Bryce Moore's Blog, page 129

After a Run of Seven Months

[image error]All winter, I kept dodging getting sick. Tomas has been sick like four times, Denisa’s gotten sick. DC and MC have been sick multiple times as well. Meanwhile, my last round of sick was at the end of October. Each time someone in the house would get sick, I’d gear up, getting ready to come down with it as well. That’s just been par for the course for me for so long.

But I kept taking my multivitamins, kept exercising, and kept to my sleep schedule, and each time, I didn’t get sick. (This all goes back to a news article I read a while ago about how seldom NFL players get sick. They said it might have something to do with how active they were. So I upped my activity level back then with specific goal of being less sick.)

It’s definitely worked. I’m in the best shape of my life. (Which, mind you, doesn’t mean a whole lot . . .)

Yet all good things must come to an end, and Monday, I had the dreaded tickle in the back of my throat. I kept exercising, took more vitamins, but Tuesday, it was a full sore throat, and then I had a conference I forced myself to go to yesterday, and . . .

I’m definitely sick. Blarg. Hopefully I’ll be on the mend soon, but for now, I’m staying put and watching movies.

Remembering Who I Was

[image error]I’ve kept a journal off and on since the early 90s. Sophomore year of high school through senior year, and then all during my mission, and then again since the mid-2000s. (I still write every day, though the entries aren’t always stellar. I consider this blog to be a journal of sorts as well, and these entries are obviously much more robust.)

But Tomas is at the point now where he’s almost as old as I was when I started my journal, which gives me a unique opportunity: to reread my entries from back then and remember just who I was at the time and how I thought. I hadn’t picked up my high school journal since . . . high school, probably. I thought I remembered just how I behaved and what sort of a person I was back then.

I was wrong.

For one thing, high school me was full of pretty strong mood swings. In my head, I’ve always considered myself to be pretty even, but one entry will be all about how angry I am at a friend, and then two days later we’re best friends again. Obviously, a lot of this centered around girls. Wanting them to like me. Trying to figure out how to interact with them and not make an idiot of myself. This was only made more complicated by the fact that most of my best friends were girls. I always got along well with them, but in some cases it was the age old “How can I get her to like me not as a friend but as a boyfriend?” dilemma.

I also really disliked Social Studies, I guess. Judging by how often I singled out my resentment for having to do homework in that class.

In my head, I was always a diligent student. In my journal, I got a D on an Algebra test and didn’t really seem to care that much. I squeaked by with an A- in the class, and that was only by doing every shred of extra credit I could get my grubby paws on.

I was much more judgmental than I am today, willing to assume the worst in some people for the simplest of reasons.

It’s so strange to read the entries again now. In some cases, I can remember actually writing them, almost down to the feel of the paper under my pen as I was scribbling. In others, I stare at the words and swear someone must have added them when I wasn’t looking. I have no recollection of things that happened at all.

It’s been helpful to me to read the journal, though. And I even loaned it to Tomas, on the off chance he might find it interesting. At the very least, I hope it might prove to him that I’m not making things up when I say I remember what he’s going through, and that I went through similar things myself. Then again, if he reads them carefully, he might be able to throw some of the things I did back in my face, or call me out for some hypocrisy.

Fair game, I say. I was just a fifteen year old kid trying to get through life, the same as he’ll be next year.

Did any of you keep journals in high school? Do you ever revisit them?

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

 

Fun with 3D Printing

[image error]When we were in Chicago, I took Tomas and DC to a special 3D Printing session, where you got the basics of how to design something in 3D and then made a thing of your own and printed it. It was a lot of fun, and we all had a good time. Tomas really liked it, and he’s taken time since then to teach himself how to use Blender. He started by following some tutorials on YouTube, and he’s branched out into animation now, as well.

For his art project, he decided he’d like to create a lightsaber in Blender and then 3D print it. We have a 3D printer at the university, and we’ve been looking into potentially having one at the library, so this seemed like an excellent opportunity to test one out. It’s one thing to go to a demo on 3D printing. How hard would it be when there wasn’t someone there holding my hand?

Pretty darn easy, it turns out.

