I went to take a paying survey the other day & I barely got there in time. I remember I used to never be anywhere late, I was always on time. Now I have three kids to get settled before I can leave the house to do ANYTHING. My oldest will stand at the door asking where I'm going, what I'm gonna do when I get there & if I'm bringing him anything back. Somehow I don't really think this is all Autism related.
As soon as I get there I sign in & see there are about 5 adults including me. I answer my questions trying to remember the SAME answers I gave over the phone 3 days earlier. (this let's them know you're you) If you don't get it right, you don't get to take the $75 survey. You'd think being a college graduate I could easily recall 5 simple answers I gave to someone a few days earlier. There was sweating & not just from the 100 degree weather we're having. I usually do NOT sweat. It takes full on physical activity for me to sweat & I avoid said activity with everything in my being. Did I mention it's quiet in there? The other four are sitting there waiting on me & listening to my answers. I'm convinced with every child I've had, there are numerous brain cells lost during pregnancy AND child birth. I think brain cells must gravitate to the placenta during pregnancy & when you give birth & they push the placenta out-all 9 months of accumulation of little grey cells go too. Could be why it's so painful.
So anyway, I finally get all answers correct, finding out later one dumb guy had to be told one of his answers because he couldn't remember either. Maybe men lose brain cells through hair follicles? Just a theory. We go into a conference style room & sit down with something I haven't seen in years. A scantron. Not even one sheet, this was a booklet! A memory of tests taken long ago in college start coming back to me. Coloring in the correct bubble or if you don't know, making a pretty picture. Surely this can't be too hard! I'm home free-an easy $75 bucks right? HA! I've been out of college almost 10 years. I DO still know how to use a pencil & color in the dot, but there is a certian finesse to it I had forgotten.
We are there to listen to song sound bytes. Right up my alley! I love music & this is one of my favorite two stations. (oh & the guy that missed that one question in the pre-test, it was what was his favorite radio station....I was looking smarter by the minute)
Okay so what you realize pretty quickly is, there's only a couple seconds to fill in your answer, you have multiple combinations of anwers, and not just one. You can choose: DK for don't know, 1-7 of rating the song, and NA if the song doesn't fit your station. They complicate things by telling you that you CAN color in up to 4 bubbles for each song. Of course I can! In seconds I'm sure that's plenty of time, because I know a lot of songs. After years at home & just working off & on with children, it's nice to know that someone is asking for me to put forth some brain power. I can do this, easy $75 bucks! Oh & don't ask me what the fourth option I can color is, it's been a week & I'm sure I've already lost the brain cell that recalls that information.
I did feel smart once by having to help the "dumb guy" write in what radio station we were doing this for. It'd only been 5 minutes since he'd been told in the check in process. (I did notice later dumb guy colored his hair-badly. I would contemplate hair color sucking his brain cells out but I'd have to fess up to some loss too then.)
Okay back to the survey. Let me just say, I went through 6 pencils. We had ONE break that was 10 minutes & that was only after we listened to the first 348 songs. Yes, you heard me, 348 SONGS! Granted they were sound bytes. In case you're wondering, your hand does lose muscle tone after college if not kept in peak scantron form. There was cramping I won't lie. It was embarrasing since I was the youngest person there & the guy next to me was missing a couple of fingers. Okay knuckles but the finger part was GONE. My neck hurt, my back hurt from hunching over trying not to let dumb guy copy. But THE hardest part was NOT singing along with the songs or continuing. That really WAS a rule! You just THINK you've got a song stuck in your head right now. Try listening to 825 songs in 3 hours. I CAN still remember the last song I listened to was "Straight Tequilla Night". I think.
5 comments:
The 4th choice is "?". You can choose this option 'if you are tired of listening to the song that just finished playing'. Even though it is VERY tiring...it was easy $$$!
HAHAHA! That's right! If you're tired of this song being played all the time-color in the ? mark!! Thanks-I guess there goes my theory on brain cells & child birth since you've had 5 kids. Hmmm, are you a robot?;)lol
I think you earned your 75 bucks. :) I would definitely not have been able to follow the rule about not singing along! Sounds like an interesting experience, though!
(And don't worry--after raising your kids through the elementary school years, your brain cells won't be needed, since teenagers don't think their parents have a brain, anyway.)
That's a great story! I think you should use the $75 on a color treatment for your hair! Tee hee
This entry really made me laugh, especially the part about losing muscle tone after college in your hand.
Hope that $75 was worth the unwanted sweat and strained muscles!
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