Preferences

The pointless photo is Dirty Moe in one of his more reflective moods.

Do you get it? Do you? Oh, never mind.

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Having a bit of disposable income for a change, I've ordered a couple of things from an online company that really, really doesn't need me to name it.

This particular company (and many others, I know) now gives you a list of suggestions when you sign in. Suggestions based on your previous orders, I mean. You know the type of thing: "others who have ordered *blank* have also ordered *whatsis*"... or, "since you already own *thingumee* you may enjoy *blahdiblah* by the same author." Very helpful, those preference lists.

Or at least weirdly entertaining.

I tend to be a little bit eclectic in my tastes, and I think it's mucking with Giant Internet Company's algorithm a tad. The poor thing just can't figure me out. It can't decide whether I prefer books or DVDs, for one thing. Not a big deal there (I order both, obviously), but I don't exactly stick to the same subjects in each medium.

When I order books I'm most likely to be ordering nonfiction (it's been too long since I've bothered to get lost in a good story, to be honest), but that's about all you can count on. It might be history, language, nature (usually for work in that case), art, philosophy, or (even more likely) a complete and total whim. It might even be poetry, although there hasn't been enough of that lately either.

Automated suggestion pages don't like that kind of schizophrenia. After my last book order -- which, if I remember right, consisted of a book on language history, a poetry survey, and something about popular philosophy -- the poor thing thought I'd like to own several books about American politics.

Um, no.

Nice try, though.

My most recent splurge was the entire BlackAdder on DVD (I was going into snark withdrawal, for whatever reason. And for the pedantic fans, I should say that the main title on the box is BlackAdder, but the character's name is written as Blackadder. And yes, I did know that already). Needless to say, this purchase has completely and total confused my preference list. The last time I checked, it was trying to intersperse every silly British comedy ever made with books like Eats, Shoots & Leaves and the complete letters of Fanny Burney. And pretty much everything that Hugh Laurie's had anything to do with, of course.

Yeah, that part made me laugh too.

Maybe it says a little too much about the way I'm wired, but I get a real kick out of things like that. To the point, even, that I occasionally find myself missing the old Google banners that were standard on Blogger blogs like this one. For those who don't remember, they would use key words in the blog entries to pick "related" ads.

The old blog once went a week with ads for Mein Kampf after I'd described something as Hitlerian. It was hilariously inappropriate, and I do sort of miss the added incongruity. Not enough to put on an advertising banner by choice (and MAKE MONEY ON MY BLOG!!!), but enough to have an odd sort of nostalgia for it.

Is it too early in the game to be having blog nostalgia? Probably.

Anyway, I should go get some lunch and then spin those new discs to make sure they don't need to be shipped back. Later, all.






Hmmm. Maybe I should look into that Fanny Burney book...