Bryce Moore's Blog, page 19

The Latest Cat Personality Results!

REMINDER: If you haven’t taken the cat personality survey (and you have a cat, of course), please head on over hre to take it: https://forms.gle/Xn42RyGajMGExULdA

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s participated in our study so far. We’ve been blown away by the sheer enthusiasm people have shown toward this study. Where often it’s difficult to get a good sample size, we’ve received information for over 1,300 cats in just one week! Remember, the largest study we’ve found so far consisted of 2,802 cats. We would love to have more. (There’s a certain ring to “Largest Study on Cat Personalities.” Guinness might not have that as an official record yet, but maybe we can convince them to change that.)

The survey we’re conducting is going to offer us so many different insights into how cats and humans interact. We hope to have a wealth of findings to share with you, though we’re not ready to share all of it just yet. For example, we’re seeing some statistically significant differences in personality between cats of different color. Some of those differences confirm conventional wisdom about cat colors and some do not. In order to avoid biased responding, we’re going to wait to reveal these cat color differences until the conclusion of the study.

However, you’ve come here for information, so let’s cut to the chase!

We were antsy to find out preliminary results, so we made a first pass at analyzing our results when we had 846 responses. (We’re up 907 as of today!) 64% of respondents provided information for a single cat, 27% gave them for 2, 6% for three, 2% for four, and 1% of them proved their mettle by responding for five cats. Often in surveys, there are clear examples of people trying to rush through the survey as quickly as possible. With this one, respondents went out of their way to give us much more information than we asked. For example 85% of those 1 percenters gave us a detailed summary of their fifth cat in the “Is there other information we should know” section. (Overall, 79% of respondents filled out this section for their cat. Some of them in heart-warming detail.)

From those 846 cats, we know the average for their “Big 5” personality traits. (These are traits that have been long established in human personality research.)

Conscientiousness: 5.09Agreeableness: 5.20Neuroticism: 4.61Openness: 4.68Extraversion: 4.58

What does this mean? To calculate these scores, we use one of the standard tools of the trade: the TIPI. (Ten Item Personality Inventory.) It asks takers to rate themselves (or their cat, in this case) in ten different areas on a scale of 1-7. There are pairs of questions that each correspond to a different Big 5 trait. Those pairs are added and then divided by two to get the average. Thus, each category has a high of 7 and a low of 1. A higher number means the subject shows that trait to a greater degree.

(If you’d like to calculate the scores for your own cat(s) (or yourself), we’ve made a basic Google sheet that will do this for you. Just click on over here and follow the directions.)

There are many (many) conclusions we hope to be able to glean from our results, but one intriguing first pass shows that just as with humans, cats’ personalities shift with age*. And exactly with the same trends: younger adult cats are higher in extraversion and neuroticism (emotional instability) and these two traits lessen with age. Also, cats (like humans) show a trend toward becoming more agreeable as they get older. Like a good wine, as they say.

(*Catveats: these were global, statistically significant trends, but it is not diagnostic about one particular cat. There are cats that buck this trend and that’s okay. Cats don’t take their marching orders from anyone, least of all cat personality theorists!

In addition this was cross sectional research – comparing cats across the age spectrum. A longitudinal study would confirm if this finding holds up. But with 1,200 cats in our sample, we are confident it will.)

So, what else can you do? For one thing, we’ve created a Facebook page (“Catroverts United“) specifically for discussing this vein of research. This should make it easier for us to share updates, and it will allow us to share stories and other information with you all. Feel free to add it if you’re on Facebook. We’re looking into getting other social media presences as well.

If you can continue to share the survey, that would be fantastic. Share it on social media. Send it to your friends. (But don’t take it multiple times. We’re all for as many responses as possible, but we don’t need to stuff the ballotbox.) Here’s the link, one more time: https://forms.gle/Xn42RyGajMGExULdA. Thank you all!

Unitum feles,

Karol & Bryce

The Wonders of Sorting Things

This is something I’m fairly sure I’m in the minority with, but I wanted to write up a short post about how much I enjoy sorting things. Putting things in order.

You wouldn’t be able to tell it from my office, of course, which often looks as if a small tornado had browsed through it once and then come back a second time just to double check. I’m not really talking about big organization of things. Not things I use frequently, at least. No, I mean instead the sort of Zen-like state I get into when I’ve got a huge project in front of me that requires the same thing over and over and over.

Give me a spreadsheet that I have to manipulate, and I’m good for a couple of hours at least. Give me a collection of Magic: The Gathering cards, and I’m going to be set for . . . as long as the cards are unsorted.

I’m not kidding. I’ve bought a couple of sizable collections over the years, one of them consisting of about 100,000 cards. That is a lot of playing cards. And I slowly but steadily worked me way through the entire thing, sorting them by set, color, rarity, and alphabetically. I imagine that would be torture for a lot of people, and I can definitely get to the point where my brain is tired and I don’t want to do it anymore.

