Bryce Moore's Blog, page 215

To Spank or Not to Spank

This year in Fantasy Football, I managed to draft Adrian Peterson in the first round, excited at the riches of fantasy points he was going to reap for me. And now of course you might have heard that he’s going to trial for child abuse–specifically for using a switch to spank his son hard enough to leave welts (some of which might have even drawn blood). Besides the havoc this is wrecking on my fantasy football team, this has brought the question of corporal punishment back into the focus of the nation.

Peterson claims he was simply using the same form of spanking and punishment that his father used on him. He hasn’t been hiding from what he’s done at all–he’s stuck with the story all along. I’m going to leave aside the specifics of his case (since, again, I don’t like to talk about things I don’t know anything about), but the principles behind it are certainly up for debate. Is spanking okay? If so, is it okay to use something to assist that spanking–a spoon, paddle, ruler, or switch?

Naturally, a whole slew of experts have popped up to say spanking is unnecessary and an example of bad parenting, even though the statistics say the majority of Americans favor spanking, though how much they do depends a great deal on their religion, race, political views, and region.

But just because a lot of Americans believe something is good doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. So where do I fall on this spectrum?

I have spanked two of my children. (The third (MC) is too young to get anywhere near where she might need to be spanked.) When Denisa and I first had kids, my goal was to never spank them. I felt like it was mean and harsh, and there seemed to be so many other better options out there. What changed my mind? Kids who wouldn’t listen to anything else.

As soon as I type that, I picture a group of you looking for the nearest torch or pitchfork. I accept that spanking is taboo for many these days. But I did it anyway. I haven’t had to spank my kids much. A handful of times total, I’d say. But for each kid, it’s been an important part of their upbringing. A time when they’re doing their best to push the envelope. When they feel like they can get away with anything. And for each child, I’ve sat them down ahead of time and told them what spanking is and given them plenty of warning about what they would have to do to warrant a spanking. The line was clear in their minds, and then they purposefully called my bluff.

Each time, I didn’t spank them hard at all. This wasn’t something I was doing to inflict pain. I think the psychological effects were more than enough on their own. I don’t hit my children. Ever. And yet there I was, spanking them. (Yes, I realize there’s a disconnect there.) After a few incidents with each child, they realized Dad was not kidding when he said he’d do what he said he’d do, and they stopped pushing the envelope.

So for me and my family, spanking has worked and worked well.

That said, I personally would never use a “spanking aid.” I feel like spanking itself is more than enough to get your point across. But at the same time, the very fact that I think spanking in some situations is okay while others think it’s never acceptable makes me realize there’s a spectrum there. A range of “acceptable” that varies based on personal opinion. So is it possible Peterson thought what he was doing was acceptable? Certainly it is.

Society needs to decide where that line is. It can’t simply be a matter of personal opinion. Otherwise, child abusers can just say “I was punishing my child and that’s how I was punished when I was a kid, so what’s the problem?” That doesn’t work.

Having spanked my kids, I can definitely see where things might completely fall apart on you. Spanking is an immediate punishment. It takes no thought, and it can easily become something that’s there more for the parent than the child. “I am mad at my child. I am angry. I spank him. Now I feel better.” If that’s what it becomes, then I see no difference between that and child abuse.

I felt awful each time I had to spank one of my kids. Spanking was a punishment I thought a long time about. It wasn’t casual, and it wasn’t convenient. It was and is the exception to the rule. And as long as it stays there, I think it’s an acceptable tool. (What would I have done if it hadn’t worked? I have no idea. It’s a situation I’m glad I wasn’t placed into.)

The biggest thing to remember when it comes to punishing a child is to be clear about why they’re being punished, and to be clear about what the punishments will be ahead of time. If one of my kids didn’t understand something was wrong before they did it, then they don’t get punished. If I hadn’t determined a clear punishment ahead of time, I work out something suitable with the kid in question–come to an agreed upon punishment.

