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July 6th, 2009
06:22 pm - Public Enemy Number One
I'm in a pretty awesome mood. I got tickets to the midnight show of Harry Potter at the Chinese theater. I'm going to go watch the Angels destroy the Skankies and then shoot fireworks on Friday, and I think I finally figured out how to organize my closet (a.k.a. the former darkroom) into a workspace/dressing room that shall magically both use the Difficult Piece of Furniture (a 6 foot teak dining table. It's just about the last thing I need, but I don't want to sell it) and remove massive clutter from my space. It's sort of sad that the prospect of finally organizing that room is more exciting than the latest hit of my fannish addiction.
I saw Public Enemy yesterday. ( Not *incredibly* spoilery blather about the cinematics of Public Enemy. )
So Michael Mann, I totally forgive Miami Vice (seriously, WHAT were you thinking?) and I think this was brilliant. I think in a few years when people start looking back at how digital changed the language of film, this movie will be cited and taught and picked apart in film history classes.
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June 27th, 2009
June 24th, 2009
09:31 am - 10 things I hate about you
Oh fandom, some times I fucking hate you. Seriously, most of the time you're reasoned, fun, and intelligent. You raise incredible points in your debates, you've changed my mind about more than a few things. But there are certain issues which hit too close to home for you, and at that point you become a rampaging monster. Seriously fandom, if you're reading something and it's making you so angry that you want to physically harm the person who wrote it, put the internets down and back away from the computer.
1. The internet is not a safe place. Fandom is not a safe place. We can debate till the cows come home whether it should be, however the fact remains it is not. Failure to act accordingly is not "fandom's" problem - it's yours.
2. A journal post where someone recounts their history of sexual abuse is not a good place to engage in a debate about the validity of their experiences. Actually, there's really no good place for that, but especially not there.
3. Just because it is online and available *to* you does not mean it is *for* you.
4. Fandom is an adult space. Yes, we all know or have been that precocious child who was reading K/S in the library, but children are not by and large the intended audience of fannish works. As adults we are responsible for our own shit.
5. My/yours/hers personal history with rape/abuse (or lack there of) are no one's fucking business and are not an ante chip. And seriously, a giant fuck you to everyone engaging in victim olympics and or conflating disagreeing with aspects of an argument with blaming the victim.
6. AFAICT the author that kicked of this latest round of sound and fury does in fact post warnings on her fic. When she was approached by readers who felt she should have warned for dub-con she answered she hadn't intended it that was, but added a warning anyway. Apparently authorial intent only counts in the header.
7. You don't get to decide how other people behave, how they participate in fandom, or how they interpret what you've written. It isn't all about you. Or me. Or any of us. Thank fucking God.
8. Blocklists are assholic and grudgy.
9. Disagreeing, or pointing out problematic "moral" reasoning is not the same as silencing rape victims. Pretending they are to win debate points is disgusting.
10. Posting a differing opinion in your own journal is not derailing the conversation. You are welcome to have your conversation in your space, I will have the conversation I want to have in my space. Conversations are not a finite commodity. Just because I'm having one doesn't mean there are any fewer left for you.
To sum up, fuck you fandom. There are things called killfiles and scroll buttons. They are wonderful things, and once you master their mysterious art you will find yourself in a happier place. I am going to dinner and a movie, because real life trumps your crazy.
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May 31st, 2009
12:28 pm - From the mouths of babes
This kid is just 10 years old. He's amazing.
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April 18th, 2009
10:43 am
I created another community over on The Dee Wee. I have no idea why I'm calling it that btw, it just sounds better than "Dee Double You" or "Duh Wuh". Dee Wheeeeee! sounds like a fun place to beeeeeee in.
Anyway, one of my issues when moving is not about finding the old stuff I subscribed to on my old journals. Usually the people running those comms are pretty good about linking the ever loving crap out of their new space, and even when they no longer post on the old site there are links, or notices, or a row of breadcrumbs left for me to find my way home.
