Okay, I say... I just don't get into the Intarweb kerfluffles the way I used to. I used to be riveted to see who was gonna say what to whom, but now I just keep clicking. Not sure why that is. Fact is, I once took a profound vicarious interest in all the shit that flies around on a regular basis.

Now there are a couple of good controversies raging, one about whether Adios to my Old Life should've won the RITA, and one whether readers and bloggers should be attending RWA National. As I understand it, the latter sentiment also carries some disdain for writers running around the conference dressed up as their characters.

I can't work up a high care factor about either issue. My thoughts? Well, AtmOL did win, so debating whether it should have seems like a dubious allotment of such resources as time and energy. It is in my case anyway; I have work to do.

As for readers / bloggers at National? Well, there's a shitload of free books. Why wouldn't a reader want to come? Meet authors, get free books? Sounds good to me. If I wasn't an author, I might attend myself, just for that. It would depend if I had the spare three hundred bucks that year, of course. Otherwise, I just don't see what the big deal is. Same with authors in costumes. Would I do it myself? Who knows? And what does it matter? What works for one person doesn't work for another. Fortunately, I don't feel like I need to arbitrate this for others.

I'm not sure what changed. Maybe it's because I spend less time surfing these days, so I have a fundamental disconnect between me and these events. I get on the Internet, but I don't feel these events have any real effect on me personally, and I rather prefer it that way.

Hurray for using the Internet as a tool instead of being another tool on the Internet!