Camp Fritos

On my break today, I ventured across the street to the gas station. I found a lovely bag of Fritos brand Honey BBQ Flavor Twists (highly recommended). As I was finishing them off, I noticed something about a "Camp Fritos" contest on the back. Your usual product-related promotional stunt - but instead of lots of money, or a big car, it wasn't exactly clear what they were giving away. (A trip to camp? Who wants that?) So I dove into the fine print, and this is what I found:

Prizes: Grand Prize (1): The ultimate camping prize pack. Approximate Retail Value (ARV): $602.87.

Are they serious? Not only is this "prize" still completely unknown, it's not even worth my effort to try and find out, much less actually enter the contest. I'd even go so far as to say it wasn't even worth the effort for Frito-Lay to organize it and print the bags and have the website redesigned and so on. Nobody is going to buy any more Fritos because of this. There is no positive effect whatsoever. You can't even win the grand prize directly - it's a drawing. The actual prizes you can win with the stupid code on the bag are as follows:

Instant-Win Prizes: 1st Prize (4): RoadTrip Grill Sport LE, ARV $141.99. 2nd Prize (49): 30" Round Stainless Steel Fireplace, ARV $99.99. 3rd Prize (99): PackAway Table Set for four, ARV $90.99. 4th Prize (199): 7'x5' Sundome Family Tent, ARV $40.99. 5th Prize (316): Cambridge 30-degree Sleeping Bag, ARV $37.99. 6th Prize (319): 48-quart Chest Cooler, ARV $24.99. 7th Prize (1,016): 4D Camp Lantern, ARV $12.99.

It's like Frito-Lay's brother or mom got them a Wal-Mart gift card and they decided to share the windfall with everyone. Seriously - they couldn't spring for some remote-controlled cars or Fritos hats? A Fritos iPod case - this is just off the top of my head here. A bag of fake Fritos that tastes like lemons. At least I could fool somebody with that and get some laughs. I'm not going to go waste 20 minutes wading through a Flash-encrusted website just to punch a code in and be informed that I've won a freaking tent. (I will, however, spend much more time blogging about not doing it.)

Winning something cheap and useless is worse than not winning at all. I feel like the scratch-off ticket I bought at the same time was actually a better investment, and I already know I didn't win anything from it. I can't view Flash at work (thank goodness) so whoever wants to try this code is more than welcome, but if you win a lantern you have to let me borrow it. (Good job to the code writers, by the way, for not only using both "S" and "5", but putting them right next to each other.)

KTP 112 S5 82

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Fortune cookie says...

"Have a beautiful day."

Lottery Numbers: 84 57 4 75 3 84

How to make a great cover

Step 1: Find some good source material.

"I Hope it Rains at my Funeral" - Tom T. Hall

Your typical 70's country song, right? Maybe it's a little more insightful than most.

Step 2: Do what these guys did.

"I Hope it Rains at my Funeral" - Whiskeytown

Arguably the best track they ever cut, it somehow tacks on 4 minutes to the original, slows the tempo down, and makes the magic happen. You can pick it apart and say it was this or that, but really what it comes down to is Ryan Adams in his prime, hungry and desperate and still not quite sure if he's ever going to make it.

(What? Whiskeytown did a cover of "Blank Generation"? I have to put the final verdict on hold until I hear that.)