Bryce Moore's Blog, page 145

Travel Time

I have a fairly crazy month ahead of me. No idea what it’s going to do to my blogging, but I do know it’s sunk it for today. To give you an idea of my schedule, here are my destination totals for the next month:

Augusta (45 minutes away): 3 times
Bangor (90 minutes away): 7 times
Bethel (60 minutes away): 1 time
Atlantic City (540 minutes away): 1 time

Seeing as how some of those trips are for multiple days, I’m going to be away or on the road for 20 days this coming month.

No wonder I feel busy.

I know many people go on many more trips than that for work, but it’s definitely a lot for me. Not all of it is work. (Some of those trips are for church, and I’ll have more to say about that when I have the time.)

So consider this a spot to complain. How many days are you going to be on the road or away from home the next month? Is that normal for you, or excessive? Share!

What Will Be Cut from the School Budget?

A popular sentiment I’ve seen expressed again and again from those who would have the school budget slashed is “It’s not our job to figure out where to cut the budget. Our job is to say what we’re willing to pay. It’s the school board’s job to find the places to cut the budget.” And yet those same people will argue strongly that they support our schools and want our kids to succeed. Their logic is that there is fat to be trimmed from the budget still, and they’re calling the school board’s bluff.

Some of them try to portray the school board as incompetent, or little more than the superintendent’s puppets, parroting back the false figures fed to them by Dr. Ward.

Fine. For the moment, let’s assume that argument is correct. Let’s assume the school board is a bunch of ninnies. But this same bunch of ninnies will be the ones who determines what gets cut from the budget. And this same bunch of ninnies have been very specific about what exactly the effects of this cut will be.

Sports. Theater. Orchestra. Band. Chorus. After school activities. Teaching positions. Foreign Language.

They are filling Facebook with heartfelt, frank posts about what will happen if this reduced budget gets passed. They are being very open about what will be on the table. Even if you think they are ninnies, you should be paying very close attention to what they are saying, because the future of the school will lie in their hands if the citizens approve this budget.

Let’s be clear here: $900,000 is a LOT of money. It may seem like a little in comparison with the $30 million plus the school district budget encompasses, but in a budget as finely perched as ours, it will make a huge difference. If every single sports program from grade 7-12 were cut, it would save $450,000. Half of what is needed. And just like that, all basketball games, football games, soccer games, field hockey games, lacrosse games. Gone.

Our strings program is one of the gems of the district. The annual grade 4-12 orchestra concert is a high point of the year. Finding a place to sit in the high school gym is sometimes impossible. Cutting all of that will not cover the budget gap, but it will leave a huge hole in the community. Even cutting early grades of orchestra will hurt. The feeder system will be broken. Participation will dwindle.

Budget hawks might say all that stuff is fluff. Irrelevant. “Schools are for teaching. If they want sports and music, let the parents pay for it.” But for the love of all that’s good in this world, think back for a moment on your own time in school. Maybe you never went to football games. Maybe you were never in orchestra. Maybe you didn’t do any drama. But for me, I did all of those. Those activities weren’t parsley to me. They weren’t a garnish. They were a fundamental part of my life. They continue to affect me today.

They are worth our community’s investment!

And they might get cut. Perhaps not all of them. I don’t know. But it’s on the table. Perhaps more costs will be shifted to parents. But there are students out there who desperately need those activities in their lives. And they are students whose parents cannot afford them. By voting to approve this budget, you tell them they are unimportant. That is what they will hear, regardless of what you proudly trumpet at school budget meetings or on the Daily Bulldog comment section.

So to those who would see the budget slashed: you can’t have it both ways. If you truly wanted to help the children of the district, and you knew of magical areas of the budget that can stand to lose $900,000, it would be criminal of you to withhold that information. I’ve been in meetings where you’ve outlined some of the places you think the school district can save. I’ve listened to your arguments, and I’ve listened to the Board’s response. I’ve then done research on my own to see if there’s any merit to your proposals.

So far, I have found none.

The fact is, we cannot have the same offerings this year by flat funding the budget. Special education costs have gone up by over $500,000. We are required by law to pay those. Fuel costs have changed. Health insurance premiums have gone up. Teacher salaries have changed.

You point to increased salaries for administrators. You hold up the Middle School principal as your shining example of it. Paid too much! Not enough experience! Fine. Let’s assume we could cut his salary to what the former principal was making. (Note: we can’t.) But even if we could, we’ve now successfully saved . . . $20,000?

