David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 219

In Memory: Jan Hooks

In memory of Jan Hooks:

“The ABCs of Dinkology” Coming October 30th!

It’s time to start getting excited. EAB Publishing announced that The ABCs of Dinkology by AE Stueve is scheduled for release October 30th!

This isn’t just the new volume either. EAB Publishing will be releasing both the new and anxiously awaited The ABCs of Dinkology: Time In-Between (Volume 2 of the Max Dinkman Chronicles) and a second edition of The ABCs of Dinkology: Life (Volume 1) including new interior content, new cover art, updated character biographies, footnotes, new title, and text that was cut from its first release.

I loved the first edition of the first volume and I’ve been eagerly awaiting volume 2. I can’t wait, and I’m thrilled to see that they’re going to redo volume 1 to be more like it should have been originally. If I loved it before I’m going to love it even more now.

I’m definitely going to be buying both.

You Want To Know How Much I Know About Football?

You want to know how much I know about football? Not much, and I can prove it.

I was very surprised to hear that the Broncos beat the Cardinals this previous weekend by a score of 41-20. Why? Because I thought the Cardinals played baseball.

Obviously, there is both a pro baseball team named the Cardinals and a pro football team named the Cardinals. However, I did not know this. I had no idea, which is funny because they were apparently established in 1898…116 years ago. It’s one of the longest running pro football clubs in the US. Still, I don’t remember hearing about them.

You’d think if I had any awareness of football at all I’d have remembered them. However, I did not. I know hardly anything about football.

Pop Culture References Are Really Becoming A Problem For Me

I don’t know if it’s because I’m a child of the late 70s, or if it comes from being a fan of Family Guy, but pop culture references are becoming something of a problem for me. Being reminded of a link between something that just came up and a pop culture reference once in a while is one thing, but I do it more than is probably healthy. I’m not sure I’m even processing things on a real cerebral level, just looking for links.

Not that I’m doing this intentionally. For example, a friend just posted a link to an article about a woman stabbing her husband because he was smacking his mouth while eating grapes. Of course, this is actually just where the argument started. She didn’t actually just stab him for smacking the grapes. Still, I hadn’t even looked into it that much. I just saw the article headline suggesting that she stabbed him for eating grapes loudly. Immediately I thought of this:

Think I might have a problem?

Pluto Is Not A Planet

Let’s settle this right now. Future discoveries aside, Pluto is not a planet. I can prove it. Let’s just decide this right now once and for all.

See? Pluto is not a planet. He’s a cartoon dog.

MAKE UP YOUR FRICKING MINDS ALREADY!!!!!!

Scientists need to make up their fricking minds. I’m sick of this.

When I was growing up, I was told that Pluto was a planet. Then sometime recently, scientists came to an agreement that it wasn’t a planet. Personally, I thought that was bull. Whatever new info they’d figured out that caused them to rethink things, it just seemed stupid to suddenly decide something we’d called a planet for so long wasn’t. It’s not like it’s of huge significance what we call it, but consistency seems important. Of course, now they might decide it’s a planet again.

This needs to stop.

Pluto is a planet.

Pluto is not a planet.

Pluto is a planet.

Pluto is not a planet.

Pluto is a planet.

Pluto is not a planet.

Pluto is a planet.

Pluto is not a planet.

MAKE UP YOUR FRICKING MINDS!!!! I don’t care what they call the damn thing, but I want to know what to call it one way or another. JUST MAKE A FRICKING DECISION AND STICK WITH IT!!!!

Fiction People: Have You Submitted To Grey Sparrow Recently?

Hey, fiction writers, have you submitted to Grey Sparrow recently? If so, good. If not, why not?

Grey Sparrow will always be near and dear to me. They accepted one of my earliest published stories, “The Virgin Mary Tree,” which ended up resulting in the publication of my first book, Bones Buried in the Dirt. Also, I read submissions for Grey Sparrow now. I’m just a first set of eyes and things go on for further evaluation after I give a recommendation, but if you submit something there’s a chance I might get to read it.

Thus, maybe you should submits something to Grey Sparrow. Give me more to read.

For Something Designed To Replace Facebook Ello Is Pretty Tied To Facebook

I’m not sure whether or not I dig Ello, but I am on it. I don’t know whether or not it will replace Facebook, but the main buzz seems to be speculation as to whether or not it will. This amuses me more than the new social network itself. After all, whether Ello likes it or not, there are some pretty heavy ties between the two networks.

Now, I don’t mean literal ties. I have no knowledge of any business relationships between the two, employee overlap, or anything like that. What I mean is that most of the discussion I’ve seen for Ello is in posts on Facebook. Facebook is where I heard of Ello. Given that Ello doesn’t appear to make it real easy to find people yet, most people seem to be notifying others how to find them on Ello via Facebook post. Heck, that even appears to be how most people are procuring their invitations to Ello (though the actual invitation appears to usually be delivered via email as opposed to Facebook).

Regardless, Facebook appears to be instrumental in getting Ello‘s base up and going. It’d be too difficult to hear about and coordinate otherwise, at least for most people. It’s kind of funny really.

Well, at least it amuses me.

Wonder what would have happened for Ello if Facebook had managed to block people from advancing Ello via Facebook resources. Whether or not Ello ultimately succeeds, it would have made it a lot harder for them.

Course, if it gets up and running good Facebook would probably just try to buy it.

Dear Bug: Camouflage Is Context Dependent

This morning I happened to catch sight of a leaf bug. I’ve always thought these were kind of cool, built as they are to blend in when among leaves. Camouflage and all that. However, I thought I should aware this leaf bug of something. Camouflage is context dependent.

For example, a leaf bug is camouflaged when among leaves based on its coloring and shape. However, sitting on top of my fence it is not. It downright stands out:

You see what I mean.

Now, I didn’t mess with this leaf bug. However, I wished I could have made it aware of its mistake. After all, the leaf bug was all thinking: Ha! You can’t see me! And I was all like: Yeah, dude…I totally can.

Certainly Not In Whole

In whole or in part, Walmart?

You might convince me on “in part,” but “in whole” is ridiculous. That limo van was demolished. Not wearing a seatbelt may have made the injuries sustained worse, but I’m really doubting that wearing a seatbelt would have prevented everything. Seatbelts are good, but they don’t work miracles.

Besides, are you really expecting that we should all be prepared to have a sleep deprived driver in one of your trucks careen into us at any time?

I wear my seatbelt always anyway, and I understand that failure to wear a seatbelt has to be factored into any eventual award, but I’m having trouble swallowing the idea that failure to wear a seatbelt potentially absolves allowing a highly dangerous condition to occur. The out of control semi still frightens me more than the idea of not wearing a seatbelt.