I don’t know how people did things before the internet. I mean, I know (having lived pre-internet), but I’m continually reminded how the internet has changed our lives. When I go driving to a new place, I never worry about getting lost or remembering directions. I’ve got Google Maps on my phone to keep track of all of that for me. And when I have a 3D printer I’ve never used before, there are tons of guides online for how to do just about anything with it. And when I wonder what I can print, there’s websites like Thingiverse with a slew of models, all read and waiting.

We printed Tomas’s lightsaber. It went off without a hitch. We’ve printed other things we found on Thingiverse. Models and puzzle boxes. There’s something really strange and exhilarating to see an item online, want it, and be able to print it out as soon as you’d like. I try to remember what life was like when I was 14. Early 90s. That was in the early days of AOL. Dial up modems. Seeing a single picture online took a long time. Compare that with today, and it makes me wonder what things will look like when Tomas is around 40.

Crazy.

In any case, I now have some experience with a Flashforge Finder. By no means a high-end printer, but definitely enough to learn the ropes and take one out for a test spin. Would I want to own one? Not yet, I don’t think. There are a lot of cool things to print out, but I haven’t seen so many that makes me think I’d want to keep churning them out all the time. Especially not if there were a printer in the area where I knew I could go to print something when I wanted to. (Which, obviously, there is.)

If I wanted to design models and test them out, or prototype things, however? This would definitely be appealing. And it’s only going to get more refined from here.

Exciting times indeed.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Taking Pictures for Find-a-Grave

[image error]This Saturday I headed up with the fam to Bangor for a church service project. On the agenda? Heading over to a large cemetery to take pictures of graves for the Find-a-Grave website. If you haven’t encountered it before, it’s a site that aims to have pictures of all graves in all cemeteries. When you’re doing family history research, you can then go to the site to see pictures of your relative’s graves.

On the surface, I know this can seem a little trite. Why would you care what a long lost relative’s headstone looks like. All I can say is that, having done a fair bit of family history research myself, there really is something impactful in the experience. Not only that, but often you can get important information off headstones. Yes, you can find the same information on death and birth and marriage records, but sometimes you don’t have access to those. Find-a-Grave, thus, becomes an important avenue to explore.

Naturally, any undertaking that large takes a lot of effort. The cemetery we went to in Bangor has less than a fifth of the graves photographed. Even then, I found multiple graves that didn’t even have entries on the site, so I created new ones for them. So there’s plenty of work to be done, and I found the service project pretty easy to organize and execute. I’d recommend it for other groups.

A few things I learned through actually doing the work:

Taking pictures of the graves and uploading them from your smart phone seems like it should be straightforward. It would have been, had upload speeds complied with our task. Instead, it took something like five or ten minutes to upload each photo. That was . . . less than helpful. If I were to do this again, I would just take the pictures with my phone’s camera and then upload them once I was at a place with a better internet connection. If you live in a more urban area, this might not be an issue.
This was a very kid-friendly activity. My kids all enjoyed the process of getting outside and exploring a cemetery. That said, we were also in a very picturesque cemetery. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so enjoyable had it been a standard cemetery with rows and rows of identical graves.
Having a scraper with you to clear the graves off is very useful, particularly in older cemeteries. As we tried to transcribe the inscriptions on the older stones, it occurred to me that having paper with me to do a rubbing would have been helpful as well. Some of those dates just couldn’t be made out at all.
This was a good way to get kids interested in family history, as well. DC came to me the next day and wanted to see what research had already been done in our family. We had a good time looking at familysearch,org for a half hour or so.
In the course of an hour and a half, I think we uploaded something like fifteen photos. If I hadn’t insisted on trying to get them to actually upload, I think we could have done many more. (Hence the recommendation.)
We finished with having cake together with the rest of our group. Promising cake to kids at the end of the activity is definitely a great way to keep them motivated, and I would suggest others follow suit.
We contacted our cemetery ahead of time to get maps of the plots and to ensure we wouldn’t be disturbing any burial ceremonies. I would suggest others do the same. Some parts of the cemetery were unmapped. More adventure, but almost impossible to find any specific graves.

All in all, a good activity and a fun outing. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Winding the Clock

[image error]I love clocks. I know there are people who can’t stand listening to something tick tock it’s way incessantly through the day and night, but to me, a home isn’t really a functioning thing until it’s got that beat to it.