My issue is finding NEW stuff to be interested in. To me that's part of the shiny of a new space: people doing new and nifty stuff. It's like moving into a new home and deciding, well I *could* repaint it to look exactly like my old apartment, -OR- you could bust out that purplegreen you were always itching to try but didn't think the timing was right.
So with that in mind I created on_width over there. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lim gets all the credit for the cool name. (Seriously, I was playing with "ondewe" because it's really close to the Dutch "onderweg". Yes, I was punning in Dutch, before she stopped me.) It's actually my second comm - the first was a community for media fans who also play WoW that I called FanWow. Yes, like Sham Wow. You think that's bad, I had a Gnome on Wow I named Chompski, and my undead magician? AbraKadaver. Clearly I NEED TO BE STOPPED.
Terrible punniness aside, Please join, pimp, share -
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April 14th, 2009
12:28 am - Why Silence = Death
I hate admitting this, but am actually old enough to remember the AIDS epidemic. I lost my virginity the same year Ronald Reagan publicly mentioned AIDS for the first time. By then, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died. ( . )
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April 12th, 2009
07:18 pm - Updating Amazon.fail
AMAZON'S SPOKEPERSON'S EXCUSE 2.0
This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection. It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon's main product search. Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future. djin7 sent me this, which is another twist on what amazon.fail has deranked:
Mostly Gay and Lesbian works of fiction and non-fiction. Self-help and autobiographies. Not the least of which is Bastard Out of Carolina, a novel by Dorothy Allison - who taught at Columbia College while I was attending. A book, written by a lesbian author, yes - but does not deal with lesbian or gay issues - but rather, address child abuse.
AMAZON.FAIL NOW CLAIMING A GLITCH RESPONSIBLE.
From Publisher's Weekly:A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy.
Why am I picturing a guy named Arthur Glitch sitting in Amazon HQ?
Seriously though, that in an incredibly slippery response. There's no new adult policy, but amazon's stated policy when they responded to an authors is:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature. Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us. Best regards, Ashlyn D Member Services Amazon.com Advantage So not new policy, but new enforcement. VERY Slippery, Ashlyn. Plus if I'm right, you're treating customers in bad faith. It's selective new enforcement of old policy - or does Amazon.fail actually expect people to believe that a random series of events caused the deranking of queer friendly books?
Also, it's long but if you did want to call amazon and tell them what you think I have a bunch of numbers (including for international callers) on my last post.
PEOPE WHO ASSUMED AMAZON THAT COOL COMPANY IN SEATTLE ALSO MEANT LIBERAL, READ THIS
As for Amazon, well, it is a bit distressing for many of us who love that bulbous megastore and who shop there all the time to discover that they gave so much to Repubs, which is just odd and a bit inexplicable, especially given how they're based in hugely liberal Seattle and geeky CEO Jeff Bezos seemed at one time to be reasonably attuned and quirky and progressive, except maybe he's not.
YET MORE ALGORITHM GLITCHING?
I'm sure there are all sorts of elaborate excuses about user-driven content and metrics and interfaces and algorithms and blah blah blah, meant to make my silly little girly head understand this sort of thing is just the price we've all got to pay in the wild west of the internetz. But, suffice it to say, I could not come even close to recreating these results at Barnes and Noble, nor any other online retailer I tried.
Nowhere else was I offered up an opportunity to browse "rape products" clearly tailored to people who get off on rape. Nowhere else was I asked if I meant to search for "age," but nonetheless offered a link to browse "rape products." Nowhere else did I see "revenge" or "women" associated with rape.
THAT GLITCH ALSO DERANKS BOOKS ABOUT DISABILITY AND FEMINISM
But what hardly anyone is talking about (yet) is that books to do with disability and sexuality have had their rank stripped too. Books like Tom Shakespeare et al's sociology text book "The Sexual Politics of Disability". "The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability" has also been de-ranked.
