David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 164

Don’t Forget The Clearview Library District Local Author Showcase This Saturday April 16th

Don’t forget that the Clearview Library District Local Author Showcase in Windsor, Colorado is this Saturday April 16th 2-3:30 PM. I’ll be there to talk about Not Quite so Stories. As a reminder, there will be 6 authors: me, Kelli Hughett, Linda Joffe-Hull, Jonathan Stahnke & Naomi Jewel, Tomas Macy, and Raymond Peirson.  Each will have about five minutes to talk about their book and then everyone can meet, chat, and sell books. You should come on out if you’re in the area.

Imma Share This Here Too Because Of How Undeservedly Proud Of It I Am

I had a wild hair recently. I’ve been seeing tons of people having fun with all the different face swapping software out there, but I hadn’t seen anyone do what seemed like the best use of this software. As such, I had to. I shared it on Facebook already, but I’m so undeservedly proud of it that I’m sharing it here too.

John Travolta? Nicolas Cage? Face/Off? Is there a better use for face swapping software? I don’t think so. This is it.

You Have No Idea How Important This Is To Me

Recently, the San Diego Book Review ran a guest post I wrote related to one of the stories in my new book, Not Quite so Stories. That was cool enough and all, but then I got a notification that someone liked the tweet that the San Diego Book Review tweeted about it. It took me a second, but then I realized that it was Jeff Cohen, the guy who played Chunk in The Goonies.

You have no idea how important this is to me. I grew up in the 80s. The Goonies is huge for me, and Chunk is one of my favorite characters from it (rivaled only perhaps by Mama Fratelli). Sure, there were a lot of good characters in that great movie, but this is the guy who played Chunk! He liked a tweet about a guest post I wrote in the San Diego Book Review!

This is huge for me.

A Pizza Animated Gif Way To Handle The Current Election

I do have opinions on the current election in the United States. I don’t want to bring up right now what my opinions are, but I got ’em. I think it’s highly important to vote in this election, as I do in all elections. I vote every time I’m able and do my best to figure out what I’m voting on. However, much of the discussion out there has been nasty for a while now, and shows no signs of stopping. I don’t know if this is worse than in other years or just seems that way, but it certainly seems that way.

As such, I’ve been kind of pulling back from discussions where I feel it’s just nastiness as opposed to any real place to advance the discussion on some level. I decided to look for an animated gif that symbolized this, so here’s one someone did of Homer Simpson pulling back into a pizza.

This is how I want to handle things until there’s something I can actually do. Mmmmmm…pizza….

Food Places In Denver My Wife Has Burned Me Out On

Yesterday I mentioned a few food places in Denver that I’ve burned my wife out on. Then I figured, why not do the reverse? As such, here are a few places my wife has burned me out on:

– Patxi’s Pizza

– Chick-fil-A

– Chipotle

– P.F. Chang’s

– The Kitchen Denver

I promise I didn’t pick more culinarily adventurous ones (for the most part) for what she was burned out on and more fast food and/or chain type ones (again, for the most part) for the ones she’s burned me out on. At least, not consciously. Oh hell, I’m probably going to be in trouble now.

Food Places In Denver I’ve Burned My Wife Out On

My wife and I like to go out to eat a good deal. We like a lot of different kinds of food, but we each have our respective favorites. As a result of that, we tend to push for our respective favorites so much that we burn each other out on them. Here are a few in Denver I’ll go to anytime that I’ve burned my wife out on:

– Queen of Sheba

– Domo Restaurant

– Jerusalem Restaurant

– China Dragon

– Casa Bonita

Some of these she complains she isn’t fond of the food or service or something like that, but much of this is me burning her out on them. I accept that.

I’m Going To Be Irrelevantly Thinking Of This For A While

An author friend of mine was mentioning the trailer for The Huntsman: Winter’s War recently, grokking out on it and apparently looking forward to both the movie and the new feminist side Disney is evidencing. Another author friend wasn’t so up on the trailer, but that isn’t really relevant right now. I don’t actually know anything about this movie. I don’t see a lot of trailers because I don’t really watch much TV, where most trailers for upcoming movies are seen. However, the title keeps popping this only vaguely related pop culture reference into my head:

I’m guessing I’m going to have cause to make this connection repeatedly in the near foreseeable future.

I’m Having Trouble Believing That Merle Haggard Is Dead

I’m having trouble believing that Merle Haggard is dead. I’m sad for him and his family, but I’m having trouble believing it, even after seeing it reported at CNN. This trouble stems from my long standing mistake that Merle Haggard was already dead.

