Bryce Moore's Blog, page 185

Boston Bound: ALA Midwinter

I’m heading out on a bus today to Boston, where I’ll be attending the American Library Association’s Midwinter meeting. I’m going to try and have some posts go up while I’m there, but no promises, as I’m going to be fairly busy. There’s an all-day meeting tomorrow, several appointments, receptions, etc. I’ve been to ALA Annual twice before, but this will be my first midwinter. I’ve heard they’re sort of a different beast than the annual meetings, but we’ll see.

On my list? I’d love to attend the Newbery Award announcement in person. That would be a fun something to do, though I have no idea how many other people are going to be there. If it’s a huge, elbow to elbow affair, I’m not sure how much I’ll enjoy it. Anyone know?

In any case, if you’re going to be around Boston between now and Monday, and you’d like to get together, drop me a line. There are still a few holes in my schedule. When I’m not busy at panels or meetings, I’m going to be roaming the exhibitor space, looking for books for my kids.

Hope to see you there!

The Wire 2:11 and 2:12

It feels like forever since I was last writing a Wire response. And to think that I left the season’s last two episodes just sort of hanging there . . .

Sorry about that. I didn’t realize that’s when the holiday break would get in the way of the reviews. I promise it won’t happen again. And now for the reviews themselves!

Episode 2:11

What’s up with these next-to-last episodes? Last season we lost Wallace. This season, we get Sobotka walking to what we all know is his doom. (Though considering how ready the Greek was to kill Nick (we see the hitmen next episode all set to take him out), it’s important to remember Frank was a done deal the moment he walked in to talk to the cops. Quite a different tone from the approach all the union folks took earlier in the season.)

Still a hard scene to watch.

And how impressive is this show, where Ziggy can show up and have a heart to heart with his father, and I actually feel bad for him. As much as I disliked the kid, he doesn’t deserve his fate. (Well, he still killed a guy, but it’s kind of like Fate led him down that path. In a better world, Ziggy would be the moron sitting behind me in one of my college classes. Annoying and a complete idiot, but in no danger of going out and killing anyone.) (There’s some discussion online about whether Zig’s “the same blood don’t flow in our veins” comment to Frank is to be taken literally or not. Certainly it could go either way. Maybe Ziggy’s not really Frank’s son? An interesting thought.)

And can I just say how much I loathe Valchek? What a petty, simpleminded person. Blind to anyone’s troubles but his own, and this is one of the leaders of the police force in Baltimore. No wonder the place has problems. The difference between Valchek and Ziggy is that Valchek is an idiot by choice. He has the opportunity to break free of his idiot chains, but he happily sits in them, listening to the sound of them jangle. Ugh.

Omar vs. Brother Mouzone is an interesting side plot, though I’ve never really felt it was given the attention it needed. But then again, the two characters are both larger than life in the middle of a show that is anything but. Stringer tries to get tricky, and once again we see that perhaps Stringer isn’t quite as tricky and smart as he thinks he is. (Something that comes up again next episode, where Avon tries to get Stringer to see past his college business class. It feels like Stringer looks at the legit side of things as being superior to the street side of things. That the legit trumps the street. We’ll see how that works out for him in the long run.)

It’s a great episode from start to finish. One in which we know how it’s going to play out from the beginning, but where we’re still riveted by what’s going to happen next. I love this show. 10/10

Episode 2:12

And just like last season, we conclude the season with an ending that isn’t really satisfying by traditional standards, but which feels inevitable by the Wire standards. The mid-level chumps get arrested. The leaders move on to other things, and we’re left wishing the cops could have been just a little faster. So close! Though if the show taught us anything last season, it’s that even when they’re caught, the bad guys are excellent at getting away with murder.

