Bryce Moore's Blog, page 202

How Do I Afford It?

After my post about my European vacation plans yesterday, I’ve had some people ask how in the world I can afford to go. It’s been a while since I did a post on budgeting, so I thought it might be time to do another one. As always, my own experiences don’t necessarily translate to everyone. Take or leave what works for me, however it works for you.

To start with, Denisa and I are both good with money. That’s a huge plus right there. If half of a couple is good with money and the other half isn’t, then I’ve found it doesn’t really matter how good the one half is–the other half more than makes up for it. We don’t have that problem, and I’ve never dealt with it, so I have no idea what I would do if Denisa weren’t good with money. (Sorry. No advice there. I guess this one’s easier if you’re not married. Then it’s just you you have to deal with.)

What do I mean by “good with money”? I mean that we both know how to live within a budget, and we’re both not afraid to cut out big purchases in the name of saving money. I don’t mean to say we’re the best at it–I have a few friends who are much, much better. We still have a home loan, and we haven’t been paying it off early, while some friends have already paid theirs off years ago, or are getting close to having it done already.

But we’ve cut out other expenses. Satellite television or cable, for one thing. Yes, that’s just $600/year or so, but it’s indicative of the spirit we have when entering budgeting: we’re not afraid to give up some things we enjoy for the sake of saving money. Our kids don’t do sports or dance. We try to stick to a pretty slim budget when it comes to birthdays and Christmas. (Well, birthdays at least.) We just aim to live simply for the most part. We’ve refinanced the house twice, getting the interest rate down to 3.75%, and the house payment is much lower than it would have to be in many areas of the country. All of that helps, and it all adds up.

It also helps that we both managed to get through school with no student loans. Three masters degrees, zero debt. We had scholarships, we stayed with family, and we worked to keep costs down. We also went to BYU for 2 of those degrees, and it’s dirt cheap to go there. ($5000/year for undergraduate, just a bit more for graduate. Dirt. Cheap.) No student loans meant that the money we made after we graduated could go to us, and not to the loans.

We also have eliminated almost all our other debts. We’ve never had credit card debt. We’ve got two cars, but we’ve paid both off. Other than our mortgage, we have no outstanding debts. That helps a ton.

But the biggest trick I’ve found that helps is that we set up our budget (using mint) on the assumption that I only work 1 job, and Denisa doesn’t work at all. All of our monthly expenses are constrained by what I make at the library. Not just that, but when I’ve gotten raises the last few years, we haven’t let those budgets get any bigger. (Well, where we could. Insurance and property taxes have gone up. We have no choice over those.) Even within that library budget, we’ve set things up so that if that’s all we were making, we’d still be able to come out ahead each month. This includes a car payment. Since we paid the cars off, I’ve still been putting aside car payment money each month, saving it up for inevitable day when we’ll have to buy another car.

Next, we’ve spent the last while getting an emergency fund set up. Enough for us to live for about a year with no income, if we have to. I treat that money as if it doesn’t exist. It’s socked away into CDs, and I don’t touch them. But if something bad were to happen, then we’d have the money to fall back on. That safety net makes me much more comfortable spending money on other things, like European vacations.

So we treat our lives as if we only have one income. But then we work to have as many different incomes as possible. In addition to my library job, I teach classes at the university, and I write books. Occasionally I even sell books. All of that money is extra money. Denisa bakes bread, she rates essays for ETS online, and she teaches classes at the university too. (Those advanced degrees pay off. Go figure.) Again, all of that money is gravy. If we had debts other than our mortgage, we would pay them off ASAP. If we didn’t have debts but had no emergency fund, we would create one. All of that has to come first.

We keep track of all the extra money month to month, adding any surplus we took in and subtracting any extra expenses that popped up. Extra expenses include doctor visits, purchases for the house, gardening supplies–you name it. Anything non-essential that isn’t in the monthly budget. (It also helps that I have very, very good insurance and benefits through my library job.) This all means that at any given time, I know exactly how much money we have kicking around to do other things with. I make sure to always keep a nice buffer of money in place–again, for emergencies.