I’m not sure why. My dad had a cuckoo clock I liked when I was growing up, and I liked to watch it get wound. (Three chains that you’d pull to raise weighted metal pine cones.) My house had a clock in the kitchen for the last . . . seven or eight years I lived there? Something like that. I just grew accustomed to it. I think part of it is I like a house quiet enough that you can actually hear that tick tocking, wherever you are. Not all the time, but at least several times a day. I don’t like having the television on just for noise.

Quiet is good. (You can leave the librarian jokes at the door, thanks.)

About a year ago, I got a grandfather clock. I was extremely excited for the acquisition, as that’s sort of the best clock I can imagine. It takes its ticking and tocking very seriously, But it also has very precise demands on when it must be wound. If you don’t take the time to wind it, then it will inevitably stop. (Like any clock, I know, but for some reason the big grandfather clock is a much better reminder of this for me. Probably because my smaller clock can be wound once every three weeks or so, but the grandfather clock needs it once a week.)

As I was winding it this morning, it occurred to me that I view people in much the same way. I believe we all need time to wind the springs and gears to keep everything running smoothly. Ideally, people figure out what works best for them. I’m not talking about regular sleep, a good diet, and exercise. In my book, that’s just keeping the clock in good repair. Rather, I mean doing things that take yo you away from the regular chores of everyday life and work.

For me, this is time spent reading, watching movies and television, and playing games. Ideally with my family, but I can do it on my own in a pinch. I know that if I have enough time to make time for these “extra” things, the rest of my life works so much more smoothly. I have the patience and attention to get all the things I have to do done. So doing those fun things are as much a part of doing the actual work as the work itself.

And that’s my deep thought for the day.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

A Thanks to Senator Collins for Her Net Neutrality Vote

[image error]The Senate voted to restore Net Neutrality yesterday, a great step that might have far reaching effects (assuming the House actually got with the program and did the same thing, which I doubt.) But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a short personal experience I had that touched on this. When we were in DC last week, meeting with our Senators and Representatives, one of the points we were emphasizing was the importance of broadband and an open internet. It’s a point we touched on last year as well, for all the good it did. (At least, that’s how I felt at the time.)

Our delegation raised the issue with Senator Collins again, and she immediately spoke of her desire that an open internet return, talking about how important it was to the future of Maine. She spoke of how her first real job was in a library, and how she worked in a public library all the time while she was going through grade school through high school.

I was glad to hear of her support, but I knew as well how often politics ends up steamrolling any personal feelings people might have when it comes time to vote. Things are quite clannish these days, so I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had gone along with the rest of her party on the net neutrality vote. I’ve respected her willingness to depart from party lines on issues that have been important to her.

So I was very pleased to hear she had done so again for the net neutrality vote. Politicians get a reputation for saying one thing to constituents and then going off and voting another way, and I wanted to note that this time that wasn’t the case. She was true to her word and her stated convictions. Her aides remembered what we’d brought up during our visit as well, and they made sure to send along the following statement she’d made:

Washington, D.C.—U.S. Senator Susan Collins issued this statement following her vote today in favor of restoring the FCC’s net neutrality rules, which passed the Senate by a vote of 52-47.

“I have long supported common-sense regulations to prohibit Internet providers from prioritizing certain content over other.  I also support regulations to clarify that Internet providers must not manage their systems in an anti-competitive way.  Restoring the FCC’s net neutrality rules will ensure that the Internet will remain open and continue to be a powerful and transformative platform of innovation and economic opportunity. 

“Net neutrality could also make it easier for broadband providers to expand service in higher-cost areas, such as rural Maine, by reestablishing FCC’s oversight over interconnection points that allow rural carriers to connect with the rest of the Internet.  Without this protection, rural carriers’ ability to deploy broadband in underserved areas will be hindered, undermining efforts to bring adequate broadband to all Americans. In December, I joined my colleague, Senator Angus King, in sending a letter urging the FCC not to set aside its net neutrality rules without addressing the legitimate concerns of rural providers and the tools needed to support continued buildout of rural broadband.

“We must also do more to protect consumer privacy on the Internet. Facebook’s role in allowing Cambridge Analytica to access its user data illustrates the need to strengthen consumer protections.

