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It's a jungle out there.
Apr. 23rd, 2003 11:36 amI am a slave to Amazon.ca.
It's the "Recommendations" that have done me in. See, before I had a DVD player, my parents got one (and I was jealous and apparently whined, which is how I ended up with one of my very own under the Christmas tree). So the first DVD I ever bought was Season 1 of Babylon 5 for my dad, for his birthday. Sadly, Amazon doesn't have a box where you can mark "this is a gift, please do not think this represents my personal taste in any way", and therefore, my DVD recommendations have been inundated with Babylon 5, Farscape and every single version of Star Trek imaginable. Not to mention Lexx, which, honestly, please don't, because I'm working very hard to erase the memory of the 2 episodes that I only watched because a friend's boyfriend was on them and I wanted to see what he looked like, and saying the name only brings back the pain.
Now, I have nothing against those shows (other than Lexx, the worst show ever). I like sci-fi. I've seen every episode of ST:TNG, which was required Sunday night viewing in my house, and most episodes of ST:DS9 and Voyager. But I have no interest in owning the complete series of any of these. And it's taken nearly 4 months to convince Amazon of this fact. I can't just leave them sitting there on my recommendations list, because then it's not really me, and that's wrong. I need Amazon to know the real me! So every couple of days, I have to go in and weed out the stuff I would never want, in order to correctly represent myself to this program that's really only trying to sell me more stuff.
Which of course presents another problem. Things I don't like? Kick 'em off the list. Things I must own now? Wish list! But what do I do with movies I loved but don't have any need to own? Books that I've read, but don't own because I borrowed them from the library? CDs that are the kind of thing I like, but this particular one is really not good at all? I'm afraid that by dismissing something from my list, I'll affect the tenor of the list, and something else will never show up and I'll go my entire life feeling that there is a lack, but never knowing what it is.
Honestly, it's nearly a full time job. I just wish I could figure out how to make money this way.
It's the "Recommendations" that have done me in. See, before I had a DVD player, my parents got one (and I was jealous and apparently whined, which is how I ended up with one of my very own under the Christmas tree). So the first DVD I ever bought was Season 1 of Babylon 5 for my dad, for his birthday. Sadly, Amazon doesn't have a box where you can mark "this is a gift, please do not think this represents my personal taste in any way", and therefore, my DVD recommendations have been inundated with Babylon 5, Farscape and every single version of Star Trek imaginable. Not to mention Lexx, which, honestly, please don't, because I'm working very hard to erase the memory of the 2 episodes that I only watched because a friend's boyfriend was on them and I wanted to see what he looked like, and saying the name only brings back the pain.
Now, I have nothing against those shows (other than Lexx, the worst show ever). I like sci-fi. I've seen every episode of ST:TNG, which was required Sunday night viewing in my house, and most episodes of ST:DS9 and Voyager. But I have no interest in owning the complete series of any of these. And it's taken nearly 4 months to convince Amazon of this fact. I can't just leave them sitting there on my recommendations list, because then it's not really me, and that's wrong. I need Amazon to know the real me! So every couple of days, I have to go in and weed out the stuff I would never want, in order to correctly represent myself to this program that's really only trying to sell me more stuff.
Which of course presents another problem. Things I don't like? Kick 'em off the list. Things I must own now? Wish list! But what do I do with movies I loved but don't have any need to own? Books that I've read, but don't own because I borrowed them from the library? CDs that are the kind of thing I like, but this particular one is really not good at all? I'm afraid that by dismissing something from my list, I'll affect the tenor of the list, and something else will never show up and I'll go my entire life feeling that there is a lack, but never knowing what it is.
Honestly, it's nearly a full time job. I just wish I could figure out how to make money this way.