David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 245

For Once I Actually Care About The Super Bowl

It’s weird, for once I actually care about the Super Bowl. For once, two teams I actually take some minor amount of interest in will be playing. I’ve lived in both Seattle and Denver, though Denver longer, so I actually have some small amount of awareness of both the Seahawks and the Broncos. For once I actually care about a Super Bowl.

This isn’t normal; I’m not a football guy…or a sports at all guy.

Given that I care in some small way for once, once might ask which team I’m rooting for, or which I at least favor. I doubt anyone would ask, but someone might. To answer that hypothetical question, betting that no one will ask, I’ll relate a story.

I was in an administrative law class back in early 2006. The Seattle Seahawks were going to be playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. As it happened, the professor was a big Steelers fan. He asked if anyone was a Seahawks fan. Guessing I counted as much of that as a fan of any other team at the time, I raised my hand. He said: “So you think they’re going to beat the Steelers?!” “Oh, no,” I replied, “I like Seattle, but I’m betting they’re going to lose.”

You see, my time in Seattle had taught me one thing about Seattle sports. The teams will do really, phenomenally well for a time…and then they will do really, phenomenally bad. I’ve seen this time and time again. The Sonics (formerly a Seattle team), the Mariners, the Seahawks. They’ve all done it; it’s the Seattle way. How much I did or did not like them wasn’t the point. It just seemed like the Seattle way was to choke at some point.

Now, that may not happen in Super Bowl XLVIII. They could violate all laws of Seattle sports physics and win for once. However, Seattle sports history would tend to go against that idea. Everything I know about the way sports go in Seattle suggests to me that the Broncos will win.

And, if not…go immediately to your apocalypse shelters. It will be a sign that the end times are upon us.

No, Jesus! Don’t jump! It’s not worth it!

If Christianity has things right, then I really hope God has a sense of humor. I’m probably in trouble if not. I posted the following photo to Facebook:

with the caption: “No, Jesus! Don’t jump! It’s not worth it!”

You see, this building is in my neighborhood so I go by it once in a while. I’m not sure what it is, but it must be some kind of Catholic building, given the Jesus statue up on the second floor there.

More importantly, each time I see it, the first thing I think of is that Jesus is out on a ledge and is going to jump. It always strikes me as humorous because of how absurd such an idea would be, but that’s the first thing that flashes into my mind. Each and every time.

No, Jesus! Don’t jump! It’s not worth it!

I had to share it. If the Christian God is real, I hope he has a sense of humor. Otherwise I could be in some bit of trouble for this. I just can’t help it.

My Apologies To George Saunders

I must apologize to George Saunders. George: please accept my sincerest apologies. Why do I need to apologize to George? I need to because of this photograph:

I took this photo of him at the Tattered Cover Lodo reading for Tenth of December. Then I posted it to facebook. People immediately asked if George was a zombie. One person suggested he looked more like a mafia hitman.

This is my fault. I always take a quick snap of authors when I go to a reading at Tattered Cover and post to facebook. I do this so people can follow the readings I’m getting to attend and I tend to take the pics quickly, trying to be unintrusive at the reading about it.

However, as you can tell from the above, I do not tend to take good pictures. This only gets worse when I try to do it quick and be unintrusive.

As such, I owe you an apology, George. Sorry for taking and posting a picture that makes you appear to be a zombie and/or a mafia hitman. Well, at least for the zombie part. The mafia hitman thing may have been more due to the choice of the dark shirt/jacket/tie combination. I can’t be responsible for wardrobe choices, even if I find them stylish.

Why I’m Doing Less Posts About Weird News

I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but I’ve been doing less posts about freaky news items. There is a reason for this. It isn’t that I’ve grown up at all (because I haven’t), but rather because the Comcast page has become significantly less interesting.

I used to check out the Comcast home page pretty frequently because they had a news section that I could click on and then choose a ‘weird news’ subheading. Frankly, weird news captures my interest more than most news. I still checked the google news homepage to get a general idea of what was going on in the country, looking further when something struck me as important, but weird news was more fun to peruse.

The Comcast changed things.

Yup, instead of what appeared to be their own news listing, which I could click to get a subheading for ‘weird news,’ they now have a dedicated NBC News section. When I click this, there is no ‘weird news’ subheading. Nothing even remotely like it.

This does not capture my interest.

As such, I almost never go to the Comcast homepage. I have no reason to go there anymore. Worse for my blog, I don’t regularly check for really bizarre things that happen in the world (I’m sure they’re still happening).

It sucks. It sucks for Comcast if they want me to use their page and it sucks for getting daily blog topics. I’m sure not checking out NBC News. That hasn’t managed to interest me at all.

Sad Tattered Cover Lodo Is Converting To A Single Floor But Happy They’re Staying At All

Well, I had both good news and bad news given to me last night. The good news is that Tattered Cover will not be moving out of their Lodo location. However, the bad news is that it will soon only have a single floor there. Sad and happy, bad news and good.

The Lodo location has always been my favorite, though I tend to spend more time at the Colfax store. It’s just such a cool building and I love going there.

However, I understand what is going on with the rising cost of Lodo real estate. A ton of restaurants and such have already had to flee the 16th street mall due to rising costs. Since the Tattered Cover Lodo lease was up soon, I was worried it would happen to them. After all, the owner can get much more for the space than any bookstore can currently support.

