Bryce Moore's Blog, page 182

Movie Review: The Finest Hours

Imagine that! Denisa and I went out on a date last night to see a movie in the theaters. Alas, the movie I really wanted to see (Hail Caesar!) wasn’t playing, but it wasn’t like we could just wait for a different movie to come along. We had a free babysitter for the evening, so it was now or never.

In the end, we picked The Finest Hours. It had gotten decent reviews, and was the best of the lot. (Really, there was no other option at our theater. Kung Fu Panda 3? Deadpool would never work for Denisa. Zoolander 2? Come on, Hollywood!)

For those of you who might not have heard of it, The Finest Hours is based on a real life shipwreck in the 50s, and the rescue efforts surrounding it. It stars Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, and it was directed by Craig Gillespie (of Lars and the Real Girl fame). In the end, we both enjoyed ourselves. Denisa really loved the film, and I thought it was very good.

And now I’m going to give probably the worst recommendation of a film you could. Because I really did like the movie. I’d say it was between a 3/5 and a 4/5, but in the end wound up in the 3/5 spot. Why? Because it was just plain “good.” It was a paint-by-numbers film that checked off all the boxes in the right order. Romantic subplot? Check. Stirring musical score? Check. Great special effects sequences? Check. Masculine show downs between lead actors? Check.

Check check check check.

It felt like a throwback movie to the era it was set in. It’s classic plot and classic acting. And it manages to do all of it without ever really surprising me.

In a way, it was like a Disney hike. A hike advertised as being enthralling and exciting and adventuresome. See unseen places! Explore the wilderness! And when you go on that hike, you really are stunned. It all seems so great. So picturesque. You have a random run-in with a moose. You get to catch a record-sized trout. It’s all spectacular. But you notice every now and then that the path you’re walking on seems pretty worn down. And the spot where you caught the trout? There’s a bunch of identically-sized trout bones piled up right behind it. And so you realize that the “adventure” has been scripted. It’s on rails. It’s still beautiful, but the thrill isn’t the same.

Does that make sense?

Then again, this is a Disney film, so maybe that’s what they were going for.

In any case, I can definitely recommend the movie if you’re looking for a fun few hours. It’s clean, straightforward film making. You’ll have a great time.

Just don’t expect to break new ground.

What Are Your Top Priorities?

Feeling reflective today. I was out for a walk and saw some kids playing at the local preschool, and it made me think about TRC back when he was in preschool, and MC gearing up to go next year, and then all the way back to my own days in preschool. (Amazing how one little glance can start such a chain of thoughts going off in your head.) And where did that chain ultimately lead me? Thinking about how as rote as my life might seem right now, I feel like I’m doing a pretty good job of living it according to my main priorities, and how those priorities tend to change over time.

So with all that as context, I thought i might take a minute to think about what my main priorities are right now, and rank them. It’s helpful to me to get those down on paper and then think objectively about them. From there, it’s easier to decide if what you’re doing in life is contributing to those main priorities or not. So here we go:

