Happy New Year! 2012. Everyone wants to make this a great year. I certainly hope it is, but there was an ominous sign that it may not, and no, I am not talking about the Mayans and their calender shenanigans. My friends parents house caught fire right after midnight when New Year's Eve turns into New Year's Day. It then burned to the ground. As of now, it is suspected that an ember from a firework landed on their garage roof. It also could have just been an electrical fault at the wrong time. My friends children were staying with their Grandparents that night. Their wonderful dog woke them in time so everyone got out of the house. My friends father is injured and may have to have a skin graft on his foot. We are all praying for his speedy recovery. They are lucky in a way. They have insurance and nobody died. But, they did lose mementos of whose value cannot be measured by money. Still, they are just things.
If it was an ember that started the fire, this is another example of our wonderful state legislature taking away a common-sense regulation in the name of commerce. For as long as I can remember, Fireworks have been illegal in Arizona. My father once snuck in sparklers from a trip from Mexico and I remember my brother and I running around our back yard feeling very naughty but having a lot of fun.
A few years ago, the Arizona state legislature legalized the selling of fireworks. Their reasons may be that fireworks could still be bought in other states as well Mexico. Why not let everyone have fun here as well and let people make money on fireworks in Arizona?
On this New Year's Eve night, at a party in Mesa, my family shot off some small fireworks. It was a lot of fun. I had to hold my 5 year-old son back as he enjoyed the sparkle and boom. He had a sweater on and I was worried an ember would land on him and catch fire.
That was what might have happened to my friends and their house. It always made me nervous about fireworks in Arizona because we live in a desert. Mostly because of the summer-time heat and 4th of July fun, and was not expecting that this could happen during the winter. Yet, here we are. Just hope this is not a tiny flicker of what could blaze this summer.
In all fairness, after my hubby read this, he said I sounded like a nut and that many forest fires were caused by campground fires and cigarettes. If we tried to ban smoking, I think the revolution that many people see coming would happen. At the very least, I am hoping people will think about safety and where the embers go before they set off “the Big One”.
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My previous blog was about how reviews of my book could not be posted on the Barnes and Noble website. The title, which includes the word idiot, would censor the review if that particular word was used. I was planning on writing a scathing blog, condemning BN for their lack of action or caring of their customer's and author's honest opinions. But, a few days ago, they got back to me. I guess it is a good thing I took a few weeks off from this blog, since everyone is a little slow after the holidays.
So, the person who got back to me (Mike) told me that he posted my friend Kathy's review and sent me a link to prove it. Here is that link:
But, when I do an independent search on the BN.com website, the review still does not show up. Here is that link:
He got back to me and said that he will contact the IT department (he is from Titles) and that it may take more time to “merge”. Like I said in the last post, I never thought it would be so hard to get reviews posted!
Here is a wonder, was there anyone else who tried to post a review and when it didn't get posted, just said “meh” and forgot about it? Mike says they are trying to fix that bug, but it seems that a better approach would be to let these reviews be posted and then if someone has a complaint, they take the review off? Their website has this: If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble but I bet they do not have to use it much since their software filters are set on “Futurama's Santa Claus”. Futurama's Santa was a robot that has a bug in it's software that concludes everyone is naughty and must be destroyed. OK, maybe BN does not go that far, but they do seem much more concerned with Jane Lynch singing and dancing to sell their Nooks, than the actual opinions of their readers.
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