Amazon Failed Us, But Twitter Didn’t

I love Twitter.

I’ve long bugged and bugged Todd to get on Twitter. He’s normally an early adopter to tech-things but resisted Twitter, seeing it as an inferior Facebook. I bugged, I noodled, I pointed out the sheer fun of reading tweets by Christopher Walken, thinking that would surely lure him. He finally gave in.

I used to just like Twitter. I was a little bummed that more people I knew in real life didn’t use Twitter and I’m too shy to really @reply to people, but I liked it’s clean, app-free interface. Then I came across Twitter Search and really saw how useful it was during the whole educational and entertaining #queryfail escapade. With Tweetie, an iPhone app, I can both read the updates from people I follow, reply and message, access Nearby tweets (based on my location), do searches for topics and check out what’s trending.

And lo, as I tap-tap-taped on my iPhone, idly seeing what’s trending after getting a head’s up yesterday about the new Doctor Who airing in the UK, and I see the top two trends – Easter and #amazonfail.

The story so far: starting around two days ago, the sales ranks for books containing gay and lesbian content were being removed bit by bit until today where so many were missing that a shit storm hit Twitter with a force rivaling the celebration of chocolate bunnies and zombie Jesus. When authors first started questioning the missing ranks, they received responses to the effect of we’re excluding certain books for the consideration of their buyers (delicate souls that they are). As I followed the #amazonfail, a petition was organized, and there was talk that it was an automatic filter based on the tags so a plan was hatched to tag-spam all sorts of books (aren’t we allowed to suggest what we found objectionable?) for which I cannot find the link. Sorry.

As the evening wore on and #amazonfail hit number one on Twitter trends, there came news that it was a glitch, a terribly odd and coincidental glitch that they are working on correcting. Which, frankly, is horseshit. Right now, if you type in ‘homosexuality’ in Amazon.com’s search engine, the top book that shows up is “A Parent’s Guide To Preventing Homosexuality”. This ‘glitch’ focused entirely on GLBT fiction and non-fiction, claiming that it was due to adult content, even though sexually explicit heterosexual fiction and even run-of-the-mill pornography is still available.

It wasn’t a glitch. Amazon got caught. And now they have to back-peddle. I would rather hear that they temporarily bowed to insane, right-wing pressure and have since come to regret their actions than to come up with a really weak excuse. The fact that they were already telling authors who had lost their ranks that it was on purpose. So which is it, bigotry or competence?

And this is why I now love, wholly and deeply, Twitter. As other folks have noticed, for something that has crushed Twitter all day, #amazonfail is receiving no attention elseweb from traditional media (so far). Where else would I have heard this? Or would these books have just quietly gone missing?

More here on the unlikelihood of this whole, sad ‘glitch’ business.

If this isn’t resolved, I’ll be nuking my Amazon.ca account (accounts indicate that it’s also been affected by the ‘glitch’). I honestly didn’t think that anything would make me switch back to Indigo/Chapters. But you know what? I think this did it.

Thanks Twitter. In the spirit of the infamous #failwhale, can we call this a #whalewin?

Edited to add:  This here is a very interesting counter-point on how it could be an accident.  That would be the only gimme I’d give them.

So, How Did It Go?

Not bad.  Not bad.

I didn’t get to stay too long.  My hair appointment was at 10:45 a.m., so by 10:00 a.m. I had to go, get the car and then hit my stops before the appointment.  I thought I had to spend money in the mall to get the free parking but it turns out I didn’t.  Good to know for the next time that I go out.

I did get my new notes into the computer, though that was only about 250 words.  I did experiment with the wireless access there, and sure enough I had loaded up my messenger program and even made an avatar manga-style after checking Twitter.  I stopped myself before actually sending a messenger-salvo to Lesley – it would have defeated the entire purpose of going there.  I either need to go someplace where there is no WiFi or download that program that will turn off the WiFi for a set period, up to three hours.

Still, I got more done than I usually do.  I said something to my brother the other day (also newly Mac-ized) that the Mac feels like a tool I can play with compared to a PC that feels like a toy that I want to work on.   I asked him if it made sense, and he said yes.  So far I’m not as tempted to just fart around on it like I did the PC, and all the things I get excited about are productivity toys.  When I borrow it from Todd now, the old laptop feels heavy and slick and foreign to me.  Weird how fast you get used to something.