But there’s something about sitting down to a simple, straightforward task and just churning through it. I find it very relaxing. In fact, when I’m stressed, I’ll often take some time to sort Magic cards some more. I stop thinking about anything, really. I just sit there and look at them card by card.

Recently, I discovered there’s an app for cataloging Magic cards. This was a dangerous thing for me to discover, since it’s one thing to have the cards sorted, but I’ve always been frustrated when I couldn’t know where a card was or if I had it. If I cataloged every single card I own, however . . . then I’d know what I need to all the time, regardless of what future questions came up. (It lets you create sub-collections, and it keeps track of the current trade price for each of the cards.)

I have now cataloged 31,895 cards, and I still have many (many) more to go. Luckily, the app makes it pretty easy. You can use your phone camera to scan the card, and it automatically recognizes it. Still, that means I’ve scanned each of those cards, one at a time. When you figure it takes about a second to scan each card, that’s more than 8 hours scanning.

It’s a project that’s started and stopped several times since I got the app. (Probably around half a year ago?) I’ll go through times when I want to scan more or less. The nice thing is that it’s a project that lends itself very easily to starting and stopping. I know what part of my collection I’ve scanned, and what part I still need to work on. What will I do when I’m completely done?

I’m not sure, but I’m pretty certain I’ll figure something else out to sort, just because I like the feeling.

Cat Personality Update

Well, that was fast! When Karol and I sat down to talk about our cat survey, we discussed how many data points we’d need for it to be valid and successful. We figured if we got 200, that was at least enough to build on, and we planned on going through the data starting at the beginning of March.

Well, as of right now, we’ve got responses about 500 cats from over 300 cat owners. (22 hours after first posting it.)

So I’m here with a bit of an update to answer a few questions that have come up, and also to give you the first round of data. Let’s start with the data.

We ran the data back when we had 321 cats, so it’s been a few hours, but as of that time, the average cat scores for each of the five main personality traits were:

Conscientiousness: 5.19 (For people, hallmarks of Conscientiousness are thoughtfulness, goal setting, and organization, high levels of thoughtfulness, good impulse control, and goal-directed behaviors. A highly conscientious person will think ahead and be mindful of how their actions affect others. Someone scoring low in this area would typically be more messy, procrastinate, and have a much less structured schedule.)Agreeableness: 5.39 (A person with a high score in Agreeableness is typically social, kind, affectionate, empathetic, and readily puts their trust in other people. They tend to cooperate with others. On the flip side, low scores are usually mainly interested in themselves. They’re competitive, and they can be manipulative.)Neuroticism: 4.29 (Neuroticism is a word that has fallen out of favor the past few decades. Sometimes it’s now termed “emotional instability.” In people, it refers to someone whose personality is hampered by emotional or mental struggles: depression, mood swings, anxiety, and so forth. A person with high neuroticism has a lot of stress, worries, and gets upset easily. People with low scores are resilient, emotionally stable, and relaxed.)Openness: 5.16 (People who score highly in this category are, as a rule, creative and keen to take on new challenges. They’re good at abstract thinking, have a broad range of interests, and like to try new things. Individuals with low scores prefer to stick to more traditional paths. They favor concrete thinking and convention.)Extraversion: 3.87 (One of the most well-known of the Big 5 traits in people, extraverts are social, talkative, and assertive. They enjoy being around others and will insert themselves into the limelight. They also often speak without thinking and readily make a wide range of friends. Introverts need alone time to “recharge,” struggle to start conversations or make small talk, and dislike being the center of attention.)

You can find out your own cat’s scores for these by using the same test that’s in the survey. Just enter in the result for each question on this spreadsheet. (It’ll make a copy of it you can edit, though you will need a Google account to do it. Sorry–it was the easiest way I could think of to make it simple.) With your results for your own cat, you can see how he or she stacks up against other kitties. (For that matter, you can fill out that TIPI sheet with your own answers, and then see how your cat compares to you!)

We’ll continue to update those scores as we get more results. It’ll be interesting to see how much they change. Each score has a low of 1 and a high of 7. So generally speaking, it appears cats are fairly conscientious (at least in the eyes of their owners). This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what we’re hoping to glean from this survey.

Now, to answer a few questions:

First, some of you have noted that the personality questions don’t always seem to have a perfect fit when it comes to cats. That’s okay, honestly. This is the first real attempt anyone’s made at exploring this area of research. All cat personality studies in the past (that I’ve found, at any rate) focus on developing tests that are tailor made for cats. We’re interested in comparing cats and humans, to see if there are any similarities or connections. It could be that years from now, we’ll look back at this first attempt at a test and laugh at how wrong-headed we were. That’s okay. We have to start somewhere.

