Bryce Moore's Blog, page 10

Movie Review: Batman (1989)

It’s been a long time since I watched the Tim Burton Batman from 1989. I was worried it might not live up to my memories of the movie. Because back when it first came out, that movie was awesome. Then again, I was also 11, and there had been far fewer superhero movies to compare […]

Video Game Review: Final Fantasy XVI

I rarely get to play a video game to completion. Usually that’s because I get distracted, and then don’t come back to the game, even if I played a fair bit of it. So the fact that I finish a game says something in and of itself. (Even, I suppose, if that’s just that I’m […]

COVID Shot Round . . . Seventy-Eight?

I got my flu and COVID shots on Saturday, so I had a bit of time to reflect on just where things are these days with that huge mess of 2020. It’s hard to believe it’s been over four years (coming up on five) since the only thing I really had to worry about being […]

BryceGPT Update

It’s been a while since I posted about BryceGPT. That’s not because I haven’t been working on it. Appendicitis and the ensuing yuck certainly derailed me some, but I’m back at it now. For the past week or two, my big focus has been on using it as a tool to write a short story […]

A Librarian’s View on Alphabetization

I came across a video this morning about a librarian with a hypothetical problem: 1,280 books arrived out of nowhere, and it’s the day before school starts, and so they have to alphabetize all of them as fast as possible. Here’s the video: Now, a few comments by yours truly. First of all, if a […]

Marketing Creepiness

So last week I posted about how I had decided it was time to look for an actual web developer to take over the design and upkeep of my website. (Still interested in any information people have about that, by the way.) I posted the blog to Facebook and didn’t really think much more about […]

Looking for a Webmaster

Okay. The time has come for me to admit it to myself: I am not up to keeping up with my website in addition to everything else I’ve got going on. I’ve been trying to find time to make a store page for the site, and the newsletter function broke due to spam, so I’ve […]

The Smell of Autumn

Once we roll around to autumn again each year, I am just naturally more inclined to be upbeat and positive. Why? Because it means that summer is gone, and that’s my least favorite time of year. It’s hot, and there are bugs. Also, there are chores like mowing the lawn, though thankfully Daniela and Denisa […]

New Pet Study!

Over in my Maine Cat Lab life, we’re working on conducting a new study, this one focused on pets and politics. We’re hoping to get as wide a research sample as possible, from across the political and pet spectrum. Dog owners, cat owners, Democrats, Republicans, with children, without children: we want everyone!

Here’s a link to the survey.

Please take it, and share it with everyone and anyone.

Here’s the official announcement we posted:

You, your pets, and your values:

We’re curious about you and your politics!

There have been a lot of claims made, by politicians and pundits, about animal owners, politics, and social values. As social scientists, this piqued our interest. 

So… if you’re pet free, child free, OR a cat owner, dog owner, or have a child or two, we want to hear about your life and your values. 

There are no right or wrong answers (really). 

Don’t care about politics? Care deeply about politics? 

It’s all good. Your voice counts: we want to learn about your life and attitudes!

Thank you in advance! 

Farmington Fair vs. Stirling Highland Games

I went back to the Farmington Fair last night with the fam. It was our 18th time going, more or less. (There have been some years not everyone has gone, but I think at least someone from the family has gone every single year we’ve been here.) Lots different going the 18th time vs the 1st time, mainly in that now it’s not nearly as big of a deal to spend money on rides and fair food. That’s a big plus. We got some maple cotton candy, fried dough, and french fries. (For the record, I don’t recommend eating so much fried food when you’re still recovering from a whole bunch of not fun in your abdomen. At least, it didn’t do wonders for me . . .)

Having just gone to the highland games in Stirling, Scotland, I couldn’t help but compare the experience of the two different fairs (because that’s essentially what the highland games are). As surprising as it is for me to write it, I think the Farmington Fair easily trounces the highland games in pretty much every category but “feats of strength” and “number of kilts seen.” The Fair draws more people from the entire area, though I suppose I didn’t see many international visitors that I could easily identify. Judging from the people I saw at the highland games, if you took away the international visitors, you’d lose about half the audience. Plus, the games go for a single day. The fair goes for an entire week. The games had a few food trucks with very long lines. The fair had a slew of eating options. The games had no rides. The fair had the whole range.

(As an aside, MC surprised Denisa and me by suddenly deciding that she wanted to go on the Zipper. If you’re unfamiliar with the Zipper, it’s a ride where you get into a completely enclosed cage and then get hurled in tight loop-de-loops as you go around a elliptical moving track.

To have MC suddenly decide she wanted to do this was kind of the same as me stating out of the blue that I wanted to start ballet. Daniela flat out refused to go with her, having gone once before with Tomas, back in the day. “Once was enough, thanks,” she said. MC managed to convince a friend to go with her, and we watched, wondering if she’d come off the ride in tears or smiles. I tended to think it would be tears, but she proved me wrong by loving the whole thing, and wanting to ride again right away. At one point, her “cage” did three somersaults in a row. (Alas, her friend didn’t have nearly as good of a time, and MC couldn’t convince anyone else to go with her again.))

Some of you might be thinking comparing the games and the fair isn’t an equal comparison. But at their core, they do about the same thing. Both have the carnival vibe. Both have people competing in different games of skill. Yes, the highland games had telephone pole tossing and shot putting, but the fair had “drag your neighbor,” where locals entered to drag race against each other. It also has the demolition derby . . .

The fair also has the agricultural and arts aspect, with people competing in categories ranging from “best cucumbers” to “best crocheted toy.” (This was the first year we’ve ever not entered anything. It was a difficult August/September, so I’m cutting us some slack.) And then there are all the animals: cows, horses, ponies, ducks, chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits . . .

If I had to choose one to recommend to people, it would easily be the fair. Of course, I just went to Stirling games, and they have about 8,000 spectators. There are much larger ones, with more than 20,000 spectators, and maybe they have more going on there. On the other hand, I’m comparing them to a county fair. It’s not like it was the state fair or anything. I think the comparison is more or less fair.

The good news is that it’s not really a competition, and you can go to both and enjoy both. But I’m not sure going back to the Stirling games is on my To Do list, while seeing the fair again next year is already a given.