The Girly Anti-Geek

Ever since I posted about having to end my relationship with Entrecard, at this site, I have been inundated with ad requests.  In the last few days I have literally rejected 22 ads.  I don’t think I ever had that many requests BEFORE my announcement, and I’m not assuming that anyone even read my announcement, but WOW!

Because I am always trying to be polite, and never want to hurt anyone’s feelings, I am sending the following message to everyone who tries to purchase an ad:

Hello;

I’m afraid I’m not able to accept your ad.

Although I truly appreciate it, we will no longer be able to run Entrecard on our today.com blogs. I do still have my Functional Shmunctional site (http://functionalshmunctional.blogspot.com) at blogspot, if you’re interested. But I understand if not.

I can’t get a message to you through the regular decline, so I wanted to send you this note so you understood why I was declining the ad.

Thanks again!!

Grandy

For some reason, I’m NOT able to put a polite message in the actual rejection, but I thought sending this little note to all my potential advertisers was the right thing to do.  Let’s face it, I don’t want to turn anyone OFF of this blog. 

The cyber world is a small place.  Everyone should consider how their actions, or interactions, can affect them in the future. 

I DO appreciate your interest in placing an ad here.  I’m sorry I cannot accept it.

Thank you so much, everyone!!

I am a HUGE music fan.

Did I say HUGE?  I meant GINORMOUS!!

So when Hubby & Son bought me a new MP3 player for Christmas I was elated! (I’ll write a nerds-eye-view about that later though.) 

One of the features that came with is was joining Rhapsody music.  It gave me a trial membership for 2 weeks.  I thought, WAY COOL!  I can totally listen to whatever I want through their channels, I can download a gazillion songs, and pay my flat $15/month.  I’m game!  After the first week, I had downloaded many songs and was thoroughly in music heaven.

In the second week I decided I better find out what happened if I ever stopped paying the $15/month.  You know, not like it’s that much money, but I thought it could be considered a luxury someday.  What I learned was that if you cancel the subscription you give up all the songs.

What?  I’m “renting” the songs? 

I suppose that in the iPod generation, the $15/month thing isn’t that big of a deal but the thought of having to give the songs BACK at the end, that bites…kinda. 

My previous MP3 player was as simple as they come, so this is all new to me.  But all I did was take all my old CD’s and burn them on there.  I never did burn TONS of songs, but I a little bit of math…12 months x $15/month = $180. 

I happen to be a member of a music club where I can buy CD’s at a major discount if I want.  I get offers for 4 CDs for the price of 1 a lot.  There are a lot of other deals too, especially for someone like me who likes older music that isn’t necessarily popular right now.  So to spend $180 would be at LEAST 10 CD’s.  And guess what…I get to keep that music.

Did I miss the point of the service?  It wouldn’t be the first time I missed the point, so if so…I encourage you to enlighten me. 

Remember the important lesson that Grandy’s son learned about his Guitar Hero II game?  Well this Grandy earned some serious parental loving points when she realized that, although it was not necessarily in her budget to buy her son another game, she had to find a way to replace it because she felt bad.

Enter my “Thank You Points” through Expedia.  Whenever we book travel we go through Expedia.  I’m not really good about priceline because I’m not savy enough to understand what the prices are supposed to be. 

When we use Expedia, we get those “Thank You Points”.  I’ve never actually redeemed them, and we had 4800 points! 

I went online to see what I could redeem for the points and guess what I found…

4700 Points!!  It was shipped to me for FREE!!!

Oh Yeah…I am up for MOTHER OF THE YEAR points with this one for sure!!

It arrived last night.

Time to go school him in the art of rocking out. 

My son has been bugging me for a YEAR about getting an XBox.  The poor kid has been content with playing on a PS1 (if ever there is anyone less technically inclined than I am that means Playstation 1) for many years.  In fact, they stopped making games for that system even a few years ago.  It’s pretty sad when the twin sister’s 3 year old has a better gaming system, but the hubby and I just aren’t into video games much, and we didn’t really think that our 12 year old was either.  What the heck were we thinking?

I guess that it could be only because he thought he had sucky games on the PS1.  He did have a favorite game, though,   Madden 04. 

So I made a deal with my son over the summer.  If he could keep his grades up, he would maybe get an Xbox 360 for Christmas.  Did you know there are 3 different Xbox 360’s out there?  THREE?!?  I grew nervous with the pressure.

Xbox 360 Arcade - $199.99:  Xbox 360 $299.99; Xbox 360 Elite $399.99

Contents	Xbox 360 Arcade	Xbox 360	Xbox 360 Elite
Xbox 360 Console			BLACK
Wireless Controller			BLACK
Storage
Headset	SOLD SEPARATELY		BLACK
Network Cable	SOLD SEPARATELY
AV Cable	STANDARD	STANDARD/HD	STANDARD/HD
HDMI Output	CABLE SOLD SEPARATELY	CABLE SOLD SEPARATELY	CABLE INCLUDED
Xbox LIVE	SILVER MEMBERSHIP	SILVER MEMBERSHIP	SILVER MEMBERSHIP
Game Compatibility	ALL XBOX 360 GAMES	ALL XBOX 360 GAMES + OVER 300 XBOX GAMES	ALL XBOX 360 GAMES + OVER 300 XBOX GAMES

Well when we decided to get him the Xbox 360 we hadn’t done any research.  What’s to research?  We walk in, tell them what we want, and buy it.  Afterall, we had saved so we could buy it in October.  All we knew, while at the game store, was that one had Xbox Live, one had MORE Xbox Live features.  We’re looking at $100 and $200 difference, and it all boils down to how much he can play online with other kids in Arkansas?

Hubby and I weren’t overly enthusiastic about his abilities to play “live” so we opted for the Arcade.  We hadn’t understood the difference in the memory size.  We started to tell people what we got him, and were immediately told we got the wrong one.  “You’ll end up paying $50 for a memory card afterall,” we were told repeatedly.  It got so bad, I considered taking it back.  To make a purchase like this one, and to get the wrong one, that would so be bad.

I grew more concerned he wouldn’t be able to save his games.  It also irritated me to think that the sales kid didn’t give us the whole story.  What language was he speaking anyway?

Thank goodness for Grandy’s twin sister (the one who got the technically enhanced genes) who went online and found an aftermarket, refurbished, external hard drive, that came as a package with a wireless controller.  She got a really good deal for it…or at least that’s what she tells me. 

I was so excited when I got the last copy of Madden 09 for him at the game store in December.  I told the boys at the store what he had been playing all the time (Madden 04) and they rolled their eyes, “MOOOOM…Why have you waited this long?!?” 

Hey, that’s not important.  What IS important is we made his Christmas, and he earned it.  No parent wants to work that hard to get their kid what they want, and end up getting the wrong thing. 

Oh Yeah!!  And another thing…Did you know the game consoles only come with ONE controller?  Sister saved the day with that bundle package, because who knew they would sell just one?  I mean, I know the picture only shows one, but who would think of that when they’re looking at the big beautiful tower next to is? 

There would have been some serious issues when he had his friends come over.  That’s all I can say.

WHEW!!  Narrowly dodged THAT bullet!!!