Bryce Moore's Blog, page 174

How Many Have to Die?

I know I just keep posting  about gun violence and how against it I am, but one of two things would have to happen to get me to shut up about it. Either the mass shootings and gun violence would have to end on its own, or our country would have to actually start passing legislation to at least try to deal with it. So far it looks like all the lawmakers in the country are willing to bet the first option happens sooner or later.

Hasn’t worked out too well for them (or us) yet. Just saying.

And that’s depressing. When these incidents only seem to escalate. When terrorist groups get in on the action. (Why blow people up when the FBI is tracking all the chemicals and ingredients needed to make bombs, but you can just go to the store to pick up all the people killing things you could wish for, and the government won’t blink an eye?) When poll after poll shows that the majority of American want stricter gun control laws.

And yet we still do nothing.

So yesterday, I thought of a new approach. As a parent, sometimes I’ll institute a deadline to motivate my kids to get chores done. “If you haven’t done it by 4pm, then there’s no dessert.” We set this deadline well in advance, because history has taught me that my kids will agree to pretty much anything as long as it doesn’t involve them do anything in the immediate future. They agree to it. And then, when it gets closer to 4pm, they typically get the chore done.

We can use this same principle in this case.

I’d like to set a number. (I’d say “let’s pick a population type, but apparently gunning down movie goers, holiday parties, and kindergartners wasn’t enough to motivate everyone, and if dead children don’t do a thing, then I can’t picture a group that would. Unless maybe we reclassified “gun deaths” as “premature abortions”? Would that do it? I ask because there seems to be significant overlap between the people who make laws against abortions and the people who refuse to make laws restricting guns. Think of all the fetuses these people are prematurely killing. Even before they’re conceived! But apparently life is only sanctified when its in a womb. Once you get out of that womb, you’re on your own.)

Sorry. Low blow? I have to settle down or I won’t get to the point of my post.

Let’s set a number. A number of people who have to have been killed by gun violence in this country for us to decide collectively enough is enough. We’re well past that point by my standards, but I get that everyone has different standards, and so apparently we haven’t reached that point yet for enough people in America for us to actually do something. Okay. So let’s pick a number.

There must be a number. A number where anyone in the states would agree that there have been too many gun deaths. Why? Let’s take it to the extreme. There are 318.9 million people in the United States. If 318 million of them were to be killed by gun violence, something tells me the remaining .9 million would agree that perhaps things had gone too far. (I’d like to hope that would be the case, at least.) What if it was just half the country dead? 159 million killed by this time next year? Surely that would get enough politicians on our side.

But I suppose it’s trickier than that. After all, the thing that really gets people’s attention is recent deaths. I don’t suppose we could cumulatively look at gun deaths and wait until the number got high enough. I mean, eyeballing some of the statistics, it looks like we’ve had about 540,000 people die by guns since the 70s, but that doesn’t have quite the oomph it needs to get through to lawmakers.

So maybe the answer is to look at statistics. Taking Wikipedia at face value (because this is a blog post, and I don’t have time to sift through everything), this chart comes in handy. As of 2014, the US was just in 12th place for most gun deaths per 100,000 people. So maybe I should settle down. I mean, Honduras has a rate of 67.18, and the US is only at 10.54. Look at all those other countries worse off than we are. Honduras, Venezueala, Swaziland, Guatemala, Jamaica, El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil, Panama, South Africa, Uruguay. Way to represent, Americas! Sure, we let a couple of African nations in there, but we almost have a lock on the top 10. (Though maybe we’re taking the Monroe Doctrine a tad far in our solidarity?)

Time out. I know I bang this drum pretty steadily, so I want to take a moment to look at the other side. The arguments used for keeping things just as they are. The single most compelling one I can find is this. Statistics show that gun deaths in the US are actually significantly down over the years, especially since peaking around the 80′s. Back in the day, we used to be at 15.2 deaths per 100,000 people. So way to go America! All those extra guns we’ve been buying has cut our death rate by 1/3. Gun rights activists point to this statistic to show that gun deaths haven’t increased; media coverage of those deaths has.

It’s a valid point. And I’m definitely glad that rates aren’t higher than they are. But then again, since 2000 our rate has steadied out at 10.5 deaths per 100,000. And so I have to ask the question: is that acceptable? Are we all cool with that number? It’s just a price of living in America that for every 100,000 of us, 10 or 11 are going to get shot to death each year?