Meanwhile I’m angsting about Spirit Cats.  I think I’m getting bored.  Which is a classic sign of two things: 1) it’s getting harder now and my initial reaction is to give up and 2) I need to entertain myself more with it.  My beginning is sort of slow, cozy even. And I need to do some work on my character’s initial motivations.  

[Snipped Spirit Cat musings and moanings.  I'll spare you the horror and uncomfortableness.]

Still, I think I’ll go again.  To write at the coffee shop, or maybe the library.  Now that I know I have three hours of parking free, I can time it.  I think it’s worth exploring.

Futzing Around

So … Script Frenzy. Yeah.

I managed two more pages at work, tho’ I have yet to type them in. They cover an introduction of sorts to the idea for Candy Floss that’s gelled in my mind. But having not talked with Lesley about any of it, who knows if this is what it would be at all? And with that in mind, what happens next is a big blank. I sat there for a while at work, trying to will the next scene into being, but nothing came. I read instead.

As for Spirit Cats, it’s complicated. What has started out as ‘just for fun’ and ‘never show it to anyone’ has become a full-fledged relationship. Instead of sneaking around for a hot date after hours, now she’s left her tampons in my bathroom, wants me to introduce her to my parents and has left all these bridal magazines lying around the house. I’m skittish. I no longer know how to interact with her without making her mad.

(Trust me, I tried to figure out what the male equivalent to that would be, but my limited imagination offered none … then, again, I don’t think most men pester about commitment in the same way that it is stereotypical for women to do so. Regardless, I’m over thinking the comparison.)

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to figure out how to water my plant without killing it (too much? not enough? arg!) and spending my time reading, playing Beautiful Katamari (which should be renamed to Fiendish Katamari) and covering a few of my writing books with that clear adhesive plastic. As I Twittered – fetish. Books that I gave to the public library still sport the same plastic covering job I did when I owned them.

And trying not to nap. Forgot my pill yesterday, which means today, mental marshmallow land. I have moments of clarity, but they are few. Instead, I blunder about the house in a fog, hoping I don’t bump into anything sharp.

Like a pencil. Or a pen. Or … arg … I’m pressuring myself too much, making it too much of a big deal. Sometimes you need downtime. Sometimes you need a kick in the pants.

Sometimes you need a self-esteem infusion.

Can I get that Pepsi-flavored?

Scribo Takeover

(I think) I’ve completed the transfer of this blog to my scribofelidae@gmail.com account. In fact, in a weird twist of OCDism, I’ve installed Firefox onto the computer and will use it as my writing browser.

For some reason, Twitter and my IE7 do not mix. I’m not talking oil and vinegar here, where some sort of emulsion might blend the two for a time; I’m talking matter and anti-matter – boom.

So FireFox is my Writing Browser. It will have the new email address, my writing blog, my twitter account (and I shall delete the other completely), and perhaps some writing/research links.

No web comics.

No cute animal sites.

No trawling of non-writing feeds.

No general message boards where I refresh a half-dozen times a day.

If I have to, I’ll kill the wireless. I don’t want to, but damn I need to stop distracting myself.

Meantime, I finished the very fun Blood Trail by Tanya Huff and I am now onto the “thinky” I was craving, coming in the form of the legendary The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. So far, fantastic.

New Programs, Old Programs

I shelled out the cash for PageFour but have played with it for all of 20 minutes since doing so. I received a bonus at work, so I figured I could splurge. I brought my laptop to work yesterday to play with it since I was going to be there an hour early anyways, but as soon as I arrived was pulled into a co-worker-hangout-thingie that ended that. And this morning I had every intention of puttering around with it, but our breakfast out with a pal followed with an excruciating 50-minute car wash adventure that ruined any happy mood I woke up with.

Now I’m home with an hour or so left feeling annoyed and defeated and rushed.