I want to talk about the crooked FBI agent for a bit. When I first watched the show, it seemed clear that the guy was in the Greek’s pocket, taking money in exchange for giving him tips on what’s happening for any investigation against the Greek. But this second time through, it seems much clearer to me that the FBI guy is actually just doing his job. McNulty’s FBI friend doesn’t get angry at the guy. He blames himself for not realizing what was happening. In other words, the “crooked” FBI guy is no more crooked than McNulty and Kima are for pumping Bubs for information and then turning him loose when they help him.

Remember back toward the beginning of the season, when the Greek gave that FBI guy information that led to the seizure of all those drugs? That’s what the man thought he was doing. Keeping an informant active so that he could get the dirt on worse people. Of course, we know that the “informant” was actually much worse than anything the feds were able to get done because of the information he gave them, but that doesn’t make the FBI crooked. Just incompetent.

Which is worse, when you get right down to it.

Interesting to see Herc and Carv treated like afterthoughts by the division, but when you get right down to it, that’s also how they treat themselves. They’re jokes. They steal money. They do stupid things, and then they try to dodge the blame whenever things go bad. (Then again, so do some of their superiors, so maybe I’m being overly harsh here.) How they respond to this situation in different ways is something to watch for in future episodes.

This episode shows the effects this season has had on the characters. Daniels and his wife aren’t sleeping in the same room, and she looks like she can’t stand him. Kima can’t stand her girlfriend. Bubs (Bubs!) has seriously regressed from where he was at the end of last season. McNulty seems like he has his act together for the moment. Beadie, meanwhile, is right back driving around the docks. Tons of character growth, but she’s not allowed to change.

The second season turned out to be a blast, even as disconcerting as the transition from season one to season two was back at the beginning. By putting characters first and illustrating complex problems and conflicts through their lives, the Wire manages to be thought provoking without being preachy. It’s got a message, but it doesn’t shove it in your face. We’ve now seen society’s problems from the point of view of the drug dealers, the cops, and the dock workers.

Time to start breaking new ground elsewhere.

9/10 for me on this episode. Good stuff, but not quite at the same level as 2:11. Catch you next week!

Downton 6:1 Review

Ah, Downton. Back for one last season. I’ve stuck with you for this long. I might as well stick with you to the very end. (If you haven’t been following along over the years, I have been doing Downton responses for the last four years or so. Welcome to the final series of those.)

Last season was a mixed bag. It started out so-so, took a turn for the terrible, and then redeemed itself. (I gave the episodes the following ratings: one–2/5, two–2/5, three–1/5, four–0/5, five–1/5, six–3/5, seven–2/5, eight–4/5, nine–5/5. That’s a whole lot of slog to get through before it soared at the end.) What was my main beef? Silly storytelling. Inconsistent characters. As I put it in my review of episode 8,

What it boils down to is that the creators should realize Downton is a period drama, and it works best when it sticks to that. No need for murder plots or Nazi riots or disfigured heirs or WWII heroics. It’s just characters being characters, interacting with each other in realistic ways that are appropriate for the times they live in. The drama (and comedy) comes about naturally as a result of who they are and the everyday trials they need to overcome.

That’s what I’m looking for from an episode of Downton. That’s what it needs to do for me to give it good marks. With this being the last season, my hope was that the writers would pull out all the stops, avoid the need to pad episodes with unnecessary detours, and just give us the good stuff.

How did it go?

Wonderfully, I’m happy to say. I loved it from start to finish. It’s not going to change any lives, and it’s hardly high art, but it was a lovely episode, and so much better than I was dreading. I gave it a 5/5, and a big part of that might be just the mental sigh of relief that it wasn’t awful. Let me do a quick rundown of the plot points:

Lady Mary and the blackmailer–this is one where I worried things would go wrong quickly. Was this the introduction of a subplot that was going to last for episodes, with none of it really amounting to much? And it was about Gillypants to boot? NO! It was done away with in a single episode, with Lord Grantham actually doing some nice things for his daughter. I’ll take it! And may it signal the end of Gillypants, once and for all.
Anna and Bates–Speaking of the end of silly plot lines, the episode also got rid of that awful murder accusation. It was like a gift from heaven: the writers closing up idiotic plots that had been hanging around from last season. Sure, Anna can’t have a baby (but is it just me, or are we still thinking this too shall be resolved before the end of the series?) This is a couple who demand a happy ending, and I’ll be very surprised if that’s not exactly what they get. We couldn’t have Mary and Matthew be happy (thanks a lot, Matthew. Grrr.), so this is our consolation prize. But maybe my prediction will be off. After all, we still have
Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson–so much win in this plot. The conversations between Mrs. Patmore and them were hilarious. Prime example of the characters being consistent and the conflicts arising out of the setting and period. Loved it.
Daisy mouthing off–Someone had to pick up the torch for Tom, and it looks like that fell to Daisy this time. An interesting way to portray how these failing households affected the common folk as well, even if it was a tad heavy handed (and a bit unrealistic-feeling in how it was magically swept under the rug . . .)
Edith–Still not my favorite character. Still kind of boring and mopey, but perhaps there’s hope for her yet? I can’t think she’s doomed to forever be the gloomy one.
Violet vs. Isobel–Random things to argue about! Hospitals! Petty sniping! Everything you’ve come to expect, all in one tidy package. This is one area where the plots are wearing thin. But oh well, we’re saved because we have
Denker vs. Spratt!–Much more fun watching these unlikable characters face off in a battle for Who Can Be Most Irrelevant. Highly amusing, and I’m glad Denker lost this round. Too funny that Violet keeps both of them on staff, though I can’t help but wonder if it’s on purpose. She doesn’t have television, after all. Have to stay amused somehow . . .

Anyway. I’m out of time. But so nice to get a heaping helping of good Downton to start the season off. Here’s hoping the rest of it is just as much fun.

What did you think of it all?

Miss Me?

Hey there! It feels like forever since I last posted, but I’m really glad that I took a breather from the blog over vacation. It’s hard to feel like I’m really taking a break if I start each day with a pre-built To Do list. Not that the blog takes a lot of time for me to write typically, but it’s One More Thing. and I wanted to be able to enjoy my time off without having to worry about deadlines and topics.

But as with all vacations, they come to an end, and you’re left looking back at all that time off you had, wondering why it felt too short in the end. (Then again, I told Denisa last night, “I don’t really want to go back to work tomorrow, but at the same time, I have no idea what I’d do with myself if I didn’t.” True story.)

What did I do in the past few weeks?

Spent time with the family. Went skiing. Watched movies. Opened presents. Decluttered my house like a madman. Read books. Played with toys. Went to parties. Ate too much. Set up my budget for 2016. Wrote.

It’s been busy, but a fair bit of fun was had by all, and I enter this new year feeling on top of things (for the most part). It’s a good feeling to have.

I don’t know if I’ll blog about everything I did while I was on hiatus. I might. Who knows? These topics don’t just fall out of trees each day, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to use a fair number of things as prompts for things to write about in the coming week or two.

In any case, I’m back. I’ve missed you all terribly, and it’s nice to get my fingers working again. I hope your last few weeks were similarly pleasant. Judging from my Facebook and Twitter feeds, that seems likely.

The 2016 work year is here. Challenge accepted!

(And word on the street is there was a new Downton last night. My plan is to watch it this evening and be here tomorrow with my response. Here’s hoping it’s a fantastic final season, with no padding and no “special episodes” all about beating up Anna and Bates . . .)

Taking a Break

I’m stepping away from the blog for the holidays. I love you all, but I love my family more, and I’ve got to get some serious wrapping done if this is all going to fly. After that, there’s going to be games to play, books to read, movies to watch, food to make, goodies to eat . . .

I’m booked.

So the blog’s going on backburner, unless something pops up that I just can’t keep my trap shut about. I hope you all have a wonderful time, and I’ll see you all again in 2016!