But, the Tattered Cover did better than I thought they were going to be able to do. They weren’t able to renew for all of the current space they hold, but they aren’t going to have to move. I was told last night that they’re still going to have the first floor…but they will have to give up the second to new tenants.

The beloved event space will be gone. My book’s current hangout in the upstairs fiction section will have to go. I imagine they’ll consolidate books downstairs and move some offices to Colfax, but they’ll do fine. Tattered Cover is strong.

So, though I’m sad that the Lodo location is going to be smaller than it has been since I’ve known it, at least they’re not having to move. Gotta look for the good, right?

Vocabulary And Fiction

I’ve always had what I thought was a decent vocabulary. At the very least, I tended to test well that way. I’m sure others have a much more extensive vocabulary than I do, but mine is probably better than average. When people find out I write, it seems like people assume that I worry even more about vocabulary than I do. That has been on my mind recently and I felt like rambling about that a bit today.

I mean, I do think its helpful for a writer to have an extensive vocabulary. Being able to use the exact right word or phrase to say what you mean, with all the connotations you want, is useful. Word choice can be extremely important.

However, I doubt that I utilize the vast majority of the vocabulary with which I am familiar on a day-to-day basis writing wise. For one thing, I try to make sure I stick to words that fit my characters. If my characters don’t jibe with words like ‘obtund’ and ‘donnybrook,’ which they often don’t, then I’m probably not going to use them unless the aesthetics of the line require such.

After all, use of an obscure word that isn’t necessary can create problems for readers. Sometimes people can figure words out from context or from half knowing what a word means, but sometimes readers might have to go and look something up to be able to understand a passage. I have no problem with that when it’s necessary, but I’m not eager to do it when it isn’t. I’m not anxious to impress readers with the words I know.

Really, I tend to learn words I’m not familiar with in order to have them at the ready, be able to use them when they are necessary. I also expand my vocabulary to be able to more easily process fiction of other writers who did find it necessary to use more obscure words.

But still…though I love words and love finding out words that more precisely mean what I’m trying to say, I have a policy of restraint. I just think that words should be used judiciously.

Trying For The Dream Book Blurb

It’s time for me to start getting blurbs together for The Garden of Good and Evil Pancakes (due out in spring of this year from EAB Publishing) and so far I’ve had some amazing people agree to do blurbs for me. However, no luck as of yet on my dream blurber.

I don’t mean to slight the people who have agreed to blurb, but my writing friends talk a lot about the idea of a dream blurber. These are usually someone who is too famous to be likely to talk to you, someone who significantly influenced the work being blurbed.

The people who have agreed to blurb The Garden of Good and Evil Pancakes certainly had an influence, but no one quite as much as Donald Antrim. The Verificationist, both reading it and what I mistakenly thought it was going to be, was my base inspiration for The Garden of Good and Evil Pancakes. A blurb from him would be incredible. (I also loved Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World and The Hundred Brothers, though The Afterlife: A Memoir is still on my to read shelf.)

Of course, Donald Antrim is way too famous for me to be able to realistically approach. I’m facebook friends with him, but I couldn’t find another reasonable way to try to contact him other than sending a facebook message. I tried that, but I haven’t heard back. It doesn’t even look like he got it, I don’t think he spends the kind of time on facebook that I do. I don’t even know if he ever signs in.

So, as of yet, no luck with Donald Antrim. I keep hoping, but Donald Antrim is a busy man. I’ll keep reading his stuff either way.

There’s Still Time To Save Eddy

I mentioned about this fundraiser before, but there’s only a couple of days for you to help out Edward J Rathke if you’re willing to help. As I mentioned before, Eddy was defrauded by a jerk using the alias “James Xavier Reed” as part of Eddy’s freelance work to the tune of about two grand. I’m sure you remember, I’ve been talking about this quite a bit.

Anyway, time for the fundraiser is almost up. Just a couple more days. If you’ve been holding off on this one, don’t wait too much longer.

EDDY FOREVER!

Some Days You Just Need This

Some days you just need this:

Thanks for Michael J. Seidlinger for bringing this helpful penguin animated gif to my attention.

All You Can Eat Pancakes = One Serving Of Pancakes

Since my novel The Garden of Good and Evil Pancakes is due out in spring of this year from EAB Publishing, I find myself paying more attention to pancakes than I perhaps would be otherwise. The thing that’s messing with my mind right now? The ‘all you can eat’ pancake ads going on right now for IHOP.

Make no mistake, I am a fan of pancakes. However, any mention of all you can eat pancakes bugs me. Maybe I’m the only one (though I doubt it), but for me the following equation is always true:

All I Can Eat Pancakes = One Serving of Pancakes

Never, in all that I can remember, have I ever gotten to the end of a stack of pancakes and thought: Boy, what I could really go for right now is some more pancakes. No, a single stack of pancakes literally is all the pancakes I can eat at a single time. At that point, as much as I love them, I’m utterly done with pancakes for the immediate time. Never do I want to order more.

Sure, perhaps if I was only served a single pancake I might want one or two more. However, pancakes are almost always served in a stack of three (two at the usual lower limit). That’s all I want. That’s all I can eat.

I know ‘all you can eat’ deals are popular because people feel like they’re getting a deal. Before you are eating pancakes, you might think you want a lot. The ability to gorge. However, I’m betting few people really get much value out of an all you can eat pancake deal unless they absolutely force themselves. It can be done, but who wants to?

I’m sure this campaign works well for IHOP, but it just bugs me. Thought I’d share that.