Denisa. My spouse’s happiness and well being comes first. Before the kids. Before myself. Why? Because I feel like that’s the best way to have a successful marriage, which in turn leads to everything else in my life working smoothly. If the kids come first, then it’s possible for the main connection between spouses to break apart, and that’s not something I want to risk. It’s much easier for me to help my kids when Denisa and I are in a good spot. It also helps that I think Denisa and I are on the same page with raising the kids. Together, that’s our main priority. So it all works nicely.
The kids. They come before my own personal wants at the moment. What does that mean? It means that I do my best to provide them a safe, secure environment where they can feel loved and accepted. Where they can have the best chance of growing up healthy, happy, and secure. I don’t protect them from all troubles, and I don’t do whatever they want me to. That doesn’t contribute to the goal. Rather, I make decisions based on what I think is best for them long term. So for TRC, that means he’s not getting a cell phone anytime soon, despite repeated requests. For DC, it means nagging her to read sometimes when she’d rather be watching My Little Ponies. It means being a good parent.
Myself. I suppose it might seem paradoxical, but this is the spot where I really think I have the best chance of being happy. Put it this way: if my wife and kids were both miserable, no amount of “me time” would be able to overcome that. Period. That said, I will gladly put myself ahead of everything else. Work? You betcha. This means that I will take time for myself to make sure I’m in a good spot, mentally and physically. I take time to have fun: watch movies, read books, play games. That sort of thing. Without that, I’m not worth much when it comes to being able to focus and give other endeavors my all.
Work. A Bryce gotta eat, ya know? Getting a paycheck is a necessary part of life, and having a steady one is about as important as it gets.
Friends. I love you all, but if I have to choose between getting paid and hanging out with friends, I think we all know what that choice has to be. Sad, but true.
Writing. i would love to get to the point where this can move up in the rankings by one slot, but until I’m making a boatload of money doing it, it can’t. (That whole “getting a steady paycheck” thing.) Still, if I don’t make time for writing every day, then it doesn’t happen. If it doesn’t happen, I get sad.
Exercise. Sort of a side note to #3, but I try to make time for exercise each day other than Sunday. It helps me stay healthy, which helps everything else happen.

A few more notes:

Most of my priorities support the ones above and below them. If I take time for myself, it’s easier for me to work hard and to be a good father and husband. That sort of thing. Yay for synergy.
These are the main priorities. There may be things that come up from time to time that have to be fit in somewhere. Extended family, other obligations, etc. But this is the day to day sort of stuff that rules my life.
Compromise comes into play too. There are times that I’ll let a lower priority “beat out” a higher one, but it’s got to have a good reason for it.
What about religion? I thought about where to rank religion on here, and it didn’t feel quite the same to me as the others. My religion is the filter through which everything else is viewed. It impacts me on how I choose to make priorities, how I choose to live my life, how I treat others. Sometimes people talk about what they’d sacrifice for their religion. How they’d be willing to give up their family or their career to make sure they stayed square with God. I tend to think that sets up a false dichotomy. My religion is a fundamental part of who I am as a person. I might as well choose to give up logic. In other words, if a choice were to come up that required me to pick between a priority and living my religion, my religion itself would inform how I made that decision. It’s a messy relationship, and hard to describe. Sorry I can’t get it into words better.

Anyway. There you have it. In a perfect world, no conflicts ever arise between what I’m asked to do, what I’d like to do, and what I should do, but we don’t live in that world. When I choose how to spend my time, I look at this list and try to dole it out accordingly. I imagine everyone else has the same list in the same order, but I realize that’s not true. We all see things a bit differently, even though it can be hard to comprehend that sometimes.

And that’s the end of my deep thinking for today.

Board Game Review: Betrayal at House on the Hill

For Christmas, I got the family a few board games. (Yes, even though I already have about 2 closets’ worth. You can never have too many board games, folks. Just don’t ask my wife.) But of course, since we’re all busy, it’s taken some time to actually getting around to playing them. Sunday evening, we corrected that. First up? Betrayal at House on the Hill.

So it’s got a bit of a strange name. It scoffs at things like simple grammar. I bought this one because I’d heard it was a classic in the cooperative/competitive vein: you start out the game all being on the same side, and then at some point, one of you betrays the other, and from then on, it’s everyone vs. the traitor to see who wins. It’s a mechanic I loved in Battlestar Galactica, and this was supposed to be a sleeked down, simpler version of that.

Sign me up.

Our first game was a five player version–TRC, DC, Denisa, me, and a friend. I read over the rules ahead of time, and then of course it took a fair bit of time to teach the rules and learn the game. In total, the first session probably took around 2 hours. DC dropped out as an active player a bit of the way through. It might be a tad long for 8 year olds. But the rest of us soldiered on, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

The game plays out fairly simply, once you get the hang of it. You start out in the entryway of a large haunted house, the door locked behind you. You’re not sure what’s going on with the house, but you know you want to get out. If only you knew how . . . So you start exploring, witnessing creepy events, stumbling over haunted artifacts and weapons, and trying to find an escape. The house grows as you uncover room after room. (Each game, the house is different, ala Settlers of Catan.) At last, something triggers the haunting to manifest fully.

