Writtenwyrdd

Waxing a bit political

It's my blog, so after days of disappointment, I'm going to just say it:  I am sorely disappointed that the gay marriage law was overturned here in Maine (after being so proud it was drawn up and passed in the first place)--and I'm 99% certain it was overturned because people are gullible and believed the blatant falsehoods bandied about regarding the consequences of allowing same-sex couples the same legal protections and opportunities as non-same-sex couples.  Because the radio ads made me sick, sicker than the the election result.  Lies saying if you vote for gay marriage (equal rights) you are going to have gay marriage, gay politics, or gay everything and anything taught to your kids in school.  Give me a freaking break. 

Rant over.  But, for my birth state (California) and my home state (Maine) I do apologize to those of you who don't get to have equal rights yet.  We're trying.

-ings & -lys & Ejaculations, Oh My!!! (repost)

*Over on Evil Editor's blog, a [not-so-]recent post reminded me that I dislike Only In The (Rule)Box thinking.  Specifically, the insistence that one cannot use any dialog tag but 'said' generally, and that gerunds and adverbs are B.A.D. bad.

Not that EE is wrong; I believe his point about dialog tags is an excellent one.  (And his advice is automatically better than mine because he's EE and appears to know what he's talking about.)  It's just that I get tired of the bandwagon agreement I keep hearing about advice in general, making said opinions and advice into cast-in-concrete rules that make or break a writing project.  And I say NO.  It is the writer's ability that makes or breaks the project, not whether or not she abides by a series of five or fifty or five hundred rules about How To Write.  We all know these rules are broken all the time by good writers; and I aspire to that sort of craft skill. 

It is the insistence of the rabid throng who follow RULES absolutely that make me want to scream Think For Yourselves, Damn It! 

Because I believe it is inherent in my job as a writer to challenge these so-called rules, which are really observations of what generally works easily and well.  In a larger scope, such as the use of "ejaculated" instead of "said" it is really FASHION.  Yes, fashion.  And we writers have our very own trend-watchers insisting that we all must wear pink because it's the new black or some such.

Pshaw, I say.  Ejaculate away, and not only in your erotica.  I mean, let's not take this rule-following too seriously.  Let's engage our artistic minds and our crafty skills to use the so-called bad words to effect.

They are words.  They are our tools.  Learn to use them creatively,  not slavishly.

Maybe I should just shrug and say Rules Are For Sissies.  But they aren't; they are actually helpful as rules of thumb, just not when they are absolutes.

Rant over.  Thanks for bearing with me!

*Reposted from 24Feb2008

Not that EE is wrong; I believe his point about dialog tags is an excellent one.  (And his advice is automatically better than mine because he's EE and appears to know what he's talking about.)  It's just that I get tired of the bandwagon agreement I keep hearing about advice in general, making said opinions and advice into cast-in-concrete rules that make or break a writing project.  And I say NO.  It is the writer's ability that makes or breaks the project, not whether or not she abides by a series of five or fifty or five hundred rules about How To Write.  We all know these rules are broken all the time by good writers; and I aspire to that sort of craft skill. 

It is the insistence of the rabid throng who follow RULES absolutely that make me want to scream Think For Yourselves, Damn It! 

Because I believe it is inherent in my job as a writer to challenge these so-called rules, which are really observations of what generally works easily and well.  In a larger scope, such as the use of "ejaculated" instead of "said" it is really FASHION.  Yes, fashion.  And we writers have our very own trend-watchers insisting that we all must wear pink because it's the new black or some such.

Pshaw, I say.  Ejaculate away, and not only in your erotica.  I mean, let's not take this rule-following too seriously.  Let's engage our artistic minds and our crafty skills to use the so-called bad words to effect.

They are words.  They are our tools.  Learn to use them creatively,  not slavishly.

Maybe I should just shrug and say Rules Are For Sissies.  But they aren't; they are actually helpful as rules of thumb, just not when they are absolutes.

Rant over.  Thanks for bearing with me!

*Reposted from 24Feb2008

Happy Fathers' Day!

Cake borrowed from CakeWrecks.

