I was reminded of my blog today when I received an announcement from the Amazon Associates Program. They’re doing business with California bloggers again, so of course I thought to myself, “I should totally re-instate that Amazon widget on my blog again.”

Not that I have ever received a crap-ton of advertising revenue from my blog; the total has been enough to buy myself a few books maybe, but certainly no single payment with which I could ever pay the rent, though I can dream. Plus, I have long ago fallen out of the habit of keeping the blog up, probably shedding most of my audience in the process, so really, is there anyone out there to advertise to? And back in the days when I actually had traffic enough to get 60+ comments on a thread I kept the blog pretty much ad-free. ‘Cause I was so indie.

But hey, it’s the principle of the thing.

I removed the widget when Amazon decided not to deal with Californian associates any more because I couldn’t stand to give them free advertising. I already regularly buy everything from them, and I also already shout their praises to everyone I know. But I had resisted putting ads on my blog for so long that I figured, since I’ve sold myself out at all, I might as well do it for actual compensation. Let’s have none of this free ad stuff going on, okay? I’m okay with working for the man, so long as the man pays.

So as soon as I saw they were willing to give me money again for click-throughs that result in purchases, I shook the cobwebs from this place to put the little storefront back on the sidebar.

But it’s silly, really. I don’t know if I have it in me any more to keep up a blog. Everyone’s tweeting now on Twitter, which is supposed to be faster and easier — public masturbation packaged in the economic size of 140 characters! — but I have even less patience for THAT.

The volume of tweets in that world just boggles the mind, and more than half of those tweets are inherently inane belly-button lint type of stuff, people posting about where they are and what they’re eating, and all of it done in the most unentertaining, most unfunny, most unedifying way. Photos of things they want to buy, things they just bought, or just plain things directly in front of them right now.

Oy vey.

However, it does become interesting when something like the Titanic sinking happens. People navigating around the sliding deck chairs, hanging onto the rail for their lives will tweet something like, “Am about to jump ship. May not be able to tweet for a while. Will probably ruin my iPhone.”

No. When something like that happens, it’s very, very interesting.

But anyway … I’m back online, and it’s thanks to Amazon. So let’s test this Quick Link widget thing, shall we?

Fortune’s Fool by Jane Sevier just came out. It’s one of the things I worked on recently. It’s probably ideal for reading while lying on a deck chair, so long as your ship doesn’t sink. If it does, though, be sure to tweet about it.

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