At that point, you find out who the traitor is, and you  play one of 50 different haunting scenarios.

For us, the first game involved a long exploration phase. We’d seen most of the house before the haunting began. In our case, it involved me turning out to be Dorian Gray, essentially. I had an evil painting that was granting me eternal life, and the others found out about it and decided to paint over it to kill me. That couldn’t happen, of course. I couldn’t let them do something like that. It was a mad scramble across the house we’d uncovered, with them searching for materials to destroy the painting and me trying to stop them. In the end, I prevailed, but it was pretty close for a long while.

I loved it. Better yet, TRC and DC loved it too. (DC had hung around, watching it all unfold even if she didn’t want to actually play.) Denisa is typically lukewarm to games the first time through, but she enjoyed it well enough. The best sign of a good game? The kids asked to play it again the next night. And the night after that.

We’ve gone through it three times now, and the other games have been much quicker. Probably about an hour each. The rules are fairly straightforward, and I love the storytelling aspect to the game. Better yet, each haunting we’ve done has given each game a very distinct feel to it which, coupled with the ever changing house, adds loads to the replayability factor, it seems. True, the initially creepiness of the first session is blunted some, since we’ve already seen a lot of what the house has to offer, but it still feels like each session is new and who knows what horrors await?

Hard to give the game a final rating just yet, but I’d say right now it’s an easy 4/5, with the potential for a real 5/5 on my hands. I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a fun way to spend an evening telling a story as a group. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but in the end it’s easy to get the hang of, and a lot of fun to play out. Give it a shot!

Downton Abbey 6:7 Review

Come on, Downton. A car racing episode? How in the world could these people not realize that bringing Lady Mary to a car race was going to make someone die a violent death? It’s one of those incontrovertible laws. Like what happens when scientists monkey around with dinosaur genetics, or going into a dark room alone by yourself in a horror movie.

Some things just must not be done.

So while I wasn’t really surprised that Charley died, I was disappointed that it wasn’t Car Boy instead. I really don’t care for him, and I don’t know why Mary does. I was ecstatic when she dumped him on the phone (too soon for dump-etiquette to be a thing, I guess), and quite sad when I saw in the previews that he shows up again next week. (I’m afraid that just about seals their fate.) Whatever happened to the guy with the pigs? He was a nice guy. Why couldn’t she end up with that guy?

Sigh.

Other comments on the episode:

It’s high time we had Mrs. Hughes give Carson a taste of his own cooking. And while it was thoroughly enjoyable watching him fumble his way through the meal, I still feel like that was a plot line that went on for one too many episodes. But hey–he got his just desserts in the end. (Apple crumble, in case you were wondering.)
Thomas, how you have fallen. You’ve gone from a fearsome pit bull into this tiny little schnauzer who keeps getting kicked by anyone who passes by. And while a few seasons ago, I might have thought an entire episode of nothing more than a game of Thomas-pinata would have been great fun, I’ve discovered it gets quite old after a while. However, maybe he’ll be able to take over once Molesley leaves?
Speaking of Molesley, that was a very nice moment for the man. I enjoyed seeing him have a bit of success and getting such a nice celebration. He hasn’t been my favorite character, but he’s come a long way.
Edith is kind of engaged. Good on her. Now to see if the writers can let her be happy, or if her Marigold surprise will end up being too scandalous for Property Man.
Daisy managed to get through an entire episode without being an idiot. She should be congratulated. I’m tearing up just thinking about it.
Violet was absolutely awesome in this episode, making me remember how great she can be when she isn’t being forced by the writers to debate hospitals. That fact finding expedition to the gold-digger? Fantastic stuff. Zingers left and right. Loved it. And who can make a better guilt-trip-ridden exit than Violet? “I’m going to Paris because you all scorned me. Have a puppy as a remind of just how awesome I am.” Zing!
Carson and Mrs. Hughes on the couch. Hot times at Downton, indeed!

