I had to get my fingerprints taken. It wasn’t my first time, but it was the first time where I had to fill in my own information on the fingerprint card. Name, address, social security number, sex… fine. Date of birth, mother’s maiden name, weight… getting a little personal, but fine.

Then – Eye color, hair color, race… is this a lonely hearts application?

Okay, I guess this would have been better if the fingerprint tech was a young strapping handsome man with a deep voice (possibly accent) and a slight smile when looking at me. Each attribute would be read followed by a dramatic pause to look at me, then discussed as an endearing quality. I would then coyly accept any flattering compliments. Later he would be haunted by my imminently kissable visage, and not be satisfied until he saw me again.

In reality, I sat in a hard plastic chair while a weathered old man barked… Brown, BRN; Black, BLK; Oriental, O. My eyes are tenebrous and boundless, my hair is a very dark brown, and in my opinion we have progressed in this country I and though I can’t be (P)acific Islander, I could at least be (A)sian. Even the US government has recognized that race is an “all that apply” option on some documents, but I guess when faced with a 1cm box, you’re limited in how you can express yourself.

I have had to pay for taking time off away from work. I have broken one of my fundamental rules and have brought work home a few nights. I sit here now knowing that there is plenty to do, but I’m enjoying the quiet.

Office work aside things are piling up here at home. Given are the piles of laundry, the office desk clutter, the meals prepped and yet to be planned; but the worst job of all is television. Entertainment has become a chore. Things on live television, shows on-demand that are about to expire, the shrinking space on my recording device, video games, new music, books, audio books, movie rentals in the mail box…

I’m writing this with the television muted because I like to hear the drone of the oscillating fan yet don’t want to miss out if anything important. I see moving blobs and bright colors flashing in my periphery enticing me to stay tuned for more blobs and bright colors. There is a blinking lower third and a scrolling news crawl telling me what I should be aware of, but I’m too tired to multi-task media.

In the grand scheme of things I know none of this, including this blog, is not of any cultural significance. Yet I type away and do my best to filter in hopes that something comes along… perhaps Godot?

This was written on day 0 of the publicly accessible Amazon MP3

Before reading this, anyone who stumbles upon this post searching for Mac Amazon MP3 Download Problems:

1) Quit Amazon MP3 Downloader
2) Remove the file ~/Library/Application Support/Amazon/MP3 Downloader/DownloadQueue.amz
3) Call 1-888 802-3083, tell them you can’t download your music and have them make the tracks available for download again
4) Download the amz file from “Your Media Library” (It’s in your account page under “Where’s my stuff?”)
5) Open the amz files and hopefully they will re-download

When I perused the Amazon Mp3 Store, I was very excited to see all they had to offer. I thought, great iTunes now has a decent competitor. As much as I love Apple products, I was going to use this service because it’s got a lot of things going for them; 256 bitrate, most songs are US$.89 to .99, and DRM free!

I downloaded their downloader (sic) and purchased an album through 1-click. After agreeing to their license agreement; no lending, no sharing, no showing other people, no humming the tune afterwards, don’t export this song to a country that is currently an enemy combatant of the United States, hail Amazon as your personal lord and savior, yada yada I was given an amz file. Bundled within this little encrypted text file is your order. The Amazon MP3 Downloader would interpret this and download the correct songs for you.

I opened the file and I was presented with the list of songs to be downloaded. Track 1… Downloading… Failed to connect… Track 2 Downloading… Failed to connect….

From the office… failure. This is clearly no HTTP/HTTPS app or else, my credentials for the firewall would have let me through, as in the case of the iTunes Store.

I get home and try the downloader again. Each track attempts to retry the download, all error out saying that it’s no longer available. I called up the Amazon MP3 customer support number, given to me from a lovely lady named Subrimani at the main customer service line.

A pimply faced youth, who assumed I had windows, instructed me to retry the downloads after he re-enabled the songs on his end. Apparently, they were all marked as already downloaded. No dice. I was lead to something called “Your Media Library” where I downloaded yet another amz file for the first track of the album. Upon opening the file, it disappeared and the Amazon MP3 Downloader popped up bitching about unavailability.

Confused, the customer service rep put me on hold. I surreptitiously downloaded all of the amz files just in case they were locked down again. Returning to the line, the PFY said to “uninstall the application from Add/Remove Programs, clear my browser cache, and restart my computer”. Not divulging my Mac status, I complied the best way I could knowing full well it would not work. I did not work.

I was then instructed to use another machine. As I fired up Parallels, I removed the Amazon MP3 Downloader.app, its preference file, and folder in the ‘Application Support’. Whilst downloading from direct links to mp3s in Windows XP, I took my leave of the customer service, cursing his powers of troubleshooting.

For my own edification and curiosity, I opened the amz files and was able to successfully download the MP3s in the Amazon MP3 Downloader.

STRIKE 1 – AMAZON PLEASE CONFIRM THE DOWNLOAD BEFORE MARKING IT DOWNLOADED IN YOUR SYSTEM
STRIKE 2 – AMAZON, TEACH YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES TO ASK WHAT PLATFORM THE CUSTOMER IS USING