Fathers' Day is always a bitter day for me, so forgive my attitude in advance, okay?  I really, really appreciate wonderful, caring, participating fathers.  Fathers who, despite jobs, divorce, or geographic separation, manage to make sure they are part of their children's lives and that they are cared for.  Even more, I want a father like that...because I did not have one.  In fact, my father was an abusive son of a bitch who has much to apologize for yet won't admit he did anything wrong.  (And I'm talking things for which he should have been locked away for a long time.)  I'm just waiting for the man to die so I can piss on his grave.  It's the only reason I have kept in touch, I swear.  Just so I know when he dies and can celebrate.  I haven't seen him since I was 17 and he arrived, uninvited, to my high school graduation and expected my brother to give up his ticket so he could attend.  We sent him packing with a flea in his ear.

My brother, on the other hand, manned up and did his best to ensure his daughter was a part of his life and he a part of hers--despite an acrimonious divorce and continued harrassment by his ex and her family.  It didn't work out so well thanks to court systems that favor the mother no matter how insane and abusive to the child; but my niece loves her dad and lives with him now and they are getting along famously.  It's to dads like my brother I wish a Happy Fathers' Day and it's to dads like him I want to say a big thank you...especially for the rest of us who didn't have dads like you.  It gives me hope, actually. 

It's gone too far

Over on the Spectacle Blog, Parker Peeveyhouse links to an article on a high school student who is running a banned-books library out of his locker...and kids are becoming readers because of it!  This is a stick in the eye for those who want to ban the books, because saying 'don't read that' automatically ups the curiosity factor in the kids!  (Nya nya you bigoted sourpusses!)  What really got me, though, was the sorts of books on the banned list.  Even this partial list was a shocker!  They banned the Qu'ran, Canterbury Tales, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, His Dark Materials, Sabriel, Divine Comedy, and other books that are wonderful, many of which are staples in the humanities classes I took in high school, and which these kids will be seeing in college courses too.

And the main factor appears to be, once again, religious intolerance.  As in, you must believe exactly as I do, and I'll ensure that by giving you nothing to change your mind.  Which, as anyone who has studied any history at all knows, will not work.  In fact, suppression of ideas tends to have the opposite effect than the one desired!

I am continually surprised at the narrowness of the minds of people.  Good, well-meaning and church-going people who believe they are following the Word of their Lord by doing narrow-minded, cruel, bigoted things that can actually be contrary to what their holy works say.  Things like deciding who can marry is a big example--or who can live, which a major point in the Middle East; but what I am talking about now is the restriction of knowledge itself, the thing that can broaden the minds of the young, our world's future, and maybe resolve some of the global problems we're having...instead of escalating them. 

We have all heard the outcries against so many books lately.  A Newberry Award winning book blasted for having the word 'scrotum' in it (The Higher Power of Lucky).  Classics that have long been accepted suddenly becoming too hot to handle and banned in school libraries (Lolita, Catcher In The Rye, and recently a furor over Farenheit 451) and some newer works that threaten certain people's sensibilities.  A good many of them appear to be speculative fiction, as well.

But the lists are growing and appear to be arbitrary.  First a furor over Harry Potter.  (Holy crap!  Children might become Satanists if they read these books!)  Instead, these seven tomes have brought a new generation of readers to the libraries. 

Then there are the protests against Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials books.  The man's an athiest and he has a senile god who has abandoned the world.  Instead of Pullman's fictional god being a villian, as some seem to think he is portraying the diety as, people are suffering because Pullman's villian is the church itself, not god, and the problems are caused by a lack of god's presence in the church!  And that's what has people upset.  (Oh, boo!  A fictional church is evil!  Could you be paranoid for a reason, peeps?) (And do you notice that not everyone can agree on which point is the objectionable one?  God is portrayed as senile=bad; a church is portrayed as not being one with god's will=bad.)  Pullman states his feelings on the matter here far better than I could.

In any case, the people who cry and scream when they are offended by a book are not the real problem.  It is the overly-PC nature of the schools and library officials who decide to pull any book which offends one person's sensibilities.  Which is censorship, which is failing to serve the public by providing materials for them to read and thus use to form their own opinions on things, perhaps even develop a  slight ability for empathy, for seeing someone else's point of view.  I mean, heaven forbid (she says ironically) we raise up children who are able to look at both sides of an issue and evaluate their response!

