Happy New Year!

No, I'm not a month late for the New Year. Today is the lunar new year! (I think more Americans know it as Chinese New Year) It is once again the year of the rat. I was born in the year of the rat, so I have always had a special affinity for this year. This isn't just any rat year though, this is the year of the Earth Rat, so I'm sure there are some sort of special connotations that come along with that.

And the Winner is...?

In honor of "Super Tuesday," one of my professors held a sort of "what if.." election. He paired candidates form each party, and then asked the class who would we vote for. The results were interesting.

First in the lineup was Obama against McCain. He asked the class who would vote for Obama, and almost the entire class raised their hands. McCain, received absolutely no votes.

Next up was Hillary against Romney. He first asked who would vote for Hillary, and nobody raised their hands. When he asked about Romney, everybody's hands shot into the air (not really surprising right? Of course the Mormons vote for the Mormon.)

He then pitted the two favorites against each other, Romney and Obama. This time the class was split about 50/50.

The final match up was Hillary and McCain. He first asked who would vote for Hillary, and one person raised their hand. However, McCain again received no votes. When asked why they had chosen to not vote, most people said they did not want to be part of a decision that put either of the two in office.

A Spoiled Consumer

I was planning on my this blog entry being about the follow up email from Club Live, but (not surprisingly) that email has not yet come. So, I have decided to write about something else. I real feel that as a consumer of the entertainment industry, I have been largely spoiled.

I'm not saying that everybody is spoiled, I just think that I have been. An example of this is the Harry Potter series. Unlike everybody else in the world, I did not have to wait years between each of the books to find out what happened next to the characters. I was able to read all of the books within a fairly short period of time, and The Roni feels that because of this I have missed out on theorizing on what stuff means, that I have also missed out on part of the experience. I did not have to guess what the title of the next book meant, or guess when Ron and Hermione would get over themselves and just admit that they liked each other.

Recently, I have again been spoiled. We don't have a TV, but that doesn't mean that we cannot watch TV shows. Broadcasting companies such as ABC, Fox, CBS and the like have been putting full episodes of shows on their websites. I had been watching shows online on the nights that Roni was off tutoring, or going to evening classes. I mostly watched newer shows, like Pushing Daisies, but such a good thing was not to last. The writers strike prematurely killed many new shows. Because new shows had so few episodes written for them before they aired, it was only a matter of time until new shows ran out of new episodes to play. So I began to look for other shows to fill the time.

I remembered some people in my major talking about how much they liked to watch LOST. They kept talking about the "Korean element" of the show. So I figured that I might as well watch LOST. ABC put three previous full seasons up for viewing, and that meant that it could keep me busy for a long time. When I had heard of the show before, I had always just written it off. It all seemed too ridiculous to really believe. Seriously, a bunch of people crash onto an island and they get attacked by "The Others?" But from the first episode, I was surprised at the ease that they show allows you to suspend disbelief. I found that I was watching 2 or 3 episodes at a time, just because I really wanted to find out what happened next. About halfway through season 2, Roni also got addicted to the show.

The reason that I feel that I have been spoiled so far, is that like with Harry Potter, I was just able to watch the next episode to find out what happened next. I didn't have to come up with my own theories about what was going on. But now we are caught up to the most recent season, which just barely started. I feel deprived now that I will have to wait a full week between episodes! I really have been spoiled. Now I find myself wanting explanations that simply are not there. It is a little fun, and a little frustrating at the same time.

Bad Scam or Just a Bad Idea

Some of you may recall my brilliant idea of getting a Zune through the Live Search Club sponsored by Microsoft. You may also recall that I earned enough points through their system to cash them in for a Zune.

Though I did earn the points required, and spent nearly six hours a day for a month earning those points, it now seems that I may never get the promised product. The Zune was supposedly to ship from Club Live on, or around, November 5. Well, when November 5th came and went without so much as a peep from Club Live, I figured I would wait a little longer. After all, it did say that it could take up to 12 months for the Zune to arrive at my house.

By the time 12 weeks had passed, and I still had no news about the Zune, I figured I would investigate the matter a little further. It turns out that I was supposed to get an email from club live when the Zune shipped. I contacted the lovely people at club live to see what the deal was with my order. I was greeted with an automated response to my inquiry.

Now, I really started to get a little suspicious. So I googled it, and it turns out that a lot of people have had the same thing happen to them. A lot of people legitimately earned the points required, and ordered the prize they had been hoping for. When these people emailed Club Live asking about the status of the order, they got an email that basically said, "Thank you for your interest in the Live Search Club games. Your order has been canceled because you cheated to get the points."

How lame is that? I was really worried that I would get a similar email as a response. A few days ago, I noticed that I had an email from Club Live in my email inbox. I opened it, fully expecting to be notified that my order had been canceled.

Dear Live Search Club Participant,

Thank you for contacting Live Search Club Support. At this time, we are contacting our supplier for the status of your order. Your patience is appreciated as we will get back to you as soon as possible. In some instances, this may take up to 10 business days.

Please note, after your order is processed and is found to be in compliance with our Terms and Conditions (http://club.live.com/TermsAndConditions.htm) for fair game play as well as no duplicate software or hardware order, you will receive a confirmation email with any relevant shipping information. Upon review, all orders that are not in compliance with our Terms and Conditions, are cancelled. As noted in our Terms and Conditions, please allow 12 weeks for delivery of any prize order.

Kind Regards,

Live Search Club Support

I guess that my order isn't completely hopeless after all. But it still seems a little bit shady to me. I'm not going to get my hopes up until I get that email from them confirming that they have shipped my Zune. To me it seems as if they are saying, "We haven't found a reason to cancel your order yet, but we are trying to find a reason. Give us about 10 days and we will get back to you."