Also, some of it is a limitation of the personality test itself. Even when humans are asked to rate themselves on a scale of 1-7 when it comes to “Extraverted, Enthusiastic,” there are going to be some people who feel the way they experience those two adjectives just doesn’t match up for them. Again, this is okay. This is a personality test that has a ton of research and support behind it. (It’s called the TIPI, in case you’re wondering: Ten Item Personality Inventory. It lets researchers measure the big five personality traits by only asking 10 questions, where most other surveys out there use dozens of questions. We wanted to keep things straightforward and simple for this first foray.)

How many cats are we trying to get results for? The current record is a bit over 2,800 for a study done in New Zealand a while ago. I’d love to get above that, because I’m a competitive person at heart. With humans, the TIPI has been administered millions of times. I don’t know that we can get to those numbers. Google Forms is probably going to cap us at 50,000 or so. If we get that high, that’ll be a good problem to have.)

Can you fill it out on behalf of a cat that has passed on? YES! We recognize people have beloved pets they knew so well they’ll never forget what they were like. We see no reason to limit this study to only the living.

In any case, I will continue to keep you posted. Please do keep sharing the survey. We’ve got results from 10 different countries so far, and just about every state. (It’s hard to check just now to be sure.) Onward and upward!

As a reminder, you can take the survey here: https://forms.gle/Tfv2KBzBsAJ7veex9

Studying Cat Personalities

And now for something completely different!

Believe it or not, a professor and I are embarking on a new scientific study on the personality of cats. I’m glad today isn’t April Fools, because I assume almost all of you would think I wasn’t being serious, but I most definitely mean this.

During the psychology of personality class I sat in last semester, I became more and more intrigued with just how personality is measured and how it’s affected by different factors. Karol (the professor) and I spoke at length about this, and we became more and more focused on how pets enter into all of this. Do cats really have personalities, or are we just projecting our own thoughts onto them when we think they’re being cute or shy or outspoken? What different things might affect a cat’s personality?

There are a ton of different questions I’d like to see if we can answer, but Karol has told me not to say what they are, as that might influence how people respond to our survey.

Oh yeah! The survey!

We’ve developed a brief 5-10 minute survey we’re asking cat owners to fill out. It has questions about their cat’s personality and their own personality. (You can fill it out for up to five cats, for what it’s worth, though obviously it will take a little longer if you fill it out for multiple kitties.) Once we get all this data, we will be able to churn through it to come up with averages for different cat personality traits, which owners can then look at to determine just how special (or “special”) their own little fur ball is.

The best part is, this is actually scientific. We’re basing it all around heavily tested, solid research into human personalities, and I’d like to write up an article around the results we get. (Maybe even do a book, depending on how it plays out.)

But the first and most important part is getting a solid number of responses. Ideally, I’d like thousands of people to take the test, but I suppose we’ll just have to see how easily it spreads and how many other people are curious about this topic. That’s where you come in. I would love it if you would take this test (if you’re a cat owner) and spread the word about it far and wide (even if you’re not a cat owner!) We hope to start getting results by March, but we’ll see how it all plays out. (Naturally, I would be discussing some of those results here on the blog.)

If you have questions, I’m happy to try and answer them. Here’s the link to the survey: https://forms.gle/Xn42RyGajMGExULdA though you can also just share this blog post if that’s easier.

And . . . that’s it! Send this out into the world, and stay tuned for the answers to all those driving questions surrounding our feline friends.

Sunday Talk: Weathering the Storms of Contention

Guess what! I talked in church again. So you lucky people get to read my talk today. Enjoy!

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There’s always that feeling right after I get assigned a topic for a talk in church. The “do I really have anything worthwhile to say about this?” twist in my gut. Add to this the fact that for a couple of years, I was speaking once a month in church as I went around the stake as a high councilor, and I also feel at times like surely I must have said everything I have to say on pretty much any topic, and people are bound to get tired of listening to me sooner or later. But then I remind myself that, having blogged daily for 17 years, I’ve got a lot of experience repeating myself and coming up with new ways to say the same thing again and again.

And really, “Dealing with the storms of contention and conflict” is a spot-on topic as we head into another presidential election year here in America. The closer we get to November, the more I dread what things might look like on social media or even just walking around town. 2020’s election cycle was bad enough. Do we really have to have round two? We’re supposed to turn to the scriptures for help dealing with life’s everyday problems, but surely there’s not much there for “How to handle people who seem to want to hate you, no matter what.”

But then again, The Book of Mormon has the war chapters of Alma. A whole string of story after story about people attacking or being attacked. Subterfuge. Tactics. Political machinations. If anyone would know how to handle American politics, it would be Captain Moroni. So I turned to that section, wondering just what would be there that could give context to our present day troubles. Just how miserable were the people back then, having to deal with all those battles and bloodshed?

Alma 50:23: “But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni, yea, even at this time, in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges.”