And then I stick to it. My kids know 100% that if they break a rule, they’re getting the punishment. These days, that typically means they won’t be able to watch TV or play video games, or dessert is taken away. That’s enough to keep them honest, thankfully.

Do I agree with what Peterson did? Personally, no. Do I see how he might think he was right to have done it? Yes, I can see that. Should he be punished for it? That’s a matter for the courts to decide.

What do you think? Not of the Peterson case in specific, please. But spanking in general? I’d love to hear different input on the subject. Just keep it kind and courteous.

Letting the Professionals Handle It

I’m sitting here at home, listening to the sounds of home renovation. The best part about it? I’m not the one making those sounds.

Don’t get me wrong–there’s a lot about renovation projects that I enjoy. I really like having the chance to look back on what i’ve made and see how much progress has happened. At the same time, to get that all done is a real struggle. Last year involved so much planning and research and reading, in addition to all the actual work that had to get done. (If you’ve forgotten, I was working on framing out the second floor of my garage, with the goal of one day having a second bathroom, a bedroom, another living room, and a loft office up there.) I was in a constant state of uncertainty, always just a step or two ahead in my research from where I was with the actual construction.

These dormers? There’s no way I would have been able to do them.

Well, scratch that. I’m sure I could have done them, but it would have taken an awfully long time. It would have involved me working on staging, high above the ground. And if there’s one thng this world needs less of, it’s me with power tools, high above ground. I look at all the work that’s going into these dormers–the angles, the way it all gets tied into the existing construction. Installing the windows, the siding, the flashing, the roofs, the shingles, the drip edge. Keeping it all level–or as level as can be in a house as old as mine. (Try finding a level surface in a house built in 1841. I dare you. You might find a few, but with so many different “levels,” it’s really tricky to figure out which one to use as a basis for new construction.)

So I’m very happy that I chose to have someone else tackle this job.

Which sums up other areas of my life, when I think about it. Take writing. It’s been over two years since Vodnik came out–feels like even longer than it is, really. And I’ve considered self publishing a few novels in the meantime. I’ve got some lurking around, after all. Why not send them out into the world to see if they can find some happy homes? But then I think of all the other things I’d have to do to get them out there–the copy editing, the cover designing, the page proofs, the marketing, the schmoozing. There’s so much there to be done, and I’d really rather let the professionals handle it. They’d do a better job than I could do, in less time than it would take me.

And the nice thing about books is that, as opposed to hiring a construction crew, they pay me. (I wonder if I could convince my contractor to do that? “I’ll let you put dormers in my house . . . if you pay me $2,000.” If only.)

This is the same way Denisa and I have ordered our marriage, come to think of it. We both specialize in different things, and we often let the specialists tackle each job. So when it comes time for tech support or brute force, I’m on the hook. Gardening and cooking? Typically falls to Denisa. I’m not saying it’s like that 100% of the time–sometimes she’s got to muddle through a tech job or I’m the one making dinner–but by and large we each do the things we’re best at. The jobs get done quicker, and the end results taste a whole lot better.

I’m not trying to say this is an eternal principle everyone should follow. There are times you have to jump in and figure stuff out on your lonesome without waiting for other people to step forward to do it for you. But when you can and it makes sense? Letting specialists do their thing is a wonderful approach to life. So for today, I’ll just sit here tip tapping away on my keyboard, doing what I do best, while I listen to other people doing what they do best.

Until next year, when I probably ignore this entire piece and go back to doing it myself again (with some help from friends.)

The Perils of a Successful Business

I went on the interwebs this morning to find that Mojang, independent developers of Minecraft (my son’s all-time favorite game), is selling out to Microsoft, longtime symbol of The Man. Of particular interest to me was this part of their blog post explaining why they’re selling:

As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He’s decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang.

This is something Denisa and I have reflected on a fair bit: how a successful business venture can end up taking you places you never intended to go. There are problems with an unsuccessful business, of course–but there are also problems with a successful one. Of course, for Notch, this “problem” means that he got to sell his company for $2.5 billion. Sounds like a problem I wouldn’t mind having.