In other words, 13+ years of living frugally as a married couple have really made it so we can afford to do these sort of things now. Our furnace is on its last legs, and I just bought a new one for $4000, but I’d been planning on this happening, and we have enough socked away to pay for it. That cuts down on stress so much.

That said, I realize there are definitely people who live frugally and aren’t able to make ends meet. I wish I knew advice to solve that. I don’t. All I know is how I’ve budgeted, always making decisions that would hopefully save me money in the long run. Will we be able to keep this up? I don’t know. I don’t know how much our expenses will change once the kids get bigger and start eating more or needing clothes faster. We haven’t been saving too much money for their college funds–my expectation is that they’ll work to help with that when they’re old enough and while they’re in college. Then again, I’m hoping they go to BYU, which would really help with how expensive college is.

We’re not perfect. We’ve made mistakes with budgets in the past, and that leads me to believe we’re making mistakes now. But we try to learn from those mistakes, and we spend money where we think we need it. If Denisa wasn’t from Slovakia, I don’t think there’s any way we’d be taking trips over there every three years. It wouldn’t be in our nature to do that. But she is, and we both think it’s important to keep those ties alive. We want our kids to know their Slovak heritage well.

Anyway. It feels like this post came off as a “look at me! I’m so great!” sort of post. That wasn’t what it was intended as. Maybe it wasn’t such a hot idea to write about this in the first place. But I have now, and I don’t have time for a different post today, so you’re all stuck with it. If anyone has any specific budgeting questions, I’m happy to answer them as best I can, with the disclaimer that I’m just a librarian, not a financial genius.

European Vacation: 2015 Edition

Ever since we were married, Denisa and I have tried to get over to Slovakia once every three years. That’s the goal. We’ve gone in 2012/2013 (for our European Christmas tour), 2011 (where we got over to London and Vienna), 2008 (where we got to see Dublin), 2005 (with a trip to Prague included), and 2002 (my first trip over). So doing a bit of math, we’ve gone 5 times so far, with the Christmas trip making it so we’d gotten a bit ahead of ourselves. (Twice in two years!) The hope was to go again this year, but when we had MC get added to the family, we realized trips to Europe might have to become less frequent.

Still, it never hurts to try, right?

And I’ve been trying everyday for months. Checking the prices, hoping that they might come down some. Kayak is my go-to source for price checking, though I’ll throw in other sites now and then to be thorough. But even with all my checking, the lowest I’d seen a flight this summer was $957 on Turkish Air, and that was with a long layover in Istanbul. (It also was a month ago. I didn’t pull the trigger then, because I thought the prices would come down. I hoped to get a ticket for $850 or so.)

These days? The best ticket I could find with reasonable layovers (meaning, no 6 hour monstrosities) was $1,210 on Aer Lingus, Boston to Vienna. With the bus ticket to Boston and all the other transportation costs included, that meant we were going to have to pay $6,100 just to get to Slovakia. That . . . is a lot of money. Enough that Denisa and I were seriously considering just skipping this year’s trip and saving for next year.

DC, however, had other plans. She really wanted to go to Slovakia, and she decided to pray and fast this past Sunday that I’d be able to find tickets we could afford. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d been trying nonstop for months, and that God wasn’t going to bring the prices down just for us.

Note to self: don’t doubt the power of a 7 year old’s prayers.

Yesterday (two days after DC prayed and fasted for this), I saw a ticket on Kayak for $850 or so. The only problem? It involved two or three layovers and 40 hours of travel time. I’m willing to try to go beyond the call of duty for a deal, but even I have my limits. I’d seen this wacky deal before, and I’d always dismissed it out of hand. This time? I decided to look more carefully at it. I saw it was leaving from Toronto, so I checked prices leaving straight from Toronto. $750 or so.

A quick jaunt over to Google Maps told me Toronto was over 9 hours away from me. So . . . not that practical. But I had the scent of blood now. Give a librarian a toehold somewhere, and we’ll find out anything we want.