Where is the next $880,000 to come from?

I’ve asked that question before, and all I heard back was crickets. I have to believe that’s because you’ve got no ideas. Nothing more than a trumped up belief that there’s a pot of gold somewhere in that budget that can be cracked open and magically fix everything. And if that’s the case, I have a bridge I’d love to sell you. All proceeds will go directly to the school budget.

I will be voting No on Tuesday, and I encourage everyone to do the same. I was feeling very disheartened yesterday. I felt like the odds of fighting this budget cut were insurmountable. I wanted to throw in the towel and prepare myself for the worst. I still feel the odds are grim. We’ve got less than a week to get the message out, but I’ve seen an absolute flood of support come from the community. My hope is it’s enough.

On Tuesday night, the opposition had their best showing ever. They thumped their chests and boo’ed parents and teachers who spoke. It was ugly, and I for one would be ashamed to stand on the same side as some of those who spoke against the school. They believe they are the voice of the silent majority. The over-burdened tax payer who will not pay anymore.

There’s a chance there’s an even larger majority in the community. School supporters who are ready to stand for our students. They have one chance to show up and be heard. Tuesday September 12th. If they don’t show up then, coming to next year’s school budget meetings may well be too late.

It’s not enough to share posts on Facebook. It’s not enough to click “Like” or “Love.” It’s not enough to write diatribes to the Bulldog. We need to get out there and have conversations with our neighbors and friends. Be respectful. Listen. Provide facts. Ask for input. If there truly are areas of the budget where we can trim and save money without impacting our students, let’s hear them. But otherwise, let’s put an end to this “we love students but don’t need to pay to support them” mentality.

The school board is not full of ninnies. I know and respect many of them. They are my friends and colleagues. The parents of my children’s friends. Good people who do not deserve to be continually maligned. They work very hard to try to meet the needs of the school and the community. I’ve had long conversations with them to find out more. They all stand ready to talk. They want voters to be informed. Take them up on the offer, please. Don’t let your minds be made up by a group of angry individuals who have shown a surprising resistance to facts, common sense, and common decency.

Vote No this coming Tuesday.

Voting times and places are as follows:

Chesterville Town Office, 778-2433, from 12 pm to 8 pm
Farmington Community Center, 778-6539, from 12 pm to 7 pm
Industry Town Hall, 778-5050, from 2 pm to 8 pm​
New Sharon Town Office, 778-4046, from 12 pm to 6 pm
New Vineyard Smith Hall, 652-2222, from 1 pm to 7 pm
Starks Community Center, 696-8069, from 10 am to 8 pm
Temple Town Hall, 778-6680, from 7 am to 12 pm
Vienna Fire Station, 293-2915, from 1 pm to 7 pm
Weld Town Office, 585-2348, from 4 pm to 8 pm
Wilton Town Office, 645-4961, from 8 am to 7 pm​

To the Voters Who Showed Up Last Night (and Those Who Did Not)

Just when I think there’s nothing left for me to write about the local school budget, another budget meeting happens and proves me completely wrong. At last night’s meeting, the Yes side had a slightly smaller than usual turnout. I can understand why. At every other meeting we’ve had to vote on the budget, the Yes side has overwhelmed the No side with numbers. 30 or 40 No voters to 120 to 130 Yes voters. And so many Yes voters, likely tired of sitting through such contentious meetings, just didn’t have the heart to do it anymore. They didn’t come, confident the budget would still be passed as it always has been.

Except well over 200 No voters showed up. 6 or 7 times the usual amount. And many of them might have been completely clueless about how the process worked (judging by the conversations around me), but they knew how to read a sign. And the No organizers had brought bright yellow “YES” and “NO” signs. So they just had to hold them up to make sure their supporters voted the right way.

And then when things looked like they were going to take too long, the No voters (who have traditionally been outraged when the Yes voters wanted to push the agenda through as quickly as possible) took a page from the Yes voters and pushed the agenda through as fast as they could. (Note: I don’t begrudge them this. I wanted to do the same thing. The budget meetings are far too long, and I would love to see them permanently changed to a simple vote in favor or against the proposed budget. Or, in the case of last night, for or against flat lining the budget. As long as there’s an easy, clear approach people want to vote for, that should be an option in my book.)

