So I haven’t blogged in weeks because I wasn’t ready to write that. That’s okay. You can read about it here, where it’s explained why the “glitch” isn’t just a glitch.

The issue with #AmazonFail isn’t that a French Employee pressed the wrong button or could affect the system by changing “false” to “true” in filtering certain “adult” classified items, it’s that Amazon’s system has assumptions such as: sexual orientation is part of “adult”. And “gay” is part of “adult.” In other words, #AmazonFail is about the subconscious assumptions of people built into algorithms and classification that contain discriminatory ideas.

Also, this is interesting: AmazonFail–10 Unanswered Questions. I’d like the answers too. This follow-up also makes some excellent points.

Also on the Amazon Fail Whale: Why Kindle may not be your best option. Srsly. They can make it (pretty nearly) a doorstop with the press of a button.

All of these things, every last one, can be debated, I’m sure. And so can this one, but it’s the one I’m standing by–Amazon is so big it’s driving others out of business, and I don’t trust them to be my sole provider of anything. Who knows what they’ll try to protect me from next?

Powell’s Books has tons of stuff, excellent customer service, a free shipping offer after a certain amount, and their free-shipping is faster than Amazon’s. Not to mention they’re just lovely people. I’m still looking for a safe place to buy DRM-free music, though.

So. There it is. My big Amazon Still Sucks post. Next time, back to the writing! Yay!

Amazon is being monumentally stupid. That, or someone has hacked them. I’m betting it’s the former, because it’s just harder to believe in their lack of security than it is in their intelligence.

They have, apparently, decided to make it harder to find pr0n on their website. Okay, fine. Stupid, since people shopping at Amazon presumably have credit cards and are therefore adults, but fine.

The problem comes in when anything with the tag “gay” seems to be hidden as well. (not “you can’t find it.” It’s a matter of search terms and ranking–so you can’t outright tell they’ve made it harder to find. Read here for a clearer explanation.)

Set aside everything else for the moment, all the “it’s their right!” and “lolcensorshipwut?” Here’s why I’m fuming and going through customer service rep after CS rep (politely, of course) trying to cancel my order of two days ago.

I’m furious because these fools are hurting my friends. How dare you tell these wonderful people that who they love makes them less? How dare you hide my friends, Amazon, how dare you tell them they don’t matter as much as others?

FUCK THAT.

I am not blindly jumping on a wagon, here–one of my friends got a book from his DAD for Easter, and that book is one of the ones deranked. He checked; I checked. I have searched these titles. It’s true, as of the last time I looked, right before I began this entry.

And so, with a rage on behalf of my friends, I participate. When YA gay love stories (YA=Young Adult. As in, Harry Potter, Eragon and the Little House books) are hidden but Girls Gone Wild and Playboy aren’t, because of an “adult” label? You’re fucking right I’m pissed enough to swear.

This is called a GoogleBomb (but it’s just a link–I believe in censure of idiots, not harming of anyone.) Amazon Rank

We spent five hours there.   They had Bly take her Ohio plates off the car, and she broke her swiss army knife doing it (no doing it for you or even having a damn screw driver handy for our DMV, oh no…)  So when we realized we were all starving three hours in, and we had at the very least another hour to go–we couldn’t just pop down the street for a burger.

And while I’m whining–why not a play area?  Why not vending machines?  If you’re going to set things up so people who have one old car and no computer (ergo, can’t do it online, though they’ll taunt you about that over the loudspeaker) have to spend the entire day at the DMV with their four children to stay legal, why not provide some sort of relief for all concerned?

How about a few more damned chairs, if you’re going to funnel all the people who can only spend that kind of time at the DMV on the weekends into one (of three) offices on one day?

The good news is, Bly is now registered and licensed in Arizona.  In the words of the delightful Brigid, whom we are making plans to “spring” from her jail-like cubicle, “Welcome to Arizona, Sucker.” 

AND despite all that, I accomplished (drum roll please!) 1039 words!  Yay!!  And got Luc arrested.  umm…

For movie night we watched Read or Die! a hysterical anime about a girl who has to save the world to get her book back, then Adult Swim on Cartoon Network.  Finally found out why all the hoopla about Bleach (fun, fun, fun!) and got knocked on our butts by Trinity Blood.

Oooh. Trinity Blood.  There’s vampires–and then there’s something meaner.  Whee!

So this one goes down as a good day.  hurray!

An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday.

Hey, can we send you a few who are so on fire for their faith (we know because they persecute anyone who doesn’t agree completely with them) they’d like to die as martyrs?  Take them, and let this man go.  Sixteen years, the story says, in the face of his religion being against the law–he’s one worth keeping, I think.