I watched Green Lantern this evening. It's probably the best DC movie ever attempted. I can hear you - 'that's not hard'. Much like Iron Man in the way that expectation was originally pretty low, I expected nothing from it and was rewarded with a couple of hours of decent story, sfx only when necessary and a great cast. Stupidly, I had a look at the reviews for it this afternoon to see what others made of it. Hmmm.

In an era where everybody thinks they can be a critic, being a critic has become null and void. For every positive/negative comment you make about anything at all, somebody will come along and pose the opposite. And if they can't do it at the place they read it originally, they will post it somewhere else and reference it. The end result: no escape.

Once upon a time - and not so long ago either - if you wanted to find out what an album, book or a movie was like, you'd reference somebody who had a similar taste to your own, or at least respected. As much as I dig YouTube et al, it's hardly helpful as a resource when positive comment 'A' is swiftly followed by such delights as 'you're a nazi worshipper, go to hell if you think Bruce Springsteen's new single sucks.' I did make that one up although if you look hard enough, there are worse on there. For the record, Springsteen's single is OK, but that's all. I wouldn't miss it if hadn't happened. I probably won't go out of my way to hunt it down either now, but it will be OK on the radio.

If anybody picks it up.

Fact of the matter is, get online and all manner of reviews are at your fingertips. A little while back as some of you may have noticed, I dropped August Moon: The Monster Magnet up on smashwords to get some feedback. Duly, it was left. It wasn't great but I can take that - I wouldn't be in the game if I couldn't, but when I checked who it was written by, it was from a lovely lady who wrote 'erotic' novels whose keywords involved some spurious delights that made even me cringe. When I read the extract of her book - and if there's one thing I know, it's a good story when I see it - it was the most up your own arse drivel I've ever seen. Which was when I realised that the whole site and its concept is nothing more than a fanzine jumble sale. Smashwords is not about good writing or even selling books, it's about calling yourself a writer and being read indiscriminately just because it's there. But it doesn't mean your good. Apologies to all the real workers on there who are great and got sucked in, but my advice to you is get your material off there and do whatever it is you're doing from your own site or blog. It's the writers equivalent of facebook - only not so slick.

That's not sour grapes. It's a fact. It's all nothing but an illusion that will keep you down in the pit.

Which prompted me to consider amazon and the kindle. I like amazon. I spend a lot of money there. I currently have a few products up too and the model is good, but I don't think it's what I want. It's not why I started out. Sure, I might tempt some chance purchasers out of it but will they become loyal readers who are actually listening to me? Probably not. This is not dissing the beast in any way, I just don't think I'm ready for it yet. Thus, over this coming weekend, I shall be withdrawing all the things I wanted to give away for free (because it won't let me do that) and will be replanting them here. At this tage of the game, I would rather fewer people came here because they wanted to than a million people walked past simply because they were there. Isn't that the point of the web? To empower what it is you're doing in any way you see fit, but with thoughtful control?

Life on the internet gets more interesting everyday. Making it work how you want it to can be hard, but it is worth it. Take some chances, try some things out. If you don't like it, you can change your mind and move on the very next day if you so wish. Whatever get's you through the night and all that but don't be attracted by shiny things simply because they're shiny.

Generally speaking, all people want online is either your attention or your money. Make sure you devote both to the right kinds of places.