Except there are problems that come with large amounts of money, too. Just look at all the lottery winners and how many of them end up unhappy. Or professional athletes a few years after they’re doing playing.

Money doesn’t solve all your problems. It typically creates more than it solves. With all of this money, one would think Minecraft would be sitting pretty. Except it started as an independent movement, and this is very much taking it away from that. By its very success, it might end up failing.

This is one of the reasons Denisa has refrained from making her bread baking business any bigger than it already is. She’s had opportunities to expand and grow, and they’re opportunities that she’s let slip away on purpose. We enjoy having a fair bit of freedom–the ability to go on vacations when we want to, for example. Once you have a business that you depend on for money, a lot of that freedom goes away.

Of course, the big trick to it all is that it’s hard to not look ahead to success–or back at obscurity–and think how easy you’ll have it (or how easy you had it). For me, it’s a constant reminder that life doesn’t really have any winners or losers. Just people who are able to enjoy the moment while preparing for the future as best they can . . . and people who aren’t able to do that.

As I’ve thought about it, it seems a big part of being happy with a business (or side job like writing is for me at the moment) is deciding what you want out of it, and then constantly reevaluating that goal to make sure it’s still in line with your life and your priorities. Seems like it should be easy, but in practice it’s anything but.

And that’s my bit of zen advice for you this fine Monday.

Ray Rice, Careers, and the Law

So. Ray Rice. I haven’t written a good current events post in a bit, and this one’s been brewing in the back of my mind, so why not celebrate this fine Friday by collectively wondering what in the world is wrong with some people? Sadly, my time is pretty darned short today, so I just have enough to set the scene and then ask a question, but something’s better than nothing, right?

In case you somehow have missed it, Ray Rice is (was) a star American football player. Word came out a month or so ago that he’d beaten his then-fiancee (now-wife), knocking her unconscious in an elevator. The NFL responded by suspending him for two games. The end.

Then a more detailed video of the assault surfaced.

That right there? That’s a professional football player hitting a woman so hard in the head she slams into the wall of an elevator and is knocked out for a good long while. And what does he do then? He stand around, drags her out of the elevator, and generally has the body language of someone irritated that his fiancee had the nerve to get knocked out when he beat her.

Now, granted, the Ravens didn’t have this video when they initially suspended Rice (although there are some claims out there that they actually did–which throws a whole new level of awful into this equation), but they were still justifiably criticized for the way they were treating a man who had done this sort of thing as lightly as they did. But as I’ve thought about the situation, something has felt off to me all along, and I wasn’t sure what it was until today.

What got me thinking more was this piece, which discussed how a number of Baltimore Ravens fans–including women–showed up to last night’s game with Ray Rice jerseys on to show their support for the player. One woman’s justification for the support?

I don’t believe in domestic violence, but I will say: any woman who can hit a man, a man shouldn’t have to sit there and take the abuse. The abuse goes both ways.

“As a woman, she shouldn’t have hit him. If I hit you, I would expect you to hit me back. And that’s just how that goes.

Remember–this is a professional football player doing the punching here. That’s like a kid coming up to a thug and pretend shooting the thug with a pop gun, and then the thug shoots back with a real gun. There’s no comparison here.

But the thing is, I don’t think Rice is being punished the way he’s being punished because the NFL believes that’s what he deserves. I think he’s being punished that way so they can save face for the way they bungled this from the beginning. (A point this article points out in greater detail.)

But even then there are things that don’t sit well for me. For one thing, Rice got off very light when it comes to criminal charges. The only reason we’re hearing as much as we’re hearing about this is that Rice was caught on camera doing this. If that hadn’t happened, I don’t think this would have been treated as anything more than a drop in a river.

Here’s the question, though. What responsibility does an employer have for the actions of its employees, especially when they’re not “on the job?” If I get arrested for something, where does the employer come in when it comes to doling out punishment?

