David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 258

Collecting Together Reviews For “Bones Buried in the Dirt”

It’s been almost 8 months since publication of my novel in story form Bones Buried in the Dirt and people have had some really nice things to say about it, both in Goodreads/Amazon reviews and on formal review sites. I just wanted to take a moment to stop and thank everybody for all the kind words. It’s meant a lot to me. Thanks, and thanks for reading.

I also wanted to gather together a list of the formal reviews, just in case that spurs anyone to want to read:

- Maddie Huerter’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt in The Creightonian.

- Jacob Budenz’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt in the Summer 2013 issue of jmww.

- Ben Tanzer’s contemplation of Bones Buried in the Dirt over at This Blog Will Change Your Life.

- Manda-Rae’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt over over at manda-rae reads a lot.

- Tiffany Drew’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt over at Book Cover Justice.

- Leah Mosher’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt over at Books Speak Volumes.

- Valentina Cano’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt at Carabosse’s Library.

- Michael J. Seidlinger’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt at InDigest.

- Hollie Skerry’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt at Music, Books and Tea.

- Chris Blocker’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt at Literary Snob.

- Juli Rahel’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt over at A Universe in Words.

- Kimberly Campbell Moore’s review of Bones Buried in the Dirt over at The Lit Pub.

- Karen Dahood’s review of “Bones Buried in the Dirt” over at BookPleasures.

If anyone suggests that I’m milking this for a blog post since this is already over on the book web site, I will vehemently deny it.

Denver Water Has Poor Timing

Denver Water has terrible timing. I just got my water bill today. My wife pointed out to me that emblazoned on the front of the envelope was a message that read: “It’s a drought. USE EVEN LESS.” As anyone in the area knows, we’re having a bit of problems with flash flooding right now.

I’ve heard a lot of things. I’ve heard that this is a hundred year flood. I’ve heard that we’ve had ten inches of rain today. Schools have supposedly been cancelled in nearby Boulder. There are even reports of evacuations. Trails completely submerged (plenty of Facebook photos out there for those interested in looking).

Regardless, a drought message seems ill-timed.

Granted, I know that droughts and flash floods are not mutually exclusive events. Flash floods can often come during droughts and don’t necessarily lift the drought conditions. Sometimes the water comes so fast that it does terrible damage and still doesn’t soak into the ground or get saved up in the reservoirs. Sometimes you go right back to drought right after the flash flood.

Still, this was an odd day to see that drought warning on the envelope for my Denver Water bill.

I Wish My Mobile Apps Would Download My Updates Instead Of Just Notifying Me

I’ve finally started using a few apps on my phone for some of the sites I use most frequently. Specifically, I’ve started using the ones for Goodreads and Facebook. I do like how they pop up messages on my phone that I have new updates that I might want to look at. However, I kind of wish they would actually go and get these updates instead of just telling me about them.

What I mean is that I’ll get a little notice on my Goodreads or Facebook icon on my phone that indicates new updates. I’ll click on the icon and then have to sit and wait while the program updates, actually going to get the data. Depending on what is going on with my connection, this can take a while…sometimes leaving me just staring at my phone.

Frankly, it gets a bit frustrating. If the app got the data that I had updates, why does it then have to make me wait while it goes out and get the updates when I try to view them? Why bother telling me when it isn’t ready to show them to me? Why not just wait until it’s ready to tell me?

I’m sure this has something to do with the fact that the app isn’t sure it’s going to actually need those updates to display until I click the app to indicate that I’m actually going to view them, but that sucks. If it tells me I have an update, I’m going to want to see it…if for no other reason than to clear it. I have no problem waiting for updates until they can download, but I do mind them telling me and then making me wait to see them. Just get the updates and then tell me, mobile applications.

Seriously, this isn’t a very convenient arrangement. If these apps can get the notification that I have updates, they can get the updates too so they’re ready to view when I click to see. This waiting is crap.

What Else Jimmy Kimmel Is Responsible For

If you’re like me, you’re actually glad that it turned out that the twerking video where the girl set herself on fire turned out to be a hoax. For once, I actually saw this video. However, the main thing I was thinking at the time was a hope that the girl who caught on fire ended up being okay. As such, I was glad to find out that the whole thing was a hoax put on by Jimmy Kimmel.

