asato_muraki | I'm just one stomach flu away from my ideal weight...

Home from New Orleans. Made the trip there and back listening to Neil Gaiman reading The Graveyard Book. It was satisfying and utterly fabulous -- the man reads like a true performer, with voices and accents and everything. We had to rewind after the Big Reveal, with Big Boy saying, "Wait. What?" and Wee Boy shouting, "I knew it!" For my part, I neither expected it nor failed to process it because I was not expecting it to the degree that it didn't register the first time around. So, it struck me just right, hit the mental sweet spot squarely. Nothing but net.

I also finished The Privilege of the Sword, a book which I had been attempting to consume slowly because it was soo good I didn't want it to end. :)

***

New Orleans was great, but for the stomach flu that laid me low mid week. I seem to be recovered now. Also, whilst we were away, a pipe burst in the floor. It's quite a mess, but we are hopeful that the much of the wood flooring can be saved. *sigh* It's been interesting. I hope to get all the downstairs furniture out of my kitchen by next weekend, but we'll see.

***

Perhaps tomorrow I can post the last of the beginnings and do a poll.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sorry to hear about the pipe. That can be quite a mess.

I think it will work out. The deal is we're probably selling soon, so it only helped to weaken my mental attachment to the place. Heh.

Yay, welcome back! Sorry about the ickies and the pipe. It's always something.

Blessings in disguise -- I got to rest up a bit, where I would have been going at it hammer and tongs, and the pipe mess just means I'm a little happier to think about moving. ;)

Freaking foul plumbing!

I'm glad New Orleans was cool - haven't been there in a long, LONG time.

Oh, it was lovely-- still recovering, yes, but lovely.

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about the mess at home, hopefully you can salvage most of your stuff.

It seems that nothing was damaged beyond a bit of the flooring and they got several gallons of water out of one section of carpet. At this point, it doesn't look like it's damaged badly enough to need replacing -- njust some sanding and refinishing, maybe.

Aw, my poor sick girl. *hugs* I missed you while you were gone! I'm sorry you had home!emergency and stomach!emergency to deal with as well. Blech. I'd give you saltines and ginger ale were I nearby.

In other thoughts, did you hear about the Amazon thing? I was wondering if your short story book got its rankings yanked as well. *rolls eyes* I imagine they're scurrying like little rats this morning to get it all cleared up.

Aw, thank you, dear. *huggle* I suspect my tummy troubles (which have returned today) may be a result of taking a medicine without dinner when it said in the instructions to take it with dinner (though the insert said "May be taken with or without food"). Otherwise, I've just had a relapse. *scowl*

Oh, and I'm sure the anthology got it's raking yanked. I didn't even look. From what I've heard of it (still no contributor copy!) I would not have been against somehow setting it apart with other explicit or adult materials, but it seems this Amazon thing has been rather broader than that. I mean, giving people fair warning of explicit material is one thing, but de-ranking children's books and biographies... *sigh* I hope it was a mistake, and I hope they fix it. I'm not really troubled by the idea of excluding explicit materials from searches -- maybe if people could opt to exclude erotica by choice? -- but sales rankings mean quite a lot to new writers and small presses, especially.

In any case, I'm over it. ;) Someone showed me this site:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/homepage.php

which has worldwide free shipping on most stuff, and competitive prices (especially when you realize the shipping is already added in).

I noticed that site on your other post. Very cool.

Yeah, I've always adored Amazon and I HOPE it was a mistake that they're fixing. I agree with what you said about maybe having the option to keep explicit materials out of your searches...but honestly? I haven't EVER run onto what I would term 'explicit' in my searches. Yanking random book ranks because they have gay/lesbian references isn't going to do anything but make them harder to find for people who actually want to find them. Not to mention the children's books and parenting books that got yanked. *rolls eyes again*

I'm certain that the scope was unintentional, but I'm not sure whether there was an attempt at censorship. There was a fellow who wrote a memoir of his life as a stripper that was de-ranked for the same reason back in February, but three weeks later his rankings were reinstated... so it seems as though something was maybe afoot that we'll never know of (which annoys me to no end--be upfront about what you're doing and I may not like it, but be shady and deceptive about it and I reach a whole 'nother magnitude of irked). Still, I hope it gets sorted.

Agreed. Even if they were astonishingly hacked, they need to say what in the heck is going on. 'Glitch' doesn't cover it when it's such a specific 'glitch.'

I'm just one stomach flu away from my ideal weight...

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