Sunday, May 1, 2011

Multiply 365 Day 120 - Exodus

The day has finally arrived. May 1st, the day where most of the college kids move away for 3 months or so and I get Oakland back to myself. Well that may be overstating things a bit, but the population around here now decreases significantly, which means the number of drunken assholes also decreases. It is one of the reasons why I like summer so much. Don't get me wrong, there is something to be said for warmer weather and girls wearing less and less clothing (less work for my imagination, so I can devote it to other tasks, like imagining a bigger paycheck) but by far the most positive thing to come out of summer is the decrease in assholes.

The clock is also ticking in the dumpster diving department. It has been rainy today, which cuts into the diving somewhat, most of the things I want I don't want waterlogged, but while running around the corner to fetch some iced tea to go with dinner I did run into 6 Coke 12 packs (and one 2 liter cap) with the Coke Rewards info still attached. I of course ran home to test the codes and see if they worked, since Coke is doing a promotion where you can win bonus points with 12 pack codes, the Million Point Giveaway I believe they are calling it. So I enter the first few codes, no problem and I get to at least attempt to win bonus points, but I have no luck. Up comes code #5 and I don't even get a chance to win, I figure maybe it was a glitch, since techniaclly it was a Sprite 12 pack, maybe I misread the game and Sprite, while being a Coke product, doesn't qualify. That's okay, I have one left and it is a Coke code, so there should be no problems. But there is, it doesn't allow me to do the bonus game either. There is even a note on the page that if I click the "Get It" link I can play. But there is no link, at least none that I can find, so I go to the FAQ page, figuring worst case scenario I can find a contact link I can use. There is one, which is good, and rather than just an email address, there is an entire submission form right on the page. The important stuff, like my email addy and everything are filled out, all I have to do is write a message rearding my question or concern. Not a problem, I put together about a 4 sentence explanation of what happened (and don't you wish this were only 4 sentences) and clicked send. Except it didn't. Seems Coca Cola can't process a message with proper punctuation in it. Yes folks, one of the biggest companies in the world can't handle a simple apostrophe. I had to go over the message and take everything out that might have kept it from looking like a 5th grader on a sugar rush texted it before the actual message got through to the powers that be.

I really can't complain too much about Coke though, I have bought almost none of the product over the years for all of the codes I have redeemed. And they have come through with lots of goodies for both me for me in the past, both for my own personal use and for the occasional blog giveaway. Sadly I have gotten things squared away enough at work that we are no longer throwing out cases of out of date product (damn me and my competence) so I can't just offer up, say, a free year of Pogo every couple of months, but I am creeping my points total back to respectibility. Plus I did get two free T shirts last month, one of which has already arrived. For every 6 20 oz codes redeemed you could get a free college T shirt. I got it twice, but Pitt was not one of the T shirts available (most were midwestern schools) so I opted first for a Southern Methodist University shirt and then a Idaho State shirts. Apparently there was no demand for Idaho State, as it was processed and received in about a week, when the promotion says 10 to 12 weeks.

While I am taking about free stuff, I did get my other $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks the other day. I am over $250 in free stuff from them now, plus whatever money I added from Coinstar. I have my existing balance back over $40, which means if I ever finish my Teddy Roosevelt book I can probably go back and buy some new stuff. Then again, given how long I am taking with the current book, I might have $100 saved up before I am ready for a new one.

I know there was something esle I wanted to blog about. But for the life of my I just can't think of what that something is now. Maybe that is just as well, I will have something for tomorrow, if I can remember it by then and nothing else of merit pops up.

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