Oh, wow...

Turns out I can "activate AdSense" and "monetize my blog" using advertiser content.

Let me tell you why that's not going to happen:

- I find most advertisements to be insultingly stupid.  Seriously - if you've got an IQ over room temperature, you probably think so too.

- It doesn't look like I'd get to review/approve adverts in the rotation.  If I don't get to sign off on them, I'm damned sure not going to make it look like I'm endorsing them by allowing them to be displayed.

- Supposedly, AdSense is going to select adverts according to the content of my blog.  You know, I'm half-tempted to see what it's going to suggest as "relevant adverts" to my posts here, then write AdSense and ask them why their advert selection algos don't worth worth a damn.  Seriously - what advertised products could even begin to be relevant to what you've been reading here?

- Most people online use some variety of ad blocker anyhow.  I do - mostly because adverts are stupid, or because the "streaming video" in ads is irritating and takes up resources I would rather have allocated to something else, or the "streaming audio" interferes with whatever I'm listening to at the time (and are repulsively stupid.)

I don't mind adverts that are reasonably well-written, somewhat intelligent, usefully informative, and can manage to be entertaining.  The only ad campaign I can think of that's worth a damn by any of thise criteria are the Dos Equis ads with "The Most Interesting Man in the World" - even though I won't buy Dos Equis (I'm not big on beer, I prefer rum,) I find myself actually wanting to listen to/watch those ads just to see what they've come up with this time.

And the next time I have to hear "twenty-twelve" or "twenty-thirteen" on a car dealer's advert, I'm going to punch someone.  Why can't you say "two thousand twelve" or "two thousand and twelve?"  It's not a police-band radio using APCO brevity codes, it's public broadcast radio that doesn't need the compressed language for efficiency in communication!  (I don't know why that irritates me so, but it does.  Kinda like someone coming over and pawing everything on my desk and not putting it back where it was found, or sticking fingerprints all over my monitors, instead of pointing at something on the screen.)

Sure, I could probably make a few bucks using AdSense on here, but it's not worth it to me.  If I were to get to where I'd attract advertisers, I'd insist on retaining final approval for any advertisements being posted or linked (not just the products being advertised, but the adverts themselves!) and anyone who can't agree to that doesn't get to advertise.  If I want stupid adverts, all I need to do is turn on the televisor (which I generally only do immediately before or after turning the DVD player on.  Typical broadcasts are silly, pointless, and insulting - and don't even get me started on the programming!)