Ad Blocked? Content FORBIDDEN.

So I run my browsers with an ad blocker. There are some sites I agree to whitelist, but in general the ad blocker is left to do its job.

Facebook, of late, has begun to be a little passive aggressive in dealing with this situation. While I don't know if this is just a new Facebook thing or if it's reacting to my blocker, I don't know. But here's what it's doing:

Facebook loves to throw a lot of sponsored stuff onto my feed. I'm sure I'm not alone. And while I scroll by most of it, occasionally I will linger and read/watch what's being offered because hey, sometimes the sponsored stuff actually works on me. But Facebook plays the video -- it's always a video -- and when it gets to the first (or sometimes second) ad that's part of the whole sponsored content package, it just says, "Well, you've got an ad blocker, so you do not only not get to finish watching this content, we're going to make it disappear from your whatever and then pretend like we never tried to show it to you in the first place."

I appreciate the chutzpah. Still won't whitelist.

Sure, they deserve to make money. But as I am a product for them to monetize, I don't feel bad taking miniscule amounts of ad revenue away from them. Or at least not making it possible for them to collect.

Kinda felt like arguing with this guy:

Chicken Man, Or What It's Like to Live In A Used Car Lot

First of all, gotta say the Chicken Man from Woodland Park, Colo., would be a mighty fine site mascot:

Just in case you never visit Fark.com and are not familiar with the situation, here's the story in a nutshell. Or rather, in the form of a link: http://www.gazette.com/articles/chicken_31802___article.html/city_branden.html

Now, I live near a city that could probably use a taste of Branden's decorum, if not its dour sense of humor. We have several businesses in town who employ otherwise unemployable college students to advertise their businesses while wearing costumes. A tax preparer regales us with Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty. A juice bar provides entertainment via a dancing banana. Pizza places, a local big box store that's run like a high school economics class project and other various shops employ people to stand on the snow-encrusted sidewalks, waving signs advertising their wares. Then there are the banners, balloons, blower-powered flappers, and other folderol that conspire to make the town look like a 25,000-people strong used car lot.

About a year ago, a luckless city employee tried to enforce a law on the books prohibiting such advertising. Needless to say, she was run out of town on a rail as the business owners whined it is their right to visually pollute the town with their garbage ads in the sake of pursuing a buck. So we continue to have a city that looks like it just got home from the flea market. And there's no reason to keep secrets: It's Rexburg, Idaho. The only town I know where the local pizzeria can issue a four-page booklet extolling the evolution of their restaurant, the intimate details of the lives of its founders and figure since they bore their testimonies they didn't need to offer any coupons to the unwashed masses. So we never go there. There's no need to keep secrets: It's Craigo's.

Yes, I am a negative vibe merchant. So be it.