It was a fun episode, over all. Not perfect, but very enjoyable. If only Car Boy would drive off for good, but I have a sinking feeling that’s one wish of mine that won’t be granted . . . 4/5 for me on this one.

Lest You Think I’ve Given Up on My Diet . . .

I know it’s been a bit since I posted about the diet (3 weeks ago already?), but I’m off to a meeting in Augusta today, so I have little in the way of time. A perfect chance to bring you all up to speed on my progress, and bring some personal accountability to the table for me.

I’m still going strong, and that included weathering Groundhog Day, the Super Bowl, and now DC’s birthday party. Here are the stats for today:

Starting weight (on 1/19): 217.8

Current weight: 209.4

It’s going faster than I thought it would, honestly. That’s probably due to the fact that I’m actually eating healthier and exercising regularly anyway, so I don’t have as much current to swim against. I’m also being much more stingy with how I eat. Didn’t eat a single treat at the Groundhog Day party, for example. I’d just rather be done with the diet sooner, honestly. And my hope is that, since I wasn’t really gaining any weight with how I was eating before, I’ll have a better chance of keeping the weight off this time as well. (Always before, I started dieting because I just kept on putting on the pounds. While I’d put some on right before I started the diet this time, it was mainly due to eating holiday foods. That’s not exactly normal circumstances.)

As a refresher for anyone wondering, I diet completely by calories in/calories out. I have an app on my phone (myfitnesspal) where I enter all my food and exercise, and I shoot for no more than 1900 calories eaten per day. Well, that and keeping on the whole “no sugar” thing, but that’s not really part of the diet.

So there you have it. I’m still plugging away, and now I have to be off to Augusta. Have a splendid weekend!

Trump’s Win in New Hampshire

Not that I really want to waste any more of my life typing about Donald Trump, but the fact that he won the New Hampshire primary is beyond depressing to me, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. And since my blog is about whatever I’m thinking about on any given day, this is what we’re stuck with.

For months, people have been saying Trump was nothing more than a joke. A temporary anomaly that would soon be corrected. I wanted to think that. I treated his candidacy that way. But the awful truth at the moment is he’s the Republican frontrunner. He’s king of the hill until someone else can actually knock him off his perch.

The even sadder truth? That his success seems to be typically American.

Take New Hampshire’s win. He got 35% of the vote there. Barely more than a third. That means, thankfully, 65% of the voters in the primary voted for someone else. (Which is the one thing giving me hope at the moment.) (It also, sadly, means that 35% of the voters actually buy into the filth he’s spouting, which is just terrifying.)

Why is it he was able to win with just 35% of the vote? My first hope was that it was just because there were so many other people in the race. That the others split the vote so much that it made it possible for Trump to win. And while that may be true, it’s not like the same hasn’t happened there in the past. At this point in the political season. there are typically 6 or 7 people left in the race. This year, there were 8. Not enough to justify Trump.

I’ve heard others say it’s because people didn’t have to stand up publicly and say they were voting for Trump, like in a caucus. That they could vote for him in the privacy of a voting booth. And some of that might be at play here. Certainly judging by how much vitriol I see aimed at Trump in my Facebook feed, he’s not nearly as popular as the polls say. But sadly, I think more of that has to do with who I have as friends than with how popular Trump really is. (Way to go, friends!)

The sad truth of the matter is that he’s been able to tap into the fear and distrust of politicians from the last decade or so, turning it into votes. America’s gone through some rough patches, and his campaign is all about “Making America Great Again.” Does he have specifics? Nope. It pretty much boils down to him dismantling any program most people think is bad. That’s as specific as he gets. (Not that he has actual plans for how to bring about those changes. He just assures everyone he’s a great negotiator, and that he’ll make sure it gets done.) Beyond that, he just promises to bring America back.