“Never was a happier time”? I had to read that again to make sure I hadn’t gotten my wires crossed. How in the world could people really be happy in a time filled with so many problems?

The answer, of course, is found in the Gospel.

Different people are attracted to different things in religion. Some people love learning about the inner workings of theology, or how the ancient Israelites worshipped, and how that might apply to us today. Personally, I’m in this for comfort. For guidance in how to live my life on a day to day basis. Not in some theoretical situation, but in the concrete context of “how to handle difficult people at work,” “how to help my children be happy,” or “how to have a stronger marriage.”

As we study Come Follow Me each week, I’m honestly not that interested in honing my knowledge of people, places, or things. I want to know how what I’m reading can immediately help me in the here and now. Men are that they might have joy, and being able to rattle off all twelve tribes of Israel doesn’t help me much when it comes time to face a difficult discussion with a child, or when I need to choose between two terrible options.

So how does the Gospel help me do that? Yes, reading the scriptures and prayer can comfort me in times of struggle, but how do they make me happy?

After taking some time to think things through, I’ve come up with three different ways we can apply the Gospel so we can withstand those storms.

I remember in my first religion class at BYU, Professor Terry Warner told us that the entire theme of the Book of Mormon was to show something that’s actually mentioned in the verse right before the one I quoted previously. Alma 50:22: “And those who were faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord were delivered at all times, whilst thousands of their wicked brethren have been consigned to bondage, or to perish by the sword, or to dwindle in unbelief.”

When we keep the commandments, we are delivered. When we choose not to, we dwindle in unbelief.

So does that mean we’re going to avoid any and all hard times, as long as we’re faithful? Of course not. Abel was murdered. Christ was crucified. Joseph Smith was martyred. Almost no part of the scriptures describe people having it easy, kicking back without a care in the world. 

This makes sense, since we’re here to learn, not to simply have a good time. We chose to come to earth not in spite of the storms of contention but because of them. Though I get that telling someone who’s in the middle of a trial that it’s all going to be for their own good doesn’t really go a long way toward making them happy. Does that mean we’re just supposed to be happy in our misery?

I’m a fan of escape movies, even though there aren’t that many of them made these days. Whether it’s The Great Escape or Chicken Run, I like hearing about a group of people teaming up to reach a common goal that’s supposed to be impossible. The Book of Mormon actually has two great escape stories that happen at the same time. Looking at each of them teaches us a lot about how the Gospel can help us with the struggles in our lives.

In the aftermath of the destruction of King Noah’s reign, two different groups of refugees were left: one group led by Limhi, and another led by Alma. Limhi’s group was held captive by the Lamanites. Alma 21:5: “And now the afflictions of the Nephites were great, and there was no way that they could deliver themselves out of their hands, for the Lamanites had surrounded them on every side.” Obviously they weren’t big fans of this, so they decided they wanted to escape. Their plan? Suit up, arm up, and fight their way out. The first time they tried this, they were handily defeated, so they went back to the drawing board and came up with a new plan. Suit up, arm up, and fight their way out. (This must have made sense to them at the time, even if it doesn’t make that much sense to me now.) The result of their second effort was the same as the first. You would think that after those two sound defeats, they would try something else. Instead, they gave fighting their way out one last shot. In a result that probably surprised no one except them, this didn’t work.

It was only then that they decided maybe they should try praying for help. God didn’t step in and magically make their problems go away, but He did arrange it so the Lamanites lightened their burdens somewhat. Finally, one of them came up with a new plan. Get the Lamanite guards drunk, and hightail it out of dodge as fast as their legs would carry them. And for once, their plan worked. They got away and were free.

Contrast them with the people of Alma. They were held captive by the Lamanites at the same time, but Alma helped them take a different approach: Mosiah 23:27: “But Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but that they should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them.” They turned to God in prayer. This did not magically make their problems go away. They still had plenty of trials to go through, but “it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.” Finally, the Lord caused the Lamanites to fall into a deep sleep, allowing Alma’s people to hightail it out of Dodge as fast as their legs would carry them.

When you look at each story, they’re almost identical. The same captors. The same trials. The same escape routes. The only difference between the two is that one group tried to solve the problem again (and again and again) on their own, and the other involved God in the process. The one that didn’t ended up with much more pain, suffering, and death, and all of it proved to be in vain.

The takeaway for me is that when we involve God in our lives, it all gets easier. That’s rule number one in handling the storms of contention or conflict. As we turn to God, we will naturally be able to view those conflicts from a different perspective, and He has promised he will help make those burdens light, whether they’re literal or figurative. 

What next? It’s helpful to take a step back sometimes and look to see where exactly all these whirlwinds are coming from. Just because we came to earth to weather them doesn’t mean we need to seek out as many as we can. If you try to catch a two hundred pound weight when you’ve never done any strength training, you’re going to get hurt.

