David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 39

Have You Liked My Facebook Author Page Yet?

Have you liked my Facebook author page yet?

Maybe you should. Someone has to do it.

Of Course It Is One Of The Earlier Books

I decided to finally take a friend’s recommendation on a high fantasy series that involves ten books. Part of that decision involved finding trade paperback copies of the first two books for fifty cents each at Goodwill. However, things got complicated from there.

I kept looking at Goodwill for more volumes in the series, but after a year I had to accept that I wasn’t going to. Then I started looking at purchase.

I could get the whole series new for $90 or so on Ebay. However, I already had the first two books so those would be wasted, making the remaining eight cost me about $12 each. Individually they were going for about $14-17 new. Used tended to be at least $8 for bad condition mass market paperback due to shipping, and I would have to go through the hassle of 8 individual order hunts and such. I also really don’t prefer mass market paperback, particularly for books of this size.

One of the whole series new on Ebay for $90 had a best offer. Turned out, they wouldn’t accept any offer lower than full, even if I said they could keep the first two books to sell individually.

Finally, I found a used set of mixed format in really good condition for $70. I could just donate the first two books, whichever of the copies were in worse shape. Fine. I ordered. Turns out, that seller sends books from multiple warehouses across the country media mail. They are copies in good shape and a mix of mass market and paperback, but over the course of two weeks I’ve received six shipments and am still waiting on one more book.

Of course, two of the first two books to arrive were the first two (worse than my copies). Didn’t need them, but whatever.

I started reading. I figured it’d take me long enough to get through the books that things would arrive in time for me not to run dry. Was that correct?

Well, we’ll see. I’m about halfway through the second book now. Book three has arrived. The others I’ve received? Three and five through ten. That’s right, I have all but the one I would need second out of the entire shipment. Figures.

Hopefully four arrives before I get through three.

Pot And The Kettle

I don’t often watch 90 Day Fiancé, but my wife enjoys the show so I see it occasionally. One of the thing that bugs me is when one of the subjects becomes all concerned that their significant other might be using them for money/citizenship/whatever. Not that this isn’t a concern usually, but more that no one even mentions how they are also using that person.

They are going for someone younger/more attractive/less picky about social malformation/more dependent/etc. than the subject would otherwise be able to get. Talk of love and/or connection aside, and there could always be some and screw ageism/messed up body standards/and all that, there is still usually some kind of unacknowledged using of the other person to get something in a relationship that the subject couldn’t get otherwise.

Not really judging the rightness or wrongness of such a thing, but it seems wrong to worry about one using the other for money/citizenship/whatever when the using is mutual even if different in character. It seems hypocritical to only regard one of the two as a possible user. Seems like modern colonialism.

Soothing And Unsettling At The Same Time

This is soothing and unsettling at the same time:

I’m torn.

I Can’t Have Been The Only One Thinking This

I can’t have been the only one thinking this.

[image error]

Dear Companies With Whom I Have A Financial Relationship: We Are Not Friends

Dear companies with whom I have a financial relationship: we are not friends. As much as I may want you to be able to serve me better, there is no way in hell that I am spending any time at all answering any kind of survey about your services (unless I’m mad at you and telling you so) without you providing me some kind of benefit for doing so.

A tiny credit on my next bill? That would be enough. A tiny reward of any kind? Probably also enough. Purely as a favor? Hell no. We are not friends and I will not be using any of the small amount of time I have on this earth answering a survey for you just on the fruitless hope that you will suck a little bit less as a result. I know you most likely will not and most likely are just doing the survey thing to build good will.

Piss off.

We Could Totally Get More Use Out Of This

We could totally get more use out of “Remember, remember! The fifth of November.” than we have to date. I mean, the structure of the phrase is open to so many other dates that we could then associate with something. Why not?

Remember, remember! The eighth of December.

Remember, remember! The first of October.

Remember, remember! The third of September.

Well, maybe it’s just single syllable days in those four months, but still. That’s a lot more we could be making use of.

 

The Irony Of Unpersuasive Spam About Marketing

I know I don’t market this blog very well. One reason for that is I don’t make any money off it. Still, I feel like I’m doing a better job than all the spam comments I get about marketing. I mean, how credible is their reputation as a marketer if all that happens from them trying to market themselves for their marketing services is that I get irritated and delete their comment?

They’re not making a good case for their abilities.

Guess I’ll Read “Ducks, Newburyport” After All

I wasn’t going to read Ducks, Newburyport, but I guess I will after all.

It wasn’t that it’s an over 1000 page novel with only a single sentence. I’ve read big books before. I’ve read challenging books too. My big deal was that I’ve read a whole slew of big books (some challenging, others more challenging to get through just because they were a slog. Poor Fellow My Country, Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, Sironia, Texas, the Mission Earth series, Gai-Jin, Cryptonomicon, and others were all this year. I just wanted to read something smaller and simpler after all that.

However, after having had people suggest, and not without some measure of truth, that I was far more likely to end up reading these kind of books from men, particularly as I was ordering Knausgaard’s My Struggle: Book Six so I could finish off that poor decision, I decided I could give one more a go.

We’ll see how that decision plays out.

Thinking ‘Bout

Thinking ’bout

(Sorry, tired today.)