And people want to believe. They want to think he knows what he’s talking about. For years, you’ve had talk radio hosts bemoaning the blunders that are ruining America. The Trump campaign is the epitome of that.

People wonder how Hitler could rise to power. They assume it could never happen here in America. Take a look at Trump, and you’ve got your answer. I still believe it’s an outside chance he actually wins, but the fact is that it’s a real chance now.

And if that isn’t depressing, I don’t know what is.

The Wire 3:8 and 3:9

One of my least-favorite episodes is among these two. Not because it’s a bad episode, but because it just depresses me so much. I knew it was coming all season long, and it’s here at last. Sigh. Might as well dive in.

Episode 3:8

Not everything in this episode is perfect, but the final scene? Riveting stuff. I was stunned to see Stringer come clean with Avon about Dee’s murder, and even more surprised by how it came about: as a way for Stringer to prove to Avon just how “street” he was. Of course, it seems to me that true “street” people don’t have to go around bragging about what they’ve done. They’re just go about doing. Compare Stringer’s attempt here to Marlo’s actions earlier. Marlo is true street. Stringer?

He’s just trying to keep his head above water, and now he’s shown his best friend just how low he’s willing to go. I think some of Stringer’s problem is that he doesn’t respect the street side of things. In many ways, he’s like Carver in that respect at this point. Both approach the drug dealers as nothing more than imbeciles you have to deal with to get your real work done. You can’t treat people that way and prosper.

Of course, Stringer also thinks he’s much smarter than other people, and so he’s thrown in with the white collar side of the table, which also doesn’t seem to be working out well for him. So instead of dominating anything, he’s floundering. Not that we feel too bad for him. He still had Dee killed, after all.

McNulty assuming the cop in the small town is a redneck, racist hick was more than a little amusing, especially when said cop takes Kima aside and commiserates with what an idiot McNulty is. So much of McNulty’s life would be easier if he’d stop assuming he was smarter than everyone else. (More on that next episode.)

Herc, meanwhile, reminds us just what a chucklehead he is. He’s all disgruntled about the Hamsterdam dealers coming to complain about getting robbed, and the next minute he’s yukking it up with those dealers, using the facial reconstruction software to make hot women. Moron.

And then there’s Hamsterdam, a potential solution to a problem that was supposed to be easy, but turns out to be much, much more complicated. So often in politics, we hear simple solutions lobbed out there left and right, as if all it takes is a few tweaks, and the world will be a better place. Hamsterdam is an excellent example of why that’s just not the case. It’s all connected. You solve one problem, but by doing so, you create three more.

Poor Bunny.

It’s a solid episode, made greater by the final scene. 9/10

Episode 3:9

And here we are. Prez. His story arc has been such a positive one over the course of the show. He’s an absolute imbecile at the beginning of season one, but we find out that’s really because he’s been misplaced. He’s a terrible street cop, but he turns out to be an excellent desk cop. He loves putting in the hours and paying attention to details. He’s learned a ton from Lester, and just thrives in it.

And then, because he decided to go out for takeout, he ends up killing another cop.

Of course, it’s not that clean and dry. He makes a big blunder. A blunder that street cop Prez would make. It’s believable, and incredibly sad, but what can we do? And it’s only made worse by the fact that the show pulls it all off so well. We have that scene with McNulty overhearing Landsman complain about what a loser Prez is as a cop, and everything Landsman says is true.

But this is Prez! We like Prez. And so it’s just a really rough pill to swallow, but there it is.

Sigh.