Holiday Decluttering

It’s the end of the year. I don’t know if you noticed or not, but I certainly did. And as I am wont to do, I’m taking the time off to do a real staycation. This is my favorite time off every year. I stay at home and go nowhere. No big trips. No packing. No traffic. No long drives. That’s not to say I don’t do anything at all, but it’s all around the house.

Up this year? A thorough decluttering. I’ve actually already been running on the project for the last week or so. There’s a ton of stuff around the house. Stuff we haven’t used in years. My goal this Christmas vacation is to go through all of it and send it on its way to goodwill. So each day I tackled a different spot. Yesterday I decluttered (and cleaned) under the sink. It’s an area I haven’t really touched in probably three or four years.

Plenty of stuff we don’t need.

Lucky for me, we order a bunch of stuff from Amazon at this time every year. Stuff that comes in a slew of boxes. And so I’m emptying boxes as they come in (wrapping presents is on the agenda today as well), then filling them up with all the stuff that’s going to get donated. Hopefully at the end of all of this, we still have less stuff in the house than we have right now, even with all the Christmas gifts. (The big question is whether I can convince the kids to declutter their rooms too.)

The thing is, my house feels well past the saturated point. It’s like a sponge that’s just oozing water, if water is “stuff.” That makes it a lot harder to keep it clean and put-together. Decluttering like this is the equivalent of wringing out the sponge. I have to get in the right mindset to do it (I have this strange hangup over getting rid of stuff. It’s an unhealthy attachment to objects), but when I can get into that mindset, it can feel very freeing to be free of all the clutter.

So if you come over today and it looks like a tornado let loose somewhere in my house, you’ll know why.

The Force Awakens With Kids (And a Non-Spoilery Reaction to the Movie)

I had planned to go see The Force Awakens next week with my kids. No need to go opening night, since it was a school night and I didn’t want them staying out too late. Had to be a good father and all that. Children need their rest, and school is very important. Have to set a good example to them about priorities, right?

Then I found out there were people out there who were actively trying to spoil plot elements for the movie, hiding them in comments sections, or just posting them to newsgroups. I read a lot of online news, and I realized there was a fair chance I’d hear these spoilers before Wednesday.

At that point, all bets were off. I rushed to the theater, bought tickets for me and my two oldest (11 and 7), and went opening night. It’s a once in a lifetime sort of thing. That trumps school, right?

Right.

It was only once I was at the theater that I realized this was a PG-13 movie I knew nothing about, other than that it was Star Wars. And I was there with my 7 year old daughter (dressed as Lady Vader). Was it going to be too intense for her? Was I making yet another parenting mistake? She’s seen the cartoons, but hadn’t seen the movies yet. I’d brought her because my gut said it was okay. You have to trust your feelings with a film like this, right?

Right.

We watched the movie, and I’m so glad we went opening night. There will be years and years available for us to watch it in the comfort of our home, but there’s really only once chance to see it with a crowd of fans on opening night. With all the excitement. The cheers. The gasps.

The applause at the end.

People: there was applause at the end! That sums up the movie for me. It was a return to form. I loved it, and the more I think about it, the more I loved it. The prequels show us how many ways a Star Wars movie can go wrong. (I enjoy the prequels. They’re okay. But they’re nowhere near as good as they could be.)

As an aside, think about poor George Lucas for a moment. Imagine you’re a person who came up with an innovative, wonderful way to make a chocolate cake. Everyone raves about it. A few friends make a second and third cake with his guidance, and the love only grows. Then he doesn’t make cake for a while. When he finally is coaxed into making it, he makes it the way he liked it. Focusing on the things he loved.

And it turns out what he loved is different than what everyone else loved. He loved the way the baking soda interacted with the rest of the ingredients. It was all about baking soda for him.

For everyone else, it was about the chocolate. And so he finally steps away and turns it over to people who love chocolate, and they make a great chocolate cake again.

That analogy has run its course by now, but hopefully you get the picture. This movie is a return to chocolate.

Beware of spoilers. There are significant ways the movie could be spoiled. Don’t read comments. Don’t read reviews. Just see the movie and read the rest afterward. I loved it.