What is it that makes so many folks afraid that someone disagreeing with their take on life, god or whatever as dangerous?  Why are they so afraid that their children will, by one exposure to something not of their parents' beliefs, become some heretic?  Are they that insecure in how they raise their children?  Or is it that they question themselves?  If their faith is strong enough it should be able to handle a book or two that is not perfectly in line with their world view. 

Rant over.  Whew. 

For more information on book bannings, check out Banned Books.

Sunday Writing Avoidance

I think I'm going to start a new semi-series, the Sunday Writing Avoidance post.  With tongue firmly planted in cheek, I admit to being a writing avoidance nut. 

I think my resistance to writing lately has had a few different sources.  One is the sense that I should be doing other things, like working on the house.  Myriad things on the list which I am avoiding there, too.  Like texturing the kitchen walls and painting them.  The cupboards need paint, too, but I'll wait to do that until after I have my gastric bypass surgery.  I figure a couple of weeks post surgery I'll be climbing the walls and painting ought to be nice and soothing.  I'll just make my mother lift the cans of paint for me so I don't break the "lift nothing over 5#" rule.  Plus I have to clear the garage of all the stuff I couldn't deal with before.  Replace the basement window.  Finish a couple of jobs in the upstairs (where my bedroom and office are) like making some dead space in the wall into another closet (so my good clothes aren't in the downstairs guest bedroom.)  So many little things. 

Also, there's the itchy fingered urge to draw or do some craft project.  I've been itching to do a collage, actually, a la Marta; perhaps I ought to do that. 

Then there's the beta readthrough I'm supposed to be doing for a friend's novel.  I'm stalling on that as well, and he deserves better from me for that.  I need to get on the stick there, particularly.  (It's a good read, by the way.  No panicking, you know who you are!)

Then there's the distractions of having to modify my behavior prior to the gastric bypass surgery.  I'm doing the exercising, I'm logging what I eat; but I'm supposed to be eating excruciatingly slowly and at that I'm failing.  I keep forgetting!  (That's my excuse, even if it is a bad one.)  And I cannot even try for breakfasts, because I have to take medication that requires I eat with it.  After surgery, I won't be taking those meds so it won't matter, though. 

Blah blah blah and more things I could name but which I won't.

My instincts are telling me I need to do something creative or work on the house to mentally clear my head for writing.  Cleaning or projects do clear the creative blockages, give me some impetus.  But I'm resisting.  I'm in the grip of the I don't wannas. 

And besides that, for the last couple of months, maybe longer, the migraines have been bugging me.  It's the aura and the light sensitivity that are most problemmatic.  Even with three preventative meds that keep the migraines at bay I still get strong headaches; but they are generally tolerable.  it's the light sensitivity that gets me, like when it hurts to look at a computer screen, or sit in a room with flourescent lights, or where the bright sunlight outside keeps stabbing me in the eye.  It's not great, but it's not so horrible I want to suicide for relief.  so I can cope.  It's just not the sort of situation where I can write or think about writing.  Bleh.

Nevertheless, I have been writing recently.  I've fallen in love with Boetha the Electric Zombie, and have managed 500-word increments for her fairly easily.  (Maybe I should stick to writing in 500-word increments?)  And this morning I've written a scene in the vampire erotica, Blood  Shot.  It's not a great scene, but it's a decent draft/placeholder. 

Now I really must go and get some plywood cut and then work on my kitchen for a few  hours.  Bleh. 

I'm feeling a bit snobbish, but...

I find myself appalled (in a mild-mannered sort of way) by the book Pride & Prejudice and Zombies.

Not that I'm saying it's a bad book; the reviews are such I figure I'll pick it up once it's out in paperback.  But what the book IS bothers me.

See, author Seth Grahame-Smith rewrites Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice to add zombies, which are referred to as unmentionables in the book. 

Call me a snob, but I object strenuously to riffing off another writer, using their characters, writing sequels to another writer's work (unless the estate is involved in the decision.).  It smacks of cheating and fan fiction to me, and (here's where the snobbishness comes in) like you aren't coming up with your own material because you are riffing off someone else instead of making it all up.  Rehashing a literary giant's work, or anyone's for that matter, isn't copyright infringement with a novel this old; but it bothers me. It's cheating. It's taking someone else's world and moving in, like a squatter.  And I don't want to see squabbling over literary squatting rights. I don't like this trend, even if the book is brilliant (which by the accounts I've read, it is.) I objected to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for the same reasons and I shall always object to what amounts to plagiarism via fan fiction--the kind the author isn't around to object over.