Let me think about something else to talk about. McNulty is trying to convince himself that he’s a real catch for a woman like D’Agostino. He’s one of a select few cops who can do what he does, he says. And maybe that’s true. But the fact is, he and D’Agostino aren’t a good match at all, and that dinner scene they have proves that. She might be fun for a late night call, but as far as a couple goes, give it up. But McNulty tries to convince himself that he’s the real deal, despite Lester telling him he needs more than just his job,. That nothing he does at work will ever coming with balloons and a “Mission Accomplished” banner.

Too bad McNulty won’t listen.

I really found the hit on Omar amusing, though I know it shouldn’t be. Avon’s hitmen are just play moronic for the most part, and that comes across clearly here. It’s made more difficult by the fact that Stringer is calling some of the shots, and we’re seeing more and more that Stringer doesn’t really know what he’s doing when it comes to actually running the street operation. Stringer seems to be floundering big time, and things are only getting worse for him.

I know some have said they were disappointed by Cutty’s plot after the peak a few episodes ago, but I continue to stand by it. He’s showing the way the system can operate for good, and it’s an important balance to the other side the Wire delves into most often. Not everything in Baltimore is broken. It’s just covered up in red tape.

10/10 on this episode. But still such a downer to watch.

Downton Abbey 6:6 Review

Time for another Downton. A less bloody one for once, which means my hope for a Downton/Game of Thrones crossover have been well and truly dashed. But that’s okay. I’ll get by.

Somehow.

This week’s episode was a generally fine Downton. Nothing jaw-droppingly awesome. Nothing that I could really dig my teeth into and complain about either, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give it the ol’ college try.

Lord Grantham got better fairly quickly. And he’s reduced to sort of chilling in his room for the whole episode, which made me realize that being sick in pre-television days would have been just about the worst fate ever. (But they didn’t have the DMV, so I suppose it’s about sixes in the end.) He’s toned down a fair bit from his earlier days, and that’s fine by me.
Violet has a fit when she’s usurped. An interesting plot, and one the entire family saw coming. I’m a bit stumped why no one thought to just tell her what was going to happen, though I get that they’re all scared stiff of her, so they just figured they’d postpone the inevitable. I keep waiting for Violet to have a heart attack and die, and I’m not convinced she’s still safe. These writers have a tendency to kill people in rather violent fashion, after all . . .
Mary and her suitors: okay. Honesty time here. I can’t for the  life of me tell any of them apart at all. They’re all kind of good looking, dark haired guys. They blend together, and the only way I can even have a hope of remembering who is who is by their careers. The guy who helped with the pigs. Car boy. Gillypants the gigolo. This is actually probably my main beef with Mary’s suitors storyline. There’s been nothing to really make me care about it. (Well, other than hating Gillypants, and let’s all be glad he’s gone for good.) It’s like the writers spent their best stuff on Matthew, and now they’re just going “durrrrrr” for the rest of the plot. Sigh.
Daisy. Downton needs a “very special episode” where we lose Daisy, tragically, in a baking accident. And everybody sniffs a little and wipes at the corner of their eye, and then life continues just fine at Downton.
Carson is a jerk. Okay, writers. We get it. He’s a complete tool when it comes to being a husband. Do we really need to be reminded of it 50 times an episode? And just how long will Mrs. Hughes put up with him? I’m wondering if this is the setup for another murder investigation . . .
The hospital continues to be one of the most non-riveting bits of television I’ve watched. It boils down to “Violet is being snippy. Perpetually.” FINISH IT ALREADY!
The tour of the house, on the other hand, was hilarious. So interesting to see just how clueless the Downtonites were about their own home. They had the artwork up because that’s the artwork that’s always been there. They don’t question. Don’t think. They just inherit. Loved it!
Thomas: this is actually one of the better plots of this season. Sure, the scene with him crying himself to sleep was a bit much, but I appreciate them taking the vile Thomas and having him try to improve and be better. It’s like a real-life Grinch story, except the Whos all decided to get even with the Grinch when he turned over a new leaf. Of course, some of it only works because it’s been so long since we had really evil Thomas. I wonder if I were bingewatching the show if this new Thomas would resonate at all with me. He did a lot of nasty things earlier in his life, remember . . .