And DC, my seven year old? She loved it too. You can easily decide if this movie is right for your child or not. If they’ve seen the cartoons (Clone Wars or Star Wars Rebels) and you’re okay with them seeing a live action version of that level of violence, then you’re fine. There is no bad language. No sex. Just sci-fi violence. Some intense scenes, but not a lot of blood. Just blasters and Star Wars action.

See it, people!

Saving for College

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a noob when it comes to figuring out how to invest money. I can budget with the best of them, and I can see a good deal when it’s staring me in the face, but once you talk about investing, all those numbers and letters just start to make my head swim. ETF? 529? Roth IRA? 401k? My general approach to date has been to throw my hands in the air and walk away. My job invests money in a 401k for me, and I’ve been content to just sort of Jedi-mind trick myself into thinking that was enough.

Of course, when you have a brother who’s a financial planner, sooner or later, he’s going to call you on it. He was kind enough to go over my financial state a few weeks ago, and one of the things that came to the surface was that I really ought to be putting money away for my kids for college.

Duh.

You’d figure that someone who works professionally for a university would be better at planning for that. You’d figure wrong. Well, that’s not entirely true. Denisa and I have been putting away money for our kids. We just have been doing what I did as a kid when growing up: sticking it all in a savings account.

Of course, when I looked at how much those savings accounts were actually making for my children (5 cents a month), I thought there might be something better out there. I was just too lazy to investigate.

The conversation with my brother got me motivated, however, and if you put a librarian on a question, we can ferret out the answer. It’s what we do. So I discovered all about 529 savings plans, and what my options were here in Maine. (You can buy a savings plan in any state, so you can shop around for a good one, but your home state might offer some special incentives for residents. My brother clued me in on that, and it’s a good thing he did.)

So what I’ve got here is for Maine residents specifically, but you can do some Googling to figure out the answers for you, should you not live in Maine.

It turns out there are some sweet incentives to Mainers. The Maine program is called the Nextgen program, and it’s administered by Merrill Lynch. If you want to open one, all you do is go to Merrill Lynch’s site and enroll there. Here’s what you can get if you do:

When you open an account and deposit $25 into it, Maine will add $200 as part of a grant program. This is free money. I love free money.
When you deposit up to $600 in one year, Maine will match 50% of it, again as part of a grant program. So you put in $600, and they give you $300. Again, yay for free money!
When you sign up for automatic deposits of at least $25/month, and do that for 6 months, they’ll give you $100. Once again, part of a grant. Though this is a one time thing. It doesn’t give you that each year you do six automatic deposits or anything.

So in a nutshell, from here on out, if I put in $600 to that 529, then Uncle Sam puts in $300. Thumbs up from me.

But where exactly does all this money go? You have a choice of different options. Each one is a varied split of investments, and each one charges a servicing fee for them to keep track of it over the years for you. In other words, they take your money and invest some in various types of stocks and other investy things, and you don’t have to worry about it. It’s all diversified and designed to have your money grow, and for that service, you pay them a cut of the proceeds. I chose one with the cheapest servicing fees. Because I’m cheap.

Also, some of this stuff is good for taxes in some mystical way that I hope will one day make sense to me.

But the bottom line for me comes down to two things:

They’re giving me free money to put this money into these accounts for something I know I’m going to spend money on in the future.
This money should make money for my kids over time. More than 5 cents a month. Yes, there’s a risk it will lose money, but that risk is lessened because of the amount of time involved. TRC will be going to college in . . . 9 years, since he’s planning on serving a 2 year mission after high school. DC will be in college in 11 years. MC in 15 years or so. There’s plenty of time for these investments to pay off.

So that’s where I stand today. It was something that seemed very difficult going into it, and which I still don’t 100% understand, but was surprisingly easy to do once I really decided to make the leap. It helped that they gave me over $1,500 to do it.

Bribery will get you everywhere, my friends.