Regardless, since Kimmel has turned out to be behind the hoax, I thought I’d reveal a few other things for which Jimmy Kimmel is really responsible:

- The Great Chicago Fire

- Skorts

- The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD

- Turgor Pressure

- The Big Bang

Surprising, isn’t it? I bet you didn’t even know some of those things were hoaxes. They were though, not real at all. Boy, he fooled us all good. Let’s just go ahead and chalk one up for Jimmy.

Red Dust: A Mixed-blood Dust Bowl Childhood Still Needs Help And Time Is Short

I don’t usually repeat a post, but Red Dust: a mixed-blood Dust Bowl childhood still needs help and there are only six or so days left to pledge. Last I heard, they needed about $8100 to make the amount they need, though the site may not be fully updated. Regardless, they still need help. As such, I’m going to repeat my previous post on this in case it catches a few more people:

If you haven’t already heard about this, give a thought to supporting Red Dust: a mixed-blood Dust Bowl childhood. This is a documentary project on the mixed ancestry experience during the dust bowl being organized by Allison Hedge Coke and it is in the funding stage right now. They need to raise about $20,000 for the project, so any help you can provide will help them get that much closer to being able to put this documentary together.

There is more information, along with a video you can check out, on the fundraiser page for the project. To give some background, though, much of the historical perspective we have on the dustbowl comes from an Anglo as opposed to a Native or mixed ancestry experience of that time. Though one set of experiences isn’t necessarily more valuable than another, our historical understanding is incomplete if we don’t have the ability to evaluate different perspectives.

Allison Hedge Coke’s father experienced this world of the dust bowl first hand, but doesn’t feel that the existing works capture fully what it was for him to be alive at that time and place in the world. Funding for the project would provide equipment, travel expenses, and such for Allison Hedge Coke to take her father back to the various places he lived during the dust bowl (Boise City, Oklahoma; Baca County, Colorado; Peralta, New Mexico; Peacock, Texas, and Ft. Sill) where he picked cotton, was inducted into WWII, and so on in order to explore with him and document his memories.

This promises to be a fascinating documentary work, one that will fill in gaps in the currently available documentary work. However, not to be morbid, but this man is 91 years old. There is only so much time left to attempt to preserve what this man experienced, or it will be lost to us.

As such, consider supporting the project if you can. There is no reason to give up what is so easily within our ability to preserve.

This Could Actually Make Me Read Harry Potter

I’ve never read any of the Harry Potter books. It’s not that I think there is anything wrong with them, just that I’ve never really gotten interested in reading them. However, I just saw an article that could actually tip the scales.

That’s right, there’s actually a bunch of people who are traveling to London to perform exorcisms because they think Harry Potter has corrupted the world. Apparently, these three young women think that the spells in the Harry Potter books are real and that recited such has invited demons to possess people.

No, really. These people actually believe this.

Now, most of the time I really try to stay away from the beliefs of other people. Really, I do. It just isn’t my business. However, I can’t help thinking this sounds as dopey as the people in the early 80s who kept saying that D&D led to Satanism. Trust me, I’ve hung out with a lot of D&D people. One thing they don’t have is any sway with dark powers.

Regardless, these three could actually get me to finally read the Harry Potter books. If there weren’t something like thirty of the things or whatever I might have already started in. I wouldn’t mind giving a look, but I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to the entire series, and I’m not sure it’s worth it to bother if I don’t go all the way.

My Wife Steals A Great Story

My wife stole a great story. We had something interesting happen at Whole Foods the other day and I thought: that would make a good blog post! However, she then posted about it on Facebook, totally stealing all my thunder.

You see, we’d been invited over to a barbecue by some friends and we’d stopped off at Whole Foods to grab a few things to bring. One thing we decided to bring was a chocolate eruption cake. For some reason, the woman behind the counter at the bakery asked if we wanted anything written on the cake.

My wife and I looked at each other. We were going to a barbecue. That wasn’t exactly a cake message situation. Still, my wife giggled and said: “Sure. Write ‘Yay! A BBQ!’” The woman behind the counter laughed and turned around to do the writing. Then she handed us the cake. We didn’t look at it. Perhaps we should have, because when we got it home we saw it said:

That’s right, ‘Yeah a BBQ’ not ‘Yay! A BBQ!’ Apparently the bakery woman mistook both the words and our emotion associated with the words. She didn’t even use any punctuation, much less any exclamatory punctuation. Frankly, it seems kind of sarcastic. Maybe she was a vegan.

Anyway, great story, right? Would have made a good blog post, right? That’s when my wife puts it all on Facebook and completely beats me to the punch. Of course, she didn’t bother to include a photo, but still.