If this were the price of living in society across the globe, it would be depressing, but also somewhat consoling. America would be no different than its peers. But that’s not the case. Look back at that chart. Hong Kong, Japan, the UK, Poland, India, Spain, Australia. I’m just picking a few of the countries where the death rate by guns per 100,000 people each year is less than 1. 10% the rate of ours.

It is possible to do better. Why is it we take pride in trying to be the best in so many different aspects of life, but when it comes to gun violence we just sort of shrug and change the subject?

So maybe we need gun deaths to creep back up before we actually do something? It’s sort of like me on a diet. I set a weight where I have to admit I’m fat if I go past it. Then when I do, I have to diet.

11 deaths per 100,000? 12?

I guess this is something everyone has to decide on their own. As I’ve said before, I’m already well past deciding. Gun control for me is the single most important point of any political platform for me. Why? Because it’s hard to have a nation when we keep killing each other. Hard to have an economy. Religion. Healthcare. People shouldn’t have to live in fear. That means Hillary Clinton gets my vote for president, since Trump is pro-gun and so is Johnson (the Libertarian candidate). It means I’ll vote for Emily Cain for my representative. She’s not as anti-gun as I’d like, but she’s better than Poliquin.

For things to change, people need to speak up. Strongly and consistently.

And that’s all the energy I have to wade into this topic today. If you’re looking for further commentary, check out my previous posts on the subject. My views haven’t changed. They’ve only gotten stronger.

YouTube is More than Cat Clips

Confession time. Growing up, I had a favorite record album. I would listen to the thing all the time. What was my selection of choice for Best Album Ever?

The Chipmunks Go Hollywood.

(Hey. I didn’t say I had excellent taste back then or anything.) In the years since, I haven’t been able to hear the album again. Every now and then I’d search for it on iTunes to see if I could listen again for old times’ sake, but you can’t buy it. (Seriously, iTunes? Take my money already!) Then yesterday it hit me: I was searching in the wrong place.

YouTube is actually a much better source for strange stuff like this. One search later, and voila!

Chipmunks Chariots of Fire, baby!

Or if you’re feeling more like a rocker, how about Rocky?

(That last one goes to the whole playlist. You’re welcome.)

Another favorite album from back then? Bugsy Malone. (I’m giving you people far too big of a look into my young mind’s formative years . . . Though seriously. Paul Williams. I still love his writing. He did the original Muppet Movie! Genius.) Again, it’s not available to purchase on iTunes, but you can get to it on YouTube easy as pie:

(I was CRUSHED when I discovered later on that all the songs were lip synched. Crushed!)

Anyway. This is just to say that a lot of successful searches means knowing not just what to search for, but where to search. You’d think a trained professional would think to try Google for the search, but my mind just wanted to go straight to iTunes. And besides, there are plenty of subjects that Google will swing and miss on, but if you know other sources, you can still be successful.

And on that note, I have to leave you all. I’m at a library meeting today again, so time is short. Have a great weekend!

Top Reasons to Vote to Approve the School Budget

Another local-focused post today, folks. Voting is next Tuesday (June 14th), and I’m still pushing hard for the school budget to be approved. Why? Because there’s a slew of people out and about trying to get it shot down, and I feel they’re using unfair and manipulative approaches to getting that done.

So today’s post is all about why you should vote YES on the budget.