Long story short? I found tickets out of Montreal (4.5 hours away) for $720 roundtrip, including a 3 night stopover in Paris. Yes, Montreal is a bit of a drive, but so is Boston. (Boston is 3.5 hours away.) It’s a simple Montreal to Paris, Paris to Vienna flight, all on Air France.

Denisa and I bought the tickets last night. DC was overjoyed.

I don’t know why I never thought about Canada before. Say what you want about prayer, I personally feel like DC was a prime helper in this year’s trip planning. It took a while to convince myself that Montreal was doable. Can you just leave from Canada on a trip? Just like that? But yes, you can. The plan at the moment is to stay the night in Montreal before our flight leaves, thus allowing us to park the car there for free. We’ll be able to go to Slovakia and Paris for a total cost (including hotels, meals, and rental car) that will be less than what we would have paid for just airfare from Boston.

Insane.

Anyway. If anyone’s looking to meet up with us, feel free to drop me a line. We’ll be over there in August. If you live within driving distance of major Canadian airport, I’ve got a few tips for you . . .

(End note: It’s Wednesday, and that means I have to stick to my goal to report on the no-sugar thing. This week, I had a bit of maple syrup on pancakes yesterday, and some granola that Denisa made that has a bit of maple syrup in it. That’s it. Still feeling great. Weight loss was minimal, until this morning, when I was suddenly down two more pounds. Total loss is 6.8 pounds as of today, but I expect that to tick back up, most likely.)

Going Clear: Scientology vs. Mormonism

Denisa and I had the chance to watch the new HBO documentary on Scientology last night, Going Clear. It’s a pretty darn effective take down of Scientology as a religion and an institution, arguing that the heads of the church are essentially crooks and liars. They make a compelling case. However, this blog post isn’t really concerned with whether or not the documentary is accurate. I’ve encountered plenty of anti-Mormon pieces that tend to make compelling cases as well, so I’m certainly willing to give another religion the benefit of the doubt, from an academic point of view. The fact is that I don’t personally know any Scientologists, I’ve never spoken with a Scientologist, and all of my information on their beliefs has come from sources outside Scientology.

That’s not the way to make your mind up about a system of belief, but it’s more than enough to make me leery of ever really taking Scientology seriously. It’s more than enough to make me have serious doubts about their organization and belief system. If I had a family member seriously looking into Scientology, I would be sufficiently freaked out that I would do what I could to see if I could make them change their mind.

And that’s what I want to talk about in this post. Because, having had experience as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), I know full well that many people view Mormonism as being on the same level as Scientology. When I would talk to people on the street in Germany, they would often dismiss Mormonism as “a cult,” and sometimes get us confused with Scientologists. So when I look at how I view Scientology, I feel like I’m having the closest understanding I can get to how some people view Mormons.

And that is, naturally, upsetting.

But I’m not one to shy away from upsetting topics. So let’s look at this a bit closer. The Mormonism/Scientology comparison brings up two big questions for me. First, is it accurate from a doctrinal viewpoint. Second, is it accurate from a cultural/societal viewpoint. It’s hard to completely separate the two, so I’ll look at different elements of the documentary that were alarming to me, and take each from a Mormon perspective, paying attention to doctrinal and cultural issues.

