Tag Archives: House of Cards

Sunday Notes & Letters for Week 14

Photo: sineadgleeson.com

Photo: sineadgleeson.com

I got a few letters back this week. The first one was a response to my letter on Day 65 to House of Cards creator Beau Willimon. I use the word response pretty liberally. I actually heard from Netflix. It was a form letter thanking me for being such a huge fan of Netflix – which isn’t exactly true, I’m fairly indifferent to Netflix. My letter was to Mr. Willimon and had no reference to me being a fan of their service. I’m sure Mr. Willimon will be writing back shortly – after all I did tweet at him.

Another letter was from my Aunt Kay who I wrote to on Day 52. She thanked me for my letter to her and let me know that she would probably be back in DC in the next couple of weeks. That’s great – I always enjoy spending time with her.

Finally I got a letter from my friend Aimee from Day 5 thanking me for my handwritten letter and absurdly late wedding gift. You may recall that I couldn’t remember whether or not I had sent them a gift or not for their 2013 wedding! Yep, I was really late…more than Emily Post’s “you’ve got a year” advice.

So all in all it was a good week. Well, with the exception of an irritating email from Google Adsense that informed me that they were terminating my agreement with them due to a violation of their terms and guidelines and that I was banned for life. Furthermore, they reneged on their promise to pay me for allowing companies to advertise on my blog. It’s not a ton of money – trust me I’m not quitting my day job – but it would have helped offset the cost of postage, stationery, etc. They won’t even tell me how I violated their terms and guidelines – that’s the most annoying part. In response to my appeal, they just offered some snooze-inducing stock language that says they’d love to tell me why they’ve taken this action against me BUT….they can’t:

We understand that you may want more information about your account activity, however, in order to protect our proprietary detection systems, we are unable to provide further details. Thank you for understanding.

Well, thanks for nothing Google. And shame on you. I expected more from a company who touts the phrase “Don’t Be Evil” as their motto and states their mission as, “facilitating access to information for the entire world” – well, unless of course that information is about Google themselves.  I will be looking for other advertising ideas to help offset the costs of the website. If you have any suggestions of reputable, honest (i.e. won’t keep my money!) marketing partners – drop me a note.

Day 65: Beau Willimon, House of Cards

House-of-CardsI just recently got hooked on House of Cards. This is typical – shows are out for years before I start watching them and I usually start watching them on Netflix and binge completely on an entire season.

Last weekend Season 3 came out and I spent the better part of my awake hours that weekend devouring the newest thirteen chapters.

I thought I would write the show’s creator, Beau Willimon. Why not? I doubt he’ll ever get my letter – I’m sending it to him in care of Netflix which is probably like sending a letter to Bono in care of Island Records. Note to self: write Bono.

SPOILER ALERT: This letter contains spoilers!

YearOfLetters-4

Beau, 

Congratulations on another excellent season of House of Cards. While I live here in Washington DC, 14 blocks from Frank and Claire’s home on Pennsylvania Avenue, I’ve never been into politics. Probably because I don’t have any interest in being a part of that world you so cleverly paint on the show. However, I do find myself addicted to the Underwoods’ saga.

Your fan,
Reed

PS. You do owe me a weekend though – I missed the last one due to Season 3 bingeing.
PSS. Why the (bleep) did you have to kill off Rachael?