I wish I had more time to discuss this today, but the day has gotten away from me, so I guess I’m just going to have to settle with putting that question out to you and see what you come up with. I’ll try and drop by Facebook or the blog to respond to any comments–we’ll see where it goes. What can I say? Sometimes I have time to fully develop an idea, and sometimes I don’t. C’est la vie.

Alec Guinness: More than Obi Wan

Sometimes it makes me sad that isn’t recognized by more people today for things other than just being our only hope. While I love me some Obi Wan as much as the next fan, the fact is that Guinness was so much more than Star Wars (a film he didn’t enjoy while he was making and liked even less after it was made. Seriously. Here’s a quote from a letter he wrote during filming:

Can’t say I’m enjoying the film. … new rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper—and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable. I just think, thankfully, of the lovely bread, which will help me keep going until next April even if Yahoo collapses in a week. … I must off to studio and work with a dwarf (very sweet—and he has to wash in a bidet) and your fellow countrymen Mark Hamill and Tennyson (that can’t be right) Ford. Ellison (?—No!)—well, a rangy, languid young man who is probably intelligent and amusing. But Oh, God, God, they make me feel ninety—and treat me as if I was 106.—Oh, Harrison Ford—ever heard of him? (source)

Very amusing to me, and ironic enough (he earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in A New Hope–the only actor able to pull off such a feat in the franchise), but awesome actors shouldn’t be required to be fans on the level of Ian McKellen or Patrick Stewart. Besides, with the prequels now over, can you really blame Guinness? Clearly there were some issues with plotting and character development even then.)

I know a lot of you are asking, “So if he’s more than Obi Wan, what is he?” Well, I’ll tell you.

Many of you have (hopefully) seen Bridge on the River Kwai, the movie which earned him his best actor Oscar. A truly great movie, both critically and just as a good watch. (Earned seven Oscars overall, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.) But even then, there’s a lot more to Guinness.

Growing up, I watched him in his early comedies. The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, Kind Hearts and Coronets (where he plays numerous roles to great effect). Guinness had a talent for throwing himself into a role, and a knack for comedy that reminds me of Peter Sellers in many ways. He was one of my grandparents’ favorite actors, and watching him at work is still just a pleasure.

What reminded me of this? I came across a movie of his I hadn’t heard of before on Netflix: The Card. The premise is fairly simple: a young man figures out there are easier ways to get ahead in life than simply hard work. In fact, it’s easier to succeed if you’re conniving and cunning–but not in any mean and nasty way. He sets out to do just that, to fantastic results. It’s definitely an older film–with older pacing and subtler humor–but it was just a pleasure to watch him at work and enjoy something new. I loved it, and so did Denisa.

Unfortunately, there are none of those other movies on Netflix streaming at the moment, but if you get a chance to watch some of them at some point, you shouldn’t miss it. Anyone have any other favorite Guinness movies? Do share.

Why You Shouldn’t Dismiss the Apple Watch Too Quickly

In case you somehow didn’t hear, Apple announced their latest foray into new technology yesterday: the Apple Watch. Basically it’s an electronic watch that pairs with an iPhone, letting you send and receive messages, track your activity level, play music, use apps, make payments instead of a credit card, use maps–a whole slew of features. And since it’s Apple, it’ll come at a price: $349. That’s a lot to pay for an addon to your phone, and I’ve read a variety of responses to the announcement, many of which sound disappointed or skeptical that it will get off the ground. There are already smartwatches on the market, after all. Why in the world would people pay more for an Apple branded one?

I’d say people are forgetting their history.

After all, when the iPad was announced, there were more than a few skeptics. What need did people have of a tablet? They had netbooks, after all. And tablets didn’t have real keyboards. Tablets had been tried before, and they just hadn’t caught on. Apple had been successful with the iPhone, but they were reaching too far with the iPad. Of course, we know how that argument panned out.

But speaking of the success of the iPhone, let’s go a bit farther back in history and look at what people were saying about that venture before it launched. Yup–more of the same. The iPhone was going to fail because it wasn’t doing anything different from the rest of the phones out there. Apple was just following the crowd, and the iPhone wasn’t revolutionary enough. That was clearly wrong, as well.

