Nov 30 2019

My video is reaching students!

NASA nebula

A still shot from NASA

Way back I took classes in “podcasting” and “movie-maker.” Afterward, I came home and practiced what we’d learned in class. I made three videos, which are a lot closer to Powerpoint presentations, if the truth be told. Anyway, one of them has had a bit of success—”A Brief History of Science Fiction.” This video was designed with a few still images, mostly screen shots from NASA such as the one I featured on this post, and two audio tracks. We’d been warned in class about using commercial music, so I downloaded a freebie track that I thought sounded dramatic. The second audio track is my voice, reading story boards, in my rather strong Southern U.S. accent. I did write the story boards, based upon my study of the science fiction genre, my training in English literature, and what of that matched up with the still images that I managed to acquire at the time.

Science fiction is an ever changing literary and film genre (with more than a dash of animation) so my video is already a bit dated. Still, I was most gratified when reading a very valid complaint about the loud musical soundtrack. The complainant stated that my little YouTube video was required for class. Gosh darn! My Brief History of Science Fiction is required by a teacher (somewhere?) for a class (in something?) I’m flattered. Really.

If you don’t mind hearing that awful musical track, head over to YouTube and see A Brief History of Science Fiction. While you are there, the link to my “book trailer” for The Gift Horse is still live also.

Nov 29 2019

Free for Three promo

For those who prefer to shop at home on Black Friday, here’s an unbeatable deal—my science fiction novel, Trinity on Tylos, is free for three days. Why run it for free? That’s simple, really. More readers should mean more reviews and some word of mouth testimonial. So, here’s a link to the novel, which is free on November 29, 30, and December 1.

Oct 18 2019

How much for a flu shot?

Mostly, I write about books, or maybe films. No doubt, I will do that again soon, but recently I have been experiencing various forms of health care, and my latest such visit was for the annual flu shot, so I’ll write a bit about that. For some years, I opted out of having this injection, but after hubby lost a week of work and felt terrible for even longer, I went back to getting the shot. After all, the couple of times I had influenza it was no fun at all.

Current United States policy (via the Affordable Care Act) requires that insurance cover the flu shot as a preventative measure, without any co-pay from the patient. So, my doctor’s office has made a business decision to “stick it” to the insurance company—pun intended. See the attached screen shot of the EOB for this procedure:

Flu Shot

Now, thinking that $248 is a bit steep for this, I just looked at GoodRx (a nifty site if you have never used it) and it tells me that the estimated cost for the shot is $32 at Walmart.

GoodRx

Now, going to my doctor’s office was convenient and fast, but I’ve had flu shots at the grocery store or at a mini clinic, and neither of those were inconvenient. Bottom line, the doctor’s office knows that they can charge whatever for preventive procedures, and my insurance has to pay for it, so they are taking advantage of this. Kudos to Walmart for making this injection available for regular folks. If you don’t have insurance, or if you want to keep it real, just go to the GoodRx site and put in your zip code. The site automatically offers several locations and price points. BTW, the average when I looked was $32.

As for Piedmont Athens Primary Care, they’ve made me think, yet again, that when insurance premiums go up again, and they will, their approach to business is one reason for those hefty increases.

 

Sep 29 2019

Impossible Burger at Burger King

impossibleThe other day, hubby and I were eating at a favorite restaurant near our home. While perusing the menu, I noted that they now serve the “Impossible Burger” for $15. To be fair, that includes “free” salad and a side, but it struck me as a high price for a fake burger. I’m actually a fan of a good black bean burger, but these new fangled burgers (such as the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat) purport themselves to be equal in taste and texture to beef. But I wasn’t too keen on spending $15 when I could get a nice salmon fillet with two sides for $12, so we didn’t try it that day.

However, after church today, we went to a fast food restaurant. That’s quite unusual for us, but hey, I got to try an Impossible Burger for a possible price. The B&K palace we visited was one of a series of fast food joints along a busy highway, so they had customers, but not too many. We ordered the meal (a golly whopping 900+ calories) which includes a small drink and fries. BTW, neither the drink nor the fries didn’t seem all that small to me, but the gal at the counter seemed surprised that we didn’t take the 30 cent upgrade to medium.

Hubby looked a bit skeptical, but I dug in immediately. Low and behold  the Impossible “Whopper” tastes quite a lot like any old fast food burger—nothing outstanding, but just fine for the price paid. Anyway, the burger seemed a bit thinner than I remember for a whopper, but the condiments and bun made it a substantial sandwich, which we ate without cheese, as there seemed to be sufficient calories without that addition. The fries were good and crisp, and I ate half of them before shoving them across the table for hubby to finish.

My Fitness Pal tells me that I’ve just about eaten all I should for this day, but I can now say I’ve tried one of the latest innovations in food, and it is okay…as long as one has enough calories left to enjoy the thing. Oh, and I do recommend trying it at Burger King, because we both ate for the price of one at our local sit down and get waited on favorite.

Sep 24 2019

One hand…the other hand…Amazon

handsWe’ve all heard the old saying that states it is not good when “one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing.” Basically, when an organization gets too big or too disconnected from itself, then there is at a minimum a loss of cooperation, and at worst, the organization works against itself.

A while back, I had to strip out all of the links to Amazon from this blog, due an email directive, and I have posted a screen shot of that message, which states plainly that I am no longer an Amazon Associate (a means of funding via promoting products.)

Screen Shot 2019-09-24 at 7.53.52 AM

Yesterday, I got another email from Amazon. It seems they no longer remember that my account was “terminated” and want help me sell their expletive deleted stuff.

Screen Shot 2019-09-24 at 7.54.04 AMHonestly, this is just on example of the problems at big A. Lots of articles have been published about problems there. The most troubling ones (for consumers) are the fake reviews and hijacked reviews.  I’ve mostly stopped shopping there, but hubby is addicted. However, the other day he was actually reading the reviews (and not just looking at the number of positive reviews) and realized that most of those reviews were not for the product he was wanting to buy. Fortunately, he didn’t buy from big A this time.

The bottom line is that Amazon is more and more a computerized “middle man” rather than a merchant, and buyers and sellers have little confidence that the platform is working for either side. Consumers should think about alternatives before using that one step purchase button. Sure, it is convenient, but it’s not good to get scammed.

As far as selling is concerned, lately, I’ve sold far more books via eBay than Amazon. More on that later.