In any case, the vote happened, and the school budget was flat funded for the year. Almost $900,000 less than the budget proposed by the school board. That’s the new budget that will now be voted on by the towns next week.

I understand the logic. “It was enough money for last year. It should be enough for this year.” It’s a powerful, simple argument.

It’s also wrong.

As much as we might wish it were different, costs do go up from year to year. And one area that costs are skyrocketing is special education. The special education budget’s needs are dictated by federal and state law. And it was set to go up by more than $500,000. It accounted for the bulk of the increase of the school budget over last year. (An increase that was still set to lower local taxes, due to changes in state funding, might I add.)

Flat funding the special education budget does not magically make the federal and state requirements go away. So that $500,000+ will have to be found elsewhere in the budget. In other words, flat funding special education meant slashing budgets from the other areas, plain and simple. That was explained in detail in the meeting. It didn’t matter. Bright yellow signs held by a few were about the only thing the majority of people in that audience were paying attention to.

The fact is, both sides believe the other side is lying. The Yes voters believe the No voters are manipulating the facts and figures to try and make it appear that the district is being wasteful. The No voters believe the Yes voters are being lied to by the superintendent, and that there really are plenty of simple cuts to be made. When both sides believe the other side is just plain wrong, there is nothing that can be done but to let the majority decide. You can’t have discussion. You can’t have debate. That requires trust, which no longer exists.

The No voters pointed to neighboring districts that have flat funded education or cut the budget from year to year. Skowhegan was held up as an example. How did Skowhegan do it?

But the costs will not come without some cuts — teachers, supplies, equipment, textbooks, field trips and extracurricular activities.

And that is what will be cut with this new budget, if it’s approved. Teacher positions will be cut. Field trips. Sports. Music. Arts. It’s almost $900,000 in cuts, and that’s not money you find when you check your pockets for loose change.

I have tried writing posts that talk about the facts. That one post has been read over 500 times. And I could do it again. I could go through and look for facts and figures and present them one more time. But as I said before, I don’t think actual debate or discussion is worth the paper or breath it takes to try it. Not anymore. At this point, one of two things will happen. Either this reduced budget will be passed, or it will fail. If it fails, it will be because parents in the district hear what’s happening and finally show up to the polls in force to vote it down. At that point, they will then show up in force to the next budget meeting to restore the budget to the amount they are willing to support.

I personally do not believe that will happen. There’s not enough time to turn this around, and there’s not enough time to get out the message of just what will be cut. (The school board doesn’t even know at this point.) In the past, the board has called for help, telling its supporters that the effects will be drastic if the help doesn’t materialize. But the budget was cut last year, and the general public didn’t see anything drastic as a result. I don’t believe the general public will be swayed this time around. They just don’t care enough to engage.

Maybe I’ll be proven wrong. I certainly will be voting against the budget this time, and I encourage everyone else to do the same. But I’ve been on this ride before, and I know where it ends up.

So there’s the other option. The reduced budget passes. And when that happens, the school board will have to make cuts. And when those cuts come down, we will see firsthand what the effects are. Perhaps the No voters will be proven right. Or perhaps the community just won’t care enough to do anything about it next time. Either way, we’ll know. Either there will be a sea of concerned parents in the room when next year’s budgets are set, or we’ll have more of the same.

We won’t be basing our votes on lies anymore if that’s the case (regardless of which side is lying). We’ll be basing them on actual experience.

Democracy is decided by those who show up. It doesn’t matter in the end if they show up because a little yellow sign told them to or because they did extensive research into a subject. Their votes count the same, either way. And either way, we will have a school budget that the majority of voters in our community support. The question really becomes “Who cares more?”

Right now, that answer is clear. I’ll be watching the polls next Tuesday (September 12th) to see which path we’re heading down.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. We live in a democracy, and that means abiding by the will of the majority. You can try to sway more people to your cause, but if you fail, you live with the result. I’d like to think the worst that will happen in this case is that we have one year of a very lean budget, and that next year the pendulum swings the other way.

It all depends on who keeps showing up.

When to Ignore the Comments Section

It’s time for yet another school budget meeting this evening. Be still, my beating heart. Another chance for ill-tempered people to drain away three to four hours of my life. But I’m going to go (again) because I’m almost sure they’ve concocted yet another crazy scheme to try and cut the budget by a huge amount. They want to wear me down. And so I’ll keep going.