Jasper Fforde went a bit over the line for me in his Thursday Next series by having his characters living inside of books, and by taking characters from novels like Great Expectations.  However he (mostly) bypassed my sense of unfair play because he made these borrowed characters act roles outside of the ones dictated by their original authors, and (with minimal exceptions) Fforde did not use the original books, just a few of the characters by name, with their original characterizations just acting roles. I didn't feel totally comfortable about the set up, felt I was on the lip of a slippery slope--but it wasn't the same thing as taking others' characters and, ahem, reanimating them for the purpose of rewriting the original.

It continues to bother me and feel wrong that a writer takes another work and riffs off of it.  But with Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, it's gone a step further to actually rewriting a classic for effect.  I have always been bothered by sampling in the musical realm for the same reason:  Feels like cheatin' to me.

If it's fan fiction, which I think Pride, Prejudice & Zombies is, it seems somehow wrong to profit off of it…but I feel wrong for thinking that, feel that, somehow, I'm missing the rationale that makes it all okay… 

What do you think? Is our social fabric falling to pieces and this new trend of reworking old stuff a sign of the impending Apocalypse?  Will Lassie get Timmy out of the well by the end of 60 minutes?  Can you really lose weight by taking As Seen On TV diet aids?  

 

Amazon's response to my complaint email

Amazonfail part deux.

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.com.  

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.  

Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.    

Sincerely,  
Customer Service Department

Amazon.com

Not that I believe them for a red hot second.  I believe this was totally deliberate, considering that they actually emailed that it was policy re adult content.  Lilith Saintcrow has some reasons to rebut it on her blog as well which might interest you, as well as one reported 'explanation' which is suspiciously specious if you ask me, especially since Craig Seymour had all sorts of issues getting his book relisted in FEBRUARY.  Read and decide for yourself.

But I am giving Amazon's response to me in the interest of letting you, the public, know their public response as to what occurred.  (It's all over the net in other blogs, too.)  Me, I am seriously considering taking my very expensive Amazon habit elsewhere.  And that will inconvenience me no end, seeing as we do not have a decent brick-and-mortar store for 120 miles, and I actually like Amazon's site and capabilities over any of the other online sources.

And, correct me if I am wrong, but the lack of ability to find books by any author who only had delisted books strikes me as rather oddly suspicious...

#Amazonfail

You may have heard about the recent change at Amazon.com regarding removing sales ranking for books deemed adult content?  Well, here's an update. 

The 'facts' are being merrily spun to a fare-thee-well at Amazon, so what was true and not true as of Saturday or Sunday is not necessarily the case now.  However, follow Betsy's link at her post (where I first heard about Amazonfail) to the petition.  Then perhaps read this and the #amazonfail link, which has some updates in the timeline order they occurred.

I think that the spin on this will not be a good thing for Amazon.  I for one will not buy from them if they do not put things back the way they were.  I am not for censorship, in particular censoship purportedly based (see the #amazonfail article) on 'customer complaints'. 

That sinking feeling...

You know something?  Buying books on Amazon has got to stop.  Because, generally, I cannot read the book, the backmatter or anything else on the book before I've gone and purchased it (along with the non-refundable postage and handling.)  Usually you can at least check out the cover; but somehow I missed this one's negatively appealing artwork.

Sometimes, Amazon is a godsend to me, living in very rural Maine where the nearest decent bookstore is 120 miles away (or 90 if I want to drive to Fredericton, New Brunswick and pay a lot more due to the Canadian prices being a third higher on average, face value.)

But sometimes I feel like I should have gotten the proverbial kiss with my purchase because I feel--well, you know.  I purchased one book because it was a "Romantic Times Award Winner for Best SF Novel" and got some good reviews with an average of 4 stars.  Also because I couldn't preview the book at the time I ordered the thing.

