David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 282

Manti Te’o Isn’t Exactly The Kind Of Guy I Pictured Having An Imaginary Girlfriend

I’m not a big sports guy, so it’s taken me a little while to figure out what everyone has been talking about. However, I’ve finally looked enough to find a few things out. Conclusion? I have to say that Manti Te’o isn’t really the sort of guy I imagined having an imaginary girlfriend.

Now, I’m still not sure whether Te’o was in on the hoax or not. This still seems up in the air. If so, my opinion of him would go down and I’m not even sure what to think about that. If not, then I feel bad for the guy because his pain would not have been fake. Even in that case, though, he isn’t exactly the sort of guy I’d imagine having an online relationship that turned out not to be real.

I’m sure you all know (or can click the link about, Manti Te’o supposedly had an online girlfriend named Lennay Kekua who supposedly died of leukemia just hours after Te’os grandmother died (my certain sympathy to him for his grandmother who was most certainly real and most certainly did pass on). Only, turns out the girl wasn’t real. It still seems uncertain whether Te’o knew or not.

Regardless, isn’t it supposed to be nerdy dorks like me that invent imaginary girlfriends or get taken in by fake girls online? Remember Brian Johnson’s girlfriend in Breakfast Club? “She lives in Canada, met her at Niagara Falls. You wouldn’t know her.” But, Te’o isn’t a nerdy little dork. He may be just a college player for now, but he’s an immensely charismatic football star. He’s a jock, one of the cool kids.

I mean, I feel bad for the guy if he got taken in (though not bad if he made things up). Still, it seems weird for this to be happening to a jock star instead of some schmo like me (incidentally, my wife is real).

Did Anyone Know That MySpace Is Still Open?

Hey, I didn’t know if anybody knew this or not, but MySpace is still open. Really. I just checked yesterday and the site is still there. I thought for sure it had died a while ago, but it didn’t.

Looking into it, I hear some people still use it. I don’t, but some people apparently do. I heard something about it being good for bands to share music and whatnot, which really doesn’t apply to me. I haven’t killed my profile on there for some reason I don’t completely understand, but I don’t really use it.

Frankly, I’ve only been on there a couple of times in the last four years or so. Maybe five. Really, the only reason I was on there even those couple of times was to contact an author I found on MySpace who I couldn’t find anywhere else. I was just on yesterday for the same reason, but I wasn’t able to find him there anymore. Looks like I’ll be using MySpace even less from now on. When it does eventually go, I probably won’t know for a while.

It was funny though, seeing it was still there. It was kind of like my deal with Merle Haggard. I keep thinking he’s dead and am always surprised when I check again and see he’s still alive. That was how I felt about MySpace yesterday.

Yup, that’s right. I just compared MySpace to Merle Haggard. You’re welcome.

At Least The Packers Didn’t Win If The Broncos Didn’t

First thing I should admit is that I do not follow football much at all. I’ve been to one Broncos game, and never watched any on TV, but I don’t really follow them much. No offense to the Broncos and I wish them well, but I haven’t suddenly pretended to be a huge fan just because I moved to Denver. That being said, it’s kind of good that the Green Bay Packers lost in the playoffs if the Denver Broncos were going to (no offense to the Packers either).

To be honest, my wife and I had started to get a little interested since there were rumors that the Broncos could be going to the Superbowl. We might not be fans, but it was still exciting. We don’t know why, but it was. As such, we started paying a little bit of attention.

Of course, the first game we started paying attention to was the one last week with the Baltimore Ravens. We didn’t even watch, mind you, we just checked on the score and saw that Denver was ahead by 7 with only two minutes left to go. We really started getting interested, but then what happened happened. I’m sure you all know the rest (how Baltimore not only tied it at the very last moment in what seemed like either a very embarrassing play to Denver or an amazing play for Baltimore but then went on to beat Denver in overtime).

At that point, I thought I was really going to get ribbed by my wife’s dad. He’s a huge Packers fan, and they were also a possible for the Superbowl. I thought for sure I was going to be hearing about how Denver had just lost its chance, kidded about that play (which, to be honest, I didn’t even see).

However, then Green Bay lost too. Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be hearing any ribbing about last week’s Broncos game from my wife’s dad. We just have to wish Denver and Green Bay better luck next year.

“Bones Buried in the Dirt” Book Tour!

Okay, I admit it, I didn’t really have time or money to do an actual book tour for Bones Buried in the Dirt (available at Amazon). Still, I wanted to make a video.

