If you go back and read my post entitled "Bummin'...", you'll find a sad tale about how I almost got an XBOX 360 for free.  What you don't know is that later that week, I had e-mailed the website about how their new policy of a 90 day time frame was unfair because I was never notified.  Much to my surprise, they gave me an extension to get my eighth person.  My determination was renewed. 

I did manage to get my eighth person credited to my account.  The next step I had to fulfill was to send an approval form.  At this stage they check you and your referrals for any signs of cheating.  I wasn't the least bit worried.  Besides, they had all been credited so what else could go wrong?

Much to my dismay, after checking my account, I was not approved.  Apparently they claim that my father somehow broke the terms of agreement since his account is on hold.  Which translates into me only having 7 people credited and therefore not completing the requirements.  To put it another way - NO XBOX 360 for Mario. :(

Now I understand that perhaps I should have gone and found a 9th or 10th person, just to play it safe.  (Which I'm sure is exactly what they want you to do in the first place.)  But I know that my father did nothing of the sort to break the terms of agreement, so I start to wonder just how many of these they are really giving away. 

By now, I'm tired of messing with the whole thing.  I don't even want to contest it because I'm sure they'll give me some lame response.  So, I've come to accept the fact that I won't be playing a nex-gen system for quite some time. 

And after thinking about it, maybe that's not such a bad idea.  I've got a long list of Original XBOX games I'd like to play.  And with Backwards Compatibility on the X360 sucking so badly.  I might just find myself buying a shiny new XBOX sometime in the near future. 

For now, I'm still loving on my SP....