- and -
My book — a young adult book, one right on the shelves with everything else in the young adult section at the library, for crying out loud — is among them. So are: Changing Bodies, Changing Lives: Expanded Third Edition: A Book for Teens on Sex and Relationships by Ruth Bell, Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape, Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters by Jessica Valenti, Cycle Savvy by Toni Weschler, Tipping the Velvetby Sarah Waters, Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein and too many others to count.
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02:16 pm - Amazonfail, and getting out the virtual pitchforks.
For the casual internet user who may have missed it, Amazon has decided to derank book/products with what they deem to be "adult themes". What they actually mean by "adult themes" is homosexuality, bisexuality, lesbianism and transgenderism. The authors and books affected by this include Annie Proulx Brokeback Mountain, "Heather Has Two Mommies", and the clearly pornographic "The Lesbian Parenting Book". There are a lot of blogs posting lists and initial reactions,(seriously, I've been tagging stuff for metfan for the last three hours) and some fairly frightening observations about the length to which Amazon.fail is going to invisible queer content:
This sounds like a big old bowl of BS, does it not? Especially when you consider the fact that Amazon has vibrators, clitoral stimulators and anal plugs available in their search system with sales ranks attached. One wonders why these items are allowed to remain in the system with sales ranks while books including gay and lesbian content, themes, and even, as a commenter points out, autobiographies of gay and lesbian authors such as Stephen Fry, are deemed too "adult" for such things.<
The amazon rank system, or deranking causes actual financial harm to the authors of these books, because it removes them from searches. (incidentally, the google bomb is working. Go us!)
DeRanking is an attack on the visibility and acceptance of GLBT people in the community.
DeRanking is about making queer invisible.
DeRanking queer content means that when you enter the search term "homosexuality" on Amazon.fail, the first ranked result is "A Parent's guide to preventing homosexuality".
This is unfolding so quickly, it's hard to follow - but while I was linking for metafandom djin7 was feeding me all kinds of great links that I want to share - because they are people taking action, people letting Amazon.Fail know exactly what we think of this, because it's happeing right now.
There's discussions on the amazon boards, and people are linking to the close your amazon account page. BookSquare has An open letter to Amazon up, and of course there is a petition.
BUY BOOKS ELSEWHERE
A lot of people are coming up with alternatives to Amazon.fail.
aliciamasters points out:
Borders has achieved yet another 100% score from HRC (the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.) They offer same-sex benefits to all employees who have insurance in all areas: medical, optical, dental and life insurance. They have several action committees in the home office, including an GLBT group, a GLBT book club, and diversity training.
rydra_wong (I think, again this is happening pretty quickly so if I miscredit, or get it wrong, please let me know) *someone* created a twitter hashtag #amazonfail. It's currently getting a new message about every 4 seconds, and some of those comments have great links on where the discussion is happening:
EKSwitaj: Ulysses has retained its sales rank; I can only assume this is because no one at Amazon has read it. #amazonfail
RowanMcBride: RT @Erastes apparently Amazon is now demanding emails instead of phone calls. RING LIKE THE WIND BULLSEYE! #amazonfail
stewardess has some interesting speculation on how this likely happened:Some group (Parents For Keeping Children Off The Internet So They Never Learn Anything Other Than What We Tell Them) complained. Then a poor sod in IT got tasked by an executive with making the bad books go away, and was pressured (as IT always is) to pick the cheapest and quickest fix: singling out books based on interestskeywords, then stripping sales rank as a crappy but effective method of killfiling said books at Amazon.
My hunch is that Kindle being left out was not exactly deliberate. As the sexy, new (and hopefully wildly profitable) technology, Kindle is a separate division with its own execs at the reins, and possibly the clout to ignore half-assed directives. Kindle products are also favored in searches; screwing with the Kindle side might have made a whole lot of unrelated stuff break. Kindle honchos may have been able to successfully argue, "We can't do the same stupid keyword and sales rank crap you did; we are delicate and special!" Edit: Paper books have ISBNs, Kindle books have ASNs; Amazon's censorship (at least this round) appears to have been of ISBN products only.
