In a lot of ways we all won.  Not only did we get the opportunity to showcase Houston as one of only eight cities participating in this nationwide competition, but we were able to pull together as a community (both online and offline) to raise awareness about the importance of supporting our schools.  When I was asked to put together a community event to as part of this challenge, I knew immediately that Denver Harbor would be the focus of our efforts.

This often overlooked, very historical, and bien Latino community has managed to steal my heart in the couple of years that I’ve called it home, and it was very rewarding to be able to give something back to precisely my neighborhood.

To everyone that voted for me, asked others to vote for me (maybe even harassed a couple of people, lol), donated items, attended our event, volunteered, or did anything else, no matter how big or small, to support my efforts in the Ford F-150 EcoBoost Challenge, thank you so very much por todo. I am indebted to you.  Anjelica and all of her family were wonderful, and I honestly don’t know how we would have pulled off this event without their support.  A very special thank you for that… it really meant a lot to me.  And then of course, so much gratitude to the Ford Motor Company, my new buddy Jackie, all of the marketing folks in Austin and Dallas, and the great people at the Harris County Department of Education for allowing us to sponsor local school Pugh Head Start, as well as hold our event there.  ¡Muchísimas gracias!

And now, without further ado, here are the pictures from our Ford-Denver Harbor Community Yard Sale & Back to School Benefit:

Tweety and Winnie the Pooh stole the show... for good reason. They were dancing tribal, LOL!

The shoppers were ready to shop, for a good cause, with more reason.

Our Official DJ, Element Entertainment really kept the house rocking. They're great, just FYI!

Y'all know Anjelica! On the right is my sister Irma, and on the left my sis-in-law Rosa.

The arts & crafts section of the event were a huge hit with all the kids... hasta uno que otro grandote!

As were the face paintings by this local artist who was kind enough to volunteer her time and creativity.

Once again, gracias a todos por el apoyo and all of the hard work!!

Let’s Win Some Free Gas!!

Un doble honor it is for me to have been asked to represent the city of Houston and the Great State of Texas, as well as the Latino community – I’m the only Latino blogger in this competition – this month, in the Ford Motor Company’s F-150 EcoBoost Challenge! In a nutshell, Ford will be delivering a brand new F-150 EcoBoost to me and seven others across the United States on Sunday, August 21, 2011, so that we can participate in a nationwide challenge that will measure how each one of us bloggers maximize our miles per gallon on the trucks from the 22nd until the 26th.

The competition

What’s at stake you ask?  FREE Nitrogen Enriched Gasoline, not only for me, but for all of you in the city of Houston at two select Shell locations, on September 2, 2011 (Labor Day Weekend), if we can pull off being the # 1 City in this competition.

I won’t bore you with the details of how exactly Ford will select one of us bloggers as the overall winner, but it does involve a community event which I’ll be putting together over the course of the next week, and, most importantly, your VOTES!!!  Yes, part of the measurement will be your votes.  So please vote for me and vote often (if that’s allowed).  As far as the miles per gallon, I think I’ve got that covered (soy mexicano after all, we’re used to stretching things out to get the most out of them), but if you have tips I’m all ears!

Here's the ride I'll be using for the challenge. Sweet, huh?

Stay tuned and I’ll let you know how else you can help secure that free gas for Houston.  In the meantime, VOTE!!

Our First Official Meet Up

¿Qué les puedo decir? Tonight was everything I expected and much, much, more!  To all of you who made it out for the First Official Juan of Words Meet Up, that’s sounds kind of silly in writing, but it’s late y no puedo pensar en algo más ahorita, so perdon… thank you very much!

We met up at the “Green Lantern” Advance Screening in Houston, and really had a great time hanging out, albeit kind of briefly, before and after the movie.  It was in 3D, something we were all very pleasantly surprised with since we hadn’t been made aware of this until the last minute, and all in all it was a pretty good movie.  I could go on and on, pero mejor aquí están las fotos.

Alyssa, Isidoro, JJ, Jacob y yo

With my buddy & compadre, Paco

Michelle, pues yo otra vez, y Sarah

Rosemary, me, and Paco. Too bad the pic is fuzzy...

Con Rocio.

And of course, with my wife Anjelica