If you have any questions, I’m happy to muddle through the answers, but mainly this is a post to encourage those of you who might have been putting this off (like I was) to get out there and start getting it done.

The Wire 2:9 and 2:10

Nothing says “Holiday Spirit” like watching people you intensely dislike shoot other people you dislike almost as much in cold blood. Aren’t we happy we have The Wire rewatch to get us through this lovely time of year?

Episode 2:9

The season’s in full swing now, gearing up to the grand finale. I love the end of a Wire season. All the plots start to come together, and everything really makes sense.

But I hate it when they kill kids. Ugh. The opening of this episode is just so hard to watch as a parent. That said, it’s an excellent reminder that these characters on Avon’s side (Bodie, Poot, and the gang) might be funny to watch, and might be amusingly stupid at times, but that the actions they’re taking are deadly serious. And that they don’t even think about any of those consequences at all.

Of course, it’s made so much more tense by the cutaways to the mom at home, getting her kids ready for school. You know they’re not showing them for kicks and giggles, and you dread what might be coming. And of course it comes, just as you knew it would. So sad.

The police response is just pathetic. At this point, we know the game enough to realize what they’re doing: pounding the pavement, showing tax payers that “it matters” that a kid died, even while they all know that nothing they’re doing is going to amount to jack squat when it comes to preventing this from happening again in the future. The new police chief on the scene (Bunny! Keep an eye out for him in next season . . .) clearly is fed up with it, and this scene goes a long way toward laying the foundation for season 3.

Did you know that McNulty is played by a Brit (Dominic West)? So you’ve got a Brit doing a fake Baltimore accent of a guy who’s now trying to do a fake British accent. If that’s not comedy gold, I don’t know what is.

Another side comment, but if there’s anyone in this season who could steal the title of “Most Annoying Character” from Ziggy, it would be Valchek. And I get a kick out of the fact that everyone he comes in contact with sees him for what he is right off. And yet somehow he’s still in a position of power. Why? Because he knows how to play the game. He knows how to use influence to keep his position and get people to do what he wants. How sad is it that Valchek is better at the game than so many smarter people? Think about that for a bit. (Shudder.)

But enough about this great episode (9/10 for me). I want to go on and talk about the  even better episode.

Episode 2:10

And now we see the payoff of Ziggy’s plotline. Of why we kept seeing him getting beaten down again and again. I think the show pulled this off, and it was a risky move to do. But because we’ve seen what a joke Ziggy feels his life has become, we understand why he makes the idiotic decisions he makes. He just wants to be respected, and he thought this caper (that honestly was quite bright) was going to push him to the top. Of course, the sad truth is that Ziggy’s worst enemy in gaining respect was always . . . Ziggy. Even if he pulled the caper off flawlessly, we all know he’d go and do something idiotic the next day, and he’d be right back where he was.

Well, there’s no denying that he’s somewhere else at this point. And it’s nice to see him take responsibility for his actions. Ironically, I think it’s the insistence of everyone to shield Ziggy from consequences that made him end up where he ended up. Nick and his father did their best to keep him sheltered, probably because they knew he’d get creamed on his own. But that meant he always thought he’d be fine on his own. And in the end . . .

What a sad plot. Even if he’s still an annoying character, I can feel bad for the guy.

And speaking of feeling bad for someone, how about them police? At the end of the episode, they’re frantically typing up justifications for a search warrant, even as the Greek’s crew is erasing all the evidence at the place they’re trying to search. And to add insult to injury? The place the police are trying to get a warrant to search . . . is the crime scene of a murder. They don’t need a warrant! But do they know this? No, they don’t. Landsman doesn’t tell them. Not because he’s incompetent, but because he doesn’t know it’s important.

It’s one of the themes of the show: the good guys could do so much better, if they were only better at communicating with each other. But they’re all so focused on defending their turf and justifying their jobs that nothing ever gets done. They’re too bogged down in precedent and procedure. Watching all those drugs get washed down the drain . . . just so sad for their investigation.