Your taxes will likely go DOWN with this year’s budget. That’s right. Despite what some people may be trying to say, this year’s budget will cause a decrease in taxes for most residents. It’s true that there are some towns that will see an increase, but the biggest towns (Farmington and Wilton) will both see decreases. (A slight one for Farmington, a bigger one for Wilton). You can see the details here, in a pdf of the facts provided in the budget proposal. Just check out the numbers in the far right column to see the changes. Numbers in parentheses are decreases from last year’s tax burden.
Our district is already underfunded compared to the average district in Maine. Some might try to say we’re paying too much, but the facts say differently. Check here for the details, provided by the Maine government. Again, look at the far right column for the “per pupil” cost. Trying to compare budgets any other way makes no sense. If you have 100 students and have a budget of $10 million, then you’re paying through the nose per student: $100,000 per student! If you have 1,000 students and have a budget of $20 million, then you’re just paying $20,000 per student. A drastic reduction, even though the bottom line budget is twice as big. If you look at this sheet, which arranges the budgets from greatest to smallest according to per student expenditures, out of the 242 schools listed, guess where RSU 9 falls? From what the No side is portraying, you’d figure it would be in the top 25 at least, right? We’re number 187. We’re in the bottom 25% for the state. Our school district, RSU 9, pays $9,675 per student. Sure, Philips/Strong’s budget is almost a quarter the size of ours, but they spend $10,512 per student (141st in the state). Jay spends $10,206 per student (160th in the state).
For the amount we do pay, our district over-performs. When you think of all the excellent programs our district offers, it’s amazing we do as much as we do with as little as we get. Look at this special piece done by WCSH6 on our Fiddlers group. Check out the Facebook page of the high school. We have graduates going to the best schools in the country. I’ve heard some complain about the price tag of the high school. That we overpaid and are sending our students to a Taj Mahal. To that, I’d like to point out that the school was funded at the state level, and we got a great deal as far as how much we have to pay locally. To those who then point out that state dollars still come out of our pockets here, I nod and then suggest they take that issue up with the state. For now, the state renovates high schools according to a schedule and price formula they determine. Our district was up. We could have said “No thanks!” and then the state would have gone on to renovate a high school somewhere else. On our dime! We are paying state taxes, it only makes sense to have them spent on our students when we can. If you want to spend less in state taxes, contact your state legislators, but this is water under the bridge now. We have a brand new high school. It’s gorgeous. And I for one am very grateful our students can benefit from it.
The budget has been significantly reduced.  I know it’s not as visible, but that’s because you need to understand the numbers in the budget. The district was required to increase the budget for special education and teacher salaries. Why? Special education funding was required to increase by law. Teacher salaries were already negotiated more than a year ago. Between those two increases, the budget had to go up by $1.5 million. (Special education accounted for $900,000 of that.) The school board went to work, and ended up increasing the budget by only $929,000. Yes, that’s a significant increase. But if you compare how much it had to increase no matter what, you’ll see this is $571,000 less than where it started. Look at the actual budget lines. Elementary Instruction was reduced by almost $110,000. Secondary Instruction was reduced by over $50,000. Student and Staff support had $44,000 cut. Libraries had over $15,000 cut. These are real cuts, with real consequences. If you have an issue with how special education is funded take that up with the state. Don’t punish our students over some sort of misguided moral stand.
Good schools make good communities. If you want new people to want to move to the area, bringing with them new students, new jobs, new ideas, and more, then you need to be able to entice them to come. How a community treats its children is one of the first things parents check before deciding to take up residence. We live in a country of commuters. Just because someone has a job in the area doesn’t mean they’re going to live there. They’ll happily drive an hour or more if it means their family is better taken care of. I love this community, and I’ve been very happy here for the past nine(!) years.
Good schools fight poverty. We live in an area of the country that is far from rich. Mills have been closing, and times are tough. That’s why there’s such a debate over how to spend our tax dollars. But the answer to this isn’t to defund the schools. It’s at times like these that we need to make sure the schools get even stronger. Our children need a good, modern education to be able to get jobs in a changing work environment. They need to know how to use computers and technology if they’re going to compete. Yes, this means we have to pay for that technology to be in the classrooms. We’ve moved beyond the age of chalkboards and overhead projectors.
We have a hard working School Board.  These people aren’t appointed by the district. They’re not some secret cabal devoted to increasing spending however they can. They aren’t teachers. They’re elected officials. We voted them into office. They’ve worked hours and hours on this budget, trying their best to balance between the needs of the community and the needs of the students. They shouldn’t be vilified. They should be thanked. I’ve spoken to many of them, and I’m very grateful for the sacrifices they’ve made to serve my children. I am beyond disappointed that some members of our community have chosen to paint them as deceitful or untrustworthy. The best odds of making good decisions is to make sure the people making those decisions are well informed. That they have all the facts and understand what they mean. Our school board is just that. To have people trail along after them, misinterpreting those facts in an effort to constantly contradict the school board is a waste of everyone’s time. If you think the school board is doing a bad job, vote them out. Don’t take it out on the schools.

