Ad Space

Did you ever notice the ad at the top of the screen? The one that claims it's from Google? If you haven't, let me tell you something about it, the things it's trying to sell us change depending on the posts. It probably thinks that because there are (hopefully) people reading these Blogs, they must be interested in the same things the writers are. Is that true? Not always, I'm sure. In my case, probably rarely.

At this exact moment, the ad on my site is about ceramics, mostly relating to bisque wear that you can buy and paint, but probably not get high fired to make it actually useable, unless you pay high prices. The ad at green apron monkey is about the election. And I've now choosen two random Blogs off of Blogger, one has an ad about music, that I think is from somewhere in the Mid East and the other has an ad about trips to places, I think, but I could be wrong. Okay, now what I really want to know is who is the guy (or gal, although that's unlikely) who goes through blogs and changes the ads on them? Or is it some computer program, but I doubt it? If it is a person, I wondering what the pay is like? Does he or she get benifits? Or is it just a minimum wage excuse to surf the internet? Either way, where do I apply?

And now for some ad fodder:

I was one of the crazies out at an ungodly hour on Friday. Yes, I was one of the pathetic in line at Wal*Mart. 5:15 was when I arrived, the line was still at a reasonable length. I brought a book because I knew I didn't want to speak with the mindless shopping drones, but I didn't even take it out of my pocket. Standing right in front of me was a women who I worked with at StarBucks, fortunately one that I liked. Her name is Jen Milbourn, she was a grade above me (and those of you who were in my grade) and she was one of the few that I was willing to listen to and talk with. Anyhow, the reason for my visit was to buy a cheap GameCube. I only kinda wanted one until last week, that was when I knew I really wanted one. It was the release of a brand new MarioKart. I'm obsessed with those games, well, all driving games in general (although the blood does make me squimish in some of them), but MarioKart was the first that I became obsessed with and it's still the best.

Okay, so I waited 45 minutes for the doors to open. I headed straight over to the electronics. I was amazing, dodging Wal*Mart employees, rows of carts in the aisles, and the insane men and women. I slalomed through the women's clothing. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Charge into electronics. I whipped around the checkout counter and spotted a huge pile of X-Boxes. I knew the GameCubes had to be nearby. I saw them. I snatched. I grabbed another. It was for Jen, she was off getting something else. The evil employee wouldn't let me out of electronics without buying them. I had to wait. I backed up against the crappy new pop music. Then I spotted Claire St. John. We chatted a bit. I forgot to ask her about her trip to China, disappointing. She left, Jen appeared. I handed her the GameCube, she went off. I went to the video games, had a more friendly Wal*Mart lady get me MarioKart. I found an extra controller and a memory card. I paid for the stuff (that employee thought the shit that was going on around us, she was laughing) and got out. I was in my car by 6:30.

A crazy day. I don't plan on ever doing it agian, but it was an experience worth having. Now I've been playing too much MarioKart, which is a great improvement over the N64 version. Much better graphics, more character, different carts, and cool special attacks.

Here's to the ad that will now be about Nintendo and MarioKart! Cheers.