And lo!  When "Those of My Blood" shows up in the mail today, I find that, yet again, I erred in judgment.  Upon opening up the box I see this cover, which was screaming at me, "Look! I'm a P.O.D.!!" (although it apparently is not...except they use these guys for 'distribution' and that looks like a P.O.D. site to me...difficult to tell these days...)  And the writing is boring.  Can't get into this book, been trying all morning.  Besides, I just cannot stand the cover.  I want to remove it from the book, actually.  I think that will make my reading experience much better, because I won't have to cringe at the horrid cover art yet again. 

You ever feel like a bad cover just makes the read aesthetically unappealing?  Like having a date in really bad clothing that keeps attracting your attention, making your enjoy their postive aspects less because you're too distracted by the glaring purple velvet smoking jacket or whatever?  Shallow, perhaps, but that's how books work for me, cover art sells me as well as the first few pages.  And the amazon experience can end run my purchase preferences on occasions like this.  I'd never have picked up this book to read in a bookstore with that terrible backmatter page or the cover.  And I'd never have picked it up after perusing the first couple pages if I got that far.  Sigh.

The thing that gets me is that this is a multi-published author with a series by Doubleday (although the latest press is usually Wildside).

House progress!

I use the exclamation point for my own benefit, because I admit to being heartily sick of this home improvement marathon.  My bad hands are painful and go numb a lot--which means bad things for my writing after all this is over; I will be forced to lay off typing for a bit if my hands keep going numb.  And painting, even with low VOC paint in a closed house in winter isn't that great.  But we progress on schedule.

We have painted my bedroom and office, my mother's bedroom, the living room, are nearly done with the insides of the kitchen cabinets, and I've replaced the locks and door knobs.  Additionally, I've had to deal with a leak when we unhooked the old washer.  Now I just have to lay carpet, clean up the new homestead, pack and start moving things the movers don't need to move, like my work clothes and gear, my pictures, my cat and my witchy artifacts from  my altar. 

Rest assured, I'll be moved come Monday night unless the clear weather isn't.  I'll post pictures after we move in.  You'll be so thrilled, I know. 

What's really sad is how bad the bathroom looked and I failed to get before pictures.  To see the white, cream and sky blue serenity that it will become when I'm done in comparison to the pink and green melamine nightmare with the green faux marble $1 a box (I kid you not) stick on...

A green resource you might want to check out: Freecycle.
And while I'm on the subject of getting rid of washers and dryers (which you didn't know I was, I'm sure) let me just plug the Freecycle network.  This is a wonderful resource both for recycling items you no longer want or need, and for people seeking free stuff.  Freecycle is run regionally and is found on yahoo groups.  Some of you may hate yahoo, but the groups features are pretty darned useful, and Freecycle has let me rehome aquariums, pavers, a washer/dryer, old clothes, and a friend of mine gradually got rid of an entire household of stuff that way.  There is also the option of finding a women's shelter or a charity that can use your old stuff, but even the Salvation Army can be picky these days. 

Watch that euphemism!

A rant on something that bugs me:  Using a replacement swear word without even considering if it's inappropriate or insulting.  In this case, it's using "witch" for "bitch."  May I point out that Wiccans and witches are members of religious groups and using witch as a perjorative is like saying "Jew you" instead of "screw you"?   I simply HATE that. 

Especially when it's a writer who does it.  Jeez, people-who-shall-remain-nameless, think about things like that, wouldja? 

Seemingly on the same wavelength, Kiersten has a post today that addresses euphemisms in humorous fashion.

A rant - Aim that negativity elsewhere, please!

4$ gas has everyone pissed off.  Me, too.  But I'm sick of hearing about how people driving SUVs are to blame.  It's always SUVs that are blamed, too, not semi trucks, industry, lack of trains or anything else.  Just SUVs.  It's bugging the crap out of me, basically being blamed for owning something for which I have a legitimate need.  Driving an SUV is NOT bad.  NO vehicle is inherintly bad just because it may use more gas than someone's lovely Prius.  (Sure, I'd drive a Prius if I wanted to pay 30K for a car that I could use only six months of the year for my commute. But for half the year I'd probably go off the road in that Prius faster than I could fall and break my neck on an ice rink. So do the math for my world.) 

And who are all the SUV haters really talking about? 