That’s when I realized that I’d be traveling over the holidays. I took my book with me and took pictures of it in various places (Colorado, Nebraska, New Jersey, and New York). Then I set the snapshots to some public domain music I found and here we are.

Hope everyone enjoys.

First Experience With WebMD

I’ve got either a very mild case of the flu or a very mild cold, I’m not sure which. My wife decided to play around with WebMD and plug in my symptoms. After an extremely long series of symptom questions, I’ve come to the conclusion that WebMD might want to modify their questions to include symptom duration. It’s either that or my wife was using it wrong.

Mind you, answering the questions was difficult enough as it was. Some symptoms I could say definitely, but some were not just yes/no questions. For example, when they asked about difficultly breathing through the nose, did they mean entirely or any little bit? My airway is open, but it feels a bit restricted. Same thing with runny nose. Does the fact I’ve had one at all mean ‘yes,’ or should I say ‘no’ since it was only occasionally and not very often at that?

However, one thing they didn’t ask was duration of symptoms. At the end of everything, my top two potentials were cold and flu. Wow, so helpful is the WebMD. More interesting were the other two possibilities they mentioned: arthritis and gout.

What? Arthritis and gout? Shouldn’t the fact that the symptoms started less than a week ago tend to lead away from these two conclusions? Given how important symptom duration would be to distinguishing between cold/flu and arthritis/gout, shouldn’t they have asked? It just seemed a bit ridiculous.

Frankly, I can see how they end up panicking people if they don’t have enough additional question data built-in to screen arthritis/gout out from cold/flu. I know I either have a mild cold or a mild flu, and they weren’t helpful on that. I am certain I don’t have arthritis or gout and WebMD was just being ridiculous on that aspect.

Bottom line, I don’t think WebMD is particularly useful unless you are a hypochondriac looking for strange things to think about your medical state.

Of course, if I’d been really concerned about whether I had a mild cold or a mild flu, I probably would have gone to a real doctor. WebMD in my view is more for my wife to play with by trying to enter wild imaginary symptoms to attempt to arrive at a weird diagnosis. She was having a lot of fun with the fact that once she entered ‘bleeding nipples’ and ended up with a diagnosis of muscle strain.

I Suspect My Wife Caused Me To Break Our Washer

I admit that I’m the one that broke our washer. We got back from a trip and had a lot of laundry. I admit that I overloaded the washer and that the washer then broke. However, I seriously suspect that my wife caused me to do this.

You see, my wife has always wanted a set of the really nice red washers and dryers. She was somewhat flexible on brand, but they definitely be red.

However, when we bought our town home, it already came with a washer dryer combo stackable set. They weren’t great either. They were some Frigidaire model I’d never heard of before. My wife looked them up and the reviews, what there were, were bad. Shortly after we bought the place, you couldn’t even find them to buy them. They just stopped selling them. However, the washer dryer came with the place. As such, we weren’t going to buy different ones.

Still, I don’t think my wife gave up her dream of the red washer and dryer. When I broke the washer, we had no choice but to get a whole new set. With stackables, you can’t just mix and match brands. They just don’t sit right that way. Since we had to replace the washer, we had to replace the dryer as well. Since we were getting new ones, we might as well get good ones. That’s why the delivery men are upstairs right now installing our new red LG (steam) washer and dryer:

Now, this just works out a little too well for my wife’s plans for me to be completely non-suspicious. Frankly, though I know I broke the washer, I still think my wife was involved. You might wonder how, but that would indicate you don’t know my wife. Mind control, hypnosis, the possibilities are endless. Somehow, my wife got me to break our washer so she could get the one she always wanted.

Of course, some of you might think that I’m trying to dodge responsibility here. Really I’m not. I’m paying for the new washer and dryer. I just think this is all a little too convenient for my wife for her to not have had some hand in what happened.

Book Giveaway For Bones “Buried in the Dirt”!

Hey, everybody, there is now a Goodreads giveaway for Bones Buried in the Dirt!

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Bones Buried in the Dirt
by David S. Atkinson

Giveaway ends February 11, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

There are five copies up for grabs and the giveaway will run from January 11, 2013 to February 11, 2013. Enter, share it around, or whatever strikes your fancy. If you win, reviews on Goodreads and/or Amazon are appreciated if you feel so inclined.

Of course, I won’t be offended if you don’t want to enter because you prefer to buy a copy on Amazon. You can always do that instead. I won’t be offended.