“Congress should not use net neutrality to pick winners and losers among these competitors, but must instead adopt bipartisan legislative reforms to the 1934 regulations that put consumers first.

“A careful, deliberative process involving experts and the public is warranted to ensure that consumers have strong protections that guarantee consumer choice, free markets, and continued growth along with meaningful consumer privacy and data security protections.  With a bipartisan commitment, I believe Congress can enact legislation to achieve these goals.”

Thank you for your vote, Senator Collins. It is noted and very much appreciated.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

A Belated Birthday Present

[image error]Denisa’s no longer really big on getting Stuff for her birthday or Christmas. (Not that she ever really was to begin with, but she’s even less now.) This year, she insisted she didn’t really want anything other than a trip to Sugarloaf to ski the day after her birthday. But we were given free tickets to the mountain for that, so how could that really count as a birthday present? So I bought her tickets to the touring Broadway production of Cabaret and promised a fun evening out.

The date of the performance was last night, and we traveled up to Bangor for dinner and then Orono for the show (at the University of Maine’s Collins Center for the Arts.) We ate dinner at Timber, a nice restaurant in Bangor that I’d eaten at a few years ago and wanted to revisit. I first ate there soon after it opened, and it felt to me like it’s really improved since then. (And it was very good the first time I went.) Great atmosphere and staff, and I had this Buckeye Tart for dessert that was one of my most memorable desserts in the last few years. A ball of peanut butter mousse encased in chocolate, on a chocolate tart, with caramel corn sprinkled over it. Worth every calorie, and if you’re up in Bangor for anything, I really recommend the restaurant.

Afterward, we drove up to Orono and walked around the campus for a bit until the musical was to begin. That morning, as I was looking into the final details of the trip, I discovered one key bit of information I’d missed when I’d bought the tickets. In the description of the show was a simple statement: “For mature audiences only.” I’d never actually seen Cabaret. I knew some of the music, I knew it took place in a seedy nightclub, but I didn’t know much more than that. It won the Tony for Best Musical, and this version won for Best Revival. I hadn’t really thought much beyond that.

So seeing that statement made me panic, just a bit. This was supposed to be a nice birthday present for my wife. What, exactly, had I bought tickets for? I researched the production some more and saw some of the costumes. They were definitely . . . seedy. I called Denisa in and showed her, warning her that the evening might be . . . a tad more risque than perhaps she’d been expecting. (Sigh.) But I’d bought the tickets, and how raunchy could a Tony-award winning production be?

Pretty raunchy.

That actually takes you to a chain of videos that contains pretty much the entire production. The televised version, at least. There were quite a few jokes that weren’t in the clips I browsed through just now. Hand gestures, body movements, etc. Someone had brought her three young daughters to the show, and I really wondered right off just how comfortable she was with that decision.

I’m not a prude (I don’t think), but some of this was quite over the top. Denisa wasn’t demanding we walk out, but she also was far from pleased with her birthday present for the first while. The production values were great. Fantastic singing and music. But the content was definitely designed to be as button pushing as possible. I wasn’t ready to give the show up, though. For one thing, I didn’t think a musical would win the Tony for Best Musical based solely on raunch. There had to be a “there” there, and I was catching glimpses of it as the show progressed. Much of it seemed symbolic to me, and there were undertones of larger themes at work. Themes I explained to Denisa at intermission, which helped her see where the show was coming from as well.

(We had seats in the literal front row, which I thought was a great idea when I bought them. The opening number of the second act has the Emcee coming out in the audience to interact with them, however. He came right up to me and almost had me dance with him, until he pulled a last minute switcheroo and danced with a guy three seats to my right. That’s one way to get the pulse pounding.)

The second act really came through for me. It took all that raunch of the first act and twisted it all, having it come together in a way that was quite moving. Very thought provoking in a way I don’t really want to spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen it. I was glad I didn’t have a full knowledge of the plot and the content going into it, so it could have an impact on me.

Overall, Denisa also enjoyed the show, though she said it could have done without a fair bit of the raunch. No need to push the envelope that far. But then again, sometimes it’s only when we’re put into vulnerable, uncomfortable positions that we actually can have thoughts have an impact on us. I’m still not sure where I come down on it. Not that it matters to locals. The show was there for just one night, and I doubt it’ll be in the area again anytime soon.

