Swagbucks.com.
I just sent an email to Swagbucks support b/c whoever designed their NOSO (no obligation special offers) page has pissed me off. I was listening to Phil Collins' ...BUT SERIOUSLY (1989, Atlantic Records) on Rdio (which cost me $4.99), and while my ears were listening, my eyes were navigating the NOSO section of Swagbucks, and when I got to the end of it, they asked me to click on some stupid mini-screen to "reveal the code" that I was supposed to enter in order to receive the two (2) Swagbucks that completing the NOSO entitles me to. So: after I click the mini-screen-thingy Flo from Progressive starts yacking and it's loud, so Phil Collins' voice is only half audible to me and the passion and intensity of "Hang In Long Enough" (track #1, thankfully; if I'd gotten "into" the CD, this whole thing would be like a demon demolishing the NYC skyscrapers and scraping them against the bodies of the Swagbucks CEO......bloodtheblood...bloooooooooooooooood....) is drowned out by the saints of commercialism. And despite what Oasis and their goons have to say, Phil Collins does not stand for commercialism. He stands for music. It just so happens that the average person likes his music. I seriously cannot comprehend people that think because an artist or band is popular that they're fake. This one guy was saying it's "brainwashing". No, actually it isn't. If you aren't exposed to certain types of music frequently at a young age, you tend to gravitate away from them. The opposite is equally true. So if you're a natural-born socially-awkward anarchist and your parents are perfectly content folks who believe in law & order, then you probably won't care much for Nirvana's IN UTERO or Dinosaur Jr.'s BUG. My mom was a "square". She didn't listen to Led Zeppelin and all that noisy shi*. She listened to CS&N's DAYLIGHT AGAIN (1982 Atlantic), MJ's THRILLER (1982 Epic), Paul Simon's GRACELAND (1986 Warner Bros.), Genesis' INVISIBLE TOUCH (1986 Atlantic), Chicago's GREATEST HITS 1982-1989 (1989 Reprise) etc......while my dad was still "The man of the house", we had VH1 available for viewing on the TV. Via that I saw Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker's music video for "Don't Come Around Here No More", George Harrison's "I Got My Mind Set On You", The Escape Club's "Wild Wild West" and Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy". I also remember seeing Weird Al's music video for his Michael Jackson "Bad" parody, "Fat". I also remember my dad playing Weird Al's EVEN WORSE and seeing the album cover, thinking "that isn't Michael Jackson..."
So anyway. Phil Collins stands for world peace, whereas Led Zeppelin and Nirvana have not done a damn thing for the cause. There, I said it.
And Phil Collins' music deserves some respect. Swagbucks did me and Phil Collins a deeply unnerving disservice by taking up Flo to my browser and blasting her yacking...if I didn't have headphones on, I don't think my neighbors would have been too pleased either. Phil Collins' "Hang In Long Enough" may not be their cup of tea per se (although I really don't know for sure, I don't talk to them a lot), I'm sure they'd take Phil Collins over Flo. The only reason people put up with her on TV is because she pays for the TV shows so they don't have to. I mean, for TWO FREAKIN' swAGBUCKS!!????! I realize there's people that make a life out of Swagbucks, people called Swaggernauts. Sorry, Swagbucks is a way to earn extra money for me. Not a lifelong gaming ground. Two or three Swagbucks accrued is nothing when it takes 450 of them to earn a $5 gift card. Tell me with a st8 face that Swagbucks isn't getting AT LEAST $5 on avg for every time someone watches Flo doing her thang. Yeah, and I only get 2/450th of that. Not a respectable commission for someone who had their afternoon ruined by obnoxiousness. It's one thing to try and listen to a CD that is obnoxious with no knowledge of what's on the CD before listening, but it's a totally different thing when peace & quiet w/ a dash of Phil Collins is going on and, without any reasonable warning, you get some obnoxious noise coming through the headphones.
Ok, well anyway.
Here's the email I sent to them. I really doubt they'll respond in any intelligible manner. They might get stupid and close my account.......
"Is multi-tasking prohibited while using your site? No Well, then quit f***ing up my internet radio experience by blasting stupid advertising noise at random spots!!! I clicked "play video to reveal code" like I often do and this is one of the few times I've had to deal with audio w/ the video. I'm sick of you and all these companies that are too thickheaded to catch on the concept that people on the internet typically have lives outside of the WWW...and even those who don't surely don't have an undying passion to hear Progressive Insurance ads intertwined with professional musicians performing music. Heck, I probably would have missed the punchline if I'd been listening to a stand up comedian. Seriously, it's a good thing I had just started listening to the song I was on, otherwise I would have gotten all caught up in it and the puncturing of the experience would have been that much more upsetting. I mean, for 2 freakin' Swagbucks! How pathetic do you think your average user is, to be going around the Swagbucks-phere, picking up every crumb they can find, unable to listen to music or do anything else that requires their ears just so they can earn every little particle of Swag so that some day they can get a $5 or $10 gift card -- redeemable for what? More Swagbucks? Sorry, if I have to be a fool to be on your site, then just tell me and I'll go quietly."
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