The Fact You Can’t Enter Reviews On Amazon and Barnes And Noble Before Release Date Is Pretty Annoying

I just want to say that I find it very annoying that you can’t enter reviews on Amazon or Barnes and Noble before the release date of a book. I much prefer how Goodreads just ignores this and lets you go ahead. I’m sure this is probably done to combat review fraud, but it’s still annoying.

After all, I get a lot of books before release date because I write book reviews for places like Gently Read Literature, [PANK], InDigest, The Lit Pub, and The Rumpus. Further, sometimes when I order direct from the publisher (or sometimes even from my local independent, Tattered Cover) I end up getting (and often reading) the book before Amazon and Barnes and Noble think it has been released.

That would be all fine and good, except that Amazon and Barnes and Noble won’t let me write a review at that point. Granted, I don’t write an Amazon or Barnes and Noble review for every book I read. I make some kind of comment on Goodreads for everything, but I tend to copy the review over to Amazon and Barnes and Noble in certain cases (such as when I like the book more than normal, when I think more people need to know about the book, when I think the book especially deserves support, when it’s from a smaller press that is going to get less attention, when I know the author and/or particularly think they deserve support, and so on).

But, when the release date hasn’t hit yet, Amazon and Barnes and Noble won’t let me post. This actually leads me to post less, because I’ll post to Goodreads when I finish reading and promise myself to return to Amazon and Barnes and Noble when the release date hits. What happens is that I forget. Sometimes I come across it later and remember…sometimes I do not.

Now, I know that they probably do this to combat review fraud since it is less likely that people actually read the book before release date. Still, some people can read before release date and it would be nice to be able to post a review if I want.

I Probably Should Have Realized That I Had A Pretty Good Fever

Looking back on it, I probably should have realized that I had a pretty good fever. I was coming down with a little something, but I didn’t think it was too bad. I had a little chest gook, a little joint soreness, and it was a real effort to drag myself from place to place. Still, it just seemed like a pretty light cold.

That alone would not have suggested much, but I was also getting some pretty good chills. The night before last I woke up at 3AM and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was too cold (also because my joints were a little sore and I couldn’t quite get comfortable). I was cocooned in my comforter, but still couldn’t get warm enough.

That probably should have told me something. I figured I had an elevated temperature at that point, given that I have a pretty warm comforter. I still thought it was probably a little high, though I probably should have figured it out given that my comforter is, as I mentioned, pretty warm.

Yesterday is what really should have tipped me off though. I was shivering anytime I went outside…and it was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Mind you, I don’t normally need to wear a coat if it’s above 25ish. I was also extremely cold in my office…and I had my office thermostat cranked up to 74.

Still, I just thought I had a mild fever maybe. Once I got my work done I went home and got under the covers for a bit. Eventually I decided to check the fever and actually took my temperature (after being out from under the covers for a while to make sure I hadn’t artificially driven my temp up).

It was 102.

At that point, I started taking an ibuprofen every so often. Figured 102 was something I should actually pay attention to bringing down. Given how cold I felt, I probably should have realized it was something I needed to pay attention to sooner.

Concerns About Making A Nebraskan Secretary Of Defense

I’ve been hearing a bit recently about Obama nominating Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense. There seems to be quite a bit of a fight brewing about that. I really don’t know much about the fight. I admit I’ve heard some bad things about Hagel over the years, but you hear bad things about all politicians if they stick around long enough. I’d really need to learn more to make a real judgment ( he may be horrible or he may be a good guy, I don’t know). However, doesn’t anyone else find it concerning that a Nebraskan is nominated for secretary of defense?

Now, it is possible that a Nebraskan, even Hagel, could do a great job. I admit, I haven’t learned enough to know for sure and don’t really need to since my opinion isn’t going to matter on this. However, nominating a Nebraskan seems a bit amusing.

Mind you, I’m from Nebraska. I spent the better part of thirty years there. I think that gives me the right to poke a little fun at it. For example, think of the Huskers record this last year. Do events like 14th ranked Nebraska’s 70-31 loss to the unranked Wisconsin Badgers give anyone much faith in a Nebraskan’s aptitude for defense? Sure, this isn’t relevant…but still.

Just think about it. What kind of defense strategies do you think a Nebraskan would come up with? Surrounding the country with an impenetrable wall of corn? Running up the score (the best defense is, after all, a good offense)? Stopping every car with California plates? Granted, I’m making fun here…but I’m betting some of the country is thinking this way.

The nomination of Nebraskan as secretary of defense just amuses me a little. It shouldn’t, and I’m playing around here, but it does. Just sayin’.