I could go on, but I don’t have time. If you have more great reasons to vote YES June 14th, chime in here or on Facebook. Please do your best to get every registered voter you know out to the polls. It’s imperative that all voices are heard. Here are the times and places where you can vote:

Chesterville votes at the Town Office, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Farmington votes at the Community Center, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Industry votes at the Town Office, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
New Sharon votes at the Town Office, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
New Vineyard votes at Smith Hall, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Starks votes at the Community Center, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Temple votes at the Town Office, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Vienna votes at the Fire Station, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Weld votes at the Town Office, from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Wilton votes at the Towns Office, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

The Mysteries of Air Fare

I’ve been checking airfare every day for the past month or so. Religiously. All in the effort of finding some plane tickets at Thanksgiving for the fam to go down to Disney. (Although I’m also checking fares at Labor Day now, since I’ll be heading out to Salt Lake City, where I’ve been invited to present at Salt Lake Comic Con. More news on that when I get more information . . .)

Anyway, the brutal truth has been that tickets have only been going up. They were in the $200′s back when I started looking and checking for a baseline price. Now they’re in the $400′s. There’s still plenty of time before I need to buy (5 and a half months is too soon to worry too much), but it’s still kind of depressing to be doing all the legwork and not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.

Which is why it’s insane that on a lark, I checked ticket prices from Vienna to Boston yesterday to start the process of looking for a ticket for Denisa’s mom to come out to stay for a trip. Plans were getting firmed up, so I had decided to add that trip to my search regimen. Having bought that ticket a number of times before, I had already mentally decided on a “good deal” price, which is $600. A great deal is $500. I was expecting to see the cost be around $700-$800.

It was $430.

Naturally, I bought the tickets.

The crazy thing is that the ticket was that price pretty much across airlines and dates in October. It didn’t even seem like it was especially on sale. (Why did I buy anyway? Because I don’t think it could get any lower. Literally. The cost of the round trip ticket was 16 euros. The rest of it was tax. Barring laws getting passed to reduce those taxes, I can’t imagine that price getting any better.)

And it was less than the prices I’m looking at for Orlando right now. Insane.

So that’s the good news. The bad news is the search continues for those elusive Orlando deals. (And of course, because I’m a glutton for punishment, I tracked down the best European flight I could find. $478 to Zurich for Christmas. So tempting . . .)

Disgusting Family Fun

We took the kids to the coast this past weekend, exploring different towns and villages that we haven’t been to before. (Stonington is very picturesque, in case you were wondering). On the way back, we stopped in Belfast, and we parked in front of a candy store. Parent pro-tip: parking in front of a candy store is, generally speaking, a Bad Idea. Unless you want to come home with candy, in which case it’s a very good idea.

We came home with candy.

But while I was in the candy store, a package of Jelly Belly Bean Boozled jelly beans caught my eye. They’re basically Bertie Botts Every Flavor jelly beans, just with a different brand name (and cheaper in that candy store). I picked up a pack for later, thinking it would be a fun family activity.

“Later” came last night. For Family Home Evening, I brought out the package and we had a brief talk about how you can’t judge things by how they look. The Bean Boozled beans were the object lesson.

I don’t know how well it worked as an object lesson, but as far as a fun activity goes, it was a roaring success. We just went in order (youngest to oldest). I’d pull out a bean at random and announce the possible flavors it might be, and then we all got to watch as the person had to pop it in their mouth and chew a few times.

My most harrowing experience? Coconut Jelly Bellies are awesome. Their identical twin? Baby wipes. “Don’t worry, Dad,” TRC assured me. “I’ve had those before. They’re actually pretty good.”

It literally tasted like I’d wadded up a baby wipe and stuffed it in my mouth.

TRC couldn’t get it. I told him that maybe once he’d changed more diapers, the appeal of that taste might dwindle a bit.

Other particularly disgusting flavors included moldy cheese, booger, and puke. This is basically Russian roulette without the chance of dying. Just getting disgusted. Interestingly, after a while, it was hard to tell what a flavor was until you’d had it in your mouth for a bit. You couldn’t tell if you liked something or disliked it until five seconds or so, and then you *really* knew.

Anyway. Just thought I’d pass the suggestion on . . .

And watch out for the baby wipe flavored beans.

