 |
| A copy of Michael Jackson's Vision |
I just saw this collection of Jackson's music videos from my library yesterday. Not physically mind you, I was checking it out on-line. I didn't even know they had so many copies in stock! I have a Michael Jackson Number Ones DVD that my sister bought for me for my birthday, which has about fifteen of Michael's videos on it. It's awesome and I keep it near the top of the TV so I can always watch it, naturally. I requested Michael Jackson's Vision yesterday, and I hope to receive it soon. When I first requested it, I was sixth in line. Today, that number had dropped down to fifth place. We're getting closer!
One of the best things about requesting DVDs from the library is that in some cases, you can hold them up to a maximum of three weeks, like books. Other times, you can only hold them for up to one week before you have to return them. I think that'll give me enough time to watch the DVD from start to finish, even for the songs I already have ^_^ And yes, in case you were wondering, I'm a pretty big Michael Jackson fan; about twenty of his songs take up space on my MP3 player (iPods are pretty but expensive), the largest space an artist has taken up on my player.
Oddly enough, I became a fan after he died. I didn't care much for who he was before that, in part because I thought he was a pedophile. Well, I listened to "Beat It", the first Michael Jackson song I listened to, by the way (besides Alien Ant Farm's rendition of "Smooth Criminal") and needless to say, I fell in love with his music. My curiosity about the personal details of Michael's life was piqued enough that I eventually concluded for myself, after some research, that he was much too well-meaning of a person to ever harm a child, so I've parted from that silly belief now.
One book I strongly recommend for you to read, if you're a fan of Michael's, is La Toya Jackson's Starting Over. I think it's a wonderful piece of work with a strong narrative and powerful physical description that relates La Toya's ordeal over the years at the hands of her abusive husband, Gordon, and her strained relationship with her family as well as her brother, Michael, as a consequence. It also chronicles the feelings La Toya went through when Michael died, and presents a plausible alternative theory for why Michael Jackson died (beyond the oft-cited mis-administered propofol as the main cause for his death). Trust me, I think you'll enjoy what she has to say as much as I have.
Another DVD I want to get is the complete series of Married with Children box-set. Like with my Michael Jackson collection, I already own a copy of Married with Children that my mom bought for me about six years ago. It's a special edition that includes only "the most outrageous episodes", as the marketers have decided to term it. There's five episodes from the series on there, and I love them all. The ones I love the most, though, are "You Better Shop Around" (Parts 1 and 2) and "I'll See You in Court", which is a lost episode from this series. It didn't first broadcast till five years after the series ended due to problems with its vulgarity (except by the time it went on air, it was considerably below the standards of what was considered racy).
The prices for the DVDs are $36.99 and $44.99, respectively. I don't intend to buy the first one though; viewing it via library request is good enough for me. Maybe I'll burn it if I find enough time ... shh! I'll buy the second one when I save up enough Amazon gift cards on SwagBucks to do so. That place, by the way, is actually a pretty crappy way to earn money. The site makes you run around to earn points called "swagbucks", and the pay rate is really poor: about three swagbucks per video you watch. Depending on the length of the videos you watch, it can take up several days worth of time to earn one five dollar gift card. It's ridiculous. You earn far less than even an entry level cashier working on minimum wage.
That's not the only way you can earn swagbucks, though. You can search for stuff like you would on Google, although I wouldn't recommend this either, even though it's the site's primary way to hand out reward points to desperate people. I say this specifically because from my experience, it can take up to several minutes to earn just seven swagbucks. When you compare the time you spend searching for swagbucks compared to watching videos, it's actually more efficient if you search, but not by much. Plus, they only reward you once or twice a day. Still, combining that with polls might shave a few minutes off your total. Awesome, right?
The rewards they offer, for the most part, aren't even good. They either take absolutely insane amounts of time to earn, or offer you an obscure selection of musical artists and sub-par plush toys for a decent amount of points. The latest iPod touch, for example, costs about 36,000 points to purchase, which translates to about a few thousand hours of searching, minimum. Don't feel like wasting all that precious time? No problem, just redeem a plush doll, which will take a few days to earn, even then. Still think SwagBucks is worth your time? On top of that, you have to wait several weeks for your purchase after you order it, with the exception of gift cards.
As well, a large part of SwagBucks' selection from their store is only available to U.S. residents for ordering, so don't sign up for it unless you want to buy the iPod touch (even then, you're insane). I know first-hand how painful this experience is. I had to wait two months for a movie on VHS tape I purchased (Groundhog Day, 1994) for 360 swagbucks, which took about a month or two of frantic searching to earn. When I watched the movie, I was disappointed. There has to be some point where having the main character repeat the past for the umpteenth-time is just too much for the pleading audience to bear.
The only positive experience I recall with ordering from there is that they never charged for shipping fees when they delivered my parcel to me; they paid the fees instead. That's good, because if I were to order from that place, and find out upon delivery that I had to pay shipping fees for this third-rate movie, I would kindly return the bastard to sender.
Besides the gift cards (which you earn about one per month, investing a few minutes of your time per day), there's not much else that's actually worth getting from there. What else will get you five dollars off your next purchase besides a free coupon from some grocery store? You'll notice I didn't link to the website this time. That's because it's not even useful to link to it. If you find yourself disappointed after you wasted your time on there, that's your own damn fault, because I'm not taking responsibility for something I didn't even recommend you.
I know some of you reading this are probably thinking, "Hey, you get stuff for free, why are you complaining?" and true, I do get stuff for free. Likewise, I could be the lucky recipient of half a rotten potato (for free!). Does that mean I should be grateful? Hell no. I mean, the effort is definitely not worth what you get, so why be grateful, knowing they set up the process that way to intentionally profit from your efforts? I'm not dumb. I can send get a part-time job and spend my energy being grateful for the paycheck I bring in every week. But from swagbucks? Ha! No thank you.
But I prattle on. That about sums it up: I'm getting two DVDs, and from my previous experience with similar ones, I think I will find myself highly satisfied with them. Don't use SwagFucks unless you don't want bang for your buck. No, it's quite the opposite: you get all buck for your bang. SwagBucks is a third rate excuse of a shopping site. If you find yourself there after this, not my fault, I gotta tell you.
That's my small update/rant for the day. Take care, my readers.
David
0 comments:
Post a Comment