Some of the contention or conflict we experience is caused by our own making. I think all of us have a pretty good idea what our doctors and dentists would tell us to do to be healthy. Eat vegetables. Exercise. Floss. But brownies taste better than brussel sprouts, binging a TV series is easier than running a marathon, and honestly, who enjoys flossing? When we choose to ignore those recommendations, however, we are at least somewhat responsible for the effects of those choices. I don’t mean that everyone who got sick brought it on themselves, but I do mean there’s a whole lot of sickness and pain that could be avoided.

Even setting aside physical hardships, there are emotional storms that can be even more upsetting. Fights with friends and family. Judgements of peers. Arguments with strangers. Yes, some of that happens to us through no fault of our own, but some of it also happens because of things we do. Also, sometimes we are the ones inflicting emotional storms on others. Can we just wave a magic wand and have everyone be kind to us from here on? Of course not. But we do have some control over how we interact with others, and complete control over how we choose to treat others ourselves. Exercising that control can really make a difference.

For example, there’s a proven psychological tendency many people have to assume negative intent. This means that when we have some sort of negative interaction with someone, we tend to assume that the negative interaction was done on purpose. If someone cuts us off in traffic, we assume they did it because they’re a terrible driver, or maybe they just don’t like us in particular. If someone stands us up for a date, we assume it’s because they really don’t like us, or just wanted to waste our time. Is it possible that all of these assumptions are correct? Sure, but leaping straight to them as our first option doesn’t get us any sort of advantage. Instead, it makes us more liable to be grumpy and surly. Maybe your date got a flat tire. Maybe the guy cutting you off honestly didn’t see you.

Why do we do this, then? Typically, it’s because we’re afraid we’re going to get taken advantage of, and so we do our best to avoid that at all costs. While there are definitely times other people try to take advantage, if we can change our default so that we assume positive intent instead, we can be happier. When we’re happier, again, we’re in a better spot to deal with the storms we can’t control.

Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, said, “The vast population of this earth, and indeed nations themselves, may readily be divided into three groups. There are the few who make things happen, the many more who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens. Every human being is born into this third and largest group; it is for himself, his environment and his education to determine whether he shall rise to the second group or even to the first.”

So that’s number two: be prepared. Take the time to prepare ourselves physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually–you name it–so that when bigger tests come along, we’re best situated to handle them. D&C 38:30: “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” If we work on ourselves–on changing our attitudes, improving our situations, and surrounding ourselves with friends–some of those storms will just blow on by, and some of them will get dramatically weaker.

The next thing I’m going to discuss might seem to be at odds with what I just said, but bear with me. There’s such a thing as being too prepared. When I was in grad school in English at BYU, my plan was straightforward. I was going to graduate and go on to get my PhD so that I could become a professor. Up to that point, I wasn’t that big on backup plans, because my primary plans had always worked. When I applied to undergraduate programs, for example, I literally only applied to BYU. I did the same thing when I applied to Masters programs. Safety net schools weren’t a part of my vocabulary back then.

I actually thought I was being very responsible when I applied to doctorate programs. I picked seven, thinking that way I’d be safe and make it somewhere. Of course, I made it into none of them, which really rocked my world and made me take a new look not just at what I wanted to do in life, but how I approached life in general.

Since that time, I’ve gone to the other extreme. I like having plans, backup plans, and backups to the backups. I’ve always looked five or ten years ahead in my life, assuming that by doing so, I could avoid a repeat of that earlier experience. The other week, I came across a video of a speech by Alan Watts, a man who billed himself as a “philosophical entertainer.” Normally I view anything in that vein with more than a few grains of skepticism, but the talk really connected with me.

In it, he argues that too many of us spend too much time living for the future. We get good grades in school so we can get into a good university so we can get a good job so we can excel in our careers so we can live comfortably so we can raise a family who can go on to get good grades in school and repeat the process. Is there anything wrong with those goals? Of course not. But Watts pointed out that when we constantly live for the future, we never actually live at all, because the only things we can actually experience are in the present. The same is true for people who spend all their time like Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, thinking about the past and wishing it could return. Let’s say for a moment it might be true that if coach would’ve put Rico in in the fourth quarter, they’d have been state champions and he would have gone pro. None of that can be changed now.

Alan Watts said, “Unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax. There is no point whatever in making plans for a future which you will never be able to enjoy. When your plans mature, you will still be living for some other future beyond. You will never, never be able to sit back with full contentment and say, “Now, I’ve arrived!” Your entire education has deprived you of this capacity because it was preparing you for the future, instead of showing you how to be alive now.”