Reasoning with the Unreasonable

If there’s one thing this year’s political cycle has taught me, it’s that there is a significant number of people who believe what they want to believe, not what they’re persuaded to believe. Donald Trump says he loves Mexicans, and so, by golly, he must! If he’s called out for saying one thing at one time and a different thing at a different time, he says its a lie, and there are plenty of people willing to believe him.

This doesn’t just apply to national politics, unfortunately. I’m seeing it at work at the school budget debates here where I live. “Facts” are only to be listened to when they agree with your preconceived notions. When they conflict, those facts turn into “lies.”

In many ways, this reminds me of some conversations I’ve had with my kids over the years. They value my opinion (most of the time), but they also value the opinion of their friends. Sometimes equally. (Sometimes mine loses out.) I might be very well-read and up to date about advances in technology, but if TRC’s friend said that the Hololens is going to be on sale in a week, and it’s going to be equipped with a laser cannon, then by golly, it must! And no amount of arguing on my part (or article-finding) will change his mind completely.

“Maybe my friend found a newer article. Maybe this one’s wrong.”

(Note: this is not an actual example from real life. The topic has been changed to protect the innocent.)

At some point in time in our society, truth has become a relative term. If you want to ignore it, you can, and there will be plenty of people right there next to you, reassuring you that you’re right. (And as long as other people are doing or saying it, it must be okay, right?)

It’s one thing to realize this is a problem. It’s an entirely different matter to somehow deal with it. Because in cases like the school board budget, where tempers flare and things get heated, people are largely set in their views, and no amount of reasoning is going to change things. You can’t use statistics (they’re manipulated by both sides). You trot out your experts, they trot out theirs, and what does it matter if your experts are better qualified to speak to the matter?

You can’t win a game if one side refuses to agree to the rules. If the rules say you get $200 when you pass Go, and your opponent says you don’t (and refuses to read the rule book), then you might as well go watch some Netflix.

So in cases where Truth has become relative and no longer authoritative, what do you do?

You mobilize your side more than the other side can mobilize theirs. You acknowledge the fact that they will ignore your arguments, and so you get more people to come out to the voting booths. This is what needs to happen next week at the school board vote, and it’s what needs to happen in November to make sure a being of pure evil doesn’t take the White House. (Ironically, both sides in the national election seem to view the other side’s candidate as a being of pure evil. That’s a topic for a different post.)

In the end, the way to reason with the unreasonable is to not bother reasoning at all. Because while you’re there spending all your energy trying to convince them of something they’ll never be convinced of, they’re out getting their buddies to go vote.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Bryce’s Handy Guide to Eating Light

Just in case you were all wondering, I hit my goal again this past month: still at “normal” body weight. I got to reward myself with a Magic the Gathering card. (Mindslaver, in case anyone was curious. It’s going into a commander deck.) But yesterday, I was reminded of something when I went out to eat in the evening.

My mom’s in town, so we went out to a nice restaurant. I ordered a pork chop and ate a fair bit, then went on to have ice cream afterward. I really felt like I’d eaten quite a bit, so I wasn’t looking forward to getting on the scale this morning. But that’s exactly when I need to be sure to hold myself accountable, so on the scale I went. The damage?

I lost .4 pounds compared to yesterday.

Some of that’s probably just luck of the draw. Weight fluctuates no matter what, within a range of a few pounds, so I’m fairly certain my heavy eating yesterday will come back to visit me sooner or later. But it also reminded me of one principle I’ve learned over my dieting career: not all foods are created equal. By cutting out or watching the right sort of foods (or the wrong sort, depending on your perspective), you can really trim off swathes of calories.

To put this in perspective. here are the calories from 100 grams of various foods:

Broiled pork: 242
White rice: 151
Brown rice: 111
White pasta: 131
White bread: 265
Butter: 717
White sugar: 387
White flour: 364
Dark chocolate: 546
Peanut butter: 588
Peas: 81
Corn: 365

I could go on, but that’s enough to be representative. Remember, each one of those is 100 grams. Weight-wise, they’re all the same. Calorie-wise? Huge difference. Avoiding things made with butter is a really easy thing to do, and it has an even better effect than avoiding things with sugar. (And if you can stay away from things with butter AND sugar? All the better.) But look at that difference between peas and corn! That was something I’d never suspected before I dieted. All vegetables are great for you, right?

Not from a calorie perspective.