I’m also reconfiguring Twitter, which I swore off not two weeks ago, because Lesley’s joined up. *waves to Lesley* I’m being lame and creating a new ID there that matches this blog title/address. I figured, if I am starting again let’s start fresh. Of course, Twitter has me swearing a blue-streak as it rejects my password over and over. I wonder if it just doesn’t like IE, my comp, me, or if there is some server weirdness. Frustrating.

So, blah. Headache. Cranky. Todd bugged the hell out of me this morning like a 10-year-old ADD kid whacked out on caffeine. He’s lucky he didn’t get bludgened to death.

Meanwhile, I continue to be creative in the spare moments at work. Made many notes for Grave Robber and progress has renewed on Spirit Cat. When I will get them into the computer is anyone’s guess.

Isolation and Fear of Company

I’ve been infused with a certain amount of laziness the last few days. Any attempts at 10-minute magic ended weeks ago, and I used the secondary laptop about three times, with much success, though for whatever reason (laziness?) I just don’t yank it out. I get onto my beautiful little widescreen to check email and then I end up puttering.

Doesn’t help that some features of LSB run terrifically slow off the USB stick – mostly due to the old laptop having an old 1.0 USB port and not one of the newer, faster ports. It’s like I know it will be slow, so I don’t want to do it. Meanwhile at work I almost always manage something – new ideas, new scene snippets, on Spirit Cat, though Wednesday I ended up writing a scene fragment for an short story idea from the summer and yesterday nothing came at all, just read instead. I have added most of the recent notes into LSB the other day, just not all. I feel I need to sit down with some cards and start mapping things out, looking for the connections. I’m also worried that, so far, it’s a very quiet, interpersonal urban fantasy that may not have enough boom, so to speak, in the action department. All my scenes to-date are characters back and forth, either discovering the new world or arguing about it.

(But, again, if it’s for me, my entertainment is at stake, no one elses. Spirit Cat is still firmly in the, “you are writing for you, never will show it, so the only way to fail is by giving up” camp.)

I have these twin urges – communicate with others yet hide away from them at the same time. I haven’t done a damn thing with the Online Writers Workshop out of fear. I deleted Twitter from my computer because I felt like I had mispoken somewhere, and had shamed myself from every participating there again. Or worse, that I was still invisible besides all that. I was once an eager, accepted participant in several internet communities 4-8 years ago, but after my experiences there I withdrew, an octupus too afraid to reach out anymore because I’d lost too many suckers and a couple of the tentacles to boot. Now I linger, lurk, semi-camoflagued in the corners wanting to reach out but too afraid to give away my position. Why?

I know it will end badly. I know I will look foolish. I know people won’t like me.

And I only have so many tentacles left.

Which, of course, prevents me from trying anything new, learning that that isn’t the case, and stops me from moving forward.

Yet I miss it. I must, why else scour RPG.net looking for threads of interest, reading, having things to say, and finding reasons not to say them? Even this blog, like other times, where I write and where no one reads, mostly because I haven’t sent the address to anyone because I’m afraid that they wouldn’t read it anyways. I will resist the urge to abandon it because no one reads it, since it’s me that keeps it hidden in the first place. Holy circular logic, Batman.

Maybe I need to embrace the Octopus? Make it my emblem, craft a motto around it?

(Fantastic…now I’m watching Octopus videos…sigh…)

Feeling Like A Twit

Thanks to help from Leah over at the Online Writing Workshop, I was able to re-create my username, spelled correctly and everything, and get on board. At the moment, I’m putzing around on the site, trying to get my bearings, before taking the dual leap of posting a short story and trying my first crit.

Also playing around on Twitter. I like it…it’s like Facebook with just the update screen and none of the spam or related annoyances in the mix, but I feel like I’m having a hard time finding people to connect with. None of my RL friends use the system, and I’ve been very timid about posting when the only ones who can see me Twitter are the four writers that I’m following. I was inspired to join because of Solidarity, when many of the online writers were doing word wars with each other, but I missed that boat apparently – bought the ticket and the cruise wear for nothin’.

Probably for the best. With the attension span that I have, yet another application probably isn’t for the b– SHINY! Look, SHINY! Mine! CAW! CAW!

Twit Redux: Yanno, really, I don’t need to be on Twitter. Bye-Bye. *delete*