When I heard this, I realized that my insistence on preparing for everything was in turn making it difficult for me to be happy in the present. Since then, I’ve been working on changing this attitude, though I’ll admit it’s been a struggle. It just always feels to me like, sure, things might be going well right now, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be going well tomorrow, so maybe I’d better do something to get ready for that potential. What’s helped me the most so far is to stop and remind myself that once I’ve got a plan in place, I can put my mind at ease, knowing that if the worst does come, I’m ready for it. 

Shantideva, a Buddhist philosopher in the 8th Century, said, “If the problem can be solved, why worry? If the problem cannot be solved, worrying will do you no good.” Christ put it this way: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

So how do we weather the storms of conflict and contention? First, involve God in our daily lives. This gives us perspective and the strength of divine help. Second, be prepared and take control over the things we can control. It’s hard to steer a ship through a storm if the rudder doesn’t work. Third, take the time to live in the present, which lets us avoid the needless turmoil being too focused on our past or our future can bring. If we do these three things, hopefully we’ll be able to have someone look back at our lives and say the same thing Alma said about the people during Captain Moroni’s day. “There never was a happier time.”

Sweet Sixteen!

It was Daniela’s sixteenth birthday yesterday, which shared the day with the Super Bowl this year, and made for some celebration acrobatics to try and have two parties at the same time. (Not sure how successful we were at it, but An Attempt Was Made.)

The good news is that she had a fantastic friend party on Friday night, so I think that makes up for things somewhat. (Seriously. She got the idea to do a MarioKart tournament, and she spent a ton of time figuring out how she wanted to run it, what rules to use, how to set up brackets, which tracks to play on. The whole nine yards. She and I spent a couple of hours trying different speeds with different options to find the perfect balance, and then she invited 15 friends for an evening of intense racing action. It was even better that she came out victorious, after a hard fought race to the top.)

It’s very easy for people to forget Daniela is only 16. She’s a lifeguard at the UMF pool, and she’s often assumed to be a college student, despite the fact that she’s a sophomore in high school. Beyond just looking mature for her age, she acts far more grown up as well. It’s been a lot of fun seeing her grow up and come into her own as she’s figured out who she is and what she wants to do. What is that?

These days, she’s got a number of passions. She’s still way into playing cello and will happily do that for a long stretch, just to decompress. She’s a big movie buff, and she loves to plan things out (like the MarioKart party). She’s great at looking at the big picture and working toward long term goals in a way I couldn’t have even comprehended at her age. She likes board games and baking, and she’s a big fan of Nordic skiing, and she loves working out in the gym. (I know. Are we sure she’s my daughter??)

Naturally, the older she gets, the busier she gets, and this is actually new territory for us, as when Tomas was this age, we all went into pandemic lockdown mode for basically the next two years. On the other hand, we got used to having a kid be out and about a bunch in high school once Tomas hit his senior year, so it’s not completely new, I suppose. As far as school goes, she’s in Franklin County Fiddlers, on the Nordic Team, and she plans to do track or lacrosse in the spring.

In any case, sorry this is a day late, Daniela. I blame the Super Bowl. (And the fact that I don’t blog on Sundays, but still . . .)

Television Review: Community Season One

Hi, my name is Bryce, and I’ve lived under a rock for the past 15 years. True, I did watch the first few episodes of Community way back when it premiered in 2009, but I lost interest in them and just decided the show wasn’t for me. I stuck by that decision for the next 15 years, despite the fact that so many people talked about how much they liked the show, and how many accolades it got from critics.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I was bored and just wanted to watch something I didn’t have to think about. And there was Netflix, helpfully suggesting I should really give Community a shot. I finally caved to the pressure and started the first episode. It was like 20 minutes. Surely checking it out again was worth 20 minutes of my “I’m bored and want to be entertained” time.

Obviously I realized the error of my ways. In my defense, the first few episodes weren’t representative of the show as a whole, so I think it’s somewhat understandable why I gave up when I had to wait a week between episodes. But after the first few, the show found its feet quickly, and it’s a show that lends itself very well to binging. Each episode doesn’t take that long so you can fit it in here or there wherever you want.

The strengths of the show definitely lie in the writing and the variety of viewpoints the characters bring to the table. You’ve got a basic setup: a diverse group of people meet up to start a study group at a community college. From there, the show soon moves beyond the typical community college setting and really becomes more of a satire of education and college years in general. I mean, you’ve got episode 23 (“Modern Warfare”), which was a definite highlight. The dean offers priority registration as a prize for a paintball tournament, and the entire campus goes wild, hyper-focused on winning the chance to get any class they want. The episode becomes a send-up of a whole litany of movies, and the more familiar you are with film, the more amusing it all becomes.

Spoiler alert, folks: I’m pretty familiar with film.

The whole show is practically tailor made for me, and I’m kicking myself for having waited this long to check it out. (Though it’s another piece of evidence for why companies like Netflix should give a show a bit more breathing room before they decided to cancel it out of hand.)

