I Vent

Anyone else getting tired of the increasing number of web pages with roll-over pop-ups, search boxes, self starting audio, and animated graphics? Sure, the text you wanted to read is right behind that expanding ad, but you can't scroll your way around it. You have to find the "close" button, or "skip this" button. Or you can do what I'm doing more and more often these days: close the whole dag-nabbit window and go search for the information somewhere else.

OK and while I'm being crabby, does every single youtube video need ad clearing before you can see the whole screen? Either that, or a 30 second commercial that you have to sit through to watch a 60 second clip. Really, do they not know that everybody ignores those ads? And if they do focus on them it's only to click them out of the way, or add them to a personal boycott list.

Alright, I'm rolling now: Why can't you watch a TV program these days without the station logo, the "coming on next" strip (with graphics, sometimes animated), the series finale announcement, and more, cluttering up the screen? I saw a Buffy the other day that had all the above, plus a "Tweets from Fans" box, plus Dave Attell humping a lamp post, plus Three Gays and a Girl sparkling in another corner, and somewhere near the center of the screen, in a tiny area about the size of a quarter, I could see the corner of Zander's chin. Which was good because at least it let me know that I was on the right station. Have you ever spent several minutes looking for your program through the forest of dreck only to find you're on the wrong channel?

OK, I feel better now.