Anyway. Just thought I’d throw this out there, in case anyone else is looking for easy ways to cut out some calories. Every diet I’ve ever done that’s been successful has all come down to calories in/calories out. When I really want to lose weight, I shoot for 1800 calories a day, plus a half hour of exercise. I lost 27 pounds this last time doing that. It works like math for me, though I know I’ve talked to others who have had less success with it.

Happy Friday, everybody!

 

A Late School Budget Meeting

It’s June, and that means it’s school budget time again. Last year, the budget was voted down before it even got to a public referendum, and I’d sworn to do better this year, so last night Denisa and I trekked over to the high school for the “vote before the vote.” Basically, the school board had proposed a budget, and this was the public hearing where people would vote to accept that budget, so that we could then vote again whether or not to approve the budget in two weeks.

As has been par for the course, I was anticipating a contentious meeting, and this one definitely delivered on that. You had a large group of proponents both for and against the school budget being accepted, and both sides were very vocal. That’s fine. It’s what democracy is all about.

What wasn’t so fine was the name calling and rhetoric used, particularly by the people who had shown up to vote the budget down.

Without getting into specifics (because I really have no desire to spend much more time discussing a meeting that ran three hours last night), here are a few observations:

The people who were against the budget being approved are using unfair, misleading rhetoric. Claiming that the teachers were the ones who voted their own budget through is just patently false. It was an open meeting, and anyone could show up. Were the teachers who live in the district supposed to abstain? All I can say is that I am not a teacher. My wife is not a teacher. I saw many friends there who are not teachers and are not employed by the district. We were all voting in favor of the budget. Not because it lines our pockets, but because it was a fair budget, carefully constructed. It’s very easy to sit back and snipe a budget to death, picking it apart and questioning every little dollar figure. But going beyond that to claim that the board was trying to lie or deceive or trick the populace was beyond a low blow.
The voters trying to lower the budget hurt their cause by trying to lower budget areas that didn’t pertain to their main arguments. When teacher salaries were being voted on, the arguments instead focused on administrator salaries and facilities expenditures. And yet by the time administrator salaries and facilities finally came up, most of the people against the budget had already left the meeting. When making an argument, make sure to keep it focused. Otherwise, it looks more like you’re just blindly trying to reduce a budget with no real plan on how to make that actually feasible.
I’m all for democracy, but my lanta that meeting went long, even when it was clear that the various lines were all going to pass. I understand why Roberts Rules of Order can be a good thing, but I really hate it when things end up getting bogged down and petty. Why even make motions to amend the budget when you know full well that they’re not going to pass at that point?
Bringing a fist full of statistics to a public meeting like that carries no weight with me. As a librarian, I know how easy it is to manipulate data and massage things to make numbers support whatever you want them to support. Frankly, the numbers on either side of the argument hold little water when they’re presented in a forum like that. If I don’t know you and have never talked to you before, how in the world should I be expected to trust you’re someone who will find reliable, quality information? And when you openly admit that you’re the one sifting through and interpreting all that information, and you clearly have a bias . . .
The meeting at the beginning seemed aimed at trying to have the two sides persuade each other of the rightness of their argument. In the end, it seemed to me to be more a veneer than any real interest in engaging in actual dialogue. Once it was clear the Ayes were going to have it, the Nays packed up and grumbled off, leaving before they’d had a chance to put forward the arguments they supposedly had for ways to reduce the budget in some areas, like facilities. After thinking about it, I’m far from convinced a forum like we had last night is the right venue for such a debate to occur. Minds had already been made up.
Of course, the local newspaper is where the “dialogue” often ends up happening, and the faceless nature of online comment sections brings out the worst in people. Dip your toes in the comment section at your own risk. The bottom line is that the time for informing yourself about the budget was weeks and months earlier, throughout the process.
In general, I found a lot of the grandstanding to be a waste of time. A chance for people spout off about anything on their mind, with a captive audience that couldn’t budge. The applause made things even more uncomfortable, especially early on, when it was up in the air which “side”  was winning. Not an atmosphere conducive to reasoned discussion and changing minds.
As I think about it, maybe the solution to this is to have the people elect officials to get together to discuss the budget at length, looking at it from all sides, in a reasoned, logical manner. And then those people, who represent their individual towns, could present that budget to the people at large, and the people at large could rest assured that the proper legwork had been done.  We could call that group of elected officials by a fancy name. How about “School Board”? Yeah. That’s the ticket . . .