So just because Apple is entering a crowded field doesn’t mean it can’t make a massive impact on that field, eventually barreling through the competition to win the race. Why is this? I can think of a number of reasons.

First, there are quite a few Apple evangelists out there. People who love Apple and everything it spits out. They get all the latest and greatest Apple products. This broad user base is very important to the success of a new product. If you can get enough people using something, it gives that something time to catch on. In this case, the Apple Watch pairs up with the iPhone–something there are already tons of kicking around. I personally have bought into the Apple ecosystem wholeheartedly. I’ve got a Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Denisa has an iPad and an iPhone, too. One of the reasons I’m happy to have done this is how well all my devices work together. I take a picture on my iPhone, and Denisa gets it on hers. It shows up on my Apple TV. I download an app on one device, and it’s usable on all my devices. I’ve spent a fair bit on apps in the iTunes store, and once you get to a certain point, it only makes sense to stick with the ecosystem you’re in. An Apple Watch lets me do that in ways that an Android Watch wouldn’t, and I don’t think I’m alone on that.

Another thing Apple does well is making its devices not just work well, but look good too. With their new watch, they’re making sure there are plenty of options when it comes to styles–recognizing that a watch isn’t just a tool, it’s a fashion statement. After all, you can look at traditional watches and say, “They all do the same thing. Why are there so many of them, and why are some so much more expensive than others?” It’s all about quality and fashion. Apple gets that, and for better or worse, its products are for many a status symbol. It can milk that a long way.

Apple’s situated very well at the moment. It can make things popular and trendy just by virtue of being popular and trendy itself. Yes, that can be frustrating at times. Sort of like how I feel when a celebrity comes out with a book (that they may or may not have written) and it succeeds just by virtue of the fact that they’re already famous. But that’s the game–it’s how it’s played, and Apple gets that better than most.

In many ways, Apple’s different entries into technology remind me of books. “School Books” had been out for decades before Harry Potter came along. Vampire books were all over the place before Twilight. It would be all too easy to dismiss Potter or Twilight ahead of time, saying they were following in the same tired footsteps of others. But they succeeded anyway. Some of that’s due to skill, and some of it’s due to luck, and some of it’s due to anything in between. But the fact remains that just because something’s been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be done again, better than ever. The same thing happens in video games, too. Blizzard is well known for being a company that doesn’t make original games. It makes awesome versions of games that are already out there.

I don’t believe Apple succeeds by breaking new territory, despite what it would like the public to think. It succeeds by developing solid products and conveying to its audience why those products could play an important role in their lives. When I phrase it that way, it appears that Apple succeeds by being Billy Madison.

You ain’t cool unless you pee your pants. And Apple’s not about to let you forget it.

Ten Books That Have Stayed with Me

Several of my friends have tagged me on Facebook the past week or so, which means I’m supposed to list the top ten books that have stayed with me over the years. I’m not very good at doing top ten lists, because I hate picking the best of anything. So don’t consider this list a definitive answer. Look at it as more of a list of the first ten books that seemed important enough to Bryce when he was tagged to do this assignment.

Fair enough?

Oh–and I’m going for fiction only on this list. Because that’s how I roll, yo. Here we go–in no particular order, other than the order the books happened to occur to me as I thought of them. (Don’t you love disclaimers? They let me function in everyday simple assignments like this.)

