BEING NEILSON

For those of you who don't know what being a Nielson Family is let me explain.  They are the Big Brother of your television watching experience.  They extract watching information from a select percentage of people and compile statistics as to what we are watching.

I always thought it was such a mystery.  I never knew anyone who was a Nielson family, then lo and behold, I received an invitation in the mail.  I had visions of getting paid handsomly for watching tv.  So I filled out the application and about a month later they sent me an invitation.  I was very excited with the prospects of earning money while sitting on my butt watching tv. 

So we all know the addage right?  If it seems too good to be true...

Well my packet arrived in the mail last week to be used from May 6-13th.  I thought they would put some sort of device on my tv and track what I watch.  Not so easy.  Since we have five televisions, I received five packets.  For each television you have to manually write in what you are watching, who is watching with you, the time, channel, date (in case you are watching something you DVR).  You have to fill out separate things for things your DVR.  You have to fill in all the stations on your televsion and personal information in each packet.  Jeez.

You must do all of this for each television you are watching.  Here's the best part - my dreams of getting rich while watching television - $3.00 in crisp new one dollar bills.

...it probably is.