It’s a sad state of affairs where the biggest motivation for me at this point is spite.

But I’ve written plenty on this topic already, and I don’t think I have that much more to add. But, having read through another comments section on the budget process, I do have a few observations about why I refuse to engage on the comments section. I’m all for a healthy exchange of thoughts and ideas, but my area’s local newspaper comments section is anything but that. Here’s why:

Anonymous comments are allowed. Remember MySpace, anyone? It was the precursor to Facebook, and it was kind of a cess pool. Sure, there were the friendly pages where people just gushed about things they loved. But there were tons of pages created anonymously, many with objectionable content. My big takeaway is that as long as anonymity is allowed on the internet, garbage will follow. This has proven true time and time again. I know it can be an important ability, especially in oppressive regimes, and I’m certainly not going to say all anonymous comments are garbage, but in America, I’d say the bulk of them are.
Name calling abounds. This is connected to the anonymity, I’m sure. We live in a small community. If people were forced to say who they were and knew who they were deriding, I’m sure the name calling would go down. (In most cases.)
There’s no evidence that people actually want to discuss ideas. You’ll see a few people do their best to bring the conversation to a higher level. They’ll write well-reasoned posts that take a frank look at the various issues facing readers. They’ll take time to research their facts, and they’ll have clearly thought things through. How is that met? With more name calling, or with naysayers latching onto one or two tangential arguments and focusing on those instead. If you can’t win an argument, yell louder.
Everything is black and white. Commenters make it sound like the answers are just sitting there, waiting to be scooped up like snow after a Nor’easter. And they’ll happily say the other side is foolish for not recognizing how simple it is.

So I just don’t bother. That doesn’t mean I don’t read them now and then. But for these school budget comments, at least, it typically devolves into a bunch of No voters hooting “Just vote no!” over and over, with the same tired arguments trotted out as if they were scintillating analysis, spouted by anonymous names or sock puppets of the same individual, for all I know.

Please come to the meeting tonight. I’ll be the one toward the back, looking like I’d rather be anywhere else in the world.

Book Review: Hero and the Crown

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can’t remember the first time I read The Hero and the Crown. I want to say it was in second grade. It won the Newbery in 1985, when I was seven, so that’s around the right time. I might have been in third grade, though. In any case, I was at an age where reading books was like breathing. I went through huge swathes of books in a week, happily burrowing into a new cache from the library as soon as I got home.

I don’t have the time to reread books these days. Not typically. And somehow I’m no longer able to just binge read a series each week. Other obligations get in the way. But I had read Hero and the Crown at least four times before, and when it went on sale on Kindle the other week, I snatched up a copy for myself. My daughter’s in fourth grade, after all. And I don’t think she’s had a chance to read this book or The Blue Sword.

When I first read it, I loved a lot about the novel. The fight with the dragon was fantastic. Aerin’s struggle to recover afterward was also enthralling. I liked how it hinted at so much history that you just didn’t get to see. It felt epic to me without actually being epic. I kept returning to it, and it was always a personal favorite.

Rereading it now, it didn’t have quite the same oomph with me as it used to. Some of that could be because literature has changed in the intervening years. My tastes have also changed. Pacing. Description. Characters. This isn’t a fast read, and it has a fairy tale feel to it. Motivations aren’t always clear, and problems spring up out of nowhere at times.

I still loved the fight with the dragon, and I feel like that’s just as fantastic as it ever was.

If you haven’t read this book, I really encourage you to give it a shot. Strong female protagonist, great characters, and a pretty quick read, even with slower pacing. I gave it an 8/10 today.

View all my reviews

A Writing Update

As I posted a few days ago, I’m officially done with the third revision of MEMORY THIEF 2, and I’m very relieved, for a number of reasons. First of all, it was a big endeavor. When I went over the changes my editors were asking for, I initially didn’t think it would take too much to get them done. But as I dove into the rewrite and started mucking around, I discovered some of the changes would require structural tweaks that affected quite a bit more than I expected.

Really, it wasn’t too big of a job. Nothing I haven’t done before. The biggest difference was the deadline. I wanted to get it done before the end of the month, so that the book could stay on schedule. I’m still not sure if it’ll need a fourth draft. I imagine it will, just because I changed enough in the third draft that some elements will need tweaking. Because of that, I wanted to be on track, time-wise, even more. And mission accomplished! That felt good.

