David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 153

State Of The Goodreads Challenge Address

It’s time for my annual state of the goodreads reading challenge address. This has already been mentioned and debated over on Facebook, but far be it from me to not milk this into a blog post as well. The timing for this comes, of course, from me hitting my 150 book reading goal for the year.

Yes, I know this is obviously not what I’m reading for the year. Yes, 150. I know plenty of people who read more and I use this as what I feel based on my comfortable reading speed is a good minimum for the year. I average around 200-300 a year and when I hit my 150 minimum goal is a good indicator of what kind of reading year it will be.

For example, this year was 151 by July 31. This would tend to indicate a 250 book year as opposed to a 300 plus book year or a 200 or less book year.  I’d have needed to hit 150 by around the end of June to expect 300 or more, and think I can expect more than 200 or so given that it isn’t yet the end of August. Regardless, I’m about to hit several gigantic books, 600-800 pages or so, such as Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence, so things might slow down a little bit and nothing is sure yet anyway.

Is this important in the slightest? Nope! It just gives me something to talk about today. Now…back to reading….

Even I Have Trouble Believing This One

You remember how I think of odd things to search for whether or not someone has made an animated gif of them? I don’t know why I do that, but I still do it from time to time. The one today surprised even me. I mean, I know everything is on the Internet now…but cenote animated gifs?

Yup, they’re out there. I really did not think I was going to find this one.

This Is Today

This is today. Slowed down considerably, and with less force on the mallet.

When I catch my breath, I’ll figure out whether I’m the guy, one or more of the moles, or the mallet.

Left Scratching Our Heads

It’s odd how quickly businesses can sometimes close, or how little you can notice until it suddenly becomes relevant. Ran into this recently with Tag Burger Bar on Lipan Street in Denver.

We liked this place. The prices weren’t bad and the food was really good. It’s not a cheap burger by any means, but that goes for both price and quality. It isn’t McDonald’s level price, but it had real meat. Good materials all around done up right. That’s worth a couple extra bucks to me. They even had peanut butter, even though that wasn’t on the menu. I’d gotten cravings recently for peanut butter bacon cheeseburgers, and they’d do that for me. It was really close to our house too.

But, last time we showed up, they were closed.

Turns out, they’d closed a week beforehand. We hadn’t heard a thing. We’d been there in the last few weeks and no one had said anything, so it was either quick or we were just oblivious. I go by there every day too and from work and hadn’t noticed anything, though that isn’t during their normal busy hours.

In fact, that may have been the issue. It’s a changing neighborhood, but that couple dollars extra a burger may have still been an issue for the neighborhood. A couple dollars extra to get a decent burger instead of fast food garbage may have been just a bit too much. However, it seems more likely that the location was just bad for other reasons. There isn’t a lot of traffic in that area, and most of what is there is for the 7-11 and such. They probably needed to get to somewhere with more traffic, which is what they’re doing…but not for about six months.

It was just weird to be standing outside, scratching our heads because we hadn’t noticed before that day that they’d closed up shop.

Don’t Forget! Don’t Yell At Me Episode 14 Tomorrow Saturday July 30th At 7 PM At Still Cellars 1115 Colorado Ave Longmont, CO!

Don’t forget! Tomorrow (Saturday July 30th, 7 PM) is Don’t Yell at me Episode 14  at Still Cellars 1115 Colorado Ave Longmont, CO ($5 dollar suggested donation)!

A bunch of stellar people are going to be there. Readings from William Seward Bonnie, Dustin Holland, Rachel Palmateer, Eddy Jordan, Jesse Lee Pacheco, Gracie Hortonopoulos, Jane Ripley, and Vinnie Colitti. Music by Ben Hanna.

I’ll be reading as well. Don’t miss it!

Irritation Turns To Elation

We got really irritated last night when we got a message, without details, that one of our upcoming flights for our trip to Vietnam had been changed at 10 PM. Not long before bed, our blood pressure shot up. We were going to have to see what the heck was going on or we wouldn’t be able to calm down to sleep. Wondering what fresh hell this was, my wife set to work.

As it turns out, one of the flights my wife had booked coming back was no longer being flown. They had another that was actually a shorter flight but in the same time range, which we changed to. My wife was confused though, wondering how the flight could get us in so much earlier. Then she realized what she had done.

SHE HAD BOOKED US ON A 20 HOUR FLIGHT!!!!!

Apparently, she’d gone for the cheapest flight package back without noticing flight duration. It went from Ho Chi Minh to Newark, and then from Newark to Denver. We didn’t think it was being run this way, but apparently it flew PAST Denver from Ho Chi Minh to get to Newark.  We were going to fly 1700 miles past home in order to then fly 1700 miles back.

HO CHI MINH TO NEWARK WAS A 20 HOUR FLIGHT!!!!!

She just didn’t notice this. Not thinking someone would run a flight like that when they didn’t have to, she didn’t pay that much attention to flight duration. She assumed it would be 11 hours or something.

We were actually relieved that this Ho Chi Minh flight to Newark was cancelled by the end of things. Now we have a four hour flight and a ten hour flight coming back rather than a twenty hour flight and a then a four hour flight.

This is better.

I Wonder How Much Gas A Burner Uses On Low

I wonder how much gas my oven burner uses on low. I’m going to have to wait to see my bill next month. It’ll either be surprisingly not bad because a burner on the lowest setting doesn’t use as much as I think, or I’m going to get hammered.

I woke up this morning and went to get coffee. This was at 6:30 AM. I noticed that there was flame by the front right burner, just a tiny bit. I looked at the knob and realized it was on the lowest low setting. What had happened was that by reflex we’d turned it all the way to the left, it getting lower and lower until we didn’t see the flame any more, making us think it was off, rather than the right. The right goes towards high, but then goes to off. We’d last used it around 5 PM.

That means the burner was going on low for about 13 hours.

So how much gas does my oven burner use on the lowest low setting? Will I get a bill with ten dollars more than normal, or a thousand?

We’ll find out.

Arnold Eating Noodles!

I came across this while looking for a ramen noodles animated gif recently, so you’re going to look at it:

Unless I’m crazy, and I may be whether I’m correct or not, that’s Arnold Schwarzenegger eating a Cup Noodles. May Nissin have mercy on our souls.

Is The Election Over Yet?

Is the election over yet? Please say yes.

Come Hear Me Read At Don’t Yell At Me Episode 14 Saturday July 30th At 7 PM At Still Cellars 1115 Colorado Ave Longmont, CO

Hey! Come heat me read at Don’t Yell at me Episode 14 Saturday July 30th, 7 PM at Still Cellars 1115 Colorado Ave Longmont, CO ($5 dollar suggested donation)!

A bunch of stellar people are going to be there. Readings from William Seward Bonnie, Dustin Holland, Rachel Palmateer, Eddy Jordan, Jesse Lee Pacheco, Gracie Hortonopoulos, Jane Ripley, Vinnie Colitti, and me! Music by Ben Hanna.

Don’t miss it!