My love/hate relationship with AdSense

My step-daughter invented the word "annore" a few months ago and it is permanently a part of my lexicon (correct usage - "Justin is annorin' me!"), to the point that I've actually used it to strangers a few times without thinking and then had to stammer my way through an explanation that probably didn't improve their opinion of my intelligence or eloquence.

One of the things that's annoring me right this minute is Google's AdSense. Until tonight, I've been all for it. I think it's really cool for two reasons - one, you can put it on your website and theoretically make money (though I have a sinking suspicion that my husband is the only one reading this site) and two, depending on your content, you can get some really hilarious ads.

For example - five of my best friends and I have a daily email thread because we live all over creation and never actually see each other. We all have small children, so our emails frequently include graphic descriptions of bodily functions. A couple of us use Google's gmail for mail (love gmail, btw), and we get the most hilarious ad links during some of our discussions courtesy of AdSense.

Anyway, that was then. Now, AdSense is pissing me off. I'm trying to add it to this blog, but the only place I can get it to show up is at the very bottom. Who is likely to read through even one of these crazy long posts, much less the whole blog? Even more annoring is the certain knowledge that the solution to my problem is laid out helpfully and accessibly on the AdSense help site, and that my own stubbornness is all that stands between me and the thrill of writing about farting just to see what comes up for ads. I don't like to ask for help, even when I know I have no idea what I'm doing. When it comes to computers, I am as averse to asking for directions as that overused stereotypical man on a road trip.

Besides, the AdSense site is kind of dense and unfun, and I'm a surface learner. I like to glean just enough about a subject to appear informed. I think this tendency is the result of a combination of congenital laziness and an 8-year career at an institution that systematically destroys any inherent love of learning (along with joy, happiness, and self-esteem) it finds in its employees. Oh, the years of pent-up hostility that are threatening to make this post even longer. I'll try to hold back for now.

I guess I'll dive into the help files tomorrow, as I unforgivably suck at html (after 8 years in IT, many of them spent faking at least peripheral knowledge of web development). In the meantime, scroll down to see if there are any fart-related ads - they're hilarious.