Almost to the end of the show!

The Agentic State: What Would You Do?

Denisa and I watched an interesting movie on Netflix Saturday: Experimenter. It’s a fairly low-budget depiction of the studies of Stanley Milgram focused on the resistance (or lack thereof) of people to authority. You might have heard about the study before: someone’s brought into a room and told they’re going to be administering a test to a person, and each time that person gets a question wrong, he’ll be given an electric shock that goes up in intensity each time. How far will the test-giver go? Will he stop once the shocks are too dangerous? It’s complicated by the fact that the person running the experiment continually reassures the test-giver that “no lasting damage” will be done to the taker, and that the experiment must continue.

It’s a good depiction of the test and the issues surrounding it. I recommend it. 4/5

But (naturally) it also get me thinking. It describes an “Agentic State,” where people disassociate themselves with their actions, once they begin to view themselves as the instrument of someone else. This is a concept that really resonates with me, as I feel like I see it manifest itself in many different parts of society. The film depicts it by showing a man go into a hospital needing emergency help, only to have the nurse shove papers in his face with an explanation that “these need to be filled out first.” But really, for me it boils down to doing anything simply because that’s the way it’s always been done, or because that’s what the “higher ups” have told you to do.

Ironically. sometimes I don’t think there need to be any actual “higher ups” to tell us to do things. All that’s necessary is a perception that there are higher ups who hold a certain position. If enough people believe that something has to be done a certain way, it doesn’t really matter if no one “higher up” actually believes the same thing or not. Milgram used this study to partly explain how it was possible that so many people could buy into the horrors of the Holocaust, and while his findings have been disputed, the question remains the same.

The easy way out is to dodge the question and say the Holocaust was due to a flaw in the German people. (In the film, that’s what Milgram said he expected to find.) But having lived in Germany for two years, I can personally refute that claim. My experience has been that people are people, no matter their nation or race. We are susceptible to the same arguments and weaknesses, able to be manipulated the same way, motivated by the same desires. I’m not saying we all act the same, but rather that you find me any personality in one area of the world, and I’d be able to find a similar personality in another area.

This isn’t to say that following authority is always a bad thing. But I do believe it’s a good idea to question authority and to take ultimate responsibility for your own actions. Of course, in the act of questioning, others will automatically equate that with criticism, but it isn’t that at all. It’s simply important to be conscious of what you’re doing and why. It’s just too easy otherwise to shrug, say “that’s what they told me to do,” and merrily make a mistake.

I don’t have much more to offer than that today. Just a deep thought I came across Saturday night. And now, to lighten the mood a little, I present you with TRC’s favorite Super Bowl commercial:

Book Review: Unforgettable

Unforgettable by Eric James Stone

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve always heard about quantum physics, but up until I finished Unforgettable (by Eric James Stone), it was just a general abstract thought to me. It didn’t really mean anything other than “something really difficult to understand.”

How strange is it that this science fiction book helped me to completely understand the concept in a way I’d never been able to before?

The story is pretty simple to describe: The main character is a person who no one can remember for longer than 60 seconds. Once he’s out of sight and ear shot, 60 seconds later, your brain just pretends he wasn’t around at all. And he’s a spy, because why in the world would you be anything else?

The great thing is, he’s just a normal guy for the most part. No ninja assassin skills. No elite training. He’s just this guy who has a special power, and he’s using that power to do some good.

Stone takes this character and throws him into a fight for the future of the world, using quantum physics as the battleground. And somehow, it all works wonderfully. I found myself learning things and turning pages at a frenetic rate–a combination you just don’t find every day.

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It sounds like a concept that would be really hard to pull off, but Stone did just that. Maybe this is a “great for Bryce” kind of book, since I’m a sucker for sci-fi and a sucker for learning new things, but if any of this sounds remotely appealing to you, you should give this book a shot.

Well done.

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