Seriously, I kept thinking Merle Haggard was dead for almost two decades now. Merle Haggard would come up in conversation and I’d be sure he was dead. Then I’d check and find out I was wrong.

This even got into a story of mine, “The Boys of Volunteer Fire Two-Twenty-Two-Point-Five,” that’s in my new short story collection, Not Quite so Stories.

For years now, I’ve been having to stop myself when I’d think Merle Haggard was dead. No, I’d tell myself, you always think that. He’s still alive. However, now he’s not. Am I going to spend the next two decades convinced he’s still alive, that I only keep thinking he’s dead, while he isn’t alive anymore?

Sad for Merle, and his family and friends, but this is going to mess with my head for a long time.

A Victory For Peanut Butter Bacon Burgers

Some friends and I were going to get lunch during one of the days at AWP 2016 and we weren’t too picky on the place. We all had places to be, so we randomly picked Ford’s Filling Station at the JW Marriott LA because it looked as if there wasn’t too big a line. With 12,000 or so people in the area for AWP 2016, lines could be problematic for getting to afternoon events after lunch. Regardless, we went without really looking at what kind of food they offered. I wanted a burger, which they had. However, they only had a bacon cheeseburger.

Now, as I’ve said before, I adore bacon…but I only want bacon on my burgers if there is also peanut butter. No idea why, but that’s the way it is. Otherwise, I don’t want the bacon on the burger. I’d have it on the side, but not on the burger.

But, they only had a bacon burger. I could simply have them leave the bacon off, but the burger was already $19. I was paying for the bacon either way, and wasn’t just going to junk part of a burger I was already paying $19 for. They didn’t list that they had peanut butter for the burgers, but I decided to ask. Peanut butter was listed in nothing on the menu, but you never know.

As it turns out, they did. They did have peanut butter.

Thus, problem solved. I had them leave off whatever their “secret sauce” was and put on peanut butter instead. This way, I didn’t have to pay for bacon and not get it. I realize I could have had them put the bacon on the side and eat it separately without wasting money, but this was better.

I’m kind of surprised I managed to deal with this given how overwhelmed I was with the conference. To be honest, I was getting a tad brittle by that point.

LA Metro Could Have Made That Less Confusing

I feel a bit whiny complaining about any kind of travel confusion relating to AWP considering that I have multiple friends who may still not have made it home due to flight cancellations, but I’ll go ahead anyway. LA Metro: you could have made that less confusing.

I decided to get to and from LAX for AWP via the trains. My wife found a site that had really good directions and was comically encouraging about using the trains to go to and from LAX. For the most part, they were right. This was quick and easy for the most part, getting me within a block and a half of my hotel for $2.75 to and $1.75 returning (had to buy a TAP card on the way there). Fast, considering that only the shuttle between LAX and the airport train station went through traffic. The trains themselves were immune to LA traffic. However, there was an issue on the return.

From downtown, I hopped into the nearby 7th street metro station and took the blue line to Willowbrook/Rosa Parks station. There I was to take the green line to the airport station where I’d meet up with the shuttle. I knew I’d taken the green towards Norwalk station on my way in, so I wanted the green toward Redondo Beach on the way back. So, when the blue line arrived at Willowbrook/Rosa Parks, I walked upstairs to catch the right green. One side of the platform was for Norwalk, the other for Redondo Beach. The only problem? No trains were coming on the Redondo Beach side.

Mind you, there were trains coming on the Norwalk side that were labeled “Redondo Beach.” However, I could hear nothing about where they were going announced, so I assumed they were likely mislabeled, or I did not understand the labeling, and they were headed towards Norwalk. Not seeing trains labeled “Norwalk” going that way, it seemed like the safer bet as opposed to going the wrong way. Tons of people were waiting on the Redondo Beach side of the platform so it did not seem an unreasonable assumption. However, no trains came on the Redondo Beach side.

Finally, a young woman who had spent some time on her phone on the Redondo Beach side of the platform walked over to the Norwalk side when another “Redondo Beach” labeled train arrived. I asked her, and she said that both trains were using that side of the platform for some reason. I think she’d been on the phone with LA Metro. However, there were no signs, announcements, or any other indications of the situation. The digital signs displayed nothing or some kind of digital garbage. If it hadn’t been for the young woman telling me, I never would have known.

Some kind of sign or announcement would have helped.

Easy? Simple? For the most part, yes. However, if they want strangers to the city to use the trains to get to and from the airport, LA Metro might want to make an unusual situation regarding changing which part of a platform a train stops at a little clearer. I came close to getting lost…and I had a flight to catch.