I Earned Another #Badge @BingRewards #Badges #BadgeEarning #BadgeWearing #RedBadgeOfCourage #RespectTheBadge

I earned the "Heart of Hearts"-badge by donating a total of 20,000 Bing Rewards-points to the charitable causes Microsoft suggests. I have that badge right next to my "Sweetheart"-badge (for donating the first 1,000 points) and my "Ace of Hearts"-badge (for donating 4,000 more); and maybe someday I'll earn the "Heart of Gold" (for 50,000 donated points) and maybe even the "World of Thanks" (for 150,000 donated points).

Those donations are merely 'peripheral' to 'my main accomplishments' (number of Rewards-points I'd managed to earn): the "Office Mate"-badge (at 1,997 points, in honor of Windows 97), the "DOS Boss"-badge (at 8,088 points, in honor of The 8088—the first processor ever to run MS-DOS), the "Audiophile"-badge (at 35,000 points, in honor of the $35,000 Microsoft paid Brian Eno for the Windows 95 startup-sound), and the "Local Hero"-badge (at 98,052 points, in honor of the ZIP code of Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington); with a couple badges earned by checking-in for high numbers of 'days-in-a-row.'

Do the badges give me any 'authority' online? Maybe, but only if you give it (i.e. the only 'intrinsic value' is "bragging rights" ... essentially the reason I dropped out of school (I'd say 'like Bill Gates & Steve Jobs & Mark Zuckerberg'; but they all did it to advance the prosperity of industry, while I only did it because I'm something-like a self-entitled Gen-X Millennial (who feels under-served^*) or something :-P )).

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The word “Badge” carries the scent of “Emblem” (or Token, Mark or Device worn to indicate Occupation, Allegiance, Preference |etc.)

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(How do I 'feel under-served'? long story: basically, I

 went through something no one should ever have

 to go through; and I don't feel that society properly

 respects 'the authority that my trauma-survival should give me.')