AMAZON.FAIL NOW CLAIMING A GLITCH RESPONSIBLE.
From Publisher's Weekly:A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy. Why am I picturing a guy named Arthur Glitch sitting in Amazon HQ?
Seriously though, that in an incredibly slippery response. There's no new adult policy, but amazon's stated policy when they responded to an authors is:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature. Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us. Best regards, Ashlyn D Member Services Amazon.com Advantage
So not new policy, but new enforcement. VERY Slippery, Ashlyn. Plus if I'm right, you're treating customers in bad faith. So it's selective new enforcement of old policy - or does Amazon.fail actually expect people to believe that a random series of events caused the deranking of queer friendly books?
NEW UPDATES HERE
People have been calling Amazon, flooding their customer service line. Amazon asked that we send an email instead. Oh LOL no. Making the protest quiet and easy to handle defeats the purpose. In case you're having trouble finding the numbers (you have to sign in before they let you see an actual phone number, and that's hard if you've cancelled your account) here ya go, courtesy of cliche ideas:
US Customer Service
Phone toll-free in the US and Canada: (800) 201-7575 or (866) 216-1072
Phone from outside the US and Canada: (206) 346-2992 or (206)-266-2992
Another direct line: (206) 266-2335
E-mail: orders@amazon.com (I think this will still work, but no guarantees) E-mail address and the fax numbers seem to go on- and off-line with some regularity. Readers have also had luck with the following addresses:
resolution@amazon.com
charge-inquiries@amazon.com
jeff@amazon.com
(This last e-mail address sends back an note from Amazon that using it won't help you. There may be nobody reading the e-mail that comes to this address.) Amazon's rebate center: 1-866-348-2492
Amazon Corporate Accounts:1-866-486-2360 Snail mail to customer service
Amazon.com, Inc.
Customer Service
PO Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108-1226 Service for Amazon Sellers
877-251-0696
They also have special e-mail accounts for spoofing and abuse:
stop-spoofing@amazon.com
reports@amazon.com
(This information was provided by a reader! Thanks!) Canadian Customer Service
Phone 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific: (877)-586-3230 Corporate Offices, Seattle
(206) 622-2335
The fax number has changed. 206-266-1832 is no longer a fax number. New! Fax for Amazon's legal Department: 206-266-7010 UK Customer Service
Phone: +44.208.636.9200
More UK numbers, from a reader:
Freephone (only from within the UK): 0800 279 6620
Phone (outside the UK): +44 20 8636 9451
Fax (free from within the UK): 0800 279 6630
Fax (outside the UK): +44 20 8636 9401
An Aussie who contacted me verified the number above but for Aussies you need to dial it this way: 0011 1 206 266-2992. UK Snail Mail:
Amazon.co.uk Ltd
Patriot Court
1-9 The Grove
Slough
SL1 1QP Amazon.com Headquarters
Address: 1200 12th Ave., Ste. 1200
Seattle, WA 98144
Phone: (206) 266-1000
Fax: (206) 622-2405
Info e-mail: in@amazon.com is no longer a working e-mail address.
(Amazon's CEO is Jeff Bezos, if you want a name to put on an e-mail or fax to this office.) Incidentally, the cool kids on twitter have unmasked Amazon's technical officer's blog and twitter so that we can let him know what we think of this new program.
I'm about to lose internet access for the afternoon (I think. They're doing some work on the guesthouse and my modem is still plugged in over there) so I'm posting this now and hopefully can update when my connection is more stable.
Edit: I have internet on and off. Exciting!
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March 30th, 2009
07:18 pm - More from the city garden.
I made more tomato trees today. Or a few tomato trees and a few pepper trees. I might try cucumbers in the upside-down planters as well, and then I'll have a greek salad tree.