Beyond just wanting to be done on time, however, the revision made the book much better. The first third was bolstered significantly, and the last third was very much improved. (I think.) I’ll still wait for the final verdict from my editors, but I’m encouraged for now. If the next draft doesn’t look to be too major, I might even feel comfortable sharing the title with you all. The book takes the magic system I introduced in some pretty interesting directions, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing those directions become more focused as the drafts progressed. I’m mentioned before that I’ve never written a sequel: this was a first for me. So much of my writing has been focused on establishing characters and magic systems and setting. To be able to really explore those characters and magic systems was a fun challenge. I hope I pulled it off.

So where does my writing go from here?

First up is the poor draft of MURDER CASTLE, the book that just can’t catch a break. I think I’ve picked it up three times, only to have to set it aside when some other revision has come along. I dove back in yesterday, and as I reread what I’ve written, I have to say I’m really excited to get into it. This is the first book I’ve written in almost 15 years to feature a female protagonist, and I absolutely adore her. She’s come from a really hard background, and she’s facing some very difficult situations that she’s not well equipped to handle, but she’s got a spine of steel and such a strong drive. I’m really rooting for her, and I’m excited to see how she comes out of it all. I’m very happy to be writing her voice again.

Though of course if a MEMORY THIEF 2 edit comes along again, as I expect it will, I’ll have to set her aside. Again.

Once MURDER CASTLE is done, I’m planning a quick revision of MAGIC AT 30,000 FEET. We’ve had some serious nibbles on it, but they’ve fairly consistently said the same thing: the book felt split between age groups. Parts felt very Middle Grade. Parts felt very Young Adult. So I took some time to reread the book to see if I could see the same thing, and once I did, it was very clear. It’s like I’d taken the tone of the first Harry Potter book and thrown Harry into the middle of Hunger Games. And as cool as that might sound, it definitely splits the audience.

So I’m going to rewrite the book, slanting it more toward the YA crowd. It shouldn’t take much, since most of the Middle Grade stuff occurs in the first few chapters, and then the book is tonally consistent.

After that’s done, I’m hoping to revise UTOPIA. My agent gave me a quick reaction on it a month or so ago, and I have high hopes for that one. It’s looking  like we’re going to try to make it my first non-YA/MG book.

Once those two revisions are done . . . who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to do a real revision of MURDER CASTLE. Or maybe I’ll write something entirely new. This should take me through the end of the year at the very least. It might not be spring until I’m ready to tackle a new project. It all depends on how these various endeavors turn out.

In the meantime, I just tackle things one day at a time, in 1,000 word chunks. Wish me luck!

The Two Types of Motivation: Thoughts on the First Day of School 2017

The kids are off on the bus again. Another first day of school in the books. Tomas is in 8th Grade now, and DC is in 4th. In two weeks, MC will join DC on the bus for the first time as she goes off to Pre-K.

As always, this is a time I think back to what I was going through at this time in my life compared to what my kids are going through. And because I have this blog, I share those thoughts with you. Aren’t you lucky?

8th Grade was a big year for me. It was the year I moved schools from New Jersey to Pennsylvania in a sort of surprise move. (I left all my friends in 7th Grade fully expecting to see them all for 8th Grade. And then we moved unexpectedly over the summer.) I was put into all honors classes, except for English. The new school district (Council Rock) thought a great deal of their honors English program, and they didn’t believe I’d be able to cut it. So I was in Mr. Kosmo’s class for the year. He was the first teacher to ever tell me he thought I wasn’t good enough to succeed in honors. (Actually, the only teacher. Ever.) At the end of the year, he refused to recommend me to go up to honors the next year. His reason?

I couldn’t write well enough.

Honestly, I have no idea if he had cause to say that or not. I don’t remember what my writing was like at the time. I’d like to think it was pretty spiffy, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Then again, I got straight A’s in honors English when we decided to override his recommendation and enroll me in it anyway, so you draw your own conclusions.

I’ve heard of other teachers doing that to students over the years. Telling them they’ll fail. Encouraging them to aim lower. To not apply to the hard schools. To settle. And I just don’t understand that mindset.

Compare that to my experience in college, when I took Writing for Children and Teens from Louise Plummer. I had a great time in the class, and she was encouraging across the board. She helped students write better. Told them they could succeed. I remember sitting in her office, asking her if she thought I could ever get a book published. She smiled and nodded. “Of course, Bryce! You’ve got it!”