What was I to do? Heck, I just figured I’d focus on how she stole my story…and here we are.

Best Anniversary Present Ever

My wife and I just celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary. Check out the anniversary present my wife got me:

This was just waiting for me upstairs, all assembled when I got home. You have no idea how good a present this was.

For one thing, my wife went out and got this herself, dragging it upstairs. This was definitely a team lift item. Then she assembled it by herself. Again, not easy. Even better, she did it while I wasn’t around. You don’t want to be around while my wife is assembling anything.

But beyond that, she let me have another bookshelf. You have no idea how much I needed a new one. Many of my bookshelves (I have 6 five shelf ones and one 3 shelf one currently before this) have books stacked sideways so I can fit more. I’ve wanted another for a long time, but I wasn’t permitted to get one. My wife has held the view that I have taken as much of the available space with bookshelves as I am allowed to.

Then this.

Heck, she didn’t even have to get the bookshelf for me, or put it together. Just saying I could have another one would have been present enough. Actually buying it for me and putting it together was gravy.

I’m telling you, best anniversary present ever. She’s even letting me put it in a spot where she’d planned to put in a wardrobe. I’m still in shock.

Automatic Faucets Waste Water

I know I was already talking recently about motion detector faucets in public restrooms, but I encountered a situation even more recently that I thought merited discussion. I came across a situation where a motion detector faucet actually wasted water. Given that the idea behind motion detectors on faucets is at least partially to conserve water (other than combating the spread of germs since we don’t have to touch things), I thought someone should mention this.

Now, I don’t mean that motion detector faucets actually waste more water than manual faucets. That would be ridiculous. What I mean is that the prevalence of motion detector faucets causes water waste indirectly, causing such to indirectly occur via the manual faucets that still remain out there in public restrooms and such.

To explain, I still run across quite a few manual faucets out there in public restrooms. However, I’ve gotten used to many public restrooms having automatic faucets. As a result, I tend to wave my hands under manual faucets and briefly not understand why the water doesn’t pour out. This doesn’t waste water (instead quite the opposite), but eventually I remember to turn on the faucet. Then, when I am done washing my hands, the water waste starts. You see, as used as I am to automatic faucets, I often just turn away when I am done instead of shutting off the water. My brain instinctively expects that the faucet can handle this. Of course, it does not.

Of course, when I am a few steps away and realize that the water is still running long after I need it to, I return to the faucet and turn it off. Regardless, there was water being used there that I didn’t intend to. Waste. Besides, how many people also forget this and don’t turn around to correct the situation? I know there are some, based on how many times I’ve walked into a public restroom and found faucets running.

Thus, though automatic faucets are designed to reduce water waste, they can indirectly cause water waste. The situation will probably stand until all public restrooms go to automatic faucets. All in all, given the number of automatic faucets and the number of remaining manual faucets in restrooms, I’m kind of betting that any water savings and water wasting currently add up to somewhat of a wash.

Source Of Problem Provides Perspective

I encountered a problem yesterday. This is interesting to me only because the source of the problem provided me perspective that my problem wasn’t significant in the slightest. As much as I hate perspective since my problems are at least problems for me, I got a laugh out of the situation.

The whole thing arose out of me reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. I’d gone looking for a free ebook for this and had a little difficulty finding one. Eventually, though, I did find a poorly configured pdf copy and downloaded it to my Kindle. Then I started reading.

The problem was encountered about 40% of the way through the book. I was reading in the bathtub, in the middle of an intense battle scene. I got to the end of a page and hit the button for the next page. It was blank. Figuring that there was just a blank page, I hit the page forward button again. That was blank as well. I kept hitting the button. The entire rest of the pdf was blank.

This was quite disruptive. I was in the middle of reading and suddenly the rest of the book was missing. I had to get out of the bathtub, dry off and get dressed, and go find a different pdf copy. I did, and eventually I kept reading. However, it was an annoyance and wasn’t as relaxing a read as I’d been hoping.

However, as I thought about it later, All Quiet on the Western Front wasn’t exactly the book to be reading when feeling sorry for myself when the ebook I was reading cut out in the middle. After all, All Quiet on the Western Front details the horror of trench warfare in WWI. Ebook problems pale a bit compared to that. Though significant to me, my problem wasn’t significant in the least.

I’ll have to make sure to ding All Quiet on the Western Front for that in my review. I’ll teach that book to provide me perspective.