The Chronicles of Narnia–Read this again and again as a child. My family has a Narnia-themed cabin in the mountains of Utah. Love love love it, though not as a Christian allegory or anything–I just love the story and the characters. (And I’ll sneak another series into here: Lev Grossman’s Magicians. Because a post-modern deconstructionist fantasy adaptation/response to Narnia is right up my alley.)
Lord of the Rings–Sheesh. It feels like I’m just copping out here, going down a list of famous fantasies. I read the Hobbit in first or second grade, followed soon after by Fellowship of the Ring. Mainly because my brother was reading it at the time, and I figured anything he could read, I could read faster. Despite him being two years ahead of me and all. (It’s surprising how much of my life is the way it is because I’m a competitive person.) I’ve lost track how many times I read this series. Legion.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn–Anytime you write a masters thesis on a book, it’s going to affect you. And when that thesis involves watching 19 adaptations of the book–most of them awful? It’ll stay with you even longer. I enjoy this book for how broken it is. How Twain seems to be doing one thing throughout the book, and then pulls the rug out from all the critics right at the end. Lots of food for thought here.
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy–Did I say fiction only? It seems I lied. This was the textbook Dave Wolverton used for the class I took from him on that topic. I was fresh off my mission, and I had a blast. It’s clearly had an impact on my life, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it.
The Wasteland and The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock–As long as I lied about fiction, I might as well cheat and throw in some poetry on this list. Because poetry. And it doesn’t get more poety than TS Eliot. Freshman year of college I used to go to the library, hole up in a carrel, and read books about the Wasteland. What? How did you spend your freshman year? Prufrock beats Wasteland, but they’re both awesome works.
Vodnik–Yes. I just used my own book. But I get to do that, because this is my list, and my blog, and the first book I professionally published certainly deserves a spot on this list. The years spent writing and revising it are numerous.
The Wheel of Time Series–I still remember coming across it at the library. Picking it up because it was one of the thickest books on the shelves. I grew up with this series, and then a good friend of mine finished it. Still crazy to me. Still love it, warts and all.
Flatland–Read this in 10th grade geometry. Still think about it from time to time, and I use it regularly to illustrate various principles. I know a lot of the other students disliked it. That’s fine by me.
The Screwtape Letters–What? Two listings for CS Lewis? Tough. Get over it. Read this in middle school and thought it was awesome. It took Lewis from just “some guy who wrote Narnia” to “an author and thinker I want to read more of.” Ended up taking a class on his literature in college, too. Loved it.
The Monster at the End of This Book–The first book I can remember just adoring and rereading again and again. Couldn’t get enough of Grover trying to stop me from turning the pages. Take that, silly Grover! Love reading this one to my kids now, too.

And there you have it. It’s sort of a motley list, and more than a little stream of consciousness, but I suppose that sort of describes me as a reader and person. I’m not going to tag anyone else, because it feels a little too chain lettery to me. But if you’d like to do a similar list and have been waiting for someone to call you out publicly, consider this the call!

It’s Construction Time!

Along with the arrival of football and cooler temperatures, September also marks what’s become more and more of a family tradition since I moved to Maine: home renovation time. Over the past seven years, we’ve put in a staircase, insulated the basement, repaired the foundation, added a woodshed, redone the roof, repaired and repainted the garage . . . the projects add up over the years. Last year was all about getting the area above our garage to a point where it might one day be livable space. This year?

We’re hoping to bring some light to that area.

When we redid the outside of the garage, we framed in the one window that was on the second floor. Who wants to live in a room with no windows? Not I, said the Bryce. So the plan this year is to put in three dormers: two small ones that will give light to the bedroom and the bathroom that will one day spring into being, and one large one for the rest of the living space.

Now, since this will entail working on a roof high up above the ground, I’ve decided to do the sensible thing and do it all myself. Because that’s never gone wrong. Ever.

No.

Actually, this is one instance where I’m just going to hire it out. Bryces don’t like falling from heights. So we’ve got the construction crew that took care of our roofing project over the winter to come and do this. Not sure exactly when it will start, but we hope to have it finished by October.

Very exciting.

At the same time, it’s also more than a little daunting. The more we work on this garage space, the more I realize just what needs to happen before we’re anywhere close to being finished. Like right now, I’m looking at what should come after these dormers, and it’s seeming more and more like the right thing to do is to insulate the exterior walls and ceiling . . .

And I’m not sure what the best way to do that is. I know it’s supposed to be ventilated, but there’s no existing ventilation, and the roof is a pyramidal hip roof. I think the right way to go would be to put in a cupola, but that’s yet another expense . . .