Don’t be like me, people. If you want to have a good laugh and a break from whatever it is you’re doing, definitely check out Community. (Unless you’d rather spend your time making fun of me for being such a doofus and missing out on the fun for so long.)

Revisiting the Lord of the Rings Books: The Two Towers

I’m progressing through my reread of the Lord of the Rings for the first time in over twenty years. (I took a break to read an Agatha Christie, because Fellowship through me off my pace to finish a book a week. Gotta love a nice quick mystery to set things right.) While I’ve started reading Fellowship multiple times over the years since I last finished it, I’ve never even picked up the Two Towers. I thought I had a generally good memory of how it played out, compared to the film.

Boy, was I wrong.

It’s a great book, and I enjoyed it more than Fellowship, but looking at it from an adaptation perspective . . . yikes. I’m so impressed that Peter Jackson was able to make such a compelling movie out of the novel. Again, not because the book is bad, but simply because there’s just not a whole lot of an arc to build on, other than Helm’s Deep. (But even that plot line is rough, since Helm’s Deep isn’t anywhere near to the end of it in Two Towers.)

You’ve got some great moments: Gandalf’s reveal of still being alive, the hunt for the orcs, the battle of Helm’s Deep, the ents at Isengard, Frodo and Sam vs. Shelob, and more. All of those were most definitely used by Jackson. But look at the plot arcs! The Gandalf/Aragorn/Pippin/Merry arc leaves with Gandalf talking to Saruman and then booking it out of town with Pippin in stow, entire chapters after the Helm’s Deep sequence finished. Frodo and Sam? It leaves with Frodo getting carted away by the orcs, just after Shelob’s attack. Both main plots of the book just basically cut off in the middle of the action.

It makes total sense, then, that Jackson expanded Helm’s Deep into a larger action piece, as well as including the full battle of the ents in-scene. (It’s just described after the fact in the book). Ending that plot before the conversation with Saruman turns it into a climax that feels like an ending of sorts, but you’re still left with Frodo and Sam. There is no part of their plot that feels like anything close to an accomplishment. Like something that would make sense to end on. Yes, you could just cliffhanger it, but I think Jackson was wise not to. The movies that just cut off in the middle feel like a swindle to me.

Instead, he expanded Faramir, having him actually follow through with taking Frodo back to Gondor. This way, the choice Faramir makes to ultimately let Frodo go feels like a key point, and that plot has something like closure. True, this came at the cost of making Faramir less of an awesome character. In the book, he’s not tempted by the ring at all, and he really shines as good person. In the movie, it’s more muddled.

But still, the change makes the movie work. Jackson still included all the main beats of the book, though he cut both plots short to do so. Adaptation at its finest, in my opinion.

I’m really looking forward to reading the final book.

Television Review: Percy Jackson Season One

We finished the new Disney adaptation of Percy Jackson over the weekend. The whole family enjoyed it for the most part (though the biggest fan was MC, who’s 10 and generally doesn’t like anything too intense.) Overall, I thought it was a solid family-friendly series, even if it had a few things that held it back from being really great.

Honestly, my biggest gripe with it was that it was too dark. I don’t mean thematically. I mean literally. So many of the scenes were poorly lit to the point that I had no idea what was actually happening on the screen. I wondered if something was wrong with my projector, but all the other programs I’ve been watching have been fine. Perhaps it was just due to the fact that projectors don’t handle really dark color gradations as well, but it’s definitely something to be aware of, and it was a continual source of frustration.

Setting that aside, the plot and acting were pretty solid. I felt like it rushed through certain elements, however, which made the whole series feel a little disjointed. This is pretty ironic, considering it had over five hours to work with. (8 episodes that around 40 minutes each.) It felt like it was falling into the “let’s be really faithful to the original” trap, and so it ended up trying to show everything that was in the book. I get the sentiment (especially since Rick Riordan was frustrated that the movie adaptation cut too much), but in practice, it just doesn’t work. (See almost any Harry Potter movie for reference.) You can end up with a good series, but it’s going to be very difficult for it to be great, simply because the elements that make a great book don’t necessarily translate beat for beat to a great series or movie.

It suffered from too many characters and not enough time to really get to know most of them. Instead, it felt like it was almost a character of the week sort of set up, where we had random people come and go and then not matter much later on. The stakes also seemed to continually change. It just didn’t feel like it had any really driving tension moving it forward.

That said, it’s an adaptation of a middle grade novel, and as I said, MC thought it was fantastic. So even if I didn’t love it from beginning to end, I can’t find too much fault for it.

The bottom line is that if you’re looking for a fun series to watch as a family, this is a good candidate. I gave it a 7/10, but there’s not many series out there that would appeal to all ages equally.

Just do your best to have the brightness settings turned up on whatever platform you end up watching it on.

