Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013!

As an eventful 2012 comes to a close, I just had a few thoughts to share with you. I started this blog a year ago and at that time, I never would have imagined that I would be able to still keep at it until now. Perhaps my love of dramas and travel and the desire to share it with others kept me going. In any case, I've been very lucky to have been able to do a bit of travelling around, watch some great dramas and share this with all of you! On that note, I'd like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2013! Hopefully everyone will get a relaxing break these holidays and we'll see you back in the New Year!

ANA Dreamliner Sweepstakes

ANA is running their 787 Dreamliner sweepstakes from now until Jan 11, 2013 for two coach tickets to Japan on ANA here. You just need to like the ANA facebook page and fill out their application. If you get the two questions right , you'll get two additional entries and you just might get a nice surprise in the near future! I've put in some clues in this post to help =)

Cathay Pacific Winter Holiday Sweepstakes

Cathay Pacific is running a 'Jingle all the way.... to Hong Kong' Sweepstakes until Dec 17, 2012. You can submit an entry here for a chance to win the grand prize which comprises of a pair of Cathay Pacific roundtrip tickets in Premium Economy from SF, LA, NY or Chicago, 4 nights stay at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, get a $1000 shopping spree at saks.com and 100,000 Asia Miles! Second and Third prize get 75k and 60k Asia Miles respectively. As always, good luck to all!

Drama Ratings

Its been a while since I started rating dramas and based on some feedback, my current evaluation system will be reworked to give a better idea of the overall quality of the drama.


Ratings will continue to be given out of 10 based on the drama's overall production quality as follows:
- A score of 10 means exactly that - perfection (or as near perfection as we'll ever expect).
- A score of 5 means a very average drama with no particular strengths or weaknesses of note.
- A score of 0 means everything was abysmal, everything from the directing to the acting, the script to the music.


Further, a short personal note will follow to indicate my enjoyment level of the drama. Hopefully, this will enhance the value of the reviews and I hope that you'll all find this useful. Happy drama watching!

Vampire Prosecutor 2 Review (2012)

Drama Rating: ***
Personal Rating: Loved It!

Story:
Vampire prosecutor Min Tae Yeon continues to lead his team at the Seoul Prosecutor's office to investigate murders in this second season. They have a new boss, a new office and a new coroner but the core team and their mission remains relatively the same. To solve murder cases and bring criminals to justice. At the same time, how far will Tae Yeon get in his mission to find out more about 'bad blood'?

500 AAdvantage Miles for your Thoughts

American Airlines is giving away 500 AAdvantage miles for a brief survey about loyalty programs. All you need to do is:

1) 'Like' AAdvantage and American Airlines on Facebook
2) Complete their short survey.
3) Get your free 500 AAdvantage miles and enter their sweepstakes to win 50,000 AAdvantage miles!

Even if these miles aren't worth much, they're pretty useful for at least keeping some activity going in your AA account!

Cravings Buffet @ The Mirage

Following the excellent buffet at the Bacchanal, we were very disappointed with the buffet at the Mirage. Charging $30 for dinner, we were expecting a fairly decent buffet experience even if we weren't expecting Bacchanal or Wynn quality. The first thing I guess we should've noticed was the unexpectedly short line for the buffet. Previously, at the Bellagio, I had waited one and a half hours to get into that buffet and the Bacchanal had required a total of two and a half hours of waiting to finally get seated at a table.  With Cravings, there was just a few minutes wait.

 

Amazon 12 Days of Books Sweepstakes

Amazon is running a 12 day sweepstakes for twelve $250 Amazon.com gift cards. You can enter here once each day until Dec 14, 2012 for a chance to win. Good luck!

US Bank Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa

US Bank recently unveiled their new Club Carlson Visa Card with full details here.  No question, its one of the strongest regular credit card offerings this year, and its a tremendous surprise coming from US Bank, rarely associated with the big credit card offers usually given out by Chase, Amex of Citi! The card offers a tantalizing 85k Club Carlson points (50k after first spend and 35k after spending $2.5k in 3 months), almost good enough for 2 nights at their second highest Category 5 hotels!

While the Club Carlson program requires a large number of points for their stays, it is important to point out Hilton and Priority Club share this very similar feature. To make it easier to collect these huge piles of points, these programs tend to give out more points for spending in specific categories. As a result, points are not as difficult to earn as one might think.