Anyway. Enough is enough, The actual vote will be on June 14th. While I hope the budget passes, it’ll be what it will be. Part of living in a democracy is that we will sometimes have views that the majority of voters don’t share. That swings both ways. To paint the other side as close-minded or flat out wrong benefits no one. Though I’ll admit one very large reason I hope the budget passes is so I can avoid going to another meeting like I went to last night.

Win a Copy of THE MEMORY THIEF

Here’s the deal, folks. Before VODNIK came out, I was only given a single Advance Reader Copy (ARC). I kept that one for myself, because come on. It was my only one. With THE MEMORY THIEF, however, I’ve been given ten (count them: t-e-n) ARCs.

I find myself with an abundance of riches, and I don’t know what to do with all of them. I’m going to keep one for myself again, but the other nine? I’d like to use those as effectively as I can to promote the book. But I don’t know the best way to do that.

This is where you come in. Please chime in with thoughts and suggestions for ways I could use the ARCs best. I will pick the suggestion I like the most and send that person an ARC of their very own. The book doesn’t come out until September, so you’d have it almost a half year early.

Think  of how jealous your friends and relations will be.

Sound like a deal? Comment here, on Facebook, or email me directly. Get the suggestions in soon, though.

The First Spider-Man is Pretty Lousy

I had a rude awakening over the weekend. I rewatched a movie I’d seen in the not-so-distant past and enjoyed, and this time around, I pretty much yawned through the whole thing. It’s one thing to revisit a film I loved as a kid and find out it just isn’t any good. But this was Spider-Man, a movie I watched and loved in the theaters back when it came out in 2002. This is a movie that has a 73 on metacritic. It has an 89% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, for crying out loud!

I bought the DVD.

And watching it, I was just sort of meh through the whole thing. Why is that?

There are a number of things at work, I believe:

Superhero movies have evolved a fair bit since Spider-Man burst onto the scene. Marvel has been doing wonders with the genre, and so the goal posts have been moved. The pacing has really picked up, the humor has gotten much quicker, and the inside nods to fans come fast and furious. Coming back to Spider-Man with today’s sensibilities means that the movie is already a few steps behind what you’re expecting to watch. Normally, I’d give the movie a pass on this, but there are other issues.
Special effects have come leaps and bounds from where they were in 2002. When I saw this movie in the theaters, I remember being amazed at how real the effects seemed. When I watched it now? It looked like a video game. I didn’t really feel any connection or concern to Peter Parker, because I didn’t honestly believe it was actually him slinging webs from building to building. It just wasn’t enough to get me to willingly suspend my disbelief. But again, there are movies out there with worse effects that I still buy into. So what’s different about this one?
The characters just plain stink. And this is where the problem really lies, I think. When I saw the movie the first time, there was a lot of pizzazz to distract me from the underlying problem. The razzle dazzle of the special effects and the newness of the superhero genre being revitalized was enough to carry the film all on its own. But once you take away those two points, then you’re left staring at a film that has major flaws in character development. Most people other than Peter’s direct relatives just feel empty. Mary Jane has lived next to Peter for her whole life, but she doesn’t know who he is? And yet a few months later, she’s having Thanksgiving dinner with him and his aunt? The Osborn father and son are hastily drawn caricatures. Green Goblin, at heart, is just a random crazy person with no real motivation for anything he does. (And his suit and glider both look pretty lame. Let’s face it.) Instead of having characters grow and change from the events of the movie, it feels more like watching someone play chess with pieces on a board. Mary Jane has to do X to have Y happen, and so she does X. End of story. Disappointing.
Because the characters are so poorly developed, there’s no way for the writing or the acting to really do much of anything. If you don’t care about a character, why should you care what he’s saying? There’s not enough time to really connect to them, so it’s not like great acting can save anything either. These aren’t bad actors doing a bad job. They’re just caught in a movie that still treated superheroes as a genre that didn’t need real development or the full treatment.

All of this is to explain why I think I should get a pass for telling my son that this movie was going to be good, and then having him question my judgement at the end of it. In my defense, I wanted to watch the Bourne Identity . . .

Anyone else rewatch this recently? What did you think? I gave it a 1/5.