Crazy doctrine–Assuming for the moment that everything Going Clear said about Scientology was 100% accurate (for the sake of argument), is Mormon doctrine at the same whackadoo level? With the big disclaimer that anything religious can be portrayed in ridiculous terms (as seen in the “I Believe” song in the Book of Mormon Musical), I don’t think a serious look at Mormonism would result in the same conclusion as this documentary. It’s true that there have been plenty of lampoons of the Mormon belief system, but when you get right down to it, the things Mormonism espouses are fairly basic, fundamental beliefs common to many religions: faith in God, repentance, doing good works, love, etc. Yes, you can start to poke holes at how closely that belief system is followed, but when you look at the actual tenets and requirements of the religion, they’re quite reasonable. (For values of “reasonable” that include “going to church for three hours every Sunday.”)
Requiring payment for salvation–In the documentary, it says Scientologists have to pay big money to get closer to their equivalent of salvation. Mormonism does have the law of tithing–the idea that members should pay 10% of their income to the church. However, all this boils down to is telling your Bishop that you’re paying a “complete tithe.” There’s no audit. No one’s going to challenge you on how much you’re paying. That’s between you and God. And there’s nothing in the way of “pay now to get saved later” at work in Mormonism. You do have to be a tithe payer to enter the temple, but if anyone tried to argue this is the same thing as what Scientology is doing, I’d have a pretty easy time of shooting that down. Still, I could see how these two principles could be perceived to be equivalent, to non-members.
Holding back the really nutty beliefs until someone’s deep into the church–This isn’t something Mormons do, by and large. Yes, there’s some zany theories some members might espouse, but it’s nothing central to the religion, and it’s nothing that’s widely accepted by members as doctrine. I see this more as a cultural problem when it comes to Mormonism. Every now and then you’ll meet a Mormon who’s convinced there’s more to the religion than most people are following. I imagine you find this in any religion. My general approach to these people is to smile, nod, and completely ignore them–unless they’re doing something to actively harm other people. In that case, I call them out on it. Then again, you could easily argue that the church has tried to cover up some of the unsavory aspects of its past (the number of wives Joseph Smith had, for example). It’s trying to do better, but perhaps this is an argument that has some merit.
Requiring members to work for the church for free–The documentary focused a good portion of time to people who end up essentially working for the church for 40 cents an hour, doing menial jobs like sanding and scraping paint. Basically, becoming slaves for the church (in so many words.) Mormonism requires a fair bit of service. I help clean the local church building twice a year, work on snow removal for the building, speak in church, hold church callings–and I do it all for free. It’s service, not work. There’s no comparison here.
Requiring members to shun people who have left the church–The film depicted families that had been broken up from disputes over Scientology. I’d like to say this doesn’t happen at all in Mormonism, but while I can say it *shouldn’t* happen (from a doctrinal perspective), I know that it does happen from a cultural one. Some people are going to do crazy things for religion, regardless of the religion in question. But would church leaders require Mormons to shun people? No. And if they did, they should be called on it, and I’m confident they’d be told to stop it.
Blind devotion to doctrine–Here’s an issue where some in and out of Mormonism would definitely say Mormons qualify for. I’ve written many a post disagreeing with it, but the very fact that I’ve felt the need to write those posts tends to only give the argument more strength.
Physical abuse in the name of religion–Again, doctrinally this is something that should never happen. Can I guarantee it doesn’t happen in Mormonism? I don’t think I can. But I think this is something that is universal to humans. Some humans are abusive to other humans. There are many reasons and excuses for it, but it happens. I can say that issues of abuse that are found in Mormonism would and should be immediately taken care of.
Idolizing central figures to the religion–Here’s an area where I fear Mormons sometimes start veering too far into unsafe territory. We have a prophet at the head of the church, and we revere him as the spokesperson for God on earth. I’m good with that. I believe that. But I also don’t believe he–or any person on earth–is perfect. We all have flaws and make mistakes. Members often put Joseph Smith on a pedestal as well. Put anyone other than God or Christ on a pedestal, and I think you’re setting yourself up for trouble down the road.
Funding church leaders’ lavish lifestyles–It’s something some have argued Mormons do, but it’s an argument that I don’t believe has any merit. Certainly nothing of the scale portrayed in this documentary. I’m in a position to see some of what goes on behind the scenes at the upper levels of the church. My family has several connections to high ranking Mormon officials. In all that time, I’ve seen nothing to give these accusations any foundation. But conspiracy theorists are gonna conspiracy theorize.
Discourage members from befriending non-members–Another area where some Mormons might want to try to do better. It can be too easy to just associate with other believers. I think doing that leads to close-mindedness and a lot of missed opportunities for growth and misunderstanding. But there’s a lot to do in the Mormon faith, which can sometimes leave us with not a whole lot of time to make social connections outside of it.

