I have two personnas here at Active Rain for two businesses, one as a Home Inspector, and one as a Marketing & Business Consultant.

Sometime in the very near future, probably this week, my home inspector self, we'll call him Mr. Home Inspector, will surpass 100,000 points at Active Rain. When this post is made, Mr. Home Inspector will have 94,716 points.

Music for your reading pleasure

"In The Beginning/Lovely To See You," The Moody Blues, 1969

Your job, should you decide to accept it, is to guess the date and time that Mr. Home Inspector will surpass 100,000 points (it's highly unlikely that he will land exactly on 100,000). The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to either Borders Books & Music, On The Border Mexican Restaurant, Fry's Electronics, or a gas card, your choice. I have lots of these gift cards, so it's not costing me any cash out of pocket. I also have some leftover Halloween candy--LOL.

The contest will remain open until Mr. Home Inspector reaches that magic 100,000, so in order to be fair and not have anyone stay up until the last minute and then guess that date and time, earlier entries will carry more weight than later entries. For example, an entry dated November 2 that has the correct date and is only ten minutes off will win over an entry dated November 4 that is only five minutes off.

Get your votes in early.

Enter as many times as you like, up to a maximum of ten times, and each entry must be in a separate comment. For each guess/comment, I'll visit your blog and provide an equal number of comments.

A little about Mr. Home Inspector

Mr. Home Inspector joined Active Rain on March 10, 2007, just a day before his 52nd birthday. He played in the Rain for 10 days and then left. He returned on June 6 and stayed until June 19, leaving again until July 25, but staying for four days. He came back and made one comment on November 3, a blog entry on December 22, and three comments on July 2-3, 2008. Then, on July 22, 2008, Mr. Home Inspector decided to totally ignore everything his wise old grandmother had ever told him about playing in the Rain.

When Mr. Home Inspector returned on July 22, he made a commitment to stay, and stay he has. Mr. Home Inspector arrived back with 894 points, so he's averaging about 32,000 points per month since July 22. He's had 18 members accept invitations to Active Rain, and he's had four featured posts.

I'll have Mr. Home Inspector and his husband, Jim Frimmer, Century 21 Realtor, re-blog this post over at their blogs to give as many people as possible an opportunity to win.

Ready? Set? Go!

Be sure to scroll down for titles and quick links to some of my other blog entries.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club.

Some of Russel Ray's blog entries

1. How the system works (partially) and working the system, or Active Rain point values that I'm aware of
2. 10 ways to get a featured post at ActiveRain
3. How to keep people from reading your Active Rain blog
4. How do you get people to comment on your blog?
5. Using Active Rain more effectively by finding Power Partners
6. Kittycat marketing
7. Using YouTube videos without slowing down page loading
8. Don't forget to remember how Active Rain supports you indirectly
9. How to use the Active Rain system more efficiently
10. Getting local businesses to help you with your marketing
11. How do you choose a subject for your blog posts?
12. Take this job and shove it
13. FREE help for Realtors and their buying Clients
14. Know what you're doing, or hire someone to do it for you
15. How to bring out the creativity in yourself and others
16. Analyze the competition to catch them at their own game
17. Is your river of Clients running dry?
18. Do you ever go out to eat?
19. Marketing to self-identified communities
20. Winning over Clients by getting them to change "Why?" to "Why not?"
21. Extra! Extra! Read all about it: Real clouds in central and east San Diego
22. Customer service surveys
23. Polls, poll results, and sound bites
24. It's a kind of magic
25. What do you do when there's no time to do it?
26. Businesses, like plants, need a good foundation and nutrients
27. Is there some horse dung for sale?
28. Building your business web
29. Say it with flowers, giant flowers
30. Have you, or someone you know, been dooced?
31. You have to stop the Q-tip when there's resistance
32. Do you sometimes feel like a dung beetle?
33. What's in a name?
34. Do you have a cause?
35. Are you losing contact with your family and friends?
36. Do you forget to remember, or just forget?
37. I've read your blogs. I know you like to hear yourself type
38. Personalize it by writing it, sort of
39. Keep the main thing the main thing
40. Are you as slow as a snail?
41. How strong is your web?
42. How shallow can you be?
43. You, too, can accomplish something, part deux
44. You, too, can accomplish something