Interestingly, we see the different sides of the conflict begin to move and adapt to changing technology. Cell phones getting tossed, and text messages stepping into play.

Other bits that stood out to me from the episode? I always liked the “Walk the Line” montage with Prez, and I forgot it happened in the same episode the he decks his father in law. (Again, true to theme, The Wire has characters whose plots mirror each other. Prez has been a joke in the police force off and on, and here he reaches a breaking point at the same time Ziggy does. It’s a good thing he didn’t have a gun on him . . .)

I also enjoyed watching the drug dealers try and finesse their way through the tangled mess that their business is in at the moment, with so many people talking to other people, but not to everyone. Who knows what, and who doesn’t know what, all becomes very important. Lack of communication hurts both sides of this conflict, it seems.

Anyway. I’m out of time for today. Great episode. 10/10, once again. What are your thoughts?

A Clarification: Me and Sugar

I have been very vocal about my personal campaign to kick myself off sugar. That was intentional, as I’ve found that when I’m upfront about things on my blog, I’m a lot more accountable to myself. In other words, when many people know about one of my goals, it becomes easier for me to achieve that goal, since I have that many more people reminding me about it.

My “sugar free” goal campaign has worked perhaps a little too well.

Many people have asked about it, and a lot of people seem to be under the impression that I don’t eat sugar at all. So it must come as a surprise to them when they see me in public chowing down on goodies at a conference, or chomping on some cookies or donuts.

I don’t like being a hypocrite. I try not to be. And so I’m self-conscious of the fact that the message that seems to have gotten out is “Bryce never eats sugar,” and that the reality is obviously different than that.

So to clarify once again: I went without processed sugar for about 6 weeks back in March. I still ate fruit, but my goal for those six weeks was to avoid anything where sugar was the main ingredient (or even a significant ingredient). The main idea was that I had been eating so much sugar so often that the only way to break myself of the habit was to go cold turkey. I wanted to eat less overall, and I wanted to see how I felt without the sweet stuff.

The experiment was a resounding success. I felt better, and (after the first few weeks) I didn’t really miss sugar.

Once that 6 week period was over, I transitioned into a “maintenance phase,” where I allowed myself 1-2 desserts per week. This was done because I hoped I’d be able to maintain my new lifestyle while still being able to indulge now and then. The theory was that a few cheats a week would help me avoid a complete relapse into sugardom. Once again, that was a total success.

These days, my baseline of sugar is pretty low, but it’s not non-existent.

There are a couple of exceptions I have made to that baseline. First off, when I’m stuck in day long conferences and need something to pep me up, I’ve decided it’s okay for me to have some sugar. Other people have coffee. I have a cookie. It’s a compromise, but it works. So if you see me at a conference or extra long meeting, and you see me downing some sweets, you know why.

The second exception I make is for festivities and holidays. Birthday cake is great stuff. Christmas goodies are wonderful. Party food is fantastic. So if you see me at a party or celebration and notice me eating sugary stuff, once again, you know why. I set my goal because I wanted to be a healthier me, not because I wanted to deprive myself of fun.

Ironically, most people see me in public at one of these sort of events: parties, holiday gatherings, conferences, etc. And so I feel at times like the “public Bryce” hasn’t changed all that much in relation to sugar, especially when you consider all the “anti-sugar” posts I’ve had on my blog. But honest to goodness, if you ask my family about how things have changed with me and sugar, I’m pretty sure they’ll tell you quite a different story.

In the end, the public perception doesn’t really affect me. I know I’m living this goal how I want to live it. But I still wanted to take a minute to make sure people understood the parameters of how I live this goal. And to restate one fact that I want glaringly obvious: I don’t think bad of anyone who’s still going to town on brownies, ice cream, fudge, and the like. This is a personal choice. There’s no judging here. It’s worked for me, but I’m not going to evangelize this.

And that’s all I have to say about this for now.