I don’t know if she told that to all her students. She might have, and I wouldn’t see anything wrong with that. But she told it to me, and it gave me the self confidence to keep going. To keep writing. To try to succeed.

Ironically, both those experiences with teachers motivated me. Mr. Kosmo made me want to prove him wrong. Professor Plummer wanted me to prove her right. Speaking from experience, I prefer the latter.

In any case. That was my 8th Grade. Math with Mr. Larsen. Band with Mr. Z. I made one group of friends early on. By the next year, I had almost a completely different set of friends.

My kids are going through life differently, of course. By this point in my life, I was into my . . . fourth school district? Something like that. My kids are all still in their first. (And I’m hoping it remains that way.) On the surface, I think back to how life was for me back then, and I don’t think things have really changed. But then I think about all the changes in technology, and I realize how wrong I am.

In any case, here’s hoping they have a lovely school year, full of the right kind of motivation.

And So the New Semester Begins

Yesterday was the first day of the new semester, which is exciting in many ways, but also kind of daunting. Exciting because we’ve got new students running around campus. Daunting because it’s going to be a very, very busy semester.

Denisa is teaching three classes and advising seven students. That’s a lot of work. So much that she’s stepping back from baking for the semester. (She’ll be providing loaves to a local food store, but that will be pretty much the only way to get her bread for this semester, and it’s going to be very low on supply.)

When Denisa is teaching and busy, that means I’m that much busier. Because the work around the house and our kids is done as a team. When one of us has more time, it’s easier for us all to get things done. The past month, as I’ve been working on my MEMORY THIEF 2 revision, things have been much busier for Denisa. I haven’t had the time to do chores. Thankfully, I’m almost done with that, and so I can turn my attention back to other things. (Yay!) Though of course, I might have another round of revisions to do soon, so there’s that on the horizon.

But Denisa working a ton isn’t the only thing we’ve got going on. There’s the yearly round of renovation projects. We’re having a shed and patio built, our second bathroom finally put in, the front porch taken down, a staircase in the garage demolished, perhaps a garden fence installed . . . It’ll be a busy fall for that.

And then Denisa’s brother is coming over for a month from Slovakia. The kids are heading back to school. We’ve got a vacation to New York, one to the coast, and I’m heading to a conference in Atlantic City. Then of course there’s football that must be watched (must!) and the holidays are coming.

In other words, if I don’t seem all that responsive when you try to contact me, or you wonder at times if I’ve fallen off the face of the earth, don’t worry.

I’m just really really busy.

Watching the Mayweather/McGregor Fight

I had the chance to watch the Mayweather/McGregor fight on Saturday. I don’t typically watch much boxing or MMA, but this was a fight that had gotten so much hype, I decided to give it a shot. I enjoy watching boxing matches, and I still remember watching the Bite Fight back when I was in high school, when Mike Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear off. (Okay, just a piece of his ear, but still.) Tomas wanted to come watch as well, so why not?

Finding out when exactly the fight was going to start was tricky. The best I’d been able to find was 9pm on Saturday. Tomas and I had been up since 5:30am that morning, but I thought 9pm wasn’t too late to watch. We’d be done by 10pm or so at the latest, and then home by 10:15.

At 9pm, we discovered there would be three boxing matches that happened before the main event. I faced a choice: head home and just read up on the fight later, or hang around. Since we were already there, and having a good time, we hung around. How late could it really go? I also didn’t think it would be much of a fight. I figured Mayweather would overwhelm McGregor easily, and that would be that.

The fight started at midnight. (Of the three lead-in fights, only one was really worth watching, in my opinion. The first was drawn out. The second was quite exciting. The third was anticlimactic.) It ended at 1am. So I was quite tired the next day at church. However, I had a really good time in spite of the late start. We were watching with people who were *really into* the match, and that always makes for a more fun environment. There were great snacks, and some fun conversations ahead of the fight. And the fight actually turned into something worth watching.

Back when I watched Bite Fight, it was pretty anticlimactic. We tuned in, and i about twenty minutes, it was over due to a DQ. Sure, it makes for a good story years later, but I remember being disappointed at the time. I wanted Rocky vs. Clubber Lang. I got Hannibal Lecter instead.