( Read more... )
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January 27th, 2009
02:31 am - The appeal the BBC is afraid will taint their objectivity
Because of course, "objectivity" and "BBC" are synonymous. /eyeroll
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January 17th, 2009
10:04 am
Back from San Francisco/Calistoga/Russian River. Pictures to follow. But for now I have just one burning question:
Does Gordon Ramsey take his shirt off in every episode?
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January 7th, 2009
December 20th, 2008
08:37 pm
I just went to a Christmas party at a friend of a friends apartment. The apartment building was in a mall. The windows overlooked the mall's plaza/fountain extravaganza, and the entrance was this almost secret passage thing between Victoria's Secret & the theater.
This is weird, right?
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December 11th, 2008
07:03 pm - Home invasion, LA style
So last night I was reorganizing my computer stuff, and a helicopter started circling my house. They do that here, loud and bright lights over head, shining in the window and generally terrifying the dog. This one seemed a bit close, so I made sure the doors were locked and went back to my non-work. Tonight, while I was setting up my tree, my dad came down to tell me that he had someone try to invade his home.
My dad put the antique glass door back on the house about three years ago. In the interest of security he had the glass framed with thick plexiglass - and it's lucky he did, because some random home invader person started pounding. Like, with a hammer. My dad naturally went for a gun, opened the door and confronted Mr. Burglar - who demanded; "Give me money you rich bastard", until he realized he had brought a hammer to a gun fight, and took off.
The whole thing is so WHAT THE HELL? I mean seriously WHO breaks into houses like that? There are easier ways to break in to my dad's house - hell MOST houses than hammering through the FRONT DOOR ffs. Less asking-to-be-caught ways. The whole thing was like those godawful security alarm commercials where Mom hears the BAD MAN breaking her door down (thus interrupting her idyllic cookie baking daughter bonding moment) until he is scared off by Westec calling to ask if they're OK. I had Westec, trust me they ain't that fast. Did the would-be thief watch that commercial and think, "Oh what a great IDEA!" and just go for it? How far at the bottom of the criminal totem pole are you if you're cribbing from FAILED burglaries on TV commercials?
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December 7th, 2008
12:24 pm - Back to LJ
Maybe it's the weather, or the way that our new Russian Overlords have contrasted with the management of six apart, or just knowing that none of my money will go towards supporting Anil Dash (I hope right? I mean, when six apart sold LJ, they kept Anil, right?), but I've rejoined the ranks of paid members. I feel like SUP has earned back some of the trust of squee that six apart lost.
So, 'sup?
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10:27 am - Crockpot <3
I bought a crockpot this AFM or maybe the last one, I'm not sure. Desperate appliance buying doesn't make my memory base of "Important Dates To Remember", so I couldn't tell you when I got the thing. But I have one, and recently I've been using it. It's got about as cold as it's going to get in LA - a nippy 65°F, with enough rain to make mudslides in the recently scorched earth portions of the city a real possibility - so I've been making what is apparently called warming stodge.
Per request, I'm posting my most recent pot o' meat.
( Om nom nom nom )
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September 27th, 2008
09:29 am
Paul Newman? You can't be dead. I was going to marry you when I grew up.
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01:07 am - One classic moment
McCain closing with "When I got out of prison..." and all the lines on CNN's insta-polls sank like stones as the less-than-bright across America went, "...wait, grandpa's a felon?!"
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September 18th, 2008
12:57 pm - Not dead
I'm just sicker than a dog. But I wanted to wave and say a quick thank you. I've caught some nasty summer flu which has me bedridden and makes thinking/writing/living hurt.
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September 4th, 2008
04:39 am - Oh Irene
So last night we were talking about the Dan Band of all things - I went to a show 6(?) years ago, it was a riot - and I somehow ended up here:
I can't stop watching it. Just, Oh, Irene.
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