Really they are pissed at conspicuous consumption.  That would be the plethora of urbanites who have their huge Chevy Suburban 2-wheel drive SUVs used as high-status station wagons.  The people who don't need a gas-guzzler. 

Okay, I can get behind a bit of irritation at that needless consumption, too.  Drive here, drive there, never let your overscheduled kids walk a block but drive them in your 16-mpg beheamouth.  It's wasteful; I get that. 

But these folks aren't even the real problem and yet you blame them like they are!  They are merely a symptom. 

The real problem is that the US has, for the past fifty years, been setting up an economy, an infrastructure and an expectation that everyone will drive.  Trains have been left to crumble so that it costs more to take a train than to fly, and semi trucks are hauling our goods from California to New York, From Nova Scotia to Orlando, From San Diego to Toronto.  It's endemic, and it's using far more fuel and pumping far more needless hydrocarbons out than the plethora of SUVs.  The system is set up so that with everything we consume, every grape from Argentina, we are contributing to the problem.  Because we provide the market for all the crap shipped from away, we perpetuate the waste of oil with every bubble-packed, amazon shipped, ebay bought, semi shipped non-locally bought bit of produce.  All of us. 

So don't blanket blame me and the SUV I angsted over buying.  You're full of crap if you do.

And, by the way, my car gets 25 miles per gallon--a site better mileage than a lot of other cars out there.

Rant over. 

My fake memoir

I must warn you, bookfraud is a menace having inspired me to write my very own fake memoir. 

I know you want to know all about me.  I'm that kind of gal.  The fans, the adoring fans... I would blush but must spare you my blushes and maintain the persona of distance and indifference.  I am too modest, you say?  I should be proud of my worldly achievements? 

Perhaps you are right.  I shall let you be the judge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Writtenwyrdd began her existence along with the soul of the universe, her brother, God.  It was inevitable.  It was brilliant.  God was boring and Writtenwyrdd wanted something to do.  Her fall from grace was thus inevitable and a bit long, given a few billions of years elapsed, but she survived it nicely by devising one-handed pinochle, parchisi and tiddlywinks. 

The landing was hard, hot and devastatingly dull.  She therefore devised a means of further entertainment-- life.  It involved a simple division of air, water and aether, then ordering those realms into the ones we are familiar with today.  Dinosaurs were a dissappointment so she offed them with a singularly placed meteor.  Mankind became entertaining with its nimble digits and propensity for selfish troubles.  Give a human a perfect life and it would rapidly dissolve into despair, war, jealous rage or any number of destructive behaviors. 

Reality television thought it was something new.  Not hardly. 

It was incarnating herself into the late 20th century that was her latest venture into amusement.  That and the thing called writing.  Ever since she'd dictated a couple of Books she'd been fascinated by the way humanity could get the words right but the meaning all wrong. 

Thus science fiction and fantasy caught her eye.  Allowing herself to be reborn for the umpteenth time, she grew up in the cave of an holy anchorite in the Himalayas, dining on yak's milk fresh from the teat and hydroponic tomatoes.  From climbing in the rocky bosom of the Earth to her stint running drugs in Mexicali, Writtenwyrdd was on the fast track to being somebody in the underworld.  The ability to sit for hours full lotus and float while singing Beatles songs was impressive to mundane outsiders.  But she grew bored yet again and longed for notoriety.  She thought, I can write a book about my life and call it a novel!  Better yet, I'll call it a memoir.

And thus it was the Orange Catholic Bible was created.  Frank Herbert never knew what hit him.

Money Talks and BS Walks? Not if you're a writer!

John Scalzi has a down-to-earth talk about money and writers.  Go read it.  Be prepared to resist the urge to stick your fingers in your ears and start chanting, "I'm not listening!  I'm not listening!"

Thanks to Jaye Wells for the link.

This gets a WTF award

Okay, this tops my list of annoying things that we can definitely live without.  You can pile it up with people on cell phones in restaurants and cars that talk as trash that deserves to be obliterated.

Twitter, the object of my disgust, is another use of the internet that boggles the mind.  According to the web site, "Twitter is a service for friends, family and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

I really loathe micro news, even from my friends.  Email is instantaneous enough for me, thank-you-very-much.