In any case, it was definitely a fun, memorable evening. Though I think I’ll screen the shows I buy tickets for Denisa’s birthday a bit more carefully in the future . . .

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

One Vote to Rule Them All

I blog about the school budget a fair bit. Okay, a ton. And some of you are no doubt sick and tired of hearing about me prattle on about the topic.

Boy, do I have a deal for you.

If you go out and vote to APPROVE the budget TODAY, then I won’t blog about the school budget again until next year. How’s that sound for a deal? Last year we had to do this vote about . . . four times? Three? I lost count, between all the meetings and referendums. Sometimes we had to vote no. Sometimes we had to vote yes. It was an absolute nightmare, and it really strained our entire community in a very unpleasant way.

We can avoid all of that if everyone who finally turned out to show their huge support of the schools last year turn out right now. Today. To vote YES on the budget.

It’s true that the budget has gone up this time. It should. We’re falling woefully behind, and our students are feeling the impact of this. I’ve blogged about the topic (at length). Anyone who tries to start arguing that our budget is bloated and full of fluff isn’t someone who’s taken a realistic look at the cost to educate students in the modern day. We can have a discussion about who should foot the bill (the state vs. local tax payers), or what the state mandate should be for various pieces of education (special education costs, etc.), but the bottom line of that bill as it stands today isn’t really up for debate in my book. All those other conversations are separate, and should be handled in a different forum.

Today, vote yes. Approve the budget with one vote, and let’s be done with it.

Please?

Poll times are as follows:

Chesterville – 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Industry – 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

New Vineyard – 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Temple – 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Weld – 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Farmington – 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.

New Sharon – 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Starks – 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Vienna – 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Wilton – 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Graduation

[image error]Confession time: I’ve worked at my university for more than ten years, and Saturday was the first time I’d ever attended graduation.

There have been many reasons why I didn’t go, ranging from family crises to just plain laziness. It seemed like something ancillary to what I did. I didn’t really have any strong connections to any of the students, did I? Not like they would have with their professors. I didn’t even go to my Library Science graduation. Why should I go to someone else’s?

So what persuaded me to go to this one? Some of it was my new role as Library Director, certainly. I felt like the library has a part in student lives, and it would be good for students to see a representative from the library at this, the most important last step of their schooling. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think my presence there made any students tear up or anything like that. I’d honestly be surprised if any students really noticed I was there. (Well, except for the part where they asked university staff to stand up, and I was like the only staff person in a twenty person radius of seated people . . .)

If anything, I think it was important to me to go to the ceremony. It had a bigger impact on me than I expected, certainly. Because as much as I liked to tell myself I hardly knew any of the students, when I was watching them go across the stage and get their diplomas, I was surprised to see just how many of them I did know. Students I’d taught in the graduate program. Students who had worked at the library. Students I’d played Magic with over the years.

And then of course there were the other members of the university in attendance. The professors, administrators, fellow staff. It was moving to see so many people I know and work with day to day gathered to celebrate. After all, the whole reason we exist is to do what we did on Saturday: to take in students and send out graduates. It’s a very rewarding feeling, seeing so much success gathered in one spot.

So will I be going back to graduation? Without a doubt. Not just because the library should be represented, but because I’d like to experience that same thing again. It’ll be a great reminder on days when I’m feeling pulled in a hundred directions, overworked and exasperated. A reminder for why I do all that I do. Paychecks are definitely a big part of why I work, but I’m very grateful for the reminder Saturday that they’re not the only reason I work there.

Congratulations, Graduates!!

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Patreon Progress

[image error]I’m down at another library conference today. (This time it’s all about the wonders of scholarly communication, which basically means scholarly publishing.) So very little time for me to write a blog entry for today.

What better chance to remind you all what I’m up to over on Patreon? The second Friday of each month, I post a chapter of my current work in process. Today’s offering is the first chapter of the third draft of MURDER CASTLE. The first and third Friday each month I’ve been posting the full text of ICHABOD, a book I wrote around 10 years ago. (Essentially The Legend of Sleepy Hollow meets Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None).

So head on over there and check them out. I dropped the patron levels down to $1/$2/$3 just barely, so it’s even more affordable.

Click here to go to my Patreon.

Thanks for reading!