I'm boycotting Amazon because of their bullying tactics with independent brick-and-mortar stores! So many good reasons.

Hey Liese, I dreamed last night that you showed me one of your cigar-box guitars! It only had three strings, but then when I looked closer each string was made up of like 20 super-thin individual strings. The sound was kinda weird and jangly, but they looked very cool!

Kate's reasons for boycotting are the same as mine!

I'm boycotting Amazon because of their bullying tactics with independent brick-and-mortar stores! So many good reasons.

On the flip side, as of April, their health insurance (for the employees who have it) will cover transgender-related medical stuff, including reassignment surgery (I have no idea what perentage the employee pays, what the deductible is, etc.). (We have a trans* friend who works for Amazon, and she just recently told us about it, because reassignment surgery has been her goal, but without insurance it's prohibitively expensive. So she's thrilled, obvs.)

So now I'm torn about Amazon, damn it.

And Knut's new book -- the serial -- is available only as a Kindle thing, and I want to support him (plus I would want to read it anyway, because it sounds awesome). So...complicated Amazon feels.

You know, yesterday I should have must stuck with the AKC news. That was the speed I could handle.

AKC's list of 2012's most popular dog breeds and the popular dog breeds by city (always my favorite.)

You can tell that the Treeing Walker Coonhound is populous because it landed in at #100 in it's first year of regular competion/registration. (I have heard that it is the most likely dog found in shelters. . .at least in Il/IN.)

There is also a cute gallery of the top five breeds and one with each of the top five with an adult and a puppy of each breed.

And from the Feb AKC Board Meeting highlights - these breeds will be competing in misc come January 2014:

The American Hairless Terrier, the Norrbottenspets, the Grand Basset Griffon Vendéen, and the Portuguese Podengo

I met a Portuguese Podengo. The woman that owned it also has Jack Russells. She says that the Podengo (the smallest one is the size she has) is higher energy than a JRT. Boggles the mind.

So...complicated Amazon feels.

As someone who's worked on both sides of publishing, very complicated.

No, I totally get the complicated feels. I think most businesses are good in some ways and bad in others -- that just happens to be where I've drawn my line with Amazon. I hadn't heard that about their insurance covering reassignment surgery, but that is a huge deal, and very cool.

Norrbottenspets

OK, that's like the most awesome dog name ever. It sounds like a portmanteaux pairing name from Pirates of the Caribbean.

It is - isn't it?

Plus they're totally cute.

I am so confused by all these "new" to me dog breeds. I thought I knew all of them, and they just keep coming! Also, when did German Shepherds start being called German Shepherd Dogs?

I agree that the medical insurance is good, and if a company I've taken a disliking to does good things, then there are more good things in the world.

But I've fallen into my rhythm of not shopping there and I'm not even sure what would get me back--it's not like I had an ultimatum in mind...they just annoyed me, so I stopped looking at my Gold Box (remember the fun times?) and now that I have a Nook I'm cool.

Except when they discount Supernatural Blu Rays. That's still annoying.

I need to get over a hump art-wise. I'm trying some new stuff (media, general style) and I feel aimless with it. Like it has promise, probably more than the pencil did, and I'm having fun, but I have no perspective on my output.

Also my head hurts really badly and I want to curl up in a corner and cry. I'm kinda grateful that my 9 o'clock didn't show, but on the other hand, I'd love to have that meeting done with in 45 minutes.