Dealing with Chronic Health Issues

Back when I lived in Utah, I had a stretch of a couple of years where I dealt with chronic fatigue. Well, that’s what I thought it was at the time. Looking back on it, I’m more convinced it was depression. Then again, it wasn’t as if I didn’t know about depression at the time, so perhaps I should have a bit more faith in my ability back then to know what I was talking about. Regardless, it was a stretch of time where I had to handle something that just wouldn’t go away, and I wasn’t sure why it wouldn’t or what I could do about it.

Thankfully, when I moved to Maine, things got better. (Which is another piece of evidence in the “it was depression” argument, but whatever.) While I have subsequently struggled with depression off and on, I’ve largely just had to deal with things that come and go. (Well, now that I think about that, I guess that’s not really accurate, when you take into account eye issues, back issues, and about a million trips to physical therapy, and depression itself, which is nothing to sniff at. Sheesh. This post is getting depressing all by its lonesome.)

Setting all that aside, several months ago (a couple of weeks before I left for Hawaii, actually), I started to have some consistent abdominal pain. Nothing really acute or anything, but it wouldn’t go away. I know this is decidedly Not Normal, and so when I got back from Hawaii, I went to the doctor, who then sent me to the urologist. (Note: you do not want to go to the urologist. I now know this for a fact. I’m not saying you shouldn’t go to the urologist if your doctor tells you to, but I am saying your trip to the urologist is not going to be a fun one. At all.)

I realize some of what I’ll write now is definitely tiptoeing the cliff of “why in the name of all that’s good did you tell me that?” territory, so I will do my best to keep as far from that edge as possible. However, I also think many people have issues like this that they end up facing largely alone, because they feel embarrassed to talk about them or something. Well, my “I’m embarrassed” gene is a little lacking, especially when it comes to writing about things online, and my “I want people to not feel like they’re alone” gene is perhaps a little too strong. So here we are.

First off, cancer was listed as a distinct possibility for all of this. Certain types of cancer run in my family, and they lined up too well with these symptoms for my doctors to dismiss them. (Or for me to feel comfortable, for that matter.) So I had a whole bunch of tests. Blood tests. Urine tests. A CT scan. And tests which are the prime reason you don’t want to go to the urologist.

Some of these tests came back with results quickly. Some took days. Sitting around wondering if you’ve got cancer is a bad situation to be in. Thankfully, all cancer tests came back negative. However, the pain remained, and unexplained pain is something I’d rather avoid.

Yesterday, I went in for a cystoscopy, a test which I’m not going to detail here, but which people are free to Google if they somehow think that’s going to bring them some kind of satisfaction. My urologist assured me it “wasn’t that big of a deal,” and that I’d be in and out in fifteen minutes. Well, the fifteen minutes part was pretty spot on. The “not that big of a deal” part was not. Any time they have to numb you to help you avoid pain, and the pain to numb you is really unpleasant, I automatically begin to get mighty suspicious.

I would have to say it was the most uncomfortable, painful thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. This includes breaking bones, but I’ll also be the first to admit I’ve been largely free of really painful experiences. This one felt like it made up for that. (I did some research after the fact to see if I was just being a big baby. No. In a small number of people, cystoscopies are very, very painful.) I spent the rest of the day in recovery mode, and I’m still not exactly over it. (Though mostly better.)

The good news is that it showed definitively there was no cancer or anything alarming there. The bad news is that I still have no idea where the pain’s coming from. Apparently there’s a thing called “painful bladder syndrome,” where you just hurt and they don’t know why. It’s the technical equivalent of a doctor saying, “Huh. I don’t get it.” That’s what I’ve got, it seems.

But on a positive note, the pain is far from severe, and I’m generally just getting used to it by now. (The biggest worry had been that the pain was being caused by something very problematic. Having eliminated all the “very problematic” candidates, I’m actually not too bad with the “this isn’t going to go away anytime soon” diagnosis. Not that my doctors are giving up. I’m on a couple of pills now that might help solve the problem. (Though they are, in turn, making me very sleepy and I’m really hoping that goes away soon.))

Hopefully I can get back to the point where I don’t have to keep missing work for tests. (The inner-guilt feeling is strong in me, and it’s still hard for me to just give myself a “you’re sick” card and not worry about work.) I think some of this is just related to the fact that I’m getting older. This beats the alternative to getting older, but that doesn’t make it any more pleasant.

In any case, if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been a bit MIA the last while, this ought to explain both why I’ve been MIA and why I haven’t really explained it earlier. And if you’re dealing with any of these issues, know that you’re not alone, for whatever consolation that’s worth. Chronic stuff is mentally and physically draining. It’s the difference between carrying a fifty pound bag across the room, and carrying a fifty pound bag for the entire day. Taken in isolation, you might think it would be easy to handle, but there’s the marathon aspect of it (and all the uncertainty surrounding it) that makes it much more difficult.

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