This one lived up to the hype, I felt. It went 10 rounds, and the early rounds looked quite good for McGregor. In the end, Mayweather had a great approach. (He pegged McGregor as not being prepared for a long match, since those don’t occur in MMA. He turned out to be right.) Some objected to the fight being called before McGregor was on the mat, but I felt like it was called at a good point. By then, the guy didn’t have his hands up to defend himself. He wasn’t throwing any counter punches. He was basically a semi-mobile punching bag.

He was done.

I’m still yawning from some sleep deprivation, but the experience delivered what I hoped. (I also realized I haven’t shown my kids any of the Rocky movies. I fail as a father.) Tomas had a good time, as well. If it hadn’t been so late, it would have been easily a great decision to go. As it was, I’d still give it an 8/10 for the experience. Would do it again.

How to Be Busy and Not Insane

Granted, I might not be the best person to write on this topic. There are certainly times in my life where I feel like I’m going to lose it, with all the balls I have in the air at once. But the fact remains that I have yet to actually lose it, so that must speak for something, right? Some people have asked me how I do everything I do and still have time to watch movies or read books or play games. This is actually something I’ve been thinking about for years, so why not write a blog post about it?

The key, for me, is making time to do things I like to do. Playing games and watching movies and reading books are an integral part of being able to do everything else I do. The times when I’ve had to work nonstop for a long stretch, I’ve discovered I stop being very effective at the work I actually do. Taking time to recharge every day lets me keep going. Marathon, not sprint.

This is something I first came across while I was on my mission in Germany. For those of you who haven’t served a mission, they’re pretty planned out for you. Missionaries have an approved schedule: wake up at 6:30, go to bed at 10:30, and all the time in between is blocked out. When to eat. When to study. When to work. When to shop. It’s all there. And while I was a missionary, I looked at how they had it broken out. Think about it from a logistical standpoint. Whoever planned that out had to figure out how to have 75,000 young men and women work hard for 1.5 to 2 years each and have as little burnout as possible. Better yet, they had years of trial and error to tweak things to see what worked and what didn’t.

Step one? Everyone got a good night’s rest. 8 hours, every night. I really do believe a regular sleep schedule is key. I might not get a full 8 each night, but I usually get at least 7, and I wake up and go to bed about the same time each morning and night. That lets me be active and focused during the days.

Step two? The other time was split evening between work and not work. Work (actively proselyting, meeting with church members and investigators) broke out to be 8 hours a day, on average. Not Work (studying, eating, sight-seeing, etc.) made up the other 8. Sure, you could choose to count some of that other 8 as work. Cleaning the apartment. Doing laundry and ironing. But it was fundamentally different than the 8 hours of work we were supposed to do.

Different is good.

I still use those lessons in my scheduling today. I try to do different things. Mix things up, so it all doesn’t get too rote-feeling.

Another lesson I learned came during my grad school days. I had so much work to do to finish my classes and write my thesis on time. It was absolutely daunting, and I felt I was going to explode with pressure sometimes. Everything felt scattered and disorganized. So I sat down and wrote out all the different things I had to do. How many pages I needed to read. How many pages I needed to write. How many days I had left to read and write them all. And then I came up with a schedule. Sundays were off limits, but every other day had a page count for reading and writing. And I knew that if I could get that page count done, then I’d be fine.

I broke that big goal down into bite sized chunks, and I started eating. But what helped me not feel too dragged down by it all was a mental trick I came up with: I got ahead. Being ahead of my goal, even by a day, was usually enough for me to feel like I was choosing to read and write those pages. Not that I had to read and write them. After all, I was a day ahead! If I wanted to, I could do nothing that day and still be fine.

For me, if what I’m doing is voluntary, I’m more likely to do it. I don’t know why that is. At the times when I’m behind on my goals, I feel like they’re a weight around my neck. I feel pressure. I worry. That’s usually when I have to sit down again and reanalyze my goals to make sure they’re sustainable.

And there you have it. The things I do to stay on top of it all:

Have a schedule
Break goals down into smaller pieces
Get ahead of those goals
Get enough sleep
Take time to recreate
Do a variety of things

It seems pretty straightforward to me when I write it out like that, but it’s gotten me through some very hectic times in my life, and I’m pretty confident that if it’s gotten me through those, it can handle whatever lies ahead.

Here’s hoping . . .