Slow and steady wins the race, right? (Any of you out there construction experts when it comes to roof ventilation? I could use some advice . . .)

My Friend the Groundhog

I suppose it was inevitable. We live off in the country. Denisa has a thriving garden each year. Sooner or later, a groundhog was going to find us and start going to town on those tasty veggies.

At first, Denisa thought it was some kind of beetle, or slugs. Something was eating the tops of her broccoli and carrots. She asked around for different ideas about how to deal with it–and then she saw it.

The groundhog in flagrante delicto.

She came inside to complain to me, and I think I wasn’t quite as compassionate and enraged as I ought to have been. My response? “Woo hoo! Our yearly summoning ritual finally paid off. The groundhog has appeared!”

She didn’t think it was as amusing as I did.

In any case, my vote that we encourage the groundhog and keep him as a family mascot or pet was vetoed down quite quickly. Maybe I’d have been better off channeling a  certain Bill Murray + groundhog movie scene. (Maybe not one you’re thinking of.) “I’ve got to get inside this guy’s pelt and crawl around for a couple of days.”

And how about this scene? “We can do that. We don’t even have to have a reason.”

Yeah . . . We’ll see where this goes from here.

A Few Thoughts on the BYU/UConn Game

As you know, I took the fam to the BYU/UConn game last Friday. It had been over seven years since I’d last been to a BYU game, and I’d been looking forward to a chance to take the kids out and show them what they’d been missing. We’ve gone to some high school games, but there’s a big difference to be out in a large stadium with a huge crowd.

We had a really good time, despite some speed bumps. For one thing, Rentschler Field is just horrendous, from a logistical point of view. They close some of the roads down in the surrounding area at game time, and then parking is an absolute nightmare. It’s in the middle of this old air field, so there’s plenty of open space, but they make you park *way* out in the middle of nowhere, and then walk. And walk. And walk. Through a field that hadn’t been mowed in a week or so. When you get to the gate, there are just a few ways into the stadium, and you’ve got complete chaos getting in. Real roadblock. And then you’ve got beer being sold in the stands, which makes for a more . . . exuberant home crowd than might be preferable. (Selling alcohol at a university makes little sense to me. Most of the student body can’t drink legally, but I guess if it’s what the alumni want, then that’s how it’s going to go. And I suppose if your team’s getting pummeled, it’s easier to watch it happen drunk than it is sober. Or so I’ve been told.)

But despite all that, it really was a great evening. We’d bought our tickets through BYU, so we were in the middle of the BYU section. BYU fans from hours away had shown up–there were people there I knew from Maine to Pennsylvania, which was pretty cool. And because it was a good old fashioned drubbing, spirits were quite high in the BYU section for the whole time.  (Note: I don’t think it was nearly as much fun for the poor UConn fans who happened to be sitting next to the BYU section. And I felt kind of bad about that–they were very vocal whenever UConn did something good, and I tend to think it was because they were trying to show the away crowd that they could celebrate too. I didn’t see any BYU fans being obnoxious about celebrating, but when you’ve got a whole slew of fans packed together, obnoxious sort of grows organically, and there’s not much you can do about it.)

BYU fans going to the Texas game on Saturday might have a very different experience. I can’t imagine that one will be a blow out (in BYU’s favor at any rate)–as much as I enjoy watching close games, they can be a real beast to endure, and if you lose . . . no one likes that long ride home thinking about how you could have changed the outcome the whole time.

The kids had a great time for most of it, though by the end they were tired of being there. It was quite noisy, and they still don’t really understand what’s happening on the field. One day, perhaps. I kept trying to explain it all to them, but I’m not sure how much it helped. MC didn’t really cry at all, though. She was excited to see all the sights and sounds, but Denisa did have to take her for a fair number of walks before the night was over. (Big bonus points to Denisa for tolerating American football as much as she does.)

Anyway–it was a very fun start to the season, and here’s hoping the team’s pretty solid from here on out.