I know the reading glasses are coming, but so far I've managed to hold them off

 

A couple of weeks ago, a reader asked if I could please increase the font size of the posts on this blog, as the default size was relatively small and could be difficult to read.

It took a few minutes to figure it out, but I managed to bump up the point size of all posts on the blog permanently (or at least, as of this writing, I think I did).

He/she asked for this change "for visually impaired older folks," and gently reminded me that I would at some point be joining their ranks.

Which is undoubtedly correct. Just not yet.

More than once here I've wondered when I'm going to need to start wearing reading glasses. It's of course not a matter of "if" but "when."

Still, right now, at the ripe old age of 51 1/2, the cheaters are not yet a part of my life.

I can still read books and newspapers without the benefit of visual augmentation, and I can do it without having to hold them way out at arm's length.

The reason, my eye doctor tells me, is because I had LASIK surgery 20 years ago, and that actually bought me some time when it comes to seeing things that are close by. I had the procedure done to enhance my distance vision, so this added bonus on the other end of the spectrum two decades later has been nice.

But it will go away, and likely very soon.

My wife has needed reading glasses for a number of years, as have many of the people with whom I graduated from high school. It happens. You buy yourself a bunch of cheap pairs from CVS and you keep them in spaces where you're likely to need them (your living room, your kitchen, your car, your bedroom, etc.), and you're fine.

I'll get there. But in the meantime, you'll excuse me while I go read something written in 8-point type and mock my peers who cannot achieve this feat of superhuman visual acuity.

OK, so apparently cheaters DON'T prosper

Remember the whole thing where I asked you to click on the ads in my blog so I could make a few bucks? And how I even thanked you for doing it after my Google Ads account balance shot up?

I included this line at the end of that thank-you post when it suddenly occurred to me that what I was doing may not have been entirely ethical: "You don't think the Google AdSense people will read this and take away my cash, citing some obscure rule about soliciting ad clicks or something, do you? Maybe we should just keep this between ourselves..."

Well, guess what! (You already know where this is going.) I received the following note of reprimand from the Google Ads people:

Hello, 

We recently detected invalid activity in your AdSense account. As a result, we’ve temporarily suspended your account for 30 days. During this time, no ads will be served on your sites. 

Why was my account suspended?We found instances of one or more users clicking repeatedly on your AdSense ads which is prohibited by the AdSense Program Policies. Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest. Publishers may not ask others to refresh or click their ads. This includes asking for users to support your site, offering rewards to users for viewing ads or performing searches and promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior. Additionally, clicking your own ads, automated clicking tools or traffic sources, robots, or other deceptive software are also prohibited.

The note was actually much longer, but the gist of it was:

• We know what you did, smart a**.
• There's a rule against that to which you clearly agreed, but you never even bothered to read it, did you?
• Your account is suspended for 30 days, which means no ads will appear on your blog AND we're going to withhold the payment to which you were otherwise entitled AND we're probably going to refund all of the revenue you've recently generated to the affected advertisers.
• And there's nothing you can do about it. Nyah nyah nyah!

Yes, the earnings that pushed me over that magical $100 payment threshold are probably going to be rescinded. That's $40 in income gone in a flash, and there's no doubt I deserve it.

So yeah, I screwed up. I should have read the fine print a bit more closely and realized (as a marketing professional myself) that solicited clicks aren't of any use to advertisers.

I guess, then, my request to you is to stop clicking on the ads unless you're really, genuinely interested in something. I appreciate everyone chipping in with a few clicks, but them's the rules, you know?

I guess we'll put that classical CD buying binge on hold for a bit...