I’m already well over time on how long I wanted to discuss this. It was a thought-provoking documentary, suffice it to say. Do I feel like I know everything about Scientology now? No. Do I want to know more? No. But I feel like watching this helped me understand other people’s views on religion and the dangers inherent in it in a way I hadn’t fully understood before. I really hope no one views me and my approach to faith in the same light as portrayed in this film. I know whenever people would call Mormonism a cult, it would honestly hurt me. It’s a religion that’s brought me a whole lot of happiness and joy, warts and all. And it’s also a religion I feel free to leave at any time. I’m not coerced, and I’m not pressured to stay. I stay because I believe it’s true, plain and simple.

And I suppose that’s all I have to say about that for now. As is always the case with these posts, if you have something constructive to say, go ahead. But keep the gloves on, and don’t make me delete or ban people.

Further Adventures in Minecraft: The Quest for the Pumpkin

Saturday evening, TRC and I had a chance to sit down and play some more Minecraft together. I’ve gotten to the point that my character’s pretty blinged out: full diamond armor, all of it with level 30 enchants. Let’s just say that Endermen run when they see me coming. I’ve got a horse, a cattle ranch, a sheep farm, and a lair with a secret entrance powered by Redstone.

I’m living the Minecraft dream.

So I asked TRC what he wanted help with now. His answer? He wanted pumpkins. If we could get a pumpkin patch going, we could start doing some other cool things, like . . . I can’t remember what. Make golems? No clue. As with most things Minecraft, I’m basically on board to prove to my son that I’m a cool dad. If the boy wants a pumpkin patch, then by golly, I’m going to get one for him.

The game plan was simple. TRC was going to stay back at the base, and I was going to head out exploring. Whenever nighttime rolled around, I’d log out, he’d jump in bed (to reset the clock), and then I’d log back in and keep going. That way, we’d have minimal downtime. I’d head in west until I found a pumpkin. Easy enough, right?

I traveled days in game. I built two separate boats, sailed across vast oceans, encountered wolves and rabbits and vast chasms running with magma. I loaded up on some rare moss covered stone, and picked flowers of various shapes and colors. I fought off a Creeper or two, and I had many adventures.

I did not, however, find any pumpkins.

The farther I went, the more I began to realize that for every day I was traveling, I’d need another day to get back to our base. Just how committed was I? TRC began to lose hope. Maybe our world had no pumpkins. Maybe this was a lost cause.

And then, disaster. After having traveled on foot non-stop for such a long time, I realized I was getting sick to my stomach. At first I thought it was from something I ate. Then I thought I was coming down with something. But then I realized the truth: staring at a Minecraft screen that was in constant motion for so long had made me carsick.

And I still had to get back home.

I turned south, hoping that I could make a giant loop and come across pumpkins that way. Maybe I’d find a village, and I’d be able to steal pumpkins. I was getting desperate. And it was getting late in real life.

There were more adventures, of course. But they all ended the same way: me with no pumpkin. In the end, I made it back in one piece, but the expedition was a complete failure. Our garden continues to be depressingly pumpkin-free.

Maybe next time, I’ll head east instead . . .

The Funniest Movie Scene of All Time

I’m off to Bangor again today. Low on time, as usual. But fear not! I have decided to grace your day with the funniest scene in the history of cinema. Well, in my personal history, at least. I’ve always been a Weird Al fan, and as far as I’m concerned, UHF is a work of comic genius. And it don’t get more geniusier than this scene right here:

Comedy gold, friends. Comedy gold.

Have a great weekend, and see you all Monday!

Which TV Show Had the Best First Season of All Time?

My friend Dan Wells posed an interesting question on Twitter yesterday: which TV show had the strongest first season? His nominee was Veronica Mars, and while I loved that show and thought the first season was superb, anytime someone starts talking about the *best* of anything, I just can’t let it slide without trying to give some serious thought to the question.

Dan had some pretty solid arguments for Veronica. For one thing, the show developed a huge cult following primarily on the merits of its first season. The second and third seasons aren’t nearly the same caliber as the first. (I enjoyed them still, but even as a fan, you have to admit they’re not the same.) In addition, the first season stands completely on its own merits. It’s one huge plot arc that’s self-contained in that one season.

But is it the best?

I had some other candidates immediately spring to mind:

Firefly managed to develop a huge cult following as well, and with less episodes than Veronica. But then again, some of the episodes aren’t as strong as others, and it’s definitely not self-contained. (One of the reasons that the show lingers on–it posed so many interesting questions, and never had a chance to fully answer most of them.)
Battlestar Galactica also has a great opening season, but once again, it’s only part of a greater arc, and it lacks the complete package Veronica presents.
The Wire is a really good candidate for this, and I tend to think it’s got Veronica beat. Its first season is spectacular, and it stands alone very nicely. (One of the things I admire most about The Wire is the way each season does its own thing, and how each functions separately from the rest, while at the same time contributing to the richness of the whole series. It’s a show that definitely gets better the more I think about it. Great television.)
Game of Thrones is another interesting one. It had some *huge* moments–episodes that stay with you for a very long time afterward. But it’s the same as Battlestar, in that its first season is a piece of a greater whole, and certainly doesn’t stand on its own.
24 managed to do a ton with its first season, and I think it’s another frontrunner for this title. It’s self-contained, has some *wow* moments, and is riveting television.

What do you think? Which gets your vote, or should there be a different winner altogether? Other TV shows that had strong first seasons certainly include Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, True Detective, The Sopranos, Arrested Development, and more. But even with that list, I feel like I might be forgetting some older shows. (Then again, I’d argue that TV has come a long way in the last decade or so, so perhaps it makes sense that the best candidates for this title all step from the mid-nineties on . . .)

Anyway–I’d love to hear some other takes on this. Tell me who you think has this won, and why.

March Madness Challenge (and a Sugar Update)

The first few rounds are over, and–as is so often this case–my bracket isn’t looking too peachy keen. I had Villanova going to the finals, and they rewarded my faith by losing in the second round. Sigh. But the real question is: how are things looking in the Bracket Challenge? Much better for some folks. Carg Reed is sitting in first, and he still has 7 of his 8 Elite Eight teams in the hunt. That’s a pretty impressive feat. Since he has Kentucky winning it all (as do I), it’s pretty much a guarantee that I’ve lost this year. Always a bummer, being out of the running after the first weekend, but that’s the way March Madness rolls. Chris75315 is tied with Carg Reed, and so is (drumroll please . . .) DC! That’s right. My seven year old daughter is still in the mix.

With the way the points snowball in value in later rounds, it’s still really up in the air as to who will win. TRC picked Wisconsion to win it all. If that happened, would it be enough to overcome the fact that he only has half his Elite Eight teams left in it? And what about Denisa? She might have an outside shot–the math is a bit beyond me. We’ll have to wait and see where the dust settles after this weekend. I’m really more interested in the brackets that *don’t* have Kentucky winning it all, because I’d love to see that happen. (Hey–my bracket is dead. I might as well root for complete chaos, right? Right!)

So Jamesmjs has Arizona winning it all, TRC has Wisconsin, and the only other bracket with someone not Kentucky winning is . . . MC! I sat my not-yet-two-year-old daughter down and asked her to make her picks, which was done by me reading the numbers and her repeating the one she thought would win. (Well, that was the theory. In practice she started responding “Puppy” for most of the choices. In that case, I picked the favored seed.) MC has Gonzaga going all the way. She also has 7 of her 8 Elite Eight teams remaining, and that’s with having picked 1 seeded Kentucky AND Wisconsin to lose in the first round. She’s back by a ways at the moment, but if the madness really happens tomorrow, then she might just come back to win it all.

95% of you probably don’t care about this post at all. Too bad! My blog, my topics. I love this time of year!

And for those of you who decided to hang around, here’s a brief update on my sugar goal. I did indeed have a piece of pie and a bit of ice cream on Denisa’s birthday. It was good pie, but I only had one small serving, and I didn’t really feel the overwhelming need to have more. And that’s all the sugar I’ve had since my goal ended. It’s been going well–why switch up a good thing? Weight-wise, I’m down another .4 pounds (4.2 total over 4 weeks), which suggests perhaps the weight loss side of things might be slowing down. We’ll see what happens there. But I’m still feeling great and not really missing sugar at all at this point. Success!

Fast and Furious 6: A Live-Action Pixar Cars Movie

I’ve taken to watching movies when I’m doing my exercise each lunch break. The nice thing about watching movies while you exercise is that I’m not really all that concerned with finding a perfect film. That’s right: I lower my standards a fair bit when I know all I’m going to be doing the whole time is jogging in place while I watch. So I’m actually looking for movies that are diverting and that’s about it. Hence my willingness to give Fast and Furious 6 a shot. I watched the first one way back when, as I recalled, and if they’ve gotten to number 6–with number 7 just around the corner–they can’t be all that bad, right?

And for the first while, it was fun enough as far as explodey action movies go. There were some cool sequences with car chases and car races and car shootings and car driving and car mechanics and car destruction. (It was about this time that I realized that Fast and Furious 6 is essentially a live action version of a Pixar Cars movie. I mean, in Cars 2 Pixar ditched the whole “racing cars” theme, and the characters in Fast and Furious 6 aren’t really that well developed anyway. Mater is pretty much Vin Diesel. Lightning McQueen is Paul Walker.

So I was enjoying the movie, more or less. Thinking not required. Fine. But then came a scene that wouldn’t even work in Toontown. Vin Diesel is driving to rescue his girl, who happens to be driving a tank. Or at least, hitching a ride with a guy who’s driving a tank at race car speeds down a freeway. (Because tanks go wicked fast when they don’t have to drive on sand and stuff, I guess). But there’s this dead car attached to the tank, and Tow Mater’s girlfriend needs to go outside the tank to cut the car off it. (Because I’m sure cutting really thick wire is pretty easy to anyone who’s dating Vin Diesel, and wind resistance is for the weak.)

So there’s the girl, perched precariously on top of a tank going 100mph the wrong way down the freeway, and her tank’s about to get whipped into the air by that dead weight it’s dragging behind it. Vin isn’t scared. Vin is concerned, but confident. You wanna know why? Because Vin has spent the last decade playing Angry Birds nonstop. Vin has made the ability to anticipate trajectories into an art form. So he does a bit of mental math, falling back on his Angry Bird skillz, to know where his girl is going to be, and to know just how to catch her if she flies up into the air. And not just catch her, but be able to traverse a huge chasm between them, and still land on a car to break his fall. Because cars are like pillows when you’re Vin Diesel. And–

Why don’t I just show you the clip?

This is why I’ve started practicing Angry Birds more. Just in case.

Sigh. Even jogging in place, this scene lost me. There was just no possible world where something like this can happen and I believe it. Scratch that–maybe in Cars it would have been fine. Or if there were a roadrunner or a coyote involved. Even in some over-the-top action movies, this might work–if it were played for laughs and acknowledged how ridiculous it was. But in this movie it just knocked me out, revoked the films suspension of disbelief privileges, and derailed the rest of the movie for me.

Have any of you ever had a scene that did that for you? Book, film, TV show, or other? You’re pretty much along for the ride, but then it all falls apart at once? Please share.

And avoid Fast and Furious 6, unless you like your action cartoony and with absolutely no repercussions.

Proud Owner of a New Pebble

I wrote a bit ago about my debate over the Apple Watch–whether I wanted to buy one or not. And after I’d written the post and looked over what I’d said, the answer seemed to be a bit clearer to me:

Why in the world would I want to pay $350 for something I don’t see a pressing need for?

So I’d more or less decided to wait and let the first round of early adopters test the waters for me. See how the watch is reviewed and what people use it for, and then get one if that convinced me. However, then while I was browsing my typical internet deals sites, I saw a killer sale on a Pebble, one of the first smart watches. It usually sells for $100, but I could nab one for $60 since I have an .edu address.

$60 for a test investment on a product to see if I liked it? Much easier to swallow. And since the Pebble checked off three of the four boxes for what I was thinking of using an Apple Watch for (checking my phone notificatiions, being a better pedometer, and pure gadget awesome–it missed only on the “working with all my other Apple stuff seamlessly” box), I went ahead and bought one.

It arrived Friday, and I’ve used it over the weekend. I’m here to report my findings, with the disclaimer that since it’s still fairly new, I can’t guarantee my opinion won’t change. (Though I doubt it will.)

I’ve really liked it so far. Liked it enough that I would have felt happy having paid $100 for it, and not just $60. (Though as a note, apparently they’re coming out with a new version soon, so I might recommend others hold off to see if the price drops on this model, or if they’d rather have the new one. I bought this one because if I buy an expensive smart watch, it’s going to have a big Apple logo on it somewhere. That’s a given.)

It has a bunch of free apps for it, so I’ve got a health monitoring one that watches my steps and my sleep patterns. The pedometer seems a bit twitchy, so I’ll have to up my daily goal for steps to make sure it matches what I’ve been doing, but I don’t mind that so much. I love that it’s completely waterproof (for anything I’m going to be doing.) No need to take it off for showers, which is a big plus. And having a watch on my wrist again? I’d forgotten how much I’d missed it.

I check the time. A lot. I really try to be punctual to everything. So being able to keep my phone holstered more often is a nice feeling, and I’m convinced it’s saving me time. Look at it this way: every time I take my phone out, I have to consciously decide *not* to check Facebook or Twitter of the news or whatever. All that information is right there, waiting for me. I’m an information addict. I can’t say no sometimes. So every time I *don’t* take my phone out? That’s one time I’m definitely not doing all those other things, either. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true.

Denisa thinks I’m crazy, I believe. I probably am, but the older I get, the less I worry about that. (Well, I worry about keeping her happy, but I don’t worry about being crazy in ways that work against that. Have to put that disclaimer in there.) I love me my gadgets, and my Pebble fits right at home with the rest of them. TRC is ecstatic, because he inherited my old Wii U Fit Meter that I used as a pedometer.

Will I buy an Apple Watch? No clue. I don’t think I’ll buy the first model. I hope it succeeds, though. I love the concept of it–but there’s an early adopters tax most Apple users pay if they buy a new Apple product: the knowledge that Apple will release a much better 2.0 version of that product in the not too distant future.

I think I’ll skip that tax this time around . . .

Moving Day: DC and MC Get New Rooms

The other day when TRC was staying home from his concussion (he’s feeling much better now, in case you were wondering), he spotted trouble brewing: MC had one leg over the side of her crib, and she was really close to making a jump for it. This is, of course, exactly how DC broke her wrist back in the day. We thought she was a bit away from that stage, since MC is quite a bit shorter than DC was at that age.

Apparently we thought wrong.

So we’ve had to scramble for a new plan. The long range plan has always been to have DC and MC share the room that’s currently our office/guest room, but that’s really only going to fly once we’re sure MC is okay sleeping in a normal bed. (Meaning–not yet.) So instead, we’ve moved DC into the guest room early, disassembled the crib entirely, and are having MC sleep in DC’s old room, in a playpen.

Both girls think this is awesome. DC feels like she’s graduated to a better room. and MC thinks she’s graduated, since she’s now sleeping where DC used to sleep (which, by definition, must mean it’s a better room.) Maybe we should do this whole room swapping thing more often . . .

The ultimate plan is still to move them into the same room, but that’ll be a bit away. In the meantime, DC is sleeping on the guest futon, and MC will bit by bit move to sleeping on a normal mattress. Once we know she can do that easily–and stay in bed–then I think the master plan can come to fruition.

Now if I can only get closer on